Category Archives: Contest

by | December 27, 2020 · 10:06 am

Holiday Weekend Cigars and the Big Contest Winner!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday, it was another quiet one around here. We prepared a nice feast and delivered some food to Mom and our daughter’s family, remaining socially distant. I tend to smoke some good stuff around the holidays, and more times than not, my version of “good stuff” is classics. In this case I smoked an Ashton VSG Belicoso #1 on Christmas Eve. I’ve been nursing a box of these for a few years and they are extremely delicious. Every time I smoke one I am reminded of how much I like them and could smoke them all the time. I guess it’s why it’s a treat. Earlier in the day I had a Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve Robusto which was a generous gift from a  Secret Santa that I took part in this year. That’s another great cigar made by Drew Estate. I almost liken it to a highly refined Kentucky Fire Cured, as it does share some commonalities.

 

Christmas Day brought a little Davidoff  702 Series 2000 Corona between doing some cooking and waiting to leave on the aforementioned rounds. Another tasty cigar that had been in the humidor for some time. This is a 5 1/16” x 42 medium bodied cigar that was smooth and creamy. Oddly, Davidoff’s website lists smoking times for each vitola, and they list this one at 25 minutes. Perhaps they are going by Zino Davidoff’s habit of only smoking half the cigar, because I smoked this for about an hour, and all of the smoking time they list are easily 30 minutes or so short. Later in the day I went with about Fuente favorite, the Arturo Fuente Añejo No. 50. This is another box I am rather miserly with. Originally the Añejo was born when a fire destroyed (or a hurricane?) the curing barns where the Opus X wrappers were curing, ruining the crop, and they put Broadleaf wrappers on Opus bunches. I gotta tell ya, I’ll take an Añejo over an Opus any day of the week. It’s a delicious cigar, especially for desert. It’s sweet chocolate cake. Like the VSG, it’s tough to keep my hands out of the box. Last night I wrapped things up with a new classic, and a cigar that easily keeps up with the other great cigars I smoked this weekend, a Sobremesa Short Churchill. While it doesn’t have the Pedigree of the Fuentes or Davidoff, it certainly has the construction and flavor to compete. It was absolutely delicious and too short. It was a great cigar weekend, but aren’t they all!

 

Contest!

OK, Since you’ve probably already scrolled here, I’ll get to the point! Last week I had a giveaway for a whole bunch of great swag and cigars! Stuff from Montecristo, Drew Estate, Villiger and Foundation Cigar Co, and the Humidors of CigarCraig! I’ve consulted the Random Number Generator (Google has one now, I don’t have to go to Random.org anymore), and between my randomization of the entries, and using the random number generator, it’s the digital equivalent of mixing slips of paper in a fishbowl. The selection process came up with Joseph as the winner! Please email me with your contact info and proof that you’re old enough. I hate to chase people and I tried to make it easy to email! I’ll see if I can come up with something else in the coming weeks! 

 

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

 

CigarCraig 

 

 

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by | December 20, 2020 · 10:46 am

CigarCraig’s 2020 Holiday Giveaway!

OK, I know it’s not the CigarCraig’s 12 Days of Giveaways, it’s been 5 years since that whole thing ended. We had a good run, but when the FDA scared all the cigar companies off of giving cigars away, it complicated things. I knew that trying to do twelve days of swag giveaways wouldn’t fly, and adding cigars out of my own humidor would break me (shipping already puts a hurting on me!). So it went the way of the Dodo. Fortunately, I find myself with some goodies accumulated over the year, so I put together one great present to close out the year! First, let me get something off my chest. Yesterday I smoked a Deadwood Leather Rose, which I really enjoy. It irks me when people call this cigar, and the other cigars in the Deadwood series, “infused”, or dare I say it, “flavored”. They are not. Sure they have a sweet cap, there are several traditional cigars that have a sweet cap. I don’t count the sweet cap as flavored. I really wish the folks at Drew Estate would be more vocal about this. I’d love to be able to reference a link on their site that states boldly “this (and the Larutan, for that matter) is NOT an infused cigar”. It uses non-traditional tobaccos, Syrian, Perique, Latakia, tobaccos more traditionally used in pipe tobaccos. I hate seeing social media posts that start something like “I don’t usually smoke flavored cigars, but I smoked a Sweet Jane…”and I feel compelled to say “you still didn’t! I feel like Drew Estate should help me out a little here! Heck, I’ve seen people argue with Vaughn Boyd (who owned Deadwood) for crying out loud! OK, enough of my ranting, I really enjoy the Leather Rose, and her sisters, and the Natural/Larutans too, although I don’t smoke many for some reason. They have a lot of flavor, and I like that.

 

Let’s get to the Giveaway!  We have a lot of stuff s buckle up. Back in August I went to a Golf tournament Sponsored by Goose’s Montecristo Lounge, and Goose was very generous and supplied me with some Montecristo swag which included a Montecristo cap, a really nice Montecristo table lighter and a cutter in a humidor bag. I am adding a Montecristo Espada from my humidor, and I might find something else when I get to rooting around. Speaking of Drew Estate, since they canceled the Barn Smokers this year, they very kindly sent out they Barnsmoker swag. I’ll be honest, I was on the fence about giving up the backpack, it’s really nice, but I have a ton of backpacks, and I talked myself into giving this one up (my wife talked me into it as well). There’s another lighter and cutter (here’s a secret, this lighter you can get away with stashing in your luggage when you fly!), a bottle opener and a cigar stand. I put together a samper of Drew Estate and Joya de Nicaragua cigars from my humidor to go with it. Next there’s a nice Villiger ceramic ashtray, to which I’ve added some Villiger cigars (again, from my humidor, unsmoked!), and finally, a Foundation cutter (I forgot to add a Foundation cigar to try it on, one will be added!).  So that’s an OK present, right? A little something for everyone, goodies for you, a hefty USPS bill for me! (I might do UPS since USPS has been sketchy as of late). Many thanks to my friends who generously provided these goodies! You know the rules! Leave a comment on this post to enter. No comments on Facebook, twitter or anywhere but this blog post will count. You must be of legal age in your jurisdiction to win (and prove it), and if you are selected as the winner, you need to e-mail me your information, please don’t make me track you down! I like to think the folks who win my contest are regular readers and, therefore, will see that they won! I’ll pick a winner next Sunday, December 27, 2020. Let’s see a ton of entries! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, whatever you like to celebrate.

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | October 25, 2020 · 10:39 am

An E.P. Carrillo Pledge Cigar, Some Drew Estate News and The Contest Winner

My last visit to the cigar shop had me procuring some new cigars, the last of which was the E.P. Carrillo Pledge. They had both sizes, the 5″ x 50 Pequel and the 6″ x 52 Sojourn, of course I selected the Sojourn. It’s funny, there was a time when I opted for the robusto every time, and I’m not sure it wasn’t cost over preference. I think as I’ve gotten older (I’m hesitant to say “matured”), I’ve valued the experience over the cost, and I prefer the experience I get with a toro. Sure there are times when a Robusto fits my schedule better, I might smoke a couple today, but it’s because I have so damned many of them in my humidors and I usually find myself unfulfilled when I finish one. Anyway, back to the Pledge Sojourn. This cigar has a Connecticut Havana seed wrapper which may or may not be grown in Massachusetts, depending on the source of information. I’ve seen tobacco farms in Massachusetts, so it’s totally possible. It’s a dark wrapper, and it’s beautiful. The binder is from Ecuador and the filers are from Nicaragua. Of course it’s made in La Alianza, Ernesto’s factory in the DR. I forgot to check my band to see if it’s signed, Ernie signed six of each size and if someone finds one they win a humidor. Hang on, be right back. Nope, no golden ticket for me! It was a 1 in 1250 shot. I bet Kameron at the shop checked them all, the band came off awfully easy 😁.  I kid. This is a delicious cigar with a beautiful burn and draw. It’s full bodied and full flavored. It has some cocoa and pepper, and I might have initially mistaken it for broadleaf, but it wasn’t as sweet. As a longtime fan of EPC’s work, I am once again impressed, this is another winner. Considering how rarely I spend $12 on a cigar, this one is worth every penny. Yum.

 

Here’s some news from the folks at Drew Estate that I was too lazy to post separately a few days ago:

 

Drew Estate announces today that it will donate $50,000 to Operation: Cigars for Warriors (CFW) during its virtual Barn Smoker Live event, which will broadcast directly from the Florida Sun Grown farm in Clermont, Fla., on Drew Estate’s Facebook page (facebook.com/drewestatecigar) on Nov. 14, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

 

Due to COVID-19, Drew Estate cancelled the five Barn Smoker events that had been planned for 2020 in Connecticut, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Florida. Instead, Drew Estate decided to Bring the Barn to the People, announcing its Barn Smoker Good Will Act, through which Drew Estate fully refunded all Barn Smoker ticketholders, sent each of these ticketholders all the incredible swag they would have otherwise received at the in-person events, and decided to showcase a virtual Barn Smoker open to all adults free of charge.In 2014, Drew Estate hosted its first Barn Smoker at Hopkinsville, Ky. The event brought premium cigar consumers onto a real American tobacco farm and educated them on how the dark fire-cured tobacco used in the company’s Kentucky Fire-Cured cigars is grown, processed and finished. The event, which included local cuisine and spirits samplings proved so popular that the company has expanded its Barn Smoker program to a total of five annual events.
Jonathan Drew, founder and president of Drew Estate, notes, “I kinda view life as a great big mosaic of stories. As a tobacco man, I love the deep, raw, emotional and authentic stories of real American tobacco farmers and families. One of our goals at Barn Smoker is to immerse our DE family into farm life and premium leaf culture. This year, we have a virtual spin on things, but the team is hard at work loading in super duper surprises and cool shit. I have to say that most of all, I’m just lookin’ forward to chillin’ with you guys. Much love!”

 

A hallmark of each Barn Smoker has been assisting CFW, a 501(c)(3) charity that has shipped approximately 1.2 million cigars to deployed troops and has also provided them with boutique coffee, cigar accessories and other items. Drew Estate’s association with CFW dates to before the charity’s establishment in 2012 when Drew met CFW’s CEO, Storm Boen, and provided legal advice on how to set up a charity.

 

“Drew Estate has been our biggest supporter and J.D. [Jonathan Drew] has always been a big proponent of ours,” Boen says. “His legal background provided the foundation for Operation: Cigars for Warriors. Since then, he’s ensured that we are at all of Drew Estate’s Barn Smokers, which has helped us a lot, especially after 2016 when the FDA declared that manufacturers couldn’t donate cigars to troops anymore.”

 

Prior to 2016, Drew Estate had donated more than 150,000 cigars and has also donated approximately $250,000 to the charity to date. While the FDA now prohibits cigar companies from donating cigars to charitable causes, it still allows cigar companies to donate money to charities. A portion of each Barn Smoker ticket sold supports CFW, and Drew Estate also donates raffle items to raise additional money for the CFW at every Barn Smoker event. Despite not holding in-person Barn Smokers in 2020, Drew Estate will add another $50,000 to its charitable contributions to CFW on November 14th.

 

“While Covid-19 has seriously impacted all of us, it has had a tremendous effect on charitable contributions worldwide, but the missions these charities serve have not diminished,” says Drew Estate CEO, Glenn Wolfson. “In the face of tremendous challenges brought on by the pandemic, Cigars for Warriors continues to successfully fulfill its mission of sending deployed soldiers and sailors cigars and other much needed items they request. With gratitude to these brave men and women serving overseas, Drew Estate is proud to support Cigars for Warriors and we encourage everyone to consider donating their cigars, time or money to this worthwhile charity.”

 

Financial donations to Cigars for Warriors may be made via PayPal. Cigar donations may be made at an authorized Cigars for Warriors donation center or sent to Attention: Cigars for Warriors at 8585 SW Hwy 200 Unit # 16, Ocala, FL 34481. For more information, visit cigarsforwarriors.org.

 

ABOUT DREW ESTATE

Founded in New York City in 1996, Drew Estate has become one of the fastest growing tobacco companies in the world. Under their mantra “The Rebirth of Cigars”, Drew Estate has led the “Boutique Cigar” movement by innovating new elements to the tobacco industry with their unique tobaccos and blending styles that attract new and traditional cigar enthusiasts. In their Gran Fabrica Drew Estate, the Nicaraguan headquarters, Drew Estate produces a variety of brands such as ACID, Herrera Estelí, Herrera Estelí Norteño, Isla del Sol, Kentucky Fired Cured, Liga Privada, MUWAT, Larutan by Drew Estate, Nica Rustica, Pappy Van Winkle Barrel Fermented Cigars, Tabak Especial, Undercrown, Florida Sun Grown, and Java by Drew Estate.

 

 

Contest

It’s time to announce the winner of the cool AshStay ashtray, Western Digital Hygrometer and DAHOT Sampler from my humidor! Thanks to Chaim at Cigar Oasis for the Ashtray and Hygrometer! Cigar Oasis has been a great supporter of CigarCraig.com for decades! OK, you’ve told me a million times not to exaggerate, it’s been a long time, and I use Cigar Oasis  products in my humidors, as well as an Ashstay on a daily basis! So, I put the entries into a spreadsheet, randomized the list, then used a random number generator, and came up with Patrick Hart as the winner! KingOHarts, please send your address, and you really don’t need to prove your age, because I remember you from the Usenet days, so you MUST be of legal age! Let me scrounge around and see what I can come up with for a future giveaway, the holidays will soon be upon us! It’s getting harder and harder! 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | October 18, 2020 · 11:40 am

An Island Jim San Andrés No. 2 and a Contest!

I know, you’re saying to yourself: “didn’t Craig just have a great contest a few weeks ago? Is he going back to his old ways?” Well, it just works out that a cool item came across my doorstep that I wanted to share with you guys, and why wait, but more on that in a bit. First, I made another visit to one of my local CigarCigars shops, this time the one in Berwyn, PA. Kameron is the manager there, and curates the Instagram account for the shop. I have been seeing his proclivity for pics of vanity license plates, so I figured there was one glaring omission from his collection and it was my responsibility to fill that void! Give him a follow (CigarsBerwyn), and make sure you follow CigarCraig1 (CigarCraig has gone dormant as I can no longer log in!). While there I picked up a few new-to-me cigars, as I do, and smoked the Island Jim San Andrés No.2 last night. I smoked the regular issue No. 2 several years ago on a birthday visit to Cigar Mojo. Holy crap, I just checked and it was 2014, can you believe the Island Jim No. 2 has been around for over 6 years? Damn! That’s just stupid. I guess it’s no more stupid than me eating an Island Jim BBQ Pineapple Pork stick well over two years past its sell-by date (I did this recently, BTW, it was good!). The San Andrés No. 2 has the same 6″ x 52 Torpedo shape as the Original, which has a Jalapa wrapper, and I assume this also has Honduran binder and fillers with, obviously, a San Andrés wrapper. It also has the stripped head and shaggy foot.  I really enjoyed this cigar! It reminded me of the old Leccia Luchadors with the spicy cocoa flavors, and I don’t think that has anything to do with both Jim and Sam being from Pittsburgh. This was a really good smoke and I recommend it!

 

Contest! 

 

Hopefully you didn’t just skip through the Island Jim part, because I really spent some time on it.  Anyway, let me tell you about this contest! One of my favorite things to do is to share things that I really enjoy, hoping that others will enjoy them too. My friends at Cigar Oasis are the exclusive distributor of a product that I’ve been using long before they became involved, so when they sent me one, I decided this would be a great time to share one with one of my readers! About 6 years ago I discovered the AshStay ashtray, and I’ve been using mine daily on my porch ever since. This thing is great. It keeps the smell and mess contained, and doesn’t look unsightly. When my grandkids come over I don’t even have to clean up and put it away! It’s super cool! Mine is white, and if I clean it (big if!), it looks brand new. The one they sent is Gunmetal, normally I’m a big fan of Gunmetal, but I have a perfectly good white one, and have plenty of ashtrays, so I’m willing to part with this one! Also, from Cigar Oasis, is a Caliber IV Digital Hygrometer. I have been using one of these for years as well and it’s a great hygrometer! Of course, it wouldn’t be a CigarCraig contest without some cigars. I put together a seven cigar sampler of one of my favorite unknown cigar brands, Danli Honduras Tobacco (DAHOT) from my humidor. These are cigars that I really love, and love to share. There’s Don Juan Calavera in Connecticut, Maduro and Sumatra, Flor Maya in Connecticut and Habano, The Clown Corojo and Marchetti box pressed Maduro. These are some of my go-to cigars, I love them all. The Don Juan Calavera Connecticut is one of my favorite Connecticut cigars, and the Sumatra was my favorite cigar of 2018. The usual rules apply. Leave a comment on this blog post, and this blog post only, to enter. You need to be of legal age in your jurisdiction to win cigars. I’ll select a winner next Sunday, October 25, 2020. It would be great if the winner read the blog post and emailed me their shipping info instead of me having to track them down 😉  ! Good luck! 

 

That’s all for now, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | September 20, 2020 · 11:09 am

Diesel Esteli Puro Micallef A Cigars Contest Winners!

Sadly (for me, I seem to be in the minority for some reason), it’s the last Sunday of summer. I am not a fan of Autumn, or Winter, and I only tolerate Spring because it means it’s almost Summer. As I age I am far less tolerant of cold, and I just find the trees losing their leaves and everything turning brown really depressing. Lots of people love it, and that’s good for them, but I’m not a fan. The only leaves I enjoy burning are properly fermented black tobacco leaves, lovingly rolled into beautiful cigars! So kindly STFU about how great Fall is and LMTHA (to use some partial Saka acronyms). 

 

I received some of the new Diesel Esteli Puro Samples a week or so ago from General Cigar Co., for which I’m grateful, and smoked a few this week. I posted the full press release about this here. Here are a few important points:

The wrapper was harvested from La Lilia, the binder from San José and the fillers from several plots including AJ’s celebrated San Lotano farm.

Blended by AJ Fernandez, handcrafted at Tabacalera AJ Fernandez in Estelí, Nicaragua and developed by General Cigar’s Justin Andrews.

I smoked the Robusto, as it’s General’s MO to send samples in that format.  In this case, the Robusto is a generous 5¼ x 54 and comes wrapped in a cedar sleeve from the band to the foot. Warning to those with a sensitive constitution, this cigar starts off very strong! The first inch or so is a pepper blast with a load of nicotine. I’d almost call it hot. I was taken aback, honestly, and I like stronger cigars for the most part. It settled down after a while, but remained full bodied, and I really rather enjoyed the two samples I smoked. I have a couple more, I think I’ll take the cedar sleeve off of one, and revisit them in several months, smoking one that has been stored with, and one without the sleeve and see what differences I find. I often regret storing cigars long term with the cedar sleeves, and I leave them as they are out of sheer eyes laziness mostly. If you like strong cigars, this would be a good one to try! Lots of rich tobacco flavor under the pepper!

 

I visited a couple of my area CigarCigars shops yesterday, and I wish I had hit one more to complete the trifecta, it slipped my mind to do it. I had hoped to visit with my friend Kevin, who is retiring as manager of the Downingtown store in a week or so, but he wasn’t working, so bought some cigars, and stopped at the Frazer store on my way home and bought a few more cigars. Both stores had a mask policy, and social distance practices arranged in their lounges and were open for business. The Frazer store even had a sign on the door saying if you’re sick, stay home. Happy to see that they are taking proper pandemic precautions. The Downingtown store had good foot traffic while I was there, the register was ringing. One of the cigars I bought there was the Micallef A. I’ve even hearing a lot about this cigar recently, it was apparently a cigar that was named through a contest held among the ambassadors, of which I’m one (but I didn’t vote).  You’d think they’d be able to come up with something better than “A”, but they actually settled on “Ambassador”, which makes more sense. There was a little bit of a copyright issue with that (I’m guessing Joya with L’ambassadeur?), so they just went with “A”. Now, when I think of a cigar called “A”, I expect a 9¼ x 48 cigar, but this is a 6¾ x 54 cigar with a Nicaraguan Sumatra wrapper that’s fermented to a dark Maduro. It also has a Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers and is made in their factory in Esteli by the Gomez Sanchez Family. Lotsa Sumatra there, and I like Sumatra, and the price is right at around $7.50 here in PA. I lit one up and it was good. Lots of sweet, dark coffee and cocoa notes that I like, but I couldn’t help but think there was some youth, or at least that some age could certainly be of benefit. I liked it well enough, there was just something a little bit out of balance that some humidor time will address. I’ll have no problem experimenting with this one though, the construction was perfect, and at that price, it’s a no brainer.

 

Contest

I almost wrapped this up without selecting winners for the CigarProp Smoke In Battle of the Bands Samplers. If you aren’t a lucky winner, or even if you are, I’d recommend going and buying one or three of these samplers, you really can’t go wrong. The only way you can justify not buying one is if you are opposed to lining Abe Dababneh’s pockets, and if that’s the case, well, I guess I can’t help. I met Abe before I ever even though about launching this site, so we go back a ways. Anyway, We need two winners. The random number generator tells me that the winners of CigarProp Smoke In Battle of the Bands Samplers are: Xolatol and Gregg Hearl! Please send me your contact info and proof that you’re of age so we can get these samplers to you!  

 

I had to take a break from writing this to take a call from Jose Blanco, among other topics discussed, I confirmed with him that plume is, in fact, real, and will have some other theories I have related to that whole controversy verified (or disproved) in the future. That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

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