The weekly special announced by JR Cigars this past Wednesday was for its custom made and designed Medal of Honor cigars.
I have enjoyed and even reviewed one size in this line, so I was surprised to see that they are being discontinued. I was not surprised, subsequently, to hear that there was a run on the weekly special and supplies were quickly exhausted. They were very smooth and tasty smokes, typical Villazon quality, big Honduran flavor. I’m glad I still have a few ferretted away in the humidor.
What interests me is that the replacement chosen by JR is an entry in their Library Editions series. I have always been curious about these cigars, but have never taken a chance on them. I have also been curious about the Flor de A. Allones cigar, a reportedly heavyweight smoke– also from Villazon– that I’ve been looking at and wondering about for a few months now. So I was happy to see that the Library Edition on sale is “The Old Man and the Sea,” the Flor de A. Allones selection. (And included with that is a free book called The Complete Guide to Habanos.)
Now what caught my attention is the size of the Flor de A. Allones in the Library Edition : 6.25 x 45. Glancing through the Villazon cigars in the JR Catalog, Excalibur, El Rey del Mundo, Punch, etc., I don’t see any cigars in that size. A few come close, but I didn’t see any that are exactly those proportions…
Except for ONE: the Medal of Honor cigars. Both “The Intellect” and “The Shadow Prince” are 6.25 x 45. And ALL of the Villazon entries in the Library Editions, Bolivar, Excalibur, El Rey del Mundo, etc., measure 6.25 x 45. Same cigar maker, same size… SAME CIGAR??
Eh… probably not. Looking at the composition, the Flor de A. Allones is not the same as the Medal of Honor Intellect. But the Punch entry, “The Prince” by Machiavelli, does appear to have the exact same composition and size as the Medal of Honor “Intellect.” But is it really the same cigar?
And the more important question: how much longer can Cigarfan fend off his weekend chores by pretending to be hard at work on the computer, cooking up purposeless and cockamamie theories about the marketing practices of cigar distributors?
Not much longer, I’m afraid. Just long enough to pull the trigger on that Allones deal. Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone.
Cigarfan.net 
I too was surprised that these were being discontinued. Unlike the St Dupont, the Medal of Honor was a nice mild flavorful smoke. I think the Medal of Honor’s downfall was its pricing point when compared to other cigars in its category. If it was at the WS price this whole time, they could’ve been a contender.