Category Archives: Events

by CigarCraig | November 3, 2010 · 7:30 pm

Sam Leccia at Old Havana Cigar Co., a Nub, and a Camacho – Wednesday October 3, 2010

I’ll go a little out of order this time. Tuesday evening my son Corey and I took a short drive down to Old Havana Cigar Company just south of West Chester PA. They were hosting an event featuring Sam Leccia. Sam greeted us when we arrived as he was taking a break, then we popped into the walk-in and selected some Nubs to smoke. I grabbed a few of the Cameroon 358s as I hadn’t yet tried them, my Nub consumption had been limited to the Habano wrapper and I love a good Cameroon wrapper. The store was packed, and I can only assume there were a bunch of folks in the lounge, but didn’t make it that far to see. Corey went with a Nub Cain Maduro and enjoyed it quite a bit. Here are a couple very raw videos I took with my phone of Sam wrapping a couple cigars, the second of which he gave to Corey.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPQ72RbvP5g

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=430zvaf1N0I

Pictured here are the custom wrapped cigars that Sam gave Corey and I. He told Corey that he’d have to smoke his, because the bunch he used was one of the original release of the Nubs. I know that I couldn’t bring myself to smoke this one or the last one he gave me, which is similar to the one he made in the first video. It’s amazing the detail he puts into these cigars, they are beautiful works of art. Sam is a tremendous guy and if he makes an appearance in your neighborhood make a point to go see him. Old Havana Cigar Co, is a nicely appointed shop located in a strip mall between West Chester, PA and Wilmington Delaware. They have a broad range of cigars in a large walk-in humidor, as well as a spacious lounge in the back. The access through the humidor is reminiscent of the set up at Holt’s in Philadelphia, but I think the lounge is larger. The front of the store features Humidors, cases and other accessories. Sam had his rolling table set up in the front of the store.

The Nub Cameroon 358 was a nice smoke that I enjoyed despite a sinus infection and a very smoky room. The cigar burned very well and, like I told Sam and have always said about the Nub line, would be much better if it were a little longer. Still I spent an hour or so with this cigar that the box said was good for 38 minutes (a very clever idea, putting the smoking time on the box).

Sunday was Halloween, which is always a traditional cigar night for me. I grabbed a nice green Camacho Corojo Candela Monarca and sat on the porch with my wife, the gas heater, and all the trick-or-treaters. We live in a development that is fairly large and it’s not unusual to get 150 or more kids visiting us. The cigar was awesome, I really enjoy these every now and then for a change of pace. This box has been pretty consistent in that this cigars all have had a very loose draw. I’ve come to compensate for this by piercing the cap instead of cutting it, but I was distracted and lopped off the cap. I was careful not to over draw and nursed the cigar for the duration of the trick-or-treating.

That’s about all I have this time around, I feel a contest coming along in the very near future so stay tuned.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as blog, cain, Camacho, cigar, cigars, leccia, nub, oliva, sam

by CigarCraig | September 17, 2010 · 6:37 pm

The Week’s Cigars: Camacho, Murcialago, CAO – Friday, September 17, 2010

Sunday evening my family went to our local park to see the final installment of the Concerts in the Park series which featured Liverpool Beat, a Philadelphia area Beatles tribute band. I took along a Camacho Connecticut 11/18 to smoke during the show. Both the band and the cigar were excellent. The 11/18 is a perfecto shape of sorts, looks like a toro with a bulging middle (not unlike myself), at 6″ x 48/54/48 ring gauge. The Connecticut wrapper, which was flawless, tempers the strength of the blend a bit, but it’s still a formidable cigar strength-wise. I like the Camacho line quite a bit, but the lines that lean more toward medium are my favorites, the Havana line, Connecticut and, yes, the Corojo Candela are cigars that suit my palate the best. The band played a rousing set of early Beatles hits in costume and in character and were very entertaining. You can see my wife’s review of the band on her site Beatles-Freak.com.

On Thursday I noticed a tweet from Eddie Ortega (@eddieor) of EO Brands that he was traveling to the Philly area and visiting a local shop. My son and I took the 20 minute drive to Old Havana Cigars in West Chester to say hello. Eddie greeted us like an old friend. I picked up a handful of Murcialago robustos and lit one up (it was the traditional “buy 3, get one” deal, I got 3 robustos and got a free 601 Robusto). I lit up the Murcialago and hung out with Eddie for a while. Old Havana Cigars is a nice shop with a spacious lounge in the back. The walk-in humidor is also quite large and seemed well stocked. I have only stopped into this shop once before and found their prices on the high side, but I’m a cheap bastard and am easily sticker-shocked. The Murcialagos were in the $6 range and the 601s were around $7, which isn’t bad, all things considered. The cigar was very nice. It had a dark Mexican maduro wrapper that was very pretty. The burn was good and it had a nice, full flavor. I gave my son one and he enjoyed it as well. Here’s some cigar math for you: I purchased 3 cigars and got one free. I smoked one and gave one to my son, I walked out with two cigars. My son purchased 3 cigars, got one free, AND Eddie hooked him up with another cigar. He walked out with 5 cigars. Something went horribly wrong for me! Generally the rules of cigar math are that when you go to a herf or an event, no matter how many cigars you smoke or gift, you always seem to come home with more than you took (which, in fairness, I did). I just have to assume that every once in a while there has to be some karmic correction or something. What comes around, goes around. In all seriousness, I take great pleasure in gifting a cigar, and to know that my son enjoyed the cigar and doesn’t mind hanging out with his old dad for an evening is worth much more to me than the cost of a fine cigar. I took a little tangent there… It was a very nice evening hanging out with Eddie, who is a great guy and quite a character, as well as the folks at the shop. We spent quite a while chatting with one of the locals, a lawyer we’ll call “Alex”. Chatting with “Alex” reinforced my opinion that cigars can bring folks together that perhaps normally wouldn’t have the chance to interact with one another. We came across so many little things we had in common in a brief chat that it was pretty incredible. All in all it was a nice way to spend a rainy Thursday evening.

This Just In!

In the “new inmates in the humidor” department, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy a box of Chateau Real Small Club Coronas on JR Cigars Dutch Auction this week. As I’m sure you know, I really enjoy this line and I fear that it is going away. I’ll get some confirmation on that, but I picked up the box of 32 for under $50 delivered, which I thought was a dynamite deal for a cigar I like. Heck, I’ve paid more than that for cigars I don’t like! I also threw in a couple of cheap Klip-it key ring punch cutters to make me feel better about the $8.95 shipping charge. Believe it or not, in 15 years of smoking cigars I’ve never owned a punch. I figured for a whopping $1.25 I’d get a couple and see how they work. s I’m writing this I’m enjoying a CAO Black Bengal that I punched. I have not particularly enjoyed this cigar in the past, but this one is very nice. I doubt very much that the punch has anything to do with that, perhaps a couple more months in the humidor has helped, or maybe something else. This is a nice, medium smoke that I’ve been enjoying on my deck as I type. The burn has been dead even and except for a little flakiness in the ash, it’s exceeded my expectations. The punch will find a home on my key ring for sure.

That’s about all I have this time, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review

Tagged as 601, Camacho, CAO, chateau real, cigar, cigars, connecticut, drew estate, EO, JR Cigars, Murcialago, Old Havana Cigars, twitter

by CigarCraig | August 21, 2010 · 1:01 pm

The Week(s) In Cigars – Friday August 20, 2010

Haven’t had the opportunity to talk about any of the cigars I’ve smoked recently, so here’s a little rundown of the past couple week’s highlights.

Back on the first night of our vacation in New Orleans I went to the hotel pool with my sons and fired up a Flor de Gonzales 90 Miles Robusto. I’ve enjoyed the 5 pack I won on MyCigarAshes.com several months ago. They are a nice, smooth tasty cigar that is well made. If the Flor de Gonzales sandwich cigars are good, and I think they are, (especially for around $2.00 for a large torpedo or Churchill), these are even better. Recommended.

The next night, as I had mentioned in my previous article, we found ourselves at Tobacco Exchange where I picked up a couple Tabacos Baez Robustos. Tabacos Baez Serie Sf cigars are made at Pepin Garcia’s My Father tabacalera in Nicaragua, they are 70% long filler and 30% short filler. It was one of the more reasonable priced cigars in the shop at $3.75 each. I found it to be a well made cigar that was mild to medium bodied. I enjoyed mine, but my eldest son felt that it didn’t have enough flavor. He’s still learning, and has been smoking the occasional Acid and was particularly impressed with a Liga Privada T52, so I really wasn’t surprised by his impression. I found it to be an acceptable cigar that fit the situation for me, which was standing outside in New Orleans on a hot and muggy evening enjoying The Tobacco Exchange’s block party.

We went out to dinner with our old friends, the Sakas, as well as half the cigar store owners in the state of New Hampshire (2 of them at least, how many people can there be in New Hampshire anyway? :->), but oddly didn’t manage to smoke any cigars. Steve did pass around a box of Dirty Rats, the first I’d seen with Liga Privada bands and box. The Dirty Rat box was unique in that it had a notched strip at the head of the cigars to protect the pigtail cap and held 10 or 12 cigars (memory fail…). I still have a handful of the pre-production Rats floating around the humidor someplace, these are really beautiful cigars. The restaurant was not smoke friendly, but the food was very good, I had a hanger steak which melted in my mouth.

Monday night my boys and I took a wander on Bourbon Street where I smoked a Partagas Petit Coronas Especiale which was just fantastic. I really enjoy these cigars from Germany. While we were wandering around we stopped for a while at the Cigar Factory of New Orleans little shop and watched a gentleman bunch cigars and load up molds. He was a very skilled torcedor and it was educational for my sons. I had a nice chat with the shop keeper about their cigars, even though I had gotten the whole story before at the main store. I always enjoy hearing someone speak passionately about his product. I am looking forward to smoking the three cigars from Cigar Factory New Orleans in the near future.

Tuesday morning before we left I stopped in the IPCPR show I introduced myself to Pete Johnson and he very generously gave me an El Triunfador which must have been a No.2, if I remember the size correctly. I smoked it while I walked around the show floor and found it to be a solid smoke. It was satisfying without being overwhelming, which was a good thing for the early hour. Pete was a very nice guy, and I haven’t smoked s many of his cigars as I would like to have, so I was grateful for the gift.

After getting home it was back to business as usual. I have been pretty lazy and have been avoiding some of the new cigars I received at the show and stuck to cigars I could smoke without worrying too much about them. Smoked my last Vegas de Santiago Secretos de Maestro 4″ x 60, which was nice, but not as good as I remembered. I had a really nice Chateau Real Maduro Gran Templar, which is a 6″ x 52 Toro. The Chateau Real line is among my current favorites as far as flavor and consistency goes. Smooth, low maintenance cigars that always seem to deliver for me. I like them in both wrappers, but prefer the maduro. I also smoked a Puros Indios Vieja corona which was OK, and a Maria Mancini Robusto Larga, which was better that the Puros Indios, but the PI wasn’t bad for a $1.00 cigar. I have to say that the Maria Mancini was better than twice as good as the PI, despite being twice the price at $2.00. The worst cigar I had over the last 2 weeks was a Vegas de Santiago Chaman Panatela Extra. These just don’t do it for me, but are well made and certainly a quality cigar. Not sure what it is that I don’t like about them, maybe a grassy profile or something.

That’s the catch-up for this week. I have some interesting new cigars from the show that I’ll be getting to in the very near future. I am really no good at reviewing cigars, but I do know a good cigar from a bad one, and I know what I like. Hopefully folks can pick out some value from my brief impressions.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, drew estate, liga privada, Maria Mancini, Partagas, Puros Indios, vegas de santiago

by CigarCraig | August 16, 2010 · 8:20 am

Cigar Shops in The French Quarter – Monday August 16, 2010

Everyone is reporting on the IPCPR show which I covered from my perspective in my last installment. I thought I’d try to take a little different angle and present some of the fine shops I encountered on my New Orleans Vacation.

My two sons watching Felipe wrap cigars

The first shop we came across was the Cigar Factory of New Orleans shop on Bourbon Street. This is not too much more than a kiosk with a couple display cases of their cigars. Cigar Factory of New Orleans rolls several of their own cigars in their larger shop and factory on Decatur Street, which is much larger and has many tables and chairs where you can sit and smoke and drink to your hearts content. We made it in to the Decatur Street location and watched a gentleman expertly applying wrappers to robustos. He was doing beautiful work. As we were watching, one of the guys who works there came and started explaining what the rollers were doing, and then took us to the walk-in humidor and explained the blends to us. I picked up a sampler containing the 3 blends, Plantation Reserve, Vieux Carre and Tres Hermanos in the corona size. While I thought the prices were fairly high on the cigars in general, considering that they are rolled on the premises and Louisiana taxes, I suppose they weren’t too far off the mark. I paid $22.00 for the cedar box of 3 cigars with a box of matches and a paper describing the cigars.

As we were wandering around Bourbon Street on Saturday night, we managed to find our way to The Tobacco Exchange on Exchange Place (an alley between Bienville and Conti Streets). This was the first full service tobacconist that we came across and was a very nice store. While their prices were high from my perspective, and remember that I live in Pennsylvania which has no cigar tax, they had a very nice selection of cigars. They were having a customer and supplier appreciation event at the time and had food and beverages in the alley and I looked out the window of the humidor and Rocky Patel was there hanging out. I picked up a couple Tabacos Beaez robustos to smoke while we hung out. A very nice store and the staff was knowledgeable and very nice. They have a beautiful lounge as well. Highly recommended if you find yourself in the French Quarter.

Another full service tobacconist we ran across was the Crescent City Cigar Shop on Orleans St. They also had a fine selection of cigars at what appeared to be normal local prices. They also have a nice smoking area and boast the largest walk-in humidor in the French Quarter. Another shop worth mentioning is Don Leoncio Cigars on Canal Street. I took a quick walk-through and there was ample seating and a well stocked walk-in. By all accounts this was a hot-bed of activity during the IPCPR show as I read many reports of folks hanging out there after the show and the various events afterward.

There were a lot of interesting shops along Bourbon Street and around the French Quarter that sold cigars, most of which had a couple boxes of premium cigars at exorbitant prices. As we walked around while we were there we often encountered cigar smokers, I guess the atmosphere of Bourbon Street with it’s all night, bar-to-bar party lends itself to cigars. The aroma of a fine cigar was a pleasant change from the other aromas there.

That’s about it for this time. Next installment I’ll touch upon the cigars I smoked during my trip and since.

CigarCraig

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by CigarCraig | August 11, 2010 · 4:00 pm

My Latest Cigar Adventures, IPCPR Show – Wednesday August 11, 2010

My family vacation to New Orleans this past weekend allowed me the opportunity to make a quick stop at the annual International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers convention. The IPCPR’s annual show is where all of the manufacturers and distributors gather to sell their wares to the retailers. I had 3 hours to spend at the show as I had to catch a plane, so I tried to visit as many old friends as I could and meet some new ones. As I was standing in the wrong line to register I met Wesley Gensel, who handles several brands of cigars from Brazil. He had been interviewed not long ago on Dogwatch Cigar Radio, real nice guy. I moved from the “exhibitors” line to the empty “retailers” line and got my badge and waited to enter the show where I struck up a conversation with Thomas Bender and a couple of his cohorts from Cigar Weekly. I also ran into Mark Aub from Brother’s of the Leaf/Palio whom I had met a couple months ago.

At about 10 minutes to 10 they opened the doors to the show. I remember two years ago when we visited the show in Vegas it was like opening the floodgates when the show opened. This time it wasn’t quite so crowded. I’m not sure if it was a lower turnout or the exhibit space was larger, but it just seemed like there was a lot more room to move. I headed over to the Drew Estate booth (which was awarded “Best in Show”) and Steve Saka was there, who is an old friend, and I introduced myself to Jonathan Drew and Johnny Brooke, whom I hadn’t met before. It was nice to see Marvin Samel again, as well as Dave Lafferty and Kevin McCormack, the sales guys for my area. The booth was loaded with sneakers. Racks of hightops on the floor and shelves of them around the perimeter. Very cool and quite different. I didn’t notice if Saka was wearing a pair of Liga Privada Chuck Taylors or not.

I stopped and introduced myself to Pete Johnson of Tatuaje and Dion Giolito of Illusione cigars. I stopped to see Charlie Toraño, who’s booth was quite busy, said hello to Sam Leccia and Dave Weber at the Oliva booth. Stopped by the Camacho booth to see Christian Eiroa, and ran into old friend Bobby Holstein from Fuji Publishing, who used me to mule a cup of Scotch to Saka. I also stopped by the CAO booth to see Paul Spence, whom I’ve met on several occasions before, and said hello to Jon Huber on the way out. I was able to meet Bob and Dale from Dogwatch Cigar Radio finally, after having corresponded with them for quite a while, and ran into the crew from Stogie Review, of whom I’d only met Walt White prior. I also ran into Scott Smyth of Scott Smyths World of Cigars while talking to Kurt Kendall of 7-20-4 Cigars, both of whom were very nice guys. I also ran into Abe Dababneh of Smoke Inn, whom I had met at the 2008 show. He is on the IPCPR board and gave me some very interesting information about why they have restricted the number of passes available to retailers for the show. It seems that some retailer was buying additional passes and reselling them to their customers for a profit. They currently only allow two passes per store from what I’m led to believe. I may have to break down and get press credentials the next time I go!

One of the highlights for me was visiting the General Cigar booth. I had been contacted (me and a bunch of other blog types) by Victoria McKee Jaworski, General’s Director of Public Relations, some time ago and stopped to say hello. She was busy with a customer, but her assistant gave me the tour of the booth, introducing me to the brand managers and providing me with samples of some of the new offerings. In the not so distant future I will be smoking a new Macanudo, the Cru Royale, a couple new La Glorias and a new Hoyo de Monterrey. What is most interesting about these new offerings is that they are not ridiculously priced. I’m especially eager to try the LA Gloria Cubana Serie N, which is Nicaraguan and will have an “N” made out of light colored tobacco leaf as part of the wrapper. The presentations of all of these new items are very impressive and will stand out on tobacconist’s shelves. They also have some pretty cool items that will be coming out for the holidays, various collections and samplers with lighters and ashtrays and such. They also showed me a Partagas 150 humidor and a La Gloria Cubana Travel bag which were beautiful and very high end. Along with the samples, they provided me with a CD with photos of everything, which is good because I took a bunch of pictures at the show on the macro setting and everything came out blurry…anyway my visit to General’s booth was extremely positive, and I’m pleased that they see a value in what people like me do (free advertising?) and really go a long way to make us feel welcome at what is supposed to be a selling show.

I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t find the La Aurora booth, either it was hidden away or not as big as I expected, or I was just in such a hurried and sensory overloaded state that I missed it, hard to tell. There were a few other blogger types that I had hoped to run into but didn’t, but in three hours I managed to cover a lot of ground and make some good contacts. I wish I had some good pictures, but there will be plenty floating around.

In an unrelated note, I received an e-mail while I was away telling me that CigarCraig.com was included in an article, Top 50 Cigar Appreciation Blogs For Becoming a True Aficionado”, which is pretty cool! I appreciate being included in their list.