Category Archives: Review

La Palina, BG Meyer and 1881 Perique Cigars

I was just grabbing random cigars this week, although a bit of a theme seemed to develop.  I had a few cigars with what I would call glassine paper decorative wrapping, and two with names referencing the 1880s. Strictly coincidence, But one of those things I noticed as I went back over the weeks smokes. As I mentioned in Friday’s post highlighting the latest podcast episode, I had the pleasure of meeting up with the professor, José Blanco at Goose’s Montecristo Lounge in Limerick, PA, and smoked  an EP Carillo Seleccion Oscuro Especial No. 6.  The cigar was delicious, and the company was  exceptional as usual. It also snowed this week, too early in my opinion!  We’ve had winter weather in autumn, I have the porch winterized, but I can’t get my propane heaters working, so I have to figure out how to get at least one of those working. I miss summer!  Anyway, allow me to highlight a couple of cigars I smoked this week.

 

Last year I really enjoyed the La Palina El Año 1896 Oscuro.  Since I last smoke this cigar in 2017 they have moved the production from PDR in the Dominican Republic to Placencia’s factory in Honduras. I believe the original had a San Andrés wrapper and Dominican binder and filler, while the new version has a Costa Rican Oscuro wrapper, Dominican binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. It’s box pressed, and the cigar I smoked, and I smoked two this week, was a 5″ x 50 (maybe 52, hard to tell with a box press) Robusto. Basically this is a different cigar from the original El Año 1896 Oscuro from last year (and allegedly the 120 Anniversary I smoked a week or two ago!) I enjoyed it, it was a very good cigar in its own right, but in my mind I wanted to compare it to the cigar I smoked previously in the same bands and presentation and it wasn’t the same to my recollection, and how could it be? I don’t want to be negative, because this version of the El Año 1896 Oscuro is an exceptional cigar, if you never smoked the former version, you are going to be very happy smoking this cigar. Either way, you can ‘t go wrong with this cigar!

 

The other cigar with the glassine paper wrap that happened to smoke this week was a BG Meyer Standard Issue Toro.  This was a Camacho “Board of the Bold” line, which was something Davidoff had going with brand ambassadors Mike Ditka, Matt Booth and Rob Weiss, the last of which headed the BG Meyer line. Rob Weiss was the guy behind the HBO show Entourage. There’s some debate over whether this line is even available anymore or not, I tend to believe it’s discontinued,  I’m sure there are still cigars floating around in the wild. This cigar was probably an IPCPR sample from a few years back, and I did smoke this back in 2015 and liked it. This one burned very well, had a nice, savory flavor and was quite enjoyable. I’d say this aged well, if you can find these around snatch them up and smoke them, even better if you find a close out deal. Everything I see points to this being a Nicaraguan Puro made in Honduras.

 

Friday night I got home from work late and went looking for a short smoke, and spied a short, squat torpedo from Tabacalera Incorporada in the Philippines, an 1881 Perique Torpedito. The 1881 Perique line is really interesting, it uses Philippine and Louisiana Perique tobacco and is rolled in their factory in Manila, not the usual combination one finds in the premium cigar market. Perique is generally used in pipe tobacco, and it’s usually on the strong side by itself. so the combination of the Filipino tobacco and the Perique throws a bunch of red flags for me, but in the case of the 1881 Perique, it comes together to make a really tasty cigar!  Usually when I have a cigar this late, I’m up all night having weird dreams, this time wasn’t the case for whatever reason. I couldn’t find a size listed, but it was probably a 4″ x 54ish torpedo and burned perfectly, and had only spend maybe two hears in the humidor, enough to be properly rested, but not enough that I would consider it “aged”.  It was smooth, had a savoryness, with a hint of a sweetness, and some spice from the Perique. I have some of the Maduro and “Bold” floating around that I need to revisit now that smoking this little Torpedito.  I’m not sure how widely these are distributed in the US, I know that Daughters and Ryan is the distributor, and I also know that Tabacalera sells them directly on their website.  If you are in the mood for something different and interesting, these are worth a try, don’t be scared off by the perique or  Filipino tobaccos, they work well together! Don’t forget to keep an eye on CigarProp.com and Amazon for the new, super-cool CigarProp ashtrays when they become available (as seen in the picture)!

 

That’s all for today, it’s a day off and the end of the week starts the busy season!  I need to try to line up some goodies to give away for the holidays! Any manufacturers, brand owners or retailers can reach out to me at craig@cigarcraig.com if you’d like to get in on CigarCraig’s annual holiday giveaways! They always generate a lot of interest!  I know the FDA doesn’t allow companies to give away cigars, but I’ve been known to give away my own cigars from time to time! I have workarounds!  Anyway, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

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La Palina, Tatuaje, Liga Privada and Something New from CigarProp!

Sorry, I’m short on planning this week, but fortunately the mailman left me something neat to talk about yesterday! But, before I get to that, I have a few cigars to talk about. I didn’t really get to anything new this week, while I had a mid-week “weekend”, consisting of two days off in a row, I busied myself with other things, and smoked some old favorites. Tuesday was election day, and between errands I smoked a Merlion Maduro toro and a La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Chisel, both were really good, and cigars I enjoy frequently. It’s getting cold here, and today’s project will be to winterize the smoking porch and get the propane heater working, it wouldn’t light for me last night, much to my dismay! It was in the 30s and less than comfortable with only a little electric heater! Friday evening I had another favorite while I was a guest on the Cigar Hacks Podcast’s 52nd episode, a Cornelius and Anthony Señor Esugars Toro. They are an entertaining bunch originating out of the New England area, and it occurs to me that I listen to five or six podcasts from that area, I must enjoy hearing that accent or something. Event though they can be wicked hahd to undehstand sometimes, they are a funny bunch, I was honored that they invited me on.

 

I ran across a La Palina cigar that I wasn’t familiar with and decided to smoke it, then, ironically, I received a package with a few new samples a few days later. The cigar had a purple band and a “120” on the secondary band. A little research turned up that this was a 120th anniversary release for the brand, which makes sense considering the La Palina brand was launched by Samuel Paley in 1896, and this cigar had been in my humidor for at least two years. Some additional asking around turned up rumor that this might have been a pre-FDA deadline release of the El Año 1896 to get the blend in commerce kinda thing.  If that’s the case, this cigar came out of the PDR factory and is the La Palina 120th Anniversary Oscuro Robusto. I want to say I got this from BnB Tobacco, so maybe they were one of a few retailers who had it?  I can’t do more than speculate. I can say that last year I smoked the El Año 1896 made at PDR and really liked it, and I really liked this La Palina 120th Anniversary Oscuro and could see where it might have been the same cigar, although with age differences and time passed between smoking it’s always hard to tell. I do have some new versions of the El Año 1896 now made at Plasencia that are on deck for sampling this week which I’m very much looking forward to. The cigar was a nice smoke with rich cocoa and coffee note that I like, it burned well and had everything I like in a cigar. I doubt I’ll ever see another one of these, but if the new El Año is this good I’ll be quite happy!

 

The Tatuaje I smoked was a Cojonu 2006 that I had come across in the drawer of my New Air wineador all alone and looking lonely. I had purchased this cigar with a handful of others a while back at one of the Tatuaje bus tour events at Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA.  This cigar is in the Seleccion  de Cazador – Miami range of the Reserva line and has a Ecuador Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and filler. I’m surprised I hung on to this one so long as I don’t like having un-cello’d cigar in the humidor too long as they sometimes suffer from jostling around.  I’m funny that way.  When ever the cello on/off debate come up I always say leave it on if it’s on.  The people making the decision that it’s OK to put it on in the first place know a lot more about cigar than I do and I trust their judgement. If there was any reason not to keep cigar in the cello sleeves, they wouldn’t go to all the trouble to do it, and trust me, it’s no easy thing to put cigars in cello!  They do it all by hand, I’ve tried it and it’s tedious work. I even get irritated if I try to put one back in, try it some time, then imagine doing it for eight hours a day, five days a week. Anyway, the Cojonu is a really great tasting cigar, it’s earthy, with some sweet notes, and fairly heavy. Now I’m sad I don’t have any more of these, and I’d sure love to try this with the Broadleaf wrapper.

 

Last night I got home from work late and much to my delight there was a package waiting for me from Kevin at Cigar Prop! This is always exciting, as I knew he had a new product coming out, and I was excited to lay eyes on it.  I’ve been a fan of his Cigar Props since he came out with them. They aren’t a new idea, I’ve made rudimentary versions of these myself over the years, but his execution and marketing has been really excellent, and this item is a brilliant extension of the Cigar Prop idea and completes the package. As it was a cold night, and late, I grabbed a Liga Privada T 52 Corona Viva which Pedro Gomez had given me the last time I saw him (note: not an IPCPR sample as I didn’t make it to the show..wink, wink, Joe…:->).  This “Corona Viva is 6″ x 46, not exactly a corona, maybe a corona larga…but not the 5.65” x 46 corona gorda that the Undercrown of the same name is. Lets see if anyone from Drew Estate is reading this: On both the Liga No. 9 and T52 pages on the website it lists the Corona Viva size as 178 mm x 54, which is the size of the Coron Doble. I have print screens to prove it in case they fix it and try to say I’m crazy…serves them right for trying to be fancy and use metric measurements! can’t fool me! Anyway, I actually like the 6″ x 46 format, and it smoked really well, but it was too late to have a cigar, and as happens when I do that, I had really freaky dreams all night.  I hadn’t had a T52 in a really long time, maybe the last one I had was a prototype 60 ring which just wasn’t particularly good, a bit washed out. This one really popped though, the flavor was right there with some sweet earth and leather. I dug it.  To add to the special cigar, I had a new ashtray, complete with a perfect hole to hold my favorite Cigar Prop,

Churchill photo credit to CigarProp

adorned with cigar related quotes (which, regrettably, eventually get obscured by ash). This beautifully hand machined ashtray is called the Robusto, and has a spot for one Cigar Prop rest, and is also available in a larger “Churchill” with places for two Props. The 6061 aluminum (which is used in the automotive industry) is anodized gloss black for a durable finish. I personally like that the tool marks are left in so you know this was machined by hand and not mass-produced.  Kevin launched an Indiegogo campaign yesterday, which was quickly funded, so I’m not sure if you can still get in on it or not, but here’s the link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cigar-ashtray#/ I’m sure these will soon be available on CigarProp.com and perhaps his Amazon store for the holidays, and I’ll include and easy widget on the side here if they do become available on the latter. Like the cigar, this is a luxury product, for sure, but is a worthy companion to the CigarProp. I love the execution and my Instagram followers will be seeing a lot of this item!

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Some Mombacho Cigars, a Fuente Añejo and a CAO Nicaragua

Another full work week under my belt, getting in the swing of working an unusual schedule. This week I had Monday and Wednesday off. I should have announced the winner of the great Big Papi humidor from El Artista Wednesday, but I ended up posting a news item about Foundry Cigars reuniting with founder Michael Giannini and handing out candy to trick-or-treaters instead while smoking a really old  Casa Toraño Maduro Lancero. Congrats again to Matt Hopper! One other news item that I posted was that Drew Newman, General Council of JC Newman Cigar Co., spoke at the FDA Conference, which was actually the Tobacco Product Application Review: A Public Meeting, which was a multi day event with many speakers, the full agenda can be found here:  https://www.fda.gov/downloads/TobaccoProducts/NewsEvents/UCM622683.pdf.  I added this link in the comments of the original post, but the article could have been a little more specific about what the FDA meeting was all about.  Anyway, lets talk about a few cigars I smoked this week!

 

Last year I smoked a few Mombacho cigars, the Tierra Volcan and the Liga Maestro, and I remember really liking one, and not really liking the other, and I couldn’t recall which one was which.  I came across a pair of them in the humidor and decided it was about time to figure it out once and for all (and try not to forget this time!). Both samples were from the 2016 vintage and came from the 2017 IPCPR show. I started with the Tierra Volcan in the 5½” x 50 Classico size. this is a Nicaraguan Puro with a sun grown Jalapa Habano wrapper, criollo viso Condega Habano binder, and Condega and Jalapa tobaccos in the filler. I really liked this medium bodied cigar, it had a nice, sweet flavor that I appreciated, and it burned very well. This wasn’t the one I didn’t like!

 

I smoked the Tierra Volcan on Monday, on Wednesday I smoked the Mombacho Liga Maestro, and it’s sometimes hard for me to get excited about smoking a cigar when, in the back of my head, I think maybe I’m not going to like it. This was the 5″ x 54 “Gordo”, I think, it didn’t seem all t

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hat “gordo” to me…but it was certainly five inches long, that is for sure. this one is also a Nicaraguan puro, with a shade grown Jalapa Habano wrapper, Jalapa Criollo binder and Condega and Jalapa fillers. I enjoyed this cigar too! I just have to think that when I smoked one or the other of these two cigars before I must have eaten something that conflicted with the flavor of the cigar and put me off. While the Liga Maestro wasn’t as sweet as the Tierra Volcan, it was more on the savory side, it was still a very good tasting cigar, one I’ll happily smoke again. I really look forward to a time when circumstances are such that I can, one day, visit Grenada again and tour Casa Favilli, as I understand it’s a beautiful factory. My brief visit to Granada in 2011 was little more than a drive by.

 

I went back to a favorite, the classic Fuente Añejo No. 50, on Thursday. Someti

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mes one just needs comfort food, and this cigar is so good.  The barrel aged Connecticut  Broadleaf wrapper compliments the Opus X filler blend (or whatever the blend, I don’t care because it’s good) so well. It’s loaded with wonderful cocoa and espresso flavors that I love.  I am fortunate to have a box of these resting in the humidor and will try to keep my hands out of it long enough to let it age a while, it hasn’t even been in there a year yet. These are delicious cigars, I have some other classic cigars from the Fuente family that I will revisit in the near future, the Hemingway Classic is calling to me.

 

Friday evening after work, and before going out to the movies, I ran down to Old Havana Cigars south of West Chester, PA to have a visit with Ricky Rodriguez and finally smoke a CAO Nicaragua. I bought some Toros, as that’s my go-to size, and it’s the only size I saw there. They say this is the first CAO cigar that is Nicaraguan-centric in the blend, which I find hard to believe, but now that I think about it, I guess it’s true. The blend is a Jamastran wrapper and binder, and filler from Jalapa, Esteli and Condega. I love hanging out with Ricky, he’s an actual friend, I’ve known him a long time and try not to miss him when he’s in the area. He’s blended this CAO Nicaragua to be different from other Nicaraguan cigars, it’s not heavy, it’s medium bodies with a peasant sweetness and I really enjoyed it. Considering I smoked it before going out to a late dinner, it was a good thing it wasn’t a strong cigar! I actually wanted to smoke another one last night, but I got done work too late and didn’t feel like going out for a cigar when I got home. I’ll probably smoke one after work today!

 

That’s all I have for today, Hopefully you remembered to mess with your clocks if you live in a place that does that. I hate that it will be dark earlier for the foreseeable future! I really wish they’d just leave daylight savings time in place year round, but I probably say that every year! I can’t wait for spring! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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A Cohiba, a La Flor de Ynclan, a Flor de Cesar and a Herrera Esteli Cigar

I’ve had a lot going on this week as I started a new job. In this week’s contest post, which everyone should go back and enter if you haven’t already, because it’s pretty darned special (a beautiful Big Papi Humidor from El Artista Cigars, go HERE to enter!) a few people asked about the new job. It occurred to me that in nine years of writing this blog, I’ve never been forthcoming about my day job details. I’ll  continue to keep that close to the vest, except that this position is in retail management and logistics in consumer electronics area. It’s a small, local company, not a big box, national company or anything. So far the first week has gone well, and I’m looking forward to learning all the ins and outs. I appreciate everyone’s well-wishes!  Of course, I smoked some cigars this week to celebrate.

 

One of the adjustments I’ve had to make was the schedule, having spent the last 15 years working nine to five, then the last six months not working at all,  having an unusual schedule is going to be odd. This week I just worked until six, not too bad to start.  Tuesday I started off with a Cohiba  Spectre.  This is an interesting cigar that was released at this past year’s IPCPR. This double corona is 7¼” x 54 and is a blend of eight tobaccos from five countries. The wrapper is a rosado high priming Ecuador Sumatra, there’s Dominican Piloto Cubano from a 1995 crop which was aged in “tercios”, bales wrapped in palm bark.  There’s also Nicaraguan filler aged in Sherry casks and Honduran filler from San Augustin, Ja

mastran and La Entrada.  They used on;y one pair of rollers to make 1800 cigars, which have an MSRP of $90 each. I think I’ve only smoked one cigar that had a higher price tag than this, and that was a Cuban Davidoff Dom Perignon from the 1980s a dozen years ago at a wedding. I figured this was as good an occasion as any. It was a pretty tasty smoke, it was medium bodied, with a nice sweetness. I’d like to be able to say it burned dead even, but it meandered a little, and needed a few corrections, which I didn’t expect from a cigar with this hefty of a price tag. Overall, I found it very enjoyable and worthy of the occasion! I’m deeply appreciative to General Cigar Co. for the opportunity to try this cigar.

 

Earlier this year Villiger released the La Flor de Ynclan in a limited edition Lancero Especial, a 6¾” x 43 cigar with a Ecuadoran wrapper, Indonesian binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers made in the ABAM factory in the DR. This is basically a Lonsdale as opposed to a Lancero, or a Dalias in the Cuban Vitolas de Galera. Call it whatever you want, it’s a wonderful size and an excellent tasting cigar, and provided a very nice smoking experience. When I smoked one of these a few months ago it smoked terribly, what I could taste was promising, but it smoked very “wet”, wouldn’t stay lit, just didn’t burn well at all. several months later certainly made all the difference. I enjoy this blend in other sizes, granted I haven’t yet smoked the Churchill, which I look forward to, why haven’t I smoke that size yet? I love Churchills! How did I let the summer slip by without smoking a La Flor de Ynclan Churchill?

 

Flor de Cesar is a cigar that’s made at the Fabrica Oveja Negra by James Brown for BnB Cigars in Chestnut Hill, PA. I smoked the Robusto a few months ago at the shop and Vince there gave me a Toro Larga (6½” x 50) to try.  I meant to try this sooner but got distracted and came across this in the humidor and figured this week was a good time to smoke it. This cigar has a Brazilian Mata Fina wrapper, an Ecuadoran Binder and fillers from Nicaragua, Brazil and the Dominican Republic. This is a different flavor profile than other cigars I’ve smoked from the Black Works, Black Label family, to my palate, admittedly, my experience is limited. To me, the cigars I’ve smoked from Black W

orks are darker flavored, which I like, but the Flor de Cesar has brighter flavors. I really enjoyed the light spices and sweetness that I enjoyed throughout this cigar that burned perfectly. I’ll be sure to pick some more of these up the next time I’m visiting Vince at BnB.

 

Finally, I smoked another Lonsdale (in addition to the delicious Cornelius Lonsdale, that’s three this week!). When I was at the Wooden Indian at the Joya de Nicaragua event, Alex, our local Drew Estate rep, slipped me a Herrera Esteli Brazilian Maduro Lonsdale. I’ve been really looking forward to trying this new line which was announced earlier this year, and I don’t even know if these have made it to stores yet. Since I didn’t get to the IPCPR show, I didn’t get a chance to try any of the new releases, so I was thrilled to try this cigar. This was a home run by Willie Herrera, certainly one he should be proud to have his name on (not like he isn’t proud to have his name on the rest!) In the Herrera Esteli line I tend to really like the Norteño, and the rest are just OK. I know that’s heresy to many, but that’s how I roll. This cigar was brilliant! It maintained the medium bodied, sophisticated, subtle complexity of the Herrera Esteli, while adding the sweet, dark fruit and cocoa notes from th Brazilian maduro wrapper that I love. yum, frickin, yum. I can’t wait to try all the sizes of this cigar.

 

That about wraps things up, I’m off to work on a Sunday for the first time in a while. It will be nice having weekdays off here and there I’ll admit. Don’t forget to enter the contest! Also, check out the IPCPR’s new website,  www.cigaraction.org , which is kind of a parallel to the Cigar Rights of America in that it allows you to easily contact your elected officials about cigar related legislation. Use it, use both, let the people you elect know that you want them to protect our rights!

 

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

CigarCraig

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A Bunch of Cigars, Another La Flor Dominicana Event, and a Joya Contest Extension

I’ve been a slug this week. I literally had to look at Instagram to recall what cigars I smoked.  One reason is because I still have a little bit of a cold, so I’m hesitant to smoke anything new or noteworthy, and another is my preoccupation with my search for a day job.  The latter seems to have taken a positive turn just in the nick of time, and I hope to be smoking something special in celebration in the near future, once this annoying sinus funk releases its grasp on me. So looking back through my IG feed, I did rather enjoy a Hoyo La Amistad Gold Robusto, which is 5″ x 54. This was one of the first big brand AJ Fernandez colabs, and continues to be a fantastic smoke. Of the three in the series, Gold, Silver and Black, oddly I think it’s my favorite (you’d expect the Black to be, and I love the Black, I find it very close to the Punch Diablo though, with the main difference being the binder – Broadleaf on the Diablo and San Andrés on the Black). Even with palate impairment, the rich, sweet flavors are quite enjoyable, a main reason I reached for this cigar.

 

In an effort to further promote the Joya contest that’s currently in progress, which I’m going to extend , by the way, I smoked a Joya Silver Toro again. I am going to give it another week because I want to get some more entries, and more exposure for Joya de Nicaragua and the Wooden Indian, especially their new online store!  I even posted on a Facebook group which always brags about their 30,000 members, and I got 3 entries (thanks!, I do appreciate them!). 10% would have been overwhelming, right?, but 3? Anyway, the Joya Silver Toro happened to be right on top of the humidor too, so it was a lazy selection, and I really love that cigar. I can the Cinco Decadas El General being on deck as one of the afore-mentioned celebration cigars coming up, and it shares some traits with the Silver. The Silver is a great medium bodied smoke with a great price.

 

An old friend stopped by this week and I shared a favorite cigar with him, Cornelius and Anthony Señor Esugars. Due to time constraints, and my inventory limitations, he had the robusto and I gad the Corona Gorda. This is a friend I’ve known since early in High School, we played drums together in band, and, to my delight, he loves cigars. I’ve observed the cigars he tends to likes and decided that the Señor Esugars would be a good fit for him, and I wanted to smoke one anyway, so it was a win-win. In the C&A line, I always seem to gravitate to the Toro, but I can’t complain about any vitola in this particular marque. As always, the San Andrés wrapper has that sweet, rich, earthy flavor I love. It’s great catching up with an old friend over a great cigar.

 

Finally, I happened to catch wind of a Flor Dominicana event at Old Havana Cigars on Friday evening, and, figuring I’d soon be having limits on my available free time again, why not go down and see Kyle and the folks down there and have a cigar. I had a La Flor Dominicana Colorado Oscuro No. 5, the 5¾” x 60 Gordo. In an unusual move, I only bought the one to smoke, although I wish I had at least gotten another one or two to smoke when I had a better palate. I’ll go back for more later. It was a good smoke, although I had to relight a few times, maybe because I was chatting with friends (you’ll remember Nik from Episode 7 of the CigarCraig Podcast…) and other distractions. I have a hard time remembering a La Flor Dominicana cigar that I didn’t like, maybe I’ll grab a Chisel of some sort out of the humidor today!

 

That about does it for today. To recap, The contest for the Joya de Nicaragua goodies, travel humidor (filled!), hat and cutter, will be extended until mid-week, probably Wednesday, so go back to last Sunday’s post and enter if you haven’t already!  I’ll continue spamming….er….spreading the word , feel free to share it as well, at the risk of reducing your own odds of winning! Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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