Category Archives: Contest

by Craig Vanderslice | February 18, 2024 · 8:34 am

A Couple Rocky Patel Cigars and a HVC Seleccion No. 1

I stopped in to my local Cigar Mojo Thursday evening as the Rocky Patel rep, Alex, was stopping in. It was a fairly quiet evening there, people wise, not really sound wise. Between the air system and the music, I struggle with being able to hear people talk in there (most places, really), it’s fine if I’m there alone, but it’s hard for me to carry on a conversation. I have some specific hearing loss issues, so that’s my problem, if we are ever together and I ask you to repeat yourself, that’s why. Anyway, I picked out a couple cigars I hadn’t smoked before, that weren’t the $100 Conviction. I lit up a, A.L.R. Second Edition in the Toro size. I always liked the Rocky Patel Toros, 6½” x 52, I like that extra half inch. The A.L.R. has a San Andrés wrapper, although not maduro to my eye or palate. The binder and filler are Nicaraguan and the “limited” part of the “aged,” “limited” and “rare” is that they only made 120,000 of them. While that seems like a big number, it’s not UNlimited, so there’s that. They are aged 2 years and rare?, not sure about the rare part. I’ve heard raves about this cigar, and it wasn’t inexpensive (by my standards), so I had expectations. Sadly, those expectations were not exceeded, however it was a fine cigar. It has some cocoa and woodyness, I liked it enough, but it wasn’t mindblowing. Solid B+. I left Mojo after the cigar to watch hockey a home, it literally only takes me a TV timeout to get home from there.

Friday evening I smoked another Rocky Patel cigar that I hadn’t smoked before, the Disciple. Why is this Toro only 6″ insead of 6½”? Seems like it comes from the same factory in Nicaragua. I was drawn to the color scheme, and the fact that it was the only other one (besides the aforementioned silly $100 cigar), that I hadn’t moked before. The copper and black bands look sharm against the San Andrés maduro wrapper. With the binder and fillers listed as Nicaraguan, the blend looks identical to the A.L.R., but this is a vastly different cigar! For one, this is one I really liked, which means it will probably be discontinued soon, as happens with every RP cigar I’ve found that I liked. I hope this isn’t the case, this one was right up my alley. It had dark chocolate and dark dried fruits, a flavor combo I like a lot. No complaints about the burn and draw on either of the RP cigars I smoked, I generally have no problems with TAVICUSA output. They do a nice job in that factory, although I’ve probably moked more All Saints than Rocky Patel. This is a must try.

Also while I was at Mojo I grabbed a HVC Seleccion No. 1 Maduro Podorosos, the toro size. I’ve really been enjoying the HVC line and have been trying to sample something new whenever I stop in there. I’ve got some catching up to do. This is yet another San Andrés wrapped cigar with Nicaraguan binder and fillers, I’ve apparently fallen into a rut. A delicious rut, as this is another cigar that I really enjoyed. It would have been totally appropriate for me to have smoked an Upsetters from Foundation as we saw the Bob Marley: One Love movie yesterday, but I neither had one on hand, nor do I desire to smoke an infused cigar. Not even the least bit curious. The HVC Seleccion No. 1 Maduro was really tasty, rich and meaty. I feel compelled to sample the natural version next time. I continue to be impressed with the HVC line. If you’re wondering, “Poderosos” translates to “Powerful”, which I don’t think this cigar necessarily is, but I would call it full bodied.

I believe I promised to announce a winner of the giveaway, which includes a five pack of the Crowned Heads Mother Church, along with five other cigars from my humidor. I have to say, I’m disappointed in the turnout for this one, although it’s better odds for those who entered! I consulted the random number generator and it selected the third comment, which is Craig Gilpin! I might be able to save postage on this one as Craig in addition to having an excellent name, is local. Congrats Craig! Let’s plan to meet up!

That’s all for today, we’re off to tour the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia today. I’m going to resist the urge to smoke some Al Capone cigars (probably not hard). Until the next time.

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as A.L.R., Disciple, HVC, rocky patel, Seleccion No. 1

by Craig Vanderslice | February 13, 2024 · 9:17 pm

Crowned Heads Mother Church a JR Cigars Exclusive and a Contest

Mother Church is a nickname for Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium, the “Mother Church of Country Music”, and it’s the name of an exclusive cigar by Crowned Heads for JR Cigars. This is a Churchill, I just got it…Church…Churchill? andyway, I like Churchills a lot. It seems like maybe the wrong time of year for large cigars in the Northeast, but I have the time and a warm enough smoking area, so I’m good with taking an hour and a half or so for a smoke. The Mother Church is 7″ x 48, has an Ecuador Corojo wrapper, Connecticut Broadleaf binder, and Nicaraguan fillers, made in the Pichardo factory in Nicaragua.

I found this to be a woody and nutty cigar, I didn’t get any real sweetness, but there were some mild spices here and there. The burn and draw were excellent, it was a very well made cigar. I’d like to share some of these with someone, so let’s have a giveaway! I have a five pack of Mother Church, and I’ll add five other cigars to go with them for a total of ten cigars. Usual CigarCraig rules apply, leave a comment on this post to enter, you must be 21 or older to be eligible, and I’ll select a winner on Sunday, February 18. The links in this post are affiliate links, any purchases thought those links may put a couple dollars towards my expenses!

That’s all for today, until tomorrow,

CigarCraig

10 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Crowned Heads, JR Cigars, Mother Church, Pichardo

by Craig Vanderslice | December 24, 2023 · 9:16 am

Mule Kick, Metropolitan, Maria Lucia and the Contest Winner!

It only just occurred to me that that the last three cigars I smoked started with M, must be fore Merry Christmas! Of course, today is Christmas Eve, so it’s time to start your Christmas Shopping guys! It’s also the day I’m announcing the winner of the contest sponsored by Cigars.com, but I’ll get to that later! In the spirit of the season, I smoked some gifted cigars this week, the first of which was from Steve from Tampa, who was up visiting on business a few weeks ago. He gifted me a Crowned Heads Four Kicks 2023 Mule Kick LE, a 5 7/8″ x 52. Funny, I thought it was a toro, but I was off by an eighth of an inch. This one has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper over a Dominican binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, and is made in the Tabacalara La Alianza factory by Ernesto Carillo. I think this is the seventh iteration of the Mule Kick, and probably the first I’ve had, the Crowned Heads stuff isn’t ever really on my radar, I don’t see them in the stores near me that often. This was a great smoke, loaded with dark chocolate and spices. Ernesto has been a master of Sumatra for as long as I can remember, which, in this case, is a long time (my memory is suspect, short-term and names is terrible, long term isn’t so bad). Many thanks to Steve for the opportunity to smoke this, I look forward to your next visit, who knows, I may get to your neck of the woods before you get back here!

Next up were a couple of selections from my Secret Santa this year. Quick bit of housekeeping: If you participated in the CigarCraig Secret Santa (The CCSS moving forward), and have not fulfilled your obligation, please do so. I know of one package that’s in transit. Everyone that’s been involved has done it multiple times, so I don’t worry, and I try to be hands off and just a participant. Feel free to let me know if you have comments of concerns. My CCSS was a fellow Craig and in my area, so much so that I ran into him while out shopping Friday! So I selected the Nat Sherman Metropolitan Host Maduro Hampton, a 7″ x 50 cigar. You might be saying, “Craig, Metropolitan is a Ferio Tego brand now” and I’d say you are correct. You also might not know that Nat Sherman closed their doors in 2021 and Michael Herklots bought the rights to the names and kept the brands alive. This particular cigar is one of the older ones, purchased at the Nat Sherman Townhouse in NYC. I believe it has a Broadleaf wrapper, over Honduran fillers, made by the Eiroas if I’m not mistaken. This was milder than I imagined it would be, but it was loaded with sweet cocoa flavor and very tasty. Perhaps any strength it had was tempered by time, but it was very good. I enjoyed the crap out of this and it’s one that I’ll likely never see again. Thanks for the opportunity Craig!

Another cigar in Craig’s CCSS pack was the Luciano Cigars Maria Lucia, another Broadleaf wrapped cigar. This is a tribute to Luciano Meirelles’ mother, who passed when he was twelve, and has the artwork of his daughter on the band. The cigar is 5¼” x 54 with the Broadleaf wrapper, double binder of Ecuadorian Sumatra and Ecuadorian Habano 92 tobaccos, and a fillers from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Peru. This is going to sound strange, especially given the source, but the flavor was bready to me, like a dark bread, a pumpernickel or the brown bread that comes in a can. It was on the heavy side, which I liked, even though I smoked it before dinner (after a nap). I have met Luciano a couple times, and have enjoyed his cigars. I would like to explore more of his work, I think. Good stuff.

Let’s give some stuff away! You might recall, Cigars.com has provided me with a really nice Montecristo travel humidor, along with a RoMEo cap and a Romeo y Julieta can cozy. I am going to add some cigars to the humidor before I ship it, they will be Cigars.com exclusives from my humidor, more or less. The sponsor doesn’t know I’m doing this, but I can’t send out a package without cigars! Anyway, I’ve consulted the Google Random Number Generator and Tim McCabe is the winner! Please send me your address so that I can get this stuff out to you! Remember if you buy from Cigars.com, or JRCigars.com, please use the affiliate links on the left sidebar, I could use the cash!

That’s all for now, enjoy the Holidays! I guess I need to scrounge up some goodies for a New Years Giveaway! Stay tuned! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

5 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, CIgars.com, Contest, Crowned Heads, Four Kicks, Host, Luciano, Maria Lucia, Metropolitan, Mule Kick, Nat Sherman

by Craig Vanderslice | December 18, 2023 · 7:00 am

Contest! Travel Humidor, Cap and Coozy from Cigars.com

It’s that time of year, and thanks to the folks at Cigars.com, we have a cool giveaway for you! They have provided me with a Montecristo Travel Humidor, a RoMEo Cap, and a Romeo y Julieta Can Coozy. I have seen a lot of travel humidors, but I was surprised when I opened this one up and it had wood inside instead of foam! This is a really nice item. I think everyone knows me well enough by now, I’ll be adding a few surprises to the humidor before I send it to the lucky winner! I can’t send out packages without cigars! Don’t worry, they will be consistent with the theme of the contest! This should make someone’s holiday a little brighter!

The usual process applies: Leave a comment on this post to enter. One entry per person, you must be of legal age in your jurisdiction, and the winner must contact me with your shipping details. I’ll announce the winner on Sunday, December 24, 2023. I might be able to find a little something to give away next week too!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

22 Comments

Filed under Contest

Tagged as cigar, cigars, CIgars.com, Contest, Montecristo, Rome y Julieta, Romeo

by Craig Vanderslice | January 1, 2023 · 9:59 am

Happy New Year, Winner Announcement and a Cigar or Two

It seems that 2022 is in the books, and it’s 2023 now. Still no flying cars, but we do carry the entirety of human knowledge in our pockets, at the expense of education and common sense! I am blessed with a beautiful family and enough cigars to get me through for a while, so I’m not complaining. I’ve had worse years than 2022. I managed to fly 4 times, a record for me. Twice to trade shows in Las Vegas, once to Tampa and a personal vacation to Puerto Rico. We also went to a Barnsmoker, a Red Meatlovers Club dinner on a friggin battleship, and a few shop events, although not as many of the latter as I’d like. It was a good year. Hopefully ’23 is equally good! I know I’ve slowed down a little on original content, I’m just not smoking the volume of new cigars that I used to. I’m finding as I get older I tend to want to smoke what I like! Weird, huh? I have no plans to give up though, after 13 years I’m invested. I do have a prize to give away, so let’s get on to that!

I let this giveaway go on a week and a half, longer than usual, but it’s been a busy week or two! You may recall the prize was a hefty pile of stuff from various venders, and undisclosed cigars from my humidor. I’ll have fun packing up a bunch of my favorites to share with the winner. I referred to Google’s random number generator and the number it spit our was 2, which corresponds to the second comment at 9:28pm on 12/21, which was by Tim McCabe. Tim, please email me your info! Tim is a long time reader, and I have to appreciate the patience and fortitude of the many folks who’ve been reading my nonsense over the years! Thanks to everyone, I may be able to scrounge up some more goodies in the near future.

Naturally, I smoked some good cigars over the last few days. Most notable was another of the Alec Bradley Fine and Rare series, this one dated 2017. The one I smoked last week I’m told was from the tenth anniversary set, and I assume this one is from the same. My Secret Santa, Mitch, was very generous and shared these with me. Aside, he managed to send a bunch of cigars I’d never smoked before! No small feat. Another aside, and Kevin Shahan witnessed this, while in Tampa I met a gentleman, we’ll call him Aaron, who was shocked when he attempted to gift me a cigar he was sure I’d not had before, a pre-release Nica Rustica with actual Rustica leaf in the blend, and I had smoked that back in 2013 in Nicaragua. I digress. The ALec Bradley Fine and Rare 2017 (BR12-13) is a 6″ x 52 torpedo, or maybe 109, shaped cigar. It has mostly Honduran components, with some Nicaraguan in the filler. It started off with a little bit of a bite, some acidity, perhaps, but that quickly became what I call spicey. It was, overall, a very good cigar, with some nice, medium flavors, and I think there was a cinnamon or baking spice flavor that came and went. Thank you, Mitch, for the opportunity to try these!

Yesterday we met friends at what might be the only White Castle in PA for lunch, and I would have stopped in to New Tobacco Village, in Whitehall, PA, but, you know…White Castle…When I got home after an hour drive and got things squared away, I sat down to watch hockey with what might be my favorite cigar of 2022, the Diamond Crown Black Diamond. It gives the Muestra de Saka The Bewitched a run, if I had smoked more of those it would have been my number one for the year. As it stands, I’m going with the Black Diamond, so good! I ended 2022 with a Partagas Serie D No. 6 which I had picked up at the Rome Duty Free several years ago, just a little guy, but tasty. So let’s just say that the New Diamond Crown Black Diamond Emerald is my favorite cigar of 2022! Thanks to J.C.Newman for making this year memorable for me!