Top 10 Cigars – TGT Edition (2009)
December 20, 2009
Your Questions, My Answers (YQMA) Episode 27
In this episode Brian and I have a good time as usual. We covered the following topics as well as wondered off course on occasion to shoot the breeze and have a little fun. The video length got a little out of control and runs 2 hours and 5 minutes.
How long would you prefer the videos be?
1. Green spotting on my Helix cigars
2. Cigars with a major peppery component
3. How much impact does a cigar wrapper have?
4. Ashing my cigar leads to burn problems
5. How do you feel about constant new releases from the same manufacturers?
6. Pallet training samplers
7. A rating list of all the cigars reviewed here at SR
8. How does smoking a freshly rolled cigar differ from one off of the shelf?
Next episodes question is: “Tell us about 3 cigars with a distinct pepper component”
To enter to win an Arganese sampler (4 cigars total) send in a voicemail with your question for the next episode by 5:00 PM EST on 2/27/08 . Entires will be played during the show and a winner will be selected at random.
To enter the MQYA drawing for a Puckifier courtesy of Cigarmony, send in a voicemail with your answer for the next episode by 5:00 PM EST on 2/27/08 . Entires will be played during the show. A winner will be selected and announced at the end of the month.
Voicemail can be sent through the Skype software to user wwhite72082 or by dialing (610) 572-2636
Happy Smoking
As always, great and informative episode! Adding a joint cigar review is pretty cool as well. Next episode make sure Brian is on minimal sleep. I enjoyed when he completely forgot what he was talking about
You guys raised a great question although I’ve only watched a tenth of the video. How important is burn? For me, it ranks way below flavor and draw. I’ve never thrown out an otherwise good smoke because it required retouching. I have bushes full of cigars that didn’t draw or had debatable flavors, but not a one in there is a cigar that otherwise did fine but needed to be assisted to burn. I’m smoking a Perdomo Habano Maduro Robusto now that I’ve retouched ten times in the first hour……and I’m loving every minute of it. I would criticize a cigar for its inferior burn, but I’d then get my lighter out and blast away.
Another great video guys. In response you the pallet training. I have gone to a couple cigar events in the past year or so at my local B&Ms and I actually experienced a pallet sampler from Punch cigars. There was actually a young attractive female who was giving a seminar about Puch Cigars and handing out goodie bags of information about the tobacco they use and 3 cigarillos of Seco, Viso, and Ligero wrapped in yellow bands with black letters S,V, or L. All the guys gathered around and experienced the different trypes of tobacco as she explained. It was an unforgetable experience and I think B&Ms should hold seminars like this to get their customers accuinted with the different fillers. I also went to a Partagas event, they too had the same goodie bag of cigarillos ( I’m guessing they are from general cigar co.) but I arrived too late to enjoy them. I’ll try to take pics of one cigarillo i have left i beleive its a Seco, and I’ll try to scan the handout that they gave which explains their tobacco. I hope this will help.
correction it wasn’t Viso it is Valado tobacco.
I knew it existed! It just took my evil twin BJ to bring it to light (heh heh). Thanks for fielding my questions, or rants as they were. Another bang up job by the guys from the Stogie Review. I am only about 2/3 through so far, this one is a marathon to finish.
Hi Walt,
Just watched your video with and enjoyed it. About green spots on natural wrappers is pretty normal I’ve been told by many of the cigar venders and rollers, as long as there is no fuzz, that would be bad we call that mold, so get rid of it. Now if you have that nice white fuzz then you best take good care of it..
Have a great day
Ed
The master has spoken. Ed – You must be referring to bloom/ploom. Is the major visual difference between ploom and mold the color then? Also, isn’t ploom more evenly distributed on the cigar, where as mold is spotty, raised, and fluffy looking?
Maybe you should hold off on your answer. We can add it to our review section called “Tom’s questions, Ed’s Answers.”
Great idea! I have a few cigars with white fuzz on them and I was concerned but did not remove it. I did however isolate these particular cigars in seperate humidor. I guess this is ploom?
Tom & Jeremiah,
From my experience, mold has always been fuzzy and may be a wide array of colors, including white.
My general rule of thumb is:
- Appears Fuzzy = Mold
- Looks like tiny crystals = Plume
The latter of the two can take very long periods of time to develop. If you buy a cigar and place it in your humidor and see white stuff on it in a matter of a week or two then its most certainly mold.
‘Plume is a crystallization of the oils in the cigar, which can take very long periods of time.
Ed,
Thanks for the comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the show and i look forward to having you on in a few weeks.
BJ,
Thanks for the info. I’d love to see a picture of that cigarillo.
-Walt
Nice YQMA sesion Brian and Walt. I really enjoyed it. Brian, yoe were really humerous, almost like Jerry. Keep up the good work. As for the palate sampler, they are usually given out by General cigar reps when they come to a local B&M. I got one a while back when there was a Macanudo promo at JR cigar. As for the fresh rolled issue, I was at an event at JR and one of their cigar reps was really nice and gave me a dozen free fresh rolled cigars with my purchase of a few boxes of what they were promoting that day. He also explained that I should smoke them within the next 2 days, after that they start a fermentaion process where amonia builds up in the cigar so you need to let it sit in the humidor for a copuple of months to let it age. I was also told something similar when I was at a Perdomo rolling event at CI. I got some fresh rolled cigars with my purchase and the sale guy told me to throw them in my humidor and forget about them for a month. I hope this info helps. Maybe this can count as a my answer your questions…..lol, just kidding.
Peppery smokes, ya might want to try felipe gregario’s or even the padilla hybrid’s. If you want a very spicy ‘gar, try Partagas spanish rosado’s (best to let these suckers sit for at least 2-3 months to settle down the habanero like stogie..
Brian, I actually created a Cigar Journal for myself from a spreadsheet, since I found it to be the easiest to view and organize. My columns include: Date Purchased, Date Smoked, Cigar, Size, Price, Personal Comments, Internet/External Comments/Findings, and Aging.
Hey guys…
I know I’m WAY behind on these YQMA’s.. but I’m trying to catch up… but…
On the topic of the “training” cigars… I’m pretty sure (based on my limited research) that the Perdomo La Tradicion Reserva line is identical with the exception of the wrappers… they have Camaroon (Silver), Maduro(Red, Natural (Green-golf), Sungrown conn.(White), and Shade Conn.(Gold-Champagne).
I haven’t had them all (yet), but I’ve had the Cam (my fav), the Champagne, and the Maduro… and there are subtle differences… but they all have very similar base flavors.
I could be wrong…I’m still pretty new to this…