Featured Cigars

February 2007

Featured Cigar	Shape	Size	Strength	Country	Panel Rating
Gran Habano Habano Blend #3	Gran Robusto	6 x 54	6.5	Honduras	90
K. Hansotia Gold Series	Toro	6 x 50	8.5	Honduras	92
Kahlua	Corona	5 x 42	6.0	Nicaragua	90
Leon Jimenes Maduro	Robusot	5.5 x 50	7.0	Dominican	93
Peterson Gran Reserva	Churchill	6.75 x 48	6.5	Honduras	91

Gran Habano Habano Blend #3 Gran Robusto

The Gran Habano line is a real treat; a great cigar for newbies and seasoned cigar smokers alike. This Honduran-rolled brand is comprised of a trio of blends, each with escalating fullness of body due primarily to the type of wrapper leaf used. The Connecticut Blend (No. 1) is mild-to-medium-bodied with its Connecticut shade wrapper and smooth Nicaraguan fillers. The Habano Blend (No. 3) is draped in a gorgeous, dark Habano wrapper and is medium-bodied, while the Corojo Blend (No. 5) is a bold, full-bodied cigar wrapped in a spicy Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper. So, as a line, this one's got it all, and is great for those who wish to sample a wide range of flavors and intensities from the same cigar maker (at an affordable price!). This month, we selected the Habano-wrapped blend. Note the dark silky smooth wrapper encasing sweet Costa Rican tobacco blended with Nicaraguan and Mexican filler leaf. Well made with no soft spots whatsoever, this cigar opens with a burst of peppery spice that mellows toward leathery, earthy notes. Expect a long lasting finish that works well with an American IPA.

K. Hansotia Gold Series Toro

You might not be able to say it three times fast, but the name Kaizad Hansotia has rapidly swept through the cigar industry. Known as the master blender behind the tremendous Gurkha brand, he's admired for his mastery of fine tobacco blending and creativity in developing attractive packaging for his cigars. Oh yeah, that and the fact that he makes the most expensive cigar in the world: His Majesty's Reserve. This cigar retails for an astonishing $15,000 per box of 20. Yes, that's right, 15 thousand bucks! That's $750 smackers a stick! The reason it's that expensive? Well, there's no real reason for a cigar to be that expensive, in our opinion, but their rationale is their infusion of an entire bottle of Louis XIII cognac in each batch, imparting the perfect blend of extravagance, and perhaps a bit of good old fashioned arrogance. But hey, they make 100 boxes per year, and they seem to be able to sell 'em, so why not? Sorry folks, but don't expect to see one here.

If that doesn't impress you, in November they announced that this cigar is set to become the world's 2nd most expensive cigar, to be supplanted by Gurkha Black Dragon. Housed in an antique camel-bone humidor from Northern India, made with a Connecticut maduro wrapper from a vintage 1990 crop, a 15-year-old Cameroon binder, and a 12-year-old Dominican filler, a box of 100 is priced at $115,000. Only 500 cigars passed the final inspection, and those 500 were then aged for 10 years to give them a smooth, slightly spicy flavor. $1150 a stick is a bit out of our price range. The K. Hansotia Gold Series toro is plenty tasty for us! There are no more of these being made—our distributor's supply is all there is. Made with a unique fermentation process in which the tobacco is dried and then delicately re-humidified, this cigar has true aged flavor yet maintains a heavy, strong, bold flavor, bursting with peppery, complex notes, offset by a nice sweetness and rounded out by a dry finish. Nicely paired with your favorite cognac or Barleywine-style ale.

Kahlua Corona

Good cigars and good drink—that's what it's all about. We can't tell you how often our panel members reach for a big glass of chilled Kahlua when smoking a good stogie… probably because it's never happened. Kahlua isn't one of those alcohols that comes to mind when thinking of a good pairing with a premium cigar. But somehow, the creativity of Drew Estate has challenged our thinking once again. Now, if you think about it, there are plenty of cigars that present notes of chocolate and coffee, so Kahlua really isn't that farfetched a partner for a fine smoke (in fact, we tried a couple of the Kahlua Coronas with coffee gently spiked with the stuff—and it was great!) But it was a challenge even for the crafty folks at Drew Estates to capture the exotic flavor of Kahlua in a premium cigar and blend it into a well-balanced cigar. We can't tell you how they did it (because they won't even tell us), but rest assured, this Esteli, Nicaraguan-rolled cigar remains a premium smoke, made with aged, long-leaf filler from the same country, an Indonesian binder, and a Colorado-claro-toned Connecticut wrapper. The most notable aspect of this cigar is the aroma—pre-burn and during the smoke (the Kahlua is evident from the start). People won't run out of the room when you light this one up—it's actually a crowd pleaser. Members of our Beer of the Month club should pair this with the Peg Leg Imperial Stout we've sent you. Rogue's mocha porter is a sure bet too if you can get it. Of course, a Black Russian will do nicely, for obvious reasons.

Leon Jimenes Maduro Robusto

Guillermo Leon Herbert's family has been cultivating tobacco for six generations. His grandfather, Don Edwardo Leon Jimenes, founded the country's oldest cigar factory, La Aurora Cigars, located on the outskirts of Santiago, Dominican Republic, with little more than a dream. The Leon family began farming tobacco in the late 1880s, and in 1903 Don Edwardo began producing a traditional Dominican cigar—smooth, sweet, and mild—for sale to the public. Fernando Leon, Guillermo's father, is the master tabacqueriros who developed the Leon Jimenes line in the 1970s. The line debuted in the USA in 1987, but the limited production maduro didn't arrive until 2001. The extremely dark, exotic Brazilian maduro wrapper is practically dripping with oils. The depth of color is achieved through all natural curing techniques, not artificially by cooking, like some. Expect complex depth in the flavor profile, with notes of spice and leather, rounded out by a cedary finish. Try with a bold cabernet.

Peterson Gran Reserva Churchill

You might be familiar with the Peterson name—they're well respected for their high quality smoking pipes. In 1995 they expanded into the cigar market, but the cigar boom went bust, and production ceased. But in 2001, Tom Palmer of Peterson asked Robert Levin of Aston Distributors to create a new Peterson cigar, which debuted in 2004. Their return effort is a 91-rated darling that's been ranked among the world's top 25 cigars by Cigar Aficionado magazine. Aston's skilled Manny Ferrero oversaw the careful blending of this new, spicy, medium-to-full-bodied cigar, wrapped in a rustic Cameroon wrapper. Nicaraguan binders and fillers are blended with Honduran long leaves to generate a cigar with a slightly sweet start, complemented by cedar and toasty, woody, peanutty notes. Peterson cigars are today crafted in the same factory as Saint Luis Rey, Gispert and La Aroma de Cuba, among others, in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras. Great with a nutty brown ale.