Rocky Patel Renaissance Toro 6×52 (link)

I don’t post up a great deal of cigar reviews. In fact, have I ever? The Cigars & Smoke section of my site is rather dismal. Why? I don’t smoke as often as most regular cigar smokers. That would be my best guess. Cigars are expensive. Especially in California, with the outrageous cigar tax. I am a newb when it comes to cigars but I thought I would share a few notes on this particular stick and some future smokes ahead. Enjoy.

Cutting the end of my RP using a guillotine style cutter left the end nice and tight. I have never been able to properly use a punch style cutter. The cigar ends up looking like a badger went after its last meal. Complete user error. Using my triple flame lighter, the burning process went well. Very even light and the initial puffs were smooth. Breaking into the first inch of the cigar I picked up a strong mocha/coffee flavor. It just so happened I was drinking iced coffee at the time which paired extremely well at the start.

Somewhere around the middle section of the smoke I noticed the wrapper starting to come apart on me. Bummer. This medium to full bodied cigar was just settling in nicely and now I was spitting out bits of wrapper. Dammit. I had performed a great cut, so this time around I wasn’t to blame. Moving on. The mocha flavor was now complimented with hints of cinnamon and possibly nutmeg? I couldn’t quite get a grasp on the exact flavor that was coming across my palette. However, it was very pleasant and with a smooth draw, kept this cigar smoker happily puffing away.

Roughly 40-45 minutes later, I was getting into the final portion of the stick. I don’t often smoke cigars down the the nub. Why? I feel like most of the flavor of the cigar has been smoked out and all I taste is fire. The reason I light up is for flavor, not to just be smoking. If that was the case I would smoke disgusting cigarettes. Yuck. When the flavor is gone, I am gone. The RP did a good job of carrying its mocha flavor right up to the band. Thats a pretty good spot to aim for. The wrapper issue got worse and then stopped. I dealt with part of the leaf sticking out the back through half of the cigar. Not the end of the world but not something you want on a regular basis. I ended up removing the band and smoking the cigar down to around an inch left. More than my usual.

Overall, this medium flavored cigar lasted roughly one hour and smoked well throughout. I would smoke this stick again. It won’t make it to my must have list but its not something I would put anywhere near the bottom of the barrel. I don’t have an official 1-100 scale rating like the top cigar aficionados do, but if I did I would rank this stick somewhere around the 87-88 mark.

I paid $10.30 for this cigar at the Tobacco Barn.

Just a quick shout out to my friends at the Tobacco Barn. This is my local B&M. Where I go to hangout with the guys and enjoy a fine stick accompanied by great conversation. If you find yourself in Orange County, stop by the best cigar lounge in SoCal. (website)

In all my years of shooting others, I have never attempted to shoot a picture of myself. With my iPhone sure, but never in front of my lens solo. I decided to light up an Illusione Cruzado tonight and fire off a couple shots. They came out okay, my hat is a little more blown out than I would have liked but considering I setup in about 4 minutes and only fired off 10 snaps, they aren’t too bad.

People seem to love hearing how shots were taken so here goes. I didn’t have any black backdrop material handy, so I setup an old Chevy tonneau cover that is taking up space in my garage against the inside of my garage door. I used the black couch from Ikea that is in my garage to sit on. You don’t need to go out and buy stuff, you may have something that works perfectly fine at home! My Canon 1DS Mark II was fired using a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens from about 10 feet away on a set of Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod legs. To secure the camera I used my Really Right Stuff B57L: L-plate (which I swear by) and a Really Right Stuff BH-40 mid-size ballhead (which I also swear by). I setup one of my Alien Bees B400 strobes 7 feet up front the garage floor on a light stand firing down on my left side.

Shutter Speed: 1/200sec
Exposure Program: Manual
F-Stop: f/9
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 50.0 mm
Metering Mode: Evaluative
Focus: Manual. I pre-focused on a bike pump!
Edit: I did a slight sharpen and mild saturation fix to get the mood I wanted.

It was fun messing around, I may have to try it again sometime. My friend Jen said I look too thug in the photo. Thug life? I still prefer shooting others! Cheers!

Last weekend, AAA Tobacco Barn in Lake Forest held their Grand Opening of the My Father Cigars Lounge event. I had never been to an actual cigar event, this would be my first. After a busy morning on the bike, I made my way to see what it was all about. The shop was packed. The smoke was thick. Cigars and beers were flowing.

AAA TB is where I shop for my cigars. They’re local, have fair prices and the employees are very friendly. As I was learning more about cigars, they helped me and didn’t make me feel like a total newb. I am a total newb.

The place was pretty packed so I decided to snap a few photos with my Iphone4. The Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial Robusto has become my go-to cigar recently. It has a medium, bold flavor that is always consistent and smooth. The first person to great me as I walked in the door was Jaime Garcia himself. He presented himself just as I would imagine a family cigar owner, confident with a warm sort of “old friend” handshake and a welcome to the event. As I looked over the generous My Father Cigar choices, I was next greeted by Yuki, who I can assume is the local rep for the company. He was nice enough to walk me through all of the choices and explain the subtle differences in each smoke. Thanks Yuki for not making me feel like a newb. I picked out a few choices and decided to stick around for a while and smoke the My Father Lounge Exclusive cigar. If you want one, you have to visit the lounge, it’s the only place you can get it. It smoked much like the Reserva Especial with an added creaminess and a solid “wake up” punch at the start.

The event was catered with some choice Mexican flavors from the restaurant next door. Unfortunately, due to some health issues I have been dealing with lately I did not partake in the food or free beer. Sucks. Aside from the cigars, the Barn was also debuting the new lounge sponsored by My Father Cigars. As you walk into the shop, the entire front is now a huge humidor and just behind the cash register is a closed off tinted quiet room filled with lazy boy recliners and bar-height tables. The former lounge is still packed with lazy boys, big screen TVs, shuffle board, fridge, personal lockers and I think a cappuccino machine. To the left of the cash register, is the new pipe room followed by an entire room dedicated to a top of the line golf simulator. I gave it a go and quickly showed my lack of golf skills by chipping it into the water followed by the sand. I rule.

I spent about an hour mingling around the lounge, meeting some new people and running into a few familiar faces. The hour proved to be all that I could handle. The smoke was getting to me and once again confirming my newb status. Looking forward to the next event, maybe I will bring my actual camera next time. Thanks AAA, it was fun!

Sponsoring the new lounge will definitely bring lots of My Father choices to the barn.

You can see Larry opening the door to the new quiet room. It seemed to be a pretty big hit with the locals.

Jaime Garcia showing us all what’s up at the gold tee.

Enjoying a little break from his duties.

Yuki gave me this My Father La Reloba Sumatra as my freebie cigar for picking up a four pack. I smoked it yesterday while getting some sun. It was very creamy, medium body and had a sweet flavor towards the middle. I can see myself smoking this cigar again. (Its really amazing how well the Iphone4 can snap a photo with good light)