Where we'll be: Drew Estate Prohibition/Roaring '20s Party

On March 26 from 7-10 p.m., come to your favorite juice (and cigar) joint (Habanos Cigar Lounge, Pawtucket, RI) for a Drew Estate Roaring ‘20s/ Prohibition Party. The $40 cover charge will get you two “torches of freedom” (cigars), passed appetizers, and three beverages. Plus, the promise that this time is going to be the berries. Yep. That good.

 

Yay!  [source]

 

Grab your favorite gangster or moll, don your favorite sparkly flapper dress and cloche, dress up your striped suit with a new fedora. How you choose to salute the decade is up to you, but please come clad in your finest prohibition-era glad-rags. The best dressed guest will receive a box of Drew Estate cigars. If that’s not the bees’ knees, we don’t know what is.

Wahoo! [source]

At our speakeasy, we won’t be serving bathtub gin or hooch. Your three complimentary giggle juices have been created just for the shin-dig by some seriously knowledgeable cats—and cool cats at that. You’ll vote for your favorite and the creator will win a box of cigars. Use your cigar bands to note your choice—and expect to be bribed like a fed on Skid Road.

Hahahahaha [source]

Also, check out the hotsy-totsy barkeepers and waitresses, all decked out in their jazz-age finery, who will also vie for mazuma—this time a $25 gift certificate. You should, however, feel free to shower them with gifts throughout the evening.

 

I'll have a "soft drink" please. [source]

 

Event tickets are very limited. After all, we can’t let just anyone into the speakeasy and still keep it under wraps, lest the heavies shake us down.   Purchase your tickets at Habanos—and do it soon, before they tighten the screws.

[source]

Camp Kristoff, Part the First

Not too long ago,* Glen Case (Hi Glen!), the head-honcho of Kristoff Cigars, visited Habanos, one of our favorite hang-outs, a place in our own back yard...

You remember Glen, right? We first met him at Havana Cigar Lounge in West Warwick, RI.

Havana owner Todd LaScola, our hero, and Glen Case.

Well, one night we were shenaniganning** over at Broadway Cigars at a Montecristo event and then later rolled closer to home, into Habanos. And there was Glen Case! It was like we walked into our own back yard and happily found a cool kid from a neighboring neighborhood! Yay!

Unlike the first time we hung around with him, which was an actual Kristoff event, whereby he was required to be an adult in full-adult mode; this time he had the relaxation cranked up to 11.

After we settled in, giving out lots of "hello" kisses, Valentino lit one of these delights, which we'd previously purchased at that Havana event:

The 685 Woodlawn, on the right.
That's the star of this show.

Glen stopped mid-sentence and said, "Where did you get that cigar?"

Valentino took the cigar from his mouth and looked at it, just to remind himself which delicious stick consumed his senses. "At the event in West Warwick," he said, making his way to the bar with Glen and Jarrid Trudeau (Hi Jarrid!), a cool dude in his own right and Kristoff's Northeast rep, to sit with me.

"That's my favorite stick," Glen said. "I don't even have any of those in my humidor at home."

Now if you must know, I have some mad internet skillz.*** So when Glen reiterated the lack of 685s, I hauled out my laptop and began a search.

Pretend I'm currently searching and during the lull, we'll cut away to a montage of information about this cigar:

• The cigar's name comes from the house he grew up in. 685 Woodlawn in the suburbs of Chicago. See? That makes me love it already because you must know by now how much I love a good story. By the way, it's not the family homestead any more, but an ode to your first home? Awesomely cool. (As a side note, Mom and Dad? Don't plan on moving out of that house, especially to move to Florida, as all your peers have. Stay put.)
• A small batch released in April-ish 2013, only 2,000 boxes of 10 were made.
• The wrapper is from Brazil, binder from Nicaragua, and filler from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, and a super secret place--maybe Oz? Santa's workshop? Brigadoon****? 
• Comes in one size, the 6 1/2 x 60 perfecto--one of our favorite shapes!
• I love love love this cigar. (I seem to have a real fondness for small batches, as if the more I know I can't get it, the more I want it. But that's pretty much the way of life, right?)

Glen and Valentino***** whooping it up.
Actually, they were discussion serious life things
while I challenged the mighty internets to a duel.
I won.

So within moments, I found a few boxes of the 685 available for purchase and gave Glen and Jarrid the info. I guess if I were a really good person, I would have bought him a box, and a box for ourselves...but...no.  Of course I regret this now. Or I did! <--Blatant forshadowing.

That night Valentino smoked his one and only 685, filling my lungs with some serious sweetness with a background of pepper. Kind of like smelling and tasting the fruit pie Nana is making in the house while simultaneously inhaling the heavily-peppered steaks' smoke wafting from the neighbors' grill. If you could get both flavors in your face at the same time--the pepperiness, the fruitiness, and the creamy, buttery crust, you'd be experiencing the 685 Woodlawn.

The night over, we were left with some super fun memories of time with our Kristoff friends and the Kristoff cigars. Now the story should end there, but no, because there's another chapter to the story.

On our way to visit my son in West Virginia for the holidays, we accidentally drove by the most massive of cigar stores, Cigars International in Hamburg, PA. Come on, we were driving right by the exit. And we needed gas anyway...

Just a teeny tiny bit of the gigantean place!
Lousy picture by moi!

One of the first things we saw as we entered the store? (That foreshadowing comes into play now.) We saw this:

Oh my sweet darling...

We scooped these up and asked about more.  The very nice staff lady searched high and low, climbing ladders to look in way high cubbies and giving herself a headrush looking in the store's deep, dark crevices.  And know what? She found another box! That was some amazeballs customer service!  We took them and ran!

This isn't true. I held them close to myself, like a treasured Latin textbook****** and we slowly perused the entire store, twice.

We're heading home from our travels tomorrow and I hope on Tuesday we can do some more research with these, see if they will once again help me relive the long, slow, sunny days of a childhood summer--even if I am a grownup now (boo) and we've just entered a long winter (double boo). I may ask Valentino to bring two.





*Keeping in mind I have real issues with time passing quickly and not recognizing it.

**A real word in Penny World.

***Not nearly as good as my friend Shelagh, who could teach a master class, but still better than the average schmoe.

****One of my all-time favorite plays.

*****This picture is actually from later in the evening, when our hero had moved on to a different Kristoff cigar.

******I'm probably the only one who ever actually treasured a textbook, right? Especially a Latin one? Thought so. Just to let you know, I still have my high school Latin books.

In which we invest in The Banker

During one of the many Italian feasts this summer that must surely annoy the residents of Boston's Hanover and surrounding streets, Valentino traded one of his beloved Leaf by Oscar cigars (Hi Jim! Hi Oscar!) for a Banker by H. Upmann with the fab guys from Rolling Stogies.

You already know our love for the Leaf (and of the leaf, obviously, but that's a different thing) and Valentino has been spreading the word like it's his job. (Which it isn't. He just loves them. Me too, of course--otherwise I totally wouldn't write about them. I'd be all, "What? No. Never heard of them." But we all know that's not the case.*)

Anyway, that night, he received and lit up this:

 

Ooooh. That looks like a million bucks!

Then, not too long ago, we had the opportunity to meet up with Tom Borio (Hi Tom!) from Altadis. (Just so you know, Altadis is the company that owns a boatload of brands, including H. Upmann, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, and many more!) The Banker was coming to Habanos** and we were super excited, since we already knew much love existed between Valentino and his new discovery.***. He and Tom chatted for ages about all things cigar, and then Valentino suggestively sold (but not sold suggestively because that's something else entirely) them to all our pals.

 

Here's the thing about Valentino: He's very (very very very) persuasive. To quote my mom, "He could charm a hungry dog off a meat wagon." But he's also incredibly trustworthy and straightforward, so if he says, "You have to try this cigar," chances are, you're going to like it. And he really did like The Banker.

 

The cigar is composed of a dark Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder from the Jalapa region, and aged Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers.

 

Keep in mind, when we first encountered the classiness that is The Banker, we were surrounded by all the smells (pleasant and otherwise) that are part of a massive festival in the middle of Boston, so I took Valentino's word that the cigar achieved purchase-level status.

 

Once we were in the confines of the cigar bar and I could fully enjoy the Currency size (48 x 5.5--also available are Arbitrage at 56 x 7 and Annuity at 52 x 6).

 

 

As I jumped into the wake of his first couple of exhales, I liked the combination of coffeeness (It's a word now. Quiet, you.) and chocolateyness (Shut. Up.) with a hint of pepper. I guess that would make it mocha (with pepper, ew), but each flavor alternated, weaving in and out of each's presence rather than blending together to make something completely new. Think of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup--You can taste both the PB and C separately, which is fab. So too The Banker.

 

Then he wandered around, chatting, charming dogs off meat wagons, whatever. When he returned, the cigar was very different. The coffee and chocolate were still there, as was the pepperiness, but all had settled into the background, with an earthiness, not the dirty-kind of earthiness (you know what I mean), moving up to the front. The original creaminess that accompanied the first moments had split for parts unknown, its place taken over by rich tobacco.

 

"I was thinking I should buy a box," he said.

"You should totally buy a box," said the enabler, er, me.

[source]

 

We decided it would serve as an everyday, hanging around kind of smoke, the answer to "What should I have?" as he stands in front of the humidor, its door wide open and lights on, not unlike standing in front of a full refrigerator, wondering if there's anything to eat.

 

As you have probably figured out by now, I love a good (or great) backstory. Here's The Banker's story, according to the Montecristo Social Club website: "German bankers Carl and Herman Upmann traveled to Cuba to craft an exceptionally unique cigar in 1844. They locked it in the vaults and gave it as a special gift to their most important clients." We all know that means richest, right? Apparently, the bank burned down in 1922, and after all this time, the folks at H. Upmann are finally able to bring back, not quite the original, but something very close, from what I understand. I mean, I read it on the internets, so it must be true, right?

"Bonjour."
[source]

 

*Someone has obviously had way too much caffeine today. 

**Actually, The Banker comes to Habanos frequently and we love him! Hi Brian! :)

***The love was, and remains, one-sided, obviously. 

She blinded me with science! Plus! Deep Dish (but not apple pie!!)

I like Super Dave* and Sarah, Queen of Science.** They are nice, kind, funny, thoughtful people we see on the weekends and sometimes during the week at one of our hangouts.

Dave reminds me a little bit of my boy, so I have a little special place in my heart for him. Sorry, Dave, but not enough that I'm going to sign you up for Cigar of the Month Club too. But so very very close!

Here's what Dave smokes: the Drew Estate Acid Deep Dish, which makes me think of apple pie, which makes me think happy thoughts** Unfortunately, it doesn't smell like apple pie.

[Valentino would like me to point out here--not in a sparkle at the bottom--that deep dish could also mean pizza.  I say, "Shhh. Stop talking," because deep dish pizza? Yuck. I do not like the pizza bones or the 72 cubic tons of cheese on my pizza. And sauce on top of the cheese? What the what? Just...no. So we're going to stick with this image:]

Not this. Boo. [source]

Luckily, I really like what the Deep Dish does smell like, which is fortunate, since I like sitting next to Dave and chatting. What's that? You want to know what it does smell like? Well, there's an underlying sweetness upon which rests hints of coffee and floral undertones. Mmmm. Almost as good as pie!

According to Stogiesontherocks.com, "What I love about these Acid cigars is the fact that they are indeed ‘real’ cigars. If you retrohale them you can pick up the typical flavors you would in a cigar. I was finding this very woody and earthy note on the retrohale that complimented the sweet candied flavor on the lips. It’s actually quite enjoyable. The retrohale wasn’t packed with spice causing my eyes to water. It was a nice full flavored rounded out smoke."

This cigar is lovely. Except it doesn't smell like pie. I call shenanigans!

Drew Estate creates this infused cigar in their Esteli, Nicaragua factory. According to CI, "The Deep Dish is a chunky, 58-ring box-pressed beauty that's been carefully influenced by Drew Estate's proprietary recipe of aromatic herbs and botanicals. The smoke is exceedingly rich in tobacco flavor, thanks to a generous dose of black Nicaraguan long-fillers inside a light, silky-smooth Sumatra wrapper leaf."

As the cigar takes about an hour to smoke, that means I get to enjoy Dave and Sarah's company for a while!

Of course, Sarah is going to be solely responsible for me becoming an alcoholic. Every time I see her, she's requesting another delicious drink that I just have to try and then order my own.  One time, she said we were going to have chocolate cake shots.

I like cake. No, I loooove cake. She had the lovely bartender line up shots of Frangelico, along with a lime and packet of sugar.

"There is no way this is going to taste like a chocolate cake," I said.

"It will! It's science!" she proclaimed. 

So I dipped the lime in the sugar and then sucked on it, keeping the sweet juice on my tongue while I shot the Frangelico. I know my face lit up. "It tastes like chocolate cake!" I said, probably way too loudly.

It's this...but in a shot glass!!! OMG! [source]

"It's science!" she repeated.

Doubting Valentino doubted and so we lined him up with his own. And blammo. "It tastes like chocolate cake," he acquiesced.

"Science!" we all cried! And then ordered another, because...of delicious reasons.



*

Not this Super Dave. And by the way, have you seen recent pictures of this Super Dave?
He went a little heavy on the plastic surgery and Botox. Yikes. ::shivers::

**Obvs, not their real names.

***Did you know the Shakers ate pie for breakfast? True story. Ask my BFF Jame Richards!

An Anatomy Lesson

Say you took a cigar apart--although the rest of us would be standing over you, saying, "What exactly do you think you're doing?" But anyway, say you had a cigar, and you decided to take it apart because you just HAD to see how it was made.

Let me just tell you, and that will keep us all from mourning the loss of a perfectly good cigar, okay? Okay!

[source]

Here's another view:

[source]

If you want to sound super fancy at your next cocktail party, you can let some of this info slip (as long as the group is talking about cigars; don't be socially awkward like me and just spit out random facts):

Wrappers determine a lot of the cigar's flavor and character and folks general describe the cigar by the color of the wrapper. One major MAJOR misconception about cigars is that the darker the cigar, the stronger the cigar. No, no, no. Don't judge the book by the cover. (Unless you're judging my books; they have great covers--they have great innerds.)

Binders are wrappers that are rejected because they just aren't good enough. Kind of like that cozy t-shirt you put on but then have to cover with a nicer shirt. Poor cozy t-shirt. Poor binder, the leaves of which are elasticy (elasticish?) because they need to hold everything (the filler) together. Like Spanx.*

Filler/Blend are the innerds that determine how strong the cigar will be. There's much more to it than this, but let's start with the basics, okay? (Remember: Cocktail party fodder for now.) When I was first learning about this, from the great Michael Herklotz of Nat Sherman, my head was spinning from all the info. (I swear it had nothing to do with the sangria.)

• Volado--Taken from the bottom of the plant, with minimum flavor
• Seco--Taken from the middle of the plant, with light flavor
• Ligero--Taken from the upper leaves exposed to the most sunlight, the fullest flavor and strength.

Stay tuned for more necessary filler info among other awesome stuff (not filler filler, although that is funny to say). Search the Cigars 101 tag if you're all about the learning.


*(For all the men who have unexpectedly encountered Spanx during activities and are shaking their heads: We're sorry, but sometimes we need to hold everything together, just like the binder contains the filler. it's not sexy, but necessary. Does that help ease the horror?)