Category Archives: Editorial

by CigarCraig | January 26, 2014 · 10:29 am

The Ethical Challenges of Cigar Smokers in America, Are We Bad Citizens?

It’s been so cold here this week that I haven’t been able to bring myself to go out for a cigar. Â It was certainly too cold to go for my usual walk (although I managed to have one in the snow yesterday), and once I got home from work, going out to a cigar shop for a smoke didn’t feel like a good idea either. Â This cold and snow and stuff is getting to me! Â C’mon Spring! Maybe because Winter got off to an early start we can expect it to get warmer sooner? Â We’ll have to wait until February 2nd to see what the groundhog has to say (that’s the only event of any importance happening that day, right? 🙂 ). Â Anyway, when I don’t smoke any cigars, you get the benefit of one of my rants. Â Today’s editorial is on smoking bans and regulation.

This week we learned that my home state of Pennsylvania had bills in both the state house and senate (Thank you Halfwheel) that aim to remove exemptions in the 2008 “Clean Indoor Air Act”. Â The exemptions these bills want removed are tobacconists, bars, casinos, private clubs and “other places”. Â This is an obvious assault on freedom! Â Private Clubs? Â Really? Â Shouldn’t not only private clubs, but private businesses be allowed to decide what legal activities can go on in their businesses? What next? Â Private homes? Your yard? Â There is also proposed legislation in PA to ban smoking in your car if there are children present. Hey, I get protecting kids, don’t get me wrong, but this is legislating what should be common sense, and taking away personal liberties at the same time! Â There is legislation like this popping up all over the country, so we need to pay attention!Â Cigar Rights Of AmericaÂ lists them all.

Beside the myth of second hand smoke (OSHA has Permissible Exposure Limits for all of the measurable chemicals in tobacco smoke, see here) , what are some of the reasons cited for smoking bans? Park and beach bans cite litter as a reason. Gee, aren’t there already laws against litter? How about enforcing existing laws instead of making up new ones? Â I would be willing to bet that every public park and beach in the US (and elsewhere, I would guess) has laws on the books regarding litter. You drop something, you pick it up or get a fine. Â I’m even fine with calling a cigar butt litter, even if it’s biodegradable. Â I don’t need to see a chewed up stinky cigar butt on the ground. Â Put it in the right place, it’s not that big a burden, right? Â We are, as a rule, considerate, responsible cigar smoking citizens, are we not? Â Another popular anti-smoke angle is that we don’t want people to think that smoking is “normal”. Â Kids see adults smoking and want to do it, sure, I get that. Â What about a little thing called PARENTING? Â Can you imagine what the orphanages would look like if parenting was legislated and enforced? For example, I smoked in front of my three children all of their lives, and I smoked cigarettes too up until about 7 years ago. Â I never worried about them sneaking cigarettes or cigars, and they never did! Â Both my sons joined me for a cigar on or after their eighteenth birthdays. My eldest son, who went to Cigar Safari with me in 2011, probably hasn’t smoked a cigar in a couple months (has a humidor with a bunch of pretty decent cigars), but will join me for a smoke from time to time. Â My youngest has smoked on and off, and goes to a hookah bar with friends from time to time. Â The nannies would paint me as a bad parent, perhaps, but I see success! They were adults when they smoked their first cigars, Â capable of making their own choices. Â My daughter has never smoked as far as I know, I think our setting a bad example turned her off to the habit, she rebelled by being far more conservative than her mother and I. Another win for us! Anyway, the point is, raise your kids to know….wait, I don’t really have to expand on that….raise your kids! Â Don’t rely on society to do it for you! If we outlaw all the things we don’t want our kids growing up doing there won’t be anything!

I’d like to implore everyone to be vigilant and contact your legislators when ever one of these bills comes up, not only locally, but nationally as well. These people work for us, they need to hear from us. Cigar Rights Of America has tools that allow you to send a pre-written e-mail to your elected officials. Â Fill in your zip code and it automatically fills in the right people, again, both state and federal governments. While you’re there, make sure to send an e-mail to your Federal legislators about the FDA regulating our cigars out of existence! You can do that here. I don’t even think you need to be a member to use these tools, but for $35 a year it doesn’t hurt. Â Please let these people know that we are voting citizens and we value our freedom to enjoy a legal product (which, by the way, governments are making a ton of money on!). It’s not going to stop at tobacco, you know, and all of these bans put people out of work!

On a related note, my father-in-law pointed out this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about The State of Pennsylvania Â subsidizing films that feature smoking. Â Anti-smoking zealots will target anything smoke related, but I bet they have a cocktail or two and get behind the wheel of their pollution producing automobiles (or worse, take a bus?). Do these people really go to movies and look for things to complain about? The article is here.

Finally, I’d like to point you to a couple articles by one of my favorite musicians, Joe Jackson. I don’t know that Joe is a cigar smoker, and many of his works relate to U.K. smoking bans, but it applies to us here in the colonies as well.
From Spiked-Online.com:

[pageview url=”http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/9278#.UuUPZtIo6IX” title=”A dozen reasons to stub out the smoking ban” border=”yes” scrolling=”yes”]

Also, check out Joe’s essay “SMOKE, LIES AND THE NANNY STATE” which he published in 2007. I’m going to go line up some Joe Jackson tunes and have a cigar.

One final thought: Maybe if states that banned smoking were not allowed to generate income from tobacco taxes, they’d think twice about bans. Â Once they get rid of tobacco, you better believe they will come after something else you like. Â Live and let live, folks! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

8 Comments

Filed under Editorial

Tagged as cigar, cigar rights, cigars, FDA, liberty, rights, Smoking Bans

by CigarCraig | January 19, 2014 · 11:55 am

An Azan White, A Toraño Exodus 50th Cigar and I Got Hex’d!

It’s been a busy time in the cigar industry, it seems. Press releases are flying everywhere, and, although I’m not the guy who has the ability, or the inclination, to post them upon arrival, they did inspire some of my cigar selections this week! There are several sites I can count on posting a press release shortly after I receive the e-mailed version, and I think that’s great! I just feel like it would be redundant for me to post it a few days later and I try to keep my content just a little different from everyone else. That being said, I’m all about promoting the premium cigar industry, so I’ll endeavor to smoke a cigar from a company in the news and link to the relevant press release on one of my esteemed colleagues sites. Everyone (with some exceptions) loves links, so hopefully this is a winning solution. Enough of my editorial views, I smoked some cigars this week!

Thursday evening I selected my last IPCPR sample from Roberto Duran Cigars, an Azan White Robusto. I had enjoyed the Campaña a while back (here with some back story) and really enjoyed it. I’m sure glad that I accidentally came by samples at the show, because this is a dynamite cigar. It’s flavor is smooth and rich and it’s what I look for in a premium cigar. The construction is also perfect. I have it on good authority that they are coming out with a Corojo Maduro next, which sounds really interesting. This 4 7/8 x 50 robusto has an Ecuador Corojo wrapper and perhaps it’s the Brazilian Mata Fina in the filler (along with leaf from Jalapa and Esteli) that give it that little something extra that I like. This is a really nice, refined cigar that would be smokable just about any time of the day. Another cigar with a “very nice” rating. The press release I mentioned above can be found posted at Cigar Federation here.

Friday I cracked open a Toraño 90+ Rated Sampler I received last year from Jack Toraño. As I am prone to do, I started with the maduro offering, the 93 rated Toraño Exodus 1959 50 Years Toro. This is also the highest rated out of the bunch. Aesthetically, this is a beautiful dark, oily cigar and I really like how the copper colored band looks against the wrapper. Very pretty. This is a rich, smooth maduro that is another “very nice” cigar. Burn and draw were spot on and it gave me about an hour and a half of smoking enjoyment. I’ll continue to smoke through this sampler and report in on the rest of the blends represented, it’s nice to know that this can be purchased for under $25 at a lot of outlets (BCP has them here, shilling for one of my advertisers!). Toraño announced last week their “Blends From the Vault” tour beginning in February. TheCigarNut.com is one place you can find the press release about the tour. I was actually having a discussion yesterday with a gentleman in a local lounge about the lack of a big Toraño presence here in south-east PA, and the proprietor of the same shop asked me about Sam Leccia in a separate conversation. Toraños are great smokes and Sam is the hot ticket over the last six months or so, it amazes me a little that the presence is so limited.

Wednesday I posted the press release for National Hex Day, so I hunted down a participating store in my area and took a forty minute drive to Goose’s Tobacco Outlet in Limerick, PA. I had visited this shop once before and had wanted to visit again anyway, so this gave me an excuse. I walked in and said “Hex Me” and was presented with a Hex Figurado, and then purchased three more. John, the proprietor, invited me into their members lounge to enjoy my free Hex Figurado. From talking to a couple members there, I came to find that if you spend $20 in the shop you are welcome to enjoy the lounge without a membership. This isn’t generally a problem for me anyway, but I prefer a shop have a public area for patrons to come in and enjoy their purchases. Not everyone buys more cigars than they plan to smoke at one sitting, there may be people who want to come in and buy one cigar and sit and enjoy it in a comfortable setting. Just one of my pet peeves, and I can’t complain about Goose’s selection or lounge, because it’s not bad and the two times I’ve been there I’ve managed to meet nice people and be accepted, like one finds in many cigar shops. I’ve smoked the Hex before and enjoyed it quite a bit. The example I smoked yesterday smoked a little on the wet side, and in talking to some other patrons they seemed to have similar issues. I still found it to be delicious, but if I didn’t understand the problem, I may have been put off by the way it smoked. I know the ones I brought home will smoke great after some rest in the humidor (they are in the new Adorini humidor for now). Keep an eye out for Sindicato Cigars, they are doing some pretty interesting things! I also understand that Goose’s is working on bringing a brand to market as well as hosting a festival in the fall. I’d much rather get Hex’d at Goose’s than Goose’d at Hex’s! I hope some of you went out and got Hex’d yesterday (or goose’d, I’m not judging)!

That’s enough for today, enjoy the day, I understand there might be a game on or something (the Flyers played last night and tomorrow, so I don’t know what other games there might be…). Until the next time,

CigarCraig

7 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as Azan, cigar, cigars, Goose's, Hex, Roberto Duran, Sindicato, Toraño

by CigarCraig | January 5, 2014 · 11:53 am

First Cigars of 2014: a La Palina, a Cain and a Los Blancos Nine

I see it’s going to be one of those winters! We’ve already had about 4 snowstorms, and we’re seeing single digit temps for the first time in quite a few years. I yearn for spring! I would rather smoke cigars without gloves and six layers! I have no problem going to any one of a number of local shops in the area, but that gets expensive, and I’ve got a ton of cigars here at home that need smoking. Of course, when I go to a shop I can’t just buy one cigar and smoke it, I have to buy two, then something else catches my eye and I have to get two of them. It gets hard to keep up! Then, I do something stupid like buy a box of cigars just because I dig the box and I think it’ll look good on the bookcase! Not only do I buy the box, but I add on a five-pack too! (remember the Famous-Smoke.com coupon codes folks!) It’s crazy. At some point I send a bunch to Cigars for Warriors and give a bunch away, so it all works out, I suppose. Where was I going with this? Oh, it’s been wicked cold (as they say in New England) here in PA. Let’s see if that slows me down any…

New Years Day 2014. We had my daughter’s family over to watch the Winter Classic which was fun. I spent more time playing with my grand-daughters than watching the game, but it looked like a great game with stoppages every so often to shovel the snow off the ice! After they took off, I grabbed a cigar I’d been looking forward to smoking and took the dog for a walk. The La Palina Maduro has been a favorite of mine since it came out last year. I was excited when a pair of Petite Lanceros showed up in my mailbox, and equally excited when I saw them on the shelf at Cigar Mojo last week (good to know a source of supply just in case I fall in love, right?). It seemed like a good cold weather choice, easy to handle with gloves, strong enough in flavor. I may like the larger ring gauge versions of the La Palina Maduro a little better, but this Petite Lancero was loaded with bitter sweet chocolate and coffee and was really quite enjoyable. For me, I think the larger rings make for a little creamier smoke. I will pick up a few more to have around, and I’ll look forward to smoking this again in the warmer months. Quite a good smoke, a great way to start the year.

Thursday evening is started snowing, so me and the pup went walking right after dinner. I’ve been in the mood for a Cain of some sort for a while. Are these falling out of favor? One of my local shop proprietors was a HUGE fan of these when they came out, now he says he will probably clearance them next month, they aren’t selling. I picked out a Cain Daytona 646, the milder blend in the Cain Line and fired it up. I love the sweetness of this cigar. I think I only have a 543 and a couple lanceros left floating around the humidors, but the Daytona is my favorite blend o f the line. I like the others after some aging time, and the Cain F tubed lancero is a clear winner, but the Daytona, to me, has the best balance and flavor. This cigar was great, although it was better after I put it down for a while to dry out, and re-lit it after shoveling the driveway. The snow didn’t do it any favors, my fault, not the cigars. I recently lost my local Oliva rep, so if someone from Oliva reads this and wants to chime in on the status of the Cain brand, please feel free!

Saturday morning I had my third appearance on the Kiss My Ash radio show in their “Bloggers Corner”. It’s always a huge honor for me, and I felt the best about my performance this time. I chose to resurrect a review of the Cigar Aficionado number one cigar of 2013, the Havana Montecristo No.2 that I did in 1996. I took part in a Monthly Officious Taste Test on the alt.smokers.cigars Usenet group which was put together by Steve Saka. This was probably the second monthly installment and this would go on for a few years as a feature on the CigarNexus website of which Steve was a part. Anyway, I called the Montecristo No.2 a “dogrocket”, which was the lowest possible rating. I can still remember the cigar as being acrid and nasty like
a pile of burning leaves in the autumn, you know, the wet, musty ones. I wish I had pictures of the cigar from 1996, but that was before digital cameras were anything really, and certainly before cell phones had cameras. Anyway, I though it would be interesting to read that review on the radio in contrast with Cigar Aficionado‘s recent number one rating. In their defense, it must have been a pretty good year for that cigar, as it was number two in Cigar Journal‘s rating, and I have had some spectacular No.2s over the years, but I’ve had some that were so-so too. I give Cigar Journal some leeway since they are truly an international magazine, but I don’t find that giving a Cuban cigar the number one spot does anything for US readers, and retailers. A high rating is a very big deal as far as sales go for a cigar, it’s a waste for a US based magazine to promote a product that can’t be legally procured. I’m not even going to get into the fact that this is an 80 year old marque which has been plagued with inconsistency over the years. Enough of that rant, Abe did let out that Steve Saka was going to be doing a regular feature on Kiss My Ash radio, so tune in to see what Steve has to say. He has a ton of tobacco knowledge and I’m proud to know him for these last 17 years or so.

Yesterday afternoon, although the temps barely got out of the teens, it turned out to be a nice day for a walk. I had picked up a couple of Los Blancos Nine robustos Tuesday when I visited my local shop (see first paragraph!). I’ve certainly know about this brand, and I’ve met David Blanco, but I haven’t smoked any cigars from them. The Nine looked tasty with it’s dark Oscuro Corojo wrapper. It’s a 5″ x 52 robusto with a Jalapa binder and three ligero fillers. This cigar blew me away with it’s flavor and construction. This is the best cigar I’ve smoked all year! The flavor was bold, which I need in cold weather, and it had the right amount of lush, heavy bitterness that I really enjoy. When I was burning my fingers on the very tiny nub of this cigar I was really glad my compulsion caused me to buy two of these! I can’t wait to smoke the other one. Damn great smoke and I’ll be looking to sample more form Los Blancos. It’s cool to find an exciting cigar like this one, not that there aren’t a load of great cigars out there, there’s more than ever, but this one was a surprise.

Once again, I’ve rambled on too long. I’ve got stuff I want to get done today and sitting here writing isn’t going to get those things done. I’ve got cigars to smoke before Wednesday rolls around!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

11 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as cain, cigar, Cigar Aficionado, cigar store, cigars, Kiss My Ash Radio, La Palina, Los Blancos

by CigarCraig | January 1, 2014 · 10:36 am

Happy New Year! – Cigars from La Jugada, Valentia, DBL, Asylum and Alec Bradley

Happy New Year everyone, I hope everyone had a safe New Years Eve! I admit to falling asleep on the couch watching hockey! I’m old and boring…anyway, best wishes for a prosperous 2014 without too much drama! By the way, I couldn’t think of anything clever or amusing for a top ten list this year, but I would like to recognize the top 5 active commentors for 2013! I appreciate everyone’s comments and thank everyone for reading along twice a week! They are:

1 czerbe 49 COMMENTS
2 Agent 86 34 COMMENTS
3 Craig (Not me, another Craig!) 33 COMMENTS
4 jjo 33 COMMENTS
5 George Satterfield 29 COMMENTS

Great job! I’d send prizes, but most of you have already won something and my postal budget is shot after last week! How about this, cigars are on me the next time we get together (not all that far fetched!). Now you know the numbers to beat for 2014!

Enough nonsense. Since I’ve been on vacation I’ve smoked a bunch of cigars over the last week. I started out digging into some La Jugada Samples which were sent to me by the folks at Moya Ruiz Cigars. I started off with the maduro offering the line, Prieto in a toro size. This cigar has a nice, dark San Andrés maduro wrapper, and the rest of the cigar is Nicaraguan. I was struck by a distinct and different flavor in this cigar, not at all what I was expecting. The closest I can come to describing this flavor is burning Mesquite wood. It was a very smokey flavor which was a surprise, and took a while to wrap my mind around. You know how you grab a glass thinking it’s iced tea and it’s really Coke? Your mind expects one flavor, when that other flavor, even though it’s a good flavor, hits your palate it just doesn’t seem right, know what I mean? Anyway, it was a really tasty smoke, and I have a second sample that I may smoke in the very near future just to validate that flavor.

I also smoked the La Jugada Habano in the 6 1/8″ x 52 Belicoso size. This cigar, along with the Prieto, are made in Erik Espinosa’s La Zona factory in Esteli. There are some nice smokes coming out of that factory, in addition to Erik’s own lines, there’s also the Arandoza line, which I’ve enjoyed (see here). This beauty has a Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. This tasted much more like I expected a cigar of this pedigree to taste. It was smooth and full flavored. I’m glad that it didn’t share that smokey Mesquite flavor that the Prieto had, because I think that set the Prieto apart and made it distinctive. To have that same characteristic across the lines would take away from the uniqueness. The Habano was very, very good. Both cigars were perfectly constructed too, no complaints there. Thank you to the folks at Moya Ruiz Cigars for sending these along and for adding more cigars to my “to buy” list! There’s not enough money or humidors for all the great cigars out there!

Monday (I think, they all run together over the holidays…I am lamenting having to go back to work tomorrow…) I smoked a Valentia Lucido, which is a 6″ x 56 cigar from the IPCPR show. I was impressed with the mission of this company. They funnel the proceeds of their sales to providing equipment for law enforcement. They do it in such a way that promotes the brick and mortar tobacconist, with donations made in the name of the local shop for every order, as opposed to hogging all the glory for themselves :-). This is a nice way to show local cigar stores in a positive light, and a double benefit as far as I can tell. Another benefit is that the cigar was darned tasty. I will smoke the regular line in the coming weeks, but this Lucido is supposed to be more full bodied than the core line, which gives me the impression that the core line will be quite mild. I really liked the color of the band too, but I’m weird like that. I found the Lucido to be medium at best, but it had really nice, clean flavors that occasionally raised an eyebrow. It was unfortunate that the band was attached with a little too much pectin, as it tore the wrapper up and made the last third of the cigar a bit of an adventure, but overall I’d gladly smoke this again. Kudos to the guys at Valentia Cigars for giving back to the community in more ways than one.

Tuesday I went to my local shop, JM Cigars in Exton, PA to meet an old friend and enjoy a cigar or two without risking frostbite for a change. Jeff, the proprietor, when asked what was smoking well in the humidor, emphatically recommended a cigar called Dominican Big Leaguer. I had recently heard of this cigar in conversation in another shop, so I had to try it. I smoked the Corona size and it was, indeed, darned tasty. These are reasonably priced in the $5-6 range and I’m told they fly off the shelves (along with the Asylum 13 in the 70 and 80 rings gauges, but that’s not a surprise) I picked up a robusto as well. It was a well behaved, good tasting smoke in the medium bodied range. It was a perfect first cigar of the day right after lunch. It’s a good idea to ask your local shop for recommendations, it can tell you a lot about the way the business it run. Jeff could easily have told me that the Padrón ’64s were smoking well, but he recommended a reasonably priced cigar. Good thing too, I spent way too much on cigars yesterday (more on that another time).

After finishing the DBL, I moved on to an Asylum Premuim Toro. I’ve had a few of the Asylum 13 and enjoyed them for the most part (and I still have an Ogre in my humidor, it jumps out and scares me once in a while), so I figured I’d better try one of these while I’m parked in a big, comfy chair for the afternoon. I liked this cigar much more than the 13. I found it to be very refined and smooth, with good flavor. This is made by Christian Eiroa with all Nicaraguan tobaccos, and it was probably the best cigar I can recall smoking from Christian since his split from Davidoff. The oily, dark wrapper was really pretty and it burned perfectly with a nice, flat coal. Not badly priced, probably a cigar to try if you like good cigars! It was nice to meet up with a guy who I haven’t seen in 30 years and relax and catch up over some fine cigars!

After I got home, the dog needed a walk so I reached for a Raices Cubanas Robusto from Alec Bradley. I was told when I bought this a few months ago to give it some time, as it had just arrived. It’s a nice cigar, but probably better suited to the lounge than the 20° wintery evening. There were tasty flavors that I could tell would be more pronounced in a more hospitable environment. I’ll hang on the other single I have for a nice, summer day, I hope that day comes soon! Don’t get me wrong, it was a well made and enjoyable smoke, but there was the potential for much more enjoyment lingering on the periphery. I don’t regret it as the last cigar of the year one bit.

That’s it, I’ve rambled on long enough. Still trying to get back to some normalcy after December’s craziness! I’m sure things will calm down. If you aren’t doing anything Saturday around 11:30 am EST, tune in to Kiss My Ash Radio, or listen to the podcast. there might be someone familiar in their blogger segment!

Don’t forget the discount codes for Famous Smoke Shop!

CAPULET5 – Free 5-pack of Romeo y Julieta House of Capulet with any $75+ purchase

MONTAGUE5 – Free 5-pack of Romeo y Julieta House of Montague with any $75+ purchase

CAPULET20 – $20 off any $100+ purchase of Romeo y Julieta House of Capulet

MONTAGUE20 – $20 off any $100+ purchase of Romeo y Julieta House of Montague

Once again, Happy New Year!

CigarCraig

9 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as Alec Bradley, Asylum, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Dominican Big Leager, Famous Smoke Shop, IPCPR, JM Cigars, La Jugada, Moya Ruiz, Raices Cubana, Valentia

by CigarCraig | November 17, 2013 · 2:21 pm

New Joya de Nicaragua, a Crossfire and Some Alec Bradley Cigars

It was another week of smoking worthy cigars! I’ve been quite fortunate lately, at least as far as cigars go. I was less fortunate on my commute home Thursday when I hit my first deer. I suppose the deer was even less fortunate than me, and it bothers me that it probably died a slow, painful death someplace. I’d have felt better if I had killed it, I think. Some damage to the Yaris, which I had switched to last week after a deer ran in front of me on the scooter. Coming home at dusk around here is no fun on two wheels or four, the deer are everywhere. I think I see about a dozen every day. Anyway, I lit up the new Joya de Nicaragua Quatro Cinco to console myself after the traumatic event. This is a limited edition cigar to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the company. It’s a 6″x54 box pressed cigar with wrapper and binder from Jalapa and barrel aged Jalapa and Esteli fillers. More information can be found here. Of course, I’m a ginormous fan of the Joya de Nicaragua company and their cigars, having had the privilege if visiting the factory on two occasions, so I was quite pleased when a pair of these showed up courtesy of John at Drew Estate (DE is the distributor for JdN, thanks JB!) as only 4500 cigars were produced. I marveled at the quality of this cigar. The draw and burn were perfect. The smoke was smooth and cool, both in flavor and body. It is a refined blend, worthy of it’s heritage. This is a fitting tribute to the company, and if you see these on your tobacconists shelves, give one a try. this is probably (definitely) priced outside my comfort zone, but I think I would shell out to have a few more of them in my humidor.

Friday evening I usually pick out a sure thing, but I was feeling adventurous and decided to try a Crossfire Corojo Toro that was an IPCPR sample. I had an incident at the show where I ended up losing some video files, causing me to run around like a mad fool on the last day of the show (which is a half day) trying to re-do some interviews. It was embarrassing and maddening. Working from memory, I managed to get most of the ones I lost, but Crossfire is one that fell between the cracks. I apologize to those guys and hope to catch up with them again next time. The premise of their operation is that they are a faith based company that puts their profits back into the community where the cigars are made, The Dominican Republic. From their website:

Our mission is to build a hand rolled premium Cigar Company that will make an excellent cigar at an affordable price. We will make the cigar, boxes and labels in the Dominican to be sure that we are investing in the local economy. We will provide employment for local workers and create a family atmosphere where they can be proud to be a part of a company dedicated to giving back.

The cigar is good, and I’m looking forward to trying the rest of the samples. The cigars are made in the Dominican Republic with William Ventura (Rodrigo Cigars, Psyko 7, Project 805) and are well made and have a well balanced flavor. It was a straight medium bodied cigar to me, and flavorful. While it’s not in my wheelhouse, it was a very nice way to spend a Friday evening.

Saturday I had some choices to make. There were Alec Bradley events happening at Famous Smoke Shop‘s Leaf Cigar Bar in Easton, PA as well as an Alec Bradley event at CigarCigars in Phoenixville, PA. After weighing the difference between an hour and a half ride to and from Easton, and a ten minute ride to Phoenixville, the clear choice was to stay close to home and visit with my friend Jonathan “The Player” Lipson at Cigar Cigars. I’ll let the guys from Over a Cigar/The Cigar Lounger cover the Famous event! I bought some of the new Mondial and Raices Cubanas cigars, as well as some Nica Puros and plopped myself on the leather couch and lit up a Mondial Punta Lanza No. 4. This is an expensive cigar, however with the buy 3, get 2 deal it made it a little more reasonable. These had just been received in the store the previous day, so they really needed a little more time to recover, so the second one I bought will spend a few weeks in time out in my humidor, but the one I smoked was very nice. It had a little bit of a tartness that was interesting. Certainly worth a try and I’ll look forward to seeing what a few months rest does for these. I followed it with a Nica Puro, and I really like this cigar. It’s a full flavored cigar that is quite satisfying. I’m finding that I like several of the cigars that have come out recent;y and have “Nica” in the name. These are more reasonably priced and are a must try. I think if I had these, and the American Classic and Sungrown in my humidors all the time, I’d be quite happy. Alec Bradley is doing it right, great product at a great price, and the guys they have on the street are first class. at the IPCPR show they were constantly busy and I couldn’t get an interview, but they threw a hell of a party at the Palms Hotel pool. Just about everyone was there. It might have been nicer with out the loud dance music DJ, but it was a hopping party.

In a very peripherally related note, the 50th anniversary of the death of John F. Kennedy is this week ( know where I was, three months old, either eating, sleeping or pooping!) and a gentleman of my acquaintance just released his book “Changin’ Times: 101 Days That Shaped A Generation” about the time between Kennedy’s assassination and the arrival of the Beatles. If you are a history buff, give this a read. It’s available on Amazon. I could put it in my Amazon store, but then you’d just think this was a sales pitch and it is a little, but I don’t stand to profit. Al’s a great guy, and expert on all things Beatles, and has a unique take on a pivotal time in world history.