Cuban sandwich it’s not just a great meal

So as of late I am sure some of you have seen the trend and term of the “Cuban Sandwich” and it is not referring to that delicious meal.
Cuban sandwich refers to the filler in the cigar that makes up its body. For years long filler has been the term associated with handmade cigars, and short fillers or chop/short fillers were use to produce machine made cigars or very cheap cigars.

Well it would seem as of late more and more cigar factories have been producing cigars coined with  the term “Cuban sandwich” which is the short filler leaves inside and the long filler leafs wrapped around the outside of them.

I myself am not a fan of this particular sandwich and would like to put myself on a diet and stay away from it, but it is becoming common now. A couple reasons I am not a fan of short fillers are that it makes a mess when you smoke them. The ash is flaky and has a tendency to fall all over you and whatever you have near you, your car, desk, chair est. another down side is that it will have hot spots and could canoe on you (canoeing is when the cigar burn up the side and not even to look like a canoe). No matter what they tell you a Cuban sandwich is no different than using chop fillers and short fillers. Just because you wrap long leaves around them, it will not change how they burn (my opinion). You can mask a fart, but it is still a fart!

  I am without proof, but I am sure that most of the factories are producing Cuban sandwich style cigars to save money, but I have to be honest when they start losing momentum as cigar enthusiast realize that their cigars are being made cheaply and the price tag has not gone down near enough to warrant this practice they will need to drop the price, smarten up and change their ways. I hope. 

 With the Cuban embargo in a fragile state and trade beginning to open up I would be maneuvering myself to making a quality product and establish consumer friendly cigars and relationships, because let’s face it when free trade with Cuba starts, Cuban cigars will flood the market and for however brief or long the competition will be fierce.
This entry is all my own opinion and supported by a few decades of smoking cigars, check into things for yourself try a few Cuban sandwich cigars and judge them against the long leaf fillers and come to your own conclusions. Feel different about it or agree with this entry, drop me a line at CigarAsh@yahoo.com or post here on the Cigar Stop blog, I welcome your thoughts.
Until next time …


 

Just relax

Sometimes you just need to relax

Hello B.O.T.L.

Did I mention I like cigars this week? 

Cigar Cutting 101 REVISITED:

First thing you do is cut the end of a cigar before you smoke it, but how and with what? This will be the Cigar Stops look at cutting cigars.

 I am sure at some point we have done a blog entry on cigar cutters, but I refresher is always nice, so here is a look at the most popular ways to cut a cigar.

·        The Punch – Punches a round hole in the end of the cigar.

The Punch

·        The Guillotine – Cuts off the entire end of the cigar.

The Guillotine

·        The V-notch – cuts a “V” shape in the end of the cigar.

The V-notch

 

As far as what one to use that is a matter of personal preference, here is the way I look at it. 

The punch

The punch can be used on all cigars except the torpedoes, belicoso and any other pyramid or pointy ended cigar. It works great and only takes a small circle of the end so you do not get any leaves from the cut while smoking. The Punch cutter I prefer to have one that has a plunger on the end so it can ejects the tip of the end of the cigar, so that people will not try and tap the blade end to clean the cut out and damage the blade.

The Guillotine

The Guillotine cutter cuts the entire end off the cigar and can be used on all cigars, the only problem I have had with it is that as you smoke your cigar you have a tendency to get some of the leaves or wrapper from the cut end to flake or dislodge, however it is infrequent. The Guillotine is used best with pointed end or pyramid shaped cigars like the torpedo. The best Guillotine in my opinion is a solid one that will stand up to the pressure of your fingers while still slicing straight through the end. Some of the dollar ones work for a bit then dulls or the finger holes break of and it renders the cutter useless.

The V-notch

The V-notch is a cutter that cuts a “V” shape into the end of the cigar and I think it gives you the best draw while keeping the integrity of the cigar end in tacked. It can be used on all cigar shapes and sizes. With the V-notch cutters you should try and stay away from the cheaper models due to the same thing as the Guillotine cutters, the plastic will break with uneven pressure and again when it breaks that is all she wrote they become useless.

 The only glitch with any of these 3 cutters is that if they get a nick or bent or dull in anyway the will just tear up the end of the cigar and it will inhibit your smoking pleasure.

 My favorite cutter is the V-notch I like keeping as much of the cigar intact as possible for a nice steady even draw. Give each one a try and see if you have a favorite, there are many, many different kinds of cutters shapes and sizes to choose from don’t get overwhelmed stick to one of the 3 here before you explore the others like the scissors, the shuriken and the large table top models.

the Scissors

shuriken

Hope this helps out

B.O.T.L.

~The cigar Stop Team~

2014 – Thanks for the fun

 

The Cigar Stop

Well it is coming to the end of the year and the cigar smoking season is coming to a close. Even though it is a year round thing we have no events till spring. There will be the occasional meeting in the “Cigar Garage” with partial membership, due to the fact our Dead Ringers Cigar Club members are spread out over a few east coast states.

 We had some great events as well as our usual Cigar club meetings. Here are some of the highlights of the season.

·        We gained 7 new members.

·        The “Backyard Burner Event” in Tewksbury at Smokehouse Brown’s to kick off the season

·        The “Memorial Day Cigar Event” to open the Smoking Troll Bar & Grill

·        We had “Cigarfest 2: Clash of the Stogies Event” at the Smoking Troll Bar & Grill

·        The “Cigars, Beers and Bratwursts Event” which was also held at the Smoking Troll Bar & Grill where we had a mini Beer-fest, a 10 Cigar Sampler Tasting and a Sausage-fest all rolled into one event.

·        The Thanksgiving Day Smoker at the “Giraffe” clubhouse

We have a couple of club meetings left this year, but no events planned. We are in the process of planning next year’s events already and I hope we have no less the turn out than we had this past year.

 As I said we are a year round hobby, but seeing as there are not very many places to smoke cigars indoors anymore we are limited to the spring, summer and fall months for cigar events.

 So thank you Dead Ringers Cigar Club Members, Blog Readers, The Cigar Stop team and Venders that have help make this 2014 a great cigar season.

I hope you will keep following the Cigar Stop blog; we have more reviews and cigar insights we would like to share with you all. We also hope to hear from our readers, let us know what your thoughts are on particular cigar or opinion on a review or give us your own review on a cigar.

 I have noticed a lot of internet activity for Europe and Eastern Europe and I know for a fact we have at least 2 Canadians out there… so let’s hear it from you our readers.

Hit that “FOLLOW” button

See you next time

B.O.T.L.

~CigarAsh~