Category Archives: Events

by | October 27, 2019 · 11:31 am

An Afternoon at Famous Smoke Shop and Their Dunbarton 80th Anniversary Cigar

I’ve been beset with a head cold all week, adding insult to injury, of course. I did have a productive phone interview with a recruiter which could lead to something hopefully, so it wasn’t a wasted week.  Having a cold like this messes with the taste buds, so after a few days of not even considering having a cigar, I broke the ice with something familiar to see where I stood. I grabbed a Nica Rustica El Brujito, which is a favorite. I know this cigar very well, so if my palate is skewed, I’ll know it smoking this cigar, and it was. It was still good, but tasted different. So I knew not to try anything new for a while, or at least to temper any expectations based on this information. This is important for you to know moving forward. 

 

Yesterday I took a drive up to Easton, PA to Famous Smoke Shop where Steve Saka was hosting the launch of his contribution to their 80th Anniversary, the Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust Famous Smoke Shop 80th Anniversary Edition. Steve had a blending seminar which was attended by 35 or 40 people, who had tobacco ad chavettas and actually rolled and tasted tobaccos with Steve’s instruction. I didn’t attend this event, but those who did raved about it and appeared to have enjoyed it and perhaps were a little overwhelmed! I’ve known Steve long enough to know that he can throw a LOT of information at you quickly, and that the 2 or 3 hour seminar could easily have been 8 if he’d have been allowed. Saka’s a shy guy, but if you can get him out of his shell, you can’t shut him up. I kid. I probably should have gotten a ticket and attended, but I didn’t, so I’m going on what I heard from others. To test my questionable palate, I lit up an Umbagog on my drive up, still a little off, but the Umbagog was still delicious.  I got there while the blending session was going on, and hung out with folks in the shop, including familiar faces such as Ali, our local EPC rep. Eventually the event ended and Dave Lafferty emerged and began selling the new Famous Smoke Shop Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust 80th Anniversary Edition cigars. I did purchase said cigars, and eventually lit one up. This is an interesting cigar in the DTT line up. It’s box pressed, made at NACSA with a sun grown Nicaraguan H2000 wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. They only made 250 boxes of these, and there will be some available for sale on Famous’ website tomorrow (or maybe Tuesday, but don’t wait on account of me, look Monday). 

 

 

Full disclaimer (for the third time, in case you haven’t been paying attention), this cold has my palate screwed up, so my tasting notes on the DTT Famous 80th aren’t what they should be, but really, folks, when are they all that detailed?  I talked to Steve about the wrapper, which looked like a dark chocolate maduro in Famous’ press pictures. Good enough to eat, really, like a Godiva chocolate cigar. It turns out it’s not a maduro, but a H2000 wrapper. 20 years ago when this hybrid came out, it was bred to be disease resistant, but it was also flame retardant! Several brands of cigars were hyped up and basically destroyed because when they hit the market they wouldn’t burn. Tasted great, but you had to relight them ten or fifteen times. I think the lighter fuel industry had a stake in the development of the hybrid. After a while, the tobacco processors figured out how to handle this new leaf in the pre-industry processing, and now it burns right, and tastes great too. So Steve used it on this cigar. It started out on the mellow side for me, although some mentioned it was spicy. I did get a distinct cinnamon flavor on one draw about an inch in, but that was a one and done. For the fourth time, I’m working with a compromised palate here! Considering this was a cigar fresh from the box, which had been in unknown humidification conditions, it burned well, and drew perfectly. This is made in the same factory as my beloved Umbagog (and Mi Querida), by the way. The later half of the cigar was a build up in body, and strength, although I never found it to be more than medium strength. My second proviso is that I was smoking this very slowly too, as I was socializing. Overall, I really liked the cigar and look forward to smoking it on a healthy palate. I know Steve wouldn’t put his name on a cigar he wasn’t 100% satisfied with, especially if it was for something as important as a company’s 80th anniversary. It’s always great to see Steve, Cindy and Dave when they are around. 

 

That’s all for today. Once it clears up, I guess I’ll get back to trying to see if my palate is still out of whack. I suppose as long as my sinuses are still goofy, my tasters will still be off. Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

   

 

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by | October 10, 2019 · 10:52 am

Black Works NBK Tasting at CigarCigars in Downingtown, PA

Last night I had the pleasure of being among the fifteen lucky attendees of a guided tasting of the Black Works Studio NBK, hosted by Mick Grant, the Northeast territory rep for Oveja Negra Brands. The venue was the CigarCigars Shop in Downingtown, PA. managed by my friend Kevin Sirman. This was a bit of a different experience, as it involved three puritos of the components of the blend of the NBK. The NBK is a box pressed Gran Corona, measuring 6″ x 46 with an Ecuador Habano Oscuro wrapper and Nicaraguan Binder and filler. Mick had us light the NBK first, in my experience an unusual first step. He then passed out the first purito, the viso in the filler blend, which is from Jalapa. I admit, when I lit the cigar I had a thought that there was Jalapa tobacco in the blend. There’s a sweetness to the Jalapa tobacco that is distinctive, and smoking it separately makes it quite noticeable. Now we find the brilliance in smoking the finished cigar side by side with the individual leaf.  The second puro was the seco, which is from Ometepe.  I rather expected a bland, papery taste, but this Ometepe seco was very flavorful! There was a citrus or almost floral flavor. I found it drying, which Mick validated when he likened it to black tea, with the tannins being  drying on the palate. Finally, the last tobacco in the blend was the Esteli ligero. Of course, this tobacco was rich, dense, and full of flavor. I found that after smoking the ligero Purito for a bit, going back to the NBK took a little adjustment, as it seemed much lighter in comparison. Throughout the tasting, Mick answered questions about the cigar making and tobacco growing process, he was extremely knowledgeable and did a great job of leading this very educational experience. 

 

I’ve done a lot of these kind of events, and I always learn something from them and enjoy them a lot, and I thank Kevin, the manager at CigarCigars in Downingtown for giving me the heads up on this!  One of my favorite things to do though, is to bring a friend who may not have experienced this kind of thing before. My friend Greg, who I’ve known for 40+ years, loves cigars, and is a regular shopper at CigarCigars in Downingtown, but hadn’t had a chance to go into the lounge and have a smoke, let alone attend an event like this. Since we rarely get together, I invited him to this and enjoyed seeing how breaking down how a cigar is made, and what makes them taste the way they taste made sense to him. He seemed to get a lot out of the experience and I think it will enhance his appreciation of cigars. I encourage everyone to go to an event like this! Not everyone can go to a factory, this gets you a little closer to all the steps that goes into making a cigar. Finally, Thanks to Mick Grant for the great presentation. Mick just announced that he will be leaving Oveja Negra to move and pursue some personal family goals, and I wish him and his wife (who was also there last night) all the best and he will be missed! I’ve known Mick for a few years, with a couple of brands, and he’s the best.  

 

On a side note, I wandered into Nat Sherman‘s Townhouse on 42nd Street in Manhattan on Tuesday and had their Panamericana in the 4″ x 54 Robustico size. I wasn’t sure how much time I was going to have, and it worked out that that was exactly the right size for the time I had. It was a really great tasting cigar, and I had gone to the city without the expectation of having a cigar, so this visit was a bonus. It was also a $14 cigar, but it’s NYC, where you can walk down the street smoking a joint and it’s OK, but you’ll get all kinds of crap if you smoke a cigar. what a world…that’s all for today! Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | July 28, 2019 · 10:21 am

ScrewPop’s MagPulse Cutter and the Acid Kuba Arte Cigar

For a year I’ve been looking forward to ScrewPop‘s guillotine cutter, the Magpulse. They teased it in July of 2018, then announced it this July, and it intrigued me from he get-go. I have no idea why. ScrewPop has some really nice keychain tools, and they have some good quality cigar devices in their line-up, obviously they like cigars over there. They’ve missed on a few things, but made up for it in re-designs. I like to think my suggestions led to the punch cutter design being what it is today. They have a cigar scissors sort of device, the Chopo, which works quite well. All of their tools have traditionally included a bottle opener, with the exception of the ashtray, and the Magpulse cutter. The Magpulse is a premium accessory, certainly not a keychain accessory. it’s priced at $149, with an introductory price of $99, so it has a premium price tag too. So far as I can tell, there’s one little spring in this thing, and that’s in the button which releases the blade. There are two strong magnets on either side which are mounted in opposition to one another which force the blades apart, and give resistance when applying the cut. The company say these magnets power will degrade one percent over 100 years, so don’t expect this to work well thousands of years from now. It might still be sharp, though, because the blades on this cut . cigars like a hot knife through butter. I’ve been using it non-stop and never gotten a bad cut. Granted, I have a lot of other cutters I can say the same thing about that I’ve used for years, so time will tell but the 440C Stainless Steel blades should hold an edge for a good long time. Honestly, for a hundred bucks, I expect it to last a lifetime. It is enormous, as cutter go, and something makes me want to find a case for it. As far as the magnets go, if you are in the habit of carrying paperclips in your pocket with your cutter, you might find them hanging on to the cutter, but otherwise it shouldn’t really cause any issues. It’s not like your pants are going to stick to file cabinets or anything. I kinda can’t stop playing with it, and I’ll keep using it all the time just be cause it’s so much fun to open.  Thanks to my friends at ScrewPop for keeping me in the loop. 

 

Thursday I stopped in to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA to visit with Alex and Pedro of Drew Estate again, and hear about Mojo’s upcoming move down the street to a new bigger and better location. They are moving to a former bank building and will have a bigger and better space that they will not be sharing, with be easier to get in and out of, and should server their growing clientele better! Anyway, Pedro handed me an Undercrown Manifesto, the 11″ x 40 panatela which is his event only cigar. I have a coffin of two from an event a long time ago, and I’ve never smoked one, so it was pretty cool to get to smoke one with my buddy Pedro. Obviously, a cigar this long, and this thin needs to be smoked slowly so it doesn’t overheat and get nasty. It was a packed house, and I saw some folks I hadn’t seen in…ok, I hadn’t seen them in 5 days…but I hadn’t been to Mojo in a long time, so I caught up with the guys there and heard about the move. It was a bit of a Drew Estate centered week, with the Barnsmoker and the event Thursday, then Friday I come home to a package containing an Acid Kuba Arte Water Tower, many thanks to my friends at Drew Estate! Last night I felt compelled to smoke an Acid Kuba Arte. 

 

I can count the Acids I’ve smoked pretty much on one hand. I took a puff off a Kuba Kuba my wife was smoking in the mid 2000s. I smoked a Kuba Maduro on the second day of Cigar Safari in 2011 after about 7 cigars, it was a the last one of the day and I just wanted something to smoke and I couldn’t taste anything. I smoked an Acid Toast sometime in 2013 or 14. I smoked an Acid Kuba Candela in 2017, which I enjoyed quite a bit. That’s the sum total of my Acid smoking experience. I guess it can be said that they were all memorable cigars. First off, the Kuba Arte packaging is way cool. It’s a metal water tower, with a Boveda pack in it and it’s going to sit on top of my cabinet humidor for now because it isn’t fitting inside, that’s for sure. The cigars are 5 13/16″ x 54 torpedos with a Broadleaf wrapper, and they have a sweet cap, and the weird patchouli aroma off the wrapper and foot that one gets from a Kuba Kuba. I’ll be honest, I have no idea if these had the room note that I can identify a mile away. I will say that I enjoyed the crap out of this cigar! I was a little scared, but I really liked it. The infusion was subtle, not off-putting at all. I remember that first Kuba Kuba experience years ago and having to gargle and brush my teeth, I didn’t care for the pungent flavor at all. This was nothing like that. The Broadleaf wrapper was fairly dominant, and the sweet cap was actually OK, in the way that I like it on the Sweet Jane that I smoked this week too. Maybe I’m becoming more open minded in my old age, or dementia is setting in, or something…I really, really enjoyed the Acid Kuba Arte, and I am looking forward to the Acid 20, one of which is in my possession, thanks to Alex of DE.  Who’da thunk it, me smoking Acids….I’m going to have to start counting on the other hand soon!

 

That’s all for today. Don’t forget to go back to Wednesday’s post and leave a comment for a chance to win the “Welcome Fox Cigars” contest! Enjoy your Sunday, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

 

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by | July 21, 2019 · 10:54 am

Drew Estate Pennsylvania Barnsmoker 2019 Recap

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending my second Drew Estate Pennsylvania Barnsmoker, and I think it was my favorite Barnsmoker so far. For those unfamiliar, the Drew Estate Barnsmoker events are educational parties that Drew estate has in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Florida and Louisiana, all highlighting tobacco processing unique to those areas, on the farms that are actually doing those processes. In Pennsylvania it was held on a farm in Strasburg, Lancaster County, which grows some broadleaf tobacco which they sell to Lancaster Leaf, which sells to Drew Estate, as well as other cigar companies,  AJ Fernandez comes to mind. It’s my personal belief that Connecticut Broadleaf grown in Pennsylvania will gain popularity in the near future as the farms in the Connecticut river valley shrink and sell out to development. This is only my own speculation, but I’m pretty sure the Amish and Mennonite farmers in Lancaster County aren’t selling their family farms any time soon. I digress. The Barnsmoker is a great way to learn about all of the work that goes into the making of premium cigars in one day. It’s the Cliff Notes version of Cigar Safari, which is a crash course into the process in itself. 

 

After an opening ceremony, for want of a better word, where  Jonathan Drew introduces the Drew Estate staff  talks about the company and the events of the day, the several hundred attendees are broken up into three groups, and moved through three stations. My group’s first station was the field. This farm has about 8 acres of black tobacco planted, and it’s about two weeks away from harvest. They were kind enough to demonstrate how they moved through the rows, by hand, with angled loppers, stalk cutting each plant the base, whale another worker laid out four foot sticks, which they would then come along and skewer the plants on to hang on trailers to take to the barn. Pedro Gomez and Don Welk, who owns the farm, were heading up this station. Our next stop was inside a barn, where Willie Herrera and Henry Pineda and a gentleman from Yuengling brewery (Jinling to Pedro!), like last year, talked about cigar blending and the comparison to beer making. I zoned out on this a little, and enjoyed the relative cool of the barn, and had the great pleasure of meeting some fellow attendees whom I had previously only known through Facebook, notably Angelo, who has the Jersey Cigar Lounge Facebook Group. The final stop was the curing barn, where Jonathan and Mrs. Welk talked about hanging the tobacco, then we ventured to the basement where Jonathan and Fritz Bossert, from Universal Leaf (whom JD referred to often as his mentor, and has a long history in the industry with General Cigar, etc.) talked about the unique way they finish curing the leaf in PA before shipping it off for further processing. The basement was musty and crowded and stretched the limits of my claustrophobia and I admit to spending as much time making sure I had a good escape route, and clinging to a block pillar as listening to the presentation. It was one of the few instances in a cigar related presentation when I was pleased when it concluded. 

 

This Barnsmoker differed from the past two I attended in the way the cigars were distributed. The way it works overall is that you buy your admission ticket for $100, and when you check in, you “buy” your cigars for $10. This gets around the FDA no free cigars business, so you’re buying your cigars. Past events I’ve gotten 10 cigars that were easily worth $110 retail, so you’re really getting the event for free. This time was a little different. At check in we received a backpack with a cutter, lighter, stickers, cap, sunglasses, five or six cigars including a Liga A, Feral Flying Pig, FSG, Undercrown Sungrown, and two vitolas of the BOTL cigars, and a tin of Undercrown Sungrown Coronettes (I should have paid better attention, but I think that’s right). There was also a coupon book to visit various stations throughout the day to get a Herrera Esteli Brazil, an Undercrown Maduro, an Acid Kuba Maduro (I was rather hoping for an Acid 20),  Tabak Especial, and a Ventura Axis Mundi. To my great delight, my dear friend Michal Giannini was there, and hosted a cigar rolling event, where were able to do our best at passing wrappers on cigars, which was great fun. 

The Farm
Photo by Kevin S.
Photo by Kevin S.
Photo by Kevin S.
Photo by Kevin S.
Photo Courtesy Angelo Calabrese
Photo Courtesy Jessica
Post BS Video with Macha directing
Michael Giannini

The highlight of these events is always the people. One of the things that made this one special for me, and most enjoyable, was getting to share the day with Kevin and Jessica from Florida. Of course, we should know them from CigarProp fame. I was hoping to intercept them on their drive in, but I found out their directions were taking them within feet of my house, so I mooched a lift, and we spend some extra time together. Afterwards Kevin and I did a video which I’ll share here when he posts it. Let me warn you, it starts off with him saying a lot of foolish lies, which I lacked the common sense to dispute then and there, but I’ve gotten tired of arguing that point with him! Stay tuned to the CigarProp Youtube channel for video from the Barnsmoker. There were many folks there I knew, of course, several of my local shop managers and owners were there, and I defiantly made some new friends.

 

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, it was a hot day, maybe the hottest so far this summer. To me that didn’t take away from the enjoyment. I think that beats rain, and it certainly is better than cold. Ah!  I shouldn’t forget the food!  The food was great!  Perhaps the heat lessened my appetite, but they had plenty of water on hand, of which I partook freely, and there was libations option for those who wanted it. The barbecue was excellent, the coleslaw was refreshing, the mac and cheese was delicious and they had a roast pig that I understand was really tasty. I saw Willie Herrera elbows deep in some, so it must have been good. As I said at the beginning, this was the most enjoyable Barnsmoker I’ve attended, and it may be the best large event I’ve been to. It certainly ran on DE time, but the DE clocks are getting a little closer to being on real time. If you get a chance to go to a Barnsmoker, I recommend it highly.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | October 14, 2018 · 12:27 pm

A Joya de Nicaragua Event at the Wooden Indian and Another Contest!

OK, full disclosure, the seasons changed overnight, it went from temps in the 80s and shorts and t-shirts to fall with sweatshirts all at once, and my immune system hasn’t handled it well, so I’ve had a bit of a cold this week. On the plus side, I had three promising job interviews this week, at least 2 of which I hope produce second interviews and possible offers real soon. Sadly, neither are in the cigar industry, although I would certainly entertain offers in that area! Interested parties should not waste any more time!  Anyway, when I get a cold, I tend to smoke cigars I know pretty well, and steer clear of cigars I want to pay a lot of attention to, and if things get really bad I avoid them altogether. I had a Macanudo Red Robusto, an Epic Maduro Robusto, a CAO Flathead 660 and a Camacho Criollo Churchill. All are cigars I really like, I have a bunch of on hand, and are readily available anyway. Funny story about the Camacho (maybe not funny “ha ha” funny…), I posted that I remember in the old days of Camacho when this cigar was called the Camacho Havana. Kevin of Cigar Prop (Thanks again for the Lighter Bleed Tool for last week’s giveaway, it’s on it’s way to the winner!), says he smoked a ton of the Criollo, but never knew it had a predecessor. I told him I might have an old band around, and he seemed interested in seeing it. I have a 26″ tall vase I throw my bands in, but that fills up, so sometimes I stuff (and I do mean stuff) the overflow in gallon bags. I pulled a gallon bag out of storage, dumped it on the floor after looking it over, and, in Rainman fashion, immediately found two old Camacho Havana bands. I guess I’m a cigar band savant.

 

Friday evening, after a day of interviewing, I went down to the Wooden Indian (check out their new online store!) for their Joya de Nicaragua event. Of course, I’m a huge Joya fan, it’s the first cigar factory I ever visited, my appreciation for their cigars goes back many many years. They are one of the rare companies that doesn’t make a cigar I wouldn’t smoke. Sure, there are some that I like more than others, but not a one I dislike. Juan Martinez, the president of the company was there, and I always enjoy my time speaking with him, and this was probably the first time I was really able to hang out with him where it wasn’t at the factory, or the trade show or industry event. I smoked a Joya Silver Toro, which I enjoy a lot, and talked to Juan about the Cinco Decadas, and how it does share some tobaccos with the Silver, confirming my suspicion. I also was able to see the “Joya de Nicaragua “Cinco Décadas: The Rise of the Nicaraguan Cigar”” Book, which is absolutely beautiful, I can’t wait to read it. It was printed in Peru and the graphics and quality are absolutely stunning. As always, Dave, Dan and their staff, as well as Alex, our local Drew Estate Rep, hosted a great event.

 

Contest

Here’s what happens when I don’t smoke a lot of new cigars during the week. Even though I JUST had a contest, Dan at the Wooden Indian hooked me up with a nifty Joya de Nicaragua Travel Humidor, so courtesy of Joya de Nicaragua, Drew Estate and the Wooden Indian, let’s have another CigarCraig.com giveaway celebrating 50 years of Joya de Nicaragua and the launch of Wooden Indian’s Online store!  In addition to the JdN 5 count travel humidor, there’s a JdN hat and a JdN cutter, and I picked up 5 Joya Cigars at the event to fill the humidor! There’s a Joya Silver Robusto, a Joya BlackToro, a Cabinetta Toro, an Antaño 1970 Gran Consul and a very special event only Joya De Nicaragua Clasico (actually, you could probably get this if you were a diplomat, as this is the cigar that’s in embassies around the world for dignitaries to enjoy).  I know, it’s crazy having another contest so soon, my apologies! I hope you can forgive me!

Same rules as always, leave a comment on this post to enter, the only other rule is that the last winner isn’t eligible, give someone else a chance! One entry per person, and I’ll select a winner next Sunday, 10/21/2018.  Let’s see a bunch of entries, this is some great stuff!

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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