A Glimpse Into My Cigar Adventures!

ReviewCategory Archives

Southern Draw 300 Hands and Tatuaje Mexican Experiment and ME II Cigars

Wednesday evening I finally got around to trying the Southern Draw 300 Hands Connecticut in the Piramides size. This is a 6 1/8″ x 52 figurado, a classic size, with a US grown Connecticut shade wrapper, a Peruvian binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. Like all Southern Draw cigars it’s made at the AJ Fernandez Factory in Nicaragua. The wrapper is on the darker side for a Connecticut shade, and I found the flavor to be less grassy than most cigars in that genre. It smoked very well and was a very enjoyable cigar, well priced, with proceeds going to help less fortunate people in Nicaragua.  … Continue reading »

Share

A few More PDR Cigars and Some Villiger News

Let’s see, what do I want to talk about today?  I’ve been stuck working weekends and evenings a lot, so I’ve been kind of slacking on smoking the newer stuff, plus i don’t have a great many new cigars to smoke around. Earlier this week I reeved a news release from Villiger Cigars that I wanted to share, but I had just posted the contest on Wednesday, and wanted to leave it front and center for as long as possible. So I figured I’d enjoy a Villiger cigar Friday evening, and selected a La Vencedora Churchill since the only La Flor de Ynclans I had were the mis-named Lancero, and I couldn’t find them! I wanted a longer smoke anyway, and I enjoy the Joya de Nicaragua made La Vencedora. La Vencedora is a Nicaraguan Puro with a Habana Oscuro wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. The Churchill is Americanized in size, it’s 7″ x 50, which is OK by me, it’s like a toro, only an inch better. It’s a medium-plus cigar, with some dark sweetness and some spice.… Continue reading »

Share

Smoking Some New Southern Draw Cigars This Week

I spent the week smoking some new cigars from Southern Draw Cigars, thanks to a generous care package from Robert and Sharon. They were very busy this year producing some new cigars and sizes, and this was their fifth year in business, which is quite a milestone, and they’e been very successful in a short time. If you follow this site, you saw a lot of press releases about these cigars in the weeks leading up to the IPCPR. This is largely due to their partnership with A.J. Fernandez, who makes all of their cigars, but Robert is very involved in all of the blending. He’s not an absentee brand-owner by any means, I’ve sat with him and had this discussion, and while he is relatively new to the industry, he gets his hands dirty, and spends time in the factory and buys the tobacco and really is involved in the process. I have a lot of respect for him and his family, and I’ve had he pleasure of meeting Sharon and her parents, and they are all super nice folks. SO I had to start the week trying out the Lustrum, with is the brands fifth anniversary cigar. … Continue reading »

Share

ScrewPop’s MagPulse Cutter and the Acid Kuba Arte Cigar

For a year I’ve been looking forward to ScrewPop’s guillotine cutter, the Magpulse. They teased it in July of 2018, then announced it this July, and it intrigued me from he get-go. I have no idea why. ScrewPop has some really nice keychain tools, and they have some good quality cigar devices in their line-up, obviously they like cigars over there. They’ve missed on a few things, but made up for it in re-designs. I like to think my suggestions led to the punch cutter design being what it is today. They have a cigar scissors sort of device, the Chopo, which works quite well. All of their tools have traditionally included a bottle opener, with the exception of the ashtray, and the Magpulse cutter. The Magpulse is a premium accessory, certainly not a keychain accessory. it’s priced at $149, with an introductory price of $99, so it has a premium price tag too. So far as I can tell, there’s one little spring in this thing, and that’s in the button which releases the blade. There are two strong magnets on either side which are mounted in opposition to one another which force the blades apart, and give resistance when applying the cut. … Continue reading »

Share

Drew Estate Pennsylvania Barnsmoker 2019 Recap

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending my second Drew Estate Pennsylvania Barnsmoker, and I think it was my favorite Barnsmoker so far. For those unfamiliar, the Drew Estate Barnsmoker events are educational parties that Drew estate has in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Florida and Louisiana, all highlighting tobacco processing unique to those areas, on the farms that are actually doing those processes. In Pennsylvania it was held on a farm in Strasburg, Lancaster County, which grows some broadleaf tobacco which they sell to Lancaster Leaf, which sells to Drew Estate, as well as other cigar companies,  AJ Fernandez comes to mind. It’s my personal belief that Connecticut Broadleaf grown in Pennsylvania will gain popularity in the near future as the farms in the Connecticut river valley shrink and sell out to development. This is only my own speculation, but I’m pretty sure the Amish and Mennonite farmers in Lancaster County aren’t selling their family farms any time soon. I digress. The Barnsmoker is a great way to learn about all of the work that goes into the making of premium cigars in one day. It’s the Cliff Notes version of Cigar Safari, which is a crash course into the process in itself. … Continue reading »

Share