Monthly Archives: July 2010

Vegas de Santiago Cigar Contest Winner – July 7, 2010

My apologies for dragging my feet on this.  Apparently the cat union shut down this week citing excessive heat.  I just couldn’t get any of the cats to cooperate.  I should have made the contest to guess how many hours a day they sleep or something.  In the mean time, as I was trying to get some reaction out of the cats, I managed to enjoy a couple cigars.

Monday evening I smoked a Perdomo Tierra del Sol Corona.  This is a nice looking square pressed (actually, it’s more tongue depressor shaped)  long corona measuring 6 ½” x 42.  My 20 year old son bought a bundle of these to take to a graduation party and managed to select these on his own.  I had never had one so I was concerned that they may not have been a good choice.  He got lucky and found a very nice cigar for a very reasonable price.  These are a nice, smooth cigar, quite suitable for the occasional smoker or newbie.  I found the one he gifted me to be tasty and well behaved, certainly suitable for a more experienced smoker as well.  My son liked them too, which is good since he now has a bunch of them in his humidor.

I know, you’re waiting for me to announce the winner….

Tuesday evening the mercury was approaching 100 (the display on my scooter read 97), so my wife and I took a walk down to get her a frosty water ice.  The Rita’s Water Ice outlets are fairly common on the east coast of the US (and Texas, go figure)  and are quite the hot spots (so to speak) on a hot summer day.  She got a Green Apple water ice and I enjoyed another Partagas Petit Coronas Especiale.  I picked this one out of sheer laziness, I’ll admit.  I had my eye on a Camacho Maduro, but I didn’t feel like taking a picture of it.  I also didn’t want to have to think about it too hard.  While I’m thinking of it, here’s a little confession:  I never take notes on cigars, I pretty much write about them after the fact from memory.  This is why I say I’m a crappy cigar reviewer. In all honesty, I smoke cigar to relax, and I’m afraid that If I put too much effort into trying to write a review, it will become more like a job and won’t be as enjoyable.  That’s why this blog will try to concentrate on my experiences more than any kind of serious reviews.  I am a little envious of folks who can describe a cigar in such a way that I can almost taste it.  I’ll stick with a simple “I would smoke this again” or “Smoke this dog rocket at your own risk” rating scale.

Here’s an neat article I came across at Huffington Post about Cigar Vacations: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-johansmeyer/cigar-travel-the-latest-i_b_634668.html

OK, here’s a little video of the winner selection this time.  I just threw it together, so to speak.  I won’t try this method again…really, I feel the need to apologize for wasting two minutes of your time.  Here it is:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4zhVNLuJCc

Anyway, I have Joel’s address around here someplace, I’ll hunt it down and get your prize pack of Vegas de Santiago cigars out to you this week! The music in the video is “Northern Lights” by Cliff Hillis from his album “The Long Now”.  Thanks to the fine folks at Vegas de Santiago for sending some great cigars!

Thanks to all who participated!  Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Holiday Weekend Cigars,- July 4, 2010

I started off the weekend with a really nice CAO VR maduro Moby, a 6″ x 50 toro, although it seemed more like a 46 ring gauge than 50. This came in a sampler my wife gave me back in February.  It’s Nicaraguan and Mexican fillers dressed in a beautiful dark and oily  Brazilian wrapper.  I like this cigar.  It’s a solid, maduro cigar.  I’m not sure I think it’s a $6 or $7 cigar, but I did enjoy it and if it were in the $3 range it would represent a good value.  I believe this is a Cigars International exclusive.

Last night, between dinner with my wife, daughter and her husband and the local fireworks display, I lit up another Partagas Petit Coronas Especial from the box I received last month.  It seems that a couple weeks rest really settled these down.  It was a nice, smooth cigar that made me very pleased that I made the purchase.  At right around $5 each, this is a very nice old style Havana cigar.  It has the little zing that tells me what I’m smoking.  The construction seems superb as it burned really well.  I smoked it to a finger burning nub, then moved to the front porch to watch the fireworks.

Today I lit up a Montecristo No. 1 to celebrate the birth of our nation.  I almost always smoke something a little exotic on the 4th, as I think that our nation has some basis in civil disobedience.  I also think our southern neighbor makes some darned tasty cigars.  This particular example came into my possession around 2004 as a gift, and was at least 5 years old if not more at the time.  Time has been good to this cigar as it was smooth and flavorful, with that little bit of citrus that I’ve found in Montecristo No. 4s in the past.  It has suffered some unfortunate wrapper damage, but burned as if nothing were wrong, even with an excellent draw.   An exceptional cigar.

I would like to direct you to another hysterical video of one of my cats selecting a winner in my Vegas de Santiago contest, but, alas, I cannot.  I don’t know if the cat union won’t allow them to work on a holiday or what, but I just could not get one of them to do a damned thing today.  I’ll try to get something tomorrow, but if I don’t, I’ll have to select the winner in a more mundane fashion.  I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to that.

Well, that’s all I have for now, I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday and wish me luck getting these cats to do one little thing I ask of them.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Vegas de Santiago Cigars Week Continues! – Thursday July 1, 2010

I can’t believe July is here already. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that we were up to our ears (almost literally) in snow, and here we are in the middle of summer. Anyway, we are in the midst of Vegas de Santiago week here at Cigarcraig.com and last night I smoked a cigar from their “VDS originales” line. This particular cigar has a little history behind it. In 2004 my wife and I hosted the first of two cigar events at the Freehold Raceway in Freehold, NJ. We rented the “luxury box” at the top of the grandstand, which included food, beverages and our own parimutuel teller. It was a great event with about 20 folks from as far away as British Columbia and Alaska. One of the sponsors of the event was Vegas de Santiago, who sent 25 of these cigars in beautiful wooden tubes. I have saved this cigar in the depths of the coolerdor for the last 6 years, and I figured this was as good a time to open it up and set fire to it as any. The cigar measured 6″ x 48, which is is not listed on their website, so is ether no longer in production, or magically changed ring gauge over time. The wrapper was a nice milk chocolate brown, but wasn’t entirely consistent in color. It lit and burned nicely as a cigar that’s had some time to rest should. It was a medium bodied cigar and the flavors were nice, not as rich as the Secretos de Maestro, but not grassy, like I found the Chaman to be. Overall I think this is a nice cigar. Unfortunately, I don’t have any of these to include in the contest prize pack, but there will be several of the Secretos and a couple Chamans. Remember to go back a couple posts and enter the contest which ends Saturday.

In the news

It looks like we’ve dodged another bullet here in the state of Pennsylvania as the proposed cigar and “other tobacco products” have again been excluded from being taxed in the proposed budget. This leaves PA as the only state that doesn’t tax smokeless and pipe tobacco and one of two states without a cigar tax. Obviously this is very good for us consumers, and quite nice for the cigar stores in PA that will get to continue doing business and employing taxpaying citizens. You can read more about this in the CRA’s news alert here. I am amused by the reaction of the acting CEO of the American Lung Association, Deborah Brown. She says: “I can’t believe they left this money on the table and they’d rather see people laid off from their jobs than to tax these products”. I suppose that if there was a tax on cigars, nobody would lose their jobs when cigar stores closed and business moved to Florida taking their business and payroll taxes with them? Sorry to say, tobacco employs hundreds of people in PA and companies like Cigars International and Famous pay millions in taxes. I know tobacco isn’t good for you, and it’s a fashionable target for the pleasure police, but let’s figure out why destroying an industry is preferable to streamlining state government or paying for prisons and welfare? Rant over, I’m sure we’ll see PA try to tax tobacco again next year. Support Cigar Rights of America!

That’s about it for now!  Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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