Category Archives: Events

by CigarCraig | October 28, 2012 · 9:43 am

A Camacho Cigar Event, a Room 101, a Genesis, an El Mejor and a Quick Contest

Last weekend I stopped in at International Tobacco in the King of Prussia Mall (one of the largest in the US, located just outside Philadelphia). I stop in here whenever I visit the mall, they have a nice coffee bar where you can sit and have a cigar and rest up from all the shopping :-). When I was there I found out that they were having a Camacho event to celebrate the addition of that line to their product mix. I like Tom Smith, the area Davidoff/Camacho/Cusano rep, so I figured since it’s 20 minutes or so down the road I’d stop in.

Having picked up a handful of Camacho Corojo Maduro Monarcas that I didn’t need last weekend, I purchased a couple Room 101 Daruma Lanceros and a Mostro (5″ x 60), and a couple of LegendArio just because I hadn’t t tried either and Tom recommended the Daruma. I got 2 of the 5 free for the event, which eased the financial pain a little . I sparked up one of the Lanceros and got to socializing. Tom introduced me to a gent named Chris, who was a former blogger, and we struck up a conversation about all things cigar. Chris introduced me to his friend Jay, who lives down the road from me. We had a terrific discussion of cigars, among other things, and I look forward to running into these guys again one of these days. The cigars was as outstanding as Tom had indicated. It was full bodied as one would expect, and the beauty of the Lancero format is that it forces you to smoke it slowly and really savor all that it has to offer. It was a very nice evening. Tom, the owner of the shop does a nice job with events, and I look forward to seeing Tom, the Davidoff rep again in the near future.

This seems like an appropriate place to throw in the video interview I did with Matt Booth at the IPCPR show. I managed to catch Matt right as the show closed and he graciously consented to spend a few minutes with me. Matt is a super-cool dude and his cigars are pretty awesome too. Which reminds me, did they have the Room 101 San Andreas at International Tobacco and I missed them? Anyway, here’s the video:

httpv://youtu.be/HpSABzpP4mI

Back to the retailer sponsored “reviews” I’ve been doing all week. The last two cigars I receive from Cigars International were the Genesis The Project by Ramon Bueso Robusto and an El Mejor Robusto. You may recall the last time I said that I started smoking this in order of my personal interest. I hadn’t heard of the Genesis The Project cigar until receiving it, and the name Ramon Bueso wasn’t familiar to me. The wrapper was very mottled and wrinkly, which doesn’t really show in the picture here. I thought the band was reminiscent of the Liga Privada band, adding a little to my preconception. Just a disclaimer, these opinions and biases are my own. The Genesis was a pretty powerful cigar and, despite it’s ugliness, it performed well. It wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, but it certainly had plenty going for it. I’d say if you like a full flavored cigar with some strength, give this one a try.

As far as the El Mejor is concerned, I’ll admit to having a bias based on my impression that this is strictly a house brand. I’ve learned over the years to have lower expectations of house brands, that’s probably wrong, but that’s the way I feel. This cigar had an attractive, milk chocolate colored Corojo wrapper and lit and burned quite nicely. Once again, this one didn’t exactly wow me, but it was a solid, straight up cigar, certainly not a waste of time, and something I would smoke again, and I did smoke both cigars to a finger-burning nub, if that says anything.

I really appreciate Scott sending me these samples, and I hope to get to meet him this Friday when I go up to Hamburg, PA for the grand opening of their newest Super Store. I know some folks consider CI, Famous and the like, the Walmart of cigar stores, and I can see their points, especially when those people own local shops in the areas where these large companies open stores. Considering what we face from the government where cigars are concerned, I have trouble finding fault with someone who’s willing to shell out millions of dollars to build a cigar store. I am looking forward to seeing the new store, but there’s a lot to be said for the personal experience of sitting down in a small, family owned tobacco shop and enjoying a smoke!

Contest

One last thing, and you’ll have to act fast! I’ve been tweeting this week about a little contest. Today is the 2nd Annual #TickNTweet Virtual Walk, which benefits the Tick Borne Disease Alliance in their efforts to to help us build awareness, promote advocacy and support initiatives to find a cure for Lyme and other Tick-Borne diseases. I am a Lyme disease sufferer myself, so this is something important to me, especially since I live in the worst county in the country for Lyme disease. If you go to our page and make a donation, I’ll choose a random person and send a 5 pack from my humidor, and I promise there will be some great cigars in there. I personally appreciate any consideration you may give to this. Today is the last day to get in on this. Thanks!

That’s more than enough for today. Hopefully this storm that’s been getting all the hype doesn’t cause too much damage (Walmart’s water aisle was empty! There’s going to be plenty of water falling from the sky folks!). Stay safe out there!

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under Contest, Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Camacho, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Cigars International, El Mejor, Genesis, International Tobacco, IPCPR, Ramon Bueso, TBDA

by CigarCraig | September 23, 2012 · 8:13 am

IPCPR 2012 – Oliva and Studio Tabac Cigars and a New Shop Visit

After enjoying the heck out of a Cain Daytona No. 4 the other night I figured it was about time to dig into some IPCPR show samples and see what the deal was with the new Oliva Serie V Melanio Torpedo. I smoked this cigar during my Thursday evening walk. Since we moved from a house “in town”, where I could walk to the local convenience store, or around the neighborhood, or a bunch of places, I now live in a more rural area where my walking options are more limited. As usual, it’s never about the destination, but the journey, so I just walk down the street for a while then turn around and come home to finish my cigar on the deck or back porch. I’ve been taking my son’s dog along and she loves all the new smells and sights, such as deer and the occasional fox. Back to the Melanio. What a beautiful cigar, just about perfect in appearance, 6½” x 52 and nicely box pressed. The Nicaraguan tobaccos in the blend are largely from Jalapa, which accounts for the bit of sweetness in this very powerful blend. It’s a pretty great cigar. I’ve enjoyed the few Serie V’s I’ve smoked and this one is a really nice addition to the line.

Friday evening I selected a Cain F Maduro that was in the same batch of samples from the trade show. My usual experience with Cain cigars tells me to leave these rest for a year or so to mellow out a little, but in the interest of providing timely information and experiences, I had to smoke this gorgeous robusto. The cigar was about 5 x 50 with an oily, dark Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. While this was certainly a powerhouse, it was loaded with deep, dark flavor. I love the Cain line in general, especially with a little age, and the Daytona is a wonderfully well balanced smoke on the high end of medium, but I sure hope I come across this maduro again. What a fantastic smoke.

While at the trade show I had the opportunity to sit down with Bryan Scholle, the face of Studio Tabac, and talk about what’s new. Here’s a little video we took at the show, many thanks to Bryan for taking a few minutes to talk to me. It was the first time we’d met, and it was like we’d know one another for years. Bryan is a very cool guy, if you have a chance to catch him on the Studio Tabac tour, do it.

In Other News

Yesterday I stopped in to the new Total Tobacco shop in Newtown Square, PA, not far from home. This shop is a part of the Delaware Cigars empire, so Gary Griffith was on hand for the grand opening. They are still waiting for some displays and fixtures, but the large walk-in humidor is very well stocked with many fine cigars. I could have gone nuts, but I showed some restraint and only picked up a couple cigars I’ve wanted to try, but haven’t seen locally, notably, a Room 101 OSOK as well as a Cro Magnon EMH. I’d be shocked if there’s another retailer in the area that has the RoMaCraft Tabac line, but there were all of the CroMagnon sizes as well as Aquataine in Connecticut shade and maduro. They have a great selection and the prices are in line with the pricing we enjoy in Pennsylvania. I’ll make a point to stop in from time to time to see how the shop progresses. One downside is that there’s no smoking in the store, but the selection makes up for that and they have chairs on the sidewalk outside to enjoy a smoke on a nice day. It’s always nice to see my friend Gary and I wish them the best of luck with this new location.

I’ve gone one quite long enough, that’s all I have for now. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under Events, IPCPR, News, Review, Stores, Video

Tagged as cain, cigar, cigar store, cigars, delaware cigars, IPCPR, oliva, Take A Cigar For A Walk, Total Tobacco

by CigarCraig | September 16, 2012 · 8:26 am

Delaware Cigar Festival 2012 Event Report

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of attending my second Delaware Cigar Festival. This festival is held at Delaware Park Racetrack in (duh) Delaware every year and organized by Gary Griffith of Delaware Cigars and Emilio Cigars fame. Gary brings together a bunch of cigar makers and reps and paying attendees get a nice bag of about 25 cigars and the vendors are selling cigars for $3 to $9 with all of the money going to charity. Instead of going from booth to booth getting a cigar from each vendor, you could buy the cigars, many of which retail for much more than $3. I haven’t heard the final tally, but I’m sure they raised many hundreds of dollars for the charity of their choice, The La Musa School of Artl in Esteli, Nicaragua.

Besides having he chance to purchase cigars cheap and talk with the reps and cigar makers, it also provided the opportunity to spend a beautiful afternoon talking to fellow cigar lovers from all over. I spent some time with my old friends Rob Heming and Dennis Shaffer, who rode their motorcycles from the Pittsburgh and Cleveland areas respectively. I had found a great parking spot and saw them circling the lot looking for a space so I invited them to share my spot. We ended up packing 4 bikes into one spot (I also finally met a gent named Ralph who rode down from north of Philly, who I had corresponded with before). It had been several years since I’d seen Rob and Dennis and it was great getting caught up. I also was happy to spend some time with Charlie Greenbacker, who I had met at this event last year, as well as meeting Irv from CigarNews.com. It was a great afternoon, great folks and great cigars.

I started the day with an Ortega Serie D maduro, which I had been craving and headed straight for Eddie’s table upon arrival. It was awesome, of course (the “D” is for delicious!). Next I smoked an Undercrown Corona Doble, which was also awesome. I hadn’t smoked a cigar that large in a while, but I had the time. I wrapped up the afternoon with a Cubanacan robusto from Eddie Tarazona, which was a nice, mild smoke with a nice flavor. This is a cigar that comes in boxes of fifty and has a price-point around$6 (if I recall). Solid, well behaved smoke with was a nice way to end the day. If you can manage to attend this event in the future you should try to do it. I have a video from the event as well as some photos below.

httpv://youtu.be/zJsr2Si-hVo

That’s it for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under Events

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Delaware Cigar Festival, delaware cigars, Delaware Park, Emilio

by CigarCraig | August 19, 2012 · 8:12 am

Wooden Indian Tobacco Shop & Liga Privada Lounge’s Drew Estate Charity Auction

Yesterday was a beautiful Saturday in Southeastern PA, and my wife and I had the great fortune of attending a Drew Estate event at the Wooden Indian Tobacco Shop in Havertown, PA. I love visiting this shop about 45 minutes from home. Dave Mayer and his staff are always very friendly and professional. The shop and Liga Privada Lounge is a very inviting and comfortable place to shop and relax. On this Saturday they were having a “Get Lit with Drew Estate ” event and Marvin Samel was, once again, in attendance. Since first meeting Marvin at their old location a few years ago, I make it a point to visit the store when he’s there. This time they were having several contests, including a “power smoke”, which involved smoking a Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Dark Corojo to the band in the shortest amount of time. I passed on participating in this, as much as I love that cigar, because I didn’t want to ruin my palate for the next week, not to mention making myself sick on such a beautiful day!

I managed to shoot a quick video of Marvin where I asked him to speak about the threat we currently face with the possibility of the FDA regulating premium cigars. This is something that Marvin has dedicated the last year or so of his life to fighting, even moving to Washington DC to concentrate on the battle. Thanks to Marvin for helping preserve our rights! Here’s the video, which will be featured on the left sidebar along with Tommy Zarzecki’s video promoting Cigar Rights of America. Alan Price, our local Cigar Rights of America ambassador was there signing up new members. If you aren’t a member yet, go sign up!

After the contests, they had a series of raffles. Tickets were given with purchases, and I was fortunate to win a beautiful Xikar lighter courtesy of Xikar, who’s rep David was also on hand. Many thanks! I also purchased a raffle ticket for some baskets that had been assembled. One basket of just about every Xikar product imaginable as well some Liga Privada cigars. The other basket contained box upon box of rare Liga Privada and Drew Estate offerings, as well as some hats, booze and other sundries. All of the proceeds of these raffle items were going to Un Techo Para Mi Pais in Nicaragua to help build homes for the less fortunate, a charity that Drew Estate has embraced in their neighborhood in Esteli. The crowning event was an auction of an original painting by Jessi Flores, the director of Subculture Studio and the artist responsible for so much of the design work at Drew Estate. The painting was of all of the Liga Privada cigars that they have produced to date, a beautiful piece of art that we would have loved to have hanging in our home. I managed to capture the action in this nine-plus minute video. It ended up in a bidding war between Cortney, who works at the Wooden Indian and my wife, Jennifer. Unfortunately, Cortney wasn’t to be outbid, and the painting ended up fetching $1500, enough to build a house for a family in Esteli.

httpv://youtu.be/agYrYiDVEMw

While at the event I enjoyed an Undercrown Corona Viva, which is an excellent smoke, maybe my favorite in the line so far. It was rich and well balanced and characteristically well made. It was the perfect smoke to enjoy the wonderful company at the lounge. When I got home I grabbed a Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta Robusto as I put away the Cabinetta Lanceros and Undercrowns I had purchased. I absolutely love this line and every one I smoke brings back memories of my visit to Nicaragua last year. The cigar is smooth and creamy, delicious.

That was my Saturday. I hope you enjoy the videos, better than many of my recent IPCPR videos because I’m not in them, right? 🙂

Until te next time,

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Events, Stores, Video

Tagged as cigar, cigar store, cigars, drew estate, joya de nicaragua, liga privada, undercrown, wooden indian

by CigarCraig | June 20, 2012 · 8:38 pm

A Monte Pascoal Cigar, Beatles and Other Assorted News Items

It’s been an odd week! Since Sunday I’ve only managed a couple cigars, one of which was a Monte Pascoal Corona and the other doesn’t warrant mention, unfortunately. The Monte Pascoal is a Brazilian puro and a very nice cigar. I’ve heard it described as “Cubanesque”, but I don’t get that. What I get is a well made and tasty smoke. I’ve smoked several sizes and I think this corona is one of my favorites. It’s loaded with flavor. The other cigar I had, which will remain nameless, was a disappointment, it didn’t draw well, and wasn’t particularly pretty, and the flavor was just OK, nothing special. I could excuse some of these in a cheap bundle cigar, but not in a Super Premium cigar. I’ll write it off as another failed experiment and more forward.

News

In an odd cross-over, my friend Mitchell Orchant, of C.Gars Ltd., recently came into possession of, and sold, a rare framed presentation of Beatles banded cigars. The story is currently featured on BeatlesNews.com. I guess I need to hold on to the Burt Reynolds and Mickey Rooney cigars I have buried in a humidor someplace (I always wondered why the Mickey Rooney is a Churchill and not a robusto!)

In other news, I received an e-mail this week from Enrique Seijas telling me about his new project since leaving Altadis. CigarCountry.com sells name brand, premium cigars, and you can get them with custom printed cello or cedar sleeves. The price is extremely competitive and I’m seriously looking for a good reason to buy a box with my name and website on the cello. I wish they’d been around when my daughter was married, and they are a great step up from the usual “It’s A Boy/Girl” cigars. It’s a very cool idea, check it out.

Some upcoming events to look forward to: The Chattenooga Tweetup in August (info here). The Delaware Cigar Festival in September (info here, apologies to non-Facebook users!) I got an e-mail from Sir Stogies, a really nice little shop in Gilbertsville, PA saying that Jose Blanco was going to be there on Tuesday, June 26 at 11am. Another case of the day job getting in the way of fun! Another event I plan on trying to get to is a Drew Estate event on Thursday, June 28 at a much more realistic time of 6pm, at the Humidor at the Leaf, which is Famous Smoke Shop’s retail store in Easton, PA. Of course there’s the Jose Blanco blending event hosted by Buttheads Tobacco Emporium tomorrow, June 21, which will be a first of it’s kind live stream event.

I’ve come up with about as much non-sense as I can muster, but I have one more piece of business to attend to. It seems that our winner of the last contest never came forward to collect his prize. I sent two e-mails and didn’t get a reply. So I have to select an alternate winner. Random.org spit the number 18 at me this time, which corresponds to my old buddy Bob Greene. I’ve known Bob for years, and I’m certain he will enjoy Mitchell’s book! Bob, please send your mailing address so I can get this stuff out to you!