Bolivar Belicosos Finos Review – Small size, big punch
At first draw of the Bolivar Belicosos Finos, you find yourself walking through a park in the fall, kicking the neatly piled stacks of leaves on your way. Just under is a hint of floral sweetness that says sunflowers and the honey that bees produce from their pollen. When...
Gurkha 125th Anniversary Rothchild
This Gurkha, unlike a number of others I’ve had, begins with a sweet note that on the cold draw, first stirs up the memory of wet mud. No, that’s not a bad thing. It’s just a rather unique taste that can’t be described as anything else. And yes, whether...
Bugatti Scuro Robusto – Review
The cigar begins with a bitter note, but not one that’s unpleasant. More like taking a bite out of really bitter chocolate, one with 90 percent cocoa. That slight bitterness continues at the end of the draw down to the first one third of the cigar, accompanied by the...
Cigar etiquette
It has nothing to do with envy. Nor has it to do with size. It’s not that it’s cool. Or sexual. There is nothing about a long brown object in their mouths that most men find erotic. It’s about a smoke. That’s all there is to it. It’s about...
The New Cigar Store Indian
There are a number of reasons to like Dubai. Most of them centred around a shopping mall. But since it’s one of the few cities in the world where a man can sit in a bar with a glass in one hand and a cigar in the other, it...
San Cristobal De La Habana El Principe – Review
Warms up nicely after the first 1 cm. Not a great deal of complexity, but that’s to be expected in a cigar this size. A little acrid initially, but it settles down to a more muted flavour, with shifting spices and woody notes. Towards the end, a hint of...
Hoyo De Monterrey Le Hoyo De San Juan – Review
This cigar did a really good job of surprising me. The flavour profile was totally unexpected, with an unlit aroma that had me wondering whether it had been dipped into a stagnant pool before being dried and put into a box. Expecting the worst, I got instead a topnote...
H Upmann Magnum 54 – Review
The H Upmann Magnum 54 is a delightful smoke that offers complexity from the first draw. Little to no acrid burn when it’s first lit, moving gently after across flavour and aroma profiles. The first draw takes you back to a schoolroom with pencil shavings and bits of rubber...