Joya De Nicaragua Black Toro Cigar Review from Lebanon during Sunset

Have a Cigar: Joya De Nicaragua Black Toro

Name: Joya Black Toro
Country: Nicaragua
Shape: Parejo
Size: Toro (6 inches x 52)
Strength: Medium

A flavorful, medium-bodied cigar that pairs well with blended Scotch.

Branding: Here’s an attractive cigar. The band gives it a bad boy vibe. (Because it’s named Black, I felt like pairing the first third with a glass of Johnnie Walker Black Label.)

Construction: Masterfully rolled, the Joya Black has no weaknesses.

Pre-light: Promising a rich experience full of flavors.

Cut: Straight cut, as always.

Burn: Great and even burn.

Duration: 90 minutes.

Draw: Firm draw. Could have been a little looser.

Smoke: Good.

Ash: Good.

Flavor: Coffee, leather, and hints of pepper.

Smoking a Brick House Maduro Mighty Mighty cigar at Mareva Beirut.

Have a Cigar: Brick House Maduro Mighty Mighty

Name: Brick House Maduro Mighty Mighty
Country: Nicaragua
Shape: Parejo
Size: Gordo (6 1/4 inches x 60)
Strength: Medium to Full

I paired this cigar with espresso and sparkling water and smoked it in good company. Overall, although it wasn’t the best smoking experience, I’d say that I wouldn’t mind smoking the Brick House Maduro Mighty Mighty again. For its price, it’s a good cigar.

Branding: A J.C. Newman cigar. I wasn’t able to recognize the cigar from where I stood in the walk-in humidor. But since the cigar bands looked fairly attractive from afar, I had to come closer to the box to see what wss in it. And that’s how I met the Brick House Maduro Mighty Mighty.

Construction: Not so great, but good. It could have been more firmly wrapped. The cigar started collapsing during the last few draws of the final third.

Pre-light: An earthy smell and a chocolaty flavor.

Cut: Straight cut.

Burn: It did not burn evenly 100% of the time, yet I wouldn’t say it was a mess.

Duration: 75 minutes.

Draw: A good draw. Easy.

Smoke: A generous amount of smoke.

Ash: Average.

Flavor: Chocolate, earth, pepper.

Review of Muse Le Rouge 2019, a Lebanese red wine from the Bekaa Valley.

Lebanese Wines: Muse Le Rouge 2019

Name: Muse Le Rouge 2019
Type: Red Wine
Grapes: Syrah, Cabernet-Sauvignon
Year: 2019
Country: Lebanon
Region: Bekaa Valley
Date Consumed: March 18, 2024

Full-bodied red wine. Medium tannins. Black fruits, plum, blackberry. Some oak and tiny hints of licorice. Successfully paired with steak. I’d like to drink this while smoking a full-bodied maduro Nicaraguan cigar one day. Maybe next time I will. I’d give this wine a 79/100.

The taste of a muse’s kiss in my mouth,
a goddess lying naked on my tongue
making love to the stanzas
I’m about to recite.

Words dipped in wine,
words flowing, coming
from the heart, the soul,
from places as dark as cellars.

The smell of home,
the underground pubs where I spent
my early twenties,
smoking cigarettes,
sipping full-bodied wines
before and after making memories.

The memories aged like wine.
(Some of the girls I kissed didn’t.)
Bottles of good times
uncorked and emptied,
every drop of passion drunk,
every love song sung,
every fire finally extinguished.

And here I am,
a bearded man looking back
one last time
before I stride forward
and never look back again.