Indholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2025 i Cigar Aficionado

“We always say that mezcal was first—the father of Tequila is mezcal,” says Samuel Polanco, our guide through Chablé Yucatán’s Tequila tasting experience. The Mayans fermented the juice of agave plants and Spaniards eventually distilled it to make mezcal. Tequila is a legally designated subset. In the glass-walled tasting room of the resort’s Ixi’im (“corn” in Mayan), Polanco pours Montelobos Mezcal Tobalá. The restaurant’s walls showcase Chablé’s private collection of 3,435 unique bottles. The oldest, Brindis por México by José Cuervo, dates to 1845. A sample of five Tequilas, paired with Mayan flavors, including citrus, corn, cacao and crushed pumpkin seeds, follows. Tequila tasting is only the start when experiencing the local culture at this luxury outpost on the Yucatán peninsula. Feeling a bit tipsy, you can proceed to dinner,…

The pantheon of great beef is generally long-established. Filet mignons, porterhouses, rib eyes and chateaubriands were discovered early and left little room for newcomers to the club. Then a relatively late arrival to the steak world combined tender juiciness and delectable flavor, while giving the wallet a bit of a break. The tri-tip steak is actually a subsection of the sirloin cut, a part that was traditionally relegated to use as hamburger before it found its calling in the 1950s by way of the Santa Maria barbecue style of California’s central coast. The cooking method, passed down from the Spanish ranchero culture, involves large chunks of beef over a pit of smoking red oak. It’s the steak lover’s barbecue, no pork or sloppy sauces—perfect for cooking tri-tip. Long a secret…

Days before the $15 million McLarens, Benzes and Ferraris would turn the Las Vegas Strip into a racetrack, Sin City bookies have already revved up. Engines are scrutinized, racers’ psyches analyzed, tire grips dissected. All in the name of creating odds for the upcoming Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix. The international racing circuit’s second Vegas stop in two years seems a symbiotic natural. Formula 1, while immensely popular around the world, is only lately making inroads into the United States. And what better place to promote a jet set sport to the country? Las Vegas is uniquely qualified to take advantage of the gambling it inspires. Working a global sport—24 races in 21 countries, ranging from Brazil to Monaco to Bahrain—some of the oddsmakers are predictably not in Vegas…

There’s a slight shuffle to José “Pepín” Garcia’s walk as he goes from table to table, inspecting the work of his congregation of cigar rollers. The room is vast with 600 employees in blue shirts concentrating on their labors, eyes down, doing things in the old Cuban way. Or at least, the old Cuban way according to Garcia, with some concessions for modernity here and there. He’s a throwback of sorts who grew up in Cuba’s cigar industry, making everything from Montecristo to Romeo y Julieta before bringing his Cubanesque style to Miami in 2003. Now, he’s 74 and the patriarch of a massive Nicaraguan operation that produces some 24 million handmade cigars annually, including the current Cigar of the Year: My Father The Judge Grand Robusto (98 points). A…

Big Smoke Meets WhiskyFest returned to Tampa, Florida, for the second year in a row, and it didn’t disappoint. The smoky celebration included a sold-out crowd of diehard aficionados who came to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino to enjoy cigars and exceptional whiskies with a lineup of all-star cigarmakers. As enthusiasts eagerly made their way into the event they were greeted by a shining sun, a light breeze and live music that streamed through the open doors of the resort’s pool area, which was reserved for the show. Inside the conference hall, the lively crowd roamed around with lit smokes, Cigar Aficionado tote bags full of cigars and drinks in-hand. Guests traveled from across the country to be in attendance, including some from as far as New Mexico…

If it seems that Churchills are getting more difficult to find, try looking for a double corona. The time commitment needed for one of these extra-long cigars is significant, as is the cost, but they can be particularly rewarding, especially if you find the Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series “A,” which is made in Nicaragua. Never mind that Padrón calls it an “A,” as this is a double corona by our parameters, and it’s a wonderful, complex journey of flavors full of signature Padrón character. The cigar scored 93 points, as did the Ramon Allones Gigantes, which is one of the last remaining double coronas that Cuba still produces. Neither one of these cigars is very easy to come by in retail shops, but if you happen to see a box…

You’re cruising in your F-14 Tomcat when you come upon a MIG-29. He breaks to lose you, but you counter with a barrel roll and lock him in. Most of us will never take the stick of an airplane, let alone engage with a bogey Top Gun style, but the latest flight simulators can make it seem like it. The state-of-the-art home option is the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. The software, which you can “fly” on a PC or an Xbox, starts at $60. But serious aviation fans and commercial trainees spend hundreds or thousands on advanced throttles and yokes to better replicate cockpit controls. Included are 65 to 130 aircraft choices, from single-engine propeller planes to seaplanes to private jets, fighter jets, military transports and commercial airliners. You can…

To golfers, the lures of Florida are many: the most courses of any U.S. state, summer weather practically year-round, miles of beaches, easy access by plane, great food and an unmatched cigar-friendliness. The hitch is that most of the best layouts are private, while the ones open to the public tend toward the flat and featureless (unless you count fountains and screened-in pools as key golf course features). But the good news is the recent and quiet explosion of high-quality Florida courses that you can play without membership, with more on the way. The current hotbed lacks a formal designation yet can best be described as West Central Florida, an inland semicircle encompassing the Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Clearwater metro areas. Within this arc are three high-end destination…

Travis Tritt COUNTRY MUSIC STAR Padrón Serie 1926 No. 9 Having smoked cigars for nearly half his life, Travis Tritt holds a steadfast position. The 62-year-old country music star, who has sold more than 30 million albums and won two Grammy Awards as well as several Country Music Association awards, says, “Life is too short for a bad Bourbon or a bad cigar.” He used to sample a host of brands, but he’s focused his cigar smoking on only one: Padrón. “They always have a good draw, they are always flavorful, right down to the very end. They are the most consistent cigars in the world,” he says. He discovered his favorite, the Padrón Serie 1926 No. 9 (a former Cigar of the Year), through reading about it in this…

The Padrón Black isn’t part of any anniversary series, but isn’t part of the core “brown label” either. It falls somewhere in between, and PB-97 topped this category at 93 points. While the sheer size of this Nicaraguan cigar can be intimidating—it’s a huge torpedo—the cigar has classic Padrón character, but enough style to distinguish itself from other lines. J.C. Newman continues to impress us with its Brick House brand, a line of cigars that performs way above its price tag. The Short Torpedo scored 92 points and is made in Nicaragua at the company’s PENSA factory. Cuba’s Diplomaticos No. 2 is a standard pirámides size and was meant to be a less-expensive surrogate for the better-known Montecristo No. 2. At 91 points, this cigar can stand on its own.…

When the Romeo y Julieta Línea de Oro was released, it was a Cuban cigar that was meant to be a super-premium version of the already premium core brand—a Grand Cru of sorts. The Hidalgos size certainly impressed us with a score of 93 points, the highest of this robusto tasting. With its ornate packaging and high price point, Habanos S.A. makes sure that we don’t forget Línea de Oro’s lofty position in the brand hierarchy, but the high score might make it worth the splurge. Significantly less expensive is the Don Pepin Garcia E.R.H., made by My Father Cigars. It scored 92 points and is a reblended version of the original El Rey de Los Habanos brand first made in Miami by Pepín Garcia. The Partagás Serie D No.…

It’s night two of the Las Vegas Big Smoke Weekend and a cigar lover is walking through the ballroom. He slows his pace, taking a second, then a third look at the tall, strongly built man with the big, bushy beard in a black jacket, a cigar held in his powerful right hand. “Hey,” the visitor says, “aren’t you…” The bearded man smiles back, gives a nod and extends a hand in a friendly gesture. “I’m Michael.” It’s Michael Cudlitz, veteran actor, occasional director, cigar-bar owner and an absolute lover of the leaf. He’s appeared in several memorable roles and, while his changing on-screen hairstyles offer him a bit of anonymity, he gets recognized often, if not always early. Tonight, with a curly, thick mane of gray hair, he looks not-quite-like…

The 17th annual ProCigar Festival brought together 500 cigar lovers from around the world to the Dominican Republic from February 16 to 21. It kicked off in La Romana on the south coast before moving inland to Santiago for three days of factory tours, field trips, seminars and gala dinners. At the Casa de Campo resort in La Romana, attendees had a session of night golf on the driving range at The Teeth of the Dog course with drinks and cigars; a day excursion to a nearby island in the Caribbean Sea; and a tour of one of the world’s largest cigar factories: Tabacalera de Garcia, best known for producing non-Cuban versions of brands such as Romeo y Julieta, Montecristo and H. Upmann. After two days there, the attendees boarded…

Three cigars scored 91 points and they are all quite different in style. Illusione Epernay has been stressing elegance over strength ever since the company released the brand in 2009. It was intended to be a more delicate, refined follow-up to the core Illusione line, and it fulfilled its mission here with L’Excellence, which is made in Honduras with Nicaraguan tobacco. The Liga Privada T52 Corona Doble from Drew Estate also debuted in 2009. It followed the No. 9 line but the story here is its wrapper, a leaf of American Habano grown in Connecticut. The Murciélago Churchill is made with a Mexican wrapper and a Nicaraguan blend. It comes from Espinosa Cigars, which has been using this particular wrapper and filler combination long before it became as popular as…

To be considered a grande by this magazine, the cigar has to have a minimum thickness of 60 ring gauge. There was a time where that was rare. Not anymore. And while grandes might be the bane of traditionalists, these hefty sizes have become a populist favorite, as our annual retailer surveys show that fat cigars are among some of the best-selling sizes. In this issue, two grandes scored 90 points, one made in the Dominican Republic and the other made in Nicaragua. Fuente’s Dominican Sungrown Rosado Magnum R is named for the reddish Ecuador Habano wrapper. Daniel Marshall is better known for his American-made humidors, but he’s in the cigar game as well, and his Gigante Box-Aged 1 Year is composed of Nicaraguan tobacco grown by the Plasencia family.…

In an unusual five-way tie, a quintet of toros scored 93 points. The Aging Room La Bohéme is a new Nicaraguan version of what used to be a Dominican brand. It’s now made by A.J. Fernandez and sold under the Aging Room umbrella. From Cuba, the Diplomaticos Genios is a Regional Edition cigar made exclusively for Habanos distributor Phoenicia Trading A.A. and the many countries it services, including Lebanon, Cyprus and the Middle East. Ferio Tego’s Timeless Supreme 650 is made in Nicaragua by the Plasencia family and features an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper. Nasser The Goat By A.J. Fernandez started as a retailer exclusive, but is now available nationwide, and the Rocky Patel Emerald has a bit of Honduran tobacco. Both are made in Nicaragua.…

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