More Boutiques
Boutique Blends at the show had several interesting cigars. If you don’t know the company you probably do know the cigars. They are the ones behind Aging Room. The first cigar out of that series was the M-356, which debuted in Cigar Aficionado’s top 25 list for 2011. Heck of a way to start. For 2013, the Quattro F55 was named the number 2 cigar of the year by CA (only a Cuban beat it.) Both of these cigars, like all of the Aging Room products are limited. The company uses special aged tobaccos and once they run out that is it. The M-356 is about out of production (the tobacco is just about gone) so get them while you can. For this year, the company had another limited production cigar called Aging Room, Bin No. 1. This is what Rafael Nodal calls a strong cigar with flavor. And strong it is, I would recommend it after a steak dinner. He and master blender Jochy Blanco are using some really old tobacco that is very strong, but the age on the tobacco makes the cigar very smokable.
Another new entry from Boutique is La Boheme. Unlike the Aging Room lines this one will be in regular production and not limited. It uses an Ecuadoran Habano wrapper over Dominican Habano filler and binder. It comes in 4 sizes: Mini at 3.5” x 46 (which happens to be co-owner Hank Bischoff’s favorite size), Pittore at 5.125” x 52, Poeta 5.75” x 54 and Musico at 6.25” x 60. It is medium to full bodied with a great taste. The SWAG line is another regular production line. It comes in the SWAG-S , the SWAG Puro Dominicano and now the new addition to the line-up is the SWAG Black. Unlike the other SWAG cigars, the black is more full bodied, using a Habano seed wrapper over Dominican fillers and binder. It will be coming in four sizes from the 4.5” x 48 up to 6 x 60. List prices are $6.95 to $8.98. The last limited production item is the M020 ffortissimo. It is the sequel to last year’s M-21 it uses San Andres wrapper over Habano Dominican filler and binder and it too is full bodies. It comes in one figurado size 5.75” x 47, boxes of 10 and retails at about $14.
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