I dipped into the little guys for the early part of the week. Â It’s been cold, and time has been limited. Â I usually save up the little cigars for this time of year, coronas, half coronas, short 30 or 45 minute cigars that taste good, and are perfect for a quick mile or so walk around the neighborhood.
I began the week with a favorite, the Chateau Real Small Club Corona Maduro. Â I believe these are discontinued, which is a shame, because I really like the Mexican maduro wrapper on these. As with everything from Drew Estate, they always burn well, and, let’s face it, a four inch cigar doesn’t have a lot of room for error. Â I bought a box of these sometime in the fall of 2009, and just dug into the last half of the box. Â Nice little smokes!
Last night I grabbed an American Eagles Half Corona, which I received a few months back from Chris at Sardell Imports.  This is a camouflage wrapped cigar, it had a beautiful Connecticut shade wrapper that’s overlaid with maduro and candella pieces to give it the camo look.  Sure, it’s gimmicky, but it’s a really solid cigar, perfect burn and draw, and a rich mid to medium bodied flavor that is really nice, smooth, creamy and delicious. It a fun cigar, quite tasty and well behaved. I have a whole comedy routine ready for the day I smoke one in a public place and someone complains about it. Seriously, a  portion of the proceeds from these cigars go toward the Semper Fi Fund, and they are blended by Hendrick Kelner, so they are very high quality. I side note, there was a cigar shop in the hotel I stayed at in the Dominican Republic that sold these.
This evening I decided to break into one of the boxes of Griffin’s 500 coronas that I inadvertently won on a face book contest. I swear, I have no recollection of entering, although I must have because a beautiful Griffin’s Humidor and two boxes of these beauties showed up at my door last month. Â I can always use more humidor space, and these cigars are nice. Â These 5 1/16″ x 42 coronas are a classic Connecticut shade cigar. Mild, but no shortage of flavor. Of course, the construction was perfect, as these come from the house of Davidoff. Â I honestly have never had a Griffin’s before, always priced outside of my comfort zone. Â This will be a great cigar for that first balmy Saturday morning on the deck with coffee.
Don’t forget to pester your elected officials about the FDA nonsense! It’s important! Here’s the link to the form again:
CigarCraig
Craig…was the hotel where you saw the American Eagles the Gran Almirante? If so, that little cigar shop is owned by Henke Kelner’s son. I met him there when I was down last February, and saw these in the window.
That’s the place! I only looked in the window, had I known it was owned by Henke Kelner’s son I would have explored it more. The only time I was really there was for breakfast, which was fantastic.
I’m going to have to study the way you keep inadvertently winning these contests, lol! I’ve never had any of these, but love the sizes.
I can’t blame drinking, so I have to go with basic absent-mindedness, I guess. Unless it was one of those contests that only takes a Facebook “like” to enter…
Ever since I won a Chateau Real from you, they have been a favorite ever since.
Thanks for the introduction.
BTW, I joined CRA last week. I would encourage others to join Cigar Rights of America.
Click Here to Join CRA: http://www.CigarRights.org/Membership
When you join CRA and reference my Name (William Cantley) and CRA Member ID 99956857 in the Referred By field at checkout, you’ll receive 2 FREE Cigars and I’ll receive a 30-Day Membership Extension.
Thanks.
Welcome to the CRA, Bill, what took you so long? 🙂
Glad you like the Chateau Real, it’s a really nice smoke in either the maduro or shade wrapper. One of my favorites as well.
Great topic. Have you had the dog-walker? My favorite small smoke.
I love the DogWalker, as well as the other 7-20-4 cigars I’ve smoked.
I actually talked my local B&M into giving me an American Eagle from their boss’s IPCPR stash, for veterans day. I loved it, a delicious smoke. Currently I have an email out to Recon Cigars. I’m hoping to get to try their new camo cigar when it’s ready.
Had a few monte cristo in thailand this week, while we were in and a few local cigars. Was very limited on cigars there only found 3 small places selling cigars. So had to be picky and went with what I know, which wasn’t much, so stayed simple. Should get some sshortys to enjoy a smoke while out here on the boat, hard to get away for a few hours to enjoy a nice cigar. Great review as always Craig.