2 Cigars A Month: A Cigar Review Blog

The Gurkha Titan is a great smoke. The draw is always perfect, and the construction top notch. It burned a bit uneven at the start, but tapped nice and even. One of the biggest selling point of this cigar, and a couple others are the packaging when you buy a box. This particular comes in a cool airplane aluminum metal. I cannot afford more than one at a time so my review will be limited to just the cigar itself. Which is what it should be anyways. The Titan uses aged tobaccos including a Costa Rican wrapper from 1996, a five-year old Nicaraguan binder, and a filler of five-year old Honduran, Dominican, and Colombian tobaccos. The Titan uses more ligero tobacco in the filler (tobacco comes from the top of the plant and is darker and more flavorful). It was a good smoke, but not the best I have had from Gurkha, and especially at $27.00 retail for each stick!!!

The Big Kuhuna was a Big Disappointment. Sir Wilfred had a great story of coming to the islands and starting up a business with cigars since the competition was absent. He had little success and added coffee to his business and that supported him. Unfortunately this Honduran filled and Connecticut wrapper bound cigar burned uneven, there was no pleasing taste, and the smoke was not even pleasant to look at.

Gurkha Shaggy. This cigar is just as good as I remembered it. The frist time that I smoked this was in San Diego. It was smooth, very flavorful, and a breeze to light. I can't get over how eventhough you have strong (flavorful) cigar, you can smoke it till your fingers get burned. I enjoyed this cigar on a bench in Marin, overlooking the Golden Gate. It was a great night, the cigar, the scencery, not being at work, hotel is all paid for...the only thing that could make this better is...another cigar.

La Flor Dominicana. This is my all time standby. I love the draw. Since it is a chisel the tappered end fits just right in the mouth. One would think that it would hinder the draw, but it does the opposite. One thing to note though is if you have a firm grip, it could get a bit sunken in where you are holding it. I usually rotate a cigar so that I am not holding the same place too long, but with a chisel you one get to turn it over. But that is a small price to pay for a cigar that cost $6.00 but smokes like a $15 cigar. The smoke is always great with this one. The flavor is just right for my pallet, but I guess too strong for some. Being "double ligero" means that you not only have one spine of the leaf in the cigar, but you have two. Coincidentally, Gurkha sells one with a triple! I dare not try that one. Enjoy, and if you smoke one of these beautys let me know and give a review.

Cigars come in many different shapes and sizes. The diameter of a cigar is measured in increments of 64ths on an inch which is termed its "ring gauge." Therefore a 44 gauge Corona is 44/64th inches in diameter. The change in your pocket (assuming you are in the United States) can be used as quick and dirty ring gauges.

44 Ring Gauge
Commonly used in:
Lonsdale
Long Corona
Corona
Petit Corona

46 Ring Gauge
Commonly used in:
Corona Extra
Grand Corona


48 Ring Gauge
Commonly used in:
Robusto
Toro
Churchill
Corona Extra

54 Ring Gauge
Commonly used in:
Robusto
Rochschild
Toro
Churchill
Double Corona
Giante

There are others. I have a couple 58-60 ringers in my humidor, but the above is just to get you up to speed with most of the more popular sizes.

Against better judgement I tried a new cigar that I had a funny feeling about. I am not usually right, but I like not to waste my rations. Gran Habano 3 Siglos is one of those cigar makers that tauts an expensive cigar in the hopes that one would be foolish enough to equate cost with quality. I was said fool this month. Visiting Sacramento for a conference, I stopped by a local cigar shop. You know, pay those ridiculous prices so that I could help out a local cigar retailer. Well the cigar turned out to be as much of a disappointment as the owner!!! This Honduran disaster was terrible from the first inch, to the last. (Actually, I did make the first inch the last. This is "loop hole" to the 2 a month edict.) The draw was tight, not due to it being moist, but because of poor construction. The ash was very dark almost as if the cigar was not aged well. Once again proving that price IS NOT AN INDICATOR FOR QUALITY. Lesson learned...again.

However, I did have a pleasant suprise as a fellow cigar brother came back from the mother land (Philippines) and got me a national delight. Don Juan Urquijo is a cigar that is totally made in the PI from PI leaves. My friend told me to be honest so I will not pull any punches. (I would apologise in advance but what do you expect from a Spurs fan...) Seriously, although the cigar was harsh from beginning to end, it did shock me that there was no accompanying after taste. The morning after was proof positive of the excellent balance of strength and smoothness. It was no Montecristo, or La Flor, but it is definately worth trying again. The draw was easy indicating that the construction was not bad at all. Ash was very dark, perhaps a bit on the wet side. But I could not really draw a taste from it. It was not earthy, or spicy at all. Definately no sweetness. It just seemed to lack flavor. If it would have been wrapped with a maduro leaf (meaning getting the leaf at a more of a "ripe" stage, this process matures all of the natural oils and sugars from the leaf), perhaps that sweetness would have made a nice balance to the strength of the cigar. Hopefully someone like Don Pepin, expert blender from Cuba, can explore possibilities there in the islands and take PI cigars to another level. Overall, I will give my people props for delivering.
So there it is. We close February and welcome March. (See bro, that review wasn't too bad huh?) Shortly after writing this I read a review that not only confirmed my experience but made me think if these cigars were babies? If you ever get a fresh cigar, fight all urges to smoke them right away. Cigars need to age to get all of the residual moisture out of the stems and veins and then undergo that fermentation process. This coupled with using Spanish Cedar will give the cigars that oaky, cedar smell and taste. So if my generous friend is out there, let these babies age for 4-5 months. And if I didn't burn any bridges, I hope to burn another cigar with you.