What a nice way to end a day at the beach! One nice thing about St Augustine is they have several very nice cigar shops in the old city area so while walking around the ancient city area I stopped into a couple different shops and picked up some cigars.
One cigar I've always wanted to try, and don't sell at my shops is the Don Lino brand. They have a couple different collections and I've been intrigued by their "Africa" collection of cigars. I picked up a Robusto sized cigar today, its called a Duma. The box is ornate and features a picture of a Jaguar on the front of the box, I had to look it up on the internet to find out it is designated as the Duma. I don't know why? I've never heard/seen that name associated with a cigar, but its basically a typical robusto sized cigar.
Very nicely made with a fine wrapper of flexible dark leaf tobacco, not as dark as a maduro. More like an EMS wrapper in color. The band is huge and on a modest sized cigar it takes up a lot of space. The wrapper definitely imparted a bit of a spicy, but pleasant flavor to the smoke and it was evident that the wrapper was the source of the spice even before lighting the cigar.
Lighting the cigar on the veranda of the condo proved a bit of a challenge, the ocean breezes kept blowing out the matches and it took several attempts to get it lit, unfortunately I didn't get it lit evenly so it burned a little bit lopsided but evenly all the way down. We had a storm roll through early in the evening so I was able to sit and watch the lightning, listen to the sounds of the ocean and the fountain below while looking out at palm tree top level onto the horizon.
The cigar was a medium bodied smoke, not strong, but certainly a cigar with more body and flavor than an Ashton or a Macanudo. The ash was rather interesting in that it was not pure white, but rather mottled black and white with a very black end. It also held the ash for a full 2" before falling under its own weight.
I found this review of the cigar on the internet (as well as the images):
I'd have to say that I'd rate the construction of the cigar to be excellent, the burn to be very good but not perfect, both the draw and the taste to be excellent. This is a very nice little cigar.
I don't know where to buy these cigars in Indiana, Don Lino is not one of the more popular brands. I suspect that some of the larger cigar shops in Indianapolis or a few other areas may stock these. I don't have the humidor space to add this brand (at least not yet) but I enjoyed this enough that I'd consider bringing it in, if only for me to smoke!
One cigar I've always wanted to try, and don't sell at my shops is the Don Lino brand. They have a couple different collections and I've been intrigued by their "Africa" collection of cigars. I picked up a Robusto sized cigar today, its called a Duma. The box is ornate and features a picture of a Jaguar on the front of the box, I had to look it up on the internet to find out it is designated as the Duma. I don't know why? I've never heard/seen that name associated with a cigar, but its basically a typical robusto sized cigar.
Very nicely made with a fine wrapper of flexible dark leaf tobacco, not as dark as a maduro. More like an EMS wrapper in color. The band is huge and on a modest sized cigar it takes up a lot of space. The wrapper definitely imparted a bit of a spicy, but pleasant flavor to the smoke and it was evident that the wrapper was the source of the spice even before lighting the cigar.
Lighting the cigar on the veranda of the condo proved a bit of a challenge, the ocean breezes kept blowing out the matches and it took several attempts to get it lit, unfortunately I didn't get it lit evenly so it burned a little bit lopsided but evenly all the way down. We had a storm roll through early in the evening so I was able to sit and watch the lightning, listen to the sounds of the ocean and the fountain below while looking out at palm tree top level onto the horizon.
The cigar was a medium bodied smoke, not strong, but certainly a cigar with more body and flavor than an Ashton or a Macanudo. The ash was rather interesting in that it was not pure white, but rather mottled black and white with a very black end. It also held the ash for a full 2" before falling under its own weight.
I found this review of the cigar on the internet (as well as the images):
I'd have to say that I'd rate the construction of the cigar to be excellent, the burn to be very good but not perfect, both the draw and the taste to be excellent. This is a very nice little cigar.
I don't know where to buy these cigars in Indiana, Don Lino is not one of the more popular brands. I suspect that some of the larger cigar shops in Indianapolis or a few other areas may stock these. I don't have the humidor space to add this brand (at least not yet) but I enjoyed this enough that I'd consider bringing it in, if only for me to smoke!