Interview With Sinistro Cigars Owner- James
Posted by Leah Roberts on 3rd Apr 2019
Gerard: Hey, everybody. What's going on? This is Gerard with MardoCigars.com. Today I have here with me my personal friend and owner of Sinistro Cigars and also owner of Last Cowboy, James.
James, say hi to everybody.
James: How are you guys doing? Everybody, thank you for watching. Welcome to Mardo's YouTube channel.
Gerard: Today what we're gonna talk about a little bit, just gonna do a few minutes of their product. They come out with cigars called Sinistro, Mr. Red, Mr. Black, Mr. White. They also have the Habana Vieja, they have the Last Cowboy, and the Connecticut, and also a Maduro.
Gerard: Also, we're gonna talk about a new release they're gonna be coming out in the IPCPR trade show, which will debut then. That's gonna be late June, early July and we'll talk about that in a little bit. We'll also have coupon code that's special. It's running starting today to the end of the weekend, which will be Sunday.
Without further ado I'm gonna have James talk a little bit about the brand if you guys have any comments, please let us know. We'll answer them as accordingly as we can. Go ahead. It's not live.
James: Oh. It's not? Okay.
Gerard: No.
James: On the core line we have what we started with four years ago. We have the black, white, and red. This is the core line we came out with. The black is medium, the white is medium plus, and the red would be your full-bodied.
James: Now, these two I kind of think they have the same body somewhat in similarity and strength. And then, we brought out the HV. A little thing about each brand, I'll give you a quick line up.
James: This guy, we used a lot of different Nicaraguan tobacco. We used all for regions of Nicaragua to make this cigar.
Gerard: Even though it was made in the Dominican Republic?
James: It's made in the Dominican Republic, but everything's outsourced from country of origin from all our tobacco. Our Nicaraguan tobacco is from Nicaragua, not Nicaraguan seed grown in Ecuador or in Dominican Republic.
In this guy we have all four regions of Nicaragua. Now, we do have some Pennsylvania broadleaf and some Dominican Ligero in here. It's not a pure, but we have Nicaraguan Habana wrapper and a Nicaraguan Habana binder. It's just two different regions of Nicaragua. One's the wrapper, one's the binder.
And then, another two regions in the filler. And then, all our tobaccos aged five or six years before we put it together in the cigar. Everything's got a lot of age on it before it's even put together.
The Mr. White has a 10 year old HVA wrapper, which is the only one that's not outsourced from country of origin, because HVA's a region in Cuba and we can't use Cuban tobacco. That's a Cuban seed transplanted to the Dominican Republic and that's the wrapper on that guy.
Has a double binder and has about eight different kinds of tobacco from front to back. It's one of the most complex cigars I've ever smoked and it starts off, like the first quarter inch very spicy. You'll never get spicy again after that.
On this guy we were one of the first people to use Andullo tobacco. Andullo is a form of curing tobacco and we were one of the first people to use it in a cigar, because before we started using it there was no way of making the Andullo long filler.
We found a process of making it long filler, and so now we started using it and a lot of people started using it in their tobacco also and their cigars.
Next up in the line up is the Mr. Red. This guy's a San Andreas maduro wrapper. Got an Ecuadorian Sumatra binder, and then the filler on this guy we have pretty much the same filler on the Mr. Black. Except obviously we have a different binder on this guy.
And then, on the HV over here we have eight year old Nicaraguan Habana wrapper, then the wrapper we use on the Mr. White is the binder on the HV. We have a 10 year old binder and that's where the shaggy foot comes into play. You could taste the binder in the filler before you get to the actual wrapper.
And then, on this guy its got a lot of Nicaraguan tobacco and a lot of Nicaraguan Ligero from the Esteli and Jalapa. Not all four regions, but two of the regions. And, over on this end we got the Last Cowboy. Natural Maduro. Total different blends, they're not the same cigar with just different wrappers.
On this guy it's a Connecticut broadleaf Maduro, San Andreas binder, and we used a lot of Piloto Cubano Ligero for the filler. It's a creamy filler. On the natural it's a Connecticut from Connecticut. This is the youngest aged wrapper we use, which is only three years aged. Not five years like everything else.
On this guy we use some Peruvian Seco, which is kind of rare for a cigar. Each, the natural and the maduro come with the candella tip. Now, throughout the whole line we make a certain size called Scala, where we have one roller in the factory and we get them in quarterly-
Gerard: I'll hold this up closer to the camera, so you guys can see it as James describes it a little bit.
James: That's a grade A wrapper. We used to go around it. On the Last Cowboy it's a candella wrapper, on the HV it's a San Andreas, on the Mr. White it's a San Andreas, on the Mr. Black it's San Andreas, and on the Mr. Red it's the 10 year old HVA.
It's not a vein, it's not twine. It's grade A wrapper. We do that, so you can get a different flavor profile. It adds to the flavor.
You're talking about the cord that's wrapped around the cigar. Right?
Exactly. Yeah. Again, it's not twine, it's not a vein. It's a grade A wrapper. A wrapper is the most expensive thing you can use on a cigar and we didn't go cheap and use binder on that. So it wouldn't have any imperfections in the look we used grade A wrapper.
Like I said, it comes in everything we make except for the Last Cowboy natural and it's not gonna come in the Honor Among Thieves, once the Honor Among Thieves is ready to ship, which is gonna be probably mid July.
Luckily, Mardo does have a few more of these-
Gerard: We do have a few left-
James: Grab them while you can.
Gerard: Right.
James: Should I go through that blend or?
Gerard: Oh. Excuse me. You didn't go through the blend? Go ahead. Yes.
James: Okay. On the Honor Among Thieves, Cuba Maduro wrapper. We have four different kinds of Ligero inside and we Pennsylvania broadleaf in here.
Pretty much what we did, so we can get combustion out of this cigar, because it's very oily filler there is a little bit of Nicaraguan Seco layered between every one of the Ligero in the Pennsylvania broadleaf just for combustion.
When you smoke it you'll see it smokes perfectly fine, but it's very, very flavorful, very, very strong. Again, we only produce like 5000 cigars and it shipped a couple months ago. He's been hoarding them apparently, so they're on the website. I don't have anymore.
Gerard: Guys, the Honor Among Thieves prerelease is on our website at MardoCigars.com and for the remainder of the day, up until the end of the weekend just plug in the coupon code, all cap letters, S-I-N 20. SIN20 for your additional 20% discount.
Now, there's one thing I want to touch base on. Prior to this video, we did a Facebook live video and we were talking about the brand. The Mr. White is a cigar that is definitely not a mild cigar, it's more medium to full. We're talking about strength wise.
Now, all these cigars all full-body in flavor. When I describe a cigar and I say it's full-body I'm not talking about the strength I'm talking about the body of the cigar. Meaning, the amount of flavors in it.
It's not deluded. When you take a draw and you retrohale there's a lot of complex flavors, there's a lot of tingling going on. Therefore, the body of the cigar is full. That means there's a lot of flavors in it.
Now, the strength is something completely different. This cigar is a full-body cigar and I would say the strength is ... It's pretty up there. I mean, made me take a seat.
Now, I wasn't aware of this until you said it. That this is an HVA wrapper, which is a Cuban seed grown in the Dominican Republic.
James: Grown in the Dominican Republic. Yeah.
Gerard: Okay. In the Facebook Live video I said that when I smoked the cigar, first in the beginning the first few drags I noticed that this is a very Cuban-esque cigar. I don't know what that means to you guys, but I know means a whole lot to me and I stuck by it.
I'm like, it has a Cuban-esque burn to it. I stuck with it and now ... This was on the Facebook I've video and now that you just mentioned ... Unbeknownst to me that it's an HVA wrapper, well that's why it's Cuban-esque. Because, it's a Cuban seed grown in the Dominican Republic and that's why I noticed that Cuban-esque burn in it.
I'm not saying it's a Cuban cigar, but it had that burn and that's why I realized it. That's the way I am with cigars. A lot of times I notice similar either qualities, or burn, or flavors, or smokiness in a cigar that I noticed in other cigars. What I do is I get very intrigued by that and to me the research is the most fun.
When I research things and when one plus one equals two, it's always ... Make me realize that's why I felt the way I felt and that's why it tastes like this. Is because it is true to me. I'm not a cigar flavor profilist, but when I smoke something and I know it is what it is I'm pretty right on. Man.
But, man. That's why I felt that it had that Cuban-esque burn to it. Is because the wrapper is HVA. All right.
James: I hear that a lot too and I kind of ... I love to say it about my sticks too, but I like other people saying it about the sticks more than me saying it, because I don't want to seem redundant or biased about it. It's always good when I hear it from somebody else.
Gerard: Well, James. Thanks for coming in.
James: Thanks for having me.
Gerard: We're gonna head over to our shop and we got some more work to do. Other than that, please-
James: Big things coming.
Gerard: Yeah. Big things are coming. We're working together ... We're actually going to go ... We just were in the Dominican Republic the day after. We were there for five days and we did some work. James has been a great guide in helping us fulfill some of our dreams.
Fast forward 2019, at the end of February we will be there again for another five days doing some more work. Trying to see if we can make some more contacts. Other than that, please subscribe to our channel, Mardo Cigars and we'll keep the videos streaming. Thank you for your support.
Again, coupon code until the end of the weekend. SIN20. All cap letter. S-I-N 20. Get your deal on only Sinistro product for the weekend. Thanks, James for coming by, buddy.