Friday, April 28, 2006

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Drew Estate Kahlua Cigar Review

I figured I'd start throwing in a cigar review every now and then. Here's my first, enjoy.

Drew Estate Kahlua Corona 5X42

Wrapper: Connecticut Shade
Binder: Sumatran
Filler: Nicaraguan

Construction: Nice smooth wrapper with no large veins. Firm to the touch. Nicely done cap.

Prelight: Nice tobacco aroma with just a subtle hint of Kahlua. It had a sweetened tip, but i've got kind of a sweet tooth, so I enjoyed that. Nice easy draw.

Burn: Lit very easily. Somewhat irregular at times, easily corrected. Firm light grey ash that held over an inch and a half before falling.

Smoking Notes: Right off the bat, a very smooth and creamy smoke with nice subtle hints of Kahlua. Not overbearing like some flavoreds. The flavor stayed consistent for the first half. The tobacco and coffee flavors picked up in the second half. Burned down to about an inch. Burned a little hot at the end, but I was smoking a little fast.

Overall impression: I thoroughly enjoyed this smoke. So smooth and creamy. The aroma in the air was incredible. Almost like pipe tobacco. It was very mild in strength, but medium-full in flavor.

I fully recommend this cigar!!

- Big Mike

www.bigmikescigars.com

Thursday, April 27, 2006

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Cigar History

Even if nobody really knows where and when tobacco was first planted, we're sure the first people to cultivate and smoke tobacco were the American Indians.
According to history, tobacco was first discovered on the island of Cuba when Christopher Columbus first arrived in 1492. But, some trace of tobacco has also been found in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
By the 16th century, the Spanish conquistadors had introduced tobacco in Spain and Portugal, and Jean Nicot, the French ambassador in Portugal, (from whose name comes the word nicotine) in the rest of Europe.
Some people believe that the word "Tobacco" came from the name of the island Tobago and others from the Mexican region called Tabasco. The Tainos, natives of the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola, named it Cohiba or Cojoba. On the other hand, the word Cigar come from a Maya verb sikar which means "to smoke".
The first tobacco fields appeared in Virginia in 1612 and in Maryland in 1631, but the crops were mostly used for pipe tobacco. We think that cigars first appeared in America in 1762, when Israel Putnam came back from Cuba where he had served under the British army. Back in Connecticut, he brought with him cigars and a big quantity of tobacco. So, the first cigar manufacture appeared in Hartford at the same time that tobacco from Cuba, now known as Connecticut tobacco, was planted.
In the 19th century, the "Smoking Jacket" was designed to protect clothes from smoke during high class dinners. At the end of the 19th century, wives used to quit the table while men would drink Cognac and smoke a good cigar. It is in the middle of the 19th century that the cigar ring and cigar box made their apparition.
In the United States, cigar smoking really started after the Civil war. At this time, the most expensive cigars, which were hand made with Cuban tobacco, were called "Habanos", like those made in Cuba. The word "Habanos" is now a generic name. The word "Stogie" comes from the cigar manufacturer of Conestoga in Pennsylvania, well known for its famous cigars. At the end of the 19th century, smoking a cigar was a symbol of high social status (the reason why some famous people like Henry Clay, a U.S. Senator, gave their names to famous brands). In 1919, Thomas Marshall, Vice-president of Woodrow Wilson, declared to the Senate : "What this country really needs is a good five-cent cigar".

- Big Mike

www.bigmikescigars.com

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

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Art of Making A European Hand-made Wooden Humidor

The selection and preparation of the solid wood used are of great importance. Indeed, before it can be used, the wood must cure for at least ten years in the open air, sheltered from bad weather. It must neither be cracked nor warped. It must be uniform and have a fine grain.
The beauty of an "objet de luxe" also depends on the way the essences of precious wood veneer are used. Certain natural imperfections in the wood, such as knots, dark spots, holes, cracks, are part of most veneers, notably burls. Only the most beautiful grained veneers is chosen to avoid what the uninitiated might consider a "defect."
Marquetry is made by assembling and gluing together different essences of geometrically cut precious wood, creating, through their varying tones and forms, a multitude of motifs.
Numerous fine coats of varnish is applied to every one of the creations. Their inimitable brilliance and transparency are obtained by successively sanding and polishing eight times by hand.

- Big Mike

www.bigmikescigars.com

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

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Big Mike

Hand Made Cigars

Handmade cigars have three main parts - the filler, the binder, and the wrapper. Each of the parts has a different function when the cigar is actually smoked.
The outside wrapper dictates the cigar's appearance. It is grown under gauze and fermented separately from other leaves to ensure that it is smooth, not too oily, and has a subtle bouquet. It also has to be soft and pliable so that it is easy for the roller to handle.
Wrapper leaves from different plantations have varying colors (and thus subtly different flavors more sugary if they are darker, for instance) and are used for different brands. Good wrapper leaves have to be elastic and must have no protruding veins. They have to be matured for between one year and 18 months the longer the better. Wrapper tobacco might come from Connecticut, Cameroon, Sumatra, Honduras, Mexico, Costa Rica, or Nicaragua. The wrapper is the most expensive part of the cigar.
The binder leaf holds the cigar together and is usually two halves of coarse sun-grown leaf from the upper part of the plant, chosen because of its good tensile strength. The filler is made of separate leaves folded by hand along their length, to allow a passage through which smoke can be drawn when the cigar is lit. The fold can be properly achieved by hand and is the primary reason why machine-made cigars are often less satisfactory. This style of arranging the filler is sometimes called the "book" style - which means that, if you were to cut the cigar down its length with a razor, the filler leaves would resemble the pages of a book. In the past, the filler was sometimes arranged using the "entubar" method - with up to eight narrow tubes of tobacco leaf rolled into the binder, making the cigar burn very slowly.
Three different types of leaf are normally used for the filler (in fatter ring guages, like Montecristo No. 2, a fourth type is also used). Ligero leaves from the top of the plant are dark and full in flavor as a result of oils produced by exposure to sunlight. They have to be matured for at least two years before they can be used in cigarmaking. Ligero tobacco is always placed in the middle of the cigar because it burns slowly. Seco leaves, from the middle of the plant, are much lighter in color and flavor. They are usually used after maturing for around 18 months. Volado leaves, from the bottom of the plant, have little or no flavor, but they have commendable burning qualities. They are matured for about nine months before use.
The precise blend of these different leaves in the filler dictates the flavor of each brand and size. A full-bodied cigar like Bolivar Fuerte will, for instance, have a higher proportion of ligero in its filler, than a mild cigar, such as Don Diego, where seco and volado will predominate. Small, thin cigars will very often have no ligero tobacco leaf in them at all. The consistency of a blend is achieved by using tobacco from different harvests and farms, so a large stock of matured tobacco is essential to the process.

- Big Mike

www.bigmikescigars.com

Monday, April 24, 2006

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Machine Made Cigars

A machine made cigar is basically a bundle of tobacco that is rolled into a tubular shape. This bundle is called the filler. The filler is held together by the binder. The binder and filler are covered by the wrapper. The entire process of making this type of cigar is automated. There are some very good machine-made cigars.

Machine made cigars are produced in most cigar-producing countries and are the least expensive. They are offered in cigarette stores, newstands, gas stations, etc. They are usually sold in cellophane wrappers. Most are small to medium in size. Some have a hole in the cap or head of the cigar. Although some machine-made cigars have great taste and draw well, they are not able to offer the complex taste that develops with a quality handmade cigar made with long-leaf filler.

The following are advantages of machine made cigars:
1. Prefect draw
2. Uniform appearance & taste


- Big Mike

www.bigmikescigars.com