Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo Oscuro
Binder: Nicaraguan Ometepe
Filler: Nicaraguan Ometepe Ligero, Estelï, Jalapa
Size: 6 x 52 Toro ~ Box Pressed
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $15.00
Date Released: September 2025
Quantity Released: 250 bundles of 10
Factory: La Tabacaria Cigars, Nicaragua
THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
Nimmer Ahmad of Valacari Cigars helped develop this cigar. Ahmad has provided guidance to Lou Cross while becoming a close friend. Valacari distributes Lure Cigars. The cigar is a homage to Lou Cross’s father.
This is a nice looking cigar. The box press is soft like my lap coated in melted cheese. The oils shimmer like a dancing bear freeing the Sudetenland. And the cigar is stuffed tight like a kishka on Passover.
Smells good too. Notes of exotic forest woods, sizzling brown sugar, brown food, vanilla rugelach, and a sweet vegetal finish.
My PerfecPunch gathers its scrotal region in one swoop and pierces the toast with ease. The small 8mm punch works wonderfully creating a tiny blow hole that is apropos of clipping a belicoso’s tip. Not all that dissimilar to a moil whose check clears.
The draw is spectacular in that the flow of air is exactly how I like it. The cold draw is huge with flavor. There are notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, vanilla, ripe sliced tomatoes, smoky pork, subtle black pepper, and Mexican mole sauce.
I’ve smoked most of the offerings from Lou Cross. They all excel with 2-4 months of home humidor time. And the new blends continue to show increased craftsmanship with each release.
I stop jawing and light the damn cigar. If this wasn’t the first review published, I’d steal from everyone. I don’t have an original thought in my head. Until today where I am forced to be original. My apologies.
Perfectly grilled ribeye and chocolate sauce. Bam. Wow, this is delicious. And only a couple weeks of naked humidor time. I love the smell of a good cigar in the morning. Freshly hewn napalm comes in 8th.
A spicy sassafras with a specific A&W root beer in a frosty mug comes to mind. Maybe with some ice cream in it. I haven’t eaten today and sometimes it gets the best of me. Flavors slam against my palate that I don’t necessarily get from cigars later in the day.
Construction is good. The char line is sharp like my dad reading the Haggadah for hours and hours. Staring blankly as the only food available on the Passover table was horseradish and parsley…and a burned boiled egg. The charoset, made of honey and walnuts, sat there mocking me as saliva flowed from my child’s lips like a cantor selling Moroccan trinkets from a van marked Made in China.
Ever make homemade beer? Me too. Our friends never held back telling us how horrible it was.
Strength is medium in the first inch. A nice rich flow of savory and sweet. Like brisket and rugelach in one bite.
Lure Cigars says flavors are dried fruit, espresso, leather, baking spices, and white pepper.
I taste dried fruit, espresso, leather, baking spices, and white pepper. How do they do that? I’m all in for suggestions. It is how we learn. I don’t taste espresso yet but the hints have me tasting low lying leather and dried fruit. The sweetness goes downtown compared to the first inch. The savory begins to outweigh the sweet. Morphing is always a good sign as long as it leads to a sweet spot.
As a teen, I didn’t do fancy fishing. I was dropped off at the Long Beach pier and took a ferry out to the barge past the breakwater. I’d spend half, or a whole day, fruitlessly fishing for halibut. Most of the time all I caught was the inedible varieties found in the SoCal waters. But we fisherman didn’t care. It was the fun of semi-solitude, the gentle rhythm, the smell of salt water, and a wonderful camaraderie. In actuality, the closest I came to a fish on my line was the anchovy bait on my hook. My mother stood at the door when I returned home. She pinched her nose and directed me to the shower. I stunk but I kept my funk.
Delicious cigar. It is rich and seductive like a sea of swarming simbas.
Dried apricot. I get it now. It makes sense. But the savory grilled meat portion is the title of this opus so far. It takes up 50% of the flavor while the other 50% is made up of small, but influential, notes of Mexican mole sauce, cinnamon, white pepper (I taste it now), a tick of leather, sassafras, earthiness, and fresh raspberries.
The transformation is about transitions. The blend opens up with each half inch. Complexity kicks in during inch two. I bought a bundle of 10. Like you, I struggle with a fiver or a tenner? The unit price is the same for either. Only pirates increase the fiver price point. That’s one of the many things I like about SBC. They are always fair and don’t clip your scrotum for buying the lesser count.
And all this was had with only two weeks of home detention. Imagine 3-6 months from now. The blend will buckle down with smoother tones and distinctively obese flavors. Discerning qualities will be easier identified. You won’t need to be a highly paid reviewer.
I often think back to 30 years ago when I was attacked by a feral ferret. Those moments slow down as the rodent used its teeth to hold on to my arm as I scampered across the room screaming like a little girl. My fellow employees stood there watching. All frozen from the excitement. I swung my arm like a mad man. The marmot paid the ultimate price as it was executed by animal control. I waited to see if rabies was on the menu for me. Turns out my nightmares of getting the inoculations was merely that. I wonder. I was the only Jew in the place. I never checked the ferret for an armband. I return to the cigar.
I sat in the Green Room at The Mike Douglas Show with Butch Patrick. Time stopped as Jeannie (Barbara Eden) entered the room with her bodyguard. She was even more gorgeous than on tv. I approached her to say hi. I was dressed in my finest three-piece, pin striped, Alexander Haig suit. I was stiff armed by the giant of a man that accompanied her. He never said a word, just stared with an extreme stink eye. I only received a look from Eden but that furtive glance made me happy that I was at least acknowledged by the beauty. I had to suffice with an in-depth conversation with Earl Holliman. I had no idea that he was hitting on me.
Inch four. The flavors are canonized. But the strength of character widens. Deep, deep notes of pleasure flow through my fattitude. The sweet spot has arrived. The flavors I’ve described become bottomless and profound. The timbre of the song is rich and refined. The blend is atmospheric. Yeah, I’m having a good time.
Strength reaches medium/full. The room swoons but there is no nicotine in play. I accurately kill the wasp that found a home in my man cave days ago. Things are in tune.
I take my first sip of water. Flavors flood my palate like a Fleet Enema gone rogue.
Inch five begins at 90 minutes. The illustrious Bruce Willis whispers Yippi-ki-yay mutter futter. With cigar placed firmly in my mouth, I seek out my Hopalong Cassidy folding knife. I fail. I return to the keyboard.
Where was I? Great cigar.
Only 2500 cigars were released into the wild. They will be gone in just a few days. My Stulac/Katman cigars (1200 cigars) sold out in 3 days. The Redfish is on borrowed time in the open market. This is a solid purchase, which after promo codes, the stick is only $13.50. If I was you, I’d avoid pre-buyer’s remorse.
You can purchase Lure Cigars & Valacari Cigars The Redfish L.E. cigars from sponsor Small Batch Cigar. Take 10% off with promo code KATMAN.
RATING: 96
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