Cigar Blog 101

Friday, March 02, 2007

3 Regular Guys Cigar Review - Thompson Vintage Especiale

Super 8 Cigar Sampler Review Courtesy of the 3 Regular Guys at Thompson Cigar.

There’s really no need to start out the review on the Thompson Vintage Especiale with the same corporate biographical snippet or back story like each of the other cigars got because we’re all pretty well aware that Thompson Cigar began in Key West in 1915, later to move up here when Tampa was solidly established as the epicenter of the cigar world. Our company heritage is something we’re all very proud of here.

This company has been selling cigars for longer than any of us here have been smoking cigars or even been alive. Sometimes we’ll relic hunt on eBay and find things like our old postcards that we would use to sell cigars. Suffice it to say we’ve been in this game for a very long time. For ages and ages we only sold cigars with our band on them. Now we sell premium and super premium national brands alongside our Thompson private label stogies.

We 3 Regular Guys mostly smoke national brands. Probably because we can afford to buy Thompson cigars so whenever the Blogmaster appears as though he might throw us a bone out of the humidor we tend to mention the most expensive stick we think he might actually hook us up with.

In the Super 8 sampler appear two sticks of the Thompson Vintage Especiale. Now if you have been reading through the previous reviews from this sampler you know the Vintage Especiale has its work cut out for it as it is surrounded by some stiff competition. So, how did it fare up against Padron and Torano and Cusano? Well, even the 3 Regular Guys ended up quite pleasantly surprised –which is always a good thing when you’re the one smoking it.

We smoked the Churchill wrapped in Connecticut sun grown leaf. The one thing that each of us immediately commented on was that we thought the pig tail was a pretty cool feature. The one cigar that always comes to mind for Scott in regard to pig tail caps is the CAO Criollo so the Vintage Especiale already had at least some cosmetic similarity to the rest of this bunch.

While this box-pressed stick is not a show stopper in appearance –aside from the cap of course- it is slightly veiny and has a moderately alluring dull cocoa colored wrapper. Construction is consistent and solid. Our Xikars cleanly lopped off the cap and we were ready to try this cigar out. Scott and Dave found this cigar to have an even draw that offered plenty of smoke. The taste to them was a bit woody and mellow with a hint of sweet tanginess. Colm picked up on about the same experience but he opted for toasty instead. The burn was even and the ash was a light grayish-white in contrast to the wrapper.

Overall the taste was medium bodied with a bit of a lingering finish. There were only slight hints of edginess to the flavors of this cigar. We felt that the tastes hung right around toasty and woody but did drift in and out of being a little bit citrusy. Laying them up in your humidor for a few weeks or months will only serve to smooth this out and round out the tastes even more.

The Vintage Especiale might not fully stand out in a crowd but if you grabbed one from your humidor for yourself or passed one out to a buddy you’d both probably have the same thought. That thought would be something along the line of “I didn’t really know to ask for this, but now that I’m smoking it, this cigar is really quite alright. Now where was I?...” Truth be told, this is a really impressive cigar since it actually can hang with the rest of ‘em in the Super 8.

Get your Super 8 Sampler by clicking here >>.

Labels: 3 Regular Guys, Cigar Reviews, Super 8 Sampler, Thompson Vintage Especiale

Thursday, February 15, 2007

3 Regular Guys Cigar Review - CAO Brazilia Gol!

Super 8 Cigar Sampler Review Courtesy of the 3 Regular Guys at Thompson Cigar.

So the 3 Regular Guys have slacked off so much on our cigar reviews that we now have to share the stage with this Corona Chris guy. If the intention was to motivate us to get back to providing you guys with reviews of cigars, it worked.

But seriously, not only are we glad to have Corona Chris onboard, but he’s also a great resource for us. Another perq is that he works in our retail store so when we hang out there talking cigars with him it’s not too much of a stretch to call it research instead of skipping out on our other work.

Our next stop in our trek through the Super 8 Sampler (we promise we’ll wrap this one up and move on SOON) is the CAO Brazilia Gol! As mentioned in a prior post about the Criollo, this is Tim Ozgener’s breakaway cigar where, in addition to cooking up some flashy and rather non-traditional packaging, he also wanted to showcase Brazilian tobacco in its own right instead of being just a filler component. Well, the way he went about this couldn’t make us much happier!

The Brazilia is a great maduro cigar offered in a variety of sizes (we reviewed the Gol! 5 x 56 –a perfect robusto). The filler and binder are Nicaraguan tobacco and the wrapper is a stunning Brazilian leaf. This cigar is an ideal combination of ingredients and craftsmanship and it shows. While reviewing our tasting notes it became abundantly clear that this cigar could only have gotten more accolades from us if the Padron was not in the Super 8 mix. Colm probably summed it up when he waxed poetic and said, “The only thing that would make this cigar better would be to make it a Nicaraguan puro!”

We mostly agree, however this cigar cannot and should not be a Nicaraguan puro. It’s the Brazilia and what makes it the Brazilia is that incredible wrapper. Because of that wrapper, which mellows this smoke sort of like how the beach in Rio mellows the pace of life, this cigar has strength, full body and complexity but makes sure there’s no edginess at all. If you smoke a Brazilia that has a bit of an edge or bite to it that stick was the victim of abuse somewhere in its youth. Instead it should smoke smooth as silk and deep with hints of cocoa and dark chocolate. Should you detect any hint of bitterness it should only be as it relates to the tastes of dark chocolate.

Dave enjoyed every bit of this cigar. From the appearance and pre-light aroma of oiled leather to the medium to full bodied smoke which reminded him of a wood fire in a fireplace and tasting of black licorice and chocolate. His cigar burned evenly all the way to the band and produced a white ash that starkly contrasted with the dark wrapper. Basically this sounds like a contender to be his comfort cigar.

Colm brought up the consistency of CAO cigars and as such only cautioned the smoker to ensure she has enough time to sit down and properly smoke this cigar. Aside from that to him this cigar was very nice, smooth smoking, having hints of cocoa, with a good complexity and well-balanced. The construction was great; he took note of its great ash and even burn. Colm puts this cigar on his list of sticks that he would eagerly recommend to anyone –which we presume is also inclusive of people he likes.

Scott picked up on the same excellent construction characteristics of this stick and loved the cool full-bodied smoke that yielded a medium length clean and light finish. This is a big ring cigar and his favorite size because this cigar basically smokes itself. He also found the taste had a dark chocolate bitterness that rounds out to a woody coffee taste. The toasty smoke starts on the front and side of the palate and ends lingering over the center. This stogie is just all around pleasant and satisfying.

Our only peeve with the Brazilia that we could dig up is that it’s spelled with a “Z.” Take a look at the band –“handmade” is written in Portuguese but the English spelling of the nation is used. As a perfect robusto the Brazilia Gol! is named after the Brazilian Portuguese word for “goal!” In that regard even if it’s not spelled Brasilia this cigar definitely scores in our world! GOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLL!

Get your Super 8 Sampler by clicking here >>.

Labels: 3 Regular Guys, CAO, Cigar Reviews, Super 8 Sampler

Friday, September 08, 2006

Cigar Reviews From 3 Regular Guys

Cigar Blog 101 is proud to announce a new weekly feature - accurate and honest cigar reviews from three regular guys that work in the Thompson Cigar Finance Department. This isn't going to be the catalog description. This is a real world review. It's not based on a rating system. It's not official and it's only meant for informational purposes.

These three guys take a morning or afternoon break and enjoy cigars on the patio outside our store here in Tampa. Every once in a while they test new national and house brands to see if the catalog will carry them in the future.

Based on this, we decided to put them to the test. Their first review - the Thompson Powerhouse 30. You've seen the offer. It's been in print ads and on the Internet for a while. You've probably bought one before. The handy dandy aluminum travel case is in your trunk. If you haven't bought one yet then watch our posts over the next few weeks and get to know the cigars we offer in the Powerhouse 30.