Can you imagine, 235 years ago today on July 4th, 1776 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the Declaration of Independence was signed by the Continental Congress, The United States of America gained there independence.

At the time of the signing the US consisted of 13 colonies under the rule of England’s King George III. There was growing unrest in the colonies concerning the taxes that had to be paid to England. This was commonly referred to as “Taxation without Representation” as the colonists did not have any representation in the English Parliament and had no say in what went on. As the unrest grew in the colonies, King George sent extra troops to help control any rebellion. In 1774 the 13 colonies sent delegates to Philadelphia Pennsylvania to form the First Continental Congress. The delegates were unhappy with England, but were not yet ready to declare war.

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Size: 4 7/8 x 49
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Colorado
Binder and Filler: Nicaraguan Corojo and Criollo
Strength: Medium
Price: Right around $6.00 a piece

Behind The Stick:

First and foremost I have to thank Jesus Fuego for sending me these pre-release samples of the Sangre De Toro – or Bulls Blood ( bitching name by the way ). I have only been able to browse a few places for the info about these cigars and was a little let down when I read on twitter that although the band carries this red lettering that perhaps someone mistook for ink, falling within the Bulls Blood name – the name is actually in reference to the wrapper. Just lie to us and say its about the blood haha!

I have been informed that these cigars should be out in April and are actually at a very reasonable price point of 5.75 to 7 bucks each. Enough with me rambling, onto the review!

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Happy St. Patrick day to you all!  Today I will review the Gurka Ninja XO.  Here are the stats:

Cigar: Gurkha Ninja XO (cost: $6.00)
Size: 6×60

Wrapper: Brazilian Maduro

Binder: Dominican
Filler:   Nicaraguan

Strength: Medium

This large, dark cigar has a very pleasant cold draw with notes of hay and coffee.  With the V-cut, I did loose part of the cap but it was not a total loss. 

The initial flavor is full of coffee and cocoa.  The draw is wide open and the hay is still present.  After about an inch, the ash fell off in my lap.  This is kind of disappointing for a large cigar.

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While the contest ended and I still don’t have the drawers and shelves in my possession, I couldn’t keep you guys waiting any longer! After gathering all the information from all 78 entries (nice!) there was one person who voted almost EVERY day. Not only did he get a good range of guesses in, but one of his guesses was within 12 cigars of my actual count! So without further ado, congratulations too…

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Ok, so it’s not exactly the perfect rhyme, but what do you care? You just want to win a Stinky ashtray! I don’t blame you either, they are one of the coolest and well designed cigar ashtrays on the market. Enough about that though, you know what a Stinky ashtray is, so let’s get down to the contest.

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Size: 5.25 × 52 (Belicoso)
Wrapper: Ecuador Sun Grown
Binder and Filler: Dominican Republic
Strength: Full
Price: Give or take $11.00 a piece

Behind The Stick:

When it comes to word of mouth I’m sure whenever people are chatting about smokes a ‘random’ – Hey, what cigar do you like? will come up and invariably there will be someone who says an Ashton VSG. Now, this could be because they have just been a ‘popular brand’ for years but from the research I have been able to find, ever since the late 1990′s early 2000 time frame, these things seem to have sprung up out of the wood work. I am going to give a bit of a spoiler but including the 4 I bought for this review (I have never had this size) I have never had a bad VSG so my expectations of a stellar delivery has already been set. From what I have been able to gather the VSG is blended specifically for Ashton by Carlos Fuente jr who is using 4-5 year old Dominican tobacco mixed with a privately grown wrapper from Ecuador (owned by the Oliva family) which has helped to bring this blend into one of the best smokes on the market.

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