Camacho Triple Maduro

It was a warm Miami evening. Dinner had been an excellent Beef Bourguignon (the italics make it more french!) and I was now sitting in a poolside gazebo with a strong coffee, and an equally strong cigar.

First off, the Camacho Triple Maduro is a damned sexy cigar - from the dark maduro wrapper to a pretty impressive silver foil label. That comes at a price, though, at around 10-12 dollars apiece, this will never be an everyday cigar for me... though, admittedly, I don't think I'd want it to be.

Powerful. Crazy, crazy, strong and powerful is all that I can say about this cigar. I'd just finished dinner and it still hit me like a ton of bricks how strong this thing was, and on an empty stomach, it might have done me in.

Dont' get me wrong, it was great - it's on a short list of some of the strongest cigars I've ever encountered, and at the right time and place, it's a wonder. Assuming you have the palette for it (which is to say you have a thing for strong cigars in the first place) I definitely recommend picking one of these up for a try.

Take your time though - plan on at least 90 minutes - any faster and you're asking for trouble, as it will easily overpower you.

The draw was excellent, the ash held it's own, and... did I mention it was a powerful cigar?

The only thing holding back this cigar was that it was a little one sided - it as a heavy woodsy taste throughout, with notes of pepper getting more and more prominent as it went, but it was still pretty one sided - that's the only fault I can give.

This handsome, heavy-handed hunk of hurt hurtles home, HOFF in hand.


Camacho Triple Maduro
Size: Torpedo (6" x 54 ring)
Taste: Wild, Batshit Wild.
Draw: Great
Burn: Mostly Even
Flavors: Woody with peppery notes.
Overall Rating:

Camacho Coyolar Puro

This was supposed to be my birthday cigar back in January - First I couldn't find my cutter, then the cork broke in my favorite Scotch... then I couldn't find the lighter I'd had moments before... (Editor: Next time, take the hint. End it all.)

Suffice to say, I put this one away, and wrote off the evening, and went to bed.

This weekend, some nice mild weather inticed me to bring it back out.

I've heard gleaming reviews of the Coyolar Puros - it's an oft reccomended stick, and pretty highly rated across the board... so I was expecting a treat.

The cigar itself wasn't bad, but I think (hope) I got a lemon. Draw was good, but despite a perfect light, the burn turned out terrible in the end. I might have been able to salvage it with a few touch ups, but I was out on a walk and didn't really feel like heading back to the house for the lighter. (Editor: By "walk", of course, you mean, "cruising the boulevard for ladyboys." I assume.)

Incase anyone has ever wondered, this is a bad burn:




The extreme bias on the burn is what really makes me think (again, hope) this was a lemon - issues with half of the filler in the cigar could lead to something like this.

Truth be told, it wasn't a bad smoke, just a little disappointing. I came in with high hopes, and was let down somewhat.

First, for what's touted as one of the champs of full bodied cigars, I found it a little lacking. It was flavorful at first - a good punch of spice and pepper, but it quickly mellowed out into woody tones and just kind've seemed content to stay there. (Editor: There is a giant herd of deer across the road from me. Maybe 11 or 12. That's pretty cool. I wonder if- oh, sorry. Your mind-numbing prose caused me to lose focus. Please, continue.)

The price was in the $5-6 range, so it wasn't a huge investment - I hope to try one again some time and confirm that this was just an isolated incident. Until such a time, I'm going to have to give this sucker a 4.


And for now, you CAN put Baby in a corner.*


* - Yes, I made a Dirty Dancing reference. No, I'm not proud of it.

(Editor: :-( )
Camacho Coyolar Puro
Size: Torpedo (6" x 54 ring)
Taste: Wild (Allegedly)
Draw: Good
Burn: TERRIBLE
Flavors: Peppery, Mellows in the middle.
Overall Rating:

Tierra Del Sol (Maduro)

So... as I mentioned previously, it's damned cold in Ohio right now. Real cold. (Editor: Isn't that like saying it's wet in the sea?)

So when the opportunity arose to travel to a luxurious hotel in Charlotte (with a nice balcony) I lept at the chance. Ok, it wasn’t really an opportunity, but a work obligation, and it wasn’t luxurious, it was a regular old business class hotel, which happened to have a balcony.

The reality is that I packed these, got to Charlotte, and then proceeded to work several 17 hour days, all of which started at 4 or 5 am. (Editor: Hold on, I need a minute to dry my eyes from all the tears I am shedding for you.) By the time sunday night rolled around, I decided to take time to enjoy. It was cool, mid-40’s by the time I had this – with a pretty good wind whipping around. Thankfully that helped keep the cigar smoke from drifting back into the room, but made for some pretty terrible lighting conditions (matches only, thank you, TSA).

I had my v-cutter with me, so I figured I’d give it a shot – the torpedo made for a perfect cut, but also made for an absolutely horrible draw – I went with a regular cut and didn’t look back. (Editor: It's a good thing, too. Looking back would only show you the series of embarassing failures that have brought your life to the point it is at now.)
It was spicier than I expected at first – very peppery on the nose, but part of that could have been attributed to lighting the cigar with matches in the middle of a windstorm – pretty inconsistent, and I had to overheat a bit to get her going.

Quickly it mellowed out, to what I can only describe as an earthy, peaty charcoal. I really wish I had been able to pair this with an Islay Scotch, instead it was crappy hotel coffee, but it actually wasn’t bad – a fuller-bodied coffee would be perfectly at home with this cigar.

The only oddity I found was that it wound up being a lot milder than I expected for a Maduro – it had its moments, but overall it was right in the mild-to-medium range.

I picked up a bundle of these awhile back, kept a few in wrapper for travel, while unwrapping the rest – given my experience with this cigar, I’m really eager to see what these develop into with some aging and mellowing. (Editor: Just as you will find that as your friends age and mellow, they only hate you more and more.)

So far, I’m happy with the purchase, so happy, in fact, I’m giving it a Hogg.

Tierra Del Sol (Maduro)
Size: Torpedo Maduro (6.1" x 50 ring)
Taste: Medium-Mild
Draw: Excellent (with Guillotine Cut)
Burn: Ok (with poor lighting conditions)
Flavors: "Peppery, Earthy Charcoal"
Overall Rating: "Hoggin' it up and havin' a good time!"