Smoke Inn's Battle of the Bands - Blind Man's Puff Sampler

Smoke Inn and Abe Dababneh are hosting a “Battle of the Bands” for cigars. Abe chose 6 of the biggest Cigar Media websites and asked each of them to make a sampler. The sampler selling the most at the end of the competition will be crowned the winner. Now through Monday use code LBRDAY and get 20% off you order at Smoke Inn including this sampler, bringing the price down to only $43. Click here to buy our sampler. Battle of the Bands ends midnight, Sunday October 4th and a LIVE virtual results show including all the competitors will be broadcast Monday, October 5th, 8PM EST.

ALSO THE FIRST 10 PEOPLE TO BUY A SAMPLER THIS WEEKEND GET A FREE HAT OR T-SHIRT & A CIGAR FROM MY PERSONAL COLLECTION.

Simply send an email to emmett@blindmanspuff.com, or DM on Facebook, with a picture of your receipt, your preference of hat or t-shirt and your address. If you would like a t-shirt send me your size.

The Blind Man’s Puff Sampler includes the following 5 cigars:

Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Sobremesa Elegente en Cedros
Foundation El Gueguense Corona Gorda
Leaf By Oscar Sumatra Toro
JRE Aladino Cazador
Arturo Fuente Don Carlos No. 3

I picked those cigars because they are some of my favorite regular production cigars. I didn’t want to pick anything too hard to find or that would break the bank. These are cigars that I find myself reaching for on a regular basis, even though I typically smoke something new.

Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Sobremesa Elegente en Cedros

The Sobremesa is the cigar that put Steve Saka’s Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust on the map back in 2015. It was the first cigar released from the company and sold out before anyone had even tried it. It found the number 2 spot on our top 25 list that year, and lost out to another cigar in this sampler. The Elegante en Cedros is a spin off of the original blend released a year later, with a slightly stronger blend. I find this tweaked blend to be even better than the original and always hits the spot and time of day. The Sobremesa is an elegant blend and the Elegante en Cedros steps that up another notch into my wheelhouse. It also happens to be a Churchill so it will last you nearly two hours. The blend uses a rosado Ecuador Habano leaf, Mexico Matacapan binder, and four filler tobaccos Nicaragua: C-SG seco, a Criollo hybrid from Condega, Criollo viso from Pueblo Nuevo, and Criollo ’98 viso along with a hybrid ligero from Estelí, and a broadleaf ligero grown in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Foundation El Gueguense Corona Gorda

A similar story to the Dunbarton brand, Foundation Cigars made their first cigar in 2015, the El Gueguense, and it really put Nick Melillo’s company on the map. Even today, I think think this is his best blend, and one of my favorite cigars of all time. It scored a 92 in blind tasting and took our #1 cigar of the year. It’s pronounced “El-Wah-Wen-Say,” and rolled at Aganorsa Leaf’s TABSA factory in Nicaragua. The name is based on one of Nicaragua‘s most culturally iconic folklore dramas and translates to “the wiseman.” The imagery on the box looks like the masks used in the performance. The blend is uses a Corojo ’99 wrapper, binder from Jalapa, and Criollo and Corojo filler. The corona gorda was one of the original launch sizes and is still my favorite, although I really enjoy the lancero as well.

Leaf By Oscar Sumatra Toro

The Leaf by Oscar line is one of the most interesting packaged cigars of all time and also happens to be the cigar the really brought the name Oscar Valladares into cigar conversations around the country. Instead of wrapping each cigar in cellophane, Oscar Valladares wraps each cigar in an extra leaf surrounded by a simple paper band. mean to be taken off before smoking. It’s a real attention grabber on shelves and happens to also be delicious. It’s no secret that Sumatra is my favorite wrapper on cigars, and this is one of my favorite blends using that tobacco. The blend uses an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper with Honduran binder and fillers. You can’t go wrong with a toro size in almost any cigar, this blend really shines in the Toro, while I really enjoy the lancero, the toro is a little fuller.

JRE Aladino Cazador

JRE Tobacco has really made a splash in the last few years, and a big part of that success is due to this cigar, the Aladino. This cigar is described as a “Classic Old Fashioned Cigar” by Julio R. Eiroa, father of Christian Eiroa of CLE Cigar. Aladino made with 100% Authentic Corojo cigar grown at the Eiroa Tobacco Farm in Honduras from the original Cuban seed of Corojo. These cigars are medium strength and were blended to represent The Golden Era of cigars in Cuba from 1947-1961. The name comes from the 1970s where there was a well known movie theater in Danli, Honduras known as El Cine Aladino. This theater was operated by Christian and Justo Eiroa’s grandfather. Today Aladino is also the name of a factory owned by Christian Eiroa that is in the same location as the movie theater. I chose the Cazador size because the corona gorda size is usually my goto in cigar blends and tends to be my favorite because of the balance of not too big ring guage and longer length. This cigar’s no exception.

Arturo Fuente Don Carlos No. 3

The Don Carlos is an absolute classic of a cigar. Cameroon wrappers are another favorite of mine, and it’s hard to come up with a better example on a regular production cigar. The Don Carlos is named after Fuente family patriarch Carlos Fuente, Sr. The Don Carlos cigar has history dating back to 1976 when it was originally sold. Eventually is was gone from the market when the Fuentes lost everything to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, but re-emerged 1986 for the European market. That cigar used tobacco from the 1984 crop tobacco and until 1997was only available in two vitolas Robusto and No. 3. In 1997 switched to tobacco from 1986 crops and added the Presidente, Double Robusto, No. 2, and No. 4 sizes in 1998. The blend uses a Cameroon wrapper with Dominican binder and fillers. The No. 3 size is still around today and is significantly more affordable than the larger sizes.