Archive for the ‘Cohiba’ Category

The Hot New Cohiba Royale Cigars

Tuesday, May 12th, 2020

How to Spot a Fake Cuban Cigar

Thursday, April 2nd, 2020
We're here to help you tell the difference between a real Cuban Cigar and a fake one. Here are some tips and tricks to help you spot one from a mile away.

Our Holiday Herfers Sampler – A Wonderful Gift Idea!

Wednesday, December 19th, 2018
Released just in time for the upcoming holidays, our Holiday Herfers Sampler is filled to the brim with 15 premium cigars from some of the biggest names

Romeo y Julieta Cuban Review

Wednesday, July 11th, 2018

When it comes to the history of Cuban cigars, the name of Romeo & Juliet carries with it notions of quality, craftsmanship, and tradition.  It is regarded among Habanos cigar smokers worldwide as one of the finest cigars in production.  While the Cuban cigar version has always been in high demand due to its quality and status, its Dominican cigar version is amongst the most purchased cigars in the United States, available at cigar stores across the country.

The brand formerly began in Cuba in 1875 by two men, Inocencio Alvarez and Manin Garcia.  Even in its early years, this Cuban Cigar brand became highly respected and quite popular.  It was entered in tasting contests around the world and was awarded several gold medals for the best Cuban cigar.  They pay homage to the Dominican cigar today, with the medals present on the cigar band.

Since the turn of the century, the Romeo y Julieta brand is still seen as the first choice for a true Cuban cigar aficionado.  They were the favored cigars of the great Winston Churchill.  His endorsement of the cigar did so well for the brand, they eventually named a signature size after him, a size that is still their front mark – the Churchill.  This was a Cuban cigar for the boutique smoker, the luxury smoker, and the elegant smoker.

All seemed to be going well for the brand until, like many cigar manufacturers, political unrest forever changed its history.  Following the Cuban revolution and the nationalization of the cigar industry, the brand was moved to its current location in La Romana, Dominican Republic.  There, at the famed Tabacalera de Garcia factory, the ever-so-popular Dominican Romeo is produced.  It is without a doubt one of the most popular cigars on the American market and can be found in every brick and mortar store.  Cuba still maintains the rights to the Cuban cigar lines and continues to produce them to this day.  It still maintains its very established reputation with the Habanos cigar smokers around the world.

The difference between the Cuban and Dominican cigars that carry the Romeo name is simply location.  They are both high quality premium cigars that are popular amongst their respected demographics.  While the Cuban Cigar stores are not allowed in the US just yet, the Dominican Romeo Y Julieta can be purchased right here at JR Cigars.

Hear from our cigar aficionado and his break down the differences of the two types origins:

Browse a great range of Romeo y Julieta Cigars.

Cuban Cohiba Review

Wednesday, July 11th, 2018

When thinking of Cuban cigars, there is one name that pops into the head of all seasoned Habanos cigar smokers. That name is Cohiba Cigars.  For half a century they have been among the highest rated and most revered Cuban cigar brands on the market.  For being the most popular and well-known Cuban cigar in the world, Cohiba has a quite unique past.

Unlike other Cuban cigar brands such as Romeo y Julieta or Partagas, the start of the Cohiba brand was relatively late.  In fact, it is one of the first Cuban cigars created after the Cuban revolution.  A local cigar roller was crafting hand-rolled Cuban cigars in his house and selling them to Fidel Castro’s bodyguard.  One day he gave one of these premium Cuban cigars to Fidel, who instantly fell in love with the blend.  He turned this man’s house into the El Laguito Factory, where Cohiba Cuban Cigars are still made today.  For many years the Cohiba Cuban was made only for Fidel Castro and a few close friends who were also Habanos aficionados.

In 1968, the state sponsored Cubatobaco formerly launched the brand onto the world cigar market.   Cohiba comes from the ancient Taino word for tobacco.  These cigars were to be produced on a limited scale and to be of higher quality than any other Cuban cigar.  In the early 1980s, Cuba really made a push to make Cohiba a full production line, making it more readily available in the world’s Cuban cigar stores.

With Cohiba being completely under Cuban control with no immediate copyright or trademark problems, in 1978, the name was taken by General Cigar and registered for distribution in the United States.  Calling them the Red Dot Cohibas and using exclusively Dominican tobacco,  The Dominican Cohiba brand became immensely popular during the boom of the 1990s and remains a top of the line Dominican cigar even to this day.

The only real difference between the Cuban and Dominican Cohiba cigar is just where the tobacco is rolled.  They are both high quality, premium cigars.  If you live in the US, there are no Cuban Cigars near you, however, you can go to JR Cigars right now to enjoy the Dominican version of the legendary Cohiba Cigar.

Hear from our cigar aficionado and his break down the differences of the two types origins:

Browse a great range of Cohiba Cigars.

Macassar— A truly Different Type of Cohiba Cigar

Thursday, June 21st, 2018

General Cigar Company, one of the largest manufacturers of premium cigars in the world, and home to such famous brands as Macanudo, Partagas, Punch, and Hoyo de Monterrey, just to name a few, proudly introduces Cohiba Macassar, an ultra-premium masterpiece that draws its inspiration from the rare, hard to procure Indonesian ebony wood that bears the same name. General says that all the premium tobaccos featured in the Cohiba Macassar blend are proprietary to the company and have undergone an extensive aging process.

Macassar comes dressed in a Connecticut Havano wrapper that cloaks a Connecticut broadleaf binder and a combination of Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers that have been aged four years, except for the broadleaf binder, which was aged for six years. To complete this gourmet cigar recipe, the tobaccos spend their final year in fragrant rum barrels

The wrapper of Cohiba Macassar is also grown in a specific area of the fertile Connecticut River Valley, which imparts a unique spicy sweetness into the tobacco leaf. The wrapper leaves from this region then undergo additional sorting and grading to make sure that every leaf displays the perfect shade and even color before being selected for the blend.

Cohiba Macassar is available in three popular big ring sizes sizes: Toro Grande, at 6 inches by 52 ring Gigante, at 6 by 60, and Double Corona at 7.25 x 54. Each vitola ships in a stunning, 10-count box that’s crafted with layers of this fine Macassar Ebony wood.

The finished product is a medium body blend that displays a slow even burn and an effortless draw while providing the cigar aficionado with tantalizing flavors of wood, white pepper, cedar, and coffee, backed by a smoky vanilla sweetness imparted from the deeply fermented rum barrels

To assure that you won’t be deprived of this exceptional line of ultra-premium cigars, this is not a limited-edition release, but rather a regular-production addition to the renowned Cohiba brand portfolio. So, order yours today right here on the JR Cigar website and experience the amazing complexity and flavors of a truly different type of Cohiba cigar.

General Wins,Non-Smoking Doesn’t Pay and Bye Duke by Frank Seltzer

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

Cohiba is a name in cigars that is well known.  Like most Cuban brands the mark has two owners… the Cuban Cohiba and the Dominican version made by General Cigar since the early 1980s.  General Cigar trademarked the Cohiba name back in the 80s, but Cuba has been fighting that for the past 16 years.  Cuba has been losing the fight, but General Cigars has to keep defending itself.  The latest win for General was late last week when the US Trademark Trial and Appeals Board basically threw out Cuba’s claim with prejudice ( meaning they cannot refile).   According to the news release:

 

The TTAB ruled that because the federal courts have held that Cubatabaco may not sell Cohiba cigars in the U.S. or acquire any interest in the Cohiba mark, Cubatabaco lacks any property interest in the Cohiba mark.  Cubatabaco therefore has no standing to challenge General Cigar’s registrations of the Cohiba mark.

General Cigar’s President Dan Carr said, “This ruling once again affirms what we have believed all along: That Cubatabaco has no merit in challenging General Cigar’s ownership of the Cohiba trademark in the United States.”

 

 

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.

 

Ever wonder about the wisdom of banning smoking in casinos?  A couple of years ago, Atlantic City tried to outlaw smoking in all casinos. The ordinance lasted about a week and was immediately repealed after the casinos lost a ton of money.

But aren’t we always told that non smokers would flock to anyplace that banned the evil weed and the money would flow. (Restaurants, Bars, Casinos) I know this to be a crock.  Back in the 90s, I was working for Hollywood Casino which, at the time, owned the Sands Casino in Atlantic City.  As a forward-looking experiment, the Sands opened a second floor casino that was totally non-smoking.   Hollywood wanted to see if the whole non smoking thing was true. Alas it wasn’t.  We were shooting a video at the casino and were able to use the whole second floor as a studio because it was completely free of gamblers….nobody wanted to play there. The experiment did not last very long as the casino brought back smoking to the second floor and the gamblers returned.

Which brings us up to today.  Revel Atlantic City was supposed to be the dream casino.  Huge, on the beach it was an upscale place and it opened almost a year ago.  Oh and one more thing, it was sooo cool the owners decreed Revel would be SMOKE FREE.  No nasty smokers anywhere around the place so everyone could breathe easier and the gamblers would flock in. Not so much.  Revel is in bankruptcy court with  1.5 billion dollar debt.  So as the company works its way back out, one of the first thing it is doing is to open up smoking on the casino floor.

Guess those high end non smokers never came. They will keep trying though.

 

 

Bloomberg keeps on giving

 

When we reported on Bloomie’s latest stunt for putting cigarettes out of sight and setting up a new enforcement program two weeks ago, we seemed to have missed something.  Buried inside the legislation is a mandate that sets a minimum price for cigarettes and cigarillos of $10.50 per pack.  Hummm…wonder what that minimum pricing will do?  Oh yeah continue to have New York lead in counterfeit and bootlegged smokes  as we earlier reported NYC is already number 1 in that regard (about 61% of all sold cigarettes in New York are bootlegged or counterfeit), guess Bloomie wants to keep that record going.

 

 

Jay Z smokin

We already know cigars are popular with some musical artists.  As we reported back in February, Pete Johnson of Tatuaje fame went on the South American tour with the Jonas Brothers (all of whom are legal to smoke and happen to like cigars)  Pete’s job was to keep them supplied with their favorite Tats…smokes that is.  Well now comes word that Jay Z is going to step it up a bit.  The Rapper is going on tour this summer with Justin Timberlake and in the contract for the concerts is a rider specifying a gentleman’s club will be set up back stage….it will be a place where Jay Z’s personal cigar roller can work unimpeded.  Yup Jay Z will have his own roller. This according to the British tabloid the Sun

 

“Jay met this cigar expert at a friend’s private party recently. He had been hired to roll cigars for guests in a smoking room,” a source in the rap star’s camp told the tabloid. “They were chatting for ages about the origins of tobacco and all the different types and then Jay-Z offered to have him on board for the tour dates. It goes well with the nature of the tour where there’s going to be a lot of whiskey and cigars.”

 

And Justin Timberlake’s new single Suit & Tie which was done in collaboration with Jay Z  has a the video showing cigars and whiskey flowing freely.  Should be a fun tour.

 

Bye Duke

 

DukeYa know it sucks having older dogs and today our home is a lot emptier.  Last fall,  we had to put Jake down and Monday it was Duke.  It was a tough call on Duke because he had been frail and probably in some pain for a while, but when he didn’t want to go for a walk, we knew it was time.  We never knew just how old Duke was.

 

We got him in a rescue situation where a vet called us to say that he had been dropped off by his owners and since they were going on vacation they did not want to board him so they were asking for him to be put to sleep.  We immediately went up to that vet and picked Duke up and brought him home.  He was within an hour of being put down and that was 8 years ago.  He had bad hips ever since we got him but over the past few months they were getting worse.  He had trouble sometimes standing, yet other times when on a walk his tail wagged and he had a ball.  I hate judgement calls like this but I think he was trying to tell us, it was time– of course he always wanted to please.

 

He had a good life but still it does not make it any easier.  He was a great dog and I miss him.

 

 

Pro Cigar Underway by Frank Seltzer

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

 

Pro Cigar 2013

Well the big cigar party in the Dominican Republic is underway.  It began over the weekend in La Romana where participants came in to begin the week long smoke event and today will tour Tabacalera de Garcia—Altadis USA’s huge factory that makes Romeo y Julieta, Montecristo and others.

The annual festival, now in its 6th year, is a chance for cigar smokers to visit the factories, fields and generally hang out with some of your favorite cigar makers.

Pro Cigar is the Dominican group that represents all the major cigar manufacturers on the island. It works to promote the Dominican Republic as Cigar Country making the finest cigars in the world, as well as working on issues that would affect the business. I say all because just a week ago it was announced that Litto Gomez and Ernesto Perez Carrillo have joined the organization.

This means that the trade group represents Altadis USA with its above named brands and factory, General Cigar (maker of Macanudo, Cohiba and La Gloria Cubana among others), La Aurora (maker of La Aurora, Leon Jimenes and Guillermo Leon), MATASA (maker of the Quesada lines and Fonseca), Tabadom Holdings (maker of Davidoff, Zino and Avo), Tabacalera  A. Fuente y Cia (Fuente, Opus X),Tabaquisa (Juan Clemente), Corporacion Cigar Export ( Augusto Reyes) and now La Flor Dominicana and EPC Cigars.

The fun in Santiago kicks off tonight and then continues to build until the big gala dinner on Friday.  We’ll bring you further reports on this.

Diplomatic Help

No doubt Pro Cigar was a big factor in letters that were sent to the FDA, State Department and White House from the ambassadors of the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua warning about the damage to their respective economies should the FDA begin to regulate cigars.

The letter says

“If history is any precedent, some of the regulations that could be imposed by the agency would prove disastrous to the centuries old cigar industry that provides more than 350,000 jobs among our three nations, and represents millions of dollars in export revenue. No regulatory measure should threaten such jobs, and hence raise the specter of political and economic consequences within our region.”

Whether anyone at the FDA can read is another matter.

FDA Will Rule

It was the present delivered to anti tobacco advocates right before Christmas…the administration’s Unified Agenda and Regulatory Plan…it covered everything from workplace safety to you got it tobacco regulation.  On December 21, the FDA indicated it would issue rules by April subjecting additional tobacco products to its control.  According to Troutman Sanders law firm:

What is clear is that while the FDA has not issued a specific proposal to regulate cigars, pipe tobacco, electronic cigarettes or other tobacco products, it has indicated it intends to take some action. This proposed rule seems to lay the foundation for the FDA to take that action. What is also clear, is that the Obama Administration continues to place tobacco regulation as one of its priorities for the next four years.

And that could be a major problem for cigar makers.  Even Roll Call agrees that something is coming up soon.  But of course moronic democrats like California’s Henry Waxman are pushing the FDA hard on tobacco…including cigars because, you know, it is for the children.

 “I’m pleased to see the FDA has begun to enforce the law. I continue to call on them to take forceful action to protect the public health with the authority given to them,” Waxman said in a statement. “We need to take action to stop tobacco companies from exploiting loopholes and continuing to addict youth.”

Yeah like banning flavoring in tobacco except the most popular one…menthol cuz the President smokes that.  Right.  Hypocrite.

New Bill

IPCPR announced that on Friday the 15th, a new bill was introduced in Congress to protect premium cigars. There were 12 co-sponsors initially this time…

Reps. Bill Posey (R-FL) and Kathy Castor (D-FL) introduced H.R. 792, the ‘‘Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2013.” This legislation is a crucial step forward in protecting the premium cigar retail industry from undue regulation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) aiming “[t]o amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to clarify the Food and Drug Administration’s jurisdiction over certain tobacco products, and to protect jobs and small businesses involved in the sale, manufacturing and distribution of traditional and premium cigars”.

We had a lot of co-sponsors last time (221) but need more to get it through.  As Rocky Patel told me last weekend in Hawaii, after spending the week in Washington, because of some language changes, “I think we are going to get a lot of momentum.  We have not lost one congressman as sponsor from the last session and we are going to pick more up.  We are making a real push this year and want to get about 300 sponsors,  At that point we can attach to bill to a vehicle that will move through Congress.”

Let your voice be heard! Contact your legislator here and urge them to support H.R. 792!

Cohiba Extra Vigoroso

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

This is a first impression review that was given to me by Ed from St. Pete Cigar. While I normally smoke multiple samples before doing a review, this is an exception. And for the price of $15.00, I would expect consistency within the line. These are said to be full bodied and have complex flavors. As always, I paired with water and offer you my first impression of the Cohiba Extra Vigoroso.

 

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra

Binder: Connecticut

Filler: Nicaraguan & Piloto Cubano ligero

Size: 6 x 60

Price: Around $15.00

 

Pre-Smoke & Construction:

The wrapper was nice and dark, a little toothy, and overall very nice and rugged looking.  The scent coming off of the wrapper and foot was barnyard. Basically a mild shit (this sometimes can mean a nice smoke is in store, don’t be discouraged). When squeezing the cigar, there were a few hard spots, but nothing of concern. The pre-light draw was free, and had a woody, earthy, natural tobacco flavor.

The burn required a couple touch-up’s, and the ash held for just over an inch.

1_Cohiba Extra Vigoroso

Flavor:

The first third didn’t have a lot going on. The dominant flavor was wood with hints of earthiness. Through the nose, I got some peppery notes. It was simple, but not bad.

2_Cohiba Extra Vigoroso

The second third again had a dominant woody flavor. The smoke feel became smoother and creamier. The aftertaste became sweet and lingered for awhile. It left a tingle on the lips similar to cinnamon. At around the halfway point, the sweetness mingled with the woody notes quite nicely. The peppery spice didn’t go anywhere, and had a little punch.

3_Cohiba Extra Vigoroso

Like before, the last third kept the dominant woody flavor. The other things taking place around it is what kept my interest. The immense smoke volume, creaminess, cinnimony tingle, and sweet peppery spice made it all worth while. They sort of swirled around that core woodiness. The earthy notes became a distant memory. Basically, I wish the whole cigar could have been like this third.

4_Cohiba Extra Vigoroso

Conclusion:

This was a good medium to full bodied cigar. It started off kind of “Meh…” but built into full bodied goodness. The price is was will deter me from ever buying this cigar. If it were in the $8.00 range, sure I’d try more. But for $15.00, I have a hard time justifying it. If price is no object, I’d have to recommend this cigar. Thanks Ed for letting me try the Cohiba Extra Vigoroso!

Cohiba Red Dot

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Matt and I are back at The Stogie Review to try out the Cohiba. Thanks to The Cigar Nut for sending us these smokes to review. This review is posted here for archive purposes. Make sure to visit The Stogie Review now!

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