A Neanderthal Lancero and CigarCraig’s Secret Santa

Last summer at the IPCPR show I was standing in Matt Booth’s booth and finally met Jorge Ahued, the owner of Stogies World Class Cigars in Houston. I became familiar with this shop first through a business arrangement involving advertising, and second because of my freelance writing for the Houston based Prime Living Magazine, where I featured their Fratello H-Town Lancero in one of the issues. One of Stogie’s schticks is their H-town line of store exclusive lanceros. Jorge probably has one of the only stores in the country that has success selling lanceros (locally SMoKE Manayunk has a large selection). As I’ve been watching my friend Jeff from Cigar Weekly roll through November smoking lanceros all over social media, I figure’d I’d dig in to my lancero supply and smoke one in solidarity. I have a relatively large selection of lanceros, I like to think, but the one I had my eye on was one that Jorge from Stogies handed me at the show, a bit of a unicorn, I suppose. This was the RoMaCraft Neanderthal H-Town lancero. This is a traditional 7″ x 38 round lancero with the flat cap that’s consistent with the Neanderthal line. This gave me a chance to use the smaller 10mm punch on the Adorini punch I love so much. I really love the Neanderthal HN, the original format that they released a couple of years ago as well as the SGP. The combo of Mexican wrapper, Connecticut Broadleaf binder and the combo of Nicaraguan, Dominican and Pennsylvanian fillers made a really special blend. I’m not sure which leaf was left out, if any, but I want to say the blend shines in the larger ring gauges for me. Not that this H-Town wasn’t a spectacular cigar on its own, I just kept wanting to compare it to the experiences I had with the other Neanderthal sizes, and it was different. It’s unfair to compare it to the other sizes, I feel that lanceros across the board have a unique commonality in the quality of the flavor. I suppose it has to do with the heat. Anyway, the Neanderthal H-Town lancero was one of the best cigars I’ve smoked this year, it was smooth, loaded with flavor and burned perfectly. The unique spice that’s common in the line that probably comes from the PA ligero, and the fantastic interplay between the San Andrés and Connecticut Broadleaf makes this an amazing smoke that I’ll probably never have a chance to smoke again.

Last year I got off to a late start with the CigarCraig.com readers Secret Santa program. I was reminded this week to get a move on and get it organized a little earlier, which I appreciate. So let’s do it again this year! Please e-mail me at craig@cigarcraig.com with your name and address if you’re interested in joining in. The rules are simple. I’ll take the assembled names and addresses and make a list and match people up fairly randomly. Participants should then send a minimum of four (4) premium cigars to their assigned recipient. My personal approach to this is to give with no expectation of receiving, the receiving part is a wonderful and exciting bonus, but that’s just me. I’ll be looking to have the final list by November 30, 2017 so I can e-mail each person their recipient by the first weekend in December. I obviously won’t publish the list here, but feel free to use the comments on any future blog post to acknowledge receipt of your gift, I will happily provide contact info for thank-yous privately. I still have some contests in the works too, but let’s have fun sending one another some favorite cigars!