Blog & Cigar News | Mardo Cigars

What's up everybody this is Neil and Gerard with mardocigars.com and you're watching Mondays with Mardo's.

Absolutely.

Have you ever smoked a cigar that was so good you didn't want to put it down, but by the time you were done with it, it absolutely put you on your butt? Well, we are going to get into that a little bit. We'll talk about it more in detail. I gotta of examples for you.

Me to. Okay guys so we've been in this industry for a couple of decades and we've experience quit a bit with cigars, going down there, blending things of that nature. So what we want to do is to share with you just our experience, our outlook on things. What we're going to talk about is full strength cigars.

Flavors

But before we get into that, number one we're gonna talk about, where do flavors come from? Right? It depends on the size of the cigar I think to me. As we talked about last episode we had the Lancero and then we had the Gordo. There's three parts of this cigar. You've got the wrapper, you got the binder and you have the filler, right? So depending on the ring gauge of the cigar, if you're gonna get, a cigar that's big in ring gauge you're gonna get more of the filler. To me, I like to use Google. What I usually do is when I smoke a cigar, like for instance the Hemingway, I know it's cameroon wrapper. When I smoke something else that tasks kind of like a cameroon, kind of ding, ding, ding rings a bell in my head, I got to Google, search about the cigar and I get all sorts of reviews.

You have half wheel, you got cigar coop, you got all these things. And I look at the blend and I'll see if it has a binder of a cameroon. I'm like ah, you know. That's the kind of flavor that I like. I like cameroon. That's how I find out flavors.

What's some of the type of flavors that you like and where do you look for flavors in a cigar?

Everything is subjective, obviously. This cigar I'm smoking right here. This is probably about a 50, 48, 50 ring gauge on this thing. You're smoking obviously something that about 56ish, something like that, probably.

Yeah, it's about a 56.

Yeah.

54, 56 ring gauge. It's gonna have a lot more filler than that one.

Right. You get in to learn about how this cigars are constructed really had began to teach me about the notes and the strengths of the cigar. First and foremost, the band. I mean excuse me, the wrapper on the cigar. You're gonna find out a heck of a lot more of the style of wrapper of flavors you're gonna get from it.

Now I like to use analogies because it allows me to wrap my brain around things. The first thing that comes to mind for me, is I love going to the movies. I don't know about you guys but I love them.

I do.

That being said, like Gerard was just mentioning there is a ton of critics out there that are movie critics. Now for me, I like to read my reviews prier to going to my movies and I try to find the critics that I know have my same style of movie. In so doing, when I read their reviews rather than somebody I don't even know about. No I can take that to the bank because I've learn the history of how they critic movies. Very similar similar into cigars. A lot of these brands, I can think of one comes to mind is Dapper. Talking to Ian Reathe about his blends and the flavor profiles of getting to know his cigars, I can understand his sort of thinking when he's talking about the specific notes and the characteristics of his Dapper sticks. That resonates with me.

Strength

Full strength cigars in relation to full bodied cigars, I've learn are vastly different.

Different, yeah. That's what we're gonna talk about next.

Right.

Is we're gonna talk about flavor, meaning full bodied and full strength meaning a lot of nicotine. How much is it gonna kick your butt?

Right. You're smoking a Casdagli right now.

Yes.

Which is full of flavor. Strength wise it's probably medium fullish, medium?

I would say right now, I'm not feeling very ... getting my ass kicked by it. This is Daughters of the Wind, it's got more filler in it. I'm kind of babying it a little bit. I would say this, strength wise medium. Flavor wise, full body. A lot of flavor, very complex.

That's the interesting thing which I had no idea about for the longest time. You can have a full flavor, full bodied cigar yet it's medium in strength. That's kind of like an oxymoron for the longest time. Now some of these blenders like an Hendrik Kelner as an example,

Junior.

Junior, has the ability to be able to blend some very unique cigars and put these blends together that will really, really knock you off your socks but it's not full body. That was something that was pretty amazing to me.

And not full strength.

Not full strength, excuse me.

See, even we get mixed up sometimes.

Right.

I mean, full body ... oh, wait, wait wait, which ones what?

That being said I remember shoot years ago when we started, we were heavily involved in Cubans for a long time. All we were smoking were Cubans back in the day and it was a lot of fun. I remember my first Cohiba Cuban Esplendido. It's a big old long sucker, what about seven inches, a little longer?

It's pretty big.

It's a big stick.

Yeah.

I remember smoking that thing, it was smooth as you could imagine. It was right up my alley, what I really like. Smoking that sucker, I'm drawing that thing down. I'm probably about half way but I'm taking really big drags, retro hailing through my nose, thinking that, wow this is full of flavor. I sat back for about five minutes, during the course of smoking this stick...

You got your ass kicked.

I was almost on the floor. I felt like I was green. I felt like I was nauseous. I felt like I was about to puke from the standpoint of all the different flavors because it was so full of flavor. Even though it was a medium body stick, medium, medium full body stick. Far from a real, real Maduro wrapper or something really spicy.

Peppery, really strong.

Peppery. Which my perception would be of a full bodied, full strength cigar. Nothing like that. To this day it's still one of my favorite cigars on the world.

And it's a very big cigar so ....

Long. Very long cigar.

if you're sitting there and you're sucking it down. Some guys smoke that thing for two hours.

We've been talking a lot about Opus X and that raisin type vibe.

Yeah.

Which has that sweetness...

Sugar ish...

But it's not over the top. Almost like a licorice raisin type flavor. It's really hard to put articulate words to the flavors of these sticks because they're so many different characteristics that make up these sticks. It's a lot of fun. It's a great, great challenge. It's really exciting trying to figure this stuff out.

Yeah it really is. For me, what I like to do is retro hale as much as I can. Then again, that why I get my ass kicked so much by cigars is because we have four different flavors in our mouth. We have sour, bitter, sweet and spicy. Within our nose you can smell a thousand different scents. That's why I like to retro hale to really get flavor of the cigar.

Anyway, what we're gonna talk about next is how to deal with full strength cigars, something that kicks my ass. We have learned a little tricks of the trade. We're gonna share that with you guys about how to do that.

Recently I watched a movie called Hand Rolled. I don't think a lot of you guys are very familiar with this movie. It was talking about the industry leaders like Nick Perdomo, Jose Padron. A lot of guys ... the Robaina family ... Alejandro Robaina is a legacy and all that stuff. These guys were about their first time they smoke a cigar, they nearly puked.

That's been my experience too. The first time I smoked a cigar, we're in the back yard, this was ... gosh I don't know I was 19 years old. I could not stand this thing. It was pretty nasty. I was like Dad, what are you enjoying in this cigar? He said hold up, hold your horses, kid. He went into the kitchen, he came out and had a tray of watermelon that was already cut up in the refrigerator. He said now for every time you take a drag and its nasty, take a bite of the watermelon. When I did that it really toned everything down. I took another drag of cigar, I was able to tolerate it. I was seeing what this was all about. Thus, began my journey of smoking cigars. When I smoke a cigar that I know is going to be full strength because it has a lot of ligero, it's a Maduro wrapper, it just looks stout. I'm gonna take a coca cola with me and have some sips of it. Therefore I'm going to be replacing the nicotine in my bloodstream with some sugar.

We're gonna get into some different styled cigars, different flavored cigars, full bodied cigars, full flavored cigars, full strength cigars. Gerard is going to go over a few of these in just a second.

Again, that's what a great thing about this industry is, is there's such a broad spectrum of of great blenders and great cigar companies out there. Some of them are very boutique which is hard to get on the mainstream, where some of these big conglomerates have been out there for a long time. When we get to know a specific blender that we begin to like, any time they come out with something new, you're pretty much running like when I new album comes out or a new movie comes out, you want to be first in line to get it because you're very familiar with their blending type. Some of these boutique companies are coming out with some amazing cigars and getting to know those small boutique companies have been something we've really been enjoying.

Tell them about a hand full of these sticks that also available all the time at mardoscigars.com.

One of the first cigars that comes to my mind is the Last Cowboy limited edition 2018. Now this cigar has been sitting for over a year.

Right.

This is a Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro ... with a bunch of different ligeros in the blend. It's a very big cigar. To me, I rate this as a full body and full strength cigar. Reason being, is that it is a lot of the ligeros so you're going to get a lot of flavors but since there's a lot of ligeros you're going to get a lot of strength out of it too.

Right.

It's going to have that pepper, it's going to have that spiciness in there. Its a lot of cigar too so it's going to take an hour to an hour and half every time.

Right.

That's a lot of smoking. That's why I'm going to say this is going to be full strength. Number three cigar of the year from Foundation, the Wiseman Maduro. Maduro wrapper, full strength, full body and that one also is on top of the list for me as a full strength, full body cigar. You got Dappers cigar, the El Borracho, they have it in natural and also in Maduro. It's going to be full body, full strength. A lot of My Father product is also full strength and full body. The list goes on. You like the more of the buttery, creamy type of cigar that have more of a medium strength. I want to hear not only from you but also want to hear from you guys in the comments of what is your favorite go to cigar and what do you golf, do you tinker around the tool shed, whatever it is. Let us hear about it.

Anybody out there that has a humidor of any kind I can only guarantee you guys have a wide variety of cigars in your humidor because you're not a one trick pony like us. We like to enjoy different type of cigars, find new stuff and every now and then, like this last cowboy, something will knock you off your socks that if I didn't have an open mind about it I might not have ever tried it. That's what we like to do, that's what I really like to enjoy is a wide variety of all these different tobaccos coming from different blenders and companies that keep us tuned in to find out what's coming out next cause you know a lot of stuff is. Casdagli, Hendrik Kelner Junior blends the heck of a good cigar.

This is Daughters of the Wind.

Daughters of the Wind, unbelievable stick. A lot of their blends are ... they do not skimp on quality if they're only going to be able to come out with a thousand sticks, that's all they're coming out with because they really, really put a lot of attention to the detail of the blending of that stick.

You like this full body, medium strength?

Medium, medium strength, full body, full flavor.

What else do you like?

The Dappper Cubo Claro, same type of situation. Also unbelievable flavor, not over the top, very complex, full flavor but medium stick. That's right up my ally. The Last Cowboy Limited Edition, as we talked about, that's something I'll definitely go to. There's some stuff coming out probably in the middle of September, hopefully if all goes well. It's the Jake Wyatt Madruo called the Herbert Spencer.

Yeah.

That's sucker right there, which again I'm more of a Connecticut kind of guy, sun grown Habano Rosado type wrapper. This is a San Andreas wrapper but the blend in this thing keeps the cream to it. It almost has a hint of that Cohiba Five Genio Is that what its called?

Maduro Five.

Madura Five. 

I'm telling you this thing is smooth as can be which is unlike a lot of Maduro sticks that are out there on the marketplace today which have a lot of strength, a lot of pepper, a lot of spice which I do enjoy some of those. This had the full body, full flavor but it's about medium full in regards to strength. Why I say this is I can take a big drag, I have the flavor from that San Adreas wrapper but the blend still has the complexity to have those smoothness and that creaminess coupled with that San Andreas wrapper, Oh, oh, oh, oh. It's an unbelievable stick. That's right up my ally. You guys definitely gotta try that one as well.

Lastly, one thing that's been one of my favorites ... obviously the Paul Garmarian the PG which is also blended by Henrik Kelner. That sucker is a medium full stick, full flavor throughout, that sucker right there is something to go to for me all the time. I always want it in my humidor. I always want it in my golf bag. I always want it everywhere I go cause it's something I can lean on.

Final Thoughts

I know precisely what I'm gonna get and I know you guys have you're go to sticks out there as well. Those are a hand full of sticks we like. Many of these are available on mardoscigars.com right now. Make sure you use your Mardo Money rewards. Thanks for tuning in everybody. Make sure to share this video. Make sure to like it, hit that bell so you can be notified on all our future videos coming out. This is Neil and Gerard signing out on Mondays with Mardo's and we'll see you guys next week.

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