Your favorite Non-Cubans

[MAT]

My NC ...

[Salomones]

Since today one more in my Book.

 

 

[DikkeSigaar]

My two cents: all Joya de Nicaragua Obras Maestros lines are very good. Complex, full flavoured, low to medium strength.

[dshot]

I'm pretty happy with Fuente's and Padron's. Don Carlos or Padron's 1,000 series are pretty good for an everyday smoke.

[fisherclive]

Plasencia Alma Fuerte 

Warped Flor de Valle 

Illusione 888 or MK

 

[Sir Diggamus]

I also find so many NCs a bit too much for my palate. I trend toward medium bodied NCs. Below are my favorites

Illusione- Haut 10 and Epernay line
Tatuaje- Black, Brown, Negociant Monopole (a great Connecticut cigar)
Casdagli-Daughters of the Wind line
Jake Wyatt- just got into these and everything has been great so far
Warped- La Colmena, Bits of Havana, La Realtos
Joyo de Nicaragua- Numero Uno line


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Finn]

A. Fuente Hemingway Classic or Signature.  They consistently smoke well, have interesting enough developments throughout the thirds and are not pepper or nicotine bombs.  As a bonus they are quite affordable and readily available. 

[SMELTZ]

My Favorite NC would be Ashton Symmetry followed by AF Lost City.  I like the Oliva Serie Melanio in the figurado but i had one today followed by a SLR Regios and it doesn't even come close to the flavor of this cuban. 

[moneyneversleeps]

I dislike the pepper as well.  I'd recommend Illusione Epernay

[Akd313]

Casdagli Daughters of the Wind. Beautiful cigars.

[Islandboy]

Another fan of Casdagli DOTW here. Not into the sledgehammer-peppery NC’s at all (My Father, ‘I’m looking at you), but I do like my NC’s earthy and full of interesting aromatic flavors-  that’s Casdagli all day long. My other favorite in the category is God of Fire by Carlito - Carlos Fuente Jr’s finest work IMO. I know the GOF by Don Carlos is blended to be a bit milder, but I don’t find the Carlito peppery myself, just wonderfully complex in its full earthy flavors.

[PrairieSmoke]

Lots of good suggestions in this thread. There is no shortage of cigars that are palatable for someone who gravitates toward CCs these days. Just look at what @El Presidentewas able to do with the nudies line.  

Check out:

Illusione, Warped, Aganorsa Leaf, Casdagli, Foundation, Cavalier, Tatuaje, Lampert, Davidoff, Byron, Atabey, Smoking Jacket. 

I love Cuban tobacco and nothing can replace it, but there are definitely fantastic cigars in your wheelhouse that you can sprinkle into your rotation. 

[HoyoFan]

Thanks guys, this is an amazing compilation. So great to see a few names appearing over and over again. That’s definitely where I’ll be starting.

[BuzzArd]

Tatuaje Escasos are at the very top of my NC favorites list. I have 5-6 boxes here.  I want more.  Very light in body (I’d be surprised if ligero was part of the blend) but a vary rich flavor profile. As close to a CC as I have had. 

[HoyoFan]

I realized that in posting the original question, I never provided any of my personal favorites thus far:

Had a 1 year aged Illusione CG4 which was outstanding.
Padron thousand series maduro with a few years on them are some of my favorite daily sticks.
Fuente hemingway short story maduros and Anejo have been great as well
Sobremesa Brulee and Brulee Blue 
Southern Draw Rose of Sharon, especially the lancero
Crowned Heads Le Careme, Le Patissier, Las Calaveras
EP Carillo Encore Majestic

[jakebarnes]

It's been a while, so I am a bit rusty at this. However, these are the New World cigars that I tend to enjoy from time to time: 

- Fuente Sungrown Cuban Belicoso. Oddly satisfying. Excessively underrated. These always sort of just scratch an itch for me.

- Davidoff Anniversario and Special R. 

- Hamlet 25th Anniversary. Just had the corona the other day (thanks to UpDown Cigars in Chicago). Typically would turn away from a Rocky Patel associated cigar, but this was quite nice. See a few more in my future.

[KCCubano]

On 5/3/2022 at 7:22 PM, BuzzArd said:

Tatuaje Escasos are at the very top of my NC favorites list. I have 5-6 boxes here.  I want more.  Very light in body (I’d be surprised if ligero was part of the blend) but a vary rich flavor profile. As close to a CC as I have had. 

I enjoy them on occassion as well for a change of pace. Have had the lancero and I guess Corona. Hard to find now. 

[ParkitoATL]

My taste buds have been scorched by decades of IPAs and heavy cigars, really leaning towards the lighter smokes these days:

• Tatuaje Havana VI Victoria (6x38) - like a longer RyJ Coronita en Cedro, really nice medium gingerbread smoke, spicy but not peppery. The Havana VI red label is much lighter than the black label or the Havana VI Verocu.
• Punch Gran Puro - a Honduran puro, very mild with a lot of flavor. Amazing value, try a five pack. I've smoked the 6x60 and 5x54, there is a Rothschild size which I haven't smoked but I feel like it might give the blend just a touch more medium kick, which would be welcome. (The Punch Gran Puro Nicaragua did nothing for me.)
• EIROA 1st 20 Years - another a Honduran puro, lovely box pressed corona, lots of dry cocoa without any pepper punch, on the full side of medium.
• Quintero Londres Extra - just bought 100 more Quintero minutos/PCs for $200. Maybe I'm a cheap little piece of trash but at $2/each a Quintero gives me a lot of love.
• Guantanamera - people laugh at these but, honestly, the Decimos (panetela) are super mild and flavorful. The boxes I bought last month have some serious barnyard. An hour of Cuban tobacco for $1.70, me love you long time.

This thread is proof of one immutable law of economics: substitution. People are already looking for alternatives.

 

[chu2]

10 hours ago, ParkitoATL said:

My taste buds have been scorched by decades of IPAs and heavy cigars, really leaning towards the lighter smokes these days:

• Tatuaje Havana VI Victoria (6x38) - like a longer RyJ Coronita en Cedro, really nice medium gingerbread smoke, spicy but not peppery. The Havana VI red label is much lighter than the black label or the Havana VI Verocu.
• Punch Gran Puro - a Honduran puro, very mild with a lot of flavor. Amazing value, try a five pack. I've smoked the 6x60 and 5x54, there is a Rothschild size which I haven't smoked but I feel like it might give the blend just a touch more medium kick, which would be welcome. (The Punch Gran Puro Nicaragua did nothing for me.)
• EIROA 1st 20 Years - another a Honduran puro, lovely box pressed corona, lots of dry cocoa without any pepper punch, on the full side of medium.
• Quintero Londres Extra - just bought 100 more Quintero minutos/PCs for $200. Maybe I'm a cheap little piece of trash but at $2/each a Quintero gives me a lot of love.
• Guantanamera - people laugh at these but, honestly, the Decimos (panetela) are super mild and flavorful. The boxes I bought last month have some serious barnyard. An hour of Cuban tobacco for $1.70, me love you long time.

This thread is proof of one immutable law of economics: substitution. People are already looking for alternatives.

 

Man after my own heart with the value smokes.  There are some terrific non-Cubans out there for budget prices. None of them really taste like Habanos to me (they will almost always miss that mineral/slightly tangy backbone that almost all Cubans have), but some are delectable in their own right.

For me, I always have a box of Dominican (edit: I meant Honduran! Blame it on a long workday and not enough sleep) Sancho Panza Double Maduros on hand.  They’re pungent since they have a maduro wrapper and binder, but definitely not as strong as a Nicaraguan puro or as spicy. Lovely, albeit one-note and straightforward, chocolate, coffee and brown sugar / vanilla flavors. If I can’t decide on a smoke, I’ll usually land on this one.

I also really enjoy the Punches you mentioned.

And to be honest, I’ll never scoff at a Fuente. Don Carloses are beautiful, slightly citrusy and floral, bold smokes, but hand me an 8-5-8 and I’m very happy, too.
 

[Çnote]

3 hours ago, chu2 said:

Sancho Panza Double Maduros

What size is showing off the flavors you describe???

[Cigarsmoker81]

I went to New York several months back and I bought around 30 singles of nc to try out. 

Illusione epernay  ( spelling ?) And l’atelier lat 54 were the most Cuban like and I thoroughly enjoyed them 

I also liked ep Carrillo wraped and Oliva figurado 

[chu2]

5 hours ago, Çnote said:

What size is showing off the flavors you describe???

The coronas (La Mancha, I think?) are the best bet for that flavor, followed by the Rothschilds (Quixote).  Although I have some of the larger robustos (which they call lanceros for some bizarre reason) on hand so we’ll see how those go.

I also buy boxes of these when I can get them on discount-so keep in mind these are a few years old at this point.  Fresh, even though pre-aged, they’re a little brasher and don’t have quite as much sweetness to them in my opinion. But taste is subjective!

[Paladin865]

My favorite NC would be J.  Newman The American, a cigar that all the tobacco is US grown and rolled.

 

[OrangePaw]

6 hours ago, Paladin865 said:

My favorite NC would be J.  Newman The American, a cigar that all the tobacco is US grown and rolled.

Yes, fantastic blend.

[HoyoFan]

My taste buds have been scorched by decades of IPAs and heavy cigars, really leaning towards the lighter smokes these days:

• Tatuaje Havana VI Victoria (6x38) - like a longer RyJ Coronita en Cedro, really nice medium gingerbread smoke, spicy but not peppery. The Havana VI red label is much lighter than the black label or the Havana VI Verocu.
• Punch Gran Puro - a Honduran puro, very mild with a lot of flavor. Amazing value, try a five pack. I've smoked the 6x60 and 5x54, there is a Rothschild size which I haven't smoked but I feel like it might give the blend just a touch more medium kick, which would be welcome. (The Punch Gran Puro Nicaragua did nothing for me.)
• EIROA 1st 20 Years - another a Honduran puro, lovely box pressed corona, lots of dry cocoa without any pepper punch, on the full side of medium.
• Quintero Londres Extra - just bought 100 more Quintero minutos/PCs for $200. Maybe I'm a cheap little piece of trash but at $2/each a Quintero gives me a lot of love.
• Guantanamera - people laugh at these but, honestly, the Decimos (panetela) are super mild and flavorful. The boxes I bought last month have some serious barnyard. An hour of Cuban tobacco for $1.70, me love you long time.

This thread is proof of one immutable law of economics: substitution. People are already looking for alternatives.
 

These are great thanks for the reco. I’ve definitely been noticing I I tend to like Honduran tobacco