Category Archives: Editorial

by Craig Vanderslice | June 30, 2019 · 7:10 am

CigarCraig Contest! Don Juan Calavera Cigars, Cigar Prop and Cigar Tape, and a Rant

Since IPCPR is in full swing (scroll down for the rant), and I have a full physical inventory at work tonight that has been taking up a lot of my time this week, I figure it would be a great time to have a contest. I also was anxious to share some of these Don Juan Calaveras cigars, and I always like sharing my buddy Kevin’s Cigar Props and Lighter Bleed Tools. Now, the Cigar Prop and Lighter Bleed Tool are Cigar Prop’s legacy products! Kevin has been expanding his product offerings with some really unique and different materials lately, but I’m old school and love the traditional materials. Read on for the contest details:

Included (for now, you never know what else I might add), are two each of the Don Juan Calavera in Sumatra and Maduro from Danli Handuras Tabacos. You can read my thoughts on these cigars here. They have recently added an English translation to their website, and Their cigars run $175 a box of 20 and can be bought directly from them by contacting them through their website or Facebook page. So you can check to see if they are definitely 6″x52, I’m including a Herics Cigar Tape measuring tape to use to measure cigars. I reviewed this handy item here. Of course, you’ll want to Give Your Cigars the Props they Deserve© with an original Cigar Prop from CigarProp.com, and you’ll also want to treat your butane lighters right by using the CigarProp Lighter Bleed Tool every time you fill your lighter. I use the Bleed tool all the time, it’s preferable to jamming some foreign object like a screwdriver into the fill valve of your expensive lighter and risking damage to it and ruining your lighter as it’s purpose built to do the job. I can’t fathom not using one of these. I think Kevin would have sent me more stuff to give away if I’d have asked him, maybe for the next giveaway 😉, but I had these here and I don’t like to ask. So, leave a comment on this post for a chance to win, and I’ll select a winner at random next Sunday, July 7, 2019. Muchos Gracias to Danli Honduras Tabacos, Cigar Prop, and Herics for the goodies in this contest!

A Little Rant

I have to do a little IPCPR rant. I relinquished my IPCPR Media membership several years ago for a couple of reasons. I was a member in good standing for five years, which means I paid my dues, which were the same as the dues would be if I owned a retail store. A retail store owner received more benefits for that membership, and the trade show admission is always positioned as free with your membership. Given that there are no real benefits of membership to the media other than trade show admission, this translates to me as an expensive trade show ticket. Travel expenses, time off work, I spent a lot of years busting my ass running around for very little return on investment, and quite a bit of frustration from the organization I was spending time, money and effort trying to promote. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed myself to some extent, and love spending time with a great many friends I’ve met in the cigar industry, but it wore me down so I no longer felt the desire to spend my vacations covering the IPCPR show. I still receive e-mails from the IPCPR, and the day before the show started I receive an e-mail addressed to “Our Valued Media Members” asking that we (the media) make appointments and limit interviews and try to do interviews outside of the show hours. Basically they are saying that the retail members are there to do business with the manufacturer/distributor members, so we don’t want the media members getting in the way of that. OK, now, if the IPCPR were issuing press passes to the media for free entry to the show (like many other trade organizations), I wouldn’t have a problem with this request, a day before the show is stupid, we’re supposed to make appointments now?. The time for that was months ago, when, by the way, those of us who have done this before had already made our appointments. They are now asking paying members to not do the only business that they are able to do on the show floor. There is zero chance to do interviews after the show floor closes with any but a few cigar people. After a long day on the show floor, the exhibitors just want to go to their rooms and decompress, clean up and get ready for the long night ahead, and maybe get some rest for the long next day. They aren’t looking forward to a group of camera wielding cigar media people swarming the exits ready to pounce TMZ style because they are discouraged from doing the business that they are paying to do on the show floor. I know a few manufacturers who look forward to the show specifically to connect with the media. It’s just one more blatant slap in the face of media by the IPCPR, who hasn’t wanted them there from the get go, and only tolerated those who ponied up the cash, as long as they toed the line. I was a proud member for several years, and fought with them for a lot of privileges, but none of it was worth the aggravation, it seems. It might be just as valuable for me to go to Vegas while the show is underway and hang out at the Circle Bar in the Venetian after show hours, or go to the Tobacco Plus Expo next year. I guess that wasn’t that little of a rant…

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

CigarCraig

45 Comments

Filed under Contest, Editorial

Tagged as cigar, Cigar Prop, cigars, Contest, DOn Juan Calavera, Herics, IPCPR

by Craig Vanderslice | March 31, 2019 · 8:52 am

Muestra de Saka #NLMTHA and Diamond Crown Black Diamond Cigars and Thoughts on Smoking Laws

I’m headed off to an event up at Famous Smoke Shop this afternoon, so I’m going to make this pretty quick, although I had a few things I wanted to talk about. First, I had occasion to smoke Steve Saka‘s latest cigar in his Muestra de Saka line, the #NLMTHA Lancero. #NLMTHA stands for Now Leave Me The Hell Alone, referring to the fact that he made this lancero pretty much under protest, considering he isn’t a real fan of the format, and people have been pestering him to make a cigar in this shape. Now, I like a Lancero, but I understand Steve’s reluctance. His whole philosophy is to only make cigars he likes himself, so making this cigar must have been painful for him. He’s a perfectionist, so if he was going to make a lancero, it was going to be done right, his way, or the highway. Naturally,I had to get my hands on a couple to sample myself, just to see what the hubbub was all about. Fortunately, I was able to purchase a couple from BnB Cigars in nearby Chestnut Hill, PA from the comfort of home, since my schedule prevented me from visiting Vince in person. BnB is on my list of preferred outlets if you have a need for boutique cigars and excellent service, by the way. The Lancero is 7″ x 38, and is a Nicaraguan Puro, Anyway, I smoked on this week and I have mixed feelings about it. It started off on the mild side, and changed about half way through to a spicier, stronger smoke. I look forward to revisiting this under different circumstances, as I felt that I wanted to baby it as it seemed to smoke pretty fast, and I wanted to avoid overheating it, so I was conscious to smoke it slowly, and it turned out not being a very relaxing experience, and was a bit distracting. Perhaps I just need to let the other two rest until summer, when it’s warmer. It was a darned tasty cigar, I just felt like I had to work too hard at it, if that makes sense. I was kinda wishing I had smoked a Mi Querida or Umbagog. Fortunately, I have a couple more, probably my fault anyway, although Steve will be the first to say that it’s OK not to like every cigar he makes.

I figured a good Friday night cigar would be the Diamond Crown Black Diamond in the Emerald size, which is 6″ x 52, which regular readers will know is my favored size. For some reason deeply ingrained there are a range of cigars that I consider “classic”, that I like to have represented in my humidor. These are almost all from Fuente, and include Hemingway, Añejo, Ashton VSG, and Diamond Crown. The Black Diamond was the Newman’s 100th anniversary cigar and is made with tobaccos grown exclusively for them by the Fuente family on their farms in the Dominican Republic, with the exception of the dark brown wrapper which is a Havana seed grown in Connecticut. This cigar was in development for years, and was teased as far back as 2013, but was finally released at the 2016 IPCPR. I’m finally getting around to smoking it thanks to the folks at J.C. Newman. Now this cigar, mis amigos, is right up my alley! Aside from the fact that it’s a toro, and it’s well made and provides loads of smoke and burned for darned near two hours, the flavor was awesome. It had that chocolatey cocoa flavor I love, with some spice and earthy notes along the way too. This is a luxurious cigar that’s well worth trying, and I can’t wait to smoke more. It’s cigars like these that add to my cigar-snobbery and make me spoiled.

Here’s a little bit of an observation, maybe it’s already been out there but I can’t find a cite, nor can I remember hearing anyone bring it up. All the news about places raising the smoking age to 21 seems like a funny thing, I imagine the anti-smoking groups lobby for it under the “it’s for the children” guise, when, at the same time, we have no problem sending our 18-20 year old “children off to defend our country and kill baddies around the world, quite the hypocrisy. On the other hand, while states are raising tobacco taxes, it could be argued that by raising the smoking age they are cutting into their tax base, eliminating some of their proposed revenue (playing devils advocate, we all know that raising tobacco taxes actually reduces revenue because people find ways around it). Here’s my theory: Raising the age is about marijuana and law enforcement. Follow my thinking. police see someone underage smoking they can cite them regardless of what they are smoking. They don’t have to determine if they are legal to be smoking tobacco or weed, or worry about the expense of testing for which is which. I know you can tell the difference by aroma, but would that be admissible in court? Is there a field test to breath into a device to tell? It solves a lot of legal problems, doesn’t it? Just make it 21 to smoke anything and it’s all OK. I don’t know, Maybe I’m just rambling.

It occurs to me that it was 22 years ago today that I found myself in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace meeting up with a bunch of people I had only communicated with via posts on USENET at the International Cigar Exposition (or something like that). I remember meeting Steve Saka for the first time right by Cleopatra’s Barge and helping him carry some boxes or something. it was three days of smoking and hanging out and making friends with people I still know today. It snowed like hell in PA. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as #NLMTHA, Black Diamond, cigar, cigars, Diamond Crown, Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust, J.C.Newman, Muestra De Saka

by Craig Vanderslice | March 3, 2019 · 10:58 am

A La Sirena LT, Some Other Great Cigars and A Rant Continuation

I’ve been fortunate to have either been picking some really great cigars lately, or really enjoying the cigars I’ve been smoking, or both! I think I’ve been gravitating toward known sure things due to the winter blues, honestly. I smoked a couple of favorites from Cornelius and Anthony this week, a Cornelius and a Señor Esugars in Toro sizes, just because I wanted to smoked great cigars on those particular days. Both times I was reminded of how much I really love the flavors in both those cigars. Even though they are on opposite ends of the spectrum, they both satisfy me in different ways. I had a La Flor Dominicana Ligero Natural L400 that was spectacular as well, and a La Palina LP 02 that, while I still am not sure about the band and packaging, the cigar is awesome. Again, two completely different flavor profiles, but both delight my palate! Like I said, Everything tasted great to me this week!

I’ve smoked a few sizes of the La Sirena LT (and it’s predecessor, the Jaxx LT) and written about them here before, but I recently put a box of the Toro size in the humidor and last night I pulled the first one out and lit it up. The LT is the La Sirena Connecticut Shade offering, made at Placencia’s El Paraiso factory in Honduras. It has a beautiful Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers. If you are thinking that this is just another mild Connecticut shade cigar, you’d be mistaken. Yes, there is the sweet, slight bready/wheaty flavor from the wrapper, but there is a richness to this cigar that I find really appealing. This is a rich, medium-bodied cigar with great flavors that kept my interest to the end, and I really enjoyed, much like the rest of the La Sirena line, and most readers will know I’m a long-time fan of the brand. The LT is a great addition to the line, and to my humidor.

Rant

So let’s get into some details on last Wednesday’s post. I didn’t have much time, so I posted a picture of some ridiculous beer based on a children’s breakfast cereal, and a picture of some cigars packaged like candy bars. My premise was that there’s a double standard that the alcohol industry enjoys in their marketing that the tobacco industry does not, and I don’t think that can be debated. I just don’t understand it, nor do I think it’s right. I did receive some feedback. But first let me explain the cigars pictured, for those who aren’t familiar (and when Will Cooper isn’t familiar with them, there’s a good chance they are on the obscure side!) The Alec Bradley Cigars were handed out at an event at the IPCPR a few years ago, so they were never distributed, an obvious Willy Wonka reference. The Smokin Cigar Bars are a 3-pack of 6″ x 70 cigars that Dave Garofalo at 2Guys put out a few years ago, and were featured in one of the CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Givaways in 2012. I had to remove all traces of the post about these cigars (and I might have to redact the photo here) because Hershey actually went after Dave and made him kill the line. The “Hand Rolled Cigars” pictured was another one of Dave’s products and came in a big jar, circa 2013. Fun fact, if you’ve ever had an Avanti cigar and noticed the packaging looks kind of like the old Tootsie Roll packaging, it’s because they actually use the machines that they bought from the Tootsie Roll company to individually wrap the Avanti cigars in the little cardboard tray and cello. Where was I? I didn’t even mention the cigars that had vintage toy themes that were vilified. I’ll concede that I personally thought all of these were an epically bad idea, for these exact reasons. the same reasons I think it’s a bad idea to have kids at a cigar event or rally, even if they are your family’s future. Don’t give the anti’s anythough they can use out of context, because they will. So one of the pieces of feedback I received was a private message from the attorney from one of the largest cigar companies, asking me to caption the photo because he was concerned that a health group would use it out of context as an example of kid friendly cigars. Mind you, this was a highly credible source, with a pedigree, I was happy to oblige. I did receive a mystifying rebuttal via Twitter.

I’m not sure why Charlie felt the need to disagree. He makes cogent points, I just don’t understand why a guy who makes a living writing a cigar blog feels the need to say he disagrees with the fact that I think it’s unfair that there’s a double standard. There is, isn’t there? Certainly everyone is welcome to their opinion, I have mine, and the internet has allowed everyone a medium to express theirs, no matter how wrong they might be! But, I understand the points he makes, lobbyists, public perception, duh…I get it, but my point is, that from my perspective, it’s wrong! Is there a difference in perception of Alcohol vs. Cigars? Of course! Should there be? In my mind, there shouldn’t! I know, cigars get lumped in with tobacco, and it’s near impossible to separate the two, and they probably can’t be (it would be like trying to separate beer and, I don’t know, what’s a super high end liquor, Pappy Van Winkle? Johnny Walker Blue?, they all have to be age regulated the same). Sure, tobacco use is a leading preventable cause of death, guess what, alcohol is number two. People can argue with me all day long about how it’s OK to market beer and liquor to kids because of general attitudes and I’ll argue that nobody ever killed anyone driving under the influence of cigars or beat their wife or kids after a night at the cigar lounge. can’t we just agree that it’s a ridiculous double standard, even though we have no chance of ever changing it? I appreciate those who weighed in, and I look forward to more conversation.

OK, I got that of my chest, now to try to get some things done before tonight’s beg snowstorm. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, La Sirena, La Sirena LT

by CigarCraig | February 17, 2019 · 8:45 am

A Rant, A Gurkha Ghost and A Room101 Uncle Lee Cigar

It’s been a long week and it’ll be Thursday before I get another day off. This will be a short one as I have to work today. Tuesday was my last day off, and I had to pick my son up at Philly airport, so I decided I should kill some time at a cigar shop close to there, but I decided too late (it was snowing/raining and took longer than I thought to get there), so I just stopped in Jacoubs Cigar Shop in Ridley Park and picked up a few cigars. This place is four miles from PHL, so a little better planning in the future is in order. Had I thought of this an hour earlier I would have easily been able to have a relaxing smoke in the spacious lounge at the shop after selecting a cigar from the walk-in humidor. Jacoub, the owner, is a welcoming gent, and gave me a dime for the parking meter (bring change, the rates are fair). He said that the Gurkha Ghosts sold well for him, so I bought a couple of the Phantom and Spook sizes, because they are newer and I like perfectos and hadn’t smoked them yet. I smoked a Phantom later and really enjoyed it. The Phantom is a 5″ x 58 perfecto with a curly bun on the cap which pinches off easily, but a snip with a cutter opens it up better. The Brazillian Arapiraca wrapper is dark and oily and has a nice look, and has the dark cocoa flavor I like. In truth, when these first came out five or so years ago, it took me a while to warm to the blend, there was something I didn’t like a about the first several I smoked, and I wanted to like this cigar. Now I like it, and it’s one of my favorites in the Gurkha range. The prismy band is pretty spiffy too.

Which kinda leads into my rant, only because Gurkha seems to be a frequent target of this topic. Too often I see people on social media, and to a lesser extent in shops, stating as fact, that cigar X is “crap”, “garbage”, or some other word that states definitively that the cigars is sub-standard and unworthy of the title of cigar, as if that person was an expert on such things. This irritates me to no end. This is actually why I don’t review cigars per se, and don’t use a rating scale on my site, even though it would probably benefit me as manufacturers like ratings and would publicize my site more if I were to go that route. Here’s the thing: taste is subjective. Sure, there are objective qualities of cigars, construction, draw, combustion, but there are very few cigars that make it far with long-term problems in these areas. If a cigar tastes bad to me, that’s my problem, not the cigar’s problem, so the cigar isn’t a bad cigar. An example I like to use is this: I don’t like Lima beans, the flavor is disgusting to me, I can’t imagine how anyone would put sometime so vile in their mouths, but people eat them, and, presumably, like them! By that logic, obviously, Lima beans aren’t crap, they just aren’t for me. Let’s apply that to cigars, if we have a cigar and the flavor doesn’t appeal to us, let’s not go on social media and declare that brand Y, which, by the way, may have a huge, loyal following and has been in business for 20 years, is “crap”, but accept that maybe their cigars aren’t for us and move to the hundreds of other brands out there that may suit us better!

Now that I got that off my chest, which is a little congested this morning, lets circle back to a few nights past, when I cracked open a ten-count box of Room 101 Uncle Lees that I almost forgot I had and came across while rummaging around the humidor. Not complaining, misplacing a box of cigars in the humidor isn’t a bad problem to have. I bought this box after smoking an Uncle Lee at one of Matt Booth’s last events before he left Davidoff, so it’s been a few years. This cigar is presented in the 6½” x 50 Ranfla perfecto size, wrapped in tissue paper with a paper sleeve, much like the Chief Cool arrow and Johnny Tabacconaut series were. I love this blend, it has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, but is has a flavor unlike any other cigar I’ve smoked. There’s an almost floral flavor that’s light and refreshing. It’s an interesting change of pace, and if I thought I would ever be able to replace these cigars, I’d probably smoke the other 9 cigars in the box pretty quick. I’ll ration them out as it is. Uncle Lee should be proud.

That’s all for this Sunday, until the next time,

CigarCraig

7 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Ghost, Gurkha, Jacoub's, Room101, Uncle Lee

by CigarCraig | December 2, 2018 · 10:45 am

A Partagas, a Cornelius And Anthony Meridian and Thoughts on a Common Etiquette Question

I had another busy week, as will be the common theme for the next few weeks, I fear. This has resulted in coming home and defaulting to known good cigars, cigars I love and know will hit the spot. Often times I’ll find myself thinking of a cigar during the day and I have to smoke one that evening. This was the case this week a couple of times, most notably with the Partagas Legend. To recap, this was the Toro Leyenda, the 6 ¼” x 54 size. This cigar has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, a Honduran OSA binder and Dominican Piloto Cubano filler. I’ve likened this to the Partagas Limited Reserve in the past, I didn’t think of that on this go around, I think this cigar is best smoked in warmer weather or indoors, my 40something degree back porch while not too uncomfortable wasn’t ideal for the proper enjoyment of this particular cigar. It was still enjoyable, but the nuance was missing. This isn’t your typical heavy broadleaf offering, and if you’re looking for that kind of cigar, try the Partagas Black.

For some reason I’ve seen this come up a lot recently in discussions, and it continues to cause some dissenting opinions. Since I haven’t really got a lot of cigars to talk about this week, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the debate over whether it’s ok to bring outside cigars into a shop or lounge. I think the biggest problem with the argument is the definition of the establishment in question. If it’s a cigar shop with a lounge, I say it’s common sense to leave your personal cigars at home and buy cigars at the store. I admit that I used to be guilty of bringing my cigars to the shop and buying a few and smoking my own, but in the last several years I’ve abandoned that completely and always buy from the place I visit and smoke what I buy there, I think it’s the right thing to do. Let me tell you, as a cheap SOB, and someone who has a significant stockpile of cigars at home, I don’t need to buy more cigars, but I still do the right thing! There is also a twinge of CAD (Cigar Acquisition Disorder, a topic for another post) at play. There are other kinds of establishments where it’s OK to bring your own cigars though, places that may sell cigars, but that isn’t their bread and butter. This, it think, is where the confusion lies. These establishments are more bars or restaurants than cigar stores, and, many times, their cigar menu pricing is highly inflated. Some places might have a “cutting fee” depending on how much that is, it might be better to just buy one of their cigars anyway, but if your buying drinks or food many times it’s overlooked. I’ve personally been to places like Club Macanudo in NYC, which has ridiculous cigar prices, and never bought a cigar there, and never had a problem smoking outside cigars, the same with Mahogany in Philadelphia when it was where Ashton Cigar Bar is now. I would argue that those who vehemently argue one side of this debate or the other need to have all the facts, as there are many variables. It depends a great deal on what percentage of income a business depends upon cigar sales, versus liquor or food. Is it just a cigar store or a bar that allows cigar smoking and has a humidor? is it a cigar lounge with a bar? I think the best course of action is to ask the proprietor or manager first before being presumptuous, and if it looks like a cigar store, be prepared to make a purchase and smoke what you buy. No store owner wants a patron asking another patron what he’s smoking and having that person told that it’s something that the store doesn’t carry! who does that help? these stores aren’t cheap to operate, and if we don’t pay the rent on those seats in the lounge through our purchases, those seats aren’t going to be there for us the next time we are looking for a warm, dry place to relax with a cigar and the camaraderie that goes with it. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Now that I got that off my chest, back to the cigars. Last night I got home late from work, watched the end of one of my very favorite things, which is the Flyers beating the Penguins in Pittsburgh, then when to the porch with a Cornelius and Anthony Meridian Robusto. I wrote a rare review of this cigar a year and a half ago (here). Some things remain the same, it’s still made at La Zona, it still has a rosado Ecuador wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers from Nicaragua and the Dominican republic. It still comes in four sizes, the Robusto at 5″ x 50, Corona Gorda at 5½” x 46, a Toro at 6″ x 50 and a Gordo at 6″ x 60. At the time I said it was the strongest in the range, that, my friends, has changed. It still has some strength, and, admittedly, judging by the fact that I didn’t finish it until around 11pm and it was well after 1 am until I could get to sleep, then I had weird-ass dreams all night, it wasn’t the best choice for a nightcap. The Mistress has eclipsed the Meridian (and 90% of all other cigars) in the strength category. It’s still a very enjoyable cigar, and is solidly in my top five C&A offerings. It’s a satisfying cigar, if it weren’t for cigars like the Cornelius, Señor Esugars and the Gent, it might be my favorite in the line!