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2000 PERDOMO LA TRADICION CABINET SERIES MADURO ROBUSTO SINGLES
$45.00These were purchased as part of a collection. They pre-date Perdomo Reserve LTD which started in 2003. These could date back as early as 1998 according to research. Rated 91 by Cigar Insider (see photos) before being aged over 20 years. Not many of these around!
2000 PERDOMO LA TRADICION CABINET SERIES MADURO TORPEDO SINGLES
$45.00These were purchased as part of a collection. They pre-date Perdomo Reserve LTD which started in 2003. These could date back as early as 1998 according to research. Rated 91 by Cigar Insider (see photos) before being aged over 20 years. Not many of these around!
Note: There is a discoloration in the cellophane from the aging. There is no defect on the cigar itself.
2000 PERDOMO LA TRADICION CABINET SERIES ROSADA CORONA SINGLES
$45.00These were purchased as part of a collection. They pre-date Perdomo Reserve LTD which started in 2003. These could date back as early as 1998 according to research. Rated 91 by Cigar Insider (see photos) before being aged over 20 years. Not many of these around!
2001 BAUZA CASA GRANDES SINGLES
$45.00Bauza is an old Cuban brand that was made as a non-export. In the 1990s, it was re-formulated by the Fuente family as a Dominican cigar. These cigars are part of my collection and have been aging in the same humidor for over 20 years. You may find a younger version of these on the market today but they won't be as matured. They are hand made and contain 100% long filler.
From Mike's Cigars:
Mike's Cigars is proud to have the exclusive distribution rights for Bauza by Arturo Fuente. The Fuente's are the First Family of Cigars and they have been producing the Bauza Cigar for well over twenty years! With its Ecuadorian Sumatra Sun-grown leaf and Dominican filler, the Bauza was one of the first non-Cuban brands to receive a 92 rating by Cigar Aficionado Magazine. With a spicy yet soothing aroma and creamy delicate flavors of coffee and nutmeg, it’s no wonder Bauza was a favorite of Carlos Fuente Sr., the patriarch of the Fuente dynasty!
2001 BAUZA ROBUSTOS SINGLES
$45.00Bauza is an old Cuban brand that was made as a non-export. In the 1990s, it was re-formulated by the Fuente family as a Dominican cigar. These cigars are part of my collection and have been aging in the same humidor for over 20 years. You may find a younger version of these on the market today but they won't be as matured. They are hand made and contain 100% long filler.
From Mike's Cigars:
Mike's Cigars is proud to have the exclusive distribution rights for Bauza by Arturo Fuente. The Fuente's are the First Family of Cigars and they have been producing the Bauza Cigar for well over twenty years! With its Ecuadorian Sumatra Sun-grown leaf and Dominican filler, the Bauza was one of the first non-Cuban brands to receive a 92 rating by Cigar Aficionado Magazine. With a spicy yet soothing aroma and creamy delicate flavors of coffee and nutmeg, it’s no wonder Bauza was a favorite of Carlos Fuente Sr., the patriarch of the Fuente dynasty!
2002 MONTE ALBAR GRAN CORONA TUBULARES SINGLES
$25.00When compared to the rest of the cigar manufacturing world, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, & Honduras, etc., the Canary Islands are not a large exporter of cigars. This attractive hand-rolled corona offers an H-2000 wrapper that’s been aged for no less than three years! The beautiful wrapper complements the Dominican long-filler extremely well. It’s a medium-bodied smoke with spicy, expressive, earthy aromas, and hints of grass. Note a touch of peppery spiciness in the flavor that extends all the way through to a smooth, dry finish.
2003 CAO GOLD CHURCHILL SINGLES
$50.00These Churchills were hand made in Nicaragua, among the first years at CAOs factory there.
CAO history
The hard work came from founder Cano Aret Ozgener, born in Moda – one of the nicer neighborhoods of Istanbul – in 1937. A Ping-Pong champion during his high school years in Turkey, Cano (pronounced "Jonno") emigrated to America in 1961 and graduated from Columbia University as an engineering major. Cano enjoyed smoking cigars and pipes – specifically meerschaums, artfully carved in Ozgener's native Turkey.
After graduating, Cano Ozgener worked as an engineer with DuPont; but his appreciation for a good pipe, coupled with his engineering prowess, got him to start tinkering with and modifying pipe stems during after-work hours in his basement in an effort to improve their performance. Cano sold a few of his modified pipes (in addition to some humidors he built) to some friends and local tobacconists…which led to Ozgener creating some pipes of his own, and selling them on a small scale. After years as a boutique businessman, Cano decided in 1977 that he wanted to expand. He left his job at DuPont to form his own company, naming it after his initials: C.A.O. International, Inc.
In 1980, Cano decided he was ready to put CAO cigars on sale. That came to pass with the introduction of Casa de Manuel. That first CAO cigar didn't last – a lack of consistency, along with a dying pre-boom market, doomed the smoke to the ashtray of history. Cano was able to fall back on his pipe and humidor business – that was, until the boom came calling. With the boom in full swing by 1995, Ozgener began to sell cigars again, this time a Honduran smoke made by Nestor Plasencia that was simply known as C.A.O.
The happy accident to which CAO Cigar owes its first success was actually borne out of a production problem on this original line of CAO cigars for sale. Cano launched a beautiful maduro, but it didn't burn well – prompting him to recall nearly 150,000 sticks with potential burn issues. The recall, along with product shortages, forced the Ozgener family to look for an additional supplier. Help came by way of Tabacalera Tambor in Costa Rica, the same place where Bahia was being made. Tambor delivered to the Ozgeners a rich and spicy black maduro with a red band, and which name-checked the Cuban Partagas Serie D No. 4 as one if its biggest influences. It was this new maduro, and the rave CAO cigar reviews that followed, that put CAO cigars on the map.
Within 8 years, the company would grow its CAO cigar offering dramatically, giving anyone looking to buy CAO cigars online a bunch of new choices – including CAO Gold, CAO Brazilia, Criollo, Double Maduro (or MX2), as well as their L'Anniversaire series and CAO Flavours. And thanks to the help of some other manufacturers, CAO found new suppliers when Tabacalera Tambor ceased production for the company. Nick Perdomo began making the maduro blend as it rose in popularity; and not long after, gave Cano a cigar with a delicate Cameroon wrapper. The Toraño family partnered up by making C.A.O. Brazilias in Honduras, and La Aurora started creating the CAO Flavors cigars at their factory in the Dominican Republic.
The Ozgeners would make the decision in 2003 to take control of the production of CAO cigars – and in doing so, make the switch from marketer to manufacturer. Cano bought into two factories: one in Nicaragua, and one in Honduras. The shift allowed C.A.O. control of their tobacco supply, as well as the opportunity to centralize its manufacturing – and brought production of its CAO maduro cigar from Tabacalera Perdomo to C.A.O. Fabricas de Tabacos in Estelí, Nicaragua. C.A.O.'s factory shared the space with the Toraño family's factory; the arrangement afforded the Ozgeners and the Toraños the access and ability to buy great tobacco together, and allowed for a close working relationship between the companies.
Fast forward to 2007: the CAO cigar brand grew internationally, as Henri Wintermans Cigars offered to buy CAO cigars from Ozgener. Based in Holland, Wintermans is a unit of Scandinavian Tobacco, one of the world's largest cigar makers at 1.3 billion sticks per year. CAO cigars were now being made in Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. Three years later, the last remaining member of CAO's founding family left the company when Scandinavian Tobacco Group and Swedish Match merged, causing the ownership group to relocate CAO's corporate offices to Richmond, VA from Nashville.
Today, true to its roots in the Ozgener family creed of innovation in blending and in packaging, CAO Cigars production continues primarily in two locations: Honduras American Tabaco S.A. (HATSA) in Danlí, Honduras, home to C.A.O. Brazilia, Lx2, Mx2 and C.A.O. Italia, while La Traviata, La Traviata Maduro, C.A.O. Gold and C.A.O. Cx2 are produced in Estelí, Nicaragua at Scandinavian Tobacco Group Estelí.
2004 Mayorga High Octane Toro – Coffin Bundle of 3 Box-Pressed Nicaraguan Cigars
$60.00Mayorga cigars have been around for a very long time. The original blend was totally revamped in 1997 by cigar and coffee maker expert, Martin Mayorga. Since their rebirth, Nestor Plasencia in his famous factory in Nicaragua produces these premium cigars. A fantastic Nicaraguan cigar, this solid, square-pressed vitola is loaded with creamy coffee flavors followed by a rewarding long, lingering finish that will satisfy any cigar lover’s soul. Their cigars have never received a rating below ’89’ with Cigar Aficionado.
2004 Mayorga High Octane Toro – Coffin Bundle of 3 Box-Pressed Nicaraguan Cigars (Copy)
$60.00Mayorga cigars have been around for a very long time. The original blend was totally revamped in 1997 by cigar and coffee maker expert, Martin Mayorga. Since their rebirth, Nestor Plasencia in his famous factory in Nicaragua produces these premium cigars. A fantastic Nicaraguan cigar, this solid, square-pressed vitola is loaded with creamy coffee flavors followed by a rewarding long, lingering finish that will satisfy any cigar lover’s soul. Their cigars have never received a rating below ’89’ with Cigar Aficionado.
2012 PADILLA LA TERRAZA 80TH ANNIVERSARY ROBUSTO MADURO SEALED BOX OF 20
$150.00That’s one dark wrapper on the La Terraza Maduro. “Maduro” just doesn’t do it justice, it’s as black as a darkroom at midnight. And oily too.
The Flavor
A pronounced, rich leather was the first flavor I encountered in the La Terraza Maduro. Variations in the draw firmness made the most significant impact on this third, with looser sticks tending to be a little sweeter and more peppery. But generally, this portion was a transition from the initial leather to chocolate with a raisin-like sweetness and little espresso.
In the second third, a savory, smoky quality appeared. A growing charred wood, chocolate and pepper kept things moving along with leather playing a faint supporting role.
By the time the final third started to burn, the wood and pepper had taken over the profile, with chocolate popping up occasionally just to make sure you weren’t missing it. Nearing the end, there was return of the espresso noted earlier.
Cigar Stats:
Size: 5 x 54
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
2016 DUNHILL AGED SHORT ROBUSTO MADURO SEALED BOX OF 10
$600.00INFORMATION PROVIDED BY HALFWHEEL:
Maduro is the Spanish word for ripe, and can refer to either the dark brown color of the wrapper leaf, or an extended curing process that those leaves undergo to bring out more of the natural sugars as well as achieve a darker color. The Dunhill Aged Maduro Short Robusto opens up with a good bit of pepper, some funky woods, and a bit of sourness that lingers on the front of the palate. The retrohales are much more enticing in the first inch, with thick, rich soil notes pairing with decent amounts of pepper to create a complex, enjoyable exhale. The sourness shakes off pretty quickly, disappearing before the burn line hits the one-inch mark, which is also when the band needs to come off. The cigar has burned well with abundant smoke, even burn line, and an easy draw. But was most stands out is the ash, holding on without flinching through the midway point and showing no signs of wanting to let go. The Dunhill shifts a bit in advance of its second third, bringing the pepper back to the forefront and amping it up a tick, while staying firmly rooted in its earthy base that is fairly heavy on the palate. Of course, the ash finally knocks off at the midpoint. The tree bark note that was found on the pre-light aroma comes in as the final third starts, and with it comes a mouth-tingling bit of pepper that is new to the cigar. It seems to have a bit of red chili pepper flakes to it, though I also get a bit of minerals. Score 89.
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- Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
- Factory: General Cigar Dominicana
- Wrapper: Sun Grown Ligero Maduro
- Binder: Nicaragua
- Filler: Dominican Republic
- Length: 4 Inches
- Ring Gauge: 54
- Vitola: Short Robusto
2016 LA GLORIA CUBANA ARTESANOS DE TABAQUEROS 650 SINGLES
$25.00The Artesanos de Tabaqueros cigars from La Gloria Cubana are a rare handmade collection at El Credito the landmark Little Havana gallery. These cigars are wrapped in two wrappers namely an Ecuadoran Sumatra and Connecticut shade wrappers. Well-aged Honduran and Dominican long filler tobaccos are blended skilfully to create these cigars. The strength of these cigars is medium to full with a creamy, soft flavour accompanied by rich spicy nuances. This vitola is the 650 and the size is: 6 x 54.
2017 QUESADA 70TH ANNIVERSARY BELICOSO SEALED BOX OF 10
$175.00MQ 70 is magnificent, showcasing endless complexities. It is somewhat difficult to sum it all up, as the flavors seem to hit every angle of the palate; much in the same way you’ll find with many Cubans. The cigar manages to offer a contrasting experience, with dark and robust notes (toasted nuts and leather), delivered through a delicate, light, and clean overall impression. It’s the subtle touches that add to the overall profile, such as a bright and salty sensation from the raw tobacco against the tongue. The smoke is best enjoyed through the retrohale, begging the smoker to retain each puff within the back of the nostrils and even upper throat (occasional, slight inhales are advised) for a moment or two longer than you’re accustomed to—soaking up every morsel of flavor within the smoke’s inherent oils.
MQ 70 does require fairly frequent puffs to keep the smoke flowing. This occasionally amounts to overheating, producing darker flavors that aren’t entirely unsavory: dark chocolate, anise, a cold, menthol-like sensation, and a touch of harshness. With touchups, though, flavors come springing back from the dead, turning simplistic notes like dark chocolate into a more tangible experience of a Milky Way Midnight Dark chocolate candy bar.
Past the halfway point and beyond, flavors come in the form of toffee, honey, and flowers; eventually transitioning to charred wood, anise, various chocolates, marshmallow sweetness, and (eventually) dark and ashy harshness.
