Tabacos de la Cordillera™ has introduced its new Variety Sampler, with 3 each of its flagship Cumbres de Puriscal™ premium cigars in Gold, Silver, and Emerald bands. The cellophane-wrapped mini-bundles of 9 cigars are available in 2 of the most popular shapes … Robusto (5″ x 50) and Torpedo (6″ x 52).

Company Director John Vogel states, “Cigar lovers now save 40% off the cost of buying 3 of the regular 5-packs of each of the Gold, Silver, and Emerald lines. Being new to the market, we want to make it more attractive for smokers … especially those who favor Cuban cigars … to discover our unique and incomparable cigars.” The breakout company is the world’s only cigar maker to grow tobacco from “ancestral” pre-Castro seeds that date as far back as 1945, to Cuba’s Golden Age of cigars. Vogel, a graduate agronomist and 40-year genetical researcher in the premium cigar industry, grows all the tobacco naturally on Tabacos de la Cordillera’s 65-acre farm near the Costa Rican mountain town of Santa Marta de Puriscal.

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Summary:

Excellent medium-body cigar, rich and complex in taste. This one goes in my personal humidor in the “everyday, short, evening smoke” category.

Background Information:

The Rojito is 4 1/2″ long and has a ring gauge of 50 (making it a Rothschild even though you’ll often see it mis-called a Robusto). A Honduran San Agustin wrapper covers a binder made from Connecticut Broadleaf. The filler is an interesting blend of Dominican, Honduran and Mexican tobacco. The cigar is manufactured in the Dominican Republic at General Cigar’s Dominicana factory.

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Cigar Jack points out a Forbes article that explores how teenagers are turning to cigar smoking in record numbers, and decries the consequent health risks.

Putting aside the issue of how dangerous to your health proper cigar smoking is, since I’ve covered that recently in another article, we ought to turn to the issue of whether what today’s teens are smoking are really cigars. As Jack puts it:

“A new name needs to be thought up for those cigars canine fecal matter sticks sold at gas stations. I’ve smoked ACID and CAO Flavors and I’ve yet to come across grape flavored premium cigars. Did I just say premium flavored cigars. heh… This was another sign they were discussing that cheap gas station crap.”

You know, despite those harsh words, perhaps there is something to this flavored cigar thing that I’ve overlooked. In the interest of reaching out to a new generation of cigar aficionados, perhaps I ought to expand the review section here at Cigar Envy to include the cigars that this younger generation knows and loves. Why just focus on those crusty old standbys like Partagas, Romeo y Julieta, Punch, Davidoff, Arturo Fuente and the like? You have to move with the times, change or be left behind.

So don’t be surprised if you see a full-blown review here soon of a White Owl Wild Apple or a Philly Blunt Mango.

(…blogger…journalist…media whore…decisions, decisions.)

In the meantime, while I struggle with career issues, check out Cigar Jack’s comments.

Summary:

The flavor of this cigar is unique in my experience, and something that you are almost certain to either love or hate. There is an oaky quality that comes through the entire time, mellowing as you smoke the cigar. It most reminds me of smoking English pipe tobacco — both in the astringency and in the problems with keeping it lit — and seems to pair well with a good Scotch Whisky. The main flaw in the Italia Ciao appears to be very uneven construction. When it is good, it is quite good. However, when it is bad…

Background Information:

At 5 inches with a 56 ring guage, this is a very chubby Robusto. The Italia Ciao is a medium-to-full bodied cigar with a Cuban-seed Honduran Maduro wrapper and binder. The filler is a special Habano seed tobacco from Italy (hence the name), blended with Nicaraguan and Peruvian tobaccos. Manufactured by C.A.O. Fabrica de Tabacos in Honduras for C.A.O. International, Inc.

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