CigarCraig's Blog

by Craig Vanderslice | May 18, 2025 · 8:49 am

Villiger and Mil Dias Cigars and the Smoke-Onos Event

Yesterday I attended the Smoke-Onos event at Best Cigar Prices in Drums, PA, but more on that later. First I want to talk about a couple cigars I smoked this week. First up was the Villiger 1888 Gran Reserva. This is a 6″ x 54 with a San Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers. These are made at the Villiger de Nicaragua factory in Esteli (Until I’m told otherwise, I believe this is a sub-factory within Joya de Nicaragua). I was disappointed that René Castañeda wasn’t at the event yesterday! This cigar is $22, is limited to 1000 ten count boxes, and uses tobaccos aged at least two years with a year of post-roll aging. Of course, the size of the cigar is right, I really liked this cigar. It started with some cocoa and spices which kept going all the way through. This was a really enjoyable smoke, if they were half the price I’d be all over them!

To those who don’t know, Smoke-Onos is a portmanteau of Smoke and Poconos. To those who don’t know what a portmanteau is, go ahead and look it up! The Poconos is a sub-range of the Appalachian mountains located in the north-east part of Pennsylvania. It has nothing to do with Yoko Ono. Best Cigar Prices has their operation, with includes the Best Cigar Pub, in Drums, PA, which is kinda between Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton. Despite being in a relatively remote area, it’s a very popular cigar destination. The Smoke-Onos event covers several days, with events Thursday and Friday evenings, and a large multivendor event Saturday, an afterparty, then something on Sunday. I attended the Saturday event on a press pass, which got me in the door. If you are anywhere near this area, go to this event.

Many of the major players were there, the swag looked very impressive, with a duffle/backpack full of swag and cigars. There was a band that was loud (I was impressed when I heard them playing Hocus Pocus by Focus), the Drew Estate booth, which was smack dab in the middle of the event, was loud, and the crowd was large. I bet there were a couple thousand people there. I’ve been to these sorts of events, and for only the second year, this was up there with the best. I saw a great many friends there, both attendees , other media outlets and exhibitors. Many thanks to BCP for including me!

After getting home, I settled into my usual spot on my porch with a Crowned Heads Mil Dias Maduro Edmundo to watch this week’s episode of Curse of Oak Island. After 15 years they still haven’t found any treasure. The Maduro is a completely different blend than the Habano, with a Broadleaf wrapper, Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers. This is apparently made in the factory formerly known as Tabacalera Pichardo, TacaNicsa. I really like the Mil Dias Habano, and I was hoping to like this more. It’s a tasty cigar, starts peppery, and the pepper continues throughout. I think I expected more sweetness, and there was some espresso, but no sugar. This might be one of the rare cases where I prefer the Habano over the Maduro, usually Maduro is my jam. Anyway, it was good, the 5 3/8″ x 52 size fit the time I needed it to fill, and I was not unhappy.

That’s all for today. There was another cigar I smoked this week, but I didn’t care for it, so I’ll leave it for another time when I can smoke one again and form a better opinion! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

😃+

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Tagged as 1888, Best Cigar Prices, Best Cigar Pub, cigar, cigars, Crowned Heads, Mil Dias, Smoke-onos, smokeonos, Villiger

by Craig Vanderslice | May 11, 2025 · 9:15 am

Some Olmec, Room 101 and La Gloria Cubana Cigars

Thank you again to Craig Gilpin, the Breadman, for pinch-hitting for me last week. It’s been another rough week (parents can accumulate a LOT of crap over the years!), and cigars have been very therapeutic. I thought Craig did a great job, and the door is always open to him. I have posted about the Foundation Cigar Co’s Olmec Claro before, but not the Maduro for some reason, so I recently picked up a couple of each and figured it would be fun to smoke them back to back. I local shop was having a buy two, get one sale o the entire stock for some reason, so I bought some cigars I generally wouldn’t spend the extra scratch on. The Foundation Cigar Co. Olmec were some I picked up. These are in the $15 range, not terrible, but not inexpensive. I picked up the Grande size, the 6″ x 60, because the box press makes it look smaller (and I don’t mind a 6″x60 cigar). I smoked the Claro first. The Claro starts out with a citric twinge, which doesn’t last long, and turns bready with some cafe con Leche flavors. I liked it, good cigar, but the ash is flaky, I needed to dust off after this one! I then (later that day), turned to the Maduro. Both of these cigars have a San Andrés wrapper, difference is very obvious. The website lists binder from Esteli/Jalapa and undisclosed fillers. As I noted the last time I wrote about this cigar, it’s either a dual binder, or a typo on the website. If I liked the Claro, I really liked the Maduro, which should surprise nobody. The Maduro had loads of sweet chocolate with some spices thrown in. It’s a cigar I would love to have in my humidor. If you enjoy many of the cigars I enjoy, this is up your alley.

Next up was the Room 101 15th Anniversary. Room 101 started in 2009, the same year that I started this site. I’ve always wanted to sync up smoking one of their anniversary series, which comes out every year, just never found them around when I was thinking about it. These fell into my lap (TY STG). This is made with A.J. Fernandez, and it’s a Nicaraguan puro, and that’s about all I can find about the blend. This cigar has a lot going on. There’s some fruitiness, some spice, some wood, and cocoa. One of the best Room 101 cigars I’ve smoked. This cigar was almost a year late, but worth the wait, I can’t wait for the 16th! CigarCraig.com turns sixteen at the end of August, by the way!

My appreciation of the La Gloria Cubana brand goes back 30 years, and there have been some winners over the years, but a lot of misses for me along the way. So when I received some of the newest offering, the La Gloria Cubana Los Gloriosos, I was interested immediately. Along the lines of the Colección Reserva (back in 2017), this is blended by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr., who launched the brand in the US in the’70s. La Gloria Cubana in Cuba goes back to the late 1800s. The cigar is a blend of Nicaraguan and Dominican tobaccos, the press information doesn’t give any more information than that. This is the best cigar with the La Gloria name in a long time, at least for me. I really liked the Colección Reserva, and the La Gloria Esteli, and this tops the list for me. There’s a really interesting spice I can’t put my finger on, but is distinctive. I will smoke more, maybe I’ll smoke a Colección Reserva too and see how they compare! I’ll always be a fan of the brand, there’s just some I avoid and some I enjoy!

Happy Mother’s Day to all. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Aganorsa Supreme Leaf International Guest Craig Post

As some may know, my mother passed this week at the age of 90, after a very difficult month or so. I’m very fortunate to have a good support system, including friends who are willing to help me out maintaining consistency here. I didn’t even have to deputize an honorary Craig, I recruited an actual Craig, Craig Gilpin. Thank you, Craig, for your help. Without further ado:

Aganorsa Supreme Leaf International

cigar dimensions: 5 1/4 x 54.

Prices are $174.95 for a box, $94.75 for a 5-pack, and $18.95 for a single.

My friend Cigar Craig Vanderslice had gotten in touch with me to do a write-up on a cigar, and at first, I thought what a daunting task! Then I thought to myself, I’m honestly honored to be even thought of to do a task to help him out. He explained that his Mother had passed away and he needed a brief hiatus. I know personally that it is almost overwhelming with all the things you have to get done with arrangements and services, family matters, etc.

Well, luckily I had just recently received a 5-pack (Smoke Inn) The Aganorsa Leaf Supreme Leaf, but these happen to be for the international market. These were originally introduced at the InterTabac trade show in Dortmund, Germany back in 2024. I’ve come to grow rather fond of the excellent marketing that Terence Reilly, VP of Sales and Marketing, has been doing for quite some time now. Maybe, I just like to flex? I don’t know, but I do know that I’ve enjoyed greatly some of the past vitolas that I have had from this Supreme Leaf line, which started for me with a blind box purchase of the Supreme Leaf in the 6×54 Toro vitola. This international version is a 5 1/4 x 54 Robusto, which I happened to have purchased from Smoke Inn. I’ve been a fairly active “socialite” in the Facebook Smoke Inn Socialites group, and have not only had a great time with the people from the group, but the owner Abe Dababneh has also become a friend. Many of the people have become my friends, quite a few have become much more than just acquaintances. I’ve branched out from what was my cigar-buying comfort zone, basically from joining the Cigar of the Month club quite a few years back. I’ve gotten to try so many new cigars. Many I’ve never heard of or seen from some of my local cigar places. It ( the COTM) had been a big boost to my journey into the cigar world.

Anyway, onto the cigar! The International Supreme Leaf is a fairly limited release of just 2,024 10-count boxes. It’s a medium-strength Nicaraguan Corojo 99 wrapper, with both Nicaraguan binder and filler, so this is a classic Nicaraguan puro. I found the cigar to not be overly spicy at all. It was subtle, very nice. Decent smoke output although I did get a bit of a wonky burn that I did have a few touch ups but I do blame it more on me not letting it acclimate and get to my normal humidity of 68-69%. I don’t often retrohale but I do a few times during a cigar and this wasn’t what I’d call even remotely spicy. I got an almost raisin bread sweetness to it, which made this cigar right in my wheelhouse. (Am I somewhat biased being The Bread man?)

I felt that it had a bit more flavorful notes than some of the other vitolas of this line that I’ve had. Maybe it’s more complex for me than the others I’ve had, due to it being a more compact cigar. I don’t know. I have found that I’ve been favoring some of the smaller vitolas for a while now lately. I’ve talked with Cigar Craig about this in the past, and that I’m a tad personally perplexed by the love of some of the ginormous vitolas out there. I feel that some, no most, of the flavors and nuances get sort of lost in the airiness of those big ring cigars. Frankly, I also feel somewhat like it’s smoking a big kielbasa, and just seems a tad awkward. The Supreme Leaf, for me, is a very enjoyable cigar, and I will continue to “flex” it in my rotation and “validate” whenever I can. I’ll probably make a few more purchases to keep trying some of the newer releases in the Aganorsa line, since this has been a winner for me.

I thank you, Craig, for letting me do this and temporarily fill those shoes of yours. It was fun but not by any means easy and you make it look so easy!I genuinely send you my heartfelt condolences to all of you in your family during this time. Peace to you my friend, Craig the Bread man.

Once again, thank you brother Craig! I may have to think about offering. him a staff position! I think he’s qualified! Until the next time,

CigarCraig(s)

😃+

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Tagged as Aganorsa Leaf, Breadman, cigar, cigars, Guest Review, Smoke Inn, Supreme Leaf

by Craig Vanderslice | April 27, 2025 · 8:06 am

Aganorsa Signature, The GOAT and Oz Family Cigars

First off I feel the need to point something out. I received the press release for this year’s Punch Father’s Day release, Mr. Punch’s Weiners. I thought the Dad Bod was a terrible concept just about all around, some folks liked it. The band was dumb, packaging them in a can was dumb, overall I thought it sent a bad message: it’s OK to let yourself go. Not that I’m a fitness freak, I have a dad bod, but I don’t embrace it! The Dad’s Home Videos was very good, not a problem. I have a problems with the weiner theme, aside form the obvious, it seems to be a little close to the Fratello Vice-Versa, down to saying it can be smoked from either end. Now, it doesn’t claim to taste different depending on which way one smoked it, but the concept is the same. I know it’s not worth Omar’s time to do anything about it, both are limited editions, and General has deep enough pockets to defend themselves, but it would be a courtesy to look at things in the market and try not to blatantly copy them. At least they put them in packs of 10. I think Kevin (who played a big part in the Vice-Versa, by the way) should get on his 3D printer and make some hot dog roll cigar props and sell them in packs of eight!

That was a long way to get to the punch line, so let’s talk about some new-to-me cigars. In a recent visit to The Wooden Indian I picked up an Aganorsa Leaf Signature Selection Maduro Toro. This is a Nicaraguan Puro, mostly Nicaraguan Corojo with a touch of Nicaraguan Criollo 98 in the filler. I struggle with the Aganorsa lines, some I like, some not so much and I can’t seem to ever remember which ones fall into which category. I know I like the La Validation Maduro, that’s for sure. Will I remember the next time I’m faces with a choice? Who’s to say? I can say that I’m adding this to the list of Aganorsa cigars I like. It started with a dry cocoa powder kinda thing going on, and got sweeter as it went along. Burn and draw were great and it hit the spot. $13.50 well spent.

Next up from my Wooden Indian foray was an A.J. Fernandez cigar that I’ve heard a lot about, The Goat. This started life as a store exclusive for Nasser’s Lounge in Pétion-Ville, Haiti. I’ve never been there. It’s now in wider distribution, and is pricey for an A.J. Fernandez cigar , around $17. Also pricey for me, but I was interested and looking for new things. This has a San Andrés wrapper, Nicaraguan Corojo binder and Nicaraguan fillers. What’s not to like, right? Turns out, I liked it a lot. It was a 6″ x 52 toro, It was heavy, earthy and had some sweet espresso notes. It was very good, but outside my comfort zone price-wise. I’m notoriously frugal.

Finally I picked up an Oz Family Cigars Firsat, in the F54 size. This is a 7″ x 54 cigar, with a higher priming Ecuador Connecticut wrapper that I thought was pretty ugly. Many times ugly wrappers are very tasty. The binder is a Ecuador Habano with Nicaraguan fillers. I believe this is made at Casa Carillo in the DR. It’s a big cigar, and I sat down to watch a movie figuring it was going to take a good two hours to smoke. The flavors were nuts and leather, with a bit of creaminess and built up to a solid medium. This was a light (in weight) cigar, and was done in less than 90 minutes, which was a bit of a disappointment. $14 wasn’t a terrible price, it was a tasty cigar and it might work better in another size, or at least the same for less money.

That’s all I have for today. Don’t forget to check out the Flatbed Cigar Co. Daily Deal, there’s always something good (left sidebar). Until the next time,

CigarCraig

😃+

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Tagged as A.J. Fernandez, Aganorsa Leaf, cigar, Cigar Prop, cigars, Firsat, Fratello, Oz Family Cigars, punch, Signature Selection, The Goat

by Craig Vanderslice | April 20, 2025 · 9:23 am

Some Macanudo and Punch Cigars

I wasn’t even really thinking that I only smoked Macanudo and Punch cigars for this week’s post, it just sort of happened that way! I was really impressed with the Macanudo Emissary España last year, it’s really good, and on the stronger side for a Macanudo. It has tobacco grown in Spain, and the new one, the Emissary France, believe it or not, has tobacco grown in France! The tobacco cultivated in the Mugron River Valley, where it gets an Atlantic sea breeze. Emissary France has an Ecuadorian Habano Wrapper (10-Year Aged), a USA Broadleaf Binder (10-Year Aged), and a filler blend composed of Dominican Piloto (10-Year Aged), USA Broadleaf (8-Year Aged), Brazilian Arapiraca (7-Year Aged) and French (4-Year Aged). This was a really interesting cigar, another Macanudo that’s up my alley. It’s bold, it has a lot of espresso, and a hint of Mesquite. Very interesting and entertaining! The last few weeks cigars have been more therapeutic than usual, an

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d this one, although too short at 5″ x 50, was a hit.

In the spirit of the season, I finally completed an experiment. Back in March of 2020 I found a Macanudo 1968 that had been inadvertently left out and was on the dehydrated side. It measured only 35% on the Humidimeter. I labeled it with the date and humidity, and stashed it in a corner of one of the humidors. I hate to complain, but it actually took me a while to find it, I had forgotten which humidor it was i

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n. This cigar was from a box that I was given in 2011 when I went to tour General Cigar’s operations in Santiago. I might still have one floating around somewhere, I don’t think this was the last one. Anyway, I took a Humidimeter reading and it was right around 60% so I lit it up yesterday while watching a movie. The Macanudo 1968 was probably the first of the stronger Macanudos, so I wasn’t worried it had aged out, more concerned with the dehydration. It actually smoked really well, tasted like an older cigar, mature, with some spice. It shows that resurrecting a cigar is possible, and probably didn’t take 5 years, I just kept forgetting about it!

Let’s move away from Macanudo and on to one of it’s stablemates, Punch. Punch is an old Cuban brand, with roots in the English market. So it stands to reason they would come out with seasonal releases with Chinese themes. It was food for a bit, then fireworks. This year’s is the Bottle Rocket. It comes in a single size , a 4½” x 50 figurado. It has a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, a Nicaraguan Estelí binder, and Nicaraguan, Dominican, and Honduran fillers. I have enjoyed ll of the cigars in Punch’s lunar new year series, and they are priced well. I was in The Wooden Indian Tobacconist yesterday grabbing a few cigars (sadly they were sold out of the WIT60, their 60th anniversary cigar made by Espinosa), and I saw the Bottle Rockets and they really are packed with a stick attached, my samples were sans stick. My notes said “tasty little bugger”, full bodied, loads of cocoa and a deceptively long burn time. I think I got over an hour out of this one. Another winner from Punch.

While at the Wooden Indian I grabbed a Punch Dad’s Home Movies and smoked it last night while not watching home movies. This is another perplexing branding theme for Punch. Every year ahead of Father’s Day they come out with some k

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hy themed cigar, this was last year’s and I’m just now getting around to trying it. I was especially critical of the “Dad Bod”, hated the name, the stupid necktie band, and samples I had were mostly damaged. I had one last week and it about fell apart. This one is more my speed. It’s a 6″ x 50 box pressed toro, made in Honduras with an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and not a hint of Honduran tobacco! This one started out with a dry cocoa powder flavor, then sweetened slightly. I’ll tell you what, for under $8 you could do a lot worse, I quite enjoyed this one. The branding is less egregious than the Dad Bod (which won a HalfWheel packaging award, go figure).

That’s all for today. If you’re given to celebrating the holy days this time of year, I hope they are enjoyable! Don’t forget to check the Flatbed Cigars Daily Deal on the left sidebar (or on their page), there’s always a great deal on some great cigars. Until the next time,

CigarCraig