Category Archives: Review

by CigarCraig | February 27, 2011 · 9:10 pm

Wooden Indian Drew Estate Cigar Event, a Joya de Nicaragua and a Chateau Real

Saturday I took a drive with my friend Kyle down to the Wooden Indian Tobacco Store in Havertown, PA for a Drew Estate Event. This store has one of the only Liga Privada branded lounges in the country and has a very nicely stocked humidor. The new location is much more comfortable than their old one, which was very small and located tucked into an odd corner in a large strip center. The store is now, quite wisely I think, located right next door to the Havertown Fire Company. Marvin Samel, co-owner of Drew Estate, Dave Lafferty, Regional Sales manager, and the local rep, Kevin McCormack were there, as well as Alan Price, our local Cigar Rights of America Ambassador. I was very fortunate to be able to get some much needed advice on traveling to Nicaragua in the coming weeks from Marvin and Dave, as well as a couple that just made the trip in the last few weeks. I picked up a couple of Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta Robustos that I enjoy quite a bit, and suggested the same for Kyle. I kind of pride myself on being able to recommend a cigar that I think someone my enjoy, I’m sure all of us cigar nuts can do that to some extent, and Kyle really enjoyed the cigar. I really like these myself, they are a nice, smooth, good tasting cigar that’s made very well. The dos capos presentation is interesting and eye-catching, but I don’t really think it adds too much to the flavor of the cigar as far as I’m concerned. I smoke this one well past the transition to the maduro wrapper. It was a nice afternoon hanging out with the Drew Estate guys and an old friend who I don’t see very often (but lives within spitting distance of me).

Going a little out of order this time. Friday evening my wife wanted a cup of decaf coffee from Wawa, which for those in other parts of the county is a very popular convenience store that has pretty good coffee. I grabbed a Chateau Real Gran Cru Perfecto and took a walk. The closest Wawa is about a mile and a half away, so that’s a three mile walk with a great cigar. I have really been enjoying these cigars since getting a box over a year ago. They are perfectly made, have a great cocoa/coffee flavor and at 6″ x 54 fit the walk nicely. The dark San Andreas wrapper is beautiful and tasty. I have some questions about these for the factory when I visit. I’ve smoked a bunch of these as well as the Small Clubs and really enjoy them. I’m afraid the coffee wasn’t as hot as it could have been by the time I got home (temps were probably in the 40s), but I warned against that going into this, but it was a great walk with a wonderful cigar.

That’s all I have this time, I hope to have another update from Tommy for Wednesday so stay tuned.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

1 Comment

Filed under Events, Review, Stores, Take a Cigar For a Walk

Tagged as chateau real, cigar, cigars, drew estate, joya de nicaragua

by CigarCraig | February 23, 2011 · 7:43 pm

Take a Cigar for a Walk: A Short Story And A Note from Tommy

After a particularly difficult day which included more of the demon snow and various work related lunacy, I decided to dig deep into the humidor and pull out a lonely old Fuente Hemingway Short Story for my evening walk. For many years this was a favorite of my wife’s, and every one I came across went her way. This one has b

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een in my humidor for the better part of a decade just waiting for her to ask for it. She informs me that that day will probably not come as she has gotten away from cigars, so I decided last night was the night to smoke it. As I said, it’s been many moons since I enjoyed a Hemingway of any size, so I clipped it a lit it up. It took a few minutes to burn past the tip and open up, but when it did I got that wonderful, although milder than I remembered, Cameroon goodness which I enjoy so much. For a tiny cigar this one lasted for my entire 1+ mile walk and even had a little left for the all-important cool-down period on the front porch. I haven’t priced these recently, but I remember when they were $103 a box, and $4 was a lot to pay for a little cigar, but this is a cigar that everyone who likes cigars should enjoy. I’ve smoked most of the Hemingway line and the only one I never cared for was the Classic, which always had a metallic taste to me. I bet I haven’t had a Signature in 10 years. I may have a couple more floating around the humidor, I thin kI have a Work of Art in both Cameroon and Maduro wrappers, and there might be a Best Seller hidden someplace. I’ll wait for warmer weather to smoke them as they are all well aged and I may have missed some of the subtleties of the Short Story smoking it in the cold as

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I did last night.

Here’s the latest from Tommy Berry:

This past week was a bit different for me! I spent some time outdoors, which with a desk job as an architectural designer is a nice chan

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ge every now and then. I spent two days doing some surveying for a current project. Now, I could have smoked me a cigar or two…or even three each day…but I failed to remember my traveldor. However, I spent a total of six hours walking…walking…climbing…and only getting to enjoy my Copenhagen Moist Snuss/Snuff. (A habit that I don’t wish on anyone…but I guess it’s a cowboy thing down here in Texas!) Anyway, I was able to get in a lot of constant walking…a lot! It was a blast to be outdoors, but I have to admit that from my recent walks…I am very sore! That though is a plus…as obviously I am exerting some energy during each walk. I hope to get out for some time with a cigar and the next walk tonight (Monday).

With all of this going on, I have failed to “weigh in”. I have a goal to use this challenge to not only get healthier…but to lose weight as well. Soon, I will begin to update you with my current weight…helping more with accountability…in regards to actually losing weight…which will require eating less and pr

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operly…mor

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e often.

I would love to hear from some of you, if you are being challenged by this (in addition to those that have already commented on past posts) and what your thoughts and/or suggestions are.

Until next time…long “walking” ashes to ya!

Great to hear Tommy moving in a positive direction with his personal goals! Let’s continue to support him thr

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ough comments here or wherever you might encounter Tommy, as well as by taking a cigar for a walk yourself. My offer still stands to publish any other guest reviews you wish to submit.

I’m going to try to make it to The Wooden Indian Tobacco Shop in Havertown, PA Saturday as they are having a Drew Estate event. They had sponsored a recent Cigar Safari Trip and I’m looking forward to hearing about their trip. I’m sure it will be the subject of a future article. They have one of two Liga Privada Lounges in the country and it’s very nice as well as an enormous walk-in humidor.

Tommy stole my “Until the next time” line, so Adios Amoebas!

CigarCraig

9 Comments

Filed under Guest Review, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk

Tagged as Arturo Fuente, cigar, cigars, fuente, Hemingway, Short Story

by CigarCraig | February 16, 2011 · 10:23 pm

Take a Cigar For a Walk: Xikar HC, Murcialago, Tommy’s Guest Review No.2 – Sunday February 20, 2011

Well, we’ve been walking and smoking this week. I started out taking a Xikar HC Criolllo Robusto for a walk and I was sorely disappointed with this cigar. I just didn’t dig the flavor of this one, and I felt especially let down given the $8.00 price tag. Criollo wrappers just don’t seem to do it for me, I can recall not liking the CAO Criollo line either, although I really wanted to. I will have to make a conscious effort to avoid this wrapper in the future. To be fair to the cigar, it was very well made and burned perfectly. I purchased this cigar at a Xikar event at a local shop last fall and was a little put off by the high prices of this line. I rather expect to be “wowed” by a cigar in this price range. I have a Connecticut ans a Habano still in the humidor, I enjoyed the Habano, although I don’t remember being particularly “wowed”, I hope the Connecticut is more to my liking.

Here’s another guest review by Tommy Berry Jr., he’s been taking a cigar for a walk and sending me his reports:

“Yea! I just got back in from a 60 minute walk. The night wasperfect…around 60 degrees, cool air and a bright moon. I watched an episode of an A&E show, Heavy…I have been watching the series since it started, but tonight it got me off my feet and on to the streets. I put my headphones on, played a couple of Gypsy Kings albums, selected my cigar…cut it and lit it as i began to walk. Tonight’s cigar of choice was a nice CAO Gold Maduro Robusto. I really enjoy the strength of this particular cigar and smoking maduros while walking…at least for now. I loved how this cigar kept its ash very well, stayed lit the entire walk and burned perfectly without any flaws. I thought I was smoking it rather slowly, but I finished it to the nub within about 55 minutes. This may be due to my swinging arms and the cool breeze that we had here tonight. Either way, I would recommend this cigar to anyone interested in a maduro.

Like I said earlier, the walk was great. I have a knee that has been bothering me from walking the last time in below freezing weather…but it did not hurt until the last few minutes. This was a Blessing for sure! Our neighborhood is very hilly, which is a great challenge for the walk. I walked about 80% of

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it at a rather quick pace…then started getting slower as time ran down. I was glad for that feeling as it made me feel as if I was doing something good with my body. I look forward to next walk…and the best part about it is thinking of which cigar will I smoke next!”

Keep up the good work, Tommy, and thank you for your continued contributions!!

I finished off the week with a Murcialago Robusto. This jet black, San Andreas wrapped, box pressed beauty is not a cigar I would characterize as delicate, subtle, or even refined. It grabs you by the lapels and says “hey, you’re smoking a cigar”! It’s got a strong flavor, but isn’t really a strong cigar, if that makes sense. It burned very well and was quite enjoyable. I purchased this cigar at an event last summer that Eddie Ortega of EO Brands was the guest of honor. While this isn’t a particularly complex cigar, it’s one I enjoy for it’s boldness. I wa

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s pretty bummed when this one was finished as I enjoyed it right down to about a half an inch. It was a 60 degree February day in Pennsylvania, not something that often happens and a welcome change from the fairly harsh winter we’ve been having.

That’s all I have for now, it’s been terribly windy here today, which is one weather condition that I just can’t enjoy a cigar in, so I hope it dies down before long (and the trees near my house stay vertical!)

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

Comments Off on Take a Cigar For a Walk: Xikar HC, Murcialago, Tommy’s Guest Review No.2 – Sunday February 20, 2011

Filed under Guest Review, Review

Tagged as CAO, cigar, cigars, hc, Murcialago, Take A Cigar For A Walk, xikar

by CigarCraig | February 5, 2011 · 9:07 am

This Weeks Cigars: Nub, Tabacos Baez, Punch, Partagas – Saturday February 5, 2011

I’m making every attempt to get into shape before going to Nicaragua, despite the terrible weather, which has been less than ideal for outdoor smoking. I’ve kicked up the evening walk routine which I used two years ago to lose 23 pounds. Walking makes the cold bearable. I need to build up my stamina so I can handle the physical rigors of travel as well as the anticipated non-stop cigar consumption.

I started the week with a Nub Cameroon 358. I picked up a few of these at an event last year and felt like smoking one. I enjoy these cigars quite a bit despite my initial feeling that they were gimmicky. I like the Cameroon wrapper over the Habano, but have yet to try the Connecticut or Maduro. These have that delicious Camerooniness that I enjoy, especially in the winter. My only complaint is that these are too short, which I know is the point, but I’d like it to last a little longer. They are also tricky to finish while wearing gloves.

Next up was a Tabacos Baez Serie SF Robusto which I picked up in New Orleans. This is a budget priced, mixed filler cigar that is purported to be 75% long filler and 25% short. I’ve smoked a few of these and never noticed anything that would indicate it was different from a long filler cigar. Tasty cigar, on the milder side of medium in strength and body, a very nice cigar for any time of day.

Wednesday brought freezing rain and ice, which canceled work for the day, and gave me an opportunity to take an early walk and enjoy an Upper Cut by Punch Robusto. This cigar was in a sampler that I received last year from General Cigar. This cigar features filler tobacco from Ometepe, Nicaragua as well as Dominican and Nicaraguan tobacco. In truth, I chose poorly when I selected this cigar, as it turned out to be a little colder and windier than I anticipated. This would have been better saved for a warm spring evening on the front porch, but it was still an enjoyable cigar which burned well and had a pleasing flavor. This has a foot band, and I hate those, but I’ll pick up a few more of these in the future anyway.

I wound up the week with an old favorite, the Havana Partagas Petit Coronas Especiales. These are a perfect sized cigar for me at 5.2″ x 42 and a really nice, fairly priced Havana. They have that little something that only Cuban cigars have and I really enjoy. It burned well and was very satisfying on my evening walk. I’ve had these for almost a year and they keep getting better. I hope I can hold on to the rest of the box for a few more years to see how they age.

That’s about it for the week, it’ll be interesting to see what the next week has in store. There is talk of more winter weather in our future, I’ll be very happy when spring is here!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, general, general cigars, habana, nub, oliva, Partagas, punch, tabacos baez, upper cut

by CigarCraig | January 27, 2011 · 7:38 pm

Cigar Ramblings: Hamilton, Maria Mancini, Vegas de Santiago – Thursday January 27, 2011

It’s been a while since I wrote a proper post. It’s been a hectic winter here and circumstances just have not been conducive to smoking some of the cigars I’d like to smoke! However, I need to begin training for my March CigarSafari trip. I’m really looking forward to visiting Nicaragua and Drew Estate, and, considering I will probably smoke a few of their products, I’m going to try to avoid them over the next several weeks. I’m hesitant to smoke something new or unusual considering the winter weather we’ve been having, so I’ve been smoking some cigars that are fairly plentiful in my humidor.

Last week I took a walk with a Hamilton House Torpedo, which was actually quite nice for a cigar that costs around $40 for a box of 25 delivered. I purchased these after I interviewed Mr. Hamilton and still don’t have any more information about who makes them, or what tobaccos are in the blend. I definitely taste Cameroon in these, which I like. I shared these with 4 of my readers and would be interested to hear their thoughts, feel free to use the comments here. I think these were an exceptional value and may have to get another box when these are gone, although I wish I could get BestCigarPrices.com to provide me with some information. I know that George Hamilton no longer is involved and seemed a little surprised that they were still around.

I saw an article in the Philly news about these “Blunt Wraps”. The jist of it was that Philadelphia wanted to ban the sale of these things, and the state of Pennsylvania said that they don’t have the authority to ban a tobacco product. I’m not for banning the sale of any legal tobacco product necessarily, but seriously, how would one legitimately use these? I assume they are a homogenized tobacco sheet like one would find on a mass market, machine made cigar. Who among us would have a use for this? I understand the desire to ban these as “drug paraphernalia”, which seems to be the only conceivable use for such an item. Someone please enlighten me as to why someone would buy “Blunt Wraps” if not to roll up and smoke a non-tobacco product.

This week I grabbed a Maria Mancini Robusto Larga for my walk. This is a toro sized Honduran cigar that is a little pricier than the a fore mentioned Hamilton House. I picked up a couple 5 packs of these last year at JR’s in Whippany, NJ. for a little under $10 each. I have a suspicion that one of the 5 packs was mis-marked as maduro, as the wrapper was very dark on this one and a couple others in the box (I routinely break up five packs and put them in an old box for storage). It was a very enjoyable cigar though and it burned perfectly, and I suspect it was a maduro because the flavor was a little bit different than that of the natural wrapper, at least that was my perception. Anyone who has read this blog or known me for any period of time knows that the Maria Mancini line is one of my favorite cigars of any price range and I have had one size or another in my humidors for the last 12 or 13 years. These are $2 cigars that very rarely disappoint.

I’ve been thinking about what to take to CigarSafari. I figure it would be stupid to take any Drew Estate cigars, but I also think I may be a little insulting to take other stuff. I’m on the fence…I don’t want to show up empty handed, but I don’t want to offend anyone either. I kind of assume there will be sufficient cigars available there for smoking during our stay. What do you think the etiquette is for something like this?

This evening I decided I wanted to smoke a Vegas de Santiago Secretos de Maestro Don Luis maduro Lancero. Several months ago Rudi and Lani at VdS sent me a 5 pack of these after asking which of their cigars I liked. I told them I liked the shorty and the torpedo but would be interested in hoe the blend would lend itself to a lancero, and, while I was dreaming, in maduro. Lo and behold a few weeks later maduro lanceros arrived. I wanted to let these rest a while and tonight I could wait no longer. I’m really looking forward to smoking the next one either in an indoor situation, or at least a warm, possibly sunny outdoor situation. Still, it was a very nice smoke, pretty smooth and well balanced with a nice flavor. These cigars can be purchased quite reasonably with an e-mail to Vegas de Santiago or through thier website. They have a Yahoo group, and will accept orders via e-mail.

This has been a bit of a rambling post, but I suppose I wrote a few meandering posts like this last winter. Look forward to more of these, and I’m hoping to get some more “guest reviews” in the near future to break up the monotony a little.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig