This cigar really has a fighting chance.

Valentino moved the cigar around the humidor, getting it out of the way as he organized and reorganized and fiddled around with his cigar collection.*

Sometimes it made its way into the travel humidor, but always also made the return trip, maybe returning to the same spot, maybe settling into a new neighborhood within this humidor:**

Tonight, I was wrapping Christmas presents during the few minutes before we left for Habanos to hang out with the fab Nathalie,*** I wasn't paying attention when he stuffed**** tonight's cigar options into the cigar caddy.

Hi Nathalie! Hi Will!

He started the night with this, which you already know I/we love:

He took one out of the box. Now it's not a full box.
Time to buy more!!

Then he said he wanted something different, so he took out this:

We shrugged and said, "Why not?"

My heart sank. I wanted something familiar and delicious, not the travel companion to so many other good cigars. That's what I thought. What I said was something along the lines of, "grrrsdcjflelfk."*****

But along with the first draw and puff came a cloud of smoky deliciousness. It was like Rudolph being laughed at and then saving the day. Sure, I scoffed at the little cigar that I thought couldn't, but I'm classy enough to admit my serious wrongness.

Mea culpa, and dudes, for realz. Here's what CI said, "This is the third blend from the Sam Leccia camp, and appropriately it was released on Cinco de Mayo, a nod to the fact that “luchador” means “wrestler” in Spanish. This is Sam Leccia Luchador, and it will hit your palate like a folding chair to the dome. So much complexity is packed into every cigar it’s almost unbelievable, but once you try one, you may find yourself chanting, "Lu-cha-dor....Lu-cha-dor."

According to the Leccia website, "The Luchador is an exotic 5 country cigar blend handcrafted in Nicaragua consisting of very unique tobaccos. A San Andres Wrapper leaf surrounds the habano binder leaf grown in Ecuador. The filler uses viso from Esteli, Nicaragua with ligero From Pennsylvania-USA and Jamastran, Honduras. Centering the blend is a distinctive tobacco from Ometepe, Nicaragua.

"The Luchador blend uses 3 tobaccos grown in Volcanic soil: the Ometepe, Habano and San Andres. The soil in these regions is so rich that little to no fertilization is necessary."

El Hombre - 5x54  (the man)   El Castigo - 6x60 (the punishment)    

El Guapo - 6x50 (handsome)    Loco Perfecto - 6x58 (crazy perfect)

So when Valentino first released the Kraken, "It was like smoking Nicaragua," he said. Some serious sweetness lasted the whole smoke, and some crazy spiciness jumped in and out of the ring.

We think this Leccia joined the household through a Cigar of the Month box of treats from CI. You know what this means...someone is going to have to buy some for Christmas.  Don't tell Valentino, okay?

In other news, thirteen days and one hour from the time I'm writing this until the VBT!!!




*Because come on--when you have close to 2,000 cigars, you've become a collector-smoker, not just a smoker.

**Obviously, not this one. Ours is super full.

***And to be honest, to check on Will...

****Read: lovingly placed

*****I'm not very good with the spoken word, obvs.