halfwheel

Review: Four Kicks Mule Kick

By now the brand Crowned Heads and their Four Kicks line are a well known among boutique cigar lovers. However if you’re unfamiliar with them let’s take a look back at what Brooks had to say about them in his Four Kicks prerelease reviewlast year: In November of 2010, C.A.O. Director of Lifestyle Marketing Jon Huber decided to [...]

Redux: AVO Heritage Short Corona

Earlier this year, AVO released the latest size of its popular price-conscious Heritage line, the Short Corona. The 3 x 5/8 x 43 Parejo was just another in the growing portfolio of smaller sizes from Davidoff brands. Despite my overall appreciation for the line, I wasn’t terribly impressed with the Short Corona on its debut. [...]

Review: Don Carlos Edición de Aniversario 2007 Toro

In 2006, Prometheus started selling the first of many releases of the Don Carlos Edición de Aniversario, a cigar blended specifically to honor the 30th anniversary of the Don Carlos line of cigars. While it has many similarities to the Don Carlos blend, it supposedly uses the OpusX Rosado wrapper instead of the Cameroon wrapper used [...]

Review: Quesada Selección España Lancero (Prerelease)

Shortly after launching the Quesada Selección España, Terence Reilly, head of SAG Imports, the distribution arm of MATASA/Quesada, Casa Magna and now domestically Regius, received requests from a few people for a fourth vitola. One of those people was yours truly and the other one was Christian “Tank” Hutson of Just for Him in Springfield, [...]

Review: Angelenos Robusto Gordo JM

In October of 2011, Prometheus released a limited edition version of their Angelenos blend with part of the proceeds of each cigar going to the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center, which helps physically and emotionally battered children. The Angelenos Robusto Gordo JM was produced in conjunction with actor Joe Mantegna, who co-hosted the God of Fire charity dinner [...]

Review: La Aurora Preferidos Maduro Lancero (2012)

The La Aurora Preferidos Maduro Lancero up for review traces its roots back to a similar cigar made for W. Curtis Draper’s 123rd anniversary back in May 2010. That cigar caught the attention of David Mogilner, vice-president of Racine & Laramie in San Diego, who wanted to have some made for his store. According to [...]

Review: Arturo Fuente W. Curtis Draper 125th Anniversary

In early October, Washington, D.C. retailer W. Curtis Draper released the Arturo Fuente W. Curtis Draper 125th Anniversary, the third cigar in a four part series celebrating their 125th anniversary, joining the Cabaiguan WCD 120 REDUX from Pete Johnson’s Havana Cellars and the La Aurora 100 Años. The quartet will be rounded out by a 6 x [...]

Review: Iconic Leaf Recluse Toro (Prerelease)

Prior to IPCPR, William Cooper of Cigar Coop proclaimed, “(Iconic Leaf) is a company and a cigar you are going to hear a lot more of in 2012.” And he was right, for a few reasons. First and foremost, Iconic Leaf was a company that was relatively unheard of up until Coop’s post. Iconic Leaf [...]

Redux: Para Japón by La Aurora

Shortly after a massive 8.9–magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Japan in March 2011, a group of online cigar media were visiting La Aurora’s facilities in the Dominican Republic. In that group was Mario Takeyama of Cigar Explorer, who was born in Japan and felt the call to do something as an industry member to [...]

Review: La Gloria Cubana Gorda Gorda

With so many new cigars coming out in super sized ring gauges, it shouldn’t be a surprise that we see this new one coming from the General Cigar camp. While many cigar smokers I’ve talked to have expressed their love for smaller ring gauges and have said they think large ring gauge cigars are getting borderline [...]