halfwheel

Review: Room101 Big Delicious (Prerelease)

In December 2012, halfwheel broke the story of a new cigar coming from Room101 and Smoke Inn, a project called “Big Delicious” that takes its name from Matt Booth’s nickname for Abe Dababneh, proprietor of the South Florida retailer. The new cigar, the six installment in Smoke Inn’s MicroBlend Series™, made its first public appearance on [...]

Review: Padilla Premier Cru Torpedo

Back in May of 2012, Ernesto Padilla decided to, for lack of a better term, “blow up” his entire cigar portfolio and begin again. Gone were such staples as 1932, Artemis, Dominus and Miami, replaced with two new blends out of Miami, Invictus and a Maduro line. Immediately after that, it was announced that Oliva Cigar Company [...]

Review: Chinnock Cellars Terroir (2012)

Following up on last year’s introduction of his limited release blend called the Terroir, Brian Chinnock of Chinnock Cellars Cigars unveiled the 2012 edition of the Terroir at the IPCPR convention and trade show in August. News of the cigar came out in late June, and you can read our story about it here. The 2012 edition [...]

Review: Guayacan Torpedo

One of the first-time exhibitors at the 2012 IPCPR trade show, Guayacan had impressed a colleague so much that he walked me straight over to it when he saw me on the trade floor. The cigars are the creation of Noel Rojas, who grew up in Cuba before coming to the United States about five [...]

Review: 3 Reynas Torpedo (Prerelease)

Officially debuted at IPCPR, the 3 Reynas is the latest cigar being distributed by SAG Imports, although the cigar itself is a collaboration between the Quesada and García families. Patrick has the full details of the cigar from his news story back in June: Following up on the news of Tres Reynas, a new collaborative project between [...]

Review: Rocky Patel Fifty Torpedo

At the IPCPR show in 2011, Rocky Patel showed off his most expensive cigar to date, the Rocky Patel Fifty. Produced to commemorate his fiftieth birthday, the Fiftys are rolled in Rocky’s new factory in Estelí, Nicaragua, Tabacalera Villa Cuba S.A., better known as TAVICUSA. The tobacco used in the Fifty release have been aged over eight [...]

Review: Tatuaje Wolfie

The fourth and most recent installment in Tatuaje’s Monster Series was The Wolfman, a sizable, shaggy foot cigar released in October 2011 and named for a movie monster that first appeared on the big screen in December 1941. In less than a year’s time after the release of The Wolfman, Johnson has released a sampler box [...]

Review: La Flor Dominicana TAA 2012 Air Bender Maduro Torpedo

During the IPCPR show in 2011, La Flor Dominicana showed off a unique humidor, with a unique blend. The Casa del Tobaco was a scale model humidor of a tobacco curing barn that typically holds tobacco after it has been harvested. Inside were a total of 24 Airbender Maduros measuring 6 1/2 x 54, each [...]

Review: Tatuaje Lil’ Drac

Dracula by Bram Stoker is hands down the most well-known vampire novel ever written. The book’s popularity throughout the past century, the number of movies about Dracula, and the numerous vampire related books, movies and television shows can easily allow us to say that the character Dracula is one of the most popular horror icons [...]

Redux: Padilla 1932 Oscuro Torpedo

Originally released in 2007, the aptly named Padilla 1932 Oscuro used the Pepín rolled 1932 blend, and covered it with a then five year-old Nicaraguan Corojo Oscuro wrapper. Only 300 boxes of 45 cigars each were released,  each of which included 15 of three different vitolas: Churchill, Robusto and Torpedo. Here is what I said about the Padilla 1932 [...]