Category Archives: Review

by CigarCraig | August 19, 2018 · 11:05 am

Dapper Cigars Cubo Claro and Maduro and the Contest Winner!

But first, Thursday evening my wife and I went to Philadelphia’s Diner en Blanc, which is a picnic, of sorts, where everyone wears white, brings their own table and chairs and meets in places around the city, and it transported to a public space that is kept secret until the last minute. These happen all over the world and it’s quite a sight. In this case, Philadelphia’s had 5500 people, the largest in the US. Last year there was a cigar lounge set up with a local outfit, the Travelling Tobacconist, featuring an Airstream trailer, this year, no such luck, as it was held at Philadelphia’s City Hall, and the park surrounding it is non-smoking. We actually were sitting on a wall at the perimeter of the park enjoying a small cigar with a white band, and got chased one foot to the sidewalk…absurd. So while we were at the meeting point, which was at the subway stop outside of Citizens Bank Park (where, at the same time, Will Cooper will tell you the Phillies were having their heads handed to them by the Mets in the first game of a double header), I enjoyed a Macanudo Inspirado White with my buddy Bruce. I’ve known Bruce for 20 years, we go back to the old alt.smokers.cigars Usenet group days, and he now lives a few miles from me. I select appropriately themed cigars for this occasion, last year it was a Fratello Bianco, a Montecristo White, and my wife smoked a Leccia White. Some think this event is pretentious and a waste of city resources, and I’ve heard the term “white privilege” tossed around ignorantly. First, the organization pays it’s way on the set-up and cleanup, and donates generously to local charities. Regarding the “white privilege”, anyone who took a half a glance at the attendees of one of these events would see the most diverse group of people imaginable eating together side by side, hanging out, partying, having a good time. It’s a cool event. The local news even talked to me on camera, but I guess I was too cool for them to use on the news.

I’m still finding a couple of samples from last year’s IPCPR, and a couple of my good friends in the industry have shared some samples from this years show which I did not attend, so I need to make room. I had a couple Cubos from Dapper Cigars out of California that were begging to be smoked, so Friday was the day. I had to drop the car off in the morning so I grabbed the Ecuador Connecticut wrapped Cubo Claro toro for the walk home. First off, I appreciate any company that calls their shade wrapped cigar “Claro”, it’s way easier to type than Ecuador Connecticut or Connecticut shade. Sure, it’s ambiguous and requires clarification, so does Connecticut Shade anymore so why not? Dapper likes to provide specifics about their tobaccos, and I’ve compared this to Steve Saka when he launched Sobremesa. Funny enough, some of Dapper’s cigars are made in NACSA, where Mi Querida and Umbagog are made, but the Cubo’s are not made at NACSA, they are made at Tabacaleras Carreras S.A., which also makes, perhaps not surprisingly, Esteban Carreras Cigars.

Wrapper: Ecuador / Connecticut desflorado / CASJUCA / A.S.P. (Perez)

Binder: Nicaragua / Jalapa / Habano / Dorado / Oliva Tobacco Co

Fillers: Nicaragua / Condega / gk Relleno / Oliva Tobacco Co
Nicaragua / Esteli / Guadalupe / Oliva Tobacco Co

This was a really nice claro cigar with enough strength and body to be enjoyed any time of the day, not just in the morning, as I did. I’m not a regular morning smoker, it’s just no something I usually do, but now and then I have cigar in the mornin

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g and it’s usually a shade wrapped cigar or a coffee infused cigar, I guess I fall for the stereotype. This was a really good tasting cigar, it had the trademark shade wrapper flavor, but there was a bit of spice and rich tobacco flavor and it was a good, satisfying cigar. I was anticipating smoking the maduro later.

After dinner, which is my usual routine, I did smoke the Cubo Maduro Toro as I took my second walk of the day, a short one around the block. First off, this is a visually stunning maduro cigar. It has a beautiful oily wrapper, very even coloration, nicely made. Both this and the Claro were nice looking cigars, and the bands are very attractive as well. High scores for presentation. I haven’t seen the boxes, but according to the website they are packaged in natural cedar sliding lid boxes with Boveda packs, again, the information provided the website is extremely thorough. I found the Maduro to be considerably stronger than the Claro, which isn’t uncommon, and the spicy cocoa from the Mexican wrapper was much to my liking.

Wrapper: Mexico / San Andrés Negro / Turrent Family

Binder: Nicaragua / Jalapa / Cofradía /

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Oliva Tobacco Co.

Fillers: Nicaragua / Condega / gk Relleno / Oliva Tobacco Co.
Nicaragua / Jalapa / Cofradía / Oliva Tobacco Co.

I’m a little surprised with all the detail provided that they leave out the primings, that seems like a geek-point that should be there. As you might imagine, this was a cigar that hit me the right way, it was rich and decadent and I liked it a lot. I don’t see any of Dapper’s offerings around here, but I haven’t looked really hard, but they sure make some good cigars.

Contest!

I was a little over the top with my “contest entrant shaming” in my last post, sorry about that. I think it scared people off, because we only had 19 entries, and it’s been probably 8 years or so since I’ve had that few entries. maybe it’s summer and people are busy, maybe the economy’s good and people don’t want free cigars, I don’t know. I do know that that makes the odds better for those of you who entered! I said I was sweetening the deal, so I grabbed a few more cigars out of the humidor, three of which are from La Aurora, which, by the way, was the common thread I was really looking for, all of the cigars I mentioned in the contest post were made at the La Aurora factory in the Dominican Republic. So the prize is 10 cigars from La Sirena, La Auroa, etc. and a Stage V Clinger cigar holder. It’s also true that they all have two bands and they all have tobaccos from the DR, so I can’t exactly disqualify any of those answers as incorrect, so all entries count. In a strange twist, the random number generator spit out 15, and I had thrown out Brian I’s first entry, which was actually the first entry, and he ens up being the 15th comment. So Brian I is the winner! Please send me your address privately so I can get these goodies out to you! I guess I need to step up the contest game here! Apparently I’ve slacked off or something, contests used to be my bag, baby. Thanks to Stage V Clinger and my friends at La Sirena and La Aurora for their continued support!

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

CigarCraig

7 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Claro, Contest, Cubo, Dapper, La Aurora, La Sirena, maduro, Stage V Clinger

by CigarCraig | August 15, 2018 · 2:57 pm

E.P. Carrillo Dusk, Kristoff Cameroon and La Flor Dominicana La Volcada Cigars

OK, all of these cigars have something in common…they

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are cigars, they have a band, they are, in fact, made in the Dominican Republic, but that’s not what I was going for in my current contest on Sunday’s post. I’m disappointed that everyone is just parroting the first response, even though it is technically correct, assuming it’s the answer I was looking for and not giving it any further thought. Don’t worry, I’ll be fair and just pick a random comment like I always do. I’m also a little disappointed that there have only been 15 entries, where there are well over 50 by now when I just ask for a comment. Would it help if I said there would be another 5 great cigars included in the prize? Guess what? There’s now 10 cigars in the pack, several of them will be from La Aurora (if that’s not a hint I don’t know what is!) So go back to the last post and enter the damn contest and try to win some great cigars out of my humidor! If it has anything to do with me being between jobs and giving my own cigars away, faggeddaboutit! I’ve got plenty to share! </rant>

So far this week I’ve smoked a few cigars, two that aren’t new to me, and one that was. The E.P. Carrillo Dusk is from Ernesto’s “The Classics” line and has a dark Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Ecuador binder and Nicaraguan fillers. I had a lonely “Obscure” 7”x 54 double corona in the humidor which had been there for a while. I’ve been going through my larger size cigars with the long evenings and lack of employment. The Dusk, as ive mentioned before, hits me just right. There are still a mess of cigars in the EPC portfolio I need to explore, I keep grabbing this Broadleaf beauty when I see them in the shops. Espresso and cocoa all day long!

I was moving some cigars around and found a Kristoff Cameroon Matador, the 6 1/2” x 56 toro in the line, although it seemed smaller than that. I actually would have sworn this was a 6” x 50, I got it at an event, so maybe it was an event only cigar, I don’t recall. Whatever the size, it was a tasty smoke. As a rule, I’ve found Kristoff cigars to be, how should I put this diplomatically, not real exciting to my palate. This is funny to me, because I really like Dean Parson’s Epic Cigars which are made in the same factory. However, this Cameroon was really, really nice, it had the distinct Cameroon sweet spice with a little something sour in the background, Camerooniness, I call it. With the Kristoff signature closed foot, one gets a nice blast of that up front. I will keep trying to like the Kristoff line, I love the pigtail cap and closed foot and overall rustic feel of the line. I found a few of the “Pistoff” Kristoff too which I’ll revisit.

Finally, last night I revisited, again, the La Flor Dominicana La Volcada. Jonathan Carney at LFD sent me a few of these before they hit the stores and I had one left, and picked a couple up at the event I attended a few weeks back so I lit up that last pre-release cigar. It was un-cello’d, and I actually prefer my cigars to be stored in cellophane, another of my odd proclivities. This cigar is so limited that it does not appear on the company’s website! It’s available in one vitola, a 7″ x 48 Churchill with a pigtail cap, has a San Andrés wrapper, Corojo binder grown in Ecuador

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and Dominican fillers. This is another cigar, like the aforementioned Dusk, which hits my palate right, which is a shame, because it’s limited and not inexpensive. It’s not super expensive, but it’s not cheap. It’s got a nice spice and earthiness and the dark, rich flavors I like. I waffle between wondering if I should have smoked one I just bought and saved the older one, and the path I took, but tomorrow I won’t be concerned about that anyway, I enjoyed the crap out of the cigar, and I di for a good two hours or more.

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

CigarCraig

2 Comments

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Contest, E.P. Carrillo, Kristoff, La Flor Dominicana

by CigarCraig | August 12, 2018 · 12:11 pm

Merlions, Fratello, Viva Republica and Evil Genius Cigars and a Contest!

I have been remiss in having contests! Between job hunting, the whole pre-IPCPR news deluge, a lack of companies being forthcoming with goodies to giveaway contributed to this, but mostly it’s my forgetfulness. I’m going to make up for it now. The prize is going to be a selection of cigars from my humidor relating to the cigars featured in this post, and then some, no less than five, most likely more. A few I don’t have more of, but that will me more than made up for, rest assured. I also will include a Stage V Clinger Cigar Clip! It’s not going to be the usual random, pick a comment out of a hat game this time, I’m going to require a little work. There still might be some randomness, because I don’t think it’s going to be that hard. More on that at the end of the post.

Let’s get started! Last week I went on a bit of a La Sirena bender, and I guess I omitted the Merlion brand from that bender, because a package showed up from Danny D this week with a few of the Merlion Robustos and Merlion Maduro Toros with a note thanking me for the post! Merlion Maduro Toro is a favorite of mine, and I have half a box on the shelf, but I’m always happy to add a few to the box, and I’m sure I had some naturals around, so the omission last week was more because I ran out of time than anything else, but I always appreciate the generosity of my friends and valued sponsors! La Sirena is a great little company and produces beautiful cigars which I highly recommend, and will feature prominently in this week’s contest prize, by the way! So I smoked the Merlion Maduro Toro from existing stock, as the ones that arrived this week came off a very hot UPS truck and needed some resting time. The Merlion is made in the DR, with a Mexican San Andrés maduro wrapper, Brazilian Sumatra binder, and Brazilian, Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. The only difference between this and the “natural” Merlion is wrapper, we’ll get to that later. As I said, this is a cigar I really enjoy. It’s not a traditional Toro, as the size is 5½” x 54, but it has pretty much the same burn time for me, so it’s OK.

Next up was a Fratello Oro Robusto. This is Omar de Frias’ Third release, and his first cigar out of his home country of Dominican Republic. Of course, Oro means “Gold” in Italian, which fits in with his theme of a cigar with an Italian brand name. Of course, Oro is also Spanish for Gold, so everyone can figure it out. I’m two releases behind on the Fratello portfolio, sad to say, I still haven’t smoked the Navetta, and the new Navetta Inverso. I gotta get my hands on those two. I have to check the humidor for some Biancos, as this week is the Diner en Blanc in Philadelphia, which my wife and I are attending, and I like to have a selection of “white” themed cigars along. I have my white guayabera all ready to go. Anyway, the Fratello Oro has a n Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, Cameroon binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. I think the Cameroon binder is what makes this cigar stand our from other “shade” cigars, it gives it a little special something, that “Camerooniness” that sets it apart, along with the little extra oomph from the Nicaraguan in the filler blend. It’s a really flavorful cigar, smooth and creamy with some sweetness and spice. A very nice cigar.

Next up I had to really do some humidor diving for, but it was worth it. This was a cigar from a company that used to be called Evil Genius Cigars, but due to some trademark dispute or another, has ended up with the name “Censored Genius Cigars“. These guys are basically neighbors of mine, up the road in Allentown, PA, and came on the scene in 2013 with a couple of cigars called White Chapel and Black Chapel, I think the White was the stronger cigar and the Black was the milder, but maybe I’m thinking of some other tricky brand that tried that game. The cigar I chose was the Time Machine, and I want to say it came out at the 2015 IPCPR show. One aside, when ever I meet with the guys at this company, whatever they call themselves, I feel short, and I’m 6″ 0″. I think the shorted among them is about 6″ 4”. The Time Machine Robusto is 5″ x 50, wrapped in Nicaraguan Habano, with a Nicaraguan Corojo binder and Dominican and Cameroon fillers. Interesting, one doesn’t generally see Cameroon used in the filler but it can’t all be wrapper or even binder quality, can it? This was an interesting tasting cigar, and, with three years of age, it performed very well. I don’t recall having smoked this before, maybe I did, I’d have to look back, but it was a good smoke and I’d smoke it again. I’ve lost touch with Alex and his guys, perhaps I’ll run into them someplace in the area one of these days.

After nine years of being a Cigar Rights of America member, and not smoking many of the cigars they send me when I renew, I came across this Viva Republica Rapture in a Rothchild size that was the right size for the time I had, and piqued my curiosity. I have a bunch of CRA banded cigars, somehow I never have gotten the Ligas, or the Opus or anything like that, but some of them probably have enough age on them that I should smoke them. There’s one Hawaiian something or other I never heard of, but the rest are name brands. Anyway, Viva Republica is a brand that is owned by another Pennsylvanian, Jason Holly, who owns a cigar store up in the Scranton/Wilkes Barre area of PA (way up north). They say that the CRA banded cigars are special blends, so this might not be right, but the cigar might have been 4½”x 50 (it most likely was) Ecuadorian Havana Vuelta Abajo wrapper, with Dominican Republic binder, Nicaragua, Brazil, Dominican Republic filler. Could have been, I don’t know, but it was a really tasty cigar, I’m not going to dwell on it too much because it’s an oddball. I would recommend trying the Rapture line, if you are a CRA member and you have this one in your humidor, smoke it, you’ll not be disappointed, if you’re not a CRA member, why not? sign up, tell them I sent you!

Finally, I circled back to the Merlion Natural, the original Merlion, and the second release from La Sirena. Like I said earlier, this has an Ecuador Corojo wrapper, with Brazilian Sumatra binder, and Brazilian, Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. The robusto was 5″ x 50 and the band is easily 4″, but, brilliantly, and much to the dismay of the factory staff tasked with the application of the bands, it’s in two parts, so when the lower part is removed, one is still left with a beautiful upper band, and a beautiful band it/they is/are. I like this cigar, but I’m not as fond of it as I am of the maduro version. There’s not a darned thing wrong with the cigar, but it’s a strong argument about the wrapper making a huge difference in the flavor of a cigar, and there a flavor in the Ecuador Corojo on this that isn’t in my particular wheelhouse. Oddly, and people argue that smaller ring gauge cigars showcase the wrapper flavor, the little Merlion Sea Lion perfecto is fantastic! I guess I’m just weird, a point which is rarely disputed. Anyway, I do like the entire La Sirena portfolio, but you can’t love everything.

Contest!

The prize: An orange Stage V Clinger, a cigar holding device that’s got a magnet and a velcro strap and gently holds your cigar when you’re out and about. It’s heavily marketed to golfers, but I’ve used one around the yard, when I’m out on walks (it’s handy if I have to go to someone’s door, I leave my cigar clipped to the mailbox so I don’t have to be standing at the door with a cigar). It’s a nifty device, and it’s free, who are you to complain! Also, I’ll put together a selection of cigars from my humidor that will include a Merlion Maduro Toro, a Merlion Robusto, an Anchor by La Sirena, an Oceano Atlantic and a La Sirena Trident. No doubt, some other cigars appropriate to the theme of this contest, but would give the answer away, will make it into the prize pack. So your job is to leave a comment, but this time you have to look back a the five cigars mentioned in this post and tell me what they all have in common! I’ll choose a winner from the correct responses next Sunday, August 19, 2018. It’s pretty easy, good luck!

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as Censored Genius, cigar, cigars, Evil Genius, Fratello, La Sirena, Merlion, Oro, Rapture, Time Machine, Viva Republica

by CigarCraig | August 10, 2018 · 5:00 pm

Accessory Review: Govee Thermometer/Hygrometer

Here’s a neat remote digital thermometer/hygrometer for your humidor that I tried out recently that isn’t awfully expensive and is readily available on Amazon. It’s the Govee Thermometer/Hygrometer. This isn’t necessarily a purpose-built humidor accessory, so it’s made to cover a much wider range of temperature and humidity than we need, and let’s face it, our range of need is very narrow. It’s attractive enough, and sized appropriately for a medium or larger humidor, it would take up valuable real estate in a small humidor. I attached a metal plate the back and have corresponding magnets in various places in several humidors that match up with other hygrometers so I rotate them around to make sure they are all more or less in agreement with each other. An aside, most cigars smoke well out of my humidors anyway, so I’m not anal retentive about the readings, but it’s nice to see if somethings out of whack.

One of the nice features of this unit is the app that is included. This logs everything that’s going on, and alerts if temperature or humidity goes outside of limits that you can set yourself with simple sliders. The downside of this is that it’s a Bluetooth connection, so you have to be relatively close to the unit to sync readings or get alerts. So if you are out of the room, you aren’t going to know any more than you did before. I suppose if you

were some sort of geek genius you figure out a way sync to a WiFi network somehow, but that sound like a whole lot more work that I know how to do, and I just got a headache thinking about it. That seems like the biggest flaw in an otherwise nifty little device. Naturally, it allows you to see the temperature and humidity inside your closed humidor without opening it, which took me a minute to realize the value of since the first two humidors I tried it out on have glass, so I can always see a hygrometer without opening a door. It wasn’t until I tried it in a desktop that it occurred to me the utility of being able to get a reading remotely, even if only a foot away. It seems to be as accurate as the other digital hygrometers I have to compare it too, which are Western Digital units. Obviously this could have many other applications outside your humidor as well, but this is a cigar blog, so I’m unconcerned with those!

Govee makes a lot of smart home products as well, many available on Amazon. I appreciate the opportunity to evaluate this unit, and will look at it again in several months and see how it holds up. The fact that it uses normal AAA batteries is a plus, and tells you the battery level in the app is excellent.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Accesories, cigar, cigars, Govee, Hygrometer

by CigarCraig | August 5, 2018 · 10:20 am

La Sirena LT Double Corona Corona and Other Cigars

Back in 2014, La Sirena Cigars acquired Old School cigars, which went back to about 2007, when Danny Ditkowich and his partners founded the brand.In 2014, Arielle Ditkowich,the president of La Sirena, bought the Old School brands and folded them in to La Sirena, briefly marketing them as Jaxx by La Sirena, Jaxx LT by La Sirena and Stixx by La Sirena. What was cool about this, in my opinion, was that it gave the company some pre-predicate date blends, as well as relationships with two more factories (Jaxx LT at Plasencia in Honduras and Jaxx at Rocky Patel’s Tavicusa in Nicaragua). Of course, La Sirena remains a family operation, with father, Danny involved in the day-to-day operation as well as Mariah adding another face to the brand selling and marketing. Danny is also a partner in the Tobacco Plaza retail store in Great Neck, Long Island, a store I look forward to visiting one of these days (add it to the list!). So that sets up a some back story behind the La Sirena LT, which debuted (that’s an awkward word…”debuted”…so is “awkward”…I digress…) at the 2016 IPCPR. This year they added a new size, a double corona, which is a massive 7 ½” x 52 to the line. Danny was kind enough to send me a couple of these to try, heavily over-packaged, I might add, but assured to make it to me in pristine condition, which is much appreciated.

Before I get to the LT DC, since I wanted to give the cigars a rest from their short journey, even though they came in a ziplock with a Boveda, packed in a cigar box, in a bubble UPS mailer, overnighted only about 140 miles, I decided to smoke an old favorite, a La Sirena Trident of a newer vintage. I’ve smoked a bunch of the original, My Father made Tridents, but this is from a newer box, which is out of La Zona. I really enjoy the heck out of these cigars, over the last I don’t know, seven years or so, La Sirena has been a go-to brand for me. There’s something for every occasion in the portfolio, and the Classic line is great evening cigar with some strength and body, and spice. I still have a few of the Don Pepin Tridents left, but it’s unfair to judge a cigar with five years of age to a newer one and expect a fair comparison, but I think the new and the old compare favorably.

Thursday evening I decided the La Sirena LT Double Corona had enough time to recover, so I took it for a walk. I mentioned the Jaxx LT above, and the La Sirena LT is the same blend, made at the same factory, Plasencia’s El Paraiso in Honduras. As I said above, this is a 7½” x 52 cigar, set aside two and a half hours if you smoke at a reasonable rate. The usually large looking La Sirena band looks normal on this cigar, and it lacks the small under-band, but it does have a secondary foot-band. Many of the regular La Sirena cigars have a small band under the large one, so those with short memories, like myself, can remember what we are smoking when we take the large band off! Obviously, due to its excessive length, this cigar starts out pretty mild, but it builds up pretty quickly to a reasonably robust smoke for a Connecticut (Ecuadoran). It has a rich flavor, with the sweet grassiness you expect from the Connectucut, but it’s not without body. Like I said, set aside a good amount of time to dedicate to this large cigar, I walked a mile, and still had a whole toro left when I got home! This was perfectly built, burn and draw were as they should be. These carry a $10 MSRP, which seems quite fair in this day and age.

I had to continue the La Sirena theme, so Friday I went with another large vitola, from yet another factory that they have making their cigars, Quesada in the DR. I really enjoy the Oceano line, I went with the Atlantic, the large belicoso in the line, at 7″ x 52. This has a Dominican Habano Vuelta Arriba wrapper, Dominican Criollo binder and Dominican Criollo Visos and Ligeros and Nicaraguan Viso in the filler blend. Oddly, it’s a stronger blend than the La Sirena line, certainly the strongest in the portfolio in my estimation. I’ve had this box for about two and a half years, and they just keep getting better and better. It’s kinda on the sweet, peppery and earthy side of the flavor spectrum to me. I really like the blend. I featured the Indian in an article for a 2014 issue of Prime Living Magazine.

I was going to include one more cigar, a Perdomo Factory Tour Blend Connecticut Robusto that I smoked last night, but I’m thinking it might not fit in with the overall theme. I came across the cigar while rooting around one of the trays in the cabinet humidor (that sounds pretentious…) and remembered sitting with Dave Garafalo and Mr. Jonathon at the “Gala” opening party at the 2016 IPCPR. I put Gala in quotes because that year was about the worst opening reception I can recall in the 8 years of IPCPRs I’ve been to, the food ran out in the first 15 minutes, the cash bar was stupid expensive ($6 for a water, granted it was Fiji, but still!), it was lame. Last year, and what I’ve heard from this year, General Cigar Co. has demonstrated what an opening gala should be. But, since few of my readers can experience that, since IPCPR is an industry event, that really doesn’t mean a lot to most of you. Anyway, we were hanging out with Dave and Mr. J chatting, and Roy Kirby, Dave’s Perdomo rep, came over and handed us these Perdomo Factory Tour Connecticut cigars. He didn’t have to, it was very nice of him to do. I guess this one got shuffled to the back and overlooked over the last two years, it’s not like I could miss what it was given the enormity of the band. I guess it was the week for large banded cigars. Anyway, it was a nice, Connecticut cigar, lots of flavor, and you don’t have to take the factory tour to get them. It has a Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, Jalapa binder and Esteli fillers. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but, I’m still not going to say too much about it…

I posted episode 6 of the CigarCraig Podcast on Friday where I said my peace about the Altria FDA letter, but I’ll add this: Of course I support the exemption of premium cigar from FDA regulation and everyone who’s fighting for it. I just happen to be realistic in my thinking. I think Altria could have worded their response a little better than “we agree with the FDA that there is “no appropriate justification to exclude premium cigars from regulation”, but, as has been pointed out, they supported the passage of the Tobacco Control Act from the get go, as it helps them from a monopoly standpoint. Anyway, I stand by my belief, as pessimistic as it may be, that regulation is inevitable, and Altria’s letter was more positive than negative in that it provided for a common sense definition of what a premium cigar is and that they should be treated with more lenience. That’s it for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig