Apr 30th 2012 - EP Carrillo Short Run 2011

Today I'm kicking off my CigarFest feature week. I'll be highlighting some of the brands I'm most excited to see at CigarFest this year. These are in no particular order. Today brings us the EP Carrillo Short Run 2011 Canonazos in a 5.8x52 vitola. Ernesto Perez-Carrillo is a legend in the cigar industry. After starting in Cuba the Ernesto and his family fled Cuba in the 1960's and set up in Miami and created El Credito Cigar Company which produced the still popular La Gloria Cubana Cigar line. In 2008 Ernesto left La Gloria Cubana and shortly there after started up the EPC Cigar Company with his son and daughter. Starting in 2010 they have been producing a yearly Short Run Cigar. It is featured in 3 vitolas and only 1500 boxes of each vitola was made. The 2011 features a Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper with Nicaraguan and Dominican long fillers. It has great elegant flavors of coffee, chocolate, tobacco, spice, roasted nuts and a very light pepper.

Apr 29th 2012 - Casa Fernandez Aganorsa Leaf

Today brings us the Casa Fernandez Aganorsa Leaf in a 5x52 Robusto vitola. Casa Fernandez comes to us from Tabaclera Tropical. They are based out of Esteli, Nicaragua for not only their headquarters but also their production. According to their website they use Cuban seeds to grow their tobaccos and follow the traditional Cuban methods for their cigar production. The Aganorsa is a Nicaraguan puro and features a 2006 Sun Grown Criollo wrapper. It's a very smooth cigar with flavor notes of pepper, cedar, coffee with a nice sweetness to it. I featured this today as a blind grab out of the humidor.

Apr 28th 2012 - Revisit Diesel Unholy Cocktail Aged 2 years

Today bring us a revisit of Wed Apr 25th's cigar. The Diesel Unholy Cocktail 5x56 vitola. This has been consistently for 2 years one of my favorite cigars. It comes wrapped in a Pennsylvania Broadleaf Maduro wrapper with a Nicaraguan binder and fillers. Wanted to revisit this today to give an updated review on what 2 years has done to this cigar. I feel like the tobaccos have really came together nicely. The pepper and spice has really died down in it but the oak and earth flavors have developed well and compliment each other nicely. There's still a nice sweetness to it and a slight spice that reminds you of what it's like fresh. This cigar really shows you what aging can do and how elegant it can make a cigar.

Apr 27th 2012 - CAO Criollo

Today brings us the CAO Criollo in a 6.1x52 Conquistador Torpedo vitola. The CAO Criollo comes wrapped in a 1998 Criollo wrapper that was grown from an experimental Cuban seed. It is a Nicaraguan Puro containing only Nicaraguan tobaccos in it's blend. It's a cigar that gives you waves of pepper and spice with a nice earth and creamy core to it. Wanted to feature this today to give a shout out to all the great cigar pics that are happening on instagram. Find and follow me, ENFIDL, and it'll be easy to find a lot of other great cigar peeps on there as well. Hope everybody has a great weekend!

Apr 26th 2012 - Hammer and Sickle Moscow City

Today brings us the Hammer and Sickle Moscow City in a 6x54 Toro vitola. The Moscow City is a limited production cigar that they brought out I believe in 2010. I'm finding some conflicting information on the blend. On the H&S site it says that it is a 100% Connecticut Broadleaf blend but everywhere else I'm reading that it has a Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper, with a Dominican binder and fillers from Nicaragua and the Dominican. Regardless of the blend it was done by legendary master blender Henke Kelner of Davidoff. That alone says how great of a cigar this is. It's a spicy, chocolately, peppery, earthty and woody cigar with coffee notes throughout. I chose this to be today's cigar because it was on this day in 1986 that the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster occurred.

Apr 25th 2012 - Diesel Unholy Cocktail

Today brings us the Diesel Unholy Cocktail in a 5x56 vitola. This is one of my hands down favorite cigars. It comes wrapped in a beautiful Pennsylvania Broadleaf Maduro wrapper with it's binder and fillers come from Nicragua. The UC is full bodied and has great balance and complexity. It is a leathery, peppery, earthy, chocolaty sweet and spicy cigar. Featuring this today as I was gifted a box of these by my awesome fiance 2 years ago and will be having one of the remaining 5 today and 1 each year on this day until they're gone.

Apr 24th 2012 - La Flor Dominicana Air Bender

Today brings us the La Flor Dominicana Air Bender in a 6.5x54 Chisel vitola. The chisel is a revolutionary design by the guys at LFD. It's a figuardo that is flattened and reminds me of a clarinet's mouthpiece. The Air Bender comes from the Dominican Republic with it's fillers and binder coming from there as well with an Ecuadorian wrapper. It has great flavors of dark chocolate, nuts, spice, pepper, earth and hints of leather. I chose this to be today's cigar as on this day in 1990 the Hubble Space Telescope was launched on the Shuttle Discovery. The Hubble revolutionized space research.