Category Archives: Contest

by | December 18, 2018 · 9:09 am

Contest: CigarCraig’s Holiday Giveaways No.1!

At the risk of being politically incorrect, Ho, Ho, Ho! I’m waiting for someone to take offense to that and ban it, everything else upsets someone nowadays! So it goes in the cigar industry, several years ago, cigar companies were falling all over one another sending me boxes upon boxes of cigars to give away in the now legendary CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways, which usually went for 13, 14 or 15 days and made a lot of people happy! It made me happy too, but it took a toll, it was a huge time investment at a busy time of year. So, with the cigar companies unable to provide piles of cigars, I’ve scaled back, and dig into my personal vault ‘o goodies to spread some holiday cheer! (Oh crap, with the new job and all, I just remembered I forgot to organize a secret Santa this year! Why did nobody remind me?). So here’s the first holiday giveaway of 2018!

As you know, Ventura Cigar Co. has been showing up frequently in the news here over the last year or so, and has been a company of interest of mine for a few years. I’ve been a fan for about 5 years since smoking a Psyko Seven when I was a guest on The Cigar Authority in 2013. I think it was the 2016 IPCPR show that they had a media event at their booth where they highlighted their Case Study line, and gave out some neat swag, which has rested in storage since then waiting for me to find a proper purpose for it.

The central item here is a cool 15 count travel humidor. It’s not going to hold 15 6x60s, but it’s big enough for a long weekend, but not too big to take up a lot of space in your luggage. Actually, it’s just about the right size in my opinion, if I didn’t have a bunch of travel humidors already, we wouldn’t be having this conversation! Along with it is an aluminum water bottle, and a hardbound blank journal, great for recording your cigar notes, listing grievances against your enemies, or whatever. I will, no doubt, rummage through my humidors and find some appropriate cigars to include in the travel humidor too!

Thanks to Kevin at CigarProp.com, there will also be one of his Lighter Bleed Tools included!

Thanks to the folks at Ventura, even though they have no idea they are sponsoring this! Standard rules apply, leave a comment to enter, must be of legal age to win, and I’ll select a winner on my next post, which might be Friday, might be Sunday, we’ll see how things go!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | November 2, 2018 · 8:52 am

Big Papi Humidor Contest Winner Announcement!

I got a bit busy over the last couple of days, and didn’t get around to selecting a winner in the Big Papi Humidor contest sponsored by El Artista Cigars. So I’m going to just go ahead and do it tonight! It’s appropriate, since the Red Sox are the World Series Champions, although it still is a really special humidor any way you look at it!  So I once again consulted  the random number generator at Random.org and it gave me the number 14.  I went back to the contest post and counted to the 14th comment and it was Matt Hopper.  Let me go back and double check…this is an important thing, not to be taken lightly. Yup, I checked and Matt Hopper is the winner!  Matt needs to e-mail me his contact information so I can pass it on to El Artista cigars so they can ship this beautiful humidor to him so he can celebrate the Red Sox World Series victory by (hopefully) filing it up with all his Big Papi cigars!

 

That’s three great contests in a row, sorry to say there isn’t a fourth right now, but stay tuned, you never know what may happen!  I have been smoking a few good cigars this week so watch for the regular Sunday recap coming up…er….Sunday! Until then,

CigarCraig

 

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by | October 24, 2018 · 8:51 pm

Contest: Big Papi Humidor from El Artista Cigars for the World Series!

Yes, it’s another contest! You’d think it was December! I hope everyone isn’t disappointed when the holidays roll around and I’m working in retail for the first time in 3o years and can’t do giveaways like I used to! Of course, I’ll try to do something, but temper your expectations! Let’s get a winner for the last contest out of the way, the lucky winner of the Joya goodies courtesy of Joya and the Wooden Indian is Jared Berel! E-mail me your address so I can send you your loaded travel humidor, hat and cutter! Don’t forget to check out the Wooden Indian’s online store!

 

In honor of the Boston Redsox being in the World Series, the great folks at El Artista has offered up one of their beautiful Big Papi humidors for a contest! I told them I had just done two contests in a row and my readers were sick and tired of having the opportunity to win great cigar related goodies, but they were insistent, and due to the time sensitive nature of the World Series and all going on as we speak, it was pretty much now or never. I’ve seen this humidor (the winner will receive it directly from El Artista), it’s a beauty, very well made, good fit and finish.

 

I’ll select a winner next Wednesday. I just looked at the schedule and I suppose the series will be decided by then. I rather expected them to stretch it out for a week but they don’t mess around, a sweep could have this wrapped up by the weekend! (That will make the Boston fans happy and piss off the LA fans, I guess…). So go ahead and leave a comment for an entry like usual. This one is open to everyone. Many thanks to El Artista for the great humidor for this contest!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | October 21, 2018 · 10:32 am

A Bunch of Cigars, Another La Flor Dominicana Event, and a Joya Contest Extension

I’ve been a slug this week. I literally had to look at Instagram to recall what cigars I smoked.  One reason is because I still have a little bit of a cold, so I’m hesitant to smoke anything new or noteworthy, and another is my preoccupation with my search for a day job.  The latter seems to have taken a positive turn just in the nick of time, and I hope to be smoking something special in celebration in the near future, once this annoying sinus funk releases its grasp on me. So looking back through my IG feed, I did rather enjoy a Hoyo La Amistad Gold Robusto, which is 5″ x 54. This was one of the first big brand AJ Fernandez colabs, and continues to be a fantastic smoke. Of the three in the series, Gold, Silver and Black, oddly I think it’s my favorite (you’d expect the Black to be, and I love the Black, I find it very close to the Punch Diablo though, with the main difference being the binder – Broadleaf on the Diablo and San Andrés on the Black). Even with palate impairment, the rich, sweet flavors are quite enjoyable, a main reason I reached for this cigar.

 

In an effort to further promote the Joya contest that’s currently in progress, which I’m going to extend , by the way, I smoked a Joya Silver Toro again. I am going to give it another week because I want to get some more entries, and more exposure for Joya de Nicaragua and the Wooden Indian, especially their new online store!  I even posted on a Facebook group which always brags about their 30,000 members, and I got 3 entries (thanks!, I do appreciate them!). 10% would have been overwhelming, right?, but 3? Anyway, the Joya Silver Toro happened to be right on top of the humidor too, so it was a lazy selection, and I really love that cigar. I can the Cinco Decadas El General being on deck as one of the afore-mentioned celebration cigars coming up, and it shares some traits with the Silver. The Silver is a great medium bodied smoke with a great price.

 

An old friend stopped by this week and I shared a favorite cigar with him, Cornelius and Anthony Señor Esugars. Due to time constraints, and my inventory limitations, he had the robusto and I gad the Corona Gorda. This is a friend I’ve known since early in High School, we played drums together in band, and, to my delight, he loves cigars. I’ve observed the cigars he tends to likes and decided that the Señor Esugars would be a good fit for him, and I wanted to smoke one anyway, so it was a win-win. In the C&A line, I always seem to gravitate to the Toro, but I can’t complain about any vitola in this particular marque. As always, the San Andrés wrapper has that sweet, rich, earthy flavor I love. It’s great catching up with an old friend over a great cigar.

 

Finally, I happened to catch wind of a Flor Dominicana event at Old Havana Cigars on Friday evening, and, figuring I’d soon be having limits on my available free time again, why not go down and see Kyle and the folks down there and have a cigar. I had a La Flor Dominicana Colorado Oscuro No. 5, the 5¾” x 60 Gordo. In an unusual move, I only bought the one to smoke, although I wish I had at least gotten another one or two to smoke when I had a better palate. I’ll go back for more later. It was a good smoke, although I had to relight a few times, maybe because I was chatting with friends (you’ll remember Nik from Episode 7 of the CigarCraig Podcast…) and other distractions. I have a hard time remembering a La Flor Dominicana cigar that I didn’t like, maybe I’ll grab a Chisel of some sort out of the humidor today!

 

That about does it for today. To recap, The contest for the Joya de Nicaragua goodies, travel humidor (filled!), hat and cutter, will be extended until mid-week, probably Wednesday, so go back to last Sunday’s post and enter if you haven’t already!  I’ll continue spamming….er….spreading the word , feel free to share it as well, at the risk of reducing your own odds of winning! Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | October 14, 2018 · 12:27 pm

A Joya de Nicaragua Event at the Wooden Indian and Another Contest!

OK, full disclosure, the seasons changed overnight, it went from temps in the 80s and shorts and t-shirts to fall with sweatshirts all at once, and my immune system hasn’t handled it well, so I’ve had a bit of a cold this week. On the plus side, I had three promising job interviews this week, at least 2 of which I hope produce second interviews and possible offers real soon. Sadly, neither are in the cigar industry, although I would certainly entertain offers in that area! Interested parties should not waste any more time!  Anyway, when I get a cold, I tend to smoke cigars I know pretty well, and steer clear of cigars I want to pay a lot of attention to, and if things get really bad I avoid them altogether. I had a Macanudo Red Robusto, an Epic Maduro Robusto, a CAO Flathead 660 and a Camacho Criollo Churchill. All are cigars I really like, I have a bunch of on hand, and are readily available anyway. Funny story about the Camacho (maybe not funny “ha ha” funny…), I posted that I remember in the old days of Camacho when this cigar was called the Camacho Havana. Kevin of Cigar Prop (Thanks again for the Lighter Bleed Tool for last week’s giveaway, it’s on it’s way to the winner!), says he smoked a ton of the Criollo, but never knew it had a predecessor. I told him I might have an old band around, and he seemed interested in seeing it. I have a 26″ tall vase I throw my bands in, but that fills up, so sometimes I stuff (and I do mean stuff) the overflow in gallon bags. I pulled a gallon bag out of storage, dumped it on the floor after looking it over, and, in Rainman fashion, immediately found two old Camacho Havana bands. I guess I’m a cigar band savant.

 

Friday evening, after a day of interviewing, I went down to the Wooden Indian (check out their new online store!) for their Joya de Nicaragua event. Of course, I’m a huge Joya fan, it’s the first cigar factory I ever visited, my appreciation for their cigars goes back many many years. They are one of the rare companies that doesn’t make a cigar I wouldn’t smoke. Sure, there are some that I like more than others, but not a one I dislike. Juan Martinez, the president of the company was there, and I always enjoy my time speaking with him, and this was probably the first time I was really able to hang out with him where it wasn’t at the factory, or the trade show or industry event. I smoked a Joya Silver Toro, which I enjoy a lot, and talked to Juan about the Cinco Decadas, and how it does share some tobaccos with the Silver, confirming my suspicion. I also was able to see the “Joya de Nicaragua “Cinco Décadas: The Rise of the Nicaraguan Cigar”” Book, which is absolutely beautiful, I can’t wait to read it. It was printed in Peru and the graphics and quality are absolutely stunning. As always, Dave, Dan and their staff, as well as Alex, our local Drew Estate Rep, hosted a great event.

 

Contest

Here’s what happens when I don’t smoke a lot of new cigars during the week. Even though I JUST had a contest, Dan at the Wooden Indian hooked me up with a nifty Joya de Nicaragua Travel Humidor, so courtesy of Joya de Nicaragua, Drew Estate and the Wooden Indian, let’s have another CigarCraig.com giveaway celebrating 50 years of Joya de Nicaragua and the launch of Wooden Indian’s Online store!  In addition to the JdN 5 count travel humidor, there’s a JdN hat and a JdN cutter, and I picked up 5 Joya Cigars at the event to fill the humidor! There’s a Joya Silver Robusto, a Joya BlackToro, a Cabinetta Toro, an Antaño 1970 Gran Consul and a very special event only Joya De Nicaragua Clasico (actually, you could probably get this if you were a diplomat, as this is the cigar that’s in embassies around the world for dignitaries to enjoy).  I know, it’s crazy having another contest so soon, my apologies! I hope you can forgive me!

Same rules as always, leave a comment on this post to enter, the only other rule is that the last winner isn’t eligible, give someone else a chance! One entry per person, and I’ll select a winner next Sunday, 10/21/2018.  Let’s see a bunch of entries, this is some great stuff!

 

That’s all for today, util the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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