The flavor of the CT#1 was definitely on the mild side, but it did have a nice taste to it. There was a hint of spice early on, but it had a sweeter finish then I expected. Overall, its a good cigar for someone who likes their cigars a little on the mild side. The Gran Habano Connecticut #1 proves that mild does not necessarily mean bland and at about $4.00 per stick makes for a every day smoke.

This cigar features a 5-year old Ecuadorian sun grown Sumatra leaf with a Nicaraguan binder and a blend of Dominican & Nicaraguan filler. According to Rocky, the Sun Grown is a medium to full-bodied cigar and by just looking at the rich, oily wrapper I suspect I’ll agree with his assessment. The torpedo is 6.25″ long and sports a substantial 52 ring guage. The cigar features the traditional double band setup Rocky uses on nearly all of his cigars, but this one features wrappers that are bold with a vibrant red and gold color scheme.

This cigar is nicely wrapped with a good solid feel in your hands. The best word that came to mind while holding, cutting and lighting the cigar was “tight”, but the draw was anything but. The resistance through the cigar was well measured. The light went well and the burn started off a little on the uneven side at first, but settled in to a good clean burn. The smoke was cool and quite thick and creamy. The ash seemed thick and dense and seemed to hold on to the stick for dear life.

Immediately upon lighting, this cigar has some punch. The flavor is a little a strong the side, but not so much as to turn me off. It starts off with quite the pepper kick, but settled down a third of the way in and switched rather smoothly to a nice nutty taste. The finish was decidedly milder in flavor than it was in the beginning, but it did start to get a little hot near the end. The cigar lasted a lot longer than I expected and I was in a little bit of a rush at the end, so I’d probably chalk that up to me.

The Rocky Patel Sun Grown Torpedo cigar is, like Rocky says, a good medium to full-bodied cigar. I like my cigars right smack dab in the middle and the Sun Grown is on the strong side of medium and would go great after a nice steak dinner. At $5 to $6 per stick, the Sun Grown is a reasonable priced cigar and one I would recommend to anyone who likes their cigars with a little kick.

The Rocky Patel Decade is a special 10th anniversary release from Rocky and the torpedo earned a 95 rating from Cigar Afficionado. Rocky himself brought a whole bunch of these cigars to give away at the Aleppo Smoker I attended back in March and I forced myself to leave it alone for a while. Well, this past weekend I finally took it out of the humidor and fired it up.

The overall construction of the Decade is absolutely top-notch with a nice, oily Ecuadoran Sumatra wrapper and a special (marked “secret” on the Rocky Patel web site) blend of Nicaraguan leaf for the binder and filler. The cigar is made at the Nestor Plasencia owned El Paraiso Factory in Honduras and it is the same factory that produced the Rocky Patel Sungrown, another cigar sitting in my humidor and due for a review in the near future. The Decade is box pressed and feels nicely wrapped and sturdy. The Decade lit up easily and the burn was nice and level. The smoke was very pleasant with a rich, full aroma and great draw.

I would best describe the flavor profile of the Decade is a bit of sleeper. The rich, chocolate colored wrapper belies a smoke that is mild mannered, but in reality the cigar packs a little more punch than its exterior might indicate. This cigar teeters on the brink between “medium” and “full-bodied”, but regardless of its moniker, this cigar has some teeth and those of you who prefer your cigars on the mild side, might want to think twice before you drop $10 on a Decade.

The cigar has a nice spicy flavor with a touch of nuttiness that I found quite pleasant. It got a little hot down near the end, but nothing I’d consider a problem and I smoked this bad boy right down to my thumb. The Decade was an exceptional smoke and I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes a nice “medium” cigar with a little kick.

Back in the spring, I attended the Aleppo Shriner’s Smoker in Wilmington, MA and a couple of guys from El Tiante Cigars were there giving away churchills in both the natural and maduro varieties. Started by Red Sox legend Luis Tiant, the cigars feature an image of the legendary pitcher in his signature windup on a colorful, red and gold band. The band alone is enough to get just about any cigar loving Red Sox fanatic all worked up. I grabbed a couple of each and put them in the humidor, determined not to touch them until the All Star break. I had a maduro the weekend before the All-Star Game, a natural the weekend after and another natural when Manny headed west and there was a Bay playing in Back Bay.

I tend to like my cigars right smack dab in the middle of mild and bold and the maduro wasn’t what I’d call bold, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea either. Both naturals I smoked were definitely on the mild side, but they had good flavor. Both varieties had a bit of a grassy taste that wasn’t at all unpleasant initially, but started to head that way as I approached the halfway mark. There was some fruity undertones to the flavor, but nothing I could really hammer down. The construction of these cigars was absolutely top notch. The wrappers were nice and oily with fairly small veins and they were quite firm and felt quite solid. The draw was perfect and the burn would get a little out of whack now and then, but usually snapped back in line of its own accord. The smoke was light and aromatic and I’d even say they smell better than they taste.

Overall, I preferred the naturals over their darker brethren, but they were a little too mild for my taste. If you like a good mild cigar, then I strongly recommend you try one. The maduro did not appeal to me at all, but very few maduro’s do. Given the namesake and the really cool band, I was dying to love this cigar. Regardless, these are clearly top-notch cigars even a Yankees fan could like. (Just remove the band and nobody needs to know.)

I’ve had this next cigar for a little over four months, having picked it up via the Aleppo Smoke back in March. I simply put this one in the humidor and completely forgot about it. I pulled out last week and smoked it on truly marvelous summer night on the patio. Gran Habano lists the Corojo #5 as “the most full bodied cigar in our line” and I was looking forward to seeing just how “full bodied” it is.

The cigar has your standard torpedo shape and its 6 1/8″ length and 52 ring gauge made for a nice long smoke. The cigar is manufactured in Honduras and features a blend of Costa Rican and Nicaraguan fillers as well as a Nicaraguan binder. The wrapper, naturally, is made from Nicaraguan Corojo leaf. The cigar seemed to be well constructed and solid.

The cigar lit up nice and easy and the burn quickly settle in to a nice and even burn. The smoke was thick and creamy and above all, was my favorite part of the experience. The draw was effortless and the burn would occasionally get a little off kilter, but generally bounced back all by itself. The cigar had a great nutty/woody aroma that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Cigar smokers all have there preferences when it comes to the “body” of a cigar with most preferring a nice mild smoke, while others want a good kick in the teeth. Personally, I like them right in the middle. The Gran Habano Corojo #5 is what I would call a medium bodied cigar. The flavor isn’t particularly spicy, but you can definitely tell it has some. Like the smoke, it has a bit of nutty taste with a little sweetness in the aftertaste. The overall effect is a pleasurable smoke that has nice flavor without the harshness of a truly full bodied cigar.

The Gran Habano Corojo #5 is an affordable cigar at approximately $4 per stick and given its price and flavor profile just might earn a permanent place in humidor.

This past Father’s Day, my lovely wife bought me a nice new travel humidor and sampler pack. In that pack were a number of your standard sampler fare from Rocky Patel and Gurkha as well as a number of brands I had never heard of before. Among those obscure brands was the “Augusto Reyes Nativo Corona”. I apologize for the lack of photographs, but this was a cigar I was having on lunch and a camera was not readily accessible. I think it might be time to upgrade the Blackberry to a model with a camera, because I really wish I had one for this one.

The cigar features an attractive band on a relatively small stick measuring 5 1/2″ in length and a small gauge of 44. The cigar is of Dominican origin and everything I’ve read online indicates the flavor is fairly robust. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much of an opportunity to test that out. I knew I was in trouble the minute I lit the cigar. The wrapper simply didn’t want to light, but the filler seemed to ignite like the fuse on a stick of dynamite. In a matter of seconds the foot looked like a buckeye with a black ring around a bright white ash. I applied a little more flame and eventually got the wrapper to catch, but it clearly was not burning nearly as fast as the filler and the cigar started to tunnel faster than a gopher on a golf course.

It eventually settled down some and I was able to get a better feel for the cigars aroma and flavor. Unfortunately, I was unimpressed with both. The draw was tight and the smoke was pretty thin. The flavor was a little woody with some kick, but I did not find it to be particularly pleasing. Now, I’ll fully admit that about the time I was able to “try” and enjoy the cigar I was thoroughly frustrated and annoyed. When it went out, despite some frantic attempts to perform CPR on a cigar the Augusto Reyes Nativo Corona became the first cigar I ever discarded before I even made it to the halfway point.

Before I sat down to write this review, I made it a point to go online and see what others are saying about this cigar. Apparently, most people like the taste and aroma, but I did find plenty of complaints about burn issues. I have to assume that I probably would have enjoyed it as well, but found the burn issues to be truly debilitating to enjoying the cigar. When I learned that the cigar retails for roughly $7 to $8 per stick, I swore it off for good. I’d rather buy a couple of Romeo Y Julieta Habano Reserves or Sancho Panzas for the same price and truly enjoy the smoke.

My first La Aroma de Cuba was given to me by a coworker nearly a year ago and since that day, I’ve smoke quite a few more. As soon as I came up with the idea to launch Oak and Smoke, I was determined to make the La Aroma de Cuba my first official cigar review. I originally intended to take some pictures for this review, but found myself without a camera when the occasion to smoke my final stick came. That really was an unfortunate turn of events for reasons I’ll get to in a moment, but first on to the review.

La Aroma de Cuba is an old turn-of-the-century Cuban brand and was reportedly one of Winston Churchill’s personal favorites. The name has resurfaced as a reproduction made for and distributed by Ashton. The current incarnation boasts a colorful and old-world style band that is big as it is bright. The wrapper is dark and rich and made from a special Cuban seed, Honduran grown tobacco. The binder is Honduran and the filler is mixture of Cuban seed Honduran and Nicaraguan tobacco.

Until recently, most of the sticks I’ve had were smoked shortly after purchase and never properly aged in my humidor. I frequently encountered burn problems and found the draw to be a little too tight for my tastes, but that all changed. I was determined to leave the last cigar alone and try it again in a few months. Well, that day was today and I was absolutely floored. The draw was perfect and it burned perfectly all the way around from start to finish. That’s were I wish I had the camera, to show Daniel over at CigarJack that there is hope.

So I bet you’re wondering why I keep coming back to a cigar that can be a bit of a pain in the ass and the answer is taste. To date, I have not enjoyed the taste of any cigar more than I do with the La Aroma de Cuba. It isn’t the spiciest or strongest cigar I’ve had, in fact they are the embodiment of “medium”. The cigar has a very distinctive almond flavor that has been extremely consistent from one stick to the next. While the flavor kicks up a notch about midway through it remains consistently nutty.

One of my favorite aspects of the whole La Aroma de Cuba experience is the price. A box of 25 churchills will run you approximately $100 and the individual sticks typically run around $5 to $6 each. The flavor and the price were more than enough to keep me hooked on this cigar, but now that I know to give them plenty of humidor time I’ll enjoy them that much more.