Featured Cigars

November 2007

Featured Cigar	Shape	Size	Strength	Country	Panel Rating
Cusano 18 Paired Maduro	Robusto	5.0 x 50	7.0	Dominican	89
La Gloria Cubana	Corona Gorda	6 x 52	7.0	Dominican	90
Maxx 'The Fix' Maduro	Toro Grande	5 x 58	8.5	Honduras	91
Puros Indios Special-Aged Piramide Maduro	Torpedo	6.75 x 64	7.5	Honduras	90
Torano Virtuoso Encore	Robusto	4.75 x 52	8.0	Honduras	92

Cusano 18 Paired Maduro Robusto

In 1995 business took the owner of a Wall Street investment firm to the Dominican Republic. There the long-time cigar aficionado, Michael Chiusano discovered a local smoke that "knocked his socks off!" He thought he'd have a thousand made for clients but word spread and he soon had orders for 10,000. The rest is Cigar Street–if not Wall Street–history. Thinking "Cusano" would be easier to say than "Chiusano" Michael called his company Cusano Cigars.

Like its original counterpart, the Cusano 18 Paired Maduro offers a rich flavor in a medium-bodied smoke. Spawned from its highly rated original Cusano 18 Connecticut counterpart–one of the most successful boutique brands ever launched–the Paired Maduro offers something more. Like the original, the Paired Maduro uses eighteen year old Dominican Oro in the filler but combines (as in "pairs") two exquisite maduro wrappers to make one of the best dark cigars ever crafted. The first wrapper is a Connecticut Broadleaf maduro, famous for being smooth and creamy. The second wrapper, placed in the filler, is Brazilian Mata Fina that adds a bit of spice for the palate.

The construction is faultless. Take a whiff and savor the pleasing pre-lit aroma. We found the draw to be clean and steady; the burn slow and even. This silky stogie is smooth but powerful–a cigar loaded with flavor that won't make your head spin in the middle of the day. Expect leathery and smoky flavors with subtle hints of spice and a note of creamy vanilla ending with a long woody finish. Take an hour and enjoy this robusto with your favorite single malt scotch.

La Gloria Cubana Corona Gorda

Once, to experience "The Glory of Cuba," you had to live in or travel to Little Havana where people would line up for hours waiting to taste a cigar that was a phenomenon. Now La Gloria Cubana is a favorite of cigar smokers everywhere. The brand, popularized by Ernesto Perez-Carillo, was actually started by his father while, as a young adult, Ernesto traveled the world making a living as a jazz musician. Ultimately the family business beckoned and he returned home to Miami to embrace his heritage. In 1997, Ernesto teamed up with General Cigar and moved La Cubana's primary production from the Miami factory to the Dominican Republic. The move nearly quintupled their production capabilities and helped keep up with the swelling demand. (Only a handful of cigars are still produced in the Miami factory and primarily for the local market.)

When it comes to medium-bodied, well-constructed cigars, La Gloria Cubana has a great reputation .A composition worthy of a jazz artist, the cigar offers a delicious balance of Brazilian, Dominican, Mexican, and Nicaraguan filler in a beautifully aged Ecuadorian wrapper. The cigar lights nicely, the draw is good and the burn even. Look for a smooth, medium-bodied, mellow spice flavor that settles in after the first third to a fuller-bodied smoke with hints of coffee on the finish. La Gloria maintains its exceptional smoothness throughout. The smoke has scored as high as '91' in Cigar Aficionado blind taste tests. Great with Irish coffee or a full-flavored whiskey.

MAXX 'The Fix' Maduro Toro Grande

The president of the Alec Bradley Cigar Co., Alan Rubin, likes to please so for those smokers for whom bigger is better and anything under a ring gauge of 50 is wimpy, he's your man! Each cigar in the line is quite large to maximize flavor and strength–the smallest ring measures 50; the largest a hefty 60. As Alan says, the MAXX line is "for smokers who want more--more flavor, power, and balance." Take a hearty four-country blend of aged long-fillers–Columbian, Nicaraguan, Honduran and Mexican tobaccos– add a tasty Costa Rican binder, cloak it in a dark Nicaraguan maduro leaf wrapper and you've got the Fix, a rich, medium to full-bodied smoke that's silky smooth and chock-full of earthy, toasty undertones.

Our panelfound the burn slow and even, producing nice, thick smoke. The taste was a combination of rich espresso and woody flavors. A third of the way into the cigar creaminess predominated and the woodiness diminished. At the halfway point there was a hint of dark bitter chocolate complimenting the espresso flavor. Look for a sweet finish that lingers. Not surprisingly for a line of such depth and complexity, MAXX received an impressive 9.4' out of '10' from Smoke Magazine and a '91' rating from Cigar Insider. This stogie deserves Cognac or Armagnac, a French brandy even older than Cognac.

Puros Indios Special-Aged Piramide Maduro

The Puros Indios "Special-Aged" is special. Cuban-trained Rolando Reyes, Sr. is an industry legend with over 60 years of cigar making experience. Hailed as the world's best blender on many occasions, Reyes' cigars are acclaimed for their raw richness and complex layers of flavor. This big brown beauty was rolled in 1998 thus benefiting from an additional nine years of box-aging. The great news is we found this aromatic medium-bodied cigar as much a pleasure to smoke as it is aesthetically beautiful. It's handmade, of course, with an alluring oily, naturally-fermented Ecuadorian wrapper and a daring blend of Cuban-seed fillers: Brazilian, Dominican and Jamaican leaves. Flavors of cocoa and leather prevail with a solid woodiness on the finish. Complex but not overpowering, Puros Indios is the kind of stick you can smoke down to the nub. This is a great bourbon-friendly cigar, or if you prefer beer, a well-hopped IPA makes a nice match.

Torano Virtuoso Encore Robusto

The Carlos Torano Virtuoso is the fullest-bodied line made by the legendary cigar family who, for generations has been growing some of the world's best tobacco. Making their start in Cuba, the Toranos now grow tobacco in virtually every tobacco growing region in the world. Their unmatched access to the finest crops is the secret behind the complexity of the Virtuoso collection. A virtuoso is defined as one with masterly skill or personal style. This stick, the most powerful in their line of premium handmades, was created for experienced smoking virtuosos–"seasoned smokers," as the company states. Debuting in 2005, the Virtuoso was called "a cigar fanatic's dream.

Made in Honduras, this intoxicating cigar sports a dark Nicaraguan Colorado maduro shade wrapper that's oily, smooth and oh-so pretty. It covers an aged three-country blend of long-fillers from Nicaragua, Honduras and Panama. Look for relaxing hints of wood and spice, complemented by a mouthwatering espresso-like character and capped off with a robust, full-bodied and long finish. With an outstanding '89' rating from Cigar Aficionado, the Virtuoso outscored the Partagas Edicion Limitada of Cuba and was the highest-rated cigar in a recent issue of Cigar Insider magazine. Pair with a strong ale or a full tawny port.