Tasting Week In Review

[El Presidente]

If I could summarise my week in emoji speak......

🛫🫂    🫂  🛬

What a great week! 

George (LizardGizmo) picked me up from JFK. 18hr Flight was good and I managed to get enough rest to punt me through the week with not too much jetlag. I sincerely appreciate the advice given on the long haul thread about abstinence from alcohol on planes. It was duly ignored. 

Qantas may be the safest airline on earth but it certainly isn't the best, let alone in the top 10. Between the lack of wifi and old planes, it struggles to compete these days with the best of the Middle East and Asian carriers. Still, their drinks menu is excellent and they have an enviable reputation of ignoring "responsible service of alcohol" laws once Australian airspace has been left. You might as well play to your strengths. 

Where was I? ......yes George!

I managed to clear immigration and collect my luggage through JFK International ....on a 4pm Friday afternoon.... in just under 25 minutes.  There was literally no one there.  Straight out to the pick up bay to be met by George and his pick up. God damn I love American cars. The second I saw it, I thought of the Canyonero song from the Simpsons. 

Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
smells like a steak and seats thirty-five. Canyonero! 

12 yards long, 2 lanes wide,
65 tons of American Pride!

Canyonero! 

Top of the line in utility sports,
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!

Canyonero! 

George was beaming and handed me a MOFOH Robusto Trinity for the trip to Hawthorn. There was no one at the airport because it was now obvious that they were all on the road. George proudly told me that his Canyonero was his smoking truck and that due to the hard internal  surfaces,  it retained minimal cigar aroma. Good people, the aroma was like walking in to a fully packed cigar lounge at 11PM on a Friday night. I loved it!!!!

Arrived at hotel (Hyatt Place Fair Lawn), dropped bags and George and I walked across to Prime steakhouse where Rob Fox was waiting for us smoking a Monte 2 and downing a beer. Mucho hugging and watery eyes. Hamlet joins us 30 minutes later. More hugging. George meets both for the first time. Off to dinner at Prime. Dinner was great, vibrant discussions, laughter, arguments, Hamlet ended up finishing his dinner at another table with some husband and wife.  George will never be the same again. 

George picks us up 10am. Coffee. Off to Ten 85 cigar club where George has arranged 24/7 fob access. lounge was obviously quiet and  I get to meet Dan (great guy). 

The tasting over the three days involved Hamlet, Rob Fox, Myself, George + at different times the LoungeLizard crew of Rooster, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder, Bam Bam and other Ten 86 members. 

Effectively the hours of work   were 10:30am - 3am.  One fine restaurant meal was enjoyed daily. No one was hurt. 

Tasting Cigar One : MOFOH Sovereign Son "Half Corona" 44 x 4 

Exactly what I wanted in a Half Corona. H. Upmann half Corona meets Montecristo Medio Corona in a Half Corona members can afford. Bloody brilliant. To be released in May 2025. final price point not determined (need to assess the Tariff of that week). However affordable. 

Result: ✅

Tasting Cigar Two:   Bond Roberts Mareva

Surprise packet of the three days for me as this is the first time I had tried it. Fast forward,  when I passed this around for a tasting (at different times over the weekend), my standard for all tasters was that this Mareva needed to be as good if not better than a Montecristo 4 and Por Larranaga Petit Corona. Unanimous feedback from all....it was superior. The Mareva will go into production next month. 

Result: ✅

Tasting Cigar Three: Bond Roberts Robusto 

So God damn close. Very different Robusto to the MOFOH Robusto Trinity. Far more nuanced and complex but the consensus was that while it was 85% there, it need a touch more mid palate spine.  Back for final reblending but this is expected to be a brilliant cigar when we take it out for another tasting circuit run. 

Result:  further

Tasting Cigar Four:  Bond Roberts Dalia 

The Dalia fought with the 109 and Fenomenos for the title of cigar of the tasting. 

Bloody stunning. Amazingly complex. Unanimously lauded. Straight into production now. 

Result: ✅

Tasting Cigar Five:    Reblend MOFOH Spada Gorda

I wanted to reblend the Spada Gorda to give an incremental increase in richness. Hamlet nailed the brief. 

Result:  ✅

Tasting Cigar Six through 10 :      MOFO Robusto Trinity Maduro. 

                                                         MOFOH Spada Gorda Maduro

                                                         DESNUDO Queen Corona Maduro 

                                                         DESNUDO Lancero Maduro

                                                         MOFOH Fat Fundy Maduro 

I will lump all these together. It quickly became apparent that this Maduro wrapper did not work with the existing blends at all. It was a long shot as we wanted to have a play with a good looking Maduro wrapper but it just wasn't ready or just wasn't right. This is why you do tastings 

Result:  ❌

 

Tasting Cigar 11:  Bond Roberts 109                   

While not a new blend, we brought these along so that the Ten 86/Lizard team would have the chance to smoke them before release later this month. Consensus is that what we have here is a world class cigar. We are in Winston territory.  

Result:   ✅             

Tasting Cigar 12:   Fenomenos   

Surprise packet of the weekend for me. This is a big cigar, 54 x 7 +. It was blended by Hamlet 8 months ago as a gift for Foxy, Rav's and myself. The blend was so good I knew we needed to bring it into production. I still don't know where it will fit but it will be in production this year. The level of complexity of this cigar (agreed by all) was sensational. Fights with the Dalia and the 109 as cigar of the tasting weekend. 

Result: ✅

Tasting Cigar 13:   Flying Pig    

This one split the tasting group down the middle. Half loved it where it is now but I was in the other half that believed a reblending for its opening was required. Hamlet and I argued. In the end I won.  Back for a reblend. 

Result:   further

We wrapped up on the Monday Night with Hamlet and I doing an onsight Lounge Lizard Podcast with the team. May the lord help George edit that gibberish. 

I can't hank George enough for his time, friendship and generosity. I extend that to the rest of the Ten 86 crew. You have something very special going on. 

And so, George dropped me back Tuesday at 1:30am for a 3:30 am driver pickup for a 6am flight to LAX.  I caught up with Larry (x2), Rob, Don, Jose at Redondo that night for a great laugh and fine cigars. Another great crew in the world of cigars. 

Wednesday was my final day in the US and it culminated in a long lunch with Mike (BigGuns), or 2024 FOH Man of The year. Off to Avra Beverly Hills we went which is becoming a tradition for our meetups. What a lunch! What post lunch fun at the local cigar lounge where we bumped into several members whom I joined later for drinks. 

Why don't I ever go home at a reasonable hour 

Thank you all for a superb week. 

 

 

....Loved the truck George! 

[mikejh]

This is a lot of information, thanks for the update.

[Lucas Buck]

Good stuff!

[riderpride]

Any chance of naming the Half Corona the 'Connoisseur Eh' for the short smoking time required in Northern winters?

Appreciate the report...and the Simpsons reference 😆 

Cheers

[SUP8333]

Can't wait for the new releases!

[LizardGizmo]

What a weekend! Our itinerary was jam-packed with intense cigar and flavor discussions, laughter and great food. I was feeling very fortunate to be welcomed into the process - and I was also trying to absorb as much of an education as I could. I loved being a fly on the wall for the "why" and "how" debates of updating certain cigar blends as @El Presidente, Rob Fox and Hamlet worked through their planned adjustments. The "we've nailed it!" moments were seemingly unanimous - as if everyone's eyes widened in unison, perfectly on cue. 

While I experienced it remotely on Zoom as we worked through on tasting panel in '23 + '24, the truthful conversation was refreshing. Hamlet took the brutal honesty like a champ, even when the cigars weren't performing as needed. For a master blender to subject himself to this level of criticism from close friends and strangers alike seems a bit masochistic - but it explains why these cigars are so good.

It must be noted that the consistency and construction of each of the cigars - even the ones where the blend isn't quite nailed yet - was impeccable. It's something that I've struggled to find almost anywhere other than in Padrón and Fabrica 5. Not a single cigar was a fight to smoke. The SEAL team F5 model is special.

I went home with a headache from laughing as hard as we did on Saturday night as Rob Fox poked and prodded Poobah through ridiculous stories from his youth. The entire lounge crew was in tears as we enjoyed various F5 prototypes, 2011 Vegas Robaina Clásicos and 2014 Punch Punch late into the night.

Brilliant lineup of cigars - the 109, Dalia, Fenomenos and Marevas were perfect and many others weren't far behind. Being welcomed as a participant was fantastic, but the education was even better. I think the podcast we recorded will convey that quite well.

A huge thank you to Rob, Rob and Hamlet for trusting and welcoming me in this process and for inviting my entire lizard crew and the Ten86 lounge members into the Fabrica 5 world for a weekend. We can't wait to do it again very soon 

I will have new t-shirts for the entire crew upon arrival:

[Wookie]

Great write-ups! I don’t know how your palates can discern subtleties after one or two smokes. Are you smoking the first 25% of each sample and then moving to the next. Taking adequate time between samples and some form of palate cleansing? Very curious. 

[LizardGizmo]

12 hours ago, Wookie said:

Great write-ups! I don’t know how your palates can discern subtleties after one or two smokes.  Are you smoking the first 25% of each sample and then moving to the next. Taking adequate time between samples and some form of palate cleansing? Very curious. 

Great question. The cigars Rob listed were smoked over 3 full days. Slow and steady, lots of breaks but we smoked them down to the last third at least - except where, in the first third, it was understood that the blend wasn’t right yet. I didn’t feel fatigued at all. In fact, after we finished recording the podcast late Monday night, I reached for a Trinity Robusto out of my bag as the final cap on an excellent weekend.

[El Presidente]

12 hours ago, Wookie said:

Great write-ups! I don’t know how your palates can discern subtleties after one or two smokes.  Are you smoking the first 25% of each sample and then moving to the next. Taking adequate time between samples and some form of palate cleansing? Very curious. 

Pleeeease.....we are professionals 

I think it is only the Maduro that we only smoked first third before removing the wrapper to ascertain it's affect. That was new to many of the tasters and eye-opening. 

Slow and steady. Meal breaks. Drink breaks. Never felt overstretched. 

 

[loose_axle]

Looking very much to the 109. 

Very excited by the sound of the Fenomenos!

[cnov]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, you've got a tough gig! Having a business where I could use the company card to fly all over the world to see my mates and taste cigars! That's a dream right there.

[CanuckSARTech]

On 5/4/2025 at 5:56 PM, El Presidente said:

Arrived at hotel (Hyatt Place Fair Lawn), dropped bags and George and I walked across to Prime steakhouse where Rob Fox was waiting for us smoking a Monte 2 and downing a beer. Mucho hugging and watery eyes. Hamlet joins us 30 minutes later. More hugging. George meets both for the first time. Off to dinner at Prime. Dinner was great, vibrant discussions, laughter, arguments, Hamlet ended up finishing his dinner at another table with some husband and wife.  George will never be the same again. 

George picks us up 10am. Coffee. Off to Ten 85 cigar club where George has arranged 24/7 fob access. lounge was obviously quiet and  I get to meet Dan (great guy). 

The tasting over the three days involved Hamlet, Rob Fox, Myself, George + at different times the LoungeLizard crew of Rooster, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder, Bam Bam and other Ten 86 members. 

Effectively the hours of work   were 10:30am - 3am.  One fine restaurant meal was enjoyed daily. No one was hurt. 

 

What a bunch of beautiful reprobates!!!!

So many good times.

Seems like a one hell of a good "bad" joke..."So an Aussie, an Irishman, and a Cuban-by-way-of-Florida walked into a bar..."

[BoliDan]

What a horrible job. I weep for you all. 🙃