Cigar info from Dave: This is a post from Dave about our year end discussion concerning cigars for 2009. Looking forward to more posts about our favorites in 2010!

Randy and I decided to do an end of year review of our favorite cigars, the new ones we were most impressed by, the cigars we are looking forward to reviewing, and the biggest bust of the year.

Favorite Cigars of 2009:
Randy -Rocky Patel Connecticut; Man-O-War; Rocky Patel Decade; Montecristo White; Oliva Serie V

Dave -Rocky Patel Connecticut; Aurturo Fuente Hemingway; Oliva Serie V; H. Upmann Rare Vintage Cameroon; Rocky Patel Decade

Favorite New Cigars from 2009:
Kristoff Maduro; Diesel; Brickhouse

Cigars we are looking forward to reviewing -San Cristobal; Cain; Tatuaje

Biggest disappointment of 2009:
Alec Bradley Tempus

I just keep enjoying cigars and my friends comments on our cigar sampling. The manshed is a bit cold these days, but warm company and a good smoke help out. A little scotch doesn't hurt either. I post the latest two tastes and comments from Dave's web page.


The Pastor and the Shrink - Cigar reviews for your Mind and Spirit - The Oliva Serie V
Today's cigar is the Oliva Serie V. I should say right from the start that this is one of my favorite cigars. I picked two up while in Topeka at Churchill's. According to the Oliva website the Serie V is a complex blend of Nicaraguan long filler tobaccos. Blended with specially fermented Jalapa Valley ligero, and finished with a high priming Habano Sun Grown Wrapper. This cigar is blended to deliver full body taste while maintaining an unparalleled smoothness.As I said I really love these cigars my only problem with them is that because they are generally so well thought of I have never seen them on sale so I always have to pay retail for them. These run anywhere from $7 to $11 per stick. Thus, I do not smoke them very often. Today we are smoking the Double Robosto size which comes in at 5 X 54.The cigar is dark brown in color with a large and ornate label. It is very elegant and attractive. The wrapper is somewhat dull and does not have an oily sheen to it. The cigar is firm to the touch and obviously firmly packed. Both Randy and I found the initial draw to be very good with just the right amount of resistance. We are pairing this cigar tonight with another one of my favorites. Randy has brought a bottle of Johhnie Walker Black out to the Man Shed and that just makes me smile. I think that this is going to be a great pairing.After clipping and lighting the cigar Randy reports that he is picking up a slightly bitter aftertaste that he describes as being bark like. His initial thoughts are that the cigar is in the medium category and possibly on the light side of that. I on the other hand find the cigar to be medium to full. I too find it to have bite at the end of the draw albeit not unpleasant like the bitterness of strong tea or coffee. My cigar burns perfectly although Randy experiences both a runner with his cigar and eventually must relight and touch up his burn line. The cigar produces a wonderful amount of smoke that has a pleasant secondary aroma. The ash is compact and white and gray in color. It holds its ash for well over an inch before I roll it off. I'm trying to avoid wearing the ash or having any of it fall into my scotch. But don't kid your self I'd fish it out and still drink it.At the midway point Randy reports that the bitterness has mellowed and now perceives the cigar to be a medium with a complex set of flavors that have evolved during the smoke. I continue to experience the cigar as being more medium to full in its flavor profile. The bitterness has mellowed for both of us which is often the case as our palettes adjust. I'm really enjoying this cigar. I find it to be rich in taste and yet also quite smooth. For me it exactly parallels the scotch. The Johhnie Walker Black is also flavorful and rich but very smooth.In the end we both enjoyed this cigar. Randy said he thought it was a very good cigar although he was disappointed with the burning problems that he had. He found it to be not as strong as a Man-O-War or Diesel but probably closer to a Rocky Patel Decade. Randy gave this cigar a score of 4. I'm a bigger fan of this cigar, in fact it is one of my all time favorites. This particular cigar lived up to my memories of having smoked these in the past. It was dark, rich, flavorful and yet smooth and consistent. I love these cigars, although I'm not a fan of having to get them retail. The price is much higher than I normally pay for cigars but frankly they are worth it. I gave this cigar a 5.This is the first review where Randy and I have scored the cigar differently. I would chock that up to the burn issues Randy had with his cigar and the fact that I have smoked a number of these and I am very fond of them. That being said we would both happily smoke these again and would definitely recommend them to our friends.
Posted by Plains Sailor at 8:54 AM 0 comments
Sunday, November 8, 2009

The Pastor and the Shrink - Cigar reviews for your Mind and Spirit - The CAO Soprano
Today's review is of the CAO Soprano. This cigar was created by CAO at the request of the folks at HBO in honor of their hit show "The Sopranos". I was a huge fan of the show and was a little worried that this might simply be a marketing gimmick. When I did some research into the cigar I found that it had been hailed as one of Cigar Aficionado's best cigars of the year in 2005. According to the CAO website the Sopranos are made with a Brazilian wrapper, Honduran binder and filler from Nicaraguan, Columbia and the Dominican Republic. This is the first Soprano either of us have ever tried. Once again we got these in an online special. They normally retail for somewhere north of $10.The cigar is a very dark brown color with very small and not at all prominent veins. It is a solid cigar that is very firmly packed. This is consistent with my experience with the CAO Brazilla (one of my favorites). Randy found the draw to be a little tight as did I but not problematic.We are pairing the smoke tonight with a Special limited Release Imperial Stout from Boulevard Brewery. this is a great example of an Imperial Stout, very rich with a chocolaty finish.This cigar burned extremely well, with a tight burn line. It held a very compact and firm ash. the ash was grey/white in color and had no blooming. It burned extremely well from start to end. Many good cigars that we have smoked have had burn problem and required touch ups and/or re-lighting. That is always disappointing. Thus, we really appreciated the exceptional burning characteristics of this cigar.Although this is a full-bodied smoke it was very smooth. It was strong but not at all overpowering. The taste stayed very consistent over the course of our smoke. Sometimes full-bodied cigars start out strong and their intensity grows. Others become increasingly acrid or bitter, this one did not. We thought it was a great smoke.It is clear that the blenders at CAO took the creation of this cigar as seriously as the folks at HBO took the Sopranos. This cigar lived up to the hype. We have not always agreed with the good folks at Cigar Aficionado, but this one they got right.We both gave this cigar a score of 4 (out of 5). Its score was hurt by its price. We would be hard pressed to pay $10 or $12 for this cigar, but would happily pay the $5 that we got them for. It is an excellent full-bodied cigar that we really enjoyed smoking. We would not offer one of these to a novice, but anyone who likes their smokes on the full side would really enjoy one of these. It paired very well with the Imperial Stout which is also a very strongly flavored beer. We will definitely be keeping our eye open for another special on these. I'd love to have a couple more in my humidor.As with all great smokes the band went up on the wall where it will remind us of a great evening where friends enjoyed a lovely smoke, good drink, and stimulating conversation in the friendly confines of the Man Shed - Bully!

Another fine review. Thanks Dave for writing them up. I post it for my blog followers. Look here for more in the future.



Today's review is of the CAO Soprano. This cigar was created by CAO at the request of the folks at HBO in honor of their hit show "The Sopranos". I was a huge fan of the show and was a little worried that this might simply be a marketing gimmick. When I did some research into the cigar I found that it had been hailed as one of Cigar Aficionado's best cigars of the year in 2005. According to the CAO website the Sopranos are made with a Brazilian wrapper, Honduran binder and filler from Nicaraguan, Columbia and the Dominican Republic. This is the first Soprano either of us have ever tried. Once again we got these in an online special. They normally retail for somewhere north of $10.The cigar is a very dark brown color with very small and not at all prominent veins. It is a solid cigar that is very firmly packed. This is consistent with my experience with the CAO Brazilla (one of my favorites). Randy found the draw to be a little tight as did I but not problematic.We are pairing the smoke tonight with a Special limited Release Imperial Stout from Boulevard Brewery. this is a great example of an Imperial Stout, very rich with a chocolaty finish.This cigar burned extremely well, with a tight burn line. It held a very compact and firm ash. the ash was grey/white in color and had no blooming. It burned extremely well from start to end. Many good cigars that we have smoked have had burn problem and required touch ups and/or re-lighting. That is always disappointing. Thus, we really appreciated the exceptional burning characteristics of this cigar.Although this is a full-bodied smoke it was very smooth. It was strong but not at all overpowering. The taste stayed very consistent over the course of our smoke. Sometimes full-bodied cigars start out strong and their intensity grows. Others become increasingly acrid or bitter, this one did not. We thought it was a great smoke.It is clear that the blenders at CAO took the creation of this cigar as seriously as the folks at HBO took the Sopranos. This cigar lived up to the hype. We have not always agreed with the good folks at Cigar Aficionado, but this one they got right.We both gave this cigar a score of 4 (out of 5). Its score was hurt by its price. We would be hard pressed to pay $10 or $12 for this cigar, but would happily pay the $5 that we got them for. It is an excellent full-bodied cigar that we really enjoyed smoking. We would not offer one of these to a novice, but anyone who likes their smokes on the full side would really enjoy one of these. It paired very well with the Imperial Stout which is also a very strongly flavored beer. We will definitely be keeping our eye open for another special on these. I'd love to have a couple more in my humidor.As with all great smokes the band went up on the wall where it will remind us of a great evening where friends enjoyed a lovely smoke, good drink, and stimulating conversation in the friendly confines of the Man Shed - Bully!

Another couple of reviews of our smokes. It has been a couple of good cigars and one good pairing with drinks.

This evening we are joined in the Man Shed by Randy's son-in-law Brett Hille. I wonder if we will ever see Brett's Uncle Richard again in the Man Shed. Tonight we are smoking the Monte Cristo White. Randy is smoking the Robusto size while Brett and I are enjoying the Toro size. These cigars range in price from around $8 to $10. But, as usual, we got ours as part of an online deal and paid $4 a stick for them. We paired the cigars this evening with the Odell Cutthroat Porter. I'm a big fan of the Fort Collins, Colorado based brewery but have not had this particular beer before.The Monte Cristo White is an elegant looking cigar. It has a flawless light brown Connecticut Wrapper and an understated but elegant small label complete with a Fleur-de-lis. We all perceived the draw to be very good, open with just the right amount of resistance. Both Randy and Brett find the cigar to be mild. I find it to have a slight bite on the finish, but still very much in the mild category.The cigar burns extremely well, with an almost perfect burn line. It creates a compact white and grey ash that has to be tapped off. The burn remains consistently good through out the smoke with a straight burn line and no tunneling or blooming. It produces abundant smoke that is light in color and has a pleasing secondary aroma.The cigar maintains a very consistent mild, mellow, creamy flavor. I'm sure some would find this cigar to be relatively one-dimensional in terms of its flavor profile. It would be the kind of cigar that you might offer to a new cigar smoker (except for the price) as it is mild enough to be enjoyed by anyone who is new cigar smoking.We found this to be an excellent smoke and rated it a 4 (out of 5). It's label earned a spot on our Wall-of-fame. This is a really good cigar. It is on the mild side of the taste profile. It burned exceptionally well and had a wonderful draw. We appreciated its consistent flavor. You could enjoy this cigar early in the morning with a cup of coffee or later in the evening with an adult beverage. The only thing that hurt its score was the price. If you could normally get them for what we paid for them we just might give this cigar a 5, but for the normal price we find it to be fairly expensive. After all, one of our all time favorite cigars the Rocky Patel Connecticut is very similar to this cigar in many ways but retails for half the cost.It paired well with the Odell Porter, which is a London style Porter. It is a fairly rich and strong beer and may have almost been a little to much for the milder cigar. As it turned out though we liked them both so they went together pretty well.
Posted by Plains Sailor at 2:33 PM 0 comments

The Pastor and the Shrink - Cigar reviews for your Mind and Spirit - Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve - Corojo
Tonight Randy and I are smoking one of his son Ben's favorite cigars, The Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve - Corojo. The RP website lists the tobaccos that make up the Olde World Reserve as follows: Wrapper: Corojo, Binder: Nicaraguan, Filler: Nicaraguan. This cigar retails between $9 and $11 but we got these in a sampler. We paired these cigars tonight with a 2008 McManis Cabernet Sauvignon.As you can see from the picture this cigar is box pressed and has two labels. It is an attractive dark brown color and is well constructed. Randy found it to not be particularly firm but nor was it soft and spongy. The pre-lite draw was very nice.The cigar burned well. It had a fairly consistent burn line early and produced a compact ash. There was no blooming or tunneling. I did experience a bit of a runner in the second half that required a touch up, but nothing major.I found the taste profile of this cigar to be a smooth medium. We both found it to be very consistent from start to finish. It had a spiciness to it that reminded me of allspice or cinnamon. The smoke was relatively thin and airy producing a pleasant secondary aroma. Randy indicated that he would characterize this as a Full but not strong cigar. The cigar never got harsh or bitter.Scores: We both gave the cigar a 4 (out of 5). We thought it was a very good smoke and we would not hesitate to smoke it again or recommend it to a friend. We probably would not, however, pay the retail price for this cigar. If we were going to pay that kind of money we would probably just buy the Rocky Patel Decade instead. This cigar also comes in a Maduro wrapper and we hope we get the opportunity to try that one as well.In terms of the pairing, I did not think this wine and cigar combination was very good. The wine turned out to be very mellow for a Cab Sav, with little tannins and a relatively sweet finish. It did not seem to match with the spiciness of the cigar successfully.

I continue to share our reviews on various cigars. Here is one of the latest.

The Pastor and the Shrink - Cigar reviews for your Mind and Spirit - Rocy Patel Decade
It is a crisp Autumn afternoon when Randy and I decide to venture to the Man Shed and smoke one of our favorite cigars - the Rocky Patel decade. Randy and I have both smoked these in the past - several times. Although this is one of our favorite cigars we decided to go ahead and do a review of it.As you may remember Randy and I split an order of cigars in which we received two each of five different cigars all of which had been rated 90+ by Cigar Aficionado. We did not like most of them as much as the folks at Cigar Aficionado, but we do think they got it right with the Decade.On the Rocky Patel website they list the tobacco that makes this cigar up as follows: Wrapper: Sumatra; Binder: Secret; Filler: Secret. It is the first time I can remember that a manufacturer did not list the types of tobacco used to make a particular cigar. We smoked the Torpedo size 6 1/2 x 52. Today we are pairing the cigar with one of our favorite single malt scotches - Macallam 12.This is a lovely cigar, covered in a dark brown Sumatran wrapper and complimented by a simple, yet elegant double band. The construction is flawless and the cigar is firmly packed but not overly tight, leading to an Excellent draw. Although the manufacturer describes this as a meduim to full body cigar we tend to think that it is much closer to meduim than full. This cigar produces a lot of smoke and has a nice secondary aroma. It is the kind of cigar that if you smoked around people they would probably not be put off by it.The cigar maintains a very consistent meduim body, that is smooth and mellow. It has a dry quality to its finish - like that of dry cocoa or strong coffee. Our cigars did experience some slight burn issues - slight runners and the need for a touch up. We both also experienced the need to re-lite our cigars. This was surprising, because the Decade is a cigar you enjoy smoking and do not want to put down, so it wasn't our neglect that caused the cigars to go out. Also, historically neither of us remember that burn issues were ever an issue with these cigars.One way you know how much you are enjoying a cigar is determined by when you give up on it. Some cigars get increasingly bitter as you smoke them. You may enjoy the first half but find the longer you smoke it the harsher the taste becomes. These cigars tend to be abandon fairly early. A really good smoke, that is consistent in its taste, tends to be smoked for as long as it can be without burning your fingers or lips. The Decade fits into the latter category, you do not want to put it down. Your last draw is as good as your first.This cigar was almost as good as we had remembered. We graded it slightly lower because of the burn issues we had. However, since we have smoked a number of these and this is the first time we have had this problem we are not going to allow it to impact the overall score. Scores:Randy - 4 this cigar - historically 5 Dave - 4 this cigar - historically 5 This is a great cigar. It is attractive, smokes well, and has a consistent medium bodied flavor. It is an elegant and refined smoke that we would both have as one of our favorite smokes of all time. Our experience of this cigar was enhanced by the MaCallan 12 Single Malt Scotch. They were an excellent pairing.

We just did a monte Cristo White label. I'll let you know how that is in a later post.

I again share a cigar review from my smoking companion Dave's web page (listed in previous posts). We reviewed the Padilla Miami. Here are the notes:

It is a lovely fall evening in the Man Shed. Randy and I have decided to smoke the Padilla Miami. We have been joined this evening by our friend Richard Jensen (who is smoking a Nub Connecticut).The following is information gleaned from the internet about this cigar. Each leaf of tobacco hails from the dark, fertile soils of Nicaragua and is grown from 1st generation Cuban seeds. The wrapper is a dark, reddish-hued Corojo. The filler, a robust mixture of Criollo and Corojo tobaccos. Three caps are applied to the head of this cigar in true Cuban fashion. This cigar was apparently previously made By Don Pepin in one of his factories, but the relationship between Pepin and Padilla cigars is now over. Thus, there are some people who seem to prefer the Don Pepin made Miami's and others who prefer the new one. This is a medium brown colored cigar, the color is like milk chocolate. It is not particularly attractive, but only has a few minor veins showing. The cigar feels fairly tightly packed and the construction appears very good. After clipping the cigar both Randy and I find the draw to be very good.Randy finds the cigar initially to be medium in body leaning to the milder side. I find it much more of a medium flavor with, some spiciness and a little bit of a Nicaraguan-zing. We have paired our smoke this evening with some Glendronach 12 year old Single Malt Scotch that Richard brought over.For the most part these cigars burned well. Randy thought his burned extremely well, with an even burn line and needing very little tending to. Mine was a little more temperamental and it developed a slightly uneven burn line and needed a slight touch up, but nothing I would consider problematic. It produced a fairly compact ash with only a little blooming and no tunneling.Scores:Dave - 3 - I enjoyed this cigar. It was a nice medium cigar with some spicy flavors that were not overpowering. It smoked well without needing a lot of attention and it stayed fairly consistent from beginning to end.Randy - 3 Randy also enjoyed this cigar. He found it a little milder than I did. He characterized it as mild and smooth with pleasant woodsy overtones.We both thought the cigar paired well with the scotch. Their taste profiles played off of each other very well. The Padilla Miami Band made it to the Board and we would definitely smoke it again.It should be noted that Cigar Aficionado gave this cigar a 94. The brothers-of-leaf who reside in the Man Shed liked this cigar but we did not love it.

Tonight I sit in the man-shed without my cigar companion Dave. I have an Olivia Serie O maduro, paired with Macallan 12 year old single malt Scotch. The Serie O was one of Olivia's first blends. In 2005 it got a 92 rating from Cigar Afficianado. A Nicaraguan blend with habana seed and a conneticut wrapper.

On lighting up I found the initial taste to be bitter. It got some better as the cigar progressed, but not much. The draw was very good, (over an inch of tightly packed ash.) By half way through the cigar I needed more Macallan to help me stay with it.

I do not get the "nice spice" some have claimed. Overall, a strong taste but a bit to the acrid side. Mercifully it went out about 3/4 of the way. It did not make the wall of the man shed favorites. I gave it a two but that may have been the scotch talking! Not a cigar I will recommend to others. I'm glad I only had one on hand!