The Non-Cuban Batch

Thanks to Senor Hindrik's trip to the U.S. we have acquired some non-cuban cigars. As you will find out, they have quite different flavour profiles. Different terroirs, shall we say.

I chose these as they are the brands that have been getting Yankee stogie smokers excited for the past few years - pretty damn expensive as a result. As the store i ordered them from didn't have enough singles in stock, you won't quite all have all of the following list but doubles of some and none of others (in rough order of size):

• Arturo Fuente Hemingway - Short Story: the cigar tapered at both ends that many of you have already tasted. Starts out sweet before turning to mint and pepper. Dominican tobacco but with a Cameroon wrapper. 
• Ashton Virgin Sun Grown - Tres Mystique: i tried this with Scott recently, very pleasant smooth caramel allspice sweetness to start, full bodied, but just after half way gets quite peppery. Dominican filler with aged wrapper leaf from Ecuador.
• Ilusione Epernay - Le Elegance: long skinny cigar, nicaraguan "puro" (all tobacco from the one country), meant to be mild, spicy tea-like but i haven't tasted it yet. Also meant to be a good match for champagne but i sincerely doubt it. 
• Nub Cameroon - 464: getting into the serious sizes now, this very short but very fat (464= 4"& 64 ring gauge - enormous!!) doesn't look like much but will take well over an hour to smoke. Cameroon wrapper, nicaraguan tobacco, pleasant smooth spice and medium body from memory. This one can do a handstand on its ash - time for a photo comp!!
• Arturo Fuente Anejo - #48: this one is a big boy dressed up in cedar and red ribbon, dominican but the wrapper has been aged 6 months in cognac barrels.
• Liga Privada T52 - Corona Doble: huge cigar but all i could find of this brand. Tobaccos come from all over the place - wrapper from Connecticut (US), filler from DomRep, Nic, Honduras and binder from Brazil. You'll have to get together and share this one.

Non-cuban cigars are generally aimed at the U.S. market (where you can't buy cubans at least officially) and so the general marketing trends aim for Strength, Size, Sweetness, Dark wrappers, Fancy boxes and gimmicks that change every year. The ones above are all pretty expensive so have really good construction (like the expensive cubans). They like to mix and match tobaccos from all over which makes for some interesting cigars; in general each tobacco is quite recognisable and the filler most often from nicaragua, honduras or dom rep. The one thing that sets cuban tobacco apart, excluding its radically different flavour of course, is its complexity of flavour once well aged. Non-cubans are known for many things but complexity is not one of them. 

One last note: they are so different from cubans that it is best to store separately (eg in a ziplock bag) to avoid cross-contamination of flavour. They are also generally better stored and smoked at higher humidity i.e. 70%.

a Supremely well-Chosen cigar

This one will give your pinkies a rise.

Last Sunday afternoon, i was taken... by The Mood.

I had just gone all out following the cooking muse and satisfying the very specific desires of my stomach, and successfully so, i am pleased to say... when i thought i might follow this up with another perfect conjunction of the mind's eye meeting the taste buds' soul to the heart's content. Cigar time.

Following up a tangy mustard dish ... il n'y a que Maille qui m'aille!... required some kind of zesty puro. A Diplomaticos #4 might do if i still had one... but then again it was a bit small for such a nice day and a bit too dry a smoke... i wanted something soft and creamy as well ... Finally, i settled on a El Rey del Mundo Choix Supreme, with some hope and plenty of fear and trembling. Hope - as the first singles we had almost 2 years ago were delicious; fear - as the last time i had one from this new box of 2009 vintage it had "gone to sleep", tasting dull and sickly.        

This was one of those rare occasions where the stars align. The wrapper had a lovely sheen, and a light shade of colorado. I had long been suspicious of this as my stellar '07 singles had a much lighter, thinner wrapper, and the sickly smoke episode made me question whether the '09s darker wrapper leaf was taking away from the quirky Choix Supreme blend of filler. Oh Me of Little Faith. Straight from the get go i was greeted by the tangy citrus that i had often pined for, but never encountered in any cigar since that first one almost two years ago. To my even greater astonishment, it was preceded on the palate by a buttery mouthfeel that i had wished for that very afternoon, but never experienced in a Choix Supreme. I think that this is the contribution of the nicely oiled up wrapper leaf .This was a midwinter's afternoon dream come true.

The smoke flowed freely, but not loosely, from this perfectly constructed beast, and every mouthful was a layer of buttery silkiness with a hint of sauted mushroom, followed by a powerful cedar kick unleashing the tang of citrus - zest, flesh and aroma of a well-ripened lemon - finished off with an edge of white pepper. Simply divine. It did not change all of the way through, and i was glad of it.

My cigar experience of the year so far. If you haven't smoked yours yet, wait for a time when these sorts of flavours appeal... it is not strong, so perhaps after lunch on a sunny afternoon... and for heaven's sake, don't spoil it by eating a vindaloo beforehand, or by smoking it with a peaty whisky, or a red grape based drink. Get something light and pinky-raising made from white grape like a dessert wine, muscat, or martini bianco. You won't regret it.