What? I haven't been on here for months? What is my problem? Well, I have been busy in the manshed off and on. My buddy Dave has posted a few cigar reviews from the times we have done a review night. I am sharing some of them with you in this post.

The Pastor and the Shrink - Cigar Reviews for your Mind and Spirit - The Carlos Torano 1916
Carlos Torano 1916
Robusto - $ 7.00 retail
Randy ordered a couple of these as he had not had one before. I have not had a Torano Label Cigar so I was excited to try this. Randy reports that he has had cigars from this manufacturer in the past but not this particular smoke.
It is a nice looking cigar that is fairly tightly packed. It has some small veins but they are not particularly prominent. The wrapper is a Cameroon leaf and a light brown in color. It has no sheen and is in fact dry looking. After clipping the cigars we both found the draw to be good. Randy found his to be a little tight; mine was just right with the perfect amount of resistance.
After lighting the cigar I found the first several draws to be medium to mild with a light spiciness and peppery note on the finish. Randy also found it to be pretty mild but he experienced the aftertaste to be quite strong. That can be a bad sign sometimes indicating a cigar that is going to grow acrid and bitter. However, after smoking the cigar a little longer he found the aftertaste to have faded significantly and was no longer problematic for him.
The cigar burned quite well. It demonstrated a little waviness in the burn line and some “coning”, but it produced a very tight ash that was almost white in color and broke off in one piece holding its shape in the ashtray.
Tonight we paired our smoke with a New Belgium 1554 Black Ale – one of my favorite beers and some Lagavulin 16 Single Malt Islay scotch. Neither of us are big fans of this scotch. It is very strong in terms of its smoky, peaty and medicinal flavors. I bought a bottle on the recommendation of a salesman at a liquor store over a decade ago. Needless to say to have lasted that long behind my bar it was difficult to get anyone to drink it.
I found this to be a nice smoke. It had a very good draw and burned well. It had a nice mild to medium flavor profile with a little spiciness that it maintained throughout the smoke. It was consistent from start to finish and I did not experience any bitterness. Randy enjoyed it as well, commenting that he found it to have a mild but dry and woody flavor. We both gave it a 3 but I think I enjoyed it a little more than Randy – it probably fits my preferred smoking flavor profile closer than it does Randy’s.

The Pastor and the Shrink - Cigar Reviews for your spirit and mind - The Tatuaje Havana VI - Nobles

2-20-2010
The Man Shed
Randy and Dave
Tatuaje – Red Label – Havana VI Nobles
Robusto - $ 7.00 retail

This cigar was highly recommended to us by Randy’s son Ben. I’m excited because I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Tatuaje cigars but have never smoked one. This is an attractive cigar with an understated relatively simple label. The cigar is dark brown in color and very firmly packed. It had no soft spots or sponginess to it. There were also not any prominent veins, all-in-all a very attractive cigar.

After clipping the cigar we noticed that the draw was tight. This is not surprising given how tightly this cigar appeared to be packed. Hopefully it will loosen up as we go so as not to make this issue problematic . After lighting the cigar we both noticed a spiciness that was very present but not overwhelming by any means. I found the cigar to be of a medium flavor and profile and a bit stronger than Randy.

As we approached the halfway mark of the cigar we both commented on how much we were enjoying the cigar. It was burning well with a slightly wavy burn line but nothing that either of us would see as problematic. The cigar was flavorful with some continued spiciness but also quite smooth.

We paired this cigar with an O’Dell Bourbon Barrel Stout. This is a great beer to drink with a stronger cigar as it is rich and flavorful. It is a mouthful of flavor – vanilla, bourbon overtones, maltiness and yet it has a very creamy mouth feel and is quite smooth. It not only stood up to the cigar very well, we thought the two complemented each other nicely.

The draw did loosen up and was fine by the time we finished our smoke. Still a little tight, but that was to be expected and did not lessen our enjoyment of the cigar at all. It was a very consistent smoke that started relatively strong but then mellowed out without completely disappearing and became a very enjoyable medium body smoke with a nice spiciness. Randy and I both scored this cigar a 4 would happily smoke it again.

The Pastor and the Shrink - Cigar Reviews for your Mind and Spirit - The Perdomo Lot No. 826 Slow Aged
Perdomo Lot No. 826 – Slow AgedRandy and DaveThe Man ShedRobusto $2.50/stickRandy and I are both fans of the Perdomo Label. We have found all the one’s we have smoked to be good consistent cigars. We can’t remember ever having a bad one but we also don’t think we have ever been blown away by a Perdomo. They seem solidly locked in on our Board as 3’s.Randy picked these up and as we had never had them we decided to give them a try. The color of the cigar is a little uneven it has some very prominent veins and a relatively unattractive label. It is not not tightly packed having some soft spots and overall feeling somewhat spongy. This looks like a value type cigar.After clipping we tested the draw. I found it to be a little loose and needing a bit more resistance. This is not supervising given how loosely this cigar was packed. Randy found the draw to be closer to his liking. The initial draws from the cigar produced an abundance of smoke and a mild flavor with just a little bite on the finish. The secondary smoke it produced had a pleasant aroma.The cigar burned very well. It kept a pretty straight burn line and required no touchups. It produced a remarkably tight white ash that demonstrated no bloomage or coning. It came off in one piece and held its shape in the ashtray. I was surprised by this given the sponginess of the cigar. We paired this cigar with some Knappogue Castle Single Malt Irish Whiskey. It is a wonderfully light and yet flavorful Irish. We were a little worried that this whiskey could be easily overwhelmed by a cigar but because this smoke is fairly mild it seems like a good pairing. In the end we enjoyed this cigar. It was not as smooth or creamy as a typical Connecticut having more of a bite to it (I think this is because of the ligero in the filler). It reminded us of a Don Pepin blended 601 with hints of cedar, pepper and wood tones. This smoke was nothing fancy, just a good solid 3, much like many of the other Perdomo’s.

I will, of course post more of our winter's effort to discover another great cigar. Until then ....