But first, Thursday evening my wife and I went to Philadelphia’s Diner en Blanc, which is a picnic, of sorts, where everyone wears white, brings their own table and chairs and meets in places around the city, and it transported to a public space that is kept secret until the last minute. These happen all over the world and it’s quite a sight. In this case, Philadelphia’s had 5500 people, the largest in the US. Last year there was a cigar lounge set up with a local outfit, the Travelling Tobacconist, featuring an Airstream trailer, this year, no such luck, as it was held at Philadelphia’s City Hall, and the park surrounding it is non-smoking. We actually were sitting on a wall at the perimeter of the park enjoying a small cigar with a white band, and got chased one foot to the sidewalk…absurd. So while 
we were at the meeting point, which was at the subway stop outside of Citizens Bank Park (where, at the same time, Will Cooper will tell you the Phillies were having their heads handed to them by the Mets in the first game of a double header), I enjoyed a Macanudo Inspirado White with my buddy Bruce. I’ve known Bruce for 20 years, we go back to the old alt.smokers.cigars Usenet group days, and he now lives a few miles from me. I select appropriately themed cigars for this occasion, last year it was a Fratello Bianco, a Montecristo White, and my wife smoked a Leccia White. Some think this event is pretentious and a waste of city resources, and I’ve heard the term “white privilege” tossed around ignorantly. First, the organization pays it’s way on the set-up and cleanup, and donates generously to local charities. Regarding the “white privilege”, anyone who took a half a glance at the attendees of one of these events would see the most diverse group of people imaginable eating together side by side, hanging out, partying, having a good time. It’s a cool event. The local news even talked to me on camera, but I guess I was too cool for them to use on the news.
I’m still finding a couple of samples from last year’s IPCPR, and a couple of my good friends in the industry have shared some samples from this years show which I did not attend, so I need to make room. I had a couple Cubos from Dapper Cigars out of California that were begging to be smoked, so Friday was the day. I had to drop the car off in the morning so I grabbed the Ecuador Connecticut wrapped Cubo Claro toro for the walk home. First off, I appreciate any company that calls their shade wrapped cigar “Claro”, it’s way easier to type than Ecuador Connecticut or Connecticut shade. Sure, it’s ambiguous and requires clarification, so does Connecticut Shade anymore so why not? Dapper likes to provide specifics about their tobaccos, and I’ve compared this to Steve Saka when he launched Sobremesa. Funny enough, some of Dapper’s cigars are made in NACSA, where Mi Querida and Umbagog are made, but the Cubo’s are not made at NACSA, they are made at Tabacaleras Carreras S.A., which also makes, perhaps not surprisingly, Esteban Carreras Cigars.
Wrapper: Ecuador / Connecticut desflorado / CASJUCA / A.S.P. (Perez)
Binder: Nicaragua / Jalapa / Habano / Dorado / Oliva Tobacco Co
Fillers: Nicaragua / Condega / gk Relleno / Oliva Tobacco Co
Nicaragua / Esteli / Guadalupe / Oliva Tobacco Co
This was a really nice claro cigar with enough strength and body to be enjoyed any time of the day, not just in the morning, as I did. I’m not a regular morning smoker, it’s just no something I usually do, but now and then I have cigar in the morning and it’s usually a shade wrapped cigar or a coffee infused cigar, I guess I fall for the stereotype. This was a really good tasting cigar, it had the trademark shade wrapper flavor, but there was a bit of spice and rich tobacco flavor and it was a good, satisfying cigar. I was anticipating smoking the maduro later.
After dinner, which is my usual routine, I did smoke the Cubo Maduro Toro as I took my second walk of the day, a short one around the block. First off, this is a visually stunning maduro cigar. It has a beautiful oily wrapper, very even coloration, nicely made. Both this and the Claro were nice looking cigars, and the bands are very attractive as well. High scores for presentation. I haven’t seen the boxes, but according to the website they are packaged in natural cedar sliding lid boxes with Boveda packs, again, the information provided the website is extremely thorough. I found the Maduro to be considerably stronger than the Claro, which isn’t uncommon, and the spicy cocoa from the Mexican wrapper was much to my liking.
Wrapper: Mexico / San Andrés Negro / Turrent Family
Binder: Nicaragua / Jalapa / Cofradía / Oliva Tobacco Co.
Fillers: Nicaragua / Condega / gk Relleno / Oliva Tobacco Co.
Nicaragua / Jalapa / Cofradía / Oliva Tobacco Co.
I’m a little surprised with all the detail provided that they leave out the primings, that seems like a geek-point that should be there. As you might imagine, this was a cigar that hit me the right way, it was rich and decadent and I liked it a lot. I don’t see any of Dapper’s offerings around here, but I haven’t looked really hard, but they sure make some good cigars.
Contest!
I was a little over the top with my “contest entrant shaming” in my last post, sorry about that. I think it scared people off, because we only had 19 entries, and it’s been probably 8 years or so since I’ve had that few entries. maybe it’s summer and people are busy, maybe the economy’s good and people don’t want free cigars, I don’t know. I do know that that makes the odds better for those of you who entered! I said I was sweetening the deal, so I grabbed a few more cigars out of the humidor, three of which are from La Aurora, which, by the way, was the common thread I 
was really looking for, all of the cigars I mentioned in the contest post were made at the La Aurora factory in the Dominican Republic. So the prize is 10 cigars from La Sirena, La Auroa, etc. and a Stage V Clinger cigar holder. It’s also true that they all have two bands and they all have tobaccos from the DR, so I can’t exactly disqualify any of those answers as incorrect, so all entries count. In a strange twist, the random number generator spit out 15, and I had thrown out Brian I’s first entry, which was actually the first entry, and he ens up being the 15th comment. So Brian I is the winner! Please send me your address privately so I can get these goodies out to you! I guess I need to step up the contest game here! Apparently I’ve slacked off or something, contests used to be my bag, baby. Thanks to Stage V Clinger and my friends at La Sirena and La Aurora for their continued support!
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
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