Category Archives: Events

by CigarCraig | August 31, 2014 · 9:51 am

Room 101 Big Payback and Matt Booth at the RMCF, an Island Jim and a Tatuaje

As I’m starting to sort out the videos I took at the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival last weekend, I figured I’d start off with Matt Booth of Room 101 Cigars and just get it over with. One never know’s what to expect with Matt, always entertaining and after all is said and done, he’s a class guy. His table was right next to the Halfwheel table, hence the comment a few moments into the video. Last night I smoked the Room 101 Big Payback Chavala, which is a 5″ x 50 classic robusto. This is a value line for Room 101, made in Nicaragua, and coming in around the $5 mark. I see this trend of value cigars, with the Tatuaje Tattoo and Illusione‘s Rothchild and Gigante, and it’s not bad. The Chavala was a really great smoke, it burned perfectly and had a nice tobacco sweetness that I really enjoyed. I think this is a great smoke and will be picking up some more of these in the future.

Here’s the video with Matt. I really need to better prepare myself for these things….

Friday was my birthday, 51, if you’re counting, so my wife took me out to Cigar Mojo down in King of Prussia, PA and we ordered a couple pizzas and sat around smoking cigars and watching TV! I selected the new Island Jim by Oscar Valladares Tobacco and Company for my birthday smoke. Island Jim is Jim Robinson who owns the Leaf and Bean shops in the Pittsburgh area. He’s probably a Penguins fan, but I won’t hold that against him. This torpedo with the shaggy foot appealed to me for some reason, and of all the great cigars available in that shop, this one was the one I decided on. The head of this has a Connecticut band and a Maduro band and is not capped, but does need a cut midway through the Connecticut stripe for a great draw. I smoked this just about to that Connecticut stripe, it was that good. I don’t have any regrets at all about choosing this for my celebration cigar, it was smooth with a nice sweetness, and a unique flavor I couldn’t pinpoint. I suppose I’ll have to smoke another one eventually to see if I can nail that flavor down. The high point of the evening was having a childhood friend stop in and share a smoke. We’ll call him “Pat Smith”, and we grew up in the same neighborhood and played in our first garage bands together in the ’70s. I hadn’t seen this guy in over 30 years, and closed the Mojo talking and smoking. It was a very nice evening, although I wish people in the lounge had taken me up on the pizza offer…we had to bring a whole pie home!

Saturday I selected a special cigar that Will Cooper sent me last year for my birthday, a Tatuaje Monster Series Mummy. This is a 7¾” x 47 cigar that had what I thought was a very Cuban smoking experience. It burned like a Havana, that is to say it was a little loosely rolled and burned pretty fast. The flavor also reminded me of a Havana a little, I can’t say specifically, which line, but the overall experience was reminiscent of a fine Cuban cigar. It has a little zing, but was still smooth and rich. I enjoyed the heck out of this cigar. I don’t have a great deal of experience with the Tatuaje brand, but what I have smoked I liked, and this was a really nice Saturday afternoon smoke. Thank you, Mr. Cooper, for this gift. Sorry it took me a year to get to, but I think I timed it perfectly!

That’s it for now. Not sure what’s on the block for today, but it’s a holiday weekend, so I’ll be selecting something good for sure. Enjoy the weekend, and thanks for reading along!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review, Video

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Island Jim, Matt Booth, Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival, Room 101, tatuaje

by CigarCraig | August 27, 2014 · 10:00 pm

The 2014 Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival

Last weekend we flew out to Denver, Colorado to go to the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival. Friday evening we drove up to a cigar store called Havana Manor where they were having a My Father Cigars and Tatuaje event. It still amazes me that I can walk into a cigar store 2000 miles from home and know a bunch of people. It was a who’s who of the cigar industry there and we had the pleasure of catching up with friends, and if I tried to list names I’d miss someone. I picked up some L’Atelier cigars and smoked a LAT54 which was delicious. It was a nice time and we met some great folks in addition to those we knew already, and we’d see everyone at the event the next day. The store was expansive, they had two walk-in humidors in the retail area up front, and several large lounge areas in the back. It was a really impressive store. After a day of travel, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel.

I’ve been hearing great things about this festival for a few years, and we made the decision earlier this year to make the trek to Colorado from Pennsylvania to attend the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival. We were invited by Joe Liggett, of Smoker Friendly, who sponsored the event. Joe did an amazing job of organizing this event. There were about 2000 attendees, falling into three categories, General Admission, VIP and Executive VIP.General admission attendees took hope over 40 cigars, and the more costly levels received many more super premium cigars. There somewhere along the lines of 40 cigar companies, a bunch of beer and liquor companies and all kinds of other interesting vendors. We saw one vendor, Twisted Custom Cutz, with ashtrays made from wine and spirit bottles cut length-wise which were really cool. The event ran from 1:00 (noon for the VIP ticket holders) until 7:00 which left plenty of time to visit all the vendors and enjoy the festival. It looked like it was really going to storm at one point, but after a few drops it passed without incident, the band played on, the cigars were smoked and the food, which was really good, was eaten. We took a bunch of pictures, which are in the slideshow below, and videos which I will post over the coming weeks. I’ve included a video here with Joe Liggett which we shot as the event was getting set up and I put on Facebook right away. I highly recommend this event, it’s easily one of the best in the country.

Click on one picture to open a slideshow.

httpv://youtu.be/8QA2xcUWVaI

As I said, it’s a really fun event, the area is beautiful, the weather was great, and there were a lot of great vendors there. After the event, Drew Estate hosted a herf and gave out hats and more cigars. I enjoyed a Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Dark Corojo El Martillo and had a nice time talking to Willie Herrera, who’s assumed the roll of head blender at Drew Estate recently. I had run into his predecessor, Nick Melillo, earlier in the day. There were so many great cigar makers, and I made some new friends and visited with some old ones. I don’t think that cigars tasted any different in Colorado, I smoked a Villiger Cuellar Connecticut Kremé to start the day which was really good, a geat Joya Red and a Nimmy D Toro. I was careful not to over do it being unaccustomed to the altitude. I kept hydrated, but the difference in the air from home was noticeable. Thanks again to Joe and Smoker Friendly for inviting us to attend this wonderful event! As I said, stay tuned for videos from some of the vendors at the event.

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Stores, Trip Report

Tagged as cigar, cigars, colorado, Havana Manor, Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival

by CigarCraig | August 24, 2014 · 9:13 am

The Woman of the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival

Since we fly home late tonight and want to get some Colorado sightseeing in today I’ll keep this brief and write a full report when we get home. The Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival was awesome. There were a bunch of terrific vendors there and I got a bunch of video interviews that will be featured over the coming weeks. Stay tuned. Today’s post features a couple pictures of the most beautiful woman I saw at the festival, and my videographer and inspiration, my wife Jennifer.

I’ll fill in captions later as posting via mobile devices is taxing my patience!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Trip Report

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival

by CigarCraig | August 13, 2014 · 11:08 pm

A CAO Flathead, an MBombay, and Some La Flor Dominicana Cigars at Cigar Mojo

We’re getting ready to take a road trip to Chicago for the weekend. My wife’s working the Fest for Beatles Fans and I’m going to explore some cigar shops. Again, if you are in the area, let me know and we’ll try to connect! I’m already planning to get to Smokey Bear in Evergreen Park on Friday, and TESA Cigars on Saturday afternoon for some events. I’m going to try something new for me, posting “live” blog posts, so there may be several posts instead of one big one on Sunday. Since ditching my dumb phone for an iPhone, I’m going to experiment a little with it. We’ll see how it goes and I beg your indulgence.

Sunday was a spectacular day, and after a very busy morning of yard work I decided to spend the afternoon in the pool with a big cigar. I picked up a CAO Flathead Big Block a while ago, the square pressed 7″ x 70 monster. I generally feel quite uncomfortable with the 70 ring gauge, but I like the Flatheads, so I thought I should try them all. I gave this a couple punches with my Screwpop punch (by the way, I’m really looking forward to seeing the next generation of this punch. It looks like they took my advice in the redesign. Yeah, I’m taking credit, you heard it here first! They also have another cigar cutter coming out that looks like it could be interesting) and just about emptied my lighter lighting that monster. I spent close to two hours reading in the pool, smoking that big Flathead, and enjoying it quite a bit. The enormous size tempers the blend quite a bit, it lacked the punch of the smaller sizes, and needed a few corrections. I got out of the pool and smoked the cigar for another forty-five minutes, until I just plain got tired of it. Great smoke, but I’ll stick to the smaller sizes.

After a little Sunday afternoon nap and some dinner, I needed to take the dog for a walk, so I grabbed an MBombay Brazil Mata Fina Maduro robusto. The beautiful band dominates this cigar, and it needs to be removed very soon after lighting. this is a super little smoke, smooth and sweet, with a little extra something from the Peruvian tobacco in the blend. I have been really impressed with cigars from the same factory in Costa Rico, which also makes the Atabey (which I have yet to sample, but we gave away some in the December contests courtesy of Dave Garofalo), the Byron and the Bandolero, all exceptional cigars. The MBombay burned perfectly, nice flat and even burn and a perfect draw. I am very excited to hear that a local shop is trying to bring these in, I’m quite taken with them.

LaFlorDominicana_DblLigeroMaduro_Chisel Tuesday my youngest son and I went down to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA, for their La Flor Dominicana event. I’ve not smoked a lot of La Flor Dominicana cigars. Not for any particular reason, I always liked them, I just never managed to pick any up. Litto Gomez was on hand for the event, along with the local rep, Kyle. I picked up a couple Double Ligero Maduros in the chisel shape, and some Colorado Oscuro No.3s (and a couple others I can’t bring to ind at the moment and am too lazy to go to the humidor to check) and lit up one of the Chisels. I asked Litto what the best cutting method was and he suggested just giving it a squeeze which worked well. This is a formidable cigar, loaded with rich, dark flavor. I ended up giving it a bit of a scissor cut afterwhile to open the draw up a little, but other than that, it was a terrific smoke. I was able to have a really nice discussion with Litto, in spite of the fact that the place was packed, impressive for a Tuesday night. I’ve said it before, but the guys at Mojo do a great job. In less than a year they have built a really good shop and have excellent events. It was nice to run into Shaun, the proprietor of D&S Cigar Lounge in Lancaster,PA and Arline, who I met the first time I visited Cigar Mojo before they officially opened, there’s always a good bunch of folks there. My son seemed to thoroughly the Colorado Oscuro he smoked, and he only smoked cigars occasionally.

Since Christian (my son) enjoyed the La Flor Dominacana Colorado Oscuro last night, I figured I had better see what it was all about tonight. Since I had bought two, I took the second one for a walk and enjoyed the heck out of it. I didn’t find it to be as strong as the Double Ligero Maduro Chisel, but the burn was much better and it was totally satisfying, and since I had a lot of stuff to do to get ready to go away, the 5″ x 50 size worked into my schedule perfectly. I have been remiss over the last few years where this brand is concerned, but I will work on sampling through the line in the future. Nice smoke. La Flor Dominicana is one of the great survivors of the cigar boom of the ’90s.

That’s it for now, I have twelve hours of driving ahead of me tomorrow, so I need to get some rest! Stay tuned for my experimental posts over the next few days. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review

Tagged as CAO, Chisel, cigar, Cigar Mojo, cigars, La Flor Dominicana, MBombay

by CigarCraig | June 29, 2014 · 8:42 pm

Cigarnival 2014 at Famous Smoke Shop

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting Famous Smoke Shop‘s Cigarnival. It’s a 2 day, multi-vender event held at their Easton, PA location. Â I spent several hours there hanging out with the cigar folks and enjoying a few cigars. Â I attended this event last year, and they’ve made quite a few improvements in my opinion. They constructed one massive tent this year, as opposed to the multiple tents they had last year. Â The food was also stepped up. At dinner time they Â brought in some pigs. I swear I saw a woman walking around with a roasted pig head. Â Not my thing, but the food I had was good (hotdogs and hamburgers). Â There were a bunch ofÂ cool things going on at the Cigarnival, besides 800 attendees smoking their brains out, and all the great vendors whom I’m glad I got to spend some time with. Flor de Gonzales hosted a cigar rolling competition throughout the day. Attendees had the chance to put wrappers on pre-made bunches. I thought this was a great way to give consumers a glimpse into the skill it takes to make these great cigars. Â There were raffles throughout the day, lots of cigars and humidors and goodies, and someone may have won $100,000 from La Gloria Cubana. Â There was also a Drew Estate sponsored Casino in the evening. Last year I remember watching Rocky Patel cheat like crazy, but I didn’t hang around long enough to see if he did that again. Â As I had a hour and a half drive home, I cut my visit short. Famous really puts on a great event. The vendors they had were great, the food, the cigars, the people, all top notch.

2014 Famous Smoke Shop Cigarnival

Alan Rubin lighting a Room 101

Storm (and Joe) of Cigars For Warriors

The General Cigars Booth

Cigars for Warriors display

Yadi Gonzales and Juan Cancel

The Gurkha booth

Perdomo and Xikar

Erik Espinosa

Sam and Z at the Drew booth

Rocky and JD

big tent!

Rafael Nodal of Boutique Blends

an attendee in the cigar rolling contest

In the retail store

In the restaraunt

a ringer in the rolling contest

The Drew Estate Casino

Matt Booth’s rental car

This is going to be a short post, with a bunch of pictures and a video, as I’ve had a busy day going on a motorcycle ride with over one hundred bikes benefiting our local SPCA. Â I also had a nice Drew Estate Natural Shorty in the pool this afternoon to commemorate the occasion (the SPCA run, not spending the afternoon in the pool, the water wasn’t cold!) We ended up going back to the SPCA and adopting a new member of the family, Macha, a 3ish year old American Staffordshire Terrier (who are we kidding….she’s a Pitty). We already took a short walk with an Acid Shorty, in honor of Shorty Rossi’s Pitbull rescue efforts. Â I actually like this Acid, it’s not overly infused, and once you get past the sweet cap, like the Natural, it’s a nice smoke. She did great on the leash, fortunately nobody told her she had her back left leg amputated three weeks ago. Apparently she was brought in having been found on the side of the road with a badly broken femur.Â She looks small in this picture, but she’s about 6o pounds.Â I’m looking forward to many walks with her in the future. I didn’t think we’d adopt another dog so soon, but this one was too special to pass up.