Author Archives: CigarCraig

by | February 6, 2019 · 1:08 pm

News: David Lafferty Named Vice President of Sales at Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust

Some Wednesday news from DTT! This is a big move for both parties, a small company adding head count and a proven sales exec leaving a controversial company! I’m very excited about this!

On February 6th, 2019, David Lafferty was named the future Vice President of Sales at Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust (DTT).

Lafferty spent eleven years employed with Drew Estate in a sales position. He began his career as the New England Sales Representative to be promoted to the East Coast Regional Sales Manager and then again, he worked his way up to become the Director of National Accounts prior to his departing in May 2018. Lafferty then served as the Executive Director of Nat Sherman International in their premium cigar division until his scheduled departure on February 28th, 2019. He will assume the responsibilities of his new position with Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust on March 1st, 2019.

“Dave has a tremendous wealth of hands on experience working with retailers spanning from the smallest brick and mortar shops to the very largest of accounts in the US market,” states Steve Saka, Founder and Co-Owner of DTT. He continues, “I have no doubt he is going to prove to be tremendous addition to our team, but not solely because of his sales and management experience, but because of who he is as a person. Dave is hard working, down to earth, forthright and just an honest to goodness great guy. He is a rare breed in our business and Cindy and I could not be more pleased in our welcoming him to be an integral part of our small family business. I honestly cannot think of a single person that would be better suited for this position.”

Lafferty adds, “I started my career working with Steve in 2007 and I am very excited to be back working with him again. I have witnessed Steve’s creative genius, skills as a master blender of the very best cigars and unbridled passion first hand. He is known to be tough and difficult at times, but it is always with the goal of producing exceptional cigars.” He adds, “I want to thank Steve and Cindy for this incredible and exciting opportunity. I believe the future for all of us together is very bright.”

Upon hearing this Saka quipped, “Haaa… so bright! He won’t need sunglasses, he will need a flipp’n welding mask!”

About Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust

Established in 2015, the family held Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust was created to craft and distribute the very finest, traditional handmade puros. The company’s mantra is “Puros Sin Compromiso” aka “Cigar without Compromise” is not just a saying, but a personal promise from its founder Steve Saka to cigar aficionados. Within their portfolio exists Sobremesa, Mi Querida, Todos Las Dias, Umbagog, Muestra de Saka and Sin Compromiso – each brand awarded numerous awards and accolades including the 2018 Company of the Year and the 2018 #1 Cigar of the Year. For more information, please visit: www.dunbartoncigars.com.

®Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, Sobremesa, Mi Querida, Todos Las Dias, Umbagog and Sin Compromiso are registered trademarks of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust and/or affiliated companies.

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by | February 3, 2019 · 11:45 am

Casa Favilli and Mi Querida Cigars and Groovy Groomsmen Gifts

It was cold this week, and I had a hard time getting opportunities to have a cigar.  Last Sunday when I visited Pairings Cigar Bar in Media, PA, I picked up a couple Mombacho Casa Favilli torpedos that I spied in the humidor I was sitting next to. I didn’t even look at the price, uncharacteristic of me, I just knew I wanted to try a cigar with a broadleaf wrapper grown in Jalapa, and I knew these were not widely available. The opportunity presented itself and I had to take advantage of it. I still don’t know what they cost, and I don;t want to know, I paid my tab and felt like I got a good value for my visit after spending a nice afternoon with Bill Coyne, recording a good podcast episode, and having a nice smoke in a nice place! At any rate, I did smoke the Casa Favilli, named after the Mombacho factory in Granada, Nicaragua, which is named after the Italian architect who designed the colonial mansion in which the factory is located. visiting this factory is on my wish list, BTW. I’ve only whisked through Granada, it looks like a beautiful little town. As I mentioned, the wrapper on this cigar is from an experimental crop of broadleaf tobacco grown in Jalapa, with a Jalapa binder and fillers from Jalapa and Condega. The flavors in this are interesting, there’s some sweetness, which one expects from Jalapa, but the Broadleaf wrapper offset it with a little bitterness, not unlike the espresso-like flavors in Connecticut broadleaf. It’s a must-try for Broadleaf fans, I think, and another great cigar from Mombacho,  who’s cigars have grown on me lately.

 

Since it was really cold this week, I took a few nights off, but one night I snuck in a little Mi Querida Firecracker, a Two Guys Smokeshop exclusive from Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust.  I understand these will be making a comeback, which is a good thing, because this was a really nice little smoke, distinctly different from the slightly larger Gordita, as it has some Ligero loaded in the front to give it some punch, and slow the smoking time. For a 3½” x 50 cigar, it smokes for a good 45 minutes and the flavor is fantastic. Of course, I’m a fan of the Mi Querida, and it’s ugly (Saka’s opinion) sibling, Umbagog, in any size and shape, but this little bastard has a little extra oomph which sets it apart. I’ve had the good fortune to have smoke several in the Firecracker series, although, oddly, never the original Don Pepin versions, and they all are excellent. One of my favorite cigars of last year was a Fratello Firecracker smoked on the Spanish Steps in Rome! For little cigars, they are yummy!

 

Last year I featured a lighter from Groovy Guy Gifts, and last week their partner site, Groovy Groomsmen Gifts got in touch with me and wanted me to have a look at one of their cigar related offerings. I found that most of the offerings they had were combination cigar/booze accessories…cigar holders with flasks, that sort of thing, and frankly, I have no real way to evaluate that kind of thing. When one isn’t a drinker, drinking accessories aren’t really of interest, and, come to think of it, at my age, chances of me either being a groomsman, or having them are relatively low. Regardless, I decided to have a look at one of the engraved humidors they offered and see how the fit and finish looked, and how their turn around time was.  The item was the “Coolector“, which is a 9″ W x 8 1/2″ D x 2 1/4” H cherry finished humidor. Since I have a relationship with the folks at Prestige Group, who make s this humidor, I was able to get some details, such as this is Spanish Cedar lined, and is used by a lot of companies for promotions.

It’s a pressboard construction and seems to seal well, it closes with a nice enough “woosh”. As you can see in the animated gif I made, and the photo, the engraving is very nice, and they turned it around in about 5 days. I would say if you are in the market for personalized gifts to mark an occasion of reasonable quality, I wouldn’t hesitate to use Groovy Groomsmen Gifts, they have a lot of options and they do a nice job of personalizing and shipping quick. The cigar accessories are sourced from a major importer, and while they’re not Elie Bleu quality humidors, they are perfectly usable. My cabinet humidor is from the same company and I’m quite happy with it.

 

I also managed to get in a Cornelius and Anthony Meridian Robusto, which is number four of my favorite C&A cigar behind the Cornelius, Señor Esugars and The Gent. Heck, they are all good. I still need to revisit that Mistress, although I get a little queezy thinking about it…soon…anyway, that enough for today, until the next time!

 

CigarCraig

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by | January 29, 2019 · 9:51 am

Podcast: Episode 12: Kristoff’s Bill Coyne at Pairings Cigar Bar

I know, I know, it’s been way too long between episodes.  I finally got my act together and recorded one, and I have Bill Coyne, the area Kristoff Cigars rep, to thank. He reached out to me and suggested we meet up for a smoke at Pairings Cigar Bar in Media PA. I’ve been itching to get to Pairings, but, as someone who doesn’t drink, bars aren’t really my thing, so it hasn’t been at the top of my priority list. I’ve been hearing great things about their cigar selection in the last year or so, and I figured it was high time I check it out. A Sunday afternoon was a good time, and I had met Bill briefly and wanted to get to know him better. I understand Pairings has some great events, and they have a DJ there on Friday nights, so I guess it gets pretty rockin’ there! I’m old, I like quite places to relax with a cigar…and we had a nice quite chat about Kristoff cigars, Pairings and Hockey.

 

Thanks to Bill for chatting with me, and Pairings Cigar Bar and their wonderful staff! The next time Bill and I will delve into the topic of prog rock drummers! Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | · 9:14 am

News: Benjamin Holt Purchases Dissident Cigar Brand

Dissident Cigars came out in 2013 and had kind of an edgy, punky feel, with frontmarks such as Bloc and Soapbox. I have no prior knowledge or contact with the company or products, but I remember reading about them five years ago or thereabouts, apparently the owners were “Gweedo C” and “Red Ryan”. One might jump to a conclusion that there may be a new iteration of this line maybe coming out of BLTC?  One can hope!

 

Benjamin Holt states, “Over the past few years I have seen many cigar brands come and go. Some stopped operations due to fear of FDA regulations. Others because of failure to adapt to the changes in the market. My intent with Dissident is to learn from those lessons and utilize my experience from both the retail side and as a cigar representative to create a cigar brand for a new generation of cigar smokers.”

 

For the past 5 years Benjamin Holt has worked in different areas of the cigar industry to include starting off in retail at TJ’s Cigar Lounge in McGregor, Texas. In 2015, he joined Black Label Trading Co. as a sales representative assisting in expanding the brand and in the launching of their Black Works Studio line. In 2016, Black Label Trading Co. joined Boutiques Unified and Holt joined the team soon after, continuing in his role as a sales representative.

As to why he chose to purchase Dissident, he states, “I have always thought that Dissident had huge potential and in time I would like to bring this brand back into the market. There are numerous objectives that need to be met first before that can happen and I am working with some incredible people to see that come to pass.”

 

Holt will continue to be the representative for the brands distributed by LJ Zucca until further notice.

 

For more information contact info@smoke-dissident.com.

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by | January 27, 2019 · 8:06 am

A Julius Caeser and a Brick House and a Podcast Appearance

As I mentioned last week, J.C. Newman is a new sponsor here at CigarCraig.com, and I couldn’t be happier to have them on board. If you notice their advertisement, you can click through for a chance to win one of their beautiful Diamond Crown humidors, and I’m all about contests! They were also kind enough to share a couple of their latest offerings with me, which I sampled this week. Of course, I couldn’t wait to smoke the Julius Ceaser Hail Caeser, the 6″ x 60 Gordo in the line. I think the last time I smoked a Julius Caeser was 2012, the night of the launch of Bernie Parent’s BSB No. 1 cigar at a dinner sponsored by Ned’s Cigars in Newtown PA. The owner of the show, a gentleman named Luca, who has since tragically passed, gifted me a Julius Ceaser when we met up before the event to get acquainted. It’s one of those cigar moments one remembers. I have another one in one of the Toast Across America coffins in the Shark vitola from 2014 that my daughter bought me (5 years ago, I guess they are about ready to smoke now!). Point is, I don’t smoke a great many Julius Caesers, so I was excited to smoke this one. I know a lot of my colleagues aren’t big ring gauge fans, but I happen to like them in many cases. This cigar has an Ecuador Havana Seed wrapper, with “Caribbean and Central American” fillers, which is rather general, aged for five years. When I think of how I expect cigars over $15 should smoke, this one is in full compliance. I had no complaints at all, the physical performance was perfect.  As far as flavor goes, it was very flavorful, even for a large ring cigar. It’s a cigar I find more wood and earthy notes in than spice or sweetness, although there is a hint of cocoa. It’s a cigar that I’d keep in my humidor if money were no object. I’m reminded that it’s been forever since I smoked a Diamond Crown Maximus, and I need to remedy that.

 

I had the honor and privileged of appearing on The Retrohale Podcast this week with Bret and Mark. It was recorded Sunday night and released later in the week. I have been enjoying their show for a while and have contributed to their website, and they have been very generous in promoting my site on their show. It was fun, although I think Bret thinks I’m a little more high-falutin than I really am! Maybe I have become more of a cigar snob in later years, but I’m still a cheap bastid at heart! The guys at the Cigar Hacks Podcast turned me on to The Retrohale, and they are hosting them this coming weekend in New Hampshire, and I sure wish I could join them! Give both shows a listen, both are entertaining, I’ve tried not to make a fool of myself on them both and consider all those folks friends!

 

The other cigar that J. C. Newman shared with me is the Brick House Double Connecticut Mighty Mighty, a 6¼” x 60 gordo. This is on the other end of the price spectrum from the Julius Caeser, coming in around $7. The Brick House line is made in their Nicaraguan factory, PENSA, and has a U.S. grown Connecticut Shade wrapper over a U.S. grown Connecticut Broadleaf binder with Nicaraguan fillers. This is presented as a mild cigar, and I found it to be medium, and maybe full flavored. It had LOADS of flavor!  The shade wrapper had its signature grassy flavor that was unmistakable, but the chocolatelyness from the broadleaf was there from the binder, which also gave it some body, which was most appreciated. Well put-together, everybody knows, this is how the story goes. I found this cigar to be very interesting. I know this has been around for over a year, but it’s been one I’ve missed, and I like the regular Brick House line. The combination of the two Connecticut leaves really provides an interesting flavor sensation, and I think at this price, it’s a no-brainer. I’ll be trying this in other vitolas, but the Mighty Mighty is just lettin it all hang out.

 

That’s all for today. Since I rarely string two days off in a row any more it’s hard to get anything done around here, so things like the podcast and content have suffered. Hopefully I get a chance to get something recorded for another podcast episode soon.  Ideas are welcome! Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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