How the best are made.

Jose "Pepin" Garcia is widely recognized as at least one of the worlds best cigar blenders/makers (if not THE best). So who better to walk you through the complete process of making fine cigars? Follow the link below to the website of Don Pepin Garcia for a video tour that will make your mouth water!

Don Pepin Cigars

Camacho at Diebel's on the Plaza

In case anybody's interested, Diebel's is having "A Comacho Event" this Thursday the 30th from 5-8 pm at their Plaza location. No surprise, they do things a little differently than Outlaw Cigar Co. when it comes to parties. First, this "elegant relaxed evening" will cost you $25 to get in, which includes three Camacho and one Baccarat cigars. I generally spend this much or more at Outlaw, so the fact that Diebel's wants their money up front makes no difference to me. Diebel's will also have the familiar "by 3 Camachos and get a 4th FREE" deal, along with wine, beer, cheese and raffle items. I'm interested in going mainly to see where this "outdoor cigar lounge" they speak of is located. The roof, maybe?

Be warned, you can't just show up for this on Thursday. "Tickets are limited, sign-up today at either store or respond by email.
Your place is held only upon receipt of your payment."

So grab your smoking jackets and ascots and maybe I'll see you there!

Carlos Fuente was here

This afternoon I went to The Outlaw Cigar Co. party for Arturo Fuente, featuring Carlos Fuente, Jr. Here he is with Outlaw model Perla:


It was a fine time, complete with good cigars, roast pork, beer and sausages. There were Corvette displays, an assortment of Harleys, and even a Chinook helicopter and National Guardsmen turned out!



I was the only one of our little group to make it, but I was FAR from alone!

Who's with me?

Improper storage, part one

Not that this will necessarily be a long-term series, but I expect I'll find more examples of improper storage in the future.

I believe the above cigar is a good example of over-humidification. Some smaller shops have no room for humidor cases so they instead humidify the entire shop (no, I'm not going to name names here). There's nothing wrong with this except that maintaining a consistent level of humidity with the store's entry door opening and closing all day can be difficult. To compensate, shop owners will often set their humidifiers much higher than the ideal 70%. Most of the time this is no big deal, except in the case of cigars NOT wrapped in cellophane located near the humidifier.

Such appears to be the case with this JFR maduro. Over humidification leads to difficulty in lighting since the exposed filler in the foot, as well as the wrapper, take on water first. Once the light is finally established, the burn tunnels through the dryer center leaving the moister wrapper behind until the cigar finally and prematurely extinguishes itself.

This is all easy enough to fix, though. If you suspect over humidification, just age the cigars in your humidor for a couple of weeks until the moisture level returns to the ideal 70%. Then you'll be golden!

What's in YOUR stogie?

This WAS going to be a review of the "Havana Moon" labeled maduro toro I bought yesterday, but, well, that cigar didn't go very well. After fighting uneven burn problems, constant relighting and tunneling, I called it quits before the second third. So I decided to do a little autopsy and see what the problem was.


Being that this was NOT a premium cigar I wasn't surprised to find that it consisted of short leaf scraps and bits of misc. tobacco within the binder leaves. Bundled cigars are kind of a crap-shoot. Some are better quality seconds that just didn't pass the cosmetic quality check of major makers. Others are made of quality bits and scraps left over from the better makers hand-mades. These are often labeled "Hand rolled" as opposed to "Hand Made" to indicated that they're of lesser quality.

This doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get a bad cigar, but burn problems are certainly more likely.

Live and learn.

Havana Moon

Had some time this afternoon (OK, I was bored) and decided to stop into Havana Moon and see what was new. If you've never been there, it's a small shop on the north side of 39th between Wyoming and Genessee. And since it is a small space, the entire shop IS the humidor.

Among the usual top brands are what appears to be this shop's specialty: BARGAINS! There are more cigars priced under $5 a stick than any other shop I've been in, including Red X. They have a large selection of bundles and singles under their own badge as well as some of the more affordable offerings from the major makers.

I bought a JFR Maduro Torpedo and a "Havana Moon"-labeled maduro toro (more on the toro later), both for a total of $6.50. Quality cigars? Don't know yet. But at these prices it's worth a little trial and error to look for a diamond in the coal.

Nice little shop, nice little prices.