Featured Cigars - February 2015

The man behind the highly rated 601 brand, Erik Espinosa, is back again with a brand new cigar brand – Proxy No. 24. To say he knows cigars is an understatement – to say the least – as he’s worked with Alec Bradley, Gurkha, Rocky Patel, and Drew Estates, just to name a few. The new Proxy No. 24 starts with carefully selected Nicaraguan Criollo long-fillers that are then secured with a Nicaraguan binder and a very handsome Ecuador Habano...

The Toraño Hogshead may have an interesting name but the name actually makes perfect sense. Besides thinking of an actual hog’s head with an apple in its mouth being served at your next medieval-style feast, the term hogshead refers to a large wooden barrel that was used to store tobacco or alcohol and to make transporting these items easier back in the colonial times. Since transporting items back in that era took days or even months, this...

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” and later received a 91 from Cigar Aficionado. 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...

Here's another cigar in this month’s lineup from a maker with an extensive history in the tobacco industry. This highly sought after brand originally began in Cuba in 1960 and was produced by leaf grower and founder Jose Gener. His family farmed in the Vuelta Abajo region for many years during the late 1800s—a very fertile area in Southwest Cuba renowned for its tobaccos. Now made in Honduras, Hoyo De Monterrey’s popular “Excalibur” line was...

Latitude Zero cigars is a fairly new boutique brand that hails from one of the largest tobacco growers in the world, which is also the creator and original grower of the Habano Ecuador wrappers: Oliva Tobacco Company. What makes this high-end brand unique is that all of their cigars are crafted using the top 1% of their tobaccos. Taking its name from Oliva’s major growing areas and the origin of the Habano Ecuador wrapper, Latitude Zero’s...