Category Archives: Events

by | August 21, 2011 · 12:27 pm

Delaware Cigar Festival, La Palina, Art Deco and Hammer + Sickle

The fifth annual Delaware Cigar Festival will be taking place on Saturday, September 17 at the Delaware Park Racetrack. I’ll be attending this fine event and will bring you highlights. Delaware Park is a beautiful racetrack, and if you like to play the ponies or slots, it’s the place to be.  Many manufacturers and their reps will be in attendance and  it looks like it will be a good time.  I’m a little embarrassed that I I have managed to miss this event in the past and it’s only about 40 minutes down the road from me.  Looking forward to attending, and thank you to Gary Griffith for making this possible (and making damned tasty cigars!).

 

The the best cigar I had this week was the La Palina El Diario Robusto. The El Diaro line is La Palina’s “lower priced” line, compared to the $20 price tags on the original line that came out a couple years ago an is made in the Graycliff  factory in the Bahamas. The El Diaro is rolled at the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras, and carries a $10-11 price tag. It is most definitely an excellent cigar. It’s smooth and perfectly rolled. I’d happily smoke these all the time if they were a little more wallet friendly, but it’s been well established that I’m a cheap bastard.  Bill Paley is a super nice guy though and he’s producing some exceptional cigars.

 

Nestor Miranda Art Deco Robusto Grande – This 5½ x 54 cigar was one that I bought on my Father’s Day cigar run. They come in a nifty tin instead of a box. If this had a handle on it it would make a fine lunchbox! It was a good cigar, no doubt. I don’t have a great deal of experience with Pepin Garcia’s cigars, admittedly, so I don’t readily pick up his signature on this, but it certainly was well made and it either grew on me as I smoked it, or the flavors in the second half were more in line with my preferences than the first half. I started out thinking it was just another DR blend that was “eh”…worth the try though…and not terribly priced.  Frustratingly, there is no information about this cigar on the website, and it’s not exactly brand new.

 

Hammer + Sickle Robusto and Berlin Wall Robusto  – These were samples from the IPCPR show. An old friend, Mike, was working at the booth, and I was very happy to catch up with him. We had met at a large herf in Vegas in 1999, known in the alt.smokers.cigars circles as Boondoggle 3, which consisted of about 300 cigar smokers taking over the ballroom at the MGM Grand for 3 days. Stories from that event are legend amongst the on-line cigar community of the era, and are easily Googleable, so I won’t go into that further. Anyway, Mike was kind enough to hook me up with some samples and introduce me to Victor, the owner of The Cigar Agency, who imports and distributes the Hammer + Sickle brand, as well as ORTSAC and others. I smoked both the regular Hammer + Sickle robusto as well as the new Berlin Wall robusto. The former I found to be a fairly typical Dominican cigar, well made, but nothing that really grabbed me. Keep in mind that most Dominican cigars don’t hit me the way I like to be hit, flavor wise, so that’s not as bad as it sounds. The Berlin Wall, on the other hand, was much more to my liking, no doubt due to it being made my Camacho and consisting of a blend of Honduran, Dominican and Nicaraguan leaf. The copper band is a very nice touch. I took the Berlin wall on my evening walk, and the ash, although it wasn’t the prettiest, held on for nearly a mile!  Both of these cigars come in unique packaging. The Hammer + Sickle is in a crystal box, and the Berlin wall is packaged in a marble box with a relief of the Brandenburg Gate on the lid.  Very innovative.

Here is a video of Victor Vitale from the show, talking about the Ortsac 1962 cigars:

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | August 10, 2011 · 6:02 pm

Our Sunday Visit To A Hookah and Cigar Lounge

On Sunday my wife and I decided to visit the Cozy Hookah and Cigar Lounge in nearby West Chester, PA. We had only recently heard about this place, through Dealyo, one of the social shopping sites that are gaining popularity (Groupon, LivingSocial, etc.). Jenn had purchased a $30 coupon for $15  and we decided to check it out for lunch. The lounge is along one of the main, historic streets of West Chester, where a lot of the bars and restaurants are located, and they are open every day from 10 am to 4 am, so they get really busy after the bars close. There are couches with pillows, a VIP room in the back, and they have theme nights. A very comfortable place.

 

When we walked into the empty lounge we were greeted by Alex, who gave us a tour of the place, and set us up with a hookah and a plate of hummus and pita, which was delicious. We also had some Moroccan tea and a plate of Buffalo wings. As I had said in my last post, we were considering going on Saturday night, when they have a belly dancer and DJ, but I’m glad we went when it was quiet and we had room to relax and stretch out a little. As far as the smoking experience goes, smoking a hookah is not very different from smoking a cigar.  Both are fairly social activities, and are about the flavor of the smoke.  It was quite enjoyable and I was pleased to find that my wife thought it was as well.

 

The owner, Mahrous, joined us for a while and told us how he got started with a restaurant in Greenwich Village with his brother, and how a friend asked if he could smoke his hookah in the back yard (I’m envisioning a garden or terrace with seating) since he couldn’t smoke it at home. Patrons of the restaurant asked to try it after while and it caught on there, and the hookah lounge was born. Fast forward twenty five years and he opened the lounge in West Chester.

 

My wife and I spent about 3 hours, a couple hookahs of (don’t laugh) Cherry Coke flavored shisha, another pot of Egyptian green tea (delicious, by the way) and a La Gloria Cubana Serie N in the lounge and a few people came and went, but it was a Sunday afternoon and the local college isn’t in session. Certainly the name “Cozy” is appropriate, and it’s nice to have a place that you can take your wife and enjoy a cigar and everyone’s happy. I can see meeting friends here for a smoke (cigar or hookah), and a quiet evening of conversation, at least during the quieter times, and I probably will organize something in the not too distant future. Kudos to Mahrous for opening a “smoking” establishment in this day and age, and having the community’s support in doing so.

Mahrous was kind enough to say a few words on video, and I actually make an appearance in this one, my apologies in advance 🙂

 

httpv://youtu.be/alJEP2NQ9WU

 

Ironically, our friends at Drew Estate are currently running a contest featuring their Acid shisha:

http://blog.drewestate.com/index.php/cigars/acid-shisha-giveaway/

 

Also, don’t forget to enter my contest to win a General Cigars prize pack. Contest ends Sunday!

 

That’s all I have for now, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

Cozy Hookah & Cigar Lounge – 122 E. Gay Street – West Chester, PA 19380

610-696-5300  –  http://www.hookahandcigarlounge.com/

Open 10 am to 4 am daily (3am on Sundays)

 

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by | July 31, 2011 · 9:10 am

Oja Cigars Mini-Reviews And A Video With Luis Garcia

I’m sure you’re growing tired of me mentioning the Oja cigars, after the contest in which Lloyd won a whole box of them this month, and my occasional mentions of this fairly new brand. I’ve been smoking a bunch of them lately and haven’t really talked about them with any specificity. Oja Cigars are the brainchild of Luis Garcia, an immigration lawyer in Miami, and a very cool guy. The regular line comes in three wrappers, an Ecuador Connecticut, a Habana 2000, or Mestizo, and an Oscuro (Brazilian Arapiraca). They also come in three sizes, a Destacado (6×52 Toro) a Distinguido (6×54 Torpedo) and the Artefacto (a 6×60 Corona Grande). These are made by Kiki Berger at his factory, Tabacalera Esteli, in Esteli, Nicaragua, which is where I first met Luis and Don Kiki while we were visiting Cigar Safari. Luis was staying at the Safari, the poor guy had run out of toothpaste, fortunately I had some to spare and took care of him.

 

I admit to having gotten off to a rocky start with these, as the first samples that I smoked were right out of the container from Nicaragua and, in my haste, I dove in too soon. However, after some resting time in the humidor, I’ve really grown fond of these cigars. I smoked a Connecticut Destacado in the pool last week, 102 degrees and humid, a cold Reed’s Ginger Brew and my wife floating around on a raft made for a very relaxing experience. Not your usual mild Connecticut Shade wrapped cigar, this one has some oomph to it (my son smoked one last night and commented that he wasn’t expecting such power based on it’s appearance).

 

Friday night I decided to smoke one of the big Mestizo Artefactos. I find a sweetness in these that I really like, but am not really used to in a Habano wrapped cigar. This is the only size in this wrapper that I’ve smoked but, for some reason, I’m happy with the large size in this blend. It’s good for an hour and a half or so of catching up with the podcasts I’ve been getting behind on listening to. I’m looking forward to hearing what Lloyd thinks of these when he digs into that massive box. Hopefully he’ll send me some pictures (hint, hint).

 

Last night I figured I’d grab an Oscuro for my walk. The first one of these I smoked just about knocked me on my tuckus, but, once again, this was right off the boat, and I was inpatient. A couple of weeks rest has made this into a very nice cigar that won’t make the room spin! Powerful? Yes. Flavorful? Also yes, but not what I generally associate with the maduro or oscuro wrapper. It is delicious, but without the heavy coffee/chocolate flavors, but more of an unsweetened, bakers chocolate kind of taste, if that makes any sense. Still a really good smoke which burned well, as have all of the Oja Cigars I’ve smoked (barring the first Connecticut torpedo I referenced earlier, which nearly exploded upon lighting, my fault for jumping the gun!, not the fault of the cigar).

 

While at the IPCPR show I was fortunate enough to sample the newest cigar from Oja, the Anniversary. This cigar is wrapped in a Brazilian Samba wrapper and is an extremely smooth and satisfying smoke. It’s box pressed and also comes in three sizes, including a beautiful 6 x 58 perfecto. This celebrates their first anniversary, and is a dynamite smoke. I’m looking forward to smoking more of these in the future.

 

That’s about all the rambling on I can manage today. I think Luis did pretty well at the show, so keep an eye open for these at your local shops for these, I know that at least one of the shops in my general vicinity will be carrying these in the near future.

 

I’ve got a short video for you today of Luis Garcia talking about his Oja Cigars.

 

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | July 24, 2011 · 9:18 am

Las Vegas Trip – IPCPR Day Two – Monday July 18

Monday is the opening day of the IPCPR show and it starts with a breakfast meeting. The buffet is quite generous and the coffee was hot and in good supply. Oddly there were no ashtrays on the tables, and I didn’t see a lot of folks smoking. Plenty of time for that. Some of the highlights of the meeting were Joe Rowe’s retirement as Executive Director and William Spann being appointed his replacement as CEO. All of the important folks at the IPCPR were recognized and awards were given. The IPCPR does a lot in the way of lobbying to try to keep our beloved hobby from being crushed. Every chance you get, please visit the IPCPR website and use their tool to send a letter to your representatives. I’ve put a widget on the right sidebar that will take you right there. It’s especially important to contact them regarding FDA regulation and remind them that in addition to regulation crushing the cigar business in the US, closing small businesses, it will decimate the economies of the cigar producing countries who will turn to us for aid. This has been a public service announcement.

 

After the business portion of the meeting, the guest speaker was introduced. Ron White is a brand ambassador for Zino Platinum and entertained us with his humor. OK, I’m understating this as he was fricken hysterical. We got a 15 minute show which was packed with non-PC humor. He’s a funny, funny guy who loves cigars and is very passionate about them. He could be seen walking the show floor later in the day, and did a meet and greet at the Davidoff booth on the following day. It was a very cool breakfast.

 

Breakfast wrapped up and everyone gathered at the entrance to the exhibit hall waiting to enter. I quickly found out that “media” was allowed in ahead of the retailers so I set up next to Jerry Cruz of Stogie Review and took the very boring “stampede” video which I posted last week. It’s always quite impressive to see the waves of humanity entering the exhibit space, which, I might add, it enormous. I took a quick wander around the perimeter and spent the day talking to people and getting little videos which I will present to you throughout the coming months. The bigger booths seemed the busiest on day one, and there seemed to be a lot more people here than there were in New Orleans last year. Drew Estate‘s booth was packed for almost the entire 3 days I was at the show, and General Cigar, Alec Bradley, Davidoff, Oliva, Altadis, Perdomo, Fuente, to name a few, always seemed to be busy.

Today’s video is a brief chat with Bill Paley of La Palina Cigars.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbcUsEfafnI

 

 

By the way, I had a relaxing afternoon yesterday with my wife, an Oja Connecticut Destacado and a bottle of Reeds’s Ginger Beer in my in-laws pool. It was a wonderful way to beat the 100+ degree heat here in PA. I hope to get there today and repeat the experience.

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | July 22, 2011 · 10:14 am

Las Vegas Trip – Day One – Sunday July 17

After a long day of travel, and a not so great night’s sleep, I woke up in Fabulous Las Vegas at, oddly, my usual 5:45 wake up time. I say “oddly” because of the 3 hour time difference and the shortage of sleep. I took a walk to the McDonalds between Harrah’s and Casino Royale and grabbed some breakfast and took advantage of their free wireless internet.

 

After catching up on e-mail and stuff, I headed over to the Sands Expo and Convention Center to pick up my IPCPR badge. With that out of the way, I had to go to the Imperial Palace and change rooms. When I checked in at about 1 am Sunday morning, for whatever reason they “upgraded” me to a deluxe room, and would allow me to stay in the room for an additional $20 per night. We’ll, after seeing the room, I was concerned. Sure, I had a Roman tub with a mirror over top of it, and sure I had a king sized bed, also with a mirrored ceiling. Also, I had a fine view of the parking garage from my “balcony”. Anyway, since I had no need of the tub and ceiling mirrors, I opted out of the “upgrade” and changed to a normal room, which was actually much less skeevy than the deluxe room, which weirded me out a little.

 

At this point it was around noon and I headed over to Caesars to meet up with my old friend Keith, who lives in Vegas, for a smoke at Casa Fuente. I arrived first and took a walk through the humidor where I witnessed Hemingway Short Stories for $15 among other high priced goodies. I sat out side the shop and ordered a Pepsi and waited for Keith, who was along in a bit. We caught up and he, very generously, gifted me a Casa Fuente Corona which was delicious! I always enjoy getting together with Keith, we have a similar dry sense of humor, so we get one another’s jokes most of the time!

 

I then went over to the convention center and caught the blending seminar with Jose Blanco. I’ve included the very raw video of the first part of the discussion below. Jose is a fascinating guy and very personable. My videography is crappy, but there is some great information shared. The cigar that were were provided to smoke was very unique in that it had 5 different wrappers, building from mild to strong, illustrating the effect the wrapper has on the flavor. Unfortunately, my palate isn’t finely tuned enough to really taste the subtle differences, but I was able to tell when the flavors changed. My mistake was probably having two cigars prior to the seminar. Jose is a fine gentleman, a very funny man and has forgotten more about tobacco than I will ever know.

 

After the seminar I ran back to my room and changed, and went to the gala opening dinner, which was very crowded. I had some very good beef and turkey, along with various cheeses and mingled. I ran into my old friend Mike Staiber, formerly of Drew Estate, presently of Oliva, as well as several other folks with whome0 I’m acquainted and hung out with them for the evening, ending up at one of the bars in the casino. I finished the evening catching up with an old friend from Saratoga, NY, who I met in Vegas in 1999 and hadn’t seen since, Mike Perry, and we chatted for a while. I was exhausted by this point and retired to my new, non-deluxe, non-skeevy, perfectly adequate room and crashed.

 

I have so much to share over the coming weeks that I have to be careful not to repeat myself or leave anything out. I’ll be including videos, some of which may be difficult to hear because of the ambient noise and the limitations of the equipment I used. Hopefully what I did get will be entertaining and educational.

 

One side note, I was running some errands with my wife yesterday and came across a very unique and interesting shop in Doylestown, PA., Classic Cigar Parlor. Located in a historic building which looks to be easily 200 years old, it’s a very nice shop with a decent little selection with good pricing and very nice owners. They have a smoking parlor and hookah bar as well. I look forward to visiting again.

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5HqaJU_IAI

 

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

CiagrCraig

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