Posts Tagged pigtail

Tatuaje ‘Pork Tenderloin’

Aug 12

Posted by admin in Tatuaje 'Pork Tenderloin' | 7 Comments

- click on photographs (slideshow / EXIF)-

This week we are reviewing a Tatuaje ‘Pork Tenderloin.’ Another B&M exclusive collaboration between Pete Johnson of Tatuaje and Gloucester Street Cigar shop located in Boston, MA. As the name suggests, ‘Pork Tenderloin’ is part of the “Meat Locker” series which also includes Tatuaje ‘Porkchop’ release. I have not had a chance to try the latter but based on the feedback, ‘Pork Tenderloin’ has been labeled as the creme of the crop. Those that were fortunate enough to buy a bundle (* this cigar was not available in the box) are most likely hoarding this specimen or selling it and making a ridiculous profit. I have seen ‘Pork Tenderloin’ selling for $20-25 per stick vs. $8 when originally purchased via bundle.

From visual perspective, Tatuaje ‘Pork Tenderloin’ was a “good” looking cigar. On the cover, smooth and slightly oily wrapper with one visible vein and smooth seams. Triple cap finish with much appreciated pigtal. In addition, the cigar had a slight box-press finish to it and no band. On the cold draw, slight hint of spice. After lighting it up, the experience continued with excellent draw and just the right amount of spice. The first third introduced a hint of dark chocolate which ultimately morphed into a delicious and overwhelming, in a good way, amount of espresso. At times, it felt like I was sipping on cafecito instead of smoking a cigar. The burn wasn’t perfect at the beginning but improved with time. Ash, as depicted below, was white and fell off in ~1″ chunks.

I had extremely high expectations for Tatuaje ‘Pork Tenderloin’ and fortunately it delivered. It was probably one of the best Tatuaje cigars I have smoked and from my personal perspective, it did circles around Tatuaje Black (jar release). I honestly don’t remember where I was when this cigar was released but I know that I missed out, big time. If you can find a single, 5-pack or a box, don’t even think twice about it, buy it before I do !

Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Broadleaf
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Length: 5 1/8 ”
Ring: 52

Construction > Good
Burn > Good
Enjoy > Absolutely !
Recommend > Absolutely !
Buy > Box-es worthy !

Please consider the following post:
* Tatuaje ‘Anarchy’
* Tatuaje ‘M80’
* Tatuaje Federal 90th Anniversary

Tags: box-press, broadleaf wrapper, cigar, cigar construction, cigar flavor, cigar images, cigar photographs, cigar photography, cigar photos, cigar pictures, cigar review, cigar smoking photos, cigars, don pepin garcia, gloucester street cigars, meat locker cigar, my father cigars, nicaragua, pete johnson, photography, pigtail, pork tenderloin cigar, stogie, stogie review, tatuaje, tatuaje pork tenderloin, tobacco

Tatuaje ‘M80’

Jul 7

Posted by admin in Tatuaje 'M80' | 11 Comments

- click on photographs (slideshow / EXIF)-

In the spirit of celebrating 4th of July with explosives and smoke, I followed my fellow cigar smokers and decided to pull couple Tatuaje ‘M80’ samples. This powerhouse cigar is another exclusive collaboration between Pete Johnson of Tatuaje and Dave Garofalo of 2 Guys Smoke Shop. Similar to many other Tatuaje exclusives, M80 arrived in quantity of 333 boxes and sold out in a matter of days. The expectation that was set for Tatuaje M80 was: full, bold, power, spice … yes, if you are a mild connecticut aficionado, you should skip this release. Visually, this cigar along with carefully applied pigtail, or I should say long fuse, resembles its predecessor – Don Pepin Garcia ‘Firecracker.’ There are few other firecracker look-alikes in the cigar industry. I collected and photographed four of them for your viewing pleasure (* see below photograph / left to right: Don Pepin Garcia ‘Firecracker’; Tatuaje ‘M80’; 601 ‘La Bomba’; Viaje ‘TNT’). Clearly, no longer a novelty.

Let’s take a look at the Tatuaje ‘M80’ in more details. The construction of this petite robusto is excellent. No visible seams and one not too obtrusive vein. Packed to the gills, feeling like one solid piece of handmade art. Right from the start, good amount of smoke throughout the entire experience. Couple touch-ups along the way but no negative impact on the bottom line. To my surprise, I was able to extract some sweetness on more than one occasion. Perfect complement to obvious spice and heavy ‘dark’ flavors. Speaking of dark … when I think of dark chocolate, I think of few recently smoked cigars: Oliva Master Blends 1 & Cohiba Genios. Tatuaje ‘M80’ takes dark chocolate to another level. Very heavy, full, bordering bitter, dark chocolate. Somewhere in between, slight hint of leather. Tatuaje ‘M80’ was blessed with tight and light grey ash falling in one inch chunks.

This was indeed a different experience. I faced Tatuaje ‘M80’ right after heavy dinner so I have to blame lack of expected nicotine buzz on a) full stomach or b) immune system. Nevertheless, if you enjoy full body cigars with Nicotine Powder and ‘dark’ flavors, Tatuaje ‘M80’ should definitely be up your alley.

Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano maduro
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Length: 4″
Ring: 52

Construction > Good
Burn > Good
Enjoy > Yes
Recommend > Yes
Buy > 5-pack

Please consider the following post:
* Tatuaje Anarchy
* Tatuaje Black Petite Lancero
* Tatuaje Federal 90th Anniversary

Tags: cigar construction, cigar flavor, cigar fuse, cigar images, cigar photographs, cigar photography, cigar photos, cigar pictures, cigar review, cigar smoking photos, cigars, david garofalo, don pepin garcia, ecuadorian habano wrapper, full cigar, fuse, my father cigars, nicaragua, pete johnson, photography, pigtail, stogie, strong cigar, tatuaje, tatuaje m80, tobacco, two guys smoke shop

Cohiba Behike 54

Jun 16

Posted by admin in Cohiba Behike | 11 Comments

- click on photographs -

Back at the beginning of FEB2011, I kicked off the Cigar Photography blog with few Cohiba Behike 54 photographs and I promised to come back to this cigar in June. The time has come ! I wanted this 5 pack to sit for at least 6 months to get recommended rest. Box Date is JUN2010, it was added to my collection back in DEC2010 and it was pulled out in JUN2011. In addition, my son turned 1 at the beginning of June and I wanted to celebrate his birthday with something different. Cohiba Behike was selected to be that lucky specimen. Enough of the history !

In visual appearance department, Cohiba Behike is definitely an attractive cigar. A very unique band and carefully applied pigtail add that extra umph to the overall package. Although there were some visible seams and veins, I was laser focused on the band and overall presentation. The cigar was rolled very well without any noticeable soft / hard spots. Draw was slightly snug for my preference but I did notice improvement with time. As for as burn goes, I was not impressed. I can appreciate the fact that we are smoking hand-made products but I have smoked many cigars at fraction of the cost which were razor-sharp. Cohiba Behike was far from it. It had its ups and downs, burned straight, then went wavy, then corrected itself, then back to wavy, etc. In flavor department, definitely spice from the beginning to finish with a peak in the middle. I was able to extract woody, earthy, and slightly chocolaty notes throughout the experience. Creamy in texture smoke was very limited up front but increased in volume with time.

Now, one will probably ask the obvious – Is it worth the price tag of $40 ?. In my personal and humble opinion, no ! I pulled the cigar out of the box with extremely high expectation and at the end, I was left disappointed. Did it burn ok ? Tasted ok ? Looked ok ? Absolutely Yes ! Did it delivery 4 times the experience of $10 cigar ? Absolutely Not ! I have split the box with a friend and unfortunately his experience was the same. I poked around the net and found mixed feedback. Some swear by it, some are aligned with my thoughts. Clearly I’m not the only one. I’m glad I still have 4 left and I plan on smoking them to recognize my son’s birthdays. I would recommend trying at least 1-2 Cohiba Behikes but I would certainly not chase a box.

Country of Origin: Cuba
Wrapper: Cuba
Binder: Cuba
Filler: Cuba
Length: 5 3/5″
Ring: 54

Construction > Great
Burn > Decent
Enjoy > Yes
Recommend > Yes
Buy > Couple singles (* N/A in USA *)

Please consider the following post:
* Cohiba Behike 54
* Cohiba Genios

Tags: behike cigar, cigar, cigar construction, cigar flavor, cigar images, cigar photographs, cigar photography, cigar photos, cigar pictures, cigar review, cigars, cohiba, cohiba behike 54, cuba, cuban cigars, photography, pigtail, stogie review, tobacco

Viaje Exclusivo Shorts

Apr 12

Posted by admin in Viaje Exclusivo Shorts | 8 Comments

- click on photographs -

If you are into Limited Editions / Limited Releases, don’t look any further. Viaje goes above and beyond to satisfy that hunger. There are weeks / months were Viaje is releasing a ‘new’ extension, so to stay on top of the game, one has to have a healthy budget as well as be plugged into the social media 24/7. This week we are sacrificing short smoke appropriately called Viaje Exclusivo Shorts. Living in the North East, I’m always looking for relatively short ~30-45min stogie which I can enjoy during cold season. Despite ‘Exclusivo’ identifier and limited count of 100 boxes of 50 cigars, I was able to identify 2-3 shops that were willing to ship. Perhaps not so limited after all.

Construction of the cigar was visually pleasing, including ‘fancy’ pigtail. Couple visible veins with otherwise well blended seams. One of my pet-peeves in the cigar is lack of smoke but in case of Viaje Exclusivo Shorts, this is a non-issue. On the second / third puff, this short stogie was producing an enormous ‘creamy’ cloud. Although the burn line was razor sharp, the ash itself had that ‘alligator’ looking finish. No negative impact on the flavor which started with noticeable amount of spice / pepper. The experience was a roller-coaster with spice in one puff and sweetness / coffee in another. In between, I was able to extract woody / nutty taste which lingered in the background. Overall, excellent stick which I will definitely add to my rotation. However, there is one BUT. Price !!! I don’t mind paying for a good stick which delivers enjoyable and relatively lengthy experience. In case of Viaje Exclusivo Shorts, the former is acceptable, the latter – not. Too pricey for the size.

Viaje Exclusivo Shorts was purchased from Ruben’s Smoke Stack.

Country of Origin: Honduras
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Length: 4.25″
Ring: 42

Construction > Great
Burn > Great
Enjoy > Yes
Recommend > Yes
Buy > Yes

Tags: andre varkas, cigar, cigar flavor, cigar photography, cigar review, cigars, nicaragua, photography, pigtail, ruben abreu, ruben's smoke stack, short cigar, stogie, stogie review, tobacco, viaje, viaje cigars, viaje exclusivo shorts

Liga Privada T52 ‘Flying Pig’

Mar 15

Posted by admin in Liga Privada T52 'Flying Pig' | 13 Comments

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Piggy, piggy, piggy …

Liga Privada T52 ‘Flying Pig’ cigar left me with a bag of ‘mixed’ emotions. Vitolas that I usually buy & smoke are in corona, corona gorda, lancero territory, hence delay in smoking Flying Pig. This perfecto on horizontal steroids and lack of vertical hormones was definitely visually more pleasing from photography perspective than smoking lust. If you are into ‘NUB’ concept and enjoy wide ring gauge cigars, this is The Unicorn.

On the outside, the Piggy was packed well, really well. Extremely toothy wrapper and fancy pigtail were the main characteristics of the cigar. Although the middle of the stick was 60-wide, the foot was small enough to go up against a single flame torch lighter. The very beginning presented small amount of sweetness on the tip of the cigar. Few puffs into it, I was able to taste a bit of spice in the back of my throat. As I was going through the narrow head and working my way toward 60 ring gauge, I was putting extra effort to extract more flavor and more smoke – all without much success. Frequent retrohale didn’t help either. “Good things come to those who wait” and it came, full force. Cigar went from no smoke to smoke machine in a matter of split seconds. Fortunately same applied to the flavor department. Each puff had a good amount of cedar, cocoa, coffee, chocolate and enjoyable sweetness that lingered in the background. From burn & construction perspective, overall, very impressing. Although similar to smoke & flavor ‘questionable’ beginning, the latter part was top notch with razor-sharp burn line. Ash was tight and had a ‘clean’ / light gray look to it. See what else my colleagues have said: acigarsmoker, casas fumanfo, nice tight ash, stogie review.

This ‘freaky’ looking cigar solidified my believes and vitola size preference. Although I can appreciate the novelty, the Flying Pig concept (* not the wrapper / binder / filler combination) will continue to stay in my rotation as an occasional treat. Continuing with an animal theme, give me a Liga Privada ‘Dirty Rat’ and I will smoke that cigar back to back, day after day. Liga Privada T52 ‘Flying Pig’ was definitely an experience, both smoking wise as well as photographing it. A tremendous amount of smoke had a positive impact on last few shutter clicks – see photograph of the nub. Thanks to Drew Estate, Jonathan Drew, Steve Saka, and the gang … Well done !

Specs:
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Stalk-Cut Habano
Binder: Brazilian Mata Fina
Filler: Dominican, Honduran, Nicaraguan
Length: 4 1/8″
Ring: 60

Construction > Great
Burn > Good
Enjoy > Yes
Recommend > Yes
Buy > Yes