Past Newsletters - May 2009

Featured Cigar	Shape	Size	Strength	Country	Panel Rating
Cu-Avana Intenso Toro	Toro	6.0 x 52	9.0	Nicaraguan	92
Don Pepin Garcia Serie JJ Belicoso	Torpedo	7.0 x 48	8.5	Dominican	91
La Caya Churchill	Churchill	5.75 x 52	7.0	Nicaraguan	88
NUB 460 Habano	Gordo	4.0 x 60	8.0	Nicaraguan	90
Sancho Panze Extra Fuerte Madrid	Corona	6.1 x 54	8.5	Honduran	89

Cu-Avana Intenso Toro

We bring you this powerful, full-bodied and extraordinarily flavorful beauty from the cigar capital of Nicaragua, Esteli. Handmade by Nestor Plasencia, the blend is cloaked by a dark and fragrant Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper grown from Habano-seed. Thick and oily, this leaf—which oozes flavor—is a marvel to look at. The true power of this cigar comes from its long-leaf combination of extensively aged, all-ligero mixture of tobaccos from Peru and Nicaragua. The Cu-Avana Intenso delivers a burst of flavor on the palate with a hearty, spicy core and an underpinning of dense, earthy, oaky notes. Full bodied from start to finish, the flavors evolve throughout the slow burn, becoming increasingly intense right down to the nub. Look for a long, satisfying finish. This is a cigar you can enjoy outdoors while golfing or just relaxing in the hammock with a dark ale. Better yet, dust off the grill for an early summer or Memorial Day picnic. We can help you have the essentials on hand to kick off the summer: microbrewed beers to quench your thirst, boutique cheeses for a gourmet-style appetizer and, of course, fresh cut flowers for the table. All these and more are available through our various monthly clubs—check out our full range of gourmet and boutique offerings at www.monthlyclubs.com and let the summer begin!

Don Pepin Garcia Serie JJ Belicoso

This wonderful cigar bears the name of its world-renowned maker, Cuban-born master blender José Pepin Garcia. He makes some of the world’s finest cigars. For cigar aficionados, the name Tatuaje immediately comes to mind upon hearing his name, but that’s just one of his masterpieces famed for rivaling the character, flavor, and overall experience of the finest Cuban cigars. Serie JJ is yet another. Created by Pepin and his son Jaime, the Don Pepin Garcia Serie JJ is handmade in Miami in order to maintain a high level of quality control. Consequently, quantity is extremely limited. The cigar employs a wonderful blend of Nicaraguan Corojo and Criollo long-leaf tobaccos inside a flavorful Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper. The result is a bold, full-bodied smoke layered with deep flavors that doesn’t overpower. Given its maker, need we say it’s well constructed? The aroma is earthy and spicy, complementing the rich, leathery flavors perfectly. Enjoy this stogie with a garlic-saturated meal. A bold cabernet or chianti would complement the stick as well as the dish. Salut!

La Caya Natural Churchill

Smooth, pleasant, and, best of all, affordable, La Caya Natural is a cigar you can enjoy every day. The blend consists of Dominican Piloto Cubano, Cameroon, and Honduran long-fillers. The blonde Connecticut wrapper, grown in Ecuador, is used to mellow the complex mixture. The cigar is well constructed. Note the few visible veins and satiny feel, which promise a nice mellow smoke. Toast the foot, light up, and this medium-bodied stogie rewards you with ample smoke volume and an even burn. Expect a clean, crisp, smoke that offers subtle hints of nuts and cedar, a slight vanilla note, and a hint of earthy sweet undertones. Halfway into the smoke you’ll note a mellow oaky flavor and some leather notes. The finish is short and slightly sweet. Pair this one with your favorite single malt or, if wine is your preference, an oaky chardonnay.

Nub 460 Habano Gordo

The Nub, the brainchild of Sam Leccia, who spent a number of years working for the Oliva cigar family, is a novel concept. Sam believes that every cigar has a sweet spot where, at some point during the smoke, it achieves the pinnacle of its flavors. He was driven to see if he could create a cigar that would capture this sweet spot from the very first puff and hold it to the very last. Thus, the Nub was born. The design is for function, not novelty. Anyone can create unusual shapes, but each of the Nub blends has a shape created to summon and deliver the blend’s sweet spot right off the bat and hold it at its peak right through to the end. Nub cigars are very short with huge ring gauges. The smallest of the line is a 54 ring, but the majority of them are 60 and above. The Habano we’re featuring this month has a ring gauge of 60. (The largest of the line is a whopping 66 ring gauge.)  Each size is supposed to be equivalent to a more traditional-sized cigar. Your 460, for example, contains as much Nicaraguan filler tobacco in it as a 6.75″ x 50 Churchill, and it burns nearly as long as any Churchill. Sam’s aim behind the Nub is to isolate the best part of each leaf and only use it in the cigars.

The Habano 460 is well constructed with a smooth, oily Nicaraguan Habano wrapper the color of milk chocolate. The binder is also Nicaraguan. The draw is almost perfect, the burn is fine, and the smoke has a great, spicy aroma. Panelists found the need to touch the cigar up just once or twice during the entire 90 minutes it took some to smoke it. (Others smoked it in an hour.) They had a hard time pinpointing the flavors, agreeing that they seemed to meld into one rich tobacco taste with a strong woody core and a smoky aftertaste. Also look for notes of oak and leather and, at times, a touch of sweetness. This medium- to full-bodied stogie has a baked bread component accompanied by nuts and a rich creaminess. One panelist said he detected a touch of red pepper at the halfway point, but only briefly. The ash was a bit flaky on the edges, but it holds so firm you don’t have to tap it off unless you want to. The finish is smoky and toasty. Not surprisingly, this is a cigar you can nub. If you’re doing ribs on Memorial Day, the Nub 460 will be great company while you’re stoking the fire. Enjoy it with your ribs accompanied by a bold red wine or an ice cold brewski.

Sancho Panza Extra Fuerte Madrid Corona

When this cigar first came out in 2003, it won General Cigar Company's election for "the best value-priced, full-bodied premium cigar in America." The Sancho Panza Extra Fuerte is a box-pressed double corona that’s handmade under the direction of Estelo Padrón, Hoyo de Monterrey's cigar master. Take one puff of this full-flavored Honduran premium, and you’ll instantly notice some considerable power—a serious Sancho for a serious Sancho enthusiast! Wrapped in a shiny, reddish Honduran-grown Cuban-seed leaf and boasting a long-filler blend of hefty Nicaraguan and Honduran leaves, this baby starts and ends with a kick with a few punches in between! You’ll find it perfectly balanced with an assortment of rich, bold flavors backed by a little pepper. Look for an easy draw with a spicy, pleasing aroma up front. Consider pairing it with a semi-sweet, woody port, or robust, roasted Porter. The Sancho Panza Extra Fuerte is perfect for any seasoned enthusiast and will add a great finishing touch to a hearty steak dinner.