Category Archives: Events

by CigarCraig | June 15, 2014 · 10:06 am

Another CigarMojo Event, an Alec Bradley, a Recluse and a CAO Cigars Contest

Thursday came around and one of our favorite lounges in the area was having an early Father’s Day event, so we (my wife and I) took a drive to King Of Prussia PA for a visit. For those of you unfamiliar with the Philadelphia area, King of Prussia is the home of the larges shopping mall on the east coast. It’s big, actually two malls, and it’s evolved from a strip center in the ’60s to what it is today. There is a cigar shop in the mall with a smoking area, which is nice when your wife wants to shop and doesn’t require you to play the part of Sherpa. Cigar Mojo is down the street a bit, occupying a free standing building nestled between a cemetery and a Wawa (another fairly regional convenience store chain with a nearly fanatical following). They were concurrently having an Alec Bradley event with “The Player” Jon Lipson, a Xikar event with local rep Rich, and a Cigar Rights of America membership drive with Alan Price. Having stocked my humidors with Alec Bradly cigars at the last couple events I’ve been to, I perused the generously stocked humidor and came out with a handful of reasonably new singles. Trae does a very good job of having the newest releases on hand. I picked up a couple of the new Tattoo from Tatuaje, some Leccia Luchador El Castigo, a Cro Magnon, and a Nica Rustica. I always get the CigarCraig discount, where they add 10% 🙂 I smoked one of the Luchadors, which I really think is my favorite cigar to come out in the last year. I hadn’t smoked this size, which is the 6″x60, and it was great. I love the interplay of sweet and spicey that goes on. Once again, The guys there at Cigar Mojo put on a great event, if you ever find yourself in the area, check them out.

Friday I took my usual evening walk with a cigar that was generously gifted to me by Jon Lipson, the new Alec Bradley Family Blend “The Lineage” in the toro size. This cigar has a nice caramel colored wrapper with a pigtail cap which is from Honduras. The rest of the cigar is a mix of Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos. I should have given this cigar some more humidor time, I think, because it smoked a little bit moist. It has been raining here all week, so it’s damp everywhere. Still, the cigar had very nice flavor, was solidly medium bodied to me, although if it were drier it may smoke a little more on the full bodied side. I’m looking forward to trying this one again because the flavor was very appealing and the finish was clean. It opened up in the last third and gave an indication of its potential for me.

Saturday I had two cigar opportunities, one sitting in my favorite beach chair out back soaking up some sunshine. I smoked another Cigar Rights of America cigar that I’ve had for a few years. This one was a Cuba Aliados Miami, and I hadn’t smoked a Cuba Aliados in years. Back in the day, Rolando Reyes made the Puros Indios and the Cuba Aliados. The Puros Indios were tasty, but almost always had a draw like a dowel rod. This one was a nice smoke, medium bodied, fairly normal good tobacco flavor and burned well without dropping ash anywhere it shouldn’t have. I had the Perfecto Cigar Holder clipped to the chair arm, which reminds me, I need to do a whole post on some accessories I’ve been using lately. I enjoyed the cigar and had a very relaxing time sitting in the sun reading a book. Don’t forget to let the FDA know how you feel about regulation of premium cigars, and if you aren’t already a member of the CRA, join!

Last night I took a walk with a new cigar from the folks at Iconic Leaf, the Recluse Amadeus. This is a box pressed Ecuador Connecticut wrapped beauty in a toro size, 6¼” x 50. Iconic Leaf uses the entubado method throughout their lines, and this one smokes no different, nice, open draw and even burn. This is another Connecticut Shade cigar with a little more spice and body. I’ve always liked the flavor that the Connecticut wrappers have as a change of pace, so this trend of slightly stronger shade cigars is welcomed. This sample came without bands, but I’m to understand they will be using a similar design in white as opposed to the black bands they use on the OTG and Draconian lines. Tremendous cigars all around. Interestingly (to only me, probably), Trae’s, of Cigar Mojo fame, uncle came to him with a scap of paper with the name Recluse Draconian written on it as a cigar he was looking for. I was able to educate Trae and his uncle on the line. Perhaps he’ll look into stocking something from Iconic Leaf.

Contest

It’s, once again, time to give away some CAO goodies! This time we have two of the cool tin CAO Flathead signs and a four pack of the new Flathead Spark Plug, which is a delicious little box pressed 4½” x 50 smoke. I’m doubling up the signs because, quite frankly, it cost me a bundle to ship these things. I’ll have one more contest coming up with these, I’ll look for more cost effective shipping method for sure. Anyway, my problem, not yours! Leave a comment to win, and I’ll pick a winner on Wednesday. Thanks again to Gary and Ricky from CAO for providing these goodies.

That’s it for now, Happy Father’s Day to everyone who either is, or has a father. I’m going to enjoy my special traditional cigar, a Esperanza par los Niños from 1998. I was recent;y gifted more of these by my dear friend Mike Perry, so I can continue the tradition through 2020! Thanks!

31 Comments

Filed under Contest, Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Alec Bradley, Amadeus, CAO, cigar, cigar rights, cigars, Cuba Aliados, general cigars, Iconic Leaf, Luchador, Recluse

by CigarCraig | May 25, 2014 · 11:21 am

CAO Flathead Tour with Ricky Rodriquez, a Contest Winner and ANOTHER CONTEST!

Yesterday I took a drive out to Colmar, PA to the Cigar Cigars store for a CAO Flathead event with Ricky Rodriguez. I got there a few minutes after the event was supposed to start, so I took a look around he expansive humidor. They’ve rearranged the store since my last visit, moving the counter to the front and making a larger public lounge area. I had mixed emotions about what I saw on the buy one/get one table. On the one hand, I was sad to see cigars like the Leccia Black and White, some EPC and the Compounds, Elements and Musings, on the other hand I got a deal on some cigars I wanted to try. I picked up the H, 2, and O and a Titanium torpedo in an effort to sample the entire line. I also picked up a CAO Brazilia Gol to get my day started, I’ll get some Flatheads when they arrive.
I settled in with the CAO Brazilia Gol, I have always enjoyed this blend, especially in the 5″x 56 size. The Brazilian wrapper is dark and oily, and it has a unique, exotic spice flavor that I enjoy. The burn was perfect, which I take as a sign that this establishment maintains their humidor properly. I got nearly half way through the cigar by the time Ricky and Gary arrived. I first met Ricky when he was on Team La Gloria a few years ago (I smoked an Artsanos de Tabaqueros last week that was incredible), and had the privilege of spending time with him in the Dominican Republic on the trip in 2011. Rick runs the CAO operations now, and studied at the feet of Benji Menendez.

After catching up with Ricky for a bit, I was ready for another cigar, so I made my second purchase of the day, a handful of CAO Flatheads, including the ginormous Big Block, a square pressed 7″x70. On the other end of the spectrum is the new Spark Plug, at 4″x 50, which was my next cigar. I also picked up a Heatwave for future smoking and a Area 9 sampler. The Sparkplug has the same square press and flat cap as the rest of the line, but has a closed foot. It’s a tasty little powerhouse, and smoked much longer that it’s 4 inch length would suggest. I always thought the wrapper on these lines was maduro, but Rick explained that while it is a dark wrapper, they don’t call it maduro because it’s a lower priming Connecticut Broadleaf than can be used for maduro. It’s carefully processed to the dark color. Call it what you want, it both tasty and visually appealing!

Here’s a video with Ricky ‘splaining the newest offerings from CAO. Thanks to Vince from The Cigar Lounger Magazine for doing the camera work for me!

httpv://youtu.be/-cbKxOEVDHs

Ricky went on to give a presentation of how cigars come to be, a seed to smoke kind of thing that wasn’t brand specific or propaganda of any sort. He covered the planting, curing, fermenting, sorting, rolling, quality control and packaging very nicely. If you can manage to catch him on this tour, you won’t regret it. He’s got some great stories (ask him about Philly cheesesteaks!) And is an all around fun guy to hang out with, and his cigars are pretty good too. I enjoyed the afternoon at Cigar Cigars (I sure wish they’d have more events at the three stores within ten miles of home as opposed to having to drive almost an hour!), it was great seeing old friends.

Contests

It’s Sunday, so it’s time to select a winner for this week’s contest. You will recall that I pulled a selection of cigars from my humidor, some I purchased, some were leftover samples, but all are tasty smokes that I’ve enjoyed. I will add a La Gloria Cubana of some sort to the mix, as well as a CAO Flathead Sparkplug, bringing the total to something like 17 cigars. According to the random number generator at Random.org, the winner is number 36, which works out to be foozer6976. Congrats! Please send your address so I can get your goodies to you.

But wait!

I’ve gone contest crazy again! I ended up with some goodies from my escapades yesterday, so I’m going to have ANOTHER CONTEST (actually another series of contests! Stay tuned)! I’ve got a metal CAO Flathead sign,a pair of CAO Flathead Sparkplug cigars, and a CAO Area 9 sampler. Ricky explains the Area 9 in the video, but for those who didn’t watch, there are six cigars that are coded, and all of them are from the pre-General Cigar Co. CAO era. The cigars are anywhere from five to twenty years old. There could be original Anniversary Series from the Costa Rica days, up to La Traviatas. By the second week in June we should be able to visit CAOCigars.com, enter the code on the band and find out what the cigar is!

So leave a comment to enter and I’ll pick a winner on Wednesday. Thanks to Gary and Ricky for enabling me!

That’s all for now! Happy Memorial Day. Remember those who’ve given their lives so that we have the freedom to enjoy a fine cigar. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

55 Comments

Filed under Contest, Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as CAO, cigar, cigars, Contest

by CigarCraig | May 4, 2014 · 10:09 am

A Rodrigo Lancero, a Leccia Luchador and a Surrogates Skull Breaker

Lots going on this week, between weather and migraines, I’ve been a bit off my game. I still managed to smoke some great cigars though. It wasn’t easy, but it has to be done! Before I get into the cigars, I’d like to point you to another great article regarding FDA regulation, and implore you to make your feelings known on the Regulations.gov page so we can save our hobby, our passion from being disrupted unnecessarily. Patrick Semmens wrote an excellent article last week: Commentary: Why the FDA’s $10 Exemption Proposal is More Dangerous than You Realize. Great stuff!

Thursday evening I selected a Rodrigo Habano Classico Lancero for my evening smoke. I didn’t get to take my walk as I had to sit in on a conference call, but the cigar was stellar. Rodrigo comes from a Pittsburgh guy, George Rodriguez, and is distributed by The House of Emilio. This is a 7″ x 38 lancero with a Ecuadorian Habano/Sumatra Hybrid wrapper and Dominican fillers and binder, made in the Dominican Republic. It’s a very nice medium bodied cigar with good balance. It’s got a sweet, nutty flavor and is good to the last puff. I probably ave had these in the humidor for a couple years, I think George sent these to me before he was involved with House of Emilio, so these had some time to settle. I have enjoyed what I’ve smoked from Rodrigo, great boutique cigars. Score: 98

Friday. It’s the end of the week, it’s time to celebrate. I was the fortunate recipient of a package from Jack Toraño this week, included within were a couple of Sam Leccia‘s new Luchador cigar, due for release tomorrow, May 5th, or Cinco de Mayo. Sam has put together a 5 country blend with Honduras and Pennsylvania Ligero and Nicaraguan Ometepe in the filler, Ecuador Habano Binder and my favorite Mexican San Andrés wrapper. Of course, my expectations were high for several reasons. First, obviously the wrapper is my favorite, and second, it’s Sam Leccia, and he has the Midas touch when it comes to cigars. The cigar I smoked was the El Hombre, a 5″ x 54 Robusto with a pointed cap. I carefully snipped this off with the Xikar scissors, and lit it up. Love affair right off the bat. Great strong espresso flavors, almost Cuban coffee with the sweetness. It was desert like, with some spice to go along with it, really tasty. My biggest complaint was that it was too short! I really wanted it to last another half hour. I don’t know how this is going to age, I suspect it will do OK, but it’s ready to go now. Great balance, great burn and draw. A top notch smoke that’s right the heck up my alley. Thanks to Sam and Jack for letting me smoke this before it hits the streets. Great, another cigar I’ll have to keep on hand. Score: 99

Saturday my wife and I stopped in to Cigar Mojo on our way home from our granddaughter’s third birthday party to check out their Kentucky Derby party. They had a pretty good crowd, and were having some raffles and contests. I picked up a few cigars, including the Surrogates Skull Breaker, a line I haven’t sampled before. This cigar had it’s origin at New Havana Cigars as a partnership between owner Dan Welsh and Pete Johnson and they are now under the L’Atelier Imports portfolio. I picked up this dark belicoso, I think it was priced around $7.50. A few years ago I wouldn’t have bought a cigar that expensive, but since visiting cigar country a few times, I have a much better appreciation for the value of a cigar, it’s a miracle they can be produced so reasonably. I still have trouble with the $10+ price point, but I will loosen the purse stings (figuratively) now and then and pick one up. I digress. I had a migraine coming on, so I figured a cigar called “Skull Breaker” couldn’t hurt anything. It’s a strong cigar, have no doubt. It’s got great flavor from the Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrappper and Nicaraguan fillers and binder. I loved dark chocolate and pepper this cigar had, and it was another cigar that burned perfectly, straight from the retail humidor. When you have a cigar lounge, it’s pretty important for the cigars you sell to be ready to smoke, and the guys at Cigar Mojo have that covered. If you find yourself in King of Prussia, PA (or the Philly area), stop in and ask them where the heck my CigarCraig.com magnet went??? Good race, good smoke, couldn’t wait to get home and take a pill for the headache and sleep it off. Score: 98

That’s it for today. I have a bunch of new cigars to smoke over the coming weeks, so stay tuned. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

7 Comments

Filed under Events, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Emilio, leccia, Luchador, rodrigo, Skull Breaker, StogieGuys, Surrogates, Toraño

by CigarCraig | March 23, 2014 · 1:17 pm

D & S Cigar Lounge and Fratello Cigars

Yesterday turned out to be a beautiful spring day, so, after cleaning up some more of the tree limbs from one of the winter’s ice storms, I dusted off he scooter and took it for a spin. Now, when I say scooter, I actually mean scooter. I have a 400cc Yamaha Majesty because I’m a geek, what can I say. It’s big enough to go on the highway and gets 65 mpg. Loads of fun. Anyway, I took a ride out to Lancaster, PA to visit D&S Cigar Lounge. I had met Shaun, the owner, at the 2011 IPCPR show and have been meaning to get out there since. This is a really nice shop in a strip mall outside of downtown Lancaster, and features cabinet humidors lining the walls in the front of he store, and a very well appointed 1502 Lounge in the back with a bar, TVs, and plenty of leather chairs. The lounge was pretty populated for the first really nice Saturday in a while. I hung out in the front of the shop with Shaun. Their selection is very good, with a nice variety of boutiques and mainstream brands, priced well.

They were having a Fratello Cigars event, and Omar de Frias was there too. I met Omar at the trade show last year where he was the talk of the town. Imagine a really tall dude, born in the Dominican Republic, works for NASA in DC, makes a brilliant cigar in Nicaragua, and manages to have store events too. This is a hard working dude, and really a super nice guy. I bought a handful of toros and robustos and proceeded to fire up the 6½ x 52 toro. A little part of me is regretting not picking up some of the 6″x60s too, as these are really tasty smoked. They have a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper with a Ecuador Sumatra binder, and the filler is a blend of Nicaraguan and Peruvian tobaccos, and all this works really great together. These are manufactured in one of my favorite factories, but I’m not allowed to say which one. Omar also said that they are working on a box pressed torpedo in this line, and hinted at working on either a Brazilian or San Andrés wrapped sequel. I am excited to try both, they sound yummy. The toro started out with some spice, and smoothed out in the middle, with some spice coming back at the end. I smoked this one to a finger burning nub and enjoyed every last puff. I gave it a V cut which worked quite well.

The 40 mile ride home was uneventful, and I decided to smoke the robusto on my evening walk (I had a delicious dinner of Chicken Parmesan my wife made that I had to walk off!) I thought the robusto was a little spicier than the toro, which is OK, and obviously the stretch in the middle where it smooths out is shorter. I like that it’s a little bit longer than a standard robusto, it’s 5½ x 52. These are really tasty cigars, if you see them, grab one, and if you don’t, ask your tobacconist to get them! Omar tells me he’s in 100 stores now, which is a heck of a deal for a small manufacturer. I’m happy I got a chance to catch up with Omar and finally pay a visit to Shaun at D & S Cigar Lounge in Lancaster. Here’s the video of Omar from the IPCPR show last July:

httpv://youtu.be/IHjzjuaVquU

I work with a guy who collects bottles, and he brought this turn of the century bottle for me to take a picture of to share with you all. It’s hand blown, and the detail is really incredible. He suspects it was a way to get a nip secretly, back when it was far more acceptable to smoke in public than to drink! Now you’d sooner be vilified for even looking like you’re smoking than having a drink! Support Cigar Rights of America!

I don’t want to forget to mention that in between doing all that yard clean-up and heading to a cigar event, I also appeared on the “Blogger’s Corner” segment of Kiss My Ash Radio yesterday. I don’t think Abe (the host, and owner of the Smoke Inn stores in Florida) is very happy with me for reviewing a cigar that’s virtually impossible to buy any more. I’ll have to prepare better in the unlikely event I’m invited back 🙂 . Anyway, if you don’t already listen, check out the podcast version, if you can’t listen live Saturday mornings. I look forward to hearing what my bud Eddie Ortega had to say on the show, he was the guest in the “Meet Your Maker” segment and was there in the studio.

That’s it for now! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Events, Review, Stores, Video

Tagged as cigar, cigar rights, cigars, D & S, Fratello

by CigarCraig | March 16, 2014 · 9:12 pm

An Alec Bradley Event, THE Kind, an Aging Room and Cigar Transporter Tubes

Thursday there was an Alec Bradley event at the world famous Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia (that’s about 20 minutes outside Philadelphia for those who don’t know. Ask your wives, they probably know the area for the enormous mall!) Jonathan Lipson was present and managed to sell through all of the Filthy Hooligans before I arrived. Trae, the co-owner of the shop managed to find me one, so I picked up some Nica Puros too and settled in with the candela toro. I enjoyed several of these last year, and still have one buried in the humidor someplace. I think this is a great tasting smoke. I like the way the candela wrapper tempers the Black Market blend. The downside is that the use an inordinate amount of glue on the bands, which is understandable, they have to stay in place through a secondary sleeve, as well as cellophane. Removing the band does a number on the fragile wrapper. The flavor is refreshing to me, it’s clean and I like this cigar. I was unhappy that I couldn’t go home with a handful of these. My brother-in-law was in Holts the previous evening and they had sold out there too. The event was well attended, we even ran into those guys from The Cigar Lounger magazine again. Always a pleasure having a cigar with Vince, Graham, Steve and Drew. Trae and Wade are consummate hosts, always checking in , emptying ashtrays and making sure all is well. A good time was had by all, and I’m still looking for a few Hooligans!

Friday evenings I try to smoke something I know will be satisfying after a long work week, but I decided to try a new cigar that was sent to me by the folks at Nice Ash Cigars in New York State. As it is, THE Kind is an exclusive in their three stores (one of which is in North-western Pennsylvania), but they hope to distribute on a larger scale. The cigar is the Toro, which is 5¾” x 56, is nicecly box pressed and has a closed foot and a pigtail cap. It’s a very appealing looking cigar. It’s made in Omar Ortez’s factory in Esteli, and has a Jalapa Corojo wrapper with Nicaraguan filler and binder. I really enjoyed the cigar, it had a nice sweetness and was full of flavor, but was a solid medium in strength. It burned fairly well, even though it had only been in my humidor for about a week. I’ll give the other sample a few months rest, but I’m sure it’ll be just as good. My thanks to Andrew at Nice Ash Cigars for thinking of me.

This week I also received a prototype of a Cigar Transporter Tube from Kevin, the maker of these tubes and the gentleman behind the Indiegogo campaign to raise capital to purchase a lathe so he can produce these on his own. The tube is a Dupont Delrin® plastic which is an industrial strength thermoplastic used to make precision parts. He machines this to pretty tight tolerances and matches the top and bottom halves to insure a perfect fit. I had one of the machinists where I work take a look and he was impressed with the machining, and he’s a perfectionist. I put a cigar in this tube and toted it around with me and it worked out very well. Check out his Indiegogo campaign here and throw a couple bucks his way, he’s got some tubes listed as perks for donating, I am looking forward to seeing the aluminum version.

Saturday afternoon I took a nice, long walk with an Aging Room M21 Fortissimo that I received at the IPCPR show last July. This was in a coffin box, and is a nice perfecto shape, probably around 5½ x 46, which is a great size. I’ve heard many great things about this cigar, so I had high hopes. A few months ago I smoked an Aging Room M356 Rondo and it conspired to kick my ass, so I was a little worried. Unfortunately, this cigar must have been stored in slightly higher humidity than it should have. Rafael Nodal, the principle at Aging Room told me directly just today that this cigar is all ligero, so it’s sensitive to higher humidity (the humidor reads in the low 60s, go figure). I had a heck of a time keeping it burning, and given my experience with the M356, I was hesitant to over smoke it to keep it burning. The flavor was very good, and I will be looking for another sample to fully appreciate the cigar this is supposed to be. Rafael generously offered to send me another, however I think I’ll try to find one in one of my local shops. These guys are really making some great cigars, so I have every confidence that my experience was a fluke. The fact that the same factory is working with José Blanco speaks to the quality of their tobacco and production.