Category Archives: Review

by | May 16, 2012 · 6:09 pm

Three Cigars: An E Doble, a Casa de Ortez and an Avo LE12

Sunday afternoon was beautiful, and afte

r over-indulging at a Mother’s Day brunch with my family, I sat down with a E Doble robusto courtesy of the folks at Smoke Inn. This reasonably priced robusto is made by Eric Espinosa of EO Brands fame exclusively for Smoke Inn. The cigar is a nice looking 5″ x 50 Nicaraguan puro, and starts out nice and spicy. I enjoyed it quite a bit, at under $4 each it isn’t a bad buy. I

think if I were presented with a choice of this cigar or something else in the same price range, this one would be a satisfying choice. It was strong without being too strong and well made. It was a very nice cigar, I look forward to smoking another one.

 

I was feeling adventurous again Monday evening and came across a pair of Casa de Ortez robustos from the Altadis booth at last year’s IPCPR show. There was one with a Connecticut wrapper and one with a Ecuador Cubano wrapper, both of which looked very much alike. I chose the Connecticut, as that’s what I was in the mood for, and headed to the front porch. I really enjoyed this cigar. It burned well and had a pleasing flavor. I suspect it’s mixed filler, though, as I was constantly picking little tobacco bits out of my mouth. I did some research after smoking this and was surprised to find these sold in bundles for ridiculously low prices (in the under $25 range!). Certainly better than many bundled “sandwich” cigars in that price range and one that I’d smoke again. I’m now looking forward to trying the other wrapper.

 

Tuesday I felt like going in the completely opposite direction of the Casa de Ortez. I had been given an Avo LE12 La Trompeta by Tom Smith, our local Davidoff rep a few weeks ago and had been looking forward to smoking it. If I’ve smoked an Avo before, it’s been a very long time, and it wouldn’t have been one of his special annual releases like this one. This cigar was made to celebrate Avo’s 86th birthday, and is a pyramid shape with a lovely Habano wrapper adorned with three dots punched from Connecticut shade leaf to represent the valves on a trumpet. It’s a really cool presentation and it’s not an inexpensive cigar. It was OK. It didn’t burn particularly well, and, to my tastes, was really nothing spectacular. Perhaps my expectations were too high, or, more likely, it just wasn’t suited to my tastes, but I was disappointed by it. I certainly am glad that I had the opportunity to smoke this cigar. It relieves me of any desire to run out and spend a lot of money on these in the future. I has a similar experience with the Perdomo Champagne, I was expecting to be “wow’d” and wasn’t. This is why there are so many different cigars!. Just because I didn’t like the cigar doesn’t mean someone else won’t think it’s fantastic. The burn issues I had could easily be attributed to the damp, rainy evening.

 

What does that say about my tastes? Two budget cigars that I enjoyed more than a super premium? I admit, there are a ton of very reasonably priced cigars that I enjoy quite a bit, but there are plenty premium priced cigars that I love, I just don’t love them very often! I’m also a cheap bastard, I would sooner buy five National Brand Maduro robustos with the $10 it would cost to buy many super premium cigars.  I think I’ll go find something to smoke now, should I get something cheap and reliable or find a  rare, pricey cigar and risk disappointment?

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

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by | May 13, 2012 · 8:28 am

A Visit To Classic Cigar Parlor, an Emilio a NicaHabana and a J.C. Newman

Saturday was an absolutely stunning spring day, barely a cloud in the sky, and temps in the mid 70s. My wife had an event that she wanted to attend with one of her clients, the grand opening of Brad’s Raw Foods new facility in Pipersville, PA.  Neither my wife nor I are vegetarian/vegan/raw food people, but we like to try things now and then, and I must admit I like Brad’s Leafy Kale chips to snack on from time to time, weird as it sounds.  Anyway, that’s all beside the point.  I dropped my wife off and back-tracked a couple miles to Doylestown, PA, where I had stumbled across the Classic Cigar Parlor last year.  I wanted to get back to this shop and hang out and have a cigar, and this turned out to be the ideal opportunity.  The shop is reasonably small, but it’s in the second oldest building in Doylestown, dating back to the 1700s.  There are cabinet humidors lining the walls, and behind the counter is the original colonial style fi

replace, and the ceiling has massive open beams.  It’s a cool looking place.  They have a hookah lounge upstairs, that I didn’t visit, as I just wanted to pick up a couple cigars and have a smoke.  Frank was working in the store and was a pleasure to spend an hour or so chatting with.  I shopped around a bit and decided to pick up a few Grimalkin toros, as I gave away my last Grimalkins a few months ago, and as I’m checking out, I see he last couple cigars in an Emilio AF1 box on the counter clearance priced at $5.00 each.  Temptation got the best of me, and I had to buy them all.  I fired up one of the AF1 toros and had a seat, enjoying the cigar, as well as talking with Frank and watching what the customers were purchasing.  The Emilio AF1 is a favorite of mine, rich, dark and delicious!  As I lit it I almost thought I was making a mistake, smoking this cigar in the afternoon, on a relatively empty stomach, but it turned out fine.  It’s a nice, strong cigar, but not overwhelming.  I did have to hold my tongue at one point, hearing Frank tell a customer who said he smoked Cohibas that they had the “original Cohiba family’s cigars that are involved in a trademark dispute” and showed him a box of Dominican, yellow band “Cohibas”.  Can someone please introduce me to someone named “Cohiba”, or, better yet, show me a pre-embargo Cohiba?  The word “cohiba” comes from the Taino Indian term for tobacco that Columbus heard them using 500 years ago, and the Dominican yellow band “Cohibas” have been a knock-off that General Cigar has been fighting with for, I’d guess, 15 years or more, and I’m surprised these still make it onto tobacconist’s shelves.  I suppose I shouldn’t complain about a cigar I’ve never smoked, but  I just don’t like to hear mis-information like that.  In retrospect I should have tried to educate Frank after the customer left, but I’ve tried to do that in the past and it didn’t end as well as I had hoped.  Still a nice visit to a cool little shop.

 

Earlier in the day we had met my brother-in-law for breakfast and he had just returned from a trip to Tampa, and gifted me a Robusto from Nicahabana Cigars.  From what I gather from their website, they roll cigars on site, not unlike Cigar Factory New Orleans, and have a wide range of sizes and blends.  This cigar was a pretty thing, with

a nice, dark, oily wrapper.  I probably should have let it rest in my humidor for a few weeks, but I impatiently fired it up.  It was a beautiful evening and I just wanted to sit on my front porch and enjoy a cigar.  Enjoy I did, although the wrapper turned out to be very fragile in the middle of the cigar and flaked away in spots.  Still, the flavor had a nice zing and was pretty strong in flavor.  It was rich and satisfying.  Thanks to Jeff for thinking of me on his trip, it’s always fun to try a new cigar.  Along the same lines, earlier in the week I had smoked another unbanded Nicaraguan maduro robusto that I picked up at my local shop, JM Cigars in Exton, PA.  He had these enormous 100 count chests of cigars that I had never seen before, and Jeff, the owner, told me that they were made by J.C. Newman.  It was a nice cigar, very well made and even flavored. For $3.75 it was a very nice cigar, and he said he’d been selling them like crazy.

 

That’s all for now, happy Mother’s Day.  If you aren’t one, you probably have or had one, so do something special for one today!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | May 9, 2012 · 10:20 pm

CAO Last Stick Standing Cigar Reviews and News

I think this is a really cool way to select the next CAO blend.  There is a promotion currently running where when you purchase six CAO cigars at your local retailer, you receive a tin containing three cigars.  The idea is to smoke the three cigars and go to the CAO Website and vote for your favorite of the three.  The cigar with the most votes is the next CAO cigar.   When I received the samples, I was asked to submit a video for inclusion on their website, which is something I’ve never done before.  I’m not sure how it will go over, and I suppose I’ll do more in the future if it’s not utterly repulsive.

 

I smoked the three cigars over the course of  four days. The cigars were banded with “C”, “A” and “O”.  Since I’m borderline CDO (that’s OCD in alphabetical order, as it shou

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ld be) I smoked them in order.   I found that they were three distinctly different cigars, “C” was a leathery Honduran tasting cigar, “A” was a milder, sweeter, almost Dominican flavored cigar and “O” was a heavy Nicaraguan style.  Obviously, these are just my opinions, I have no clue what the blend is on any of them.  I kind of liked the “A” the best, I don’t know if it’s because I thought it was a little different from the other cigars in the CAO stable, or that it’s bright, almost citrus sweetness surprised and delighted me.  Whatever my thoughts were, don’t miss the chance to have a say in the next CAO cigar, hunt down a Last Stick Standing tin and decide for yourself.  I will say that all three cigars were perfectly constructed and smoked really well.  Let me know what you think of the video!

httpv://youtu.be/Ja8eBMl4wBI

 

News

I reported on this event last year, and they broke last year’s record this time.  I always appreciate when those of us who are maligned for doing such socially unacceptable things as enjoying the occasional cigar do wonderful things for society.  Here’s the press release:

G&G Golf Outing Raises $14,800 for Cancer Research

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When long time friends and West Chester business partners, Pete Garzia and Doug Gianforte, both lost parents to cancer a few years ago they decided to do something to support cancer research. The men, owners of G&G Cigar Company, decided to hold a benefit golf tournament with all proceeds supporting Fox Chase Cancer Center’s research. The just concluded Third Annual G&G Golf Outing raised $14,800 for Fox Chase. This brings G& G’s total donations to over $57,000 to various charities the past 6 years with Fox Chase being the chief beneficiary. Doug’s mother was treated at Fox Chase for 2 years and Pete lost both parents to cancer. The partners, also well known members of the construction industry, rallied their friends, clients, business associates, and suppliers for a good time at Downingtown Golf Club for golf, lunch, dinner, prizes and a congenial cigar. The event has been sold out annually.

Another great job by Doug and company up at G&G Cigars in West Chester, PA!

Also, please join me in welcoming our newest advertiser, Smoke Inn.  These folks have a bunch of retail stores inn Florida and a really great web store.  I met Abe several years ago through a mutual friend, and he’s a heck of a guy.  Give them a look when you get a chance, they have some awesome stuff!

That’s more than enough for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | May 6, 2012 · 10:38 am

Brun Del Rè Cigars, a La Palina Cigar and a Little Rant

I was feeling adventurous again this week and reached for a Brun Del Rè Premium Robusto from last year’s IPCPR.  I had smoked a sample from their Don Corazza line a while ago and wasn’t very impressed.  I fell victim to one of  the classic blunders – The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia”  but only slightly less well-known is this: “Never judge a cigar line based upon a single sample”. Based upon that one sample, I had been hesitant to invest my valuable cigar time in what might have been just another ho-hum, run of the mill trade show sample.   However, my faith has been restored with this cigar.  It was a beautiful Ecuador Connecticut shade wrapped 5″ x 50 robusto stuffed with Nicaraguan filer and made in Costa Rica .  It was well made, had a nice sweet flavor and was on the medium end of mild.  I’m very much looking forward to sampling the rest of this line and even re-visiting the Don Corazza.  This cigar is worth a try in my opinion.

 

Took a long walk on Friday evening and needed a little heftier cigar, so I selected a recently received La Palina Toro.  If I get a mile and a half from home and realize I’ve got a dud cigar I’m very unhappy, so cigar selection in this case is critical.  Of course, I have the foresight to carry a back-up, either to smoke if I get a less than satisfying cigar experience, or to share along the way if the need arises.  With the La Palina, I know I won’t need the back-up. These cigars are always perfectly constructed, they are made in the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras, the same factory that produces such excellent and consistent lines as Alec Bradley and Illusione (the later of which I’ve never had, but heard good things!).  The La Palina Toro is a rich and tasty smoke, although still pricey at $10 each.  It’s a premium smoke that has never failed to deliver in all of the sizes I’ve tried, but I think I like this size and the robusto the best. Thank you to La Palina for providing the samples, and for their support of this site.

 

A Little Rant

This is probably the wrong time to type this. I tend to be the most curmudgeonly on Sunday mornings after I’ve worked at my part time job until 3 am, but I feel the need to vent.  A couple things annoy me when reading/listening to my contemporaries in what I’ll hesitantly call the cigar media.  My first beef involves basic writing skills.  My dear friend Barry Stein made a bit of a joke about his typos, and it annoyed me but I get it.  He had a wildly successful site, did a great job, and it was a bit of an inside joke.  I read other sites (and I’m going to be a wuss and not name names) and I’m appalled.  I’m no writer, but I take what I do here pretty seriously and try to present readable content.  Punctuation, run on sentences, misspelling, I feel like I’m reading something a 5th grader wrote (with apologies to most 5th graders).  Seriously, word processor programs will at least tell you most of this stuff is wrong!  I don’t know how people can put their names on some of the stuff I see.  It’s a blog. It’s not twitter or texting. Please write coherently.  Another thing that rankles me is when I’m listening to a podcast, and I listen to a bunch, and the presenters get basic information wrong.  I’m far from an expert, but after more than a decade and a half of being a crazy cigar fool, I think I can pretty much tell a cigars size on sight, or at least come close.  I also think it’s irresponsible to get the price-point wrong about a cigar, especially to represent it as a much cheaper cigar than it actually is.  Really, as much time as it must take to produce such high quality podcasts, and as readily available as the information is in most cases, I think it sloppy to leave out these little details.  People must think I’m nuts when I’m in the car or out for a walk and start talking back to the podcast trying to correct them!  Anyway, it all comes down to details in both cases. If you don’t have the details, don’t make them up or guess while presenting yourself as an authority.  As I said, I neither think myself an authority, nor any kind of writer, but I try to get the details right as I feel it’s my responsibility. Thanks for listening, and please leave a comment if there’s something I do repeatedly that annoys you.

 

Sometime during the week I smoked a Berger and Argenti Mooch Schnorr that was really good.  I love the size of this cigar, (it’s  5″ x 50 but it seems more like a corona gorda for some reason) and the name always makes me smile as much as the excellent flavor and construction.  This is a reasonably priced, medium bodied cigar that I think can be enjoyed by many different types of smokers.  In all honesty, I probably wouldn’t have mentioned this cigar as I’ve mentioned it before, but I spent a lot of time on the photo of the cigar and didn’t want it to go to waste :-).

 

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

CigarCraig

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by | May 2, 2012 · 6:11 pm

A Namakubi, a Guillermo Leon and a Liga Privada

Sunday was a beautiful day, and we had plans to attend our grand-daughter’s first birthday party at my daughter’s house.  After I finished publishing Sunday’s installment, I had just enough time to relax in the sunshine with a cigar.  This was one of those circumstances where the cigar selection is very important, too large a cigar and there’s not enough time to finish.  Fortunately, I had picked up a couple small Room 101 Namakubis a few weeks back at an event at one of the local shops.  I selected the Roxxo for the morning smoke and it was terrific.  It’s a 4″ x 48 stubby robusto, made in the Camacho factory, a Ecuador Habano wrapper around Honduran and Dominican fillers.  Such a great size for an hour in the sunshine on a Sunday morning with a cuppa joe.  It had just the right balance of spice and sweetness.  Really a nice little cigar, I think I liked it better than it’s little bro, the Papi Chulo.  Two thumbs up.

 

Monday was actually my grand-daughter’s birthday, and we had such fun watching her at her party digging into her cake!  You may recall, a year ago I celebrated her birth at the Wooden Indian in the town where my daughter lives with Guillermo Leon himself.  I had picked up a couple of his Guillermo Leon Signature Corona Gordas and decided that it would be the perfect cigar to mark the occasion. A year of age hasn’t hurt this particular example, it was a tasty smoke.  I love the 6″ x 47 size of these and it burned very nicely.  While I don’t generally gravitate toward the flavor profile that comes out of the La Aurora factory, I certainly need to re-think that, because I’m enjoying more and more cigars that come from there,  and have always had a soft spot for them.  It goes back to my first box of cigars being La Aurora Bristol Especiales, purchased largely because my daughter’s name is Aurora.  I will always try cigars from La Aurora based on that small fact, and I’ll always find something to enjoy about the experience.  Always well made, and the Guillermo Leon Signature will forever remind me of the day my first grand child was born.

 

Tuesday evening turned out to be a nice, warm spring evening, so I felt like digging into my dwindling supply of Liga Privada cigars, and came up with a T52 Robusto.  I probably purchased this at an event a few years ago, so it was not without a bit of age.  I love it when a cigar is perfectly flat when you tap off the ash.  It’s a testament to the blender that he can select tobaccos that all burn at the same rate.  Astounding. really, after having seen how differently various leaves burn. Some leaves burn up almost immediately upon being lit (seco leaves) and others (ligero) smolder and barely burn at all.  It’s truly a miracle.  Anyway, I’m always impressed with a Liga Privada, and the T52 is no different.  One of the few cigars I’ll spend $10+ dollars on, and I don’t do it often.  An hour and  a half or so of satisfying relaxation in robusto form!

 

That’s all I have for now.  Don’t forget to get on over and sign the  Whitehouse Petition, if you haven’t already, and keep pestering your elected officials to keep the FDA out of our humidors!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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