Thursday evening was the Philadelphia Dîner en Blanc, a large picnic at a location that’s kept secret until the last minute. Everyone wears white, brings tables and chairs and food and it’s all (normally) orchestrated and timed and is a big party for several thousand people. This was my third time going to this event, and, naturally, I select white themed cigars for the occasion. I was lazy this time around, although I had some great suggestions and ideas, I didn’t get a chance to travel to the shops I wanted to find the selections, so I defaulted to some old stand bys. It’s being well documented in the Dîner en Blanc community that this year’s event was less of a success than in the past. it was held at Philadelphia’s Boathouse Row, and the logistics of getting 6000 people into a long, thin area wasn’t well thought through. Our group was among the last to arrive at the event after waiting in the meeting area for over two hours (which was closest to the site), setting up and eating our dinner two hours after the event started, and an hour or so before the rain started.… Continue reading
Craig VandersliceAuthor Archives
The Tale of Two Archetype Axis Mundis and News: Ventura Rolling Event at Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival
I’m going to tie these two things together, because they are directly related! Last month I had the pleasure of attending Michael Giannini’s rolling event at the PA Barnsmoker, and I applied the wrapper on an Archetype Axis Mundi toro. To be honest, Henry from Drew Estate jumped in and over my protestations, helped a little more than I would have liked, not understanding that I had done this before and really wanted to just have advice and not as much help. I didn’t want to be rude and say “dude, back off”, but I did make remarks like, “sorry, I haven’t done this since Willy showed me in 2013”. Anyway, I applied the wrapper and it came out pretty good, but it wouldn’t win any beauty contests. I struggled throughout the process to figure out which side of the leaf was the outside and which was the inside… Continue reading
Southern Draw 300 Hands and Tatuaje Mexican Experiment and ME II Cigars
Wednesday evening I finally got around to trying the Southern Draw 300 Hands Connecticut in the Piramides size. This is a 6 1/8″ x 52 figurado, a classic size, with a US grown Connecticut shade wrapper, a Peruvian binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. Like all Southern Draw cigars it’s made at the AJ Fernandez Factory in Nicaragua. The wrapper is on the darker side for a Connecticut shade, and I found the flavor to be less grassy than most cigars in that genre. It smoked very well and was a very enjoyable cigar, well priced, with proceeds going to help less fortunate people in Nicaragua. … Continue reading
Welcome Fox Cigars Contest No. 3 Winner and Wrap-up
The last month has been a lot of fun, three great contests sponsored by Fox Cigars! Brought back some memories of the good old days of CigarCraig contests. It’s getting harder and harder to give stuff away these days! I’ll keep sharing great cigars with my readers as long as I am able, and I know my partners are always anxious to spread the love as well. Thanks to Rob at Fox for helping out with this series of contests! I know that Chase received his Perdomo prize, and Narciso’s Oliva gift went out in the mail yesterday. Today we’ll be announcing the winner of the last present in the three part Welcome to the CigarCraig Family contest! I smoked an original El Güegüense Robusto last night to celebrate, since I didn’t seem to have any Illusiones on hand, I guess I’ll have to go on Fox Cigars website and order some! The El Güegüense was fantastic! I believe it was from the original release, and it burned well, although it did need a correction here and there, but the flavor was wonderful. … Continue reading
A few More PDR Cigars and Some Villiger News
Let’s see, what do I want to talk about today? I’ve been stuck working weekends and evenings a lot, so I’ve been kind of slacking on smoking the newer stuff, plus i don’t have a great many new cigars to smoke around. Earlier this week I reeved a news release from Villiger Cigars that I wanted to share, but I had just posted the contest on Wednesday, and wanted to leave it front and center for as long as possible. So I figured I’d enjoy a Villiger cigar Friday evening, and selected a La Vencedora Churchill since the only La Flor de Ynclans I had were the mis-named Lancero, and I couldn’t find them! I wanted a longer smoke anyway, and I enjoy the Joya de Nicaragua made La Vencedora. La Vencedora is a Nicaraguan Puro with a Habana Oscuro wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. The Churchill is Americanized in size, it’s 7″ x 50, which is OK by me, it’s like a toro, only an inch better. It’s a medium-plus cigar, with some dark sweetness and some spice.… Continue reading
Use Coupon Code: cigarcaig10
For 10% off your purchase.
