Ashton Aged Maduro #20
Size: 5.5 x 44
Tobacco: Dominican Republic
Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf

This cigar was recommended to me for a try by one of my favorite cigar guys at a local brick & mortar. The cigar is well constructed with no noticeable soft spots and a good looking wrapper with minimal flaws. The wrapper puts out scents of dark chocolate and cedar and the foot has similar scents as well as leather. The prelight draw had mainly notes of cedar and leather which combined for an earthy nuttiness.

Lighting it up, the first third had the cedar and nuttiness with some spice undertones. The cigar burned with a cool grey blue smoke and produced a decently thick amount of light grey smoke in large quantities. About a half inch into the smoke coffee emerged and slowly came into the forefront. In the second third coffee and dark chocolate were the dominant flavors with some nuttiness. This was my favorite part of the cigar, it was very smooth and all the flavors complimented each other in a seamless bouquet. In the final third, chocolate was the first to go and earthiness comes in. The spice comes in a little stronger and the coffee fades to the background. The finish is mainly earth and leather and gets a little bitter. Throughout the whole cigar the spice weaves its way in and out of the background. It was a good cigar, but the finish was a little disappointing.

I paired this with the Dalmore Gran Reserva scotch. This was a near perfect match for this particular cigar. The Gran Reserva has some similar undertone flavors as the cigar, and has other different flavors that compliment extremely well. It�s aged in traditional oak casks (as every scotch must be), but is aged even longer in a sherry cask giving it a distinct taste. At one point, I tried it with some Guinness and it took my palate about ten minutes to recover, that was not a good decision. Coffee would have gone very well with this for obvious reasons.

Final Verdict: This is a good mediumed bodied, smooth smoke and a decent value. It was an enjoyable cigar with a somewhat disappointing finish. I would smoke it again but it probably won�t be in my normal rotation. I give this cigar an 8.7

~Thank you again for submitting this guest review – please leave comments and let the author know how you liked it and if you’d like for me to keep up with these guest reviews!

First off – thank you to everyone who has kept coming back to the site this past week or so – as you have noticed – nothing has changed, haha. I forgot to turn on the auto posting through wordpress so when I thought I was putting up a review every other day, that wasn’t the case.

This week I was able to spend some much needed time with my fiance and her family and even got to see my side of the family for a few hours – can’t complain there. During this break I’ve been able to write a few more reviews, have plans for video reviews once the weather clears up (mid 20′s with wind chills in the teens – I like cigars but not enough to suffer like that for an hour and a half) but I was able to acquire a few more Cuban cigars, the Sopranos sampler along with a few cigarillo’s to review as well.

I have also been able to grab a few sponsors, please click away on the right hand side – Lots of great deals!

All in all, this has been a great holiday for myself and I hope that yours has been everything you wanted and more! Keep checking back, I’ll have my act together soon!

~David

Thank you all who entered, it really was interesting to hear everyone’s great accomplishments and I hope that there are more to come for all.

The winner of this contest was Mad Robusto – Please email me your address at phacue101@gmail.com and I will have them sent to you asap – hopefully in time for Christmas (Might be pushing it but we can try).

Thanks again to everyone, A new contest is already in the makings to check back often!

Okay, well – I guess we don’t want free cigars or perhaps I decided to make a contest that wasn’t so great – either way it was a total flop. It has been almost a week and no one has even entered a single review – so. . . yeah.

I still have these cigars and really want to make someone’s Christmas a little brighter. I will run this contest till Tuesday, December 22nd – they will be mailed out that day so be sure to enter! I normally like to run my contests a full week so everyone has a chance to enter – but. . . time not being on our sides I’m gunna rush this one a little.

Why? The celebration ‘excuse’ this time around is going to be getting close to almost 4000 unique visitors. If you have been following the site October 4th I hit 1000 unique visitors and November 27th I was just under 3000 unique views, so this is roughly one thousand new people to look at the site, each month. I’ve been able to pick up some advertising (please check out the hand picked adds on the right hand side), been able to build my database and most of all been able to make some amazing friends.

How to Win:
I’m sure some have just skimmed down to this part – and thats fine the first part was more of a toot my own horn deal – haha. Leave a comment about one of your ‘personal greatest accomplishments’ – now, this isn’t about you getting a degree or getting that big promotion but something that YOU feel was a big ‘pat on the back’ to yourself.
All entries will be like prior contests – entered into a hat and the drawing will be live VIA twitter Tuesday, December 22nd.

Enter away!

Size: 5 1/2 x 60 (Torpedo)
Wrapper: Cameroon (Tabacalera Esteli)
Binder and Filler: Virgin Sun-grown Cuban-Seed Habano (Nicaragua)
Strength: Medium to Full
Price: Roughly $6.00

Behind The Stick:

I got this cigar as a part of a sampler pack about 6 months ago, and after some time and recently finding out about the lawsuit crap with Altadis and Tatuaje, I joined the group and ended up boycotting one of my all time favorite cigars, H. Upmann Vintage Cameroon. Since this has all transpired, it gives me a chance to again go outside my comfort zone and find a new go to Cameroon stick. Taken in full from Cuban Crafters Website

“Cuban Crafters Cameroon Boutique Cigars Chairman are skillfully hand made by master roller with many years of experience. The big cigars are made in small batches and each cigar combines the finest and most expensive Cameroon cigar wrapper leaves with the best Cuban Seed Habano tobacco from Tabacalera Esteli. The Long-Filler and Binder are virgin sun-grown Cuban-Seed Habano tobacco that has been fermented 5 times before being hand rolled. The boutique premium cigars are a big 60 ring gauge. Each cigar is 5�� long and is meticulously finished with a long curly head cap and a cigar tail typical of those from Cuba. They are made the old fashioned Cuban way. The cigars boast very delightful and intensely rich boutique flavors. The premium cigars have a unique taste that is sweet and woody, and medium to full in body. A unique smoking experience is guaranteed.

Premium tobacco blends make great tasting cigars. In search of the perfect blend, various tribes in Cameroon, Africa were visited by our scouts. After years of searching an ultra premium Cameroon wrapper was located. It blended perfectly with the premium Cuban seed tobacco from Tabacalera Esteli. It is grown by a tribe in a small village on the western edge of Cameroon, close to an active volcano named Mount Cameroon. The country’s most fertile soils are in this region, and the tobacco is among the world’s most expensive. The premium Cameroon wrapper was then fermented to perfection and blended with the best leaves from Tabacalera Esteli. The result are these incredible boutique premium cigars.

MEDIUM TO FULL BODY. Their distinguished taste is ultra premium and slightly sweet, with exhilarating woody and spicy undertones. It finishes with a cedar and cocoa burst.”

Construction:

The cigar is well packed from head to foot even though the cigar seems to expand at the foot making me want to call this cigar more of a pyramid rather than a toro, but still very well made. The one thing I did notice was that unlike other Cameroon wrappers this one appears to be much more smooth and did not have the ‘grit’ that I personally associate with a Cameroon wrapper but I was not worried about this.

Flavor:

I think that my pallet is finally starting to be pick up on distinct flavor profiles from certain countries, the reason I say this is because this cigar has a great base flavor of wood and a slight leather which I have found to be pretty common in tobacco from Nicaragua. This great base flavor stuck throughout the cigar but as the stick began to warm up, I noticed the Cameroon qualities began to ebb in and out – slightly sweet with smooth undertones. The finish was slightly longer than I had expected but the flavor profile never seem to turn ‘stale’, very impressed by this.

Overall:

I have to say, for the price and the availability these are pretty good smokes. I don’t think I’m going to rush out and buy a box just yet, but that is because I am still on a hunt for a new go-to cigar. The Cuban Crafters Cameroon is a great buy, and for us Cameroon lovers I will say its in the top 3 – just not number 1 yet.

Every Cigar Has A Story, Every Smoke A Memory

Christmas time is quickly approaching and with recent advancements with the site I feel that it is only right that I share the wealth. Recently Corona Cigar Company decided I was doing well enough for them to sponsor this site. Since they were so kind to me, here it is.

Included in this contest:
Carlos Torano Exodus 1959 – 50 Years
Don Lino Duma
Don Lino Kuro
Don Pepin My Father Le Bijou 1922
Padilla 1948
Padilla Habano
Room 101 305

How to Enter:
I am looking for a guest reviewer or two for a permanent spot on this site. I am not going to be the one to make this decision though, I will leave this up to the viewers. I will accept any and all reviews as long as it is a cigar that I have not yet reviewed (need to add new content ya know!) – All the cigars I will be adding into this contest I will also be reviewing to I do request that you also not include them as a submission. For the next 2 weeks or so I will post the guest reviews – so get to it! The catch – This must be an original review done by YOU, and it must include photos taken by YOU – Respect your B&M’s and the manufacturers. E-mail the review and pictures to phacue101@gmail.com to officially enter!

How to Win:
This is all based upon the readers – they decide! If you like the review, comment on it! At the end of the contest I will pull the top 3 reviews and have everyone vote, the winner gets the package – that simple.

Every Cigar Has A Story, Every Smoke A Memory