Highlight Cigars

Best Cigars of 2012 – HLC COTY Awards

jason — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:48:08 +0000

It's time to acknowledge the best smokes of the year by handing out Highlight Cigars' 2012 COTY awards!

It's impossible to sample every stogie on the market. So despite the title of the post, we don't presume to know what the best cigars really are. We can only compile a list of the sticks we enjoyed in the order that we enjoyed them.

Ultimately, these are lists of purchase recommendations separated in a way you will hopefully find helpful. If you've read some HLC reviews in the past and found the opinions useful, then we predict you'll do well to try as many of the cigars listed below as is possible

Viaje Late Harvest Review

jason — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 05:10:43 +0000

To be honest, it isn't clear to us what sets the Viaje Late Harvest apart from the other annual Viaje LEs. Like the Exclusivo and Holiday Blends for example, the Late Harvest is a Nicaraguan puro rolled at Raices Cubanas. The cigar is available in a couple traditional formats and it's pretty safe to assume that most if not all of the tobacco is sourced from Aganorsa.

Packaging is one element that sets each Viaje offering apart. In the case of the Late Harvest, boxes are made to look like wine crates as "late harvest" is a wine making term signifying the use of grapes left on the vine longer. There's no indication we could find that any related harvesting technique is utilized in the development of raw material for this cigar

Quesada Jalapa & IPCPR Notables, One-Timers #9

jason — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 09:10:52 +0000

In this our 9th edition of HLC's One-Timer reviews, we take a look at some of the cigars that came out of this year's IPCPR show in Orlando.

While there's no possible way we could sample all of the releases from the show, we tried to make tasting notes from all the releases that most interested us plus whatever else we can get our hands on. The result is a stack-ranked list of our five standouts.

Leave a comment and let us know if you agree or disagree with our assessments. There are many new releases we may not get around to trying for awhile, so if there's a favorite stick you think we should check out, we're all ears

Oliva Serie V Melanio Review

jason — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 08:18:55 +0000

Will Serie V devotees pay $13 for a fancy version of their favorite stick? Can a top-shelf, box-pressed Oliva with a Serie V band capture more attention than the Master Blends? The Oliva Serie V Melanio appears to be the answer to some questions that nobody outside Oliva HQ is asking. To be fair, this Continue Reading

Perla del Mar Cigar Review

jason — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 04:17:28 +0000

We were able to receive some pre-release sticks handed out during last month's IPCPR and will post some reviews of the samples. This first of these is the Perla del Mar from J.C. Newman that should be arriving at retail this month.

The Perla G (toro) we tried is one of the four 52+ ring, aggressively priced vitolas J.C. Newman will be shipping for this initial Perla del Mar release. We intend to try the rest of the PdM sizes and may follow-up with a full review of the regular issue sticks after they become available.

Until then, we hope you enjoy our preliminary thoughts and findings about J.C. Newman's Perla del Mar and the remaining IPCPR pre-release review posts coming soon

Tatuaje Little Monsters Review, One-Timers Ed. 8

jason — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 01:03:22 +0000

One box of Tatuaje Little Monsters is now in the can and the reviews are all here in the 8th edition of HLC One-Timers.

It wouldn’t be right smoke just one LM when you get two of each in every bright orange box. So the full ten were put down in preparation for this post. Perhaps we could have called it “Two-Timers”, but that would have required new blog categories, tags etc... It’s enough work just to smoke all those cigars and write some coherent comments about the experience.

Speaking of comments, if you missed out on getting some Lil’ Monsters for yourself, then we encourage you to leave a comment on one of the LM review pages with your sad story of missed cigar opportunity. The commenter with the most tragic tale of woe will be rewarded!

Fuente Solaris Review

jason — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 11:31:58 +0000

The Fuente Solaris we'll Review today is the fourth and most recent "Microblend" release available exclusively from FL retailer Smoke Inn. Fuente fans outside FL can purchase the limited-run cigar on Smoke Inn's website. As we write this in early July, Solaris boxes and 5-packs remain available and will set you back about $9 a stick.

Each Microblend release is produced by a different heavyweight cigar maker with Fuente being perhaps the most notable participant in the series. There aren't many bigger or more respected brands than Fuente (who certainly know a thing or two about limited releases) so the gang at Smoke Inn were surely pleased to have the Solaris added to the MB lineup

Tatuaje RC233, Short Run 2012 & More OTs (Ed. 7)

jason — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:20:36 +0000

The Tatuaje RC233 behemoth tops all scores in this our 7th edition of One-Timer reviews. While not necessarily a limited release, the largest-of-all-Tats can be a challenge to find. The 9+ inch figurado is certainly worth hunting down when stocking up on celebration stogies.

One other OT eclipsed the oh-so-important 90-pt. marker. That distinction belongs to the EP Carrillo New Wave Connecticut Short Run 2012 Exquisitos. Every Short Run we've tried has been good-to-great and this year's New Wave edition sustains the Short Run's winning pedigree.

Remaining One-Timer tastings include limited and regular releases from Drew Estate, Torano and a second Tatuaje

Crowned Heads Four Kicks Review

jason — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 02:58:27 +0000

We've been waiting for an opportunity to write about the Four Kicks line for awhile. It's a cigar that's been in our regular rotation since its release and after putting down our share of Seleccion No. 5 samples, we thought the time was right to post a full review.

Like most of our cigar blogging contemporaries, we've concluded that the Four Kicks is a hit. As regular releases go, it's one of the best new lines to come out in the last year. It's also quite a bit better than many LE's. The straight forward presentation and growing availability is a great reflection on Crowned Heads early success and no small validation of the CH team's contribution to earlier projects/brands they were a collective part of.

You can find more details about our Seleccion No. 5 tastings after the bump. There are also some musings about the industry not really specific to Four Kicks. A benefit of cigar enjoyment is the time a good smoke affords for the contemplation of things we hold dear. Being a very good cigar, the No. 5 did that job for us and we hope you enjoy the results

Cien Anos, MUWAT & More One-Timers (Ed. 6)

jason — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 11:09:49 +0000

None of the One-Timers in this sixth Edition of the series topped the critical 90-point threshold. That’s not to say we didn't enjoy the cigars sampled for our weekly OT run-down. A few were quite tasty and all were without serious flaws.

The highest-scoring stick in this sixth edition of the OT series is the vaunted La Aurora Cien Anos Belicoso. The Beli vitola is arguably the best expression of the original Cien Anos blend that arrived at retail some nine years ago. It’s difficult to tell exactly how old our belicoso samples are. The assumption is that they came from the original run that ended in 2006. The cigars were purchased about six months ago from a B&M in Los Angeles