3 Regular Guys Cigar Review - Iguana (Candela, Connecticut and Maduro)

Cigar Review Courtesy of the 3 Regular Guys at Thompson Cigar.

Odds are that when you hear the word “iguana” your mind conjures up any number of images but probably all have something to do with lizards. Here in Tampa we have a pretty nice restaurant and bar called the Green Iguana. They’ve got a few locations and one isn’t too far from Thompson headquarters. We 3 Regular Guys sometimes slip away to the Green Iguana for a quick lunch at the outside bar so we can enjoy a cigar. Err…, I mean our job responsibilities periodically require us to conduct off-site meetings so being the company guys we are, we’ve little option. The food’s pretty darn good too.

During the latter part of the 1800’s Charles Darwin arrived in the Galapagos Islands aboard the SS Beagle. While admiring giant tortoises he gave the scientific world the first description of marine iguanas. These ambitious little buggers hang out on the beach and free-dive in the surf to munch green leafy stuff that grows clinging to the rocks on the ocean floor. They also look pretty cool sunning themselves on the beach.

By now I bet you’re seeing the connection here to cigars! No? No kidding. Well, kinda. You see, the Iguana cigar was first offered only in a candela wrapper. Candela is green. Iguanas are green. There we go. But seriously, candela cigars used to be the rage. They were bigger than Elvis before we really had Elvis. Most of us are familiar with the lore of how Kennedy dispatched Pierre Salinger, his press secretary, on the night of February 2, 1962 to procure one thousand H. Upmann Petit Upmann Cuban cigars. Upon Saligner’s return on the morning of the 3rd with the stash of forty boxes, Kennedy signed the embargo into law. Those Upmanns that JFK required were –yep- little green candelas!

We 3 Regular Guys are not really candela aficionados and Iguanas are not our daily go-to stick. However, we are mostly obedient to our blogmaster and tirelessly dedicated to our readers so, we smoked some Iguanas to tell you guys about them. Dave and Scott smoked the Candela, Connecticut and Maduro. By the time Colm had smoked his Candela he had already given away his other two. Two-thirds of the 3 Regular Guys firmly believe that it’s only fair that Colm be benched while Dave and Scott smoke and review some Don Carlos or some Hemingways.

We also apologize for the delay in posts but our resident in-house expert cigar guru, Sir Al Remp, has been dropping blind taste-test cigars at our desks for us to review for him so we got behind in our ‘work’.

Stay tuned for the tale of the Iguanas.