Reyes Family - Cienfuegos | The Velvet Cigar

Reyes Family – Cienfuegos

Posted By ironmeden on November 25, 2008

A few weeks ago I reviewed the Reyes Family Premier cigar. Though I thought it was a decent cigar, the construction of the cigar I smoked did give me concern.

My review was caught by Frank Santos from Reyes Family Cigars. He sent me an email apologizing for my experience with that cigar. He wanted to make it up to me by sending a small sampling of their lines of cigar. I got the package this week and gave half of the cigars to Elvis for review.

Now the Premier cigar I smoked wasn’t a bad cigar, I just didn’t think it had that quality of a $10 cigar. Remember we are in Minnesota where we live under the 70% tax rule.

Speaking of 70%, I have to get a soapbox now. With the election of Obama and the House and Senate dominated by Democrats, cigar smokers should brace themselves for some form of SCHIP passing early next year. President Bush vetoed the bill last session, but did extend the program under current funding until Spring of 2009. What kind of increase in taxes is yet to be determined, but my gut feeling is that Congress will try to pass the maximum tax they can get away with. It may not be $10 a stick, but I think it will be between $1 and $3 stick once it is finally passed and signed into legislation.

What will this mean for your local cigar shop? Well I know of one shop here in the cities that may see the writing on the wall and is calling it quits by the end of this year. Another shop is for sale and can be found available on Craig’s List. The bigger shops will probably absorb the increase, but it will possibly lead to a more limited cigar quantity of cigars on the shelves.

If people then are purchasing less cigars at shops then, they will certainly turn more to online retailers. I think the online retailers will always be around, but could they move their operations out of the states and to the Caribbean or Central America where they would not have to deal with the increase in taxes? Shipping costs will probably increase, but the cigars themselves may be cheaper and it could be a wash where your cigars and shipping will be the same price as you are paying now for your cigars.

Maybe we’ll be lucky and Obama and Congress will be educated over the next few months on how much a large tax increase will hurt the local shops as well as the employees overseas who grow and construct these fine cigars. I think mostly its up to us as a cigar smoker to contact your congressperson and let them know how you feel. This just isn’t about tobacco, though it is an easy target, but once they tax the hell out of cigars, they will move on to the next Sin they consider evil. It does have to stop here before it goes any further.

Cienfuegos – Blaze

Tonight I opened up my humidor and pulled out the Cienfuegos Blaze. This was part of my sampler from Reyes Family Cigars.

The Blaze measures 6 x 52. The wrapper is a Habano leaf and is medium brown in color. There are a few veins and a few of them have a noticeable crease to them. The veins were very light in color. The binder is Nicaraguan and is wrapped around Dominican filler.

The band is colorful with a caricature of a field of tobacco with their growers.

I clipped the head of the cigar and lit it with a table top lighter. My first impression of the cigar was a light woody flavor. The draw was good. It was light in aroma.

At the 1/4 point of the cigar it was still light and mild. The woody flavor was stronger. The cigar had a smooth taste, there was a very slight bitterness to the cigar but at times it was not noticable.

By the halfway point the cigar had smoothed out and was quite delicious. Though the flavor had not changed, the woody flavor was consistant. This cigar also engaged my saliva glands. Once a cigar touches off my saliva glands, I really start to enjoy the cigar.