It’s been way too long since I’ve had a contest! Kevin at CigarProp is involved in Smoke Inn’s Battle of the Band‘s promotion, which involves six of my fellow cigar media friends who put together samplers which are for sale on Smoke Inn’s website. The object is for people to buy the samplers, and at the end of the promotion, which is Midnight Sunday, October 4th, 2020, the one who has sold the most, and I’m assuming it’s the number of samplers and not gross sales, although I’m not clear on that point, wins a championship belt. Of course, the big winner is Smoke Inn, but there’s braggin rights on the line here, and that’s what’s important to the competitors! Like I said, I know all of the competitors, and they all have great samplers, but as a self proclaimed cheap bastard, and Kevin is a close personal friend, I’ve found myself drawn to his five pack over the rest. The other draw was the inclusion of the Padron 1926 No. 35, and I’d never smoked the 1926 until I bought the “shorties for forty”, as he refers to it. The Cigar Prop Pack has been in the lead since the beginning, and as the newest cigar media member in the bunch, that’s a pretty big deal! The other guys in the competition have some large and well established followings!
Kevin and I got together and decided to do a little giveaway. Of course, the idea is to bring awareness to the sale, but two readers each win one of the Cigar Prop Battle of the Bands five packs! The packs include the following cigars: (1) Alec Bradley Black Market Esteli Punk Petit Corona, (1) Crowned Heads Juarez OBS, (1) DT&T Sobremesa Short Churchill, (1) Padron Anniversary 1926 Maduro No. 35, and (1) Drew Estate Papas Fritas. I think we can all agree that these are all great cigars, and I’ve smoked them all recently and can personally vouch for their quality. Additionally, anybody that buys a sampler from Smoke Inn and posts it anywhere online tagging Cigar Prop or Kevin Shahan in the post so he sees it, will get one of his Cigar Prop Minions dog tags for free. Anybody that buys or has bought two samplers, will get a dog tag and the Cigar Prop Travel XC 2.0 (both pictured above). By the way, Kevin claims that the “C” in the XC is for CigarCraig! So leave a comment here to enter, not on Facebook or anywhere else, only comments on this blog post will count. I’ll pick two winners on Sunday, September 20, 2020, and the winners will need to send me their contact information and proof that they are of legal age.
I’m doing my best to try to maintain some semblance of normalcy in what’s turning into quite the shitshow of a 2020, quite frankly. I’m not sure how else to characterize it. I have my feelings on things, but I’m just going to try to stick to my “don’t be a dick” mantra, and keep on doing what I need to do to get through the day. I encourage everyone to live by that philosophy, the world would be a better place. One can dream. Anyway, before I announce a winner of the great Drew Estate goodies, here’s some news they sent my way.
Drew Estate has been putting out more news than I can keep up with lately! I’m sure you’ve seen the news about the new Joya Numero Uno size and the Acid Samplers already, so I won’t revisit those, but these are from the last few days:
Drew Estate Unveils Four New Gift Sets
Drew Estate announces today four new gift sets of their most popular brands including Undercrown Shade, Herrera Esteli Habano, Deadwood Fat Bottom Betty and Tabak Especial Dulce. This release will be showcased on the upcoming Freestyle Live: Special Edition hosted on facebook.com/drewestatecigar on June 11th from 7:00-9:00pm EST.
Each gift set features 5 toro sized cigars and a branded lighter exclusive to the gift set release. Deadwood Fat Bottom Betty toro kicks off the releases, wrapped in lush Maduro and blended with rich and exotic tobaccos. Next, the Herrera Esteli Habano toro features a spicy Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, Honduran Binder, and bold filler leaves from Nicaragua. The Undercrown Shade is highlighted by a smooth Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper over a Sumatra binder with Dominican and Nicaraguan filler leaves. Finally, the Tabak Especial Dulce features a creamy Connecticut wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler leaves, perfect to pair with your cup of coffee.
From the Wynwood Safehouse, Jonathan Drew Founder and President of Drew Estate notes, “Gift Sets are cool as fuck. I dig em.”
The following gift sets featuring a branded lighter are shipping in August:
Deadwood Fat Bottom Betty Toro Gift Set MSRP $57.99
Herrera Esteli Habano Toro Gift Set MSRP $57.99
Tabak Especial Dulce Toro Gift Set MSRP $57.99
Undercrown Shade Toro Gift Set MSRP $57.99
For full coverage of Drew Estate Gift Sets and all of Drew Estate’s upcoming national releases check out our 2020 #DESummerTakeover promotion at www.drewestate.com/summertakeover and be sure to tune in to Freestyle Live: Special Edition hosted on facebook.com/drewestatecigar on June 11th from 7:00-9:00pm EST.
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.
Not to be outdone, Joya de Nicaragua has been announcing new stuff too:
JOYA DE NICARAGUA DARES YOU TO “SHUT THE BOX”
A LIMITED AND PLAYFUL EDITION OF THE LEGENDARY ANTAÑO
Back in 2012, Dr. Alejandro Martínez Cuenca, Chairman of Joya de Nicaragua, won his first game of Shut the Box. He was on tour, visiting old friends in the cigar industry, and in one stop at Havana Mix Shop in Memphis, TN, he was challenged to a game. As a numbers guy, backed by a PhD in Economics, he accepted the dare. You could argue that an exact science has nothing to do with rolling the dice, or you could simply try to shut the box!
Shut the Box is a traditional American game that Dr. Alejandro Martínez Cuenca has become obsessed with and dares anybody to challenge him! “I never thought that day I would discover one of my now favorite pastimes, and moreover, that 8 years after, my team would come up with the idea of making a cigar box that transforms into it. The best of all is that now I’ll find it in cigar lounges across America when I visit,” explained Dr. Alejandro Martínez Cuenca, Chairman of the Board.Antaño is one of Joya de Nicaragua’s oldest and most successful blends of all time. Launched in 2001, it is considered by many as the first real full body cigar in the market. An innovative approach of the most traditional factory in Nicaragua, that became an iconic cigar for American smokers, now considered a true classic. With a Nicaraguan Habano Wrapper and Nicaraguan Binder and Fillers, this cigar is an ultra robust, spicy smoke with an earthy finish, and unbridled body and aroma, which showcase the authentic Nicaraguan Puro.
Antaño Shut the Box Limited Edition is a special gift from Fábrica de Tabacos Joya de Nicaragua to those loyal consumers that have been supporting the brand for almost 20 years. It has manufactured 500 Collector’s Edition boxes of each of the two most popular vitolas in this blend, JDN’s signature Gran Cónsul (4 ¾ x 60 – MSRP $ 182/box or $9.10/stick) and Robusto Grande (5 ½ x 52 – MSRP $169/box or $8.45/stick). After the cigars have been enjoyed, the box is ready to play “Shut the Box”.
“For many years we have been thinking about ideas on how to make our empty boxes be useful after all cigars are smoked, and this is how we decided to let people have some fun. At the moment, we didn’t know we were going to be bringing to smokers a special game so useful these days that we have to stay longer at home,” said Juan Ignacio Martínez, Executive President.
Antaño Shut the Box will be available to stores across the country as of June 2020, and will come in the traditional 20 count boxes, with cigars, instructions and two dice ready to be played with those closest to you. The perfect kit for cigar smokers that want to add some fun to their smoke.
ABOUT JOYA DE NICARAGUA
Joya de Nicaragua is a family owned tobacco grower and cigar factory. Established in 1968, it is the first and most authentic premium handmade cigar manufacturer from Nicaragua. Based in Estelí, many regard JDN as the patriarch creator of the Nicaraguan cigar industry, and its cigars are sold in more than 55 countries around the world. The company’s commitment to quality along with its skillful and resilient people, have rewarded it with the industry recognition of Cigar Factory of the Year 2018 & 2019.
Contest Winner!
I am still throwing cigars in a bag, but so far, along with a Year of the Rat as promised, I’ve included a Nica Rustica Belly from the launch event in Louisville KY in July of 2015 and one each of the new Undercrown Corona Pequeños. I’ll rummage around and find some more to add, I’m sure there will be some Joyas too. I’ve consulted the Random Number Generator, and, as Patrick H predicted, it got close to him, but missed him by this much! Patrick G is the winner! Please send your address so I can get this stuff out to you. I just thought of two more great cigars to put in while I was typing this! Thanks so much to Drew Estate for sending me the Liga Privada Survival Kit and the other swag I’ve collected over the years! It brings me great joy to give stuff like this away! It’s a good thing they didn’t send one of those Benchmade knife/cutters or we wouldn’t have been having a contest, those things are wicked-cool!
I’ve been talking about having a contest for a while, and thinking about doing it for longer, and I finally have gotten around to it. My friends at Drew Estate sent me a really neat item that I think you’ll really like, and I have some other cool stuff to add too. I love stuff as much as the next guy, but I have an abundance of riches, and it’s much more fun to share. The main item is a Liga Privada Survival Kit! It’s a Tin containing a really cool folding knife, a tactical flashlight and a backpack (please note that I did not open. up the backpack to take a photo because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get it folded back up right. I’m sure it’s cool)! I’m going to add a camo Barnsmoker cap and some other DE odds and ends, and some assorted Drew Estate Cigars from my humidors! Those who have won my contests in the past can attest to the fact that when I say that I’m throwing some cigars in, I throw some cigars in! One cigar will be a new Year of the Rat, I’ll tell you that.
So if you don’t know the rules already, just leave a comment on this post, not on Facebook, Twitter or anywhere else, just this post! Just one comment per person please, and I’ll select a winner by random drawing next Wednesday, June 3, 2020. You must be 21 or older to win, so I don’t get in trouble, and I’ll request proof of age. I gotta CMA. Feel free to tell your friends, unless you’re afraid that will reduce your chances! Many thanks to Drew Estate for the goodies! Good Luck!
Edit: I poached a picture with the backpack:
Speaking of the Year of the Rat:
Liga Privada Unico “Year of the Rat” Heads to Drew Diplomat Retailer Virtual Events
Drew Estate announces today that the Liga Privada Unico Serie “Year of the Rat” is shipping to Drew Diplomat retailers hosting Virtual Events starting on June 1st. This release will be showcased on the upcoming Freestyle Live: Special Edition hosted on facebook.com/drewestatecigar on June 11th from 7:00-9:00pm EST, and includes special guests, surprise announcements, and giveaways.The Liga Privada Unico “Year of the Rat” cigars are presented in a 5 ½” x 46 vitola, featuring the iconic fan tail capa illustrated on select Unico Serie cigars. This commemorative cigar is highlighted and defined with a lush Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, a dark, rich Brazilian binder and nasty, hearty Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers. Each “Year of the Rat” is wrapped in gold foil, packaged in a beautifully embossed, blue Liga Privada Unico box.
Liga Privada Unico Serie “Year of the Rat” will be available for purchase at Drew Diplomat retailers hosting Virtual Events starting June 1st. The list of upcoming Virtual Events hosted by Drew Estate can be found at www.drewestate.com/events which is continually updated.
From the Wynwood Safehouse, Jonathan Drew Founder and President of Drew Estate exclaims, “The Rats are coming June 1st … so we kindly ask you to welcome them with open arms during the planned virtual events that the team has been working on. Year of the Rats were first released many years ago in partnership with the Florida Panthers and were only available at their stadium in Miami. Later, I used them for some of my personal events until Willy and the Marketing dudes forced me to give em up. Frankly, me and the Rats are still kind of annoyed about it. I have a conference call with the Supreme Team Rat Lords to review how we will respond. Stay tuned …”
I’m back after a few days of smoking some favorites out of the humidors. I found a few old Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Dark Corojo El Martillos with the old bands, the first one I lit up just wasn’t drawing right, which irritated me. Usually I work my way through, but I wasn’t willing to aggravate myself on that particular day, so I set down the cigar after fighting with it for a third of the cigar, ran an errand, and came home and lit another one, and enjoyed the crap out of it. This has been a cigar I’ve been a fan of for a decade. I can remember smoking one of these when I first toured the Joy de Nicaragua factory in 2011, and with the heat and humidity there that day, I had to put it down or become overwhelmed. It’s a powerful smoke. I love it. I still have a few of these with the old band, and a few with the new. I had a Numero Uno last week which was exceptional also. Love the Joya cigars (I can do without the Red and Black oddly enough). A four year old La Gloria Cubana Serie RF, a Famous Smoke Shop Exclusive, was also smokes this week, and was also very good. It was strange when I looked back through “memories” and saw I smoked the same cigar four years prior almost to the day. It’s funny how often that happens!
My wife has been sewing masks lately and sent some to a hospital, and made me a couple out of the cigar fabric that I have. She made a couple extras, and is having a raffle on Facebook to raise money for NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. The raffle “tickets” are $1 each, and I’ll sweeten the deal by adding a few cigars to the winner. Click here (or on the picture) to make a donation and be entered. All the details are on the post. It’s only running until Saturday, so don’t delay.
Of course, I try to introduce something new in my Sunday posts, r at least new to me. This time it’s from Providencia Cigars. Ray at Providencia sent me some of their new cigars, so look forward to more featured in the coming days. One smells particularly boozy, not sure about that one…but anyway, this one caught my eye right off, and I had to smoke it. The cigar is called the Providencia Shenanigans, and it’s a barber pole style cigar. First off, it was a toro, 6″ x 50 or 52, I failed to measure it. Secondly, it’s a barber pole comprised of Candela and San Andrés Maduro, a striking contrast. The binder is Indonesian, and the fillers are Honduran with Nicaraguan Ligero. Naturally, this cigar seems to target a March 17 smoking date. I can’t help but draw comparisons to other cigars, not gonna lie. Since there’s no way I was going to wait almost a year to smoke it, I fired it up last night. Often barber pole cigars can have odd burns, not this one, it was perfect. Draw was perfect, combustion was perfect, all of the tobaccos burned at the same rate with a flat ember, no coning, no tunneling, absolute perfection. This is how every cigar should perform in a perfect world. The flavors were equally pleasing and entertaining. The interplay between the earthiness and espresso of the San Andrés and the refreshing chlorophyll of the candela was unique, and the spice from the ligero gave it some oomph. Overall, I very much enjoyed this cigar, it was really very good and entertained my for a good hour and a half. It was well worth missing the beginning of “The Ten Commandments”, which is only slightly longer than one of Coop’s podcasts! :-)_~.
That’s all for today. Don’t forget to keep up the social distancing, call your local tobacconist if you need cigars and try to keep them in business! Until the next time,
Yesterday I found myself wandering much further north in PA than I usually find myself. There was a seminar on Bees and Chickens that my wife and I attended, and I snuck off during the second half to do some of my own research. Twenty minutes away from the venue where the seminar was held happened to be the brand new Best Cigar Pub, and Best Cigar Prices headquarters. I figured this would be a good place to visit. Fortunately, the purchasing manager, Chris O’Neill, managed to arrange a tour for me. Katie (Katy? I forgot to clarify), the Finance/HR director, gave me a tour of the entire facility. Why do small companies always saddle the Finance director with HR responsibilities? Like they don’t have enough to worry about? I digress. I had already given myself a tour of the retail humidor, which has a very nice selection and courteous service. Katie showed me the bar, pointed out many of the little things like custom tables with actual tobacco leaves under acrylic, art on the wall done by a local artist, all of the ashtrays made by a local craftsman. She pointed out the excellent menu as well. She then waled me through the Best Cigar Prices operations, all of the offices, warehouse, shipping and all of the stuff I enjoy seeing as a guy who’s spent his professional career in operations. They run a very clean and efficient pick, pack, and ship operation from what I can see. All of the marketing, customer service, web design is all done there in Pennsylvania. I was quite impressed with the operation. I’ll get back to the Pub, which was even more impressive. Upstairs is a lounge with TVs and comfy chairs, wait-staff is attentive and the air handlers replace all the air in the place every three minutes, so it’s not smokey at all. They even have a coat closet in the entry that has an ozone generator so that your coat doesn’t smell smokey. They’ve really thought of everything to make this not just a place to come have a cigar, but a place that smokers and non-smokers alike can enjoy a meal or a beverage together. I enjoyed a 601 Pennsylvania Edition, which is an Espinosa exclusive for BCP. Chris happened to join me and interrupted me while I was taking in the museum portion of the upstairs lounge, which is an educational feature they’ve added. It has the origin story of cigars with a timeline and facts about cigars, infographics about the tobacco plant, how cigars are made, every conceivable detail. Chris tells me they plan to have monitors with video loops of various processes playing included in the wall as well. Best Cigar Pub is a beautiful place, it’s easy enough to find, although not exactly in the middle of anything. I can see it being amazing in the summer with the outdoor patios and putting green and nobody around to really complain! Certainly worth a visit if you are anywhere near north-east PA.
I had heard of Blackbird Cigar Company, but hadn’t seen the cigars any where. When I walked past the booth and they weren’t busy, it seemed like a great time to stop in and see what it they were all about. Imagine my surprise when the owner and founder of the company, Jonas Santana, looked at me and said “I know who you are”. It seems he used to work for another company, and struck out on his own to start Blackbird. I think it was on CigarProp’s youtube channel that I remember hearing about the brand. Anyway, I asked Jonas to share the story of the brand with me on camera. have a look:
Over the course of the past several days I smoked a few of the Blackbird cigars offerings. I would have lined to have smoked them all, but I just couldn’t get to them. They have six cigars in the portfolio, and I can’t run down my smoking experience for six cigars in one post. They very cleverly make the bands on the cigars easy to remove, which is good because they are large bands and doo need to be removed to fully enjoy the cigar! They have two Sumatra wrapped offerings, and, as I’ve been on a Sumatra kick lately, and I smoked the Sumatra Rook with them at the TPE and really enjoyed it, I smoked the Finch this week. This was another excellent Sumatra wrapped cigar. It had the nice, sweet Sumatra wrapper flavor and a well-balanced core of tobacco goodness withinThis has an Indonesian binder, and Dominican and USA fillers. It was solidly medium bodied and a very nice cigar. Next I went with what you’d expect from me, the San Andrés wrapped Crow. It was Valentines Day, and I figured the red band would be appropriate. This cigar had a closed foot, and a dark, oily wrapper. The flavors were earthy and bakers chocolate, perhaps espresso, without sweetness. The internals on this one include a Habano binder and Nicaraguan, Pennsylvanian, and Corojo and Criollo 98 fillers. Very enjoyable. Finally, last night after a long day trip, I unwound with the Unkind, a Brazilian Cubra wrapped cigar. This was also a maduro cigar, and, like the rest, a 5″ x 50 robusto. The binder on this one is from the DR, with Criollo 09, HBA (not sure what this means), Corojo and Pennsylvania. One thing I can say about all of the Blackbird cigars I smoked was that that all were well made and burned right, an important consideration. It’s possible that the PA tobacco was a common flavor component that I picked up though the few cigar I smoked this week. You’ll see if you watch the video that some thought went into the brand, and the same attention went into the quality of materials and manufacture as well. The Unkind had a unique flavor, also an earthy maduro, not really sweet. It was very good though, I enjoyed it completely. I still have the Connecticut Jackdaw and Criollo Cuco yet to smoke, I kind of like those two wrapper varieties more in warmer weather for some reason. I’ll get to them and let you know.
Contest!
OK, so after a lot of money and aggravation, my site is clean. It’s time to pick a winner of the sampler of some of my favorite cigars, Don Juan Calavera, Flor Maya and Marchetti cigars from Danli Hondura Tabaco, and I had to collect entries from two different places. After collecting all of the names, and putting them into a bowl (OK, I put them into a spreadsheet and randomized the list to mix them up and assign them numbers), the random number generator picked Anthony C as the winner. Please email me your coordinates and proof that you are 21 or older so I can get these goodies to you. I have a KMA Talk Radio hat and shirt and a Stage V Clinger cigar holder to add as well (it’s a big shirt, do with it what you will, I take no responsibility. If it fits, great!).
That’s all for today, and way more than I had planned! Until the next time,
and not gross sales, although I’m not clear on that point, wins a championship belt. Of course, the big winner is Smoke Inn, but there’s braggin rights on the line here, and that’s what’s important to the competitors! Like I said, I know all of the competitors, and they all have great samplers, but as a self proclaimed cheap bastard, and Kevin is a close personal friend, I’ve found myself drawn to his five pack over the rest. The other draw was the inclusion of the Padron 1926 No. 35, and I’d never smoked the 1926 until I bought the “shorties for forty”, as he refers to it. The Cigar Prop Pack has been in the lead since the beginning, and as the newest cigar media member in the bunch, that’s a pretty big deal! The other guys in the competition have some large and well established followings! 
Kevin and I got together and decided to do a little giveaway. Of course, the idea is to bring awareness to the sale, but two readers each win one of the Cigar Prop Battle of the Bands five packs! The packs include the following cigars: (1) Alec Bradley Black Market Esteli Punk Petit Corona, (1) Crowned Heads Juarez OBS, (1) DT&T Sobremesa Short Churchill, (1) Padron Anniversary 1926 Maduro No. 35, and (1) Drew Estate Papas Fritas. I think we can all agree that these are all great cigars, and I’ve smoked them all recently and can personally vouch for their quality. Additionally, anybody that buys a sampler from Smoke Inn and posts it anywhere online tagging Cigar Prop or Kevin Shahan in the post so he sees it, will get one of his Cigar Prop Minions dog tags for free. Anybody that buys or has bought two samplers, will get a dog tag and the Cigar Prop Travel XC 2.0 (both pictured above). By the way, Kevin claims that the “C” in the XC is for CigarCraig! So leave a comment here to enter, not on Facebook or anywhere else, only comments on this blog post will count. I’ll pick two winners on Sunday, September 20, 2020, and the winners will need to send me their contact information and proof that they are of legal age. 
