Weekly Email – August 19th, 2015

Not only is the Trill by Villiger our Cigar of the Week, it’s also a new release… so of course we have other sizes available in addition to the 5″ x 50 Robusto featured above: a 6″ x 54 Toro and a 6¼” x 60 Gordo. This hearty blend responds differently in different sizes, so try them all!

Advance notice on an upcoming event: On Friday, the 11th of September, we’ll be hosting a Meet & Greet with Santana Diaz (seen at right in the photo above, with our buddy Erik Espinosa) the mastermind behind Flor de D’Crossier Cigars, makers of the outstanding new Selection 512 (you know, the tasty little devils in the black cans) with which we’ve all fallen in love. Mark your calendar, because it will be a great time and the savings will be fantastic!

Buying cigars on a budget can be difficult…any you’re likely to find in an affordable range are bound to be made using short-filler – chopped tobacco also referred to as “chop” or picadura, typically residue from the rolling of “premium” cigars, which are made with long-fillers (i.e., full-size tobacco leaves). Now, there’s nothing wrong with short-fill cigars; they can be every bit as flavorful as a premium cigar, though the consistency of the tobacco makes them tend to burn a bit hotter and more quickly than those made with long-fill.So, God bless Tom Lazuka and Christian Eiroa of Asylum Cigars for bringing us the Schizo, an excellent line of mixed-filler cigars made with delicious Nicaraguan tobaccos. (Mixed-fill is just what the name implies: a combination of full leaves and chop which burns more evenly than chop alone.) And their incredible price-point – in the neighborhood of $2 to $4 – makes it a fine cigar to enjoy when you have to pinch pennies (as your humble scribe can attest).

And now, for those of you with a taste for something richer, Asylum introduces the Schizo Maduro, a bold new blend utilizing a Mexican San Andrés wrapper and Honduran fillers, available at the same friendly price range.

A good cigar for less than $5?! Come down and show them who the Schizo reallyis!

Get them while you can. There aren’t many.

This week we’re bringing you another re-release of an old classic: Dunhill Ready Rubbed, a combination of flue-cured Virginia mixed with leaf sourced from Africa, Indonesia, and India.

Along the lines of last week’s selection (Cornell & Diehl Briar Fox), this is also a Virginia/Burley, but with a little more attitude. The tin note is reminiscent of old-style cigarette filler but more hay like. The blend description states that it is lightly topped, but I can’t detect any topping.

From first light to 1/3 of the way through the bowl, I’m enjoying a mild, slightly nutty smoke with ever-so-subtle bursts of sweetness in the background from the Virginias. At the 2/3 mark, each constituent leaf comes forward like a guitar solo, ultimately developing into a robust, medium-body smoke that had me picking up six or seven individual notes in the ever-developing flavor profile. I stepped outdoors for a moment and then came back inside so as to pick up the rather pleasant room note.

Billed as an aromatic, this ready-rubbed offering from Dunhill delivers the goods…not just for the bystanders but for the pipe smoker as well. This blend accepts the match well, and I smoked it down to a gray ash in a rusticated, straight stemmed Apple shape with few relights.

Five pipes on this re-release of Dunhill Ready Rubbed! Puff On!

“You leave me little notes on my pillow. I’ve told you 158 times, I can’t stand little notes on my pillow! Like this morning: ‘We’re all out of cornflakes. F.U.’ It took me three hours to figure out that ‘F.U.’ was Felix Unger!”