Category Archives: Review

by | February 12, 2012 · 9:42 am

A Couple of Cigars: a La Libertad and a Cain F

A few months ago I received some cigars from Villiger-Stokkebye, a couple of their newest offerings, and a 4 pack of their current brands. Since the only Villiger cigars I’ve smoked in the past have been the little machine made Exports (which, by the way, are excellent little cigars!), I figured I’d start with the older lines and work my way up to the newest.  So, since there were 2 of the La Libertad Robustos, I snagged one and fired it up the other night.  Let me briefly explain my thought processes in the winter when it comes to smoking samples.  I’ve come to realize that winter time outdoor smoking is NOT the best time to fairly and accurately judge several aspects of a premium cigar.  That’s largely why I’ll smoke old favorites over the winter, or items that I have more than one of on hand.  I like to give cigars, especially those generously provided to me, a fair chance (not that my opinion means anything really).  If this La Libertad had given me problems, I’d have a back-up to try again under better conditions.  In this case, I get a bonus, because the cigar was very nice, burned about perfectly, and had a very nice flavor.  Kudos on the construction of this, it has to be difficult to make a cigar out of what the website says is “mainly Ligero tobaccos from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua” and have it burn so dead even.  Interesting that the Habano seed wrapper and Nicaraguan seed binder are both grown in Peru, you don’t see that every day. Nice cigar, good flavors and perfect burn. I’d be interested to hear from Tad Smith, who was the reader who won the Day 2 prize in my 12 Days of Spectacular Giveaways back in December.  I’d like to know if he’s smoked this cigar and what he thought.

 

Friday night rolled around and I wasn’t taking any chances.  I’m not  sure how many times a Cain F 550 was in my hand and I put it back  in favor of something perhaps less scary.  Yeah, the Cains still intimidate me.  With the exception of the Daytona (which, incidentally, can be mistaken for a Cain F in low light, not-really-payin

g-attention conditions), I’ve had my tuckus kicked by more than one Cain cigar, Habano, Maduro, F….I don’t discriminate.  I’ve come to make sure that Cain examples spend a minimum of 6 month

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s in “time-out” in my humidor, seems to mitigate the head spins and nausea…but, I digress.  So I grabbed this Cain F, with is 5¾ x 50, but feels more corona gorda-ish to me.  Exceptional cigar.  Great construction, once again, the slow-burning ligero somehow is blended to burn perfectly with the rest of the blend, amazing.   Bold, decadent flavor, perfectly balanced.  Brilliant cigar. I can hardly wait for the perfect occasion to smoke the lancero that Mike Staiber gifted me back when he hook

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ed me up with the excellent Oliva prize package  for Day 6 in my December

give-aways.

 

Thanks to Anne at Villiger-Stokkebye and Mike at Oliva for the gifts and for their support!  I love cigars, but the most amazing thing is all of the wonderful people I’ve had the opportunity to meet over the past  16 years of on-line cigar discussion.  Please get over to the Cigar Rights of America site and write to your elected officials so we can keep all of these fine people, as well as your shop owners, internet retailers, distributors in jobs, as well as all of the fine folks in the Caribbean and Central America who rely upon the cigar industry to feed their families.  The FDA must not be permitted to regulate premium cigars.

 

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

CigarCraig

 

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by | February 8, 2012 · 7:02 pm

The Grimalkin Contest Winner Announcement, Maria Mancini and a Hoyo de Monterrey Cigars

I haven’t really smoked anything unusual this week, opting instead for some old favorites.  One of those was a Maria Mancini Robusto Larga from a couple of five-packs I picked up on a visit to JR Cigars in Whippany, NJ.  Anyone who has been following me for any period of time will know that this is a stand bye for me, if not this particular size, the marque in general.  I’ve had some of these in my humidor at all times since my first purchase of them in 1999.  They remain consistent,  usually burn well, and almost always taste great.  For a cigar that runs under $3, this is fairly remarkable.  The Maria Mancini won Cigar Journal‘s award for Best Value Honduran cigar at their award ceremony in Vegas at the IPCPR show last summer.  Great cigars for a little money.

 

Last night I need something small to just last me the mile or so walk to the convenience store and back.  I grabbed one of my favorite winter walk smokes, a Hoyo de Monterrey Sabroso Maduro.  This 5″x 40 petite corona fit the bill, loads of deep, dark flavor, well made, and just about the right size.  Again, this is not an expensive cigar, a couple bucks each by the box.  It may not be the most refined cigar, but on a cold winters night, hoofing it to the store, it satisfies.  It was a toss up between this and a Chateau Real Small Club maduro, which I really like, but are becoming quite rare.

 

Contest!

On to what you’ve been waiting for, the announcement of the winner of these super cool Grimalkin mugs, a Grimalkin robusto, and whatever else happens to fall into the box when I pack it up!  As usual, I’ve assigned a number to each comment based upon how they appear on the post, and utilized the Random Number Generator at Random.org.  The winner is comment number 9, which corresponds to George Satterfield!  Congrats George! Please send me your contact info so I can ship these goodies to you!   Many thanks to Gary Griffith for supplying these cool mugs, and making great cigars! Stay tuned, you never know when the next contest might pop up!

 

I’ll leave you with this political cartoon from a Philadelphia Inquirer in 1908.

Click to Enlarge

 

That’s all I have, so until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | February 5, 2012 · 8:49 am

A Cigar of My Own Blending, a 777 and a Grimalkin Contest!

In March of last year my son and I went to Nicaragua for Drew Estate’s Cigar Safari.  One of the many cool things we did on the trip was to blend a cigar at the Joya de Nicaragua factory. The exercise highlighted Nicaraguan tobacco, there were Seco, Viso and Ligero leaves from Condega, Jalapa and Estili to choose from, as well as Habano Criollo, Dark Corojo and Ecuador Connecticut wrappers and Habano Volado, Sumatra and Ecuador Connecticut binders.  It was quite the experience touching, smelling, looking at all these leaves, and watching how each leaf burned.  I selected the Dark Corojo wrapper and Sumatra binder, along with Condega Seco, Esteli Viso and a blend of Condega and Esteli Ligero.  The factory rolled five robustos for each of the attendees which we

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re delivered to us on our last night.  I smoked one of these after about 3 months and was amazed, and the one I smoked Friday evening was no less amazing.  It burned perfectly, even burn, nice flat coal.   It was vaguely  reminiscent of the Antaño Dark Corojo, no surprise there given the wrapper I selected.  I have 3 left, and it will be fun to pull them out after another six months or so.  On this occasion my son, who had traveled with me, joined me with an Acid Kuba Kuba Maduro.

 

Yesterday, after napping through a near comeback by the Flyers (helpful hint, don’t get down 6-0 and expect to win…) I needed a pick-me-up so I grabbed a J. Fuego 777 Maduro Belicoso for an afternoon walk.  I have really been enjoying the cigars in the J. Fuego line.  So far I’ve loved them all, but the Maduro 777 has been my favorite.  Dark, rich, and savory, this cigar is always a treat for my taste buds.  Normally I’m not a fan of Criollo wrappers, but this one is done just right.  These aren’t priced too bad either.  I could smoke these all the time.  I will probably shy away from this shape in the future though, as it wanted to shoot out of my mouth easier than most figurados for some reason, maybe it’s oilier than most torpedos and belicosos I smoke!

 

It’s contest time again!

It seems like just yesterday I was in daily contest mode!  December’s 12 days of Spectacular Giveaways was a huge success (for the winners and the USPS for sure!).  Thanks again to all of the sponsors for taking part.  A few weeks ago I went to visit Gary Griffith of Emilio Cigars at the Peoples Plaza Cigar-ette City location and he gave me these two Grimalkin mugs for a future give-away.  The future is today, my friends,  so leave a comment on this post to enter and I’ll post the winner on Wednesday.  The mugs are magic!  they look like the one on the left until you put hot liquid in, the

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n the eyes appear!  I’m also going to include a Grimalkin Robusto from my humidor, and you never know what else might fall into the box as I’m packing it up!  I will have to try to get some more of these before they change to La Musa.   Many thanks to Gary for providing me with these collectors items to give away!

 

That’s it for today!  Enter the contest, tell your friends and enjoy the day!  I understand there’s some sort of sporting event on today…oh yeah, the Flyers and Rangers game this afternoon!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

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by | February 1, 2012 · 8:53 pm

A Toraño, a La Palina and a Vegas de Santiago Cigar

We have been having unseasonably nice weather here in south-eastern PA, so I’ve taken to smoking some larger cigars than I normally would this time of year.  Last winter we’d had probably four feet of snow,  not conducive to enjoying a fine cigar. Daytime highs near 60 have left the evenings prime for long walks with excellent cigars.

 

Sunday afternoon I selected a Toraño Loyal BFC, and I think, like the Emilio BMF, I know what the letters stand for.  This 6″ x 60 cigar could be considered a Big Fricken Cigar.  I had picked this up sometime over the last few months at a local shop, and it wasn’t awfully expensive, because, let’s face it, I don’t buy too many cigars that are awfully expensive.  This was a nice, medium bodied cigar that smoked very well.   At the price point around $5, this is a really tasty, well made cigar.

 

For Tuesday’s evening walk I was joined by a La Palina El Diaro Torpedo, which I receive a month or so ago from the folks at La Palina, who is also an advertiser on this site.  T

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he cigar is a classic torpedo size, 6 1/8″ x 52, which is always  a favorite of mine.  I have to say that I think I like the robusto better in this cigar.  The torpedo was good, don’t misunderstand, but is lacked something that the robusto had.  I think i found the smaller size slightly more refined than the torpedo.  As I was smoking it, I couldn’t help but wonder what this blend would be like with a maduro wrapper.  Again, a very nic

e cigar, but something was missing for me.

 

Tonight’s cigar was a  Vegas de Santiago Secretos de Maestro Don Luis Laguito  No.1 maduro.  This cigar came into my possession  over a year ago after a conversation with Rudi and Lani, the manufacturers in Costa Rico.  I have had an association with this folks going back to a couple of events my wife and I hosted which they generously donated their cigars for the attendees.  Vegas de Santiago makes some really nice cigar

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s at a very reasonable price.  They send me some of these cigars in what they refer to as a maduro wrapper.  This is maduro in the sense that the Cuban maduro cigars are, darker than their “natural”, but not the dark, heavy wrapper that we see in a broadleaf or Mexican maduro.  The cigar is a beautiful chocolate brown, and it well made with a nice pigtail cap.  I enjoyed the heck out of this cigar, except that there were a couple hints of ammonia near the end,  which confused me since these have been buried in the humidor for over a year.   An enjoyable smoke on a relatively balmy evening (for February 1st, light jacket and no gloves is a treat!).

 

My wife has been doing some research and in so doing came across the Philadelphia news papers archives.  Here’s a comic from the Philadelphia Inquirer da

ted June 6, 1922 that is as relevant now as it was then.  You may need to click on the image to open it in a new window to read it.

 

On a final note, I’d like to welcome my newest advertiser, 1st Class Cigar Humidors.  They have some really nice stuff on their site if you are in the market for a humidor or accessories!

 

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

CigarCraig

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by | January 29, 2012 · 10:22 am

Some Thoughts on Taste and A Tortuga 1950

My wife and I took the train into Philly yesterday to go to the Reading Terminal Market.  We have both lived in this area pretty much our whole lives, and had never been there.  This is a huge, indoor farmers market with produce, meats, fish, ethnic food, just about everything one would want.  One of the first stalls we came across was a candy counter.  I’m a nut for black licorice, so I purchased a mixed bag of “salty” licorice.  I had never had salty licorice and was curious.  Some of it wasn’t bad, some of it had a distinct ammonia flavor, which I can’t say that I enjoyed, I mean….who would?    It seems that this is a common treat in Nordic countries and Northern Germany, and is flavored with ammonium chloride, which explains the ammonia flavor I got.  This all got me to thinking of the way everyone’s tastes are different and how that translates to cigars.  This is no great revelation, we all know that we have different tastes, that’s one of the things that makes life interesting, but it reinforced the point to me when I thought ” who in thier right mind would enjoy this flavor?”  It seems that somebody does, and the same is true with cigars.  I’ve smoked some cigars that I consider to be vile, nasty tasting cigars that I can’t imagine anyone would want to smoke.  Obviously, the guy who makes the cigar likes it, and, let’s face it, considering all of the work that goes into making a cigar, who’s going to waste all that time and energy making a crappy cigar?  I know that as someone who apparently has a voice in the industry, it’s my responsibility when I talk about a cigar, to not denigrate a cigar just because it isn’t to my taste, and to allow for the myriad of variables in construction and storage that could cause a less than ideal cigar experience.  That same candy counter did have some chocolate cigars!  I passed since I can get a real cigar for the same price and have an hour or so of pleasure instead of the few minutes the candy variety would give me.  This bag of unusual licorice will last me a lot longer than a similar bag of sweet licorice would, as I can’t stop eating it once I start.   It’s one of my many failings…

 

Upon my return, I selected a Tortuga 1950 torpedo for an afternoon smoke.  This lovely dark cigar was sent to me by Victor Vitale, cigar maker, importer & distributor, along with a 1948 Connecticut and an Edicion Limitada 2011 in the same vitola.  There isn’t a lot of specifics on the website, but I assume that this is made in Nicaragua, based upon the “America Central” on the band.  According to information that I received with the samples, the cigar has a Mexican broadleaf wrapper, Nicaraguan,  Honduran and organic grown wild “jungle” filler leaf exclusive to this cigar.  The wrapper on this is beautiful, deep, dark brown, like dark chocolate, and the seems were virtually invisible and the veins were very fine.  The flavors appealed to me quite a bit.  They were dark and decadent, lush and satisfying.  There was an underlying flavor that intrigued me that I can’t put a finger on.  It was different from many maduros that I like, but really kept my attention down to a finger burning nub.  I’m really looking forward to the  other two in this line now, as this was a terrific smoke.  Besides the lack of details on the make-up of this cigar on the website, they also do not list a torpedo, so your mileage may vary when shopping for these.  Certainly a cigar I’d like to smoke more of. The Short at 4½” x 44 looks like a great winter cigar walk size.  I’ve been underwhelmed with Victor’s other cigars, but that’s just me, and, as I said above, taste is a subjective thing and no two palates ate the same.

 

I smoked some other cigars this week, notably a Macanudo 1968, a J.  Fuego Sangre de Toro Original, and a Gurkha Seduction.  All cigars I’d talked about before, and the only thing that bears repeating is how much I like the Gurkha Seduction.  I’ve been seeing a ton of reviews on this brick and mortar exclusive cigar.  I think Mike at MikesStogies.com is currently having a contest featuring these cigars, so check out his review.  I’ll feature these in a contest at a later date assuming I can keep my grubby little mitts off of them long enough!  I also noticed that the Seduction is Doc Stogiefresh‘s cigar of the week for his podcast episode 303.  Also of note was a La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros with Sumatra and Broadleaf that I got from my visit to Famous Smoke Shop.  Delicious cigar, if you have an opportunity to go to a La Gloria Cubana Retro event and meet Michael Giannini you will be in for a double treat as these cigars are special and Michael is a heck of a guy!

 

One last thing:  Please let me know if you have any problems viewing the site.  I’ve had some feedback that there are still some glitches and some operating systems or browsers, or some connections speeds still have problems.  I want everyone to be able to see the site the way I do, so please let me know if there’s a problem or complaint.

 

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

CigarCraig

 

 

 

 

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