Wrapper: Undisclosed
Binder: Undisclosed
Filler: Undisclosed
Size: 5.5 x 54
Body: Medium
Price: $8.25 ($7.50 at Small Batch Cigar minus 10% discount = $6.75)

Today we take a look at the Foundry War of Currents Laboratories Shoreham.

It comes in only two sizes:
Shoreham: 5.5 x 54 and the West Orange: 5.5 x 50. They are both regular production cigars.

From the Foundry Tobacco web site:
“Foundry: War of Currents proudly presents four limited editions that join Edison and Tesla’s epic fight against conventionality in favor of creativity and innovation. Featuring a blend separate and distinct from that of War of Currents, Shoreham and W. Orange.

“Each limited edition is named after locations where Edison and Tesla contributed to scientific greatness or notoriety. Like Foundry’s retro packaging, War of Currents Small Batch boxes are imprinted with vintage newspaper clippings that announce Edison and Tesla’s infamous and often sinister inventions.”

There are four limited blends called the Invention Series according to the FT web site. And of course, two cigars are dedicated to Edison and two to Tesla. These too, are regular production cigars.

The Shoreham reference is an homage to the Tesla designed building (Wardenclyffe Tower) that resides in Shoreham, New York. It also known as the Tesla Tower. Construction began in 1901 but was shut down in 1905 due to money issues. It was completely torn down in 1917 and the property was lost to foreclosure. Not a happy story to build a cigar around.

As is mostly usual for the Foundry Tobacco blends, there is something unique to that cigar. In this case, it is wrapped in a metal fuse-like Cracker Jack toy. According to Foundry Tobacco boss, Michael Gianinni, there will be a use for that fuse to be disclosed later. Maybe in 2019.
OK. History lesson over.

On to the Foundry War of Currents Laboratories Shoreham. This is tough because the Foundry Tobacco web site does not specify the exact name of the cigar. So every review out there has a different twist on the name.

A nice, but rustic, looking cigar. Solid as a rock with the proper give. Sloppy seams. Some very big veins. An oily, light brown, toffee colored wrapper that feels the slightest bit toothy but shows up smooth in the photos. Micro Tooth. The triple cap is expertly applied. I received a 4 pack of the these sticks. A couple are in dire straits as I can’t budge the metal fuse over the cigar band. I mean how much pressure do you dare put on this thing before the cigar snaps in half?

I clip the cap and find aromas of spice, sweetness, espresso, cocoa, fruitiness, sweet cedar, extreme earthiness, and leather.
Time to light up.

The draw is on the money. The first puffs translate that sweetness to the palate. It is very woody. Like me. There is a creamy, caramel, and cedar group. Sort of traveling down the yellow brick road together. Then the chocolate element arrives. Nice.

Wam, Bam! The spice hits me with one of those yellow bricks. It is a combo of both black and red pepper.

The damn cigar wants to canoe no matter what I do. Not a good start.

I burn a solid half an inch away to stop it. This is my first try at the Foundry War of Currents Laboratories Shoreham so I have no preconceptions. That is why a reviewer needs 3-5 cigars from a sponsor to properly review a cigar. For most of those sponsors, you’d think you were asking for a kidney. They would prefer to send you one cigar. Maybe two. La Palina has been guilty of that cheapness forever. Torano was even worse by sending only one cigar. I got into it with Jack Torano over this. What a piece of work. I guess he no longer works for the company business and works for some small boutique brand somewhere. Hmmmm….

At the 1” mark, flavors become more effusive. The sweetness splinters up into caramel, brown sugar, sweet potato.

The savory components are a very heady woodiness, rich earthiness, cedar, and smoky meat flavors.

Laying just below the first layer of flavors is red pepper, chocolate, espresso, and lemon citrus.

A gentle floral note appears.

The strength is classic medium body.

The second third begins.

Flavor Bomb 1.0

Now we’re talking. The flavor profile is bold and expansive. The balance becomes near perfect. And it has a nice long finish.

What has amazed the cigar industry is that Giannini has managed to produce dozens of blends under his Foundry Compounds, Elements, & Musings and keep them all at a very affordable price. The Foundry War of Currents Laboratories Shoreham breaks the mold by hitting the over the $8 tag. Normally, most of the blends are in the $5-$6 range.

But then if you shop at Small Batch Cigar, this cigar is yours for $6.75.

The cigar is super smooth.

I bought these cigars with the donations I begged for, totally humiliating myself, last month. So I’ve had these sticks for almost two weeks. I tried a Foundry War of Currents Laboratories Shoreham a week in and I wasted a cigar. But two weeks seems to have really allowed the flavors to kick in.
Like a Pepin Garcia blend.

I am at the halfway point.

I’ve invested about 40 minutes of smoke time. And there have been no burn issues since the first third. But it considerably affected the length of that first third in terms of time available to smoke it. Lots of cigar went up in flame to correct the char line.

Delicious cigar. But sort of a one trick pony.

Creaminess, spice, wood, espresso, cocoa, floral notes, caramel, brown sugar, citrus, savory notes, rich earthiness, and some leather.

I called it a one trick pony despite the long list of flavors is that after the caramel, the flavor intensity tapers off quite a bit.

It is still complex with a nice balance and finish. I am anxious to see what the last third does for my palate…and impression of the blend.
The Foundry War of Currents Laboratories Shoreham takes on a salty pretzel flavor. Subtle but evident.

The last third begins.

This is the sweet spot.

Flavors become potent and bold. The spiciness returns in force. And once more, a combo of black and red pepper.

Now the entire list of flavors is explosive and manic at the same time.

The construction has held its own. No burn issues. No wrapper issues. But I’ve had to clip the cap once.

This is either an old school blend and I taste its potential but it needs a couple humidor months. Or this is it. This is the blender’s intent.

Anytime, the last third becomes the sweet spot, methinks that more humidor time will move the sweet spot up to the first third. But there are exceptions. Lots of good smokes, given a few weeks humidor time, will start off with a big bang from the very start. And more time only mutes the exciting flavors.

It is frustrating for all reviewers to deal with the Foundry Tobacco blends. Michael Giannini decided not to divulge any of the leaf stats…saying that all the tobaccos are extremely hard to get. And most of the blends are limited productions as the supply of those tobaccos is finite.

I’ve now invested a good hour on the Foundry War of Currents Laboratories Shoreham.

And it is still medium bodied. But I detect a slight movement that will allow the cigar to end up as medium/full.

I can now see what Rick Tunstall said about my photos. I take such excruciating close ups that it is difficult to keep the whole cigar in focus. I actually breathe like I shoot. Take a breath, let it out, and click. So I look forward to receiving his kind gift of the 72” tripod. You can see in my photo of my work area that it is tiny. As it is, I have to snake myself between the lighting umbrellas. So now I am going to add a big tripod to that area and make it a total cluster fuck. But if it gets me better photos, so be it.

More on Tunstall at the end of the review.

I am beginning to get small cracks in the wrapper. I don’t dry box now. Not in this weather. I get cigars and they go straight into my humidor. Just too damn cold at night when we bring the thermostat down to save money. Luckily, the humidity in my humidor has been rock steady.

The sweetness factors really take over. As well as the creaminess and chocolate and coffee. The saltiness goes away.

With 1-1/2” to go, the Foundry War of Currents Laboratories Shoreham is on cruise control. It hits medium/full body.

The price point. At $8.75, I would have to say no. It’s just not a $9 cigar. At $6.75, I say yes. This is exactly where the price point should be to start with.

I must assume that the mysterious tobacco caused the uptick in pricing over the other blends. But those tobaccos don’t make that much of an impact. Maybe with a couple months of humidor time. I don’t know. And of the cigars in “The Katman’s List of 117 Great Cigars in the $5.00-$6.50 Range” are just as good.
If you choose to try these and buy them from Small Batch Cigar, tell Andrew that the Katman sent you.

And now for something completely different:

My good friend of over 30 years, Rick Tunstall, is a major enigma. He lives in Virginia. But we played together for a few years back in 1980-1983.
The man is a brilliant guitarist and all around musician. A writer and a producer. We recorded his music. All originals. Except for the remake of “Hound Dog” which is on YouTube. So is the B side: “Condo Bondage.”

Rick is the type of guy you have true adventures with.

At the moment, his CD “Stoned the Messenger” released in 1999 is making a break for it in Europe and Asia. His FB page: “Rick Tunstall” now has over 22,000 Likes. And that happened in just the last few months. His CD is getting some major airplay and being bought on iTunes and other sites.

He is a one man show. He is currently working on a new compilation album that includes some older unreleased songs and some new songs. He hopes to release it this January.

Now you know a bit of the back story. Now I will tell you about the mad man in the 1980’s.

It was Rick that introduced me to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer, Hal Blaine. Hal and I continued to work together long after my association with Rick terminated.

Rick used to yell at me a lot. It was his producing style. Some producers cajole and plead with artists. Others scream. The latter was Rick’s style.
We were in a studio in Beverly Hills or West Hollywood. The owner was a producer himself and did the engineering of our songs.

We used to come in late afternoon and spend the entire night recording. Of course, we had a chemical impetus for this. It was very popular in the early 80’s.

We were recording a song for Gary Gladstone, the owner of the studio. (He died a few years ago from pancreatic cancer, I think.) Good man. Kind man.
The song was short. But a killer tune.

We laid down the instrumental part first. And in the middle was a bass solo for 8 bars. And I had to go from playing the song to the most killer bass solo on the planet in a blink of an eye.

We kept playing the song over and over and I kept playing some clams in the solo. I was frustrated and begged to drop it in later. But Rick would have none of that. He screamed at me and called me every name in the book. He got me so angry; I was ready to slam my 1968 Fender P into the side of his head.

We started rolling the tape again and when we got to my solo, I nailed it. I played a solo that Jaco, or Stanley, would have been proud of. I nailed it hard. In at the right moment and back to the song right on the money. In between was a wild man’s solo.

Over the decades, I’ve tried to play it and I can’t. It was a one-time deal. The music fairies allowed the music to pass through me as a vessel. I had no control of what I was doing. I was just doing. Zen, I guess.

Another time, we were recording at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood. A very expensive place to lay down music. This is where I met Hal Blaine. Now Hal’s resume is ridiculous. There isn’t anyone he hasn’t played with; including Beatles’ tracks. In fact, Ringo’s early drum set was an exact copy of Hal’s.

Hal could tell stories. I loved to hear them. He provided a window into situations and places and times that were marvelous.

Often, he would start telling us a story and it would go on for 15 minutes. Rick couldn’t take it any longer. The last time Hal told me a story, Rick yanked me out of the control booth and dragged me into the lounge. He read me the riot act.

“Do you know what that 15 minutes cost us? Huh? Do you?”
I said I didn’t think about it.
“It cost us $62.50. This has to stop.”
I nodded my head. He was right.

But once I had my recording studio, Hal was a constant session drummer for me. He took chump change to work with me. What a great man. And it was there, on my dime, that he would spend hours telling me those stories I missed out on at Sunset Gower.

Hal loved those stories and loved telling them. He was going through a divorce and forced to move out of his mansion in Beverly Hills and on to his yacht in Marina del Rey.

He was lonely there. Yes, he had a million friends but we found a connection. He would stay for hours after a session finished just talking rather than going home to his little boat. Little. Hah!

So now Rick is finalizing his latest work. He is hoping it takes off. The distributor has been bugging him for a second release and this should make them happy. He sent me a sample of one of the songs on the new album last night. He is going to make his fans very happy.

Life is Good!

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS

Tags: cigar review, cigar reviews by the katman, cigars, foundry tobacco, Foundry War of Currents Laboratories Shoreham Cigar Review, michael giannini