You can read both reviews, or you can scroll down to the rating, or just immediately go to the sales page for the deal that lasts one-week.
Last Friday’s Krazy Katman’s Bargain Basement sale nearly sold out in just 2 days.
Penn Standard Gold Standard:
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut seed
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan, Pennsylvania (Aged 5 Years)
Size: 6 x 52 Toro
Strength: Medium
Price: $12.50
Quantity Released: Regular Production
Factory: Tabacalera Pages, Nicaragua
My cigars received 3 months of naked humidor time.
THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
I love that the cigar comes in 11 sizes: Nugget (4.5 x 44), Robusto (5.5 x 52), Box-Pressed Bullpup (5.5 x 55), Delicado (5.5 x 46), Toro Deluxe Tubos (6 x 52), 660 (6 x 60), Box-Pressed Sublime (6.5 x 56), Lancero (7 x 42), Esplendido (7 x 54), Salamone (7.1 x 58), and Lancero Extra (9 x 42).
A solid cigar that feels like a piece of rebar. But does it draw? The wrapper is oily and delicate. Like me just before Charlotte rolls me in bread crumbs. Aromas are butter brickle toffee, barnyard, black pepper, cedar, and milk chocolate.
Dr. Rod loves it when I double shill. The fat cap (I didn’t say ‘fat cat’) feels no pain as I plunge the 11mm punch of my PerfecPunch into its sassy baldness. Do the blades ever dull? My punch is 3 years old and it’s as sharp as my wit after a successful Fleet Enema misadventure.
The cold draw is sweet lemon, cedar, buttery popcorn, and rare earth.
The cigar digs in immediately with notes of mixed nuts, cedar, creaminess, and sweet floral.
Spoiler: After my second test subject, I bought a box. I went for the 5.5 x 55. I don’t bug Alex to comp me cigars. I’m more than happy with the Swedish sauna and lifetime supply of Persian palm fronds dipped in gold flake. CP figures it’s hedging its bets.
My first impression is the smoothness. Delicate and yet analog. Dopey yet sleepy. Rocky yet not Bullwinklish. Curly yet Woo Woo.
A mild black pepper kicks in as inch one blends into the scenery. Candied lemon peel ensues. There is a slight cinnamon burn with a touch of caramelized sugar. Cedar is prominent. And there are wafting aromas of floral.
Is your dog getting enough cheese? If not, he may qualify for a bath remodel with no interest until 2035. You better hope that ol’ Shep croaks before he sees his Chewy credit card bill.
The burn line is rigid. Construction allows for a very slow roll.
Strength began at medium. And it remains there. I skip ahead. I promenade in public. I do the twist in gay bathhouses. I have a natural proclivity to write and write and write. I rarely do a twofer, so I must remember to be careful about the number of words. No one likes a 22,000-word review. Especially if everyone is just here for the deal.
The first half had nice depth. There were noticeable transitions. A lovely but light complexity. And flavorful with the components we expect from a blend with these leaf stats. Although, one does not ordinarily see with 5-year aged Pennsylvania leaves in the filler.
The blend stays on the sweet and creamy trajectory. Add nuts to the mix with notes of honey, baking spices, mild black pepper, cedar, floral, and wonderful earthiness and we have a workman’s everyday cigar.
This cigar isn’t going to make you stop buying expensive medium strength cigars. But the price is right. And I have no issues putting it into my rotation because I just can’t afford to smoke $18 cigars all day long.
These cigars fall into budget mode. For the next week, you can get rock bottom prices with the Krazy Katman’s Bargain Basement deal from my sponsor Cigar Page. A ten pack will bring the price for the 5.5 x 55 Bullpup in at $3.25 per stick. This is a no brainer when you want both quality and budget pricing. But you gotta let them rest a couple months to get full benefit. Who am I kidding…they’re $3 per cigar…Jeez Louise, smoke as many as you want, when you want.
GO TO CIGAR PAGE HERE.
RATING: 90
El Titan de Bronze Black Swan:
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
Binder: Nicaraguan Corojo
Filler: Nicaraguan Estelí and Jalapa
Size: 5.6 x 46 Corona Gorda
Strength: Medium
Price: $17.50
Date Released: May 2026
Quantity Released: Regular Production
Factory: El Titan de Bronze, USA
THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
I like a Corona Gorda, especially my first cigar. It doesn’t have the drag that a Toro has which plants me in my gaming chair for half the morning.
The wrapper doesn’t smell Nic-ish. It smells floral, with fruity sweetness, caramel, and fresh bread. Dark cigars can be deceivers.
The cap is the perfect victim for the 8mm decapitator on my PerfecPunch. Dr. Rod pays me in crypto to shill. He gets his investing advice from his self-driving Tesla. What could go wrong?
The cold draw is green grapes, steak, Coca Cola, cedar, cool mint, red pepper, and milk chocolate.
Creamy start. Lots of smoke that nearly blinds Sammy the Cat, so the feline escapes the venue. There are nice flavors of white pepper, caramel, raw cashews, and potent cedar. I check what Cigar Page has to say and discover that I’m in the groove. This means there is consistency of blend. That’s what I love.
I got a perfect char line signifying excellent construction.
I didn’t know about this cigar until I saw a couple social media posts declaring their love for this cigar right upon receipt. I immediately bought a fiver. Do I wish I bought ten? Keep reading or just scroll.
I get a slurpy honey flavor. Honey Nut Cheerios! Yeah, exactly. But I admit that I didn’t find immediate love for this cigar on receipt like others. It was OK. So how long have I waited? One month. And now the blend sings.
I double down on my praise of construction. This thing is packed so beautifully that it barely burned half an inch in 10 minutes. A nice slow roll. Which I don’t mind if I’m swept away by excellence.
Huzzah. I got my S.T. Dupont lighter back from their authorized repair shop. According to the website, they will reach out in an email to report the problem and provide a fee, if at all, the day after receipt of the lighter. That never happened and three weeks after I sent it, I reached out to them. They responded the same day telling me that the lighter was being returned to me. No explanation of the issue, a fee, or a tracking number. Their package had no documentation explaining anything. But the trigger problem was repaired and it cost me nothing. Still, a little better communication would have been appreciated.
The white pepper turns into mild black pepper. The sweet v. savory is 60/40. But it’s early. I’m so into this cigar that I don’t notice that I have the tv on pumping Let’s Make a Deal. I’m de-evolving.
Now and again, I treat myself and pour sugar free honey (yes, that’s a thing and it tastes pretty damn good) over a biscuit. The primary flavor now is that taste of indulgence. It is unmistakable. I’m loving this cigar. I folded like a cheap suit and put two tenners in my CP cart. This will be my new morning cigar. It excels.
For brevity sake, I’m going to skip to the second half. That’s where a cigar either makes it or breaks it.
The first half scared me. My high level of neuroses made me worry that something this good will fail in the last third.
The bready quality is uncanny. Everything about this cigar is eerie. I don’t know how CP ties an exclusive to their assigned price point other than what it might be worth on the open market in the hands of unscrupulous privateers. You know who they are. I gotta be careful with my next statement. When I could afford the Casdagli Daughters of the Wind, they were my every morning cigar. I finally settled on the less expensive Casdagli DotW Pony but you can’t find them anymore. The Black Swan is every bit as good. The DotW needs a minimum of 3-4 months of rest before they shine. The Black Swan took less than a month. And how crazy is this? It’s a Nic puro. Not a convoluted blend of exotic leaves.
The strength began at medium and remains there in the last third.
The cigar shines right to the end. Flavors are consistent, the blend is complex with serious depth. Transitions are minimal because the blend goosed the swan from the start.
Sorry but this is a must. Knott’s Berry Farm bought two very expensive matched black swans for the lagoon where I drove the Cordelia K steamboat in the late 1960’s. They were vicious and loved to kill unsuspecting geese and ducks. One day I saw them up on the bank and I decided to chase them. They decided they’d have none of what I wanted. They opened their wings, with a span of over 8 feet, and ran like the wind after me while I screamed like a little girl. Not been a fan of black swans until now.
This Corona Gorda was constructed perfectly and was a 90-minute smoke. If the blend is this good with only a month of rest, imagine how it will taste with a few months. Yippi ki yay mother fucker.
These exclusive Cigar Page cigars were manufactured at the Raymond Page’s factory in Nicaragua, but it was the brain trust at CP that 100% blended the cigars.
This is a solid buy. If you miss out on this sale, I don’t know what to say other than you missed the boat. The supply of the bundles dedicated to this sale may be limited. I warned you.
For one week, you can snag a ten-count bundle for $70.00. Smoke on receipt but put the rest away for a month and then smoke your second. And ye shall judge how much longer they need. I’d buy two bundles. You’re not going to find a better medium body cigar for $7.00. Anywhere, anytime, any who…
GO TO CIGAR PAGE HERE.
RATING: 97
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS
Katman at your disposal...I'd love to know what you think.