Cigar Details

Wrapper: Ecuador Sumatra
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan

The only way to understand the reason why I love this cigar and have been smoking it has to do with someone who is not in the cigar industry. My great friends Joe and Ruth Bollo who are cigar smokers and some of the kindest people I know introduced me to Dom “The Mayor”. Dominick owns Cuban Pete’s in Monclair NJ and is fan of smoking a nice cigar or a tobacco pipe after a long shift at his restaurant. The Bollos and I would have dinner there on the weekends and essentially smoke with him after he was done closing the place down. We would hold court in the outdoor seating area for hours.

Once Dom likes a cigar, it’s difficult to pull him away, he’s a creature of habit. One night as Joe and I puffed on some Fuentes, Dom said “Juan what, you don’t like the Series V?” I replied with “Yea its pretty good”. Dom took my cigar, tossed it and handed me a Melanio. I looked at him with a calm look and said “Man I was enjoying that Fuente”, to which he replied “And now you’ll enjoy this”. I can’t lie I wanted to not like it. I don’t know if it was the pressure of the moment but I fell in love with the profile. After that Dom would have a box ready for us to smoke whenever we go to visit and at Cuban Pete’s is the only place outside of recording the Podcast that I have enjoyed the Melanio or even smoked it.

In this episode we talk about cigars for special occasions, vacation cigars, choosing a cigar, thinking about environment, rye, time and place.

If there are words or terms that you’re unfamiliar within this episode, we highly recommend you check out the Sunday Cigar Glossary.

~~~
We would love to hear your thoughts on the episode. Leave a comment on the Apple Podcast App and don’t forget to rate the show.

A non-premium cigar is made of short filler tobaccos. Most of the time these are machine made. Some have homogenized wrappers. Some are flavored. None have a lot of time invested in them.

A premium cigar on the hand has long filler tobacco. Wrapper, Binder and filler. A Non-Premium cigar is wrapper and short filler. There is a lot of care that goes into creating a cigar whether premium or not. At the end of it all we cover the aspect of smoking a cigar and enjoying it. For a minute or 3 hours, its buyers choice.

In this episode we talk about homogenized tobacco, machine made cigars, short filler vs long filler, taste and body.

If there are words or terms that you’re unfamiliar within this episode, we highly recommend you check out the Sunday Cigar Glossary.

~~~
We would love to hear your thoughts on the episode. Leave a comment on the Apple Podcast App and don’t forget to rate the show.

Cigar Details

Wrapper: Ecuador
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican

Rafael Nodal is a classically trained musician and has created a few cigars to reflect his love for music. He brought his energy to the forefront in the La Boheme a cigar named after the famous opera. The Number 12 cigar of the year in 2015 is a great partnership with Blender Jochi Blanco out of the Dominican Republic.

Rafa was in New York without telling anyone in the industry and happened to drop in on the Town house. When he did I happened to be smoking his cigar. A genuine coincidence that lead into a friendship. He was so taken back by the fact that I was smoking his cigar in a place that barely carried anything close. We stayed close and years later he gifted me the small format in the La Boheme. I aged the cigars and brought them along on a trip to Reggae fest in Austin Texas. By day two of the festival all the cigar smokers back stage were smoking the La Boheme and raving about it. It was small enough to not be overly committing and good enough to want to start.

I saw Rafaa couple months ago and we were able to catch up. Nothing like a small cigar with a Giant Flavor profile.

In this episode I say Room 101 instead of Aging Room, my bad. Aside from that, we talk about a crowd pleaser cigar, combustion, taste, small formats and time with a cigar.