Author: billykartwheels

Cuatro Cinco Edicion Americana TAA
Cuatro Cinco TAA

Joya de Nicaragua TAA (Tobacconists’ Association of America) Exclusive Series with the Cuatro Cinco Edición Americana was released in 2021. The cigar itself pays homage to Joya de Nicaragua’s close ties with the United States. The United States was the first market Joya de Nicaragua explored, and in the 1970s Joya de Nicaragua became the official cigar of the White House under President Richard Nixon. The Joya de Nicaragua Cuatro Cinco Edición Americana is an exclusive offering for TAA retailers.

The JDN Cuatro Cinco Edición Americana TAA Exclusive is highlighted by a Nicaraguan Criollo wrapper. It comes in one size – a 6 x 54 Belicoso, over undisclosed Grade A fillers. The cigars have been aged for a minimum of one year within vintage white oak barrels, used in a world-renowned rum distillery. A total of 500 ten-count boxes have been produced for the TAA retailers.

According to JDN, the Cuatro Cinco Edición Americana was selected to be JDN’s newest TAA exclusive release because of its outstanding performance and resemblance to the original Cuatro Cinco limited edition. “When we were deciding what the next TAA product should be, we knew it had to be special. And when the team proposed the belicoso size, the decision was made, there’s no other vitola in the Cuatro Cinco family that smokes closer to the original limited edition than this one,” said Juan Ignacio Martinez, Executive President in a press release.

“These are some of the best cigars that come out of our factory. The stories we tell with them need to be special. We have selected the Bald Eagle because of what it represents to our American friends, an example of stamina, power, and freedom. In 2021, JDN is celebrating Nicaragua’s independence bicentennial, and what a better symbol to connect us both than the symbol of freedom, ” said Daniel Barrios, Global Commercial Manager.

“It has been an exciting experience being on this side of the industry. Talking to friends and customers to evaluate this project has been a great experience. I’m excited to see how this continues to foster the partnership between TAA and Joya de Nicaragua,” added Sarah Hearton, US Field Market Manager at Drew Estate, which distributes Joya de Nicaragua.

Wanting to share the list of the Joya de Nicaragua TAA Exclusive releases, because I’ve had 3 out of the 4 and they are ABSOLUTELY a must find, smoke, and enjoy!

  • Joya de Nicaragua CyB Lancero Fino (2013)
  • Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Gran Reserva Presidente (2018)
  • Joya de Nicaragua Selección de Torcedor (2019)
  • Joya de Nicaragua Cuatro Cinco Edición Americana (2021)

Let’s get into this review; giving this cigar the proper acknowledgment that it deserves from the smell to the nub of this TAA.

Speaking of smell the moment I removed the cello there was an instant scent of rich soil, molasses, brown sugar, saffron, and a light essence of rose hips.

Upon lighting up there was an immediate burst of “Joy”… oh I mean flavor and upon that burst of flavor hitting my palate my glands started flowing with that saline taste. Also, upon light up the first thing that comes to mind, honey maple bourbon with a splash of burnt butter cookies! Side note, that is a thing now in case you haven’t heard or seen yet, burnt butter cookies, cakes, brownies, ext…

Now that I am burning right into the first third the flavor profile explodes into a real palate pleaser; like having a chocolate mocha with the richness of molasses, that real rich and sweet tobacco that JDN uses (if you know you know, it’s that specially aged uniquely grown tobacco that they use) with some subtle floral notes and as I transition from the first third to the second third there is some notes of cane sugar and vanilla bean.

The flavor profiles are staying the same yet the more I smoke the deeper the profiles get, more profound. Burning very well, no issues thus far, certainly having a flavor party on my palate with caramel popcorn joining the dance and just like the first transition here I am again experiencing another transition with a dash of spicy red pepper to enliven the senses and clear my sinus’s.

Smoking into my last third of this TAA cigar the swirl of goodness keeps my glands going, the profiles I pick up share the space on my palate by moving up and then stepping back, keeping the journey very enjoyable, a cigar to remember and cherish. Bold with dark chocolate, toasted cinnamon, burnt butter cookies, molasses, caramel popcorn, vanilla bean, cane sugar, with a swirl of spicy red pepper what more can you ask for in a cigar?? The journey; in my opinion; was impeccable, construction was flawless and giving this cigar a rating of 5 out of 5 pints!! What an unforgettable cigar!

Wrapper – Habano 

Binder – Nicaraguan

Filler – Nicaraguan

Price – About $15.00 a stick.

Website: Joyacigars.com

Rating: 5 out of 5 pints

  • William O’Connor, AKA Billy Kartwheels, is the Co-Captian of the Distinguished Ruffians NY Chapter. Billy has had an interesting life, going through college, being in the Navy and living on a submarine. He has visited 48 states (hitchhiking through 35 of them) and even lived in a Hare Krishna monastery for some time. After having numerous brushes with death durring his travels he has decided it was best to take it easy and appreciate life to its fullest all while smoking a cigar at the same time. 

Sweet Dream By Drunk Chicken Cigars
Sweet Dream Drunk Chicken Cigar

There are moments in life that bring excitement as we all know, other things that we all know to enhance those moments would MOST certainly be cigars! So here’s another moment for me to narrate my exciting moment that I had with a fantastic cigar made by company that is gaining more and more steam within our cigar industry. For those of you who know – you know, for those of you who don’t well before I type out my review on my first of six to come I have included a little background about them and the company’s approach. These are exact words taken from the website dccigars.com. If you’d like to read/ learn more please, I encourage you to check out their website. 

Drunk Chicken Cigars is a boutique cigar company. We are a minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, small business, located in the District of Columbia, United States of America (U.S.A.). Our mission is to create cigars that our customers will enjoy anytime of the day. 

The company’s approach is that – Quality matters; this is why Drunk Chicken Cigars is a business built on passion, love, with no compromise in quality of flavor. The entire production of the Drunk Chicken Cigars “Chicks” is completed by hand and produced in the U.S.A. The “Chick” making process begins with choosing the tobacco leaves to include the filler, binder, and wrapper. Only the grade “A” long-leaf tobacco leaves are chosen as fillers in the creation of our “Chicks”. Taking no short cuts in the cigar making process, every blend was personally hand-rolled and aged. 

Now I could keep going with the company’s approach yet that would take the curiosity of just how detailed and dynamic they are to provide extremely good “Chicks”. With all that said it’s time to get into the “Sweet Dream” review. 

Getting ready to spark up this cigar I wanted to communicate that I drank water, ate some chocolate, and lit this amazing lancero with matches. Once again, as we all know what we drink, eat, and light our cigars with will bring out a finer aspect of profiles. 

The smell instantly has a rich soil essence and reminds of walking in the lush forests in Northeastern part of Oregon. Deep scents of earth from the rain, wilderness, wild flowers, and oddly enough sage; mind you I lived in Oregon for 8 years of my life so this is the first time in awhile that a single cigar could take me back to those memories. 

I want to point out (not reading anything about this cigar before beginning this journey) it’s a sweet tip cigar so when I sparked up this cigar I instantly tasted a nutty floral honey profile with a bit of graham cracker and elderberry. The first third really woke me up with a smile and shocked me with how much goodness brought to my palate immediately. At times I don’t like to read anything about a cigar that I’m about to review; simply to get my own interpretation of my cigar experience. With a Connecticut wrapper, Ecuador Binder, and Nicaraguan filler it’s already burning very nice and smooth. 

Second third of my experience: the sweet tip is still there (where some sweet tips are already gone and dissipated away) with great profiles still coming through with the same as described above. Very much enjoying the journey, keeping the palate engaged with the glands producing that saline taste; like naturally cleansing my palate. Burning nice and slow, enjoying every moment as it still brings these positive thoughts of me being in the woods of Oregon. Starting to pick up some leather, coffee, and dark chocolate (could be the fact that I took a bite of some chocolate) yet I truly feel that this “Sweet Dream” cigar is crafted with perfection with some great tobacco. As I continue to approach my last third of this cigar the sweet tip is becoming more and more subtle but still noticeable. 

Smoking into the last third some rich molasses is joining the party. The mildness is now entering the medium body cigar profile with swirls of oak, floral, leather, and honey. I will add that this is NOT a sweet cigar, just the tip, so the sweetness I taste is the natural sweetness of the tobacco. I am a big fan of lancero’s as well; I love the wrapper filler ratio because I feel you will really get that flavor profile of a cigar and this lancero is certainly bringing all these profiles together so “sweetly” hence the name of this cigar. 

This “Sweet Dream” is a cigar you could have as your first cigar of the day or at the end of your day after dinner with a sip of cognac or tea. The strength ramped up as the cigar continued not so much with strength but with flavor. Rating this cigar 4 out of 5 pints, also, this is not the only option if you’re not a lancero person, you can have the opportunity to purchase a robust size as well. Drunk Chicken Cigars offers 5 packs or boxes, a 5 pack of lancero’s or robustos will run you $50; a box of either will run you $200. Worth every cent in my opinion; they do offer a sample pack as well but stay tuned for the other cigars they offer (Drunk Chicken Original, FAT HEN, Homicidal Hen, Living the Dream, and Mother Clucker) to be reviewed. I recommend you checking out the website or perhaps the nearest brick n mortar by you might just carry these “Chicks”. Stay tuned and Enjoy!

Wrapper – Connecticut

Binder – Ecuador

Filler – Nicaragua

Price – $10.00 a stick.

Website: Dccigars.com

Rating: 4 out of 5 pints

  • William O’Connor, AKA Billy Kartwheels, is the Co-Captian of the Distinguished Ruffians NY Chapter. Billy has had an interesting life, going through college, being in the Navy and living on a submarine, he has visited 48 states (hitchhiking through 35) of them and even lived in a Hare Krishna monastery for some time. After having numerous brushes with death durring his travels he has decided it was best to take it easy and appreciate life to its fullest all while smoking a cigar at the same time. 

The Byron Poemas “Reserva 3 Anos”
The Byron Poems Reserva 3 Anos

Here we are friends and family a cigar that I have wanted to review for quite some time, the Byron. A cigar that I find to be monumental when it comes to quality and taste with so much history and a small portion of this history I will share with all of you in case you are not familiar with this cigar. I can assure you, for all you cigar enthusiasts out there, that if you have not had one already then you might just splurge on purchasing one because they are not cheap but so worth every puff. 

Many cigar factories produced numerous brands with Anglo-American names to attract UK and US markets which had tremendous demand for premium cigars at the time. Having said that, around 1848 the cousins created a cigar brand named Lord Byron in honor of the world renowned English poet himself. He was arguably the greatest author of romantic poetries of the day and more importantly pertaining to the brand, and avid cigar smoker and enthusiast. 

The brand Byron has roots to the 19th century when two cousins with roots in the Canary Islands owned a small cigar factory in the province of Havana on the island nation of Cuba. The cigars were made from two tobacco farms that they owned about 25 kilometers apart. Eventually the brand fell on hard times and was sold off to pay a debt. In 1998 the brand Byron was brought back by Nelson Alfonso who is well known for his input in the Cohiba Behike line and other Cuban cigars such as Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann and many more. 

Nelson Alfonso behind the rebranding of Behike wanted to deliver a cigar to the American market that was reminiscent of the Cuban brands from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. The result is a group of cigars that have been highly rated making them instant classics in the industry. It’s like smoking a piece of history! 

Each size of the Byron is a different blend to reflect a specific era of Cuban cigars. They are certainly considered luxury cigars and while intrigued about the Byron there is no website that will reveal to you the wrapper, binder, or filler; completely undisclosed! Of course I could sum up what I may think where tobacco comes from to make this beautiful cigar yet each palate is different and don’t want to speculate on anything; you can “draw” you own conclustions. I can say that this particular cigar has a deep oily chocolate maduro looking wrapper and smells absolutely amazing. The brand is now being produced in very limited quantities in a small Costa Rican factory. The price is anywhere from $20 to $25 or more depending on where you purchase. 

Just want to make a note to all of you that all of the information above is information that I gathered from various websites and combined information to give you the best historic viewpoint of such a worthy cigar. Giving credit where credit is due because this cigar demands respect just as I am going to provide you with an outstanding review on the Byron! 

The Cold Draw: Instantly picking up chocolate and espresso and that rich soil taste that gets my glands going to have that saline taste hit my mouth before I even light it up. 

The First Third: Dark chocolate with dash of black pepper hit the palate with a taste of sweetness and a dash of baker’s spice. Very smooth and almost creamy like. I mentioned black pepper because it does make your lips tingle a little and it explodes with flavor on your tongue; certainly reminds me of a well aged cigar. This in fact coincides with the number “3” on the label; because the number signifies how long it was aged for before being sent out to retailers. Continuing onward with this first third of the Byron I’m starting to pick up some vanilla essence as the black pepper begins to fade away; not as intense as the first light up. Molasses is starting to join the party while the sweetness remains the same like having raw sugar stirred in with a rich flavorful mocha. 

The Second Third: While dark chocolate, molasses, vanilla, and espresso are very strong within this journey starting to pick up some toasted nuts and even some cedar come into play. Still very, very smooth as I begin to taste a hint of dried figs which I pick up on my palate. The Byron is certainly getting better and richer in taste as it continues to burn. The construction is flawless with a very consistent burn thus far. Enjoying this cigar and smoking very slowly due to the fact that the flavor profiles are VERY prominent and exquisite that makes it represent a “Luxury” cigar. 

The Final Third: With the flavor profiles mentioned above they remain very strong; In fact, now because of the richness I’m picking up some leather notes and that essence of pepper is coming back. Here is where that full bodied cigar comes to define itself. Definitely started out medium body but now I have to slow it down even more because the strength of the cigar comes through even though the profiles are so remarkable that I want to keep puffing for that amazing taste I’m getting; super vibrant and distinguishable for sure with each profile. Still no burn issues, construction stayed intact, with a swirl of sweetness to blend it all together. 

Going to give this cigar a 5 out of 5 pints not just about the taste but the fact that it’s made in limited production, the price is a factor because it’s not a cigar I would have often and did I mention the taste? The Byron is a very exquisite cigar indeed which can be purchased on various sites and perhaps even at your local brick-n-mortar shops. There is no doubt I feel you should at least try one of these if you haven’t already. You may or may not pick up on the same profiles that I did yet with the way this cigar had been blended together I do feel you will enjoy the journey as much as I did!!

Wrapper – Unknown

Binder – Unknown

Filler – Unknown

Website: Good Luck Finding It

Rating: 5 out of 5 pints

  • William O’Connor, AKA Billy Kartwheels, is the Co-Captian of the Distinguished Ruffians NY Chapter. Billy has had an interesting life, going through college, being in the Navy and living on a submarine, he has visited 48 states (hitchhiking through 35) of them and even lived in a Hare Krishna monastery for some time. After having numerous brushes with death durring his travels he has decided it was best to take it easy and appreciate life to its fullest all while smoking a cigar at the same time.