Category Archives: Stores

by CigarCraig | November 20, 2016 · 10:51 am

A Cain F Lancero, an Aging Room Event and a La Boheme Cigar

Thursday evening I had a craving for a favorite, so I picked out a Cain F Tubed Lancero form a box I picked up a few years ago, and have been rationing out sparingly. Ten count boxes are great, but they don’t last long, ya know? I have been a little concerned about these cigars. A few weeks ago I smoked a tubed Cain Habano that had been buried in the humidor for several years. I was deeply disappointed in the flavor of the Habano, it was heavily cedar flavored, obviously from sitting for so ling in the cedar lined tubo. Cedar is one of those flavors that I recognize in a cigar, but isn’t particularly a favorite of mine, you know by now that I’m a pushover for bittersweet chocolate and coffee. Anyway, I wanted to check on the Cain F Lanceros to see if I needed to un-tube them for further storage, as it would be a shame if these spectacular cigars changed flavor. I determined that I can leave these along for the foreseeable future. the Cain F Lancero is probably my hands down favorite lancero. The specifics on this cigar: 32% Esteli Ligero, 25% Condega Ligero and 25% Jalapa Ligero in a 7″ x 38 non-pigtailed format. Simple math tells us that there’s another 18% of something in there, I have to assume it’s a neutral seco leaf to keep all that ligero burning. It’s got a refined combination of sweetness, spice and some earthiness that really works for me. Sadly, these went out of production in 2014, but I think there are still some out there, at least in the non-tubo variety. They were very fairly priced in the $6 range.

Friday I went to the CigarCigars store two miles from my house for an Aging Room event with Mr. Rafael Nodal in attendance. This store is know for having events on Thursdays from noon to three, and I’m quite pleased that they’ve started having some evening events that I can actually make it to, which they have been doing recently. I went in hoping that they would have the new Oliveros All Stars which I really liked, but, sadly, they only had Aging Room and La Boheme offered. I picked up some Havaos, some La Bohemes and a couple of the Bin No. 1 G-Major, which I smoked while there. The Aging Room Bin No. 1 G-Major is a giant cigar, 6¼” x 63, I know, 63? I wanted to ask Rafael why 63 ring gauge, but he was busy talking politics with the regulars. The cigar features an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Dominican Habano fillers from 1999 and 2001. It has a huge band, but fortunately it has a smaller band underneath so I could remember what it was I was smoking. It was a nice, rich smoke with great refined flavor. It had lot going on with some spice a creaminess. It did require some touch ups as the burn wasn’t as perfect as I’d like in a cigar at this price-point, but we are talking about a natural product here, it didn’t retract too much from the experience. Rafael is one of the nicest guys in the industry, and very patriotic. I was happy to spend a few minutes with him in my neighborhood. Thanks to Steve and the CigarCigars folks for having events at times I can attend! It’s a little bit of a catch 22, you know. I need to go to work to have money to spend at the events, if I bag work to go to daytime events, I don’t have money to spend at them! Overly dramatic, of course, but you get the jist.

Yesterday afternoon was beautiful for late November in PA. How often can you be outside in a t-shirt this time of year? That changed dramatically in the evening, but the afternoon was perfect for sitting on the porch with a cigar and the Flyers hockey game. I chose one of the La Boheme Musico cigars I just picked up, it’s another big cigar, 6¼” x 60, and smoked well beyond the disappointing hockey game. This cigar has an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Dominican fillers much like the Bin No. 1, obviously with less age on the fillers. I thought it was a fine smoke, like the Bin No. 1 without the refinement that the aged fillers bring. I’d smoke this again in a heartbeat, preferably while watching a winning effort by the home team! For the most part, I’ve had good luck with the Boutique Blends stable of cigars, and most of what comes out of Jochi Blanco’s Tabacalera La Palma. Sure I’ve had a clunker here and there, and for some reason many of the Aging Room cigars I’ve had have been way stronger than I was prepared for. Good smokes though, I’m happy to have some in the humidor.

Here’s a little plug for my friends at Custom Tobacco, who I met with at the IPCPR show three years ago. I can’t believe it’s been that long, but I wrote about their Briarmont cigar in November of 2013, and liked it a lot, even if it hadn’t had a CigarCraig.com logo on the band! They do some really nice work if you are interested in custom banded quality cigars. Adam and Rachel are top-notch and will certainly take care of you. This is an unsolicited plug. There are other companies I’ve run across that do similar things, Bobalu and CigarCountry come to mind, all of them offer a little different twist. I can personally vouch for the quality of Custom Tobacco, and the people behind it.

At CustomTobacco.com, you can create and purchase the unique, memorable and fun gift we all struggle to find: fully customized premium cigars, including a private label cigar band that can include any messaging, logos, color scheme, etc. We also offer a free concierge service in which customers can call or email us and we can both design the cigar band and help select the cigars free of charge. 2016 has been a great year for Custom Tobacco, with media outlets including Sports Illustrated, The Daily Beast, American Way (American Airlines’ Magazine) and the Los Angeles Business Journal highlighting our unique offering. With your continued support, we hope to make this our best holiday season yet.

That’s about it for now. I have a bunch of new cigars that I’ll be getting to in the next couple weeks, and I’m working on a new idea for this years contests. The FDA has made things difficult as far as getting boxes of cigars to give away, but I’ve got some other ideas up my sleeve. It’s just a matter of getting it all worked out. Of course, if you guys don’t want the chance to win goodies…

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Aging Room, cain, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Custom Tobacco, La Boheme

by CigarCraig | September 28, 2016 · 9:19 pm

A Room 101 Event and a Cavalier Geneva White Series Cigar

Sunday I had mentioned that we were going to Cigars International‘s Downtown Bethlehem store where Matt Booth was having a Room 101 event. We got there (it’s about an hour and a half drive), to find out there was a Celtic festival going on, making it difficult to find a place to park! After driving around for another thirty minutes we finely found a place to park and made our way to the store. The Downtown store is a a small shop with a couple of chairs but a rather large selection. Fortunately, it was a nice day, and they had tables and chairs on the sidewalk. There was a lot of foot traffic, mostly oddly costumed folks in kilts and whatnot. They even had Celtic music playing on street side speakers. And then there was Matt Booth. This was a cool event, as there weren’t lines of people there for the event, so there was a lot of good one on one time with Matt. He even had his attorney there, which, if you follow him on social media, is what he calls his young son, who is about as cute as can be. I bought a hand full of cigars and lit up a Room 101 Big Payback Connecticut Hueso, the 6″ x 60 gordo in the line. This was a very good cigar, and to my surprise, Matt was smoking one as well, in the robusto size, and said that it’s his recent go-to cigar. It was a nice, smooth and very flavorful cigar, quite a nice smoke for a beautiful afternoon in good company. I had gotten some of the Nicaraguan wrapped Big Paybacks too and almost regretted not getting more of the Connecticut, although I like the original Big Payback as well. If you ever have occasion to spend some time with Matt Booth, jump on it, he’s one of the more interesting gentlemen in the cigar industry!

When I got home I lit up a Room 101 Uncle Lee, a cigar Matt made to pay tribute to his uncle who introduced him to cigars. I only bought a couple of these as they only had a couple left, I would have bought a 10 count box if they hadn’t already sold out. The Uncle Lee is only made in the Ranfla size, the 6½ x 50 perfecto size that you find in Room 101’s Johnny Tobbaconaut line, the new Chief Cool Arrow, and the Namakubi line. This was a really interesting cigar with an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan Corojo binder and Honduran and Dominican Corojo fillers, so lots of Corojo. There was a flavor sensation akin to mint that wound it’s way through the smoke. This was a really nice cigar, I enjoyed the crap out of it, and may have to pick up a box. Matt mentioned that CI bought the remaining inventory, so they might be the only game in town for that cigar. It was a really nice cigar day.

Last night I went into the IPCPR sample humidor and pulled out an interesting cigar from a booth we just happened upon on our last day at the show. Cavalier of Geneva is a Swiss cigar company, and their cigars feature a 24 carat gold diamond on the wrapper. I smoked the Cavalier of Geneva White Series Diplomate, a 5½ x 56 with a pigtail cap. the cigars feature a five country blend, Habano wrapper, Connecticut binder and fillers from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Paraguay. The cigar was a nice, well-balanced smoke, on the milder side in strength, but medium in flavor. It burned well, and the gold embellishment on the wrapper had no effect in flavor or burn, but it was kind of neat to watch it burn. These were supposed to be available in the US as of August 1, and are being distributed by Dallas Texas-based CigarArt. I’m very interested in trying the maduro in this line, and I should have smoked it tonight, but, for whatever reason, I decided against it. The San Andrés Negra wrapper over Arapiraca binder sounds quite intriguing.

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, IPCPR, Review, Stores

Tagged as Cavalier, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Cigars International, Room 101

by CigarCraig | September 11, 2016 · 9:34 am

Davidoff and Bobalu Cigars and a Wooden Indian Drew Estate Event

Another week is in the books, and I felt the urge to revisit the Davidoff Yamasa toro on Thursday. I smoked this at a launch party that Davidoff had at their lounge in Las Vegas, which, of course, was not nearly large enough to contain the crown there in air-conditioned comfort, so a large part of the event was outside. I kinda like the Las Vegas heat for a while, it’s not totally uncomfortable, but add in some misting fans, loud DJ music, and a crowd, it’s not any kind of environment to get a good handle on a cigar. I had a busy week at my day job, so I figured it was time to give the Yamasa Toro another go. To recap the Yamasa story in a nutshell: 20 years ago Henke Kelner decided to try to grow tobacco in a swampy area in the Yamasa Valley in the Dominican Republic. After many years of trying, apparently they got it right and produced the Davidoff Yamasa into their Black Label series this year. It’s a good smoke. It’s as elegant and well made as one expects from Davidoff, and it’s got a lot of flavors of earth and wood, with some spice. This is another Davidoff cigar I received a sampler of in ridiculous (meant in a good way), over the top packaging. The pentagonal box, containing a five sided star-shaped box which unfolds to reveal the four sizes in the line and a box of cigar matches is amazing, yet highly impractical! I’m told the Pyramid is the best of the bunch, not sure why I didn’t select that one…another time.

Friday I decided to dig into some of the cigars I recently purchased from Bobalu Cigar Co. in Austin, Texas. I featured some of their cigars a few months ago and felt like they had some offerings that intrigued me enough to make a purchase. Remember, there’s a special deal just for my readers where you can get a free triple flame lighter with a purchase (I forgot to take advantage of this when I ordered!). Their Tres Capa caught my eye, I have to admit, the combination of the Candela, Connecticut and Habano wrapper leaves in a barber pole configuration makes for a very attractive cigar. I don’t seek out barber pole style cigars, but I liked the look. This was a really nice, milder cigar, with some great, smooth flavors. They didn’t ask me to say this, but they have a special on their site for a 10 pack for $39.95 with a torch lighter, which is a nice deal for some very good, made in the US of A cigars. I got a box pressed maduro and an Oscuro lined up to try to so stay tuned. I have a few reasons I’d like to visit Houston someday, and now Austin is on my list, not that they are close to one another, are they?

Yesterday I stopped in to the Wooden Indian Cigar shop in Havertown, PA where they were having their annual Drew Estate Charity Event and pigroast. It was a packed house and featured Pedro Gomez from Drew Estate, Broc Jackson, the young man who makes the jewelry that all the Drew guys wear, as well as many others in the cigar industry, and Hollis Thomas, who played for the Philadelphia Eagles and is on the local sports radio station (apparently, I don’t follow football at all, but I sat down next to this guy, not knowing who he was and he seemed like a fun guy. His go-to smoke is a short story, which I found interesting as it showed he was in it for the flavor and not the look, as it’s hard to find that little cigar in his formidable hands…). I bought some cigars, and lit up a Nica Rustica El Brujito and schmoozed for an hour or so. Every year they have this big event with auctions of great Drew Estate cigars and artwork by Jessi Flores at Subculture Studios, and this year they raised over $6000 for Drew Estate Charities, as well as raising $800 in cash and cigars for Cigar For Warriors. In the picture here you can see some of the auction items in the background. Dave and his staff at the Wooden Indian always have great events, it’s probably my favorite shop in the area.

That’s all for today, I smoked another IPCPR show sample last night, but I didn’t really dig it, so I’m not going to mention it…probably not the cigars fault, it just wasn’t for me, an I was disappointed because I though it would be! I hate it when that happens. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Bobalu, cigar, cigars, davidoff, drew estate, Drew Estate Charities, Nica Rustica, Subculture Studios, wooden indian

by CigarCraig | June 5, 2016 · 10:17 am

Nomad, Capo de Mundo, El Centurian, Neya and Torano Cigars and a Contest Winner

It’s been a long week for me, we had a holiday weekend, then four days of trying to wrap up a thirteen year career at my day job, and prepare people to take care of all the stuff I did. Now I’m between jobs, I start the new one next week, don’t you know I manage to break a couple molars Thursday?! Who knows what the dentist will say when I get there Tuesday, there might be a smoking hiatus in my future…but I’m hopeful that they can be saved. Anyway, I have a bunch of cigars worth talking about today, so let’s get on with it. Monday I managed an early cigar, so I chose a Nomad Therapy Connecticut. The Therapy line comes in three blends, two sizes each (Toro and Robusto) and goes to retailers in refillable trays. This isn’t a bundle cigar though, it’s a really nice, high quality smoke. This one had an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, San Andrés binder and Nicaraguan filers. I enjoyed this for a milder, very smooth, yet quite flavorful shade cigar. It burned well, drew well, and tasted good. Another very nice cigar from Fred Rewey, and I’m looking forward to trying his new SA-17.

Tuesday I smoked a cigar bought on a visit to a shop in Ridley Park, PA a few months ago. We were in the area for another event and ran across Jacoub’s Cigars, a nice little cigar and hookah shop with a lounge and a well appointed walk-in humidor. I picked a few cigars up that I hadn’t tried yet, including some of Jacoub’s own brand, Capo de Mundo. I bought robustos in the maduro and Corojo, but they also have a Connecticut version. As one would expect, I smoked the maduro first. The Capo de Mundo was a good smoke, it had what one would expect from a maduro cigar, cocoa/coffee and a little bit of sweetness, all things I like. I don’t know that $9 is an appropriate price point though, I get that it’s a small production, that certainly plays in to the price, but I didn’t find that it had enough going for it to warrant the price. This would be a great $5 cigar for me, but there are many other cigars from $5 up to the $9 range that excite me more. I’m afraid this was unremarkable, not a bad cigar at all, just not different from a hundred other maduros. I look forward to seeing what the Corojo brings to the table. This, my friends, is about as close to a negative review you will get from me.

Friday evening my wife wanted to get out, so we went to the King of Prussia Mall, which is probably the largest shopping mall on the east coast. One of the very nice things about this mall is that it has a cigar shop which my wife refers to as “Husband Day Care”, something she borrowed from Dave Garofalo at Two Guys in New Hampshire. Anyway, it’s certainly nice to stop in for a cigar instead of wondering through racks of ladies clothes in various stores. International Tobacco has a nicely stocked walk in humidor (is a Davidoff retailer) and a bar with coffee and soda available. I bought a handful of My Father El Centurian H-2K-CT in the Corona size, which is closer to a robusto at 5½” x 48, not that I’m complaining, that’s a near perfect size as far as I’m concerned. This cigar has a hybrid Habano 2000 wrapper grown in Connecticut, wrapped around components grown and processed by the Garcias in Nicaragua. This was a terrific smoke, with that typical My Father spice in the beginning then some nice sweet, savory flavor throughout. It turns out that this size was perfect for the time it took my wife get tired of shopping, after 30 years I have a good idea how long it takes. I’m glad I bought a few, I love the size and it’s a tasty and interesting cigar. It was nice to be able to relax with a nice cigar, baseball on the TV and pleasant conversation with other patrons and Tom, the owner. If I could afford it, I’d send my wife shopping more often :-).

Yesterday was a two cigar day, after getting some things done around the yard and house, I sat down with a Duran Premium Cigars Neya F8 Big Jack. I really like the flavor of the F8 line, I’ve only smoked this size and the 6 x 60 Yankee, and they come in a bunch of sizes, some of which are quite close to one another (5 x 52 Patriot, 5 x 58 Gringo, 6 x 56 Toro, 6 x 60 Yankee,6½ x 54 Loyalist and 7 x 70 Big Jack). One can assume that this range might be trimmed in the coming years if the FDA requires mega-bucks approvals for each size. Anyway, the line features an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and smoked really well. It’s sweet and smooth and quite good to my palate. the “Big Jack” is a 7″ x 70, named after the very recently former marketing and sales manager Jack Toraño, who has just left the company to join General Cigars as the face of the Toraño brand, a wonderful move in my opinion. Having an actual Toraño on board for the centennial of the brand is certainly key, and Jack is well known and loved in the industry. Anyway, the Big Jack was a tasty cigar and took me well over two hours to smoke. My only gripe with the cigar (and I’m sure Jack never tires of hearing this), is it’s just too damn big! I’ll happily smoke any size in this line, but 70 ring gauge is ridiculous. Great cigar though, even down to the last inch and a half, and after sitting id down and running an errand. I’m sure Jack’s talents will be missed at Duran Premium Cigars, but I’m glad to see him “home” with his family brand.

After dinner, I dug deep and found a Toraño toro with a Cigar Rights of America band, which came either when I joined CRA in 2009, or renewed the year after. I have no idea what the blend on this toro was, it had the burgundy Toraño band like on the Casa Toraño line along with the CRA secondary band. I have a bunch of the CRA cigars in the humidor from renewing every year, I’ve yet to get a CRA Opus or Liga yet though. This cigar was just fine. Good, savory flavors, and a razor sharp burn with a flat ember. The ash fell off by itself a couple times, no big deal as I was out walking, had it done that on my new patio carpet I might have been annoyed. Certainly you can’t run out and buy these, so my opinion means nothing really, except to go join the CRA if you haven’t already and maybe you’ll get one of these, or some other good cigars. Which is a good segue to the final paragraph of this post!

Contest

Last week I offered a T-shirt (which I purchased from Smoke Inn) and a handful of cigars from my humidor, including a few that I threw in over the course of the week that weren’t pictured. I honestly thought the turnout would be better than it was. Maybe I didn’t include enough great cigars, or maybe it’s a commentary on the over-all apathy among the cigar smoking public, I don’t know. It’s good for the folks who entered, as it increases the odds. Trust me, when these FDA regulations take effect, it’s going to be much harder for me to have giveaways! Anyway, thanks to all that entered, and thanks for Abe dropping by and commenting and for his dedication to the cause. He certainly won’t be able to offer his Micro-Blend series with the regulations as they are. So, the winner of the T-shirt and cigars from CigarCraig’s humidors is…..KOPTim. Tim, please send your contact info so I can get this stuff to you, or, better yet, if I remember correctly, you’re in the area, lets meet up for a smoke and hand-off! Thanks for all who entered and shared, you can still go to https://www.smokeinn.com/FDA/ and buy a shirt or two to support the cause.

That’s more than enough for today! Look for a single cigar focused mid-week post or two as I have a bunch of interesting samples to get to and I’ve been rather selfishly smoking for myself this week! I also want to get a few posts in the bank, so to speak, in case there’s some dental interruption (fingers crossed). Until the next time,

CigarCraig

9 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review, Stores

Tagged as Capo de Mundo, cigar, cigar rights, cigars, Contest, Duran, El Centurian, general cigars, H-2K-CT, Jacoub's, My Father, Naya, Nomad, Therapy, Toraño

by CigarCraig | May 8, 2016 · 9:52 am

Some Bobalu Cigars, Camacho Shellback and the Contest Winner

A while ago I had included a cigar quiz courtesy of Bobalu Cigars in Austin, Texas which was pretty educational, so I wanted to smoke some of the cigar they roll right in Austin to see what they were all about. These guys have been around for a long time, kind of flying under the radar, at least mine. I remember hearing about them a long time ago, but they fell off my radar, I guess I assumed I would have heard more about a factory making cigars in the US. Anyway, I smoked a few of their cigars this week, the Texas Select Torpedo, and the Red Label Sun Grown Toro Grande. I would suspect the Texas Select is their flagship line. It’s got a Sumatra wrapper with Dominican fillers and all the tobaccos are aged five years. I had a pretty good experience with this cigar, it burned right, smoked right and had a little nutty flavor with a subtle milk chocolate. Not a bad smoke.

I followed that with the Red Label Sun Grown Toro Grande, which is a huge 7″ x 54 parejo. While I generally smoke the first half of my evening cigar while taking a walk, it was raining, so I skipped the walk and settled in on the back porch to enjoy this rather large cigar. This line was to commemorate the company’s 15 year anniversary, and If I knew how long the cigar has been on the market, I could deduce how long they have been around. If it just came out, they’ve been on the scene since 2001, which isn’t too shabby anyway, but one can assume this cigar has been around a few years longer than that, as my feeble memory seems to remember hearing about them in the later part of the 1990s. This cigar is a Nicaraguan puro, it’s woody and nutty, and well made, requiring only a few touch-ups. I’d be interested in visiting the factory one day if I ever find myself in Austin, but in the mean time they have live Roller Cams (that they seem to have had since the invention of live cams) here if you want to watch them work. While neither of these cigars were in my particular wheelhouse, they have a large range of offerings listed on their site, many of which I’d be interested in trying.

Of course, we’ve all read about the FDA issuing the worst possible option for regulating cigars, the dreaded Option 1, which would basically do away with all cigars that came out since 2007, effectively ban any kind of cigar event (including the IPCPR show) and make things like me having contests giving away cigars impossible. I’m hoping that our elected officials can squash this nonsense through legislation and prevent the FDA (who, by the way, are defying Congress and the Office of Management and Budget, who’ve both said that Premium Cigars should not be included in regulation) from putting thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Latin Americans out of work. If you aren’t a CRA member, now’s the time to join, tell them I sent you, and shame on you for waiting this long.

Yesterday it rained again in the morning, but finally started clearing up later in the day. I tried another Bobalu offering, but it didn’t work as well as I would like and I’ll revisit that line some other time. For my evening walk I selected a Camacho Shellback, which I picked up a few weeks back when I was visiting a few shops in Delaware. While cigar taxes are higher in Delaware, they have no sales tax like we have in PA, so the cigar prices are just a little bit higher there than in PA, but not a big difference like other states. I think I paid $12 for this cigar because I wanted to try one, and it was there in front of me. I was a bit upset when I removed the foot band to find some chips in the wrapper, to me, a $12 cigar should be perfect buck naked, not using the band to hide damage. This was a limited edition released in 2015, and Shellback relates to a US Navy term for a sailor who has crossed the equator. It’s got Nicaraguan guts with a Ecuador Habano wrapper. I enjoyed the cigar, although it had a drying effect on my mouth, an almost tannic quality. This is another cigar that’s not up my alley, really, but it was well made (except for the foot chips), and milder than I expected (or desired). There was some spice, there was some sweetness. The best cigars of the week were the Sobremesa and Nica Rusticas I shared Wednesday night with a great friend from high-school, those two are tough to follow, and there’s nothing better than sharing cigars and catching up with an old friend.

Contest Winner

Hopefully this isn’t the last contest here, heck, I’ll keep giving stuff away until the black helicopters catch up with me! To recap, Today’s lucky winner will receive an AJ Fernandez cap, a really nice metal ashtray, and a five pack of the new cigar from AJ Fernandez, the Last Call, loveley and tasty little petite robustos (I guess). I’ve consulted with the random number generator at Random.org, and was given the number 30. By my count, Howard Glaeser is the winner, please send me your address so I can ship these goodies out to you! Thanks to all who entered, and thanks to Javier Carranza at AJ Fernandez Cigars for sending these goodies (even though his e-mail address comes back undeliverable, anyone have a contact at AJF?).

That’s it for now. It’s Mother’s Day in the US, so do something nice for your mother if you want, take care of your children’s mother (or mothers, I’m not judging) or be a mother, listen to The Mothers, whatever…until the next time,

CigarCraig

6 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review, Stores

Tagged as Bobalu, Camacho, cigar, cigar rights, cigars, Contest