Cigar Bunching Methods at Drew Estate with Willy Herrera and Nick Melillo

A lot of people know that a cigar is composed of a wrapper, binder and filler, but not many understand how it all comes together.  One of the most critical components in the cigar making processes is the bunching of the filler tobaccos to be rolled with a binder.  At Drew Estate, they used what they refer to as estrujado method or “lazy entubado” and entubado methods.  That is where they form a base of two tobacco leaves before using …

A Tour Inside Subculture Studios at Drew Estate Cigars

Come with Brian and I as we take a tour of the Subculture Studios at Drew Estate Cigars with Jessi “Victims” Flores

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Throwback Review: La Aurora Cien Anos Belicoso

This week I wasn’t in the mood to review something new.  I decide to try to revisit a cigar that we’ve reviewed on here before and give my own impression of it as the “new guy”.  After looking through my cigar humidor, I came across and old friend: La Aurora Cien Anos.  The Cien Anos is probably my favorite La Aurora cigar and I haven’t really smoked one in several months.  The corona is my favorite of the line, but …

La Palina Maduro 50

La Palina introduced their first maduro, La Palina Maduro, at IPCPR in 2012. Available to customers in November 2012, the cigar retails for $9.25 and comes in boxes of 20. The cigar is made with a Mexican maduro wrapper, double Honduran binders and Nicaraguan fillers.  Currently, the cigar comes in 4 sizes:

• 60 – 6 x 60 ($10.00)
• 56 – 7 x 56  ($9.75)
• 52 – 5 x 52  ($8.75)
• 50 – 6 x 50  ($9.25)

The cigar opens up …

Opus X Chili Pepper

Fuente’s Opus X brand has long been a standard for high quality, rare cigars. They are sought after worldwide and include many special sizes that are highly coveted. One of those rare cigars is the Opux X Chili Pepper. Named that after the special shape the figurado is rolled into, it has long been something I’ve wanted to try. They are sold in 3 different ways: coffin, singles and with a special Forbidden X band. I have one that was …

Accessory Review: Xikar Mayan Table Top Light and Xikar VX Metal V Cutter

I’ve had several people ask me to do some accessory reviews, especially of items I use regularly. I thought that was a good idea and something that seems neglected by us and many of our other brother and sisters of the leaf reviewers. For the first review, I had to use two of my most used items. The first being the Xikar Table Top light in the Mayan design and the other their VX Metal V cutter.

The Table Top …

Gun and Cigars – Lets Strike a Match Up

Ben: This article, which I co-wrote wrote with Student of the Gun host and author, Park Markel, took on an interesting concept of pairing cigars with certain firearms.  Many of us shoot for recreation, hunting, sport, etc and we also smoke our cigars on the range while doing it.  Paul had the idea of what would be a good cigar to match with a certain firearm.  I thought it was an interesting idea myself.  We got together and …

Quesada Jalapa Robusto

A couple years ago, Quesada released the Seleccion Espana to the Spanish market, but only in the US to a very select few Quesada retailers.  People that were able to get some, like myself, absolutely loved the cigar and bombarded Quesada with request to have a full release here in the US.  This year, Quesada finally was able to appease the masses.  Enter the Quesada Jalapa.  The Quesada Jalapa has the same binder and filler as the Espana, but with a …

Davidoff Royal Salomones

The Davidoff brand has always been known as the pinnacle of cigar perfection and the luxury brand cigar in the industry.  Their attention to detail in cigar making is second to none.  All of this also translates into an expensive cigar.  If you’ve ever seen a video or were lucky enough to visit their factory in the Dominican Republic, you would understand why they are that expensive.  From seed to smoke, every cigar is handled by over 80 plus people …

Elogio Habano Crescent City Cigars Exclusivo

Crescent City Cigars has released a special exclusive cigar from Elogio called the Elogio Habano Crescent City Cigars Exclusivo.  If you’ve followed me for very long, whether on Twitter, Facebook or my video reviews, you know about how much I’ve fallen for the Elogio brand.  A very small, exclusive boutique, these cigars are made to exquisite standards for a very reasonable cost.  The Habano and LSV lines average about $10 per cigar.  The person that gets credit for introducing me to Elogio …