Man O’War Phalanx (Side Projects)

Surprises are nice. For those of you who are fans of the Man O’War series like I am knew we had a maduro version of the Puro Authentico to look forward to this year. A couple weeks ago what should show up on CI, Cigar.com and their associated catalogs? The Man O’War Side Projects series. Currently the Side Project series features three cigars. The 52C (a Chisel format), the Little Devil (similar size of the Puro Authentico) and finally the …

Week in Smoke – TGT Edition

I promise to get back to reviewing cigars. I have some new and revisit reviews in the works. I’ve just been enjoying myself lately hanging at W.Curtis Draper and even visited a great new shop this past week. By “new” shop I mean a new shop to me. If you haven’t noticed I tend to only visit W.Curtis Draper but I’m trying to find a balance between being loyal to my crew but also getting out and seeing what the …

Week in Smoke – TGT Edition

Filling in for Brian Hewitt this week. Something about complications from that sex change he finally got taken care of a few weeks ago. As always, we wish him a speedy recovery. Back again with another Week in Smoke. I’m always surprised how popular these posts are. Some of you even like them more than my video reviews…I’m not sure whether to take that as a compliment or what? Some fantastic personal news. After almost 16 years (Class of 1996 …

Week in Smoke – TGT Edition

Thanks for the feedback in the last episode of Week in Smoke. I do plan on doing more “themed” Week in Smoke episodes both for boutique and main stream cigars. I’m actually in the process of planning out the next episode with a focus within a certain General Cigar brand. If you have been around Stogie Review since the beginning you can probably guess which brand that is. This episode I have a nice assortment of cigars. One newcomer …

An Afternoon with Pete Johnson (Part Four)

Part Four, the final chapter. Lots of great discussion here about tasting cigars off the bench and envisioning how they will taste as they age, too many 90 plus ratings? Joya de Nicaragua in the 1970′s, more advice for bloggers and the benefits for manufacturers. Cigar technology, dying of cigars, consumer education, sorting tobacco, seed variety, the decline of Cuban cigars, aging cigars and props to Rolando Reyes Sr. and Dion Giolito.

I hope you all have enjoyed the interview. …

An Afternoon with Pete Johnson (Part Three)

This is Part Three focusing on questions from the audience. Is Pete still having fun? Times of crisis? Experience working with The Garcia Family. Second guessing blends, more info on Little Monsters, and blogger’s responsibility in the industry? Note to self, gotta invest in a third microphone for audience use.

Same format as an An Evening with Benji Menendez and An Afternoon with Ernesto Perez Carrillo. This weekend Pete Johnson of Tatuaje Cigars was in Washington DC and Bethesda …

An Afternoon with Pete Johnson (Part Two)

This is Part Two of Four and has a lot of great content. The story of La Verite, the “romance” in the cigar business, a Tatuaje farm, who is to blame for current pricing, could the cigar industry self regulate itself, the golden age of cigars and an explanation on fermentation.

Same format as an An Evening with Benji Menendez and An Afternoon with Ernesto Perez Carrillo. This weekend Pete Johnson of Tatuaje Cigars was in Washington DC and …

An Afternoon with Pete Johnson (Part One)

Same format as an An Evening with Benji Menendez and An Afternoon with Ernesto Perez Carrillo. This weekend Pete Johnson of Tatuaje Cigars was in Washington DC and Bethesda MD celebrating the start of W.Curtis Draper 125th Anniversary year with the release of the Cabaiguan WCD 120 Redux. Towards the end of the afternoon, Pete and George Brightman (W.Curtis Draper-Bethesda) sat down and talked about Tatuaje Cigars and the cigar industry in general.

The discussion between Pete and …

WCD 120 Redux Event Pictorial

My home shop W.Curtis Draper is celebrating their 125th Anniversary this year. To celebrate this milestone W.Curtis Draper will be releasing four limited edition cigars made by Pete Johnson (Tatuaje), Guiellermo Leon (La Aurora), Jorge Padron (Padron) and Carlito Fuente (Arturo Fuente). Kicking off this year’s festivities is Pete Johnson with a redux of a cigar he did to celebrate the 120th Anniversary of W.Curtis Draper. That cigar was called the Cabaiguan WCD 120; this time around its called Cabaiguan …

23 Minutes with Pete Johnson

It’s pretty interesting to note that this celebrates five years of the 20 Minutes with Pete Johnson series of videos here on Stogie Review. So first I want to thank Pete for always being giving with his time. Secondly I want to thank W.Curtis Draper for giving me a home to record for the past five years. This series of videos has turned into a tradition that I hope continues for many more years to come.

In this interview Pete …