Pepin Event at Empire Cigars

Last Friday we had the privilege of having one of the most popular figures in the cigar industry at Empire Cigars – Don Pepin Garcia!

Pepin showed up promptly at 3pm and the festivities began with Empanadas and Mojitos.  Our pal Hal Rubin, the owner, also splurged on a few bottles of Zaya, a 12-year old rum from Trinidad which was absolutely fantastic.

Dave preparing for the fun

There were great promotions that night, discount on boxes of DPG cigars and a free 5-pack with every box purchase.  Box purchases earned a ticket for the raffle which included a few pipe and baseball cigars and a few ashtrays as well.

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Tabacos Baez by Don Pepin Monarca (AUG 2008)

Size:  6″ x 52

Vitola: Toro

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut

Origin: Nicaragua

This cigar is already available at my local, Empire Cigars (formerly Capital City Cigars).  I picked this up last night and couldn’t wait to smoke it.

The Tabacos Baez a new from the busiest man in the world, Don Pepin Garcia.  Named such as this is where DPG began rolling cigars when he was in Cuba.

First off, the band looks like it was designed by a 6^th grader.

The cigar however, has a beautiful reddish brown luster; it’s very oily and not nearly as veiny as other Pepin cigars.

I punched the cigar and it draws perfectly.  It starts out real smooth, tons of smoke, mild wood and hazelnuts with very little that tells you this is a Pepin smoke.  Personally this is a good thing, because it recently seems that all of his cigars taste the same.

An inch down, the cigar really picks up steam, gone is the mildness, as you get punched with a hefty amount of peppery spice.  Coffee shows up on the palate as well as a little bit of cocoa.

Wow!  This cigar just gets better and better!  A couple more inches down this hefty cigar I am greeted by waves of espresso and mocha.  Let me reiterate, this is NOT your typical DPG cigar.

My one complaint was that this cigar did not burn very evenly.  But it did not go out or require any touch ups.

What really impresses me most about this cigar is that it is ready to be smoked.  So many new cigars are so fresh (read ammonia) that you can’t really enjoy them as intended for months.  Empire Cigars just got these in last night!  Mr. Garcia treated this cigar right.  Bravo!

Here’s a bold statement – The Tabacos Baez is my favorite new cigar if the year (so far)!

Rating: 89 (B+)

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New Cigars Coming Out!

Here’s a collection of links to articles on new and upcoming ’08 releases! 

New Camacho Liberty 2008!

 

 

 

Reyes Family Cigars from the creators of Puros Indios and Cuba Aliados!

Rocky Patel Seasonal Cigars

 

   Alec Bradley Tempus!  – This has already         received a 90 from Cigar Aficionado.

 

New Don Pepin-made cigar from the guys who brought you the 601 Series (United Tobacco) called Cubao!

Another new Don Pepin-made cigar from Ashton called Benchmade!

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Tatuaje Regios (2006)

Size: 5.5″ x 50 

Vitola: Robusto 

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo ‘99 

Origin: Nicaragua

This Pepin-made cigar hails from Pete Johnson’s Brown Label Tatuaje line.  This robusto has been aging for exactly two years and just seemed to be calling out to me. 

“Smoke me… I’ve aged just right…”

And when a cigar talks, I listen (especially after that one time in the mountains…)

I punched this bad boy and fired it up.  Nice easy draw, salt and pepper ash and still after two years, a ton of up front spice that danced all along my tongue.  Pepper and tobacco with just a touch of anise mixed into an enjoyable start.  Almost immediately after the first half inch, the cigar changed on me.  I then picked up leather and oak, with a cinnamon-y finish.  And the finish, boy was it long…

The flavors above took me down to the halfway point, and then a smoky meatiness became present, very reminiscent to a burger right off the grill, loaded with lots of pepper.

I wasn’t sure how the Tatuaje’s would age, but I found myself pleasantly surprised that while some of the oomph factor mellowed a bit, the cigar was still rich and full-bodied.

If you like these cigars now folks, try them in a couple of years…  woo!

Rating: 91 (A-)

 

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Tatuaje Gran Cojonu (2006)

Size: 6.5″ x 60 

Vitola: Toro 

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo ‘99 

Origin: Nicaragua

The first time I smoked this cigar, it whooped my butt.  So I put its brother away for a couple of years to give it some time to mellow… and I’m glad it did.

This another powerhouse cigar from Don Pepin and Pete Johnson.  The cigar is unbabded, which is unique to the entire line.  It also has an unfinished foot, which really sets it apart from the rest of the line… for good reason.

The first inch or so was still balls-out strong.  Lots of pepper and leather, very Corojo-y.  But the nice surprise was as I smoked it down, around halfway, I started to get some rich dark chocolate and coffee notes.  The cigar took on a sweet woodiness that was also very enjoyable.  Don’t get me wrong, this was still a very strong cigar, but the near two years did a good deal to mellow some of the overt pepper and spice to allow some of the other flavors to come through.

What really amazed me was the construction.  For such a big cigar, it burned fairly straight.  It got off at the end, but I was still pretty impressed.  No surprise that there was a ton of smoke and an easy draw, luxuries a 60 ring gauge cigar affords you.

Grab two of these bad boys, one to kick your ass now, the other to enjoy in a year or so.  🙂

Rating: 90 (A-)

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