CigarCraig's Blog

by Craig Vanderslice | February 16, 2025 · 8:33 am

Villiger, Blackbird and Platinum Nova Cigars

I remember smoking the Villiger Cuellar line back in 2014. I did an interview at the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival that year with Shawna Williams and Fabian Barrantes which, inexplicably, is the most viewed video on my YouTube channel. I started that day with the Cuellar Kreme, and have smoked many of them since, then the Cuellar Black Forest, with the San Andrés wrapper which is in my wheelhouse. This year they released the Cuellar Caribe, with an Ecuador Habano wrapper. These have all been made at Tabacalera Palma in the DR. The Caribe is reportedly a spin on the TAA 2021 blend, although I didn’t find much similarity. The binder and fillers are Dominican on this 6″ x 54 toro. I recall the TAA 2021 wasn’t my favorite of the TAA cigars, it was decent, but woody. This one had a strong citrus tang throughout, which I rather enjoyed. the burn and draw were perfect. This was a very enjoyable cigar.

I had been hearing about a Blackbird Cigars Crow in a box pressed toro format and was intrigued. This may or may not be exclusive to SmokingPipes.com, which is the ecommerce arm of Low Country Pipe and Cigar in South Carolina. Perhaps Tyler there will weigh in on whether this is an exclusive or not. I knew they had them, and wanted some more of their definitely exclusive Flamingo Lanceros (I smoked one of those tasty buggers this week too), so I ordered them. The Crow is my favorite cigar in the Blackbird line up. It has a San Andrés wrapper, Habano binder and Nicaraguan, Pennsylvanian, Corojo, and Criollo 98 fillers. This box pressed toro is the same size as the Gran Toro, but feels smaller somehow. It was a really great cigar, I should have gotten more! It’s dark, rich with some earthy espresso notes. It’s everything I like in a cigar in the evening. I am generally a fan of the Blackbird cigars, but the Crow is my favorite by far.

Yesterday afternoon after running some errands, and watching it snow, I picked out a Churchill to sit on the porch and watch a movie. I selected the Platinum Nova Cigars 5 Boroughs, a 7″ x 50 cigar that came back with me from the TPE show. This cigar was new to me, but it’s apparently been out for a couple years. It’s another San Andres wrapper, with Corojo and Cubita double binder and Nicaraguan fillers. The double binder is something new to Nova cigars, as is the band, which is different from the rest of the Nova line which uses the same band with secondary bands. The wrapper is not pretty, it’s mottled, and they are usually the tastiest! This had some interesting flavors, some earth and coffee again, a hint of spice, nothing that I don’t like. I only saw one other review for this and the reviewer hated it, and he’s wrong, it’s a good cigar. I’m not sure it’s $18 good (to me, I’m a cheap SOB), but it was objectively a good cigar, and I enjoyed it. Burn and draw were right, it was the right length for a movie, and I was happy.

I’m working on another cigar adventure in a few weeks, hopefully the logistics work out. It’ll be a quick in and out again. I will travel light, but I always want to take cigars, and I have to pick the right travel humidor. As much as I like this one, it’s not TSA friendly! I may just take a ziplock or use the Captain America-ador as my carry on! That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Flor de las Antillas, Espinosa, and a Couple Platinum Nova Cigars

A few weeks ago I picked up a Flor de las Antillas Maduro toro at Cigar Mojo since I didn’t think I had smoked that cigar before. I know this isn’t a new cigar, it came out in 2016 and was based on an Anniversary cigar for Federal Cigars in New Hampshire, I believe. Nobody ever said I had to write about new cigars, they are new to me. I’m basically making a searchable database here that I can use to find out when I smoked a cigar and what I thought of it. You’d be surprised at how many times I use the search on my own site! Anyway, I knew I hadn’t tried this cigar, and it looked really good. It has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and is a 6″ x 52 Box Pressed Toro. It’s made at the My Father factory in Esteli. This started with a toasty flavor, with some spiced candy sort of flavors, I really enjoyed it. Mojo has a great selection of My Father cigars, I try to find something new to try when I stop in, and If I don’t see something, I grab a favorite. I’ll definitely grab this again.

I came home from the TPE show with a few new-to-me cigars last week, and one of them was the Espinosa Sumatra, again, in a toro size. There are only a few places around me that have Espinosa cigars, I know Wooden Indian has them, but I don’t get there as often as I’d like. My friend Richie at Espinosa gave me this when I stopped by the booth at the show. You probably don’t remember, but I met Richie back in 2019 when we were on the same episode of KMA talk radio. He was with PDR Cigars at the time. I was excited to smoke this cigar. It’s a 6″ x 54 with a Sumatra wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. This has some of the sweetness I associate with a Sumatra wrapper, and some nuttiness and earthiness. I enjoyed it, although I think I’ll stick with the Laranja Azulejo as my favorite in the line.

I always enjoy seeing Leo from Platinum Nova cigars at events and shows. I first met her at the 2020 TPE show, I remember Anne, formerly of Sutliffe, presently of City of Palms Distribution, introduced me to Leo and Ari. Platinum Nova cigars are made in the Dominican Republic and are very high quality in my experience. I remember seeing the Nova Champion Football Cigar in their display in 2020, and was lucky enough to get one from Leo last week. This is a football shaped perfecto, with a Habano 2002 wrapper, and Dominican binder and fillers. It, obviously, is stylized to look like a football. I hear that the Super Bowl is on tonight, so I figured I’d better smoke it before it was out of season. Wouldn’t make much sense smoking this on a warm summer day on the beach, would it? Of course, I was concerned that this 5″ x 70 perfecto wouldn’t burn right, or wouldn’t be that exciting, but I knew it had a good pedigree. It burned perfectly, and had a good draw right from first light. The flavor was sort of a leathery sweetness, lots of flavor, but medium strength. I was pleasantly surprised at how good this was, and I enjoyed it while watching a movie on the porch. I’m kinda clad nobody makes a cigar shaped like a hockey puck!

Last night, while watching hockey, I smoked the Platinum Nova Platinum Batch Torpedo. This is a 6″ x 54 torpedo with a Habano 2000 wrapper and Dominican binder and fillers. It’s a really nice looking cigar. This is an $11 cigar that smokes like a much more expensive cigar. Burn and draw are perfect, it has bright tobacco flavors, is a little on the leathery side, but with some light floral notes. This is a sophisticated cigar that I would pick over a Davidoff or the like any day of the week, especially at that price. Nofa has some pricey cigars, but this one, on the low end (which 10 years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of calling an $11 cigar reasonably priced), is one of my favorite Nova cigars. It won’t knock you down, but it will give you a really pleasant flavor and smoking experience. I was delighted by it.

I’ve been using this lighter I got on Amazon for $24 and have been really happy with it. It’s a little big to carry around, but it’s nice for use at home. The V cutter does a nice job too. The link is an affiliate link. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Total Products Expo 2025 Recap

I got back yesterday from a Vegas were I had the good fortune of attending the Total Products Expo, formerly the Tobacco Products Expo. This year was a little different for me, as I spent the first two days helping out my friends at CigarMedics as a product ambassador, or evangelist, whichever works. It was interesting working that side of the table for a change, and I got to meet some new folks from around the country and educate a lot of folks on the Humidimeter and their other products. I continue to be a big fan of CigarMedics products, and watch for some new items in the future!

The TPE is a huge show, spanning two floors of the south hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Id guess that premium cigars and related items is less than 5% of the exhibitors. Most of it was vape, both nicotine and cannabis, nicotine pouches, “glassware”, and other items that are in smoke shops and convenience stores (we used to call Smoke Shops “head shops” years ago). The vape vendors seemed to have the most elaborate booths, and they seem to have incorporated digital screens and lights in to the devices for some reason. The pouches were a big thing it seemed. Lots of cannabis related stuff too, in which I’m neither familiar nor interested. I ventured off the red carpet (the cigar portion is designated by red carpeting) and was very uncomfortable. There were some interesting marketing tools and there was plenty of wild stuff to see. The cigar side was more traditional, although since there really weren’t a lot of premium cigar brands there (I counted around 20), there were some large lighter displays and some various accessory companies. Drew Estate’s booth was modest, J.C. Newman, Altadis , Davidoff and Perdomo had sizable booths, but the rest were reasonably simple. It didn’t seem like there were a lot of traditional cigar merchants there doing business, I ran into a few, but not like it’s been in years past that I’ve been to the TPE. Besides it being a more affordable overall trip, I’m not sure I’d go again, if I do it’ll be for one day, and the rest will be personal vacation.

I decided this year I was going to do something a little different from collecting video interviews with cigar brands, I interviewed some of the media in attendance. If you want to hear from the brands, check out these guys, they were all interviewing exhibitors, and no doubt, have the same content I would have gotten. My first one was with Patrick from Halfwheel. I’ve known Patrick since 2011, and I chatted with him for a few minutes. I later saw Charlie there and he passed on being interviewed say Patrick was a better interview anyway.

I also ran into Matthew Tabacco (his real name) who was there with his mother, who is also a cigar fan. Check out the Smokin Tabacco podcast and website, they have a good team and are very nice people. Keep an eye open for their annual raffle event benefiting the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation. I always enter, but never win! That’s OK, I have plenty, and the money goes to a great charity!

I met Cigar Show Tim at the 2020 TPE. and run in to him from time to time. He has the luxury of being able to drive the Vegas from California and has quite the professional rig. It’s tough doing video as a one man team, as evidenced be my own, Tim has a tripod on wheels and does a great job. Check out his YouTube channel.

I met Darrell of the Cigars Liquor and More podcast in the media lounge and found him to be a likable guy, and have subscribed to his podcast, but, admittedly, haven’t listened yet. They concentrate on pairings, and tech talk, so except for the booze part, I’m looking forward to adding this podcast into my rotation.

Finally I managed to meet Nick, the Bishop of the Burn, from the Cigar Pulpit Podcast. I’ve been enjoying this show for a few years now, and somehow managed to miss meeting Nick at previous TPE shows. Nick was joined by Noah at the show, a listener and frequent contributor to the show.

Hopefully you enjoy my slightly unusual coverage of the TPE show, thank you to CigarMedics for sponsoring this year’s coverage. If you don’t have a Humidimeter, what are you thinking? Get one! Anyway, it was fun, I’m pretty boring and was pretty much either in my hotel room, ar at the airport whenever I wasn’t on the show floor. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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2 Comments

Filed under Events, Review, TPE, Trip Report

Tagged as cigar, Cigar Pulpit, Cigar Show Tim, cigars, Cigars Liquor and More, Halfwheel, Las Vegas, Liquor and More, media, podcasts, Smokin Tabacco, Total Products Expo, TPE, Youtube

by Craig Vanderslice | January 26, 2025 · 10:12 am

Some Viaje Cigars, an HVC and an Espinosa Rerun

I try to include new (to me, or actually new) cigars in my Sunday posts, if nothing else but to create a searchable database of sorts for myself. This is a blog, with is short for “Web Log”, and I write it for my own benefit and it’s a happy accident that other people choose to spend their time reading it. This is something for which I am grateful, by the way! Once in a while I smoke a cigar that I’ve written about in the past that I feel deserves mentioning again. In this case it was the Espinosa Laranja Azulejo. This week I smoked both the Robusto Extra (5½” x 52) and the Gordo (6″ x 60) and enjoyed them very much! This has a sungrown Sumatra wrapper, a Brazilian Arapiraca Binder and Nicaraguan fillers and is made at the San Lotano factory in Ocotal, Nicaragua. I smoked this back in 2021, and loved it, a recent mention somewhere put it back on my radar, and I picked up a few when I visited a shop in the area that has some Espinosa cigars. Oddly, not a lot of my local shops have them for some reason. Anyway, I smoked the robusto in the shop on Monday evening, one of the friendliest visits I’ve had to that particular shop in quite some time, and it was an excellent smoke. I picked up the Gordo on the way out because I was so impressed. The gordo is box pressed, so it smoked more like a toro, both shapes have deep, rich espresso and spice flavors, all my favorite flavors. This is a supre good cigar, if you like the cigars I like, you’ll like this one.

On to the “new to me” cigars! On that same visit to a shop on Monday I picked up a Viaje Birthday Blend Collector’s Edition. This shop has a pretty “classic” selection, it was hard for me to find a cigar I hadn’t smoked before. By the way, Viaje’s website sucks, it’s just a landing page with rudimentary contact info. I got information from Cigara, which is owned by Scandinavian Tobacco. This is a 6¼” x 52 classic torpedo, which comes with a birthday wrapping paper sleeve. I admit that I don’t know what year this cigar is from, they seem to change every year, and I am not familiar enough with Viaje to know to look. I’m guessing it’s the latest, based on wrapper color and flavor alone, which is Criollo, not one of my favorite tobaccos. Anyway, I found this to be an interesting cigar, with some mild spice and a somewhat floral quality. It performed very well and while I wouldn’t seek this out again (unless I find myself in the same shop in the near future and can go look at the box!), but I wouldn’t pass one up if offered.

Smoking the Viaje prompted me to visit Cigar Mojo close to home here knowing that they had some Viaje cigars in stock. I selected a Satori Nirvana, which is the 6″ x 50 toro in the line. When I see “Satori” I’m reminded of a song off one of my favorite albums, King Crimson’s Beat from 1982, “Sartori in Tangier”. I know, Satori is different from SaNtori, but my mind goes there. This has a rather ugly, mottled wrapper, bu that usually means it’s going to taste great. It’s listed as San Andrés wrapper with Nicaraguan binder and filler, made at the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras. There were some earthy flavors and some chocolaty flavors, and I rather enjoyed the cigar. They had a couple other Viaje cigars at Mojo, but they were on the smaller side, maybe I’ll pick them up for the future.

Finally, I got around to picking up an HVC Hotcakes Golden Age in the Laguito No 5 vitola, 6″x 54. I probably have passed this by in the past because it’s Connecticut wrapped, but I think I’ve worked my way through the HVC line, and had to try this one. I’ve heard good things. This reportedly has some “Corojo 2006 Maduro” in the Nicaraguan filler blend. This cigar combines the bready, sweet grassy Connecticut Shade flavors with some gutsy sweetness from the fillers. I like this, and it was very nice smoking this on the porch watching a movie last night, amongst my favorite activities (or lack thereof).

I’m not sure what next Sunday’s post will be, it will probably be TPE heavy, as that’s where I’ll be Wednesday thru Friday. So, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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A Couple Tobacco Queen Cigars from Cigar Ambassador

I recently received a sampler of Tobacco Queen cigars from Cigar Ambassador. I’m guessing many of us hadn’t heard of this company, but apparently they have been big in the Asian market for some time, working out of the Dominican Republic. They are entering the U.S. Market with distribution with City of Palms Cigar Distribution Services. City of Palms is operated by Kevin and Anne Dinkins, formerly of Sutliff Tobacco. I’ve known Anne since she was with Villiger North America probably a dozen years ago. Cigar Ambassador has a factory in Tamboril and has been in the tobacco business there for 20 years. They sent a media sampler out, so you’ll be seeing these reviewed all over the place, it included a nice leather case and a cigar rest. I’ve included a video of it below.

I managed to get a couple of the cigars smoked for today’s post. I know I usually present more diversity, but to day it’s just these two cigars, the Lancero and the Salomon. Those who follow closely on Facebook, Instagram and Threads may have questions, I’ll be happy to answer those privately. The Lancero is 7″ x 38 with a pigtail cap (size is incorrect on the website, BTW). I was going to say that this is the best cigar I’ve smoke this year, but that’s too small a sample size, so I’ll say it’s one of the best I’ve smoked in the past year. This was an exceptional cigar. The wrapper is Ecuadorian Habano, the binder is Dominican Corojo, and the filler blend is Nicaraguan Jalapa, Dominican Criollo 98. The burn and draw were perfect, and I had concerns going in. This had really interesting flavors, some sweet tobacco and some exotic spices. I enjoyed this down to the tiniest nub, and it took nearly two hours to do that. This was a very impressive cigar, if not for the $20+ price tag, I’d look to add these to the humidor.

I had high hopes for the Salomon based on my experience with the Lancero! This is a 7¼” x 57 figurado with a neat flagged cap. It’s a very attractive cigar, and I’m a sucker for a Salomon. It’s a sizable cigar. The blend is an Ecuadorian Habano Rosado Maduro wrapper, Dominican San Vicente binder and Nicaraguan Jalapa, Dominican Corojo & Criollo 98 fillers. It started slow, as cigars this shape do, but it opened up nicely after burning through the nipple. It started mild and built to medium with some nice sweet and floral flavors. It was well crafted, although I did have to catch up a couple uneven burns here and there. I watched two periods of hockey with this cigar and had some left for the post game show. While this wasn’t the masterpiece that the Lancero was for me, it was still a good smoke with interesting and engaging flavors. Still out of my price range personally, it was a good smoke. The bands on this line are absolutely beautiful, very traditional and high quality. No complaints about the presentation, and they got these two hard to roll shapes right.

Thanks to Gabriel Pińeres for sending this sampler out. I still have the “A” and Robusto sizes to try, I’m not sure when I’ll get to them, I may let the rest for a while, I want to have a great experience with them. I have finalized plans to attend the TPE show, look for content sponsored by CigarMedics in the coming weeks. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Review

Tagged as cigar, Cigar Ambassador, cigars, City of Palms, Creativas, lancero, Salomon, Tobacco Queen