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.

It is with great sadness that Keepers of the Flame notes the passing of cigar legend Stanford Newman. He was tireless and passionate about cigars and the cigar business, so it is no surprise that he was still at work in his office, at 90 years of age, when he suffered cardiac arrest. His work will live on.

The J.C. Newman Connoisseur Club

I had some idle time at work the other day and ran across an interesting old book: Tobacconist Advertising : A Collection of Selling Phrases, Descriptions, and Illustrated Advertisements as used by Successful Advertisers by William Borsodi. Published in 1910.

I could find few ads for anything other than Havanas, either imported or clear. Most of the ad copy was as cheesy as ad copy today, but there were a couple gems I’d like to share with you.

It’s no puzzle to pick out the man who smokes our special 5 cent cigar. Signs of nervous prostration are not depicted on his countenance, but rather self-satisfaction and content, for he knows a good thing when he sees it. Our Bachelor 5 center is all right every way; but if you like something even better, nothing can fill the bill better than our Lancaster at 10 cents. –J.E. Tyler & Co., Pueblo CO

The only name brand I recognized among the ads was Cuesta Rey. The rest:

• Kook’s Templar
• Taco
• Samuel Smiles
• Little Opera
• Uncle Oscar
• Turf
• Anna Held
• First Consul

Here’s a sentiment I can agree with. I have never cared for Sumatra/Indonesian wrappers, generally speaking. But evidently they’ve been using them for some time:

There’s many a bad cigar on the inside of a Sumatra wrapper. There’s many a good cigar that never saw a Sumatra wrapper. Sumatra wrappers cost a great deal–don’t add one iota to the smoking qualities of the cigar–simply make the cigar look pretty. –Shryock-Johnson Mfg. Co., St. Louis Mo.

And finally, a suggestion that I will bet a few people have tried. I haven’t yet used this method, but according to Herbert it’s the only way:

Ever smoke two cigars at one time? It’s the only way to judge cigars. Smoke one you know, and the one you want to compare with it, at the same time. That’s the way experts judge tobacco. –Herbert D. Shivers, Philadelphia PA

Now, if I could just find a couple five cent cigars to experiment with…

Opened up an H. Upmann Monarch tube (Dominican) yesterday and saw spots on my seegar. I thought for an instant…maybe it’s bloom. No such luck. It’s patchy, irregular, and to my eyes it looks furry. Bloom ain’t furry.

Luckily the mold wasn’t extensive. Even luckier, the Monarch was in a tightly sealed tube, so it didn’t have a chance to launch spores to other cigars in the humidor. Of course, if it hadn’t been in a tube I would have noticed it and not put it in my humidor in the first place.

I went searching for information about mold on cigars and found that there’s a fair amount of confusion as to what is mold and what is bloom. It is a frequently discussed topic on the cigar boards for a good reason.

The mold wiped off easily with a paper towel. Too easily, it seemed. And it left no marks, which I’ve read mold will do. Could it possibly be bloom?

I kinda doubt it. Bloom is crystalline, distributed more uniformly, and doesn’t wipe off easily. Mold it is, until someone can convince me otherwise. In any case I incinerated the evidence, so the decision will have to be rendered without the corpus delecti.

Vital stats on the Monarch:

7 x 46

Wrapper: Indonesian TBN Shade grown

Binder: Dominican

Filler: Dominican and Brazilian

The H. Upmann Dominican is supposedly the sixth best selling brand in the U.S. The largest market share (though not the largest hype) in the U.S. is held by mild smokes, and this one is no different. It starts out mild bodied and dry, develops some faint notes of wood, and finishes very slightly spicy. An understated but nice aroma. A grassy aftertaste. I thought I detected mushrooms at one point. Maybe that was the mold. Yum.

I’ve never been a great fan of Indonesian wrappers, and since I got this in a blind grab bag deal from JR (see the Salad Days post) I didn’t choose this cigar knowingly. Even so, I wasn’t too disappointed with this smoke. (I think that’s called “faint praise.”)

After the wreck and recovery of the Molly Aida, Fitzcarraldo (played by Klaus Kinski) sells back the ship and sends for a few items:

Paul, listen. You’ll travel to Manaus with all this money.

Bring me a tailcoat and the best cigar in the world.

And from the theater I want an armchair with red velvet upholstery.

I made a promise to a pig that loves Caruso very much.

–Werner Herzog

Klaus Kinski later appears with a giant floppy cigar, no band, puffing and smiling insanely.

A great film. See it, and then watch Burden of Dreams, a documentary by Les Blank about the making of Fitzcarraldo. The Criterion edition includes a short featuring Herzog eating his shoes (nicely boiled with some onions) after losing a bet that Errol Morris could not complete his wonderful Gates of Heaven.

My recollection is that the term “salad days” derives from the latin root sal, for salt. For the ancient Romans salt was a precious commodity, hence the connotation of “salad days” as a time of luxury, wealth and youth.

Today, however, Salad Day refers to the day I received my Chef’s Salad from JR Cigars. For the past few years JR has been offering a “Trick or Treat” special around Halloween, a mixed bag of premium smokes, plus a couple other cigar related goodies–hats, jackets, humidifying cards, etc.  There’s usually five or six primo cigars– JR Ult Cabinets and Trinidads have made an impression on my memory– and the rest are plain good premiums. No White Owls or nothin, but there’s always a few Don Diegos and Upmanns I’m not real crazy about. Seem to consist mainly of Altadis cigars.
Now JR is doing it again; the ad copy says they are trying to unload unpopular sizes that are piling up in the warehouse. And that appears to be the case. I received some sizes I can’t identify, even after looking through the catalogs. Here’s the rundown.

Don Diego (I told ya so) Robusto

Don Diego Royal Palms (tube 6.12 x 36)
Don Diego 6 x 36 I can’t identify. Let’s call it the “Unpopular Size”

Playboy Lonsdale

H. Upmann Monarch (tube 7 x 46)

H. Upmann Petite corona

H. Upmann Cristale (6.5 x 44  No. 43 maybe??)

Romeo y Julieta Petite Belicoso (something about putting petite next to belicoso makes me a little mad. Har har.) 

Romeo y Julieta  Bully

Romeo y Julieta Reserve Maduro No. 4 (5 x 44)

Astral Cameroon Beso (5 x 52)

El Rico Habano (maduro) Rico Club (5.5 x 54)

Excalibur 1066 Merlin 5.25 x 50 (GREAT cigar!)

La Gloria Cubana Churchill EMS

Montecristo White Toro (nice.)

Montecristo Platinum Petite No. 2 Torpedo (looks just like the petite belicoso, but it’s a torpedo. Righto.)

Royal Jamaica Gold Belicoso

Santa Damiana Tubulares Grande (A maduro– interesting.)

Juan Lopez Belicoso

Te Amo Figurado (tried a few Te Amos years back and No me gusta, y no mas, por favor but I guess I’ll have to give it another shot.)

PLUS A Colibri quantum lighter and 2 finger leather case

PLUS–and this seems to be a staple for JR, God knows why– a trial sample of Degree deodorant.

This sampling wasn’t quite as good as the Halloween issue, but all this, plus the lighter. for 50 bucks ain’t bad.  I’ll be posting my opinion of these and other fine cigars in the days to come…