Does Size Affect A Cigar's Aging Process?

In the same way that it affects a cigar's flavor when it has just been rolled.

The key here is the number of leaves used in the blend, which affects a cigar's complexity. If you season a pasta sauce with salt and pepper only, you're not going to get a very complex sauce. But if you throw in some oregano, some basil and a couple bay leaves, now you've got several flavors working together.

It's the same with cigars. A thin cigar blended with only two filler leaves just isn't going to offer the depth of flavor of a cigar made with four or five leaves.

Aging a cigar brings out its essence. It allows the flavors of the blend to mature, mellow and marry with one another. So it follows that the thicker the cigar—the more leaves used—the greater the benefits of aging. While it's true that tobacco strength is also an important factor in a cigar's ability to age—a lonsdale made with hearty Cuban-seed filler, for example, will probably age better than a mild Churchill with a Connecticut shade wrapper—that doesn't alter that general rule that, within a given blend, a thicker cigar will usually age better than a thin one. That's why panatelas and petit coronas, even strong ones, are rarely set aside for extended aging.

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Valentine's Day Gifts For That Special Cigar Smoker

Do you have a cigar smoker for whom you need to buy a Valentine's Day gift? Here are some great Valentine's Day gift ideas for that aficionado in your life:

1. Get your cigar smoker some educational books for Valentine's Day. Enjoying a good cigar is much like enjoying a good glass of wine - it takes a bit of education to really taste the nuances in the cigar's flavor. Cigar books can be good reads and your cigar smoker will be pleased to open one on Valentine's Day.







2. Cigars are a great Valentine's Day gift! Pay attention to the type of cigar your lover normally smokes.Cigar smokers probably have already figured out what type of cigar they like. Try and snap a picture of your lover's normal cigar to bring with you to our store. We can help guide you to similar cigars. We have educated personnel to guide you in making the best choice for a Valentine's Gift for your cigar smoking loved one.

3. A good humidor is a great Valentine's Day gift for the cigar smoker. A good humidor will protect a good cigar by storing it in the correct humidity. Leaving cigars out in the air will dry them out and change the quality of the cigar. A good humidor should be lined with Spanish Cedar. Spanish Cedar is a wood that responds well to humidity which is the goal of a humidor - keeping the cigars within the right humidity for storage.




4. If your Valentine travels a lot, a smaller travel humidor is a great gift. A travel humidor will maintain the cigars at the right humidity when your someone special is on the road.







5. A good cigar cutter is a must to get a good smoke draw. Your Valentine will thank you for this gift. Sure, your cigar smoking Valentine may bite off the end of the cigar and spit it out but how gauche. Instead, invest in a good cigar cutter for a clean cut and the best smoke draw.



6. If you want to help your Valentine quit cigarette smoking, we have electronic cigarettes. There's even a fake little puff of smoke that comes out of the end when one puffs.

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Recommended Holiday Champagne And Cigar Pairings

1. Perrier Jouet Blanc de Blanc Flower Bottle ’99 paired with Arturo Fuente Opus X Perfecxion

Wine Spectator gave this fine champagne a 90 rating. Aromas of yogurt and yeast introduce the rich, powerful ’99 Perrier Jouet Blanc de Blanc Flower Bottle, a champagne with fine density and lovely texture. 

One of the rarest and highest rated brand in the world, OpusX has a world- renowned reputation for quality and class. It is full-bodied with a rich, robust flavor.  

2. Moet & Chandon Champagne Brut Rose Imperial paired with Padron Anniversary 1964 Series “A”

The most extrovert and seductive expression of the Moet & Chandon style. This champagne reflects the richness of the region’s best vineyards. Instantly seductive. Wine Spectator Rating: 91. 

A box-pressed cigar with a very even burn and a lush draw that saturates the entire palate with complex layers of spice, nut and wood flavors before a toasty finish.  

3. Bollinger Champagne Special Cuvee paired with Davidoff Zino Platinum Crown Series Rocket

The Bollinger style is always rich, with an intensity of flavor. Wine Enthusiast Rating: 94, Wine Spectator Rating: 93.

A thick torpedo that smokes well, forming a large, solid ash as it burns. It starts out papery but warms to show some nutty and savory notes. A light, mild- to medium-bodied cigar.  

4. Piper Heidsieck Champagne Brut ’98 paired with Montecristo White Churchill

Elegant vintage, classy and refined, with notes of tobacco and leather. The finish is light, with a hint of herbal tea. Wine Spectator Rating: 92. $59.99.

Creamy, mild and smooth, the Montecristo White is a favorite for aficionados who appreciate a complex smoke without an overwhelming amount of strength.

5. Domaine Carneros Brut Rose paired with Ashton Virgin Sun Grown Illusion

A top choice by Connoisseurs Guide, the NV Dom Carneros Brut Rose Cuvée de la Pompadour celebrates the life and times of Madame de Pompadour (the great courtesan and mistress of Louis XV) who is credited with introducing champagne to the court. 

A thin, pressed cigar that is dark and oily with a lush draw. The flavors are woody and toasty with some peppery notes, citrus zest and a coffee finish. 

6. Deutz Champagne Brut Classic paired with Macanudo 1968 Toro

The distinctive house style that has made Champagne Deutz one of the most respected of all Champagne houses, is reflected in this fine non-vintage champagne. Wine Enthusiast Rating: 93. 

A dark cigar with lots of cedar flavors. The Toro’s taste is complemented by significant notes of toast as well as black cherry. 

7. Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label paired with Rocky Patel Decade The Forty Six

Clicquot’s signature non-vintage Brut, loved for its crisp, full flavors, consistent quality and bright yellow label. It has a persistent sparkle and elegance. 

Short and box-pressed with even combustion and a full draw, this cigar is spicy and meaty with sweet, woody notes and a coffee bean finish. Medium bodied and well balanced.  

8. Chandon Spark Pinot Noir Brut Reserve paired with CAO LX2 Toro
Wine Enthusiast called this vintage “one of the best Chandon bubblies.” Rating: 93 

The Cao is a dark, solidly rolled cigar. The draw gives some resistance but, after savory first puffs, layers the palate with leather and coffee bean notes that usher in sweetness. 

www.palmdeserttobacco.com

Tips For Proper Humidor Etiquette

The temperature, humidity, air quality, and sanitary standards of our walk-in humidor must be perfectly kept to preserve cigars and protect you, our customers who smoke them. It takes effort from both you and our staff to maintain this integrity and quality in our humidor. To that end, humidor etiquette is important for all of us to know and observe. Humidor Etiquette is about doing unto others as you would have done unto you. The following are tips for great humidor etiquette:

NO SMOKE
The natural aromas of a walk-in-humidor are a subtle co-mingling of different tobaccos from all over the world. Part of the reason Tobacconists make their walk-ins accessible to customers is so that they can enjoy the smell of aging tobaccos. Lit tobaccos will overwhelm the natural aroma of a walk-in and excessive smoke can taint the flavor of the cigars. Not smoking in a walk-in is part courtesy to the next customer and a way to protect the cigars themselves.

TOUCHING CIGARS
Ultimately, the head of a cigar will enter your mouth, so cigars must be treated with the same care and respect as food. Maintaining clean hands when touching cigars is imperative. It is important for Tobacconists to have sanitary soap and hand sanitizer on hand for personal and customer use. In addition, when inspecting cigars you should only touch the foot and shaft area. Never touch the cigar above the band (head and shoulders) since someone will eventually put that cigar in their mouth.

SMELLING CIGARS
As consumers, we all have the right to smell the wrapper and foot of a cigar. In fact, that is part of the enjoyment of picking a great cigar. While smelling cigars can be part of the pre-selection process in a walk-in, it must be done in a sanitary and respectful way; as the nose contains germs and mucous that must be kept off cigars. If the cigar is wrapped in cellophane, push the cigar half-way out of the cellophane. Cellophane smells like cellophane so there is no point in sniffing it: when finished, you can push the cigar back in. Whether smelling just the wrapper or the foot of the cigar, always keep the cigar at least one inch from your nose and/or facial hair. One inch is close enough to sample the aroma of the tobacco yet far enough to minimize contamination.

SELECTING CIGARS
Now that we have covered the proper techniques to touch and smell cigars, we can address the more general process of picking one out. Some customers take the first cigar out from on top of a box, while others like to scrutinize every single cigar. To each his own method; there is no right or wrong. But, when pulling cigars out of a box, one must be very careful not to tear the wrapper or damage the head: in particular, the cigar foot is highly susceptible to damage. If you take cigars out of a box, lay them in a safe place and return them carefully when you have found your perfect cigar.

DAMAGED CIGARS 
One of the biggest economic challenges for retail Tobacconists with walk-in humidors is minimizing the amount damaged cigars: it is a massive expense unique to our business. While some cigars come damaged from the manufacturers/distributors, most damage occurs because of consumer mishandling. Retail Tobacconists absorb the cost of damaged cigars since they cannot be sold at standard retail margins. If you see damaged cigars in your retail Tobacconist’s walk-in, let them know: they will thank you for it.

RETURNING CIGARS
Sometimes you take a cigar all the way to the cash register and then decide that you don’t want it - that’s ok. As long as you're handling the cigar properly, you can return it to the walk-in. When returning a cigar to the humidor, it is always best to place it in the proper box with the head up and cigar band facing forward. This is called “facing” and retail Tobacconists do it every day to honor the brand, cigar maker, and our customers.

www.palmdeserttobacco.com

Cigar Review - Tatuaje TAA Exclusive By Pete Johnson

While some of the cigars made for the Tobacconists Association of America don’t get very much buzz, leave it to Pete Johnson to suddenly charge that. The Tatuaje TAA Exclusive is getting rave reviews nationally & is currently flying off our shelves.

The Tatuaje TAA Exclusive arrived at our store in mid-September, and our customer feedback on these fine cigars is already strong. The cigar is 5 5/8” long with a 54 ring gauge – it’s  box pressed and features a closed foot, with wrapper leaf covering the bottom of the cigar. The cigar is available in boxes of 20.

Review:

The pre-light aroma on this cigar is warm with spicy, meaty notes, and a bit of hickory wood in it. The cold draw was spot on, showing robust tobacco flavors and a bit of spice. 

The cigar is a beauty – a nice box press, dark brown wrapper with a bit of crystallization on it and the covered foot make it an eye-pleaser. The TAA logo on the band doesn’t do anything to detract from it either.

Once lit, there’s a good amount of pepper out of the gate, with what toes the line of almost being a bit of a bitter, sour note. It’s  a nice strong beginning, similar to many Pepin made cigars with the pepper, spice and fuller body serving up the opening volley.

The smoke in the first third has both strength and smoothness to it – the palate isn’t overwhelmed by pepper, but rather dominated by a strong robust quality. There’s almost an anticipation for some huge spice blast that will just light up the palate, but short of the beginning, it doesn’t happen in the first third, though it starts to feel like it could kick up in the transition from first to second thirds.

Moving into the second third, there are some bigger notes of pepper and spice that come out and then retreat just a bit, which seems to be the protocol the rest of the way. The flavor and body never back off completely; instead they go through steady progressions of building up, dropping the RPMs down with a gear shift, then building back up, only to repeat.

The cigar closes with a strong yet smooth finish, easily cruising along in a higher gear that brings more tobacco flavors that are enhanced by a kick of pepper and spice.

If you’ve had the Tatuaje Black before, you’ll have a pretty good feel for what this cigar will deliver, though at times it seems to be both a bit stronger and a bit milder than the smaller ring gauges. The bigger ring gauge seems to afford it a bit more opportunity to develop its flavors, building and then backing off in fairly regular intervals.

The cigar is currently available only at TAA-member stores, including Palm Desert Tobacco. Our final verdict: A four-star cigar, we give it an easy 93 points out of 100.

760-340-1954

Rush Limbaugh's Cigar Recommendations

RUSH: "I smoke a variety of cigars.  If you've just recently started, it probably means you prefer a mild cigar. I'm just going to give you names, because I don't want to get into sizes. That's a personal preference. I'm just going to give you brands and you go pick out the size you want. Between these brands you will find quality that a new cigar smoker will thoroughly enjoy." ► Macanudo. It's very, very mild. (If you want something mild, you can't go wrong with it.) ► You also can't go wrong with Diamond Crown. They make some fabulous cigars. ►  Any cigar by Arturo Fuente is terrific. ►   La Gloria Cubana ►  Montecristo ►  Partagas No. 10 is a good cigar. (It's a little heavier than mild.) ► Ashton VSG, Virgin Sun Grown, any size. It's Dominican. ►  If you can find it in the Fuente line, find a Don Carlos. ►  Padròn from Nicaragua. They're fabulous cigars. They taste different than any other cigar I've ever had. Now, with Padrón you're dealing with Maduro cigars, really dark wrappers there and they can tend to be full-bodied, as it were. I don't want to say strong. I don't want to scare people away from them but everybody I've given a Padrón cigar to loves 'em. ►  La Flor Dominica Double Ligero - Chisel. Now, it is the strongest cigar I have ever smoked. Do you know how I use these? When I play in member guest golf tournaments I take these and I give these in a sign of friendship and sportsmanship to my opponents, and it loops 'em out. They get dizzy; they play horribly for two or three holes and sometimes that's all it takes. It's called a "chisel" because of the way it's rolled. It looks like a chisel at the end that you clip. It's made by Litto Gomez. He's a great guy. ► Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey. It's a great line of cigars out of Honduras. (Not to be confused with the brands of the same name put out by communist-controlled Habanos s.a. of Castro's Cuba.)

► The Opus X by Fuente.  It's tough to find, because the Opus X is a special cigar. It's the first cigar outside of Cuba [or as JFK pronounced it Cuber] where the wrapper, binder and filler are grown on the same plantation in the same country. The Fuentes have pulled it off, but they're very hard to find, and their distribution is -- I'm not sure what it is. If you can find one, good. Opus X is a great cigar ► The Ashton Cabinet selection is another great cigar. Okay, I have to stop somewhere. I can't keep mentioning brand names here. I'm going to confuse everybody -- and if you're just a beginner, I don't want to overwhelm you. Now, I know a lot of people in the cigar business. (I'm big in the cigar business.) These people love me and when I start giving brands, I invariably forget some and they're hurt. I get e-mails, "You left me out, doofus!" ~ Rush Limbaugh

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Cigar Sizes, Types & Smoking Times

One has to allow a considerable amount of time to smoke the Gigante, Immensa and Presidente – because, as their names might suggest, these cigars are large. They are the ideal cigars to smoke at a sporting event, or a lengthy social gathering. They are cigars to be savored; you wouldn't want to light one of these immediately after a meal at your favorite restaurant, for example. They can measure up to eight and a half inches long and last anything up to 90 minutes, and rarely last less than 60 minutes.

The Double (or doble) Corona is a little smaller measuring about seven and a half inches in length and 8/10th Inch in gauge. You will find these cigars smoke from 45 to 60 minutes.

The Pyramid cigar is tapered with a large cone (about 8/10th of an inch) foot and 7/10th of an inch gauge at the head. It can be between 6 and 7 inches long and should last you in the region of 60 minutes, though some may only last 45.

The Churchill (or Julieta) Cigar is another large cigar measuring seven inches long and a gauge of about 3/4th inch, it will last for about as long as the Double Corona.

The Lonsdale is very uniformly shaped cigar, about 6 inches long and 7/10th of an inch in gauge. It is roughly the same length of a Corona Grandes which can be about half-an-inch longer. These cigars are a medium length smoke, lasting around 45 minutes.

The Belicoso is a slightly more unusual with a pointed cone-shaped head. Like the Lonsdale it is normally 6 inches long. It has a gauge of three quarters of an inch. Expect it to last for abound 40 minutes.

You will find the Pantela and the Toro cigars to be about the same length as the Lonsdale and Belicoso. The Pantela has a smaller gauge – around half an inch. It smokes for around 35 minutes, but can, in some cases, go for a further 10 minutes if you really want to savour the flavor.

The Corona Royale is about 7/10th of an inch and just under six inches long, it will last you anything up to 40 minutes. It is also known as the Corona Extra. The standard Corona cigar is about ¼ of an inch smaller measuring about five and a half inches in length. It has the same gauge as the Royale and lasts between 30 and 45 minutes.

The Petite Belicoso forms the same shape as the standard Belicoso, but is a little smaller at five inches. Expect a shorter smoke.

The Petite Corona is, as you might imagine, a little smaller than the standard. It is between four and half and five inches long and its gauge is also a little thinner at a more modest 6/10th of an inch. It should give you a nice 25 minute smoke – excellent for after a meal, or with a coffee.

The Rothschild is also another short, but sweet, smoke; lasting you about 25 minutes (though it may burn for 40 if you get a slow-burner) It is about 4 and half inches long and has a ¾ inch gauge. The Robusto comes in with the same measurements and smoking times.

The Belvedere is a small cigar between three and five inches long. Like the Demitasse and the Ascot it will last about 15 to 20 minutes. An enjoyable smoke, ideal for those ‘in-between’ moments – or even to kill some time waiting for that bus!

www.palmdeserttobacco.com