Category Archives: Stores

by CigarCraig | April 27, 2016 · 10:08 pm

Perdomo Event at Cigar Mojo, Perdomo Habano Maduro and Sungrown Cigars

Last night I paid a visit to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA where they were having a Perdomo event. When I pulled into the parking lot, which is reasonably large, I was lucky to find one vacant space, and lucky I have a small car! The place was packed, I think the crowd was larger for this event than any I’ve been to at this particular shop. In attendance for the event were Nick Perdomo and his wife, Janine, Arthur Kemper and Joe Winder. This time of year in this part of Pennsylvania there are a lot of cigar people around due to this weekend’s Cigars International Cigarfest. I never had any interest in Cigarfest, 3000 people per day, lined up for a glimpse at their favorite cigar maker isn’t for me. I’m sure it’s fun, just not my kind of fun. I bought some Perdomo cigars upon arrival, I opted for some of the Habano series as opposed to the usual 20th Anniversary Maduros that I enjoy so much. I lit up a Perdomo Habano Maduro Epicure (6″ x 54) and spent the next two hours hanging out, talking to the Perdomo folks and some of the attendees. The Habano series features wrappers that are aged in bourbon barrels, and the Maduro was a nice, medium bodied cigar with subtle flavors of cocoa and espresso, right up my alley. At one point, Nick told us some stories of event attendees going to great lengths to get his autograph or a picture with him, including sliding a magazine under a stall door. Nick is very appreciative of his customers, and goes out of his way to greet everyone and thank them. It was quite an event, loads of great people and great cigars.

Tonight I selected a Perdomo Habano Sungrown Robusto (5″ x 54) that came in a sampler of the three versions (Maduro, Sungrown and Connecticut) from last year’s IPCPR show. This was a really nice cigar, sharing the seco from Condega, viso from Jalapa and ligero from Esteli as the Maduro (and Connecticut), with a bit of a spice and an earthy flavor. It’s amazing the difference the wrapper makes. The Robusto burned perfectly, where the Maduro last night had a little bit of an uneven burn which required some touch-ups. I’m going to credit nine months in the humidor for the perfect burn and draw of the robusto, although another thing Nick mentioned last night was that they can draw test something like eighteen cigars per minute in the factory, and they draw test every cigar. While the 20th Anniversary Maduro is on my “goto” list, these Habanos were very enjoyable, and the bands are really classy too (and they come off easily!). Nick showed me some pictures of the Pearl drums that are being made for him, and each shell features the Perdomo logo. They will be quite beautiful, right up there with my own 1966 Ludwig Holiday kit in Black Diamond Pearl :-).

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

Cigar Craig

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Filed under Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as cigar, Cigar Mojo, cigar store, cigars, Perdomo

by CigarCraig | April 17, 2016 · 7:40 am

Avo Syncro, RoMaCraft Cigars at SMoKE Manayunk and a Tatuaje

There are so many cigars out there, it’s really hard to smoke them all, yet I keep trying! I’ve smoked the Avo Syncro Nicaraguan in the Short Robusto and Toro size and, like many Avo cigars, I found them enjoyable, but isn’t really get what the hype was. Perfectly good cigars, but nothing particularly special to me (I really liked the XO though). A couple of weeks ago my friends at Famous Smoke Shop send me some of the Avo Syncro Nicaraguan and I was excited as I really want to like these and appreciate the opportunity to try them in another size. The robusto is a box pressed 5″x 50, with a milk chocolate-brown wrapper, which is actually Ecuador Connecticut, and it has some Nicaraguan Ometepe, Dominican and Peruvian fillers. It’s a solid smoke, medium bodied with some balanced and interesting flavors. So far, this might be my favorite in the bunch, it’s got a little sweet, and a little spice, quite entertaining. I may try to sneak another one of these in today, the Short Robusto might fit my walk today from the Philadelphia Art Museum to the Kimmel Center for the Philly Pops concert. Thanks, once again, to Cory at Famous Smoke Shop for sharing the Avo Syncro Robusto with me.

Friday evening we went down to SMoKE Manayunk to visit with Skip and Mike of RoMaCraft Tobac as they have been on a tour of Philadelphia cheesesteak purveyors and have been taking breaks to have cigar events. First, a little about SMoKE and Manayunk. Manayunk is a very hip main street area in Philadelphia, with loads of bars and restaurants, so there were a ton of younger 20-something folks around, and it was pretty impressive how many came in to hang out and smoke cigars. SMoKE is BYOB, so many people brought in their own beer, wine or liquor and they have refrigerators behind the bar. Kosta is the owner, and has a very good staff headed up by Spencer McGuire, who recently left his post as brand manager of Emilio Cigars. The staff is attentive, constantly emptying ashtrays and seeing to the customer’s needs, as well as helping people in the large and well stocked humidor. The lounge is 3000 square feet, has a very industrial, distressed feel to the decor, and is welcoming and comfortable. The only downside is the parking. I found out the hard way that on street parking can cost $26 if you exceed the 1 hour limit, which I guess I was supposed to know without signing close by (oddly, the “Parking Enforcement” vehicle was parked a car ahead of me and was there longer than I was…I hate double standards!). So the $10 lot nearby would have been a better deal it turns out. It was starting to get crowded when we left, which is pretty cool for a cigar lounge.

So I perused the selection of RoMaCraft cigars they had, and settled on a couple of the Candela Fomorians (I spelled that wrong elswhere), a Neanderthal Shallow Gene Pool, and a couple of CroMagnon Atlatl lanceros, since I like lanceros and Kosta has probably the best selection of that vitola in the area, so when in Rome…anyway, I lit up a Fomorian (along with Mike and Skip) and proceeded to hang out. I’ve known these guys since 2011, which is about when they launched the CroMagnon line, and they make some outstanding cigars. The Fomorian is the CroMagnon blend of Cameroon binder and Nicaraguan fillers, with the Broadleaf wrapper replaced with a fragile Candela wrapper in the 5″ x 56 EMH size. The combination is really quite amazing, there’s the sweetness of the Cameroon, the depth of the Nicaraguan, with that refreshing flavor of the Candela. Along with the long ago discontinued Camacho Candela, this is the best representation of a Candela cigar I’ve had the pleasure of tasting. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed a few, but this one has some giddyup to it, great cigar. I followed that with a little Neanderthal Shallow Gene Pool, the smaller (4½ x 52) sibling of the Neanderthal HN, which I absolutely loved. This cigar has a San Andrés wrapper and a Pennsylvania Double Ligero, which is unusually high in nicotine. You wouldn’t know it, the cigar is very smooth with a great flavor. If these weren’t in the $11+ range, I would smoke these all the time, so good. Interesting to note, lots of nicotine before bedtime makes for a restless night with crazy dreams, at least that was my experience. It could be that, as Skip pointed out, I’m the oldest young guy he knows, which I took as a compliment since I’m pretty old…anyway, it was a great night, smoking great cigars and hanging out at a great place with great folks.

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day, and after getting some things done around the yard, I relaxed on the porch with a Tatuaje Reserva J21. These are made in Miami with a Habano Ecuador wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and filer. This is a 5″ x 50 robusto and is quite an attractive cigar, listed as a full strength offering. This was exactly what I needed after working in the yard and running errands. It started out with some spice and moved to espresso, which we all know I like. It was refined and elegant, and I really liked it. I smoke fewer Tatuajes than I really should, because whenever I smoke one it’s a treat. For some reason, in my mind, it’s a cigar that’s special, in much the same way an Opus or Padron Anniversary is. I don’t why I feel that way, but it’s in my head for some reason, and I don’t end up picking them up as often as I should. I’ll work on changing that.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Avo, cigar, Cigar Lounge, cigar store, cigars, Famous, Famous Smoke Shop, Fomorian, Neanderthal, RoMaCraft, Syncro, tatuaje

by CigarCraig | April 10, 2016 · 10:48 am

An Epic, an EP Carillo and a La Palina Cigars Event

After last Sunday’s cigar adventure, I spent the beginning of the weeks going back to some favorites and cigars I’ve posted about recently, then sometime around Thursday I grabbed one of Dean Parson’s Epic Habano Robustos from the humidor and lit it up. I will come right out and say it, the Maduro in the Epic line is one of my favorite cigars, it’s hard for me to not smoke them when I have them in the humidor. However, the Habano is right up there. This is a 5½ x 52 Robusto (I love that extra ½ inch!) with an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Dominican binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. All of Dean’s Epic cigars are rolled in the same Dominican factory where Kristoff cigars are made (and I’m at a loss for the name of the factory, but I’m pretty sure that’s right…). These hit the market in 2014, which makes me wonder why there’s still no mention of them on the website. The Habano for me was sweet with some cedar and spice. I quite enjoy this, not quite as much as the maduro, but it’s a close second. I’ve found little fault with the Epic line in general, Dean is a cool cat, if you get a chance to meet him do it.

Friday I grabbed a E.P. Carillo Generosos Toro, which is an exclusive of Casa de Montecristo in Chicago. This is weird, as much as I am a big La Gloria Cubana fan from way back, I’ve not smoked a great many EPC cigars. It may be because the first couple I smoked didn’t really “wow” me, but there have been a few recently that make me want to dig deeper into the line. I’ve had great success with the Robolo size made for Best Cigar Prices. This toro is 5 7/8″ x 52, with a rosado-ish Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Dominican binder and Nicaraguan fillers. It’s a solid medium in strength, had a lot of woody, nutty flavors and burned quite nicely. These have been around a few years, and I wish I had known about these when I visited the Casa de Montecristo shop in Chicago a couple of years ago, although I’m sure the Chicago pricing would have scared me off. this was a very nice smoke, thanks again to Craig at CDMCigars.com for sharing it with me.

Yesterday it snowed pretty good for the majority of the day. Fortunately, since it’s spring in PA and the ground has been warm, it didn’t really accumulate all that much and the roads were fine. I took a trip over to the Wooden Indian again for a La Palina event. La Palina has been on of this site’s longest and most loyal supporters, of course I wanted to show up and pay my respects (and restock some favorite cigars). I finally got to meet Clay Roberts, the COO and co-president of the company, who has been a notable name in the industry, having worked with Rocky Patel, AJ Fernandez and Alec Bradley prior to making the move to La Palina. I’m surprised we hadn’t met before, but that’s probably due to my own negligence. So, as you would expect, I picked up some La Palina Maduros, which fall under the El Diaro line and are made at Raices Cubanas in Honduras. I lit up the 60 Maduro, which is their 6″ x 60, and was quite happy. This is a great San Andrés wrapped cigar, very dark and oily and delicious. It’s got a Honoduran binder and Nicaraguan Corojo and Criollo fillers. I had a bit of a time getting the wrapper to burn at the start, but that was quite possibly an environmental issue which some time in the humidor will surely fix. Sweet with some spice, like the Epic Maduro mentioned above, I have trouble keeping my hands off these. It seems like many of my favorite cigars are maduros, which has been the case for 20+ years! That doesn’t keep me from trying everything though. Cigar events at the Wooden Indian are always top notch.

I also picked up a couple of the Black Label petite lanceros. Funny, I thought I had some of the Black Label robustos in my humidor, but to my surprise and delight, it turns out they were actually Family Series Miami Babes, which I selected for my evening walk after the snow stopped. Now, if I had to do it again (and fortunately I will be able to), I would have selected a different cigar for this wintery spring evening. The Babe (5¼ x 50) is made in Miami at El Titan de Bronze, wrapped in Ecuador Corojo 98, an Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers. This is a refined and sophisticated smoke, with delicate flavors that would probably have been better represented in more comfortable surroundings. You can bet I’ve learned my lesson, and the other cigars in this line that I am fortunate enough to posses will be smoked in as close to ideal circumstances as possible. I’ve smoked very few of the Family Series, it’s just hard for me to open my wallet that wide, but I think they are worth it for a special occasion cigar, very well made and delicious.

Rant

I’m going to vent, and this isn’t going to go over well with a certain local (to me) cigar store chain, but I can’t hold it in. Said local chain has a show they do on local cable access (and YouTube) that is really terrible. I love the idea of having some cigar programming on mainstream media, don’t get me wrong, but it has to be of a sufficient quality, in both content and video/audio, to promote the cigar culture. Bufoonery, bad information (for instance, pulling a cigar out of a tube and explaining the white fuzzy blotches as plume instead of the mold that it obviously is) and simple things like a patron eating in the lounge outside of the room the show is recorded in don’t present the cigar culture positively. I was suffering through an episode last night and, thankfully, just as one of the presenters was showing one of the store specials and explaining that a particular cigar was not to her liking, the screen went blank and after waiting a few minutes I moved on to something entertaining. It would be one thing if this were only online where the audience would be largely cigar-geek types, but this is going out to the general public, who will either be mis-informed by watching it, or turned off by the off-color, juvenile comments and jokes. I don’t watch it because I can’t take it (and I’ve been invited to be on the show, that probably won’t happen again…). I could hold my tongue no longer.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Casa de Montecristo, CDMCigars, cigar, cigar store, cigars, E.P. Carillo, Epic, La Palina, wooden indian

by CigarCraig | April 7, 2016 · 9:07 pm

Visiting Some Delaware Shops With Singer Songwriter Nik Everett and the Contest Winner

Sunday we took a ride a bit south to the state of Delaware, a state known for not allowing indoor smoking. We wanted to get together with local singer/songwriter/performer and fellow cigar lover Nik Everett, a guy we’ve seen perform on a few occasions, and who is a staple in the Delaware music scene. We had seen Nik post from a lounge in Wilmington that we hadn’t heard of before, and reached out to him to get together. As it turned out, he was headed to another cigar shop north of Wilmington which we were familiar with, Tobacco Field. As it turns out, Tobacco Field was having a Drew Estate event, and Chris Stone and Alex Mayer were on hand. Alex is the new area rep, taking Chris’s place as he has been promoted to a regional position. I bought a few cigars and lit up a tasty Undercrown Shade Belicoso and we hung out in the small lounge in the back of the store to chat with Nik and the crowd there. I really like the Undercrown Shade, it’s an Ecuador Connecticut cigar with a ton of flavor. Willy Herrera did a great job putting this cigar together, even though he isn’t a Connecticut shade fan. I’m not quite sure how Tobacco Field gets around the Delaware smoking rules, but I’m pleased that we could hang out and smoke there. The shop was really busy for a nice spring Sunday.

We finished our cigars and headed to Sikar Cigar Lounge in Trolley Square in Wilmington. This is the place we’d seen Nik post about and sounded like a place we needed to visit. The shop is small with display cases lining the interior, and I’m led to believe there are upstairs and downstairs lounges, but we sat down in the main area and picked out some cigars to smoke. The selection is quite nice here, I picked up a Camacho Shellback and a Leaf by Oscar Sumatra (sadly, they had no Maduros) which I promptly lit up. They are in the process of expanding the shop into the next space, so they will have more room the next time I get down there. Delaware has a 15% tax on cigars, so prices are a little higher than in PA, where there is no tax on cigars, but the prices were not too much higher, I think the Leaf was $9.50 and the Shellback was $12. We had a great time talking music with Nik and enjoying the lounge, which was quiet in comparison to Tobacco Leaf. Sikar Cigar Lounge is a fine place to relax with a cigar.

If you want to be entertained, check out Nik’s music on his site, nikeverett.com. He’s becoming quite a cigar geek too from what I can tell. In other news, the winner of the Famous Smoke Shop Best Humidor Jar Sampler was Jae Park. Cory at Famous did all the heavy lifting on this one, and as much as I like the simple comment based method I use, it’s a lot of work and I appreciate the help once in a while! There were a ton of new names in the entries, and many of my loyal regulars. Hopefully some of the new folks stick around. My Facebook page and Twitter followers made a big leap too, welcome to all the new followers and thanks!

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigar store, cigars, Contest, Delaware, drew estate, Nik Everett, Sikar, Tobacco Road

by CigarCraig | March 27, 2016 · 8:29 am

An Avo XO, Some Sobremesa Cigars at Famous and a My Father Connecticut

I smoke a lot of different cigar across a wide spectrum, I try not to discriminate based on size, country of origin or manufacturer. So in the latter part of the week I found myself leaning toward the milder end of the spectrum for some reason. Maybe it;s the onset of Spring, I don’t know. Anyway, I started off with an Avo XO Legato, the toro in the line. It was Avo Uvesian’s 90th birthday this past week, so I thought it would be appropriate. This cigar came in a sampler from Davidoff from last year’s IPCPR show, which included some other Avo cigars, some Camacho, Room 101 and BG Meyer cigars. The Avo XO Legato is 6″ x 54 with an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper. The rest of the cigar is Dominican, and it was a nice, creamy cigar with a bit of sweetness. I’ve not been a huge fan of a lot of the Avo lines, but this was a really nice, well-balanced and enjoyable smoke. I see some more Avo sampling in my future.

Friday evening my wife and I took a trip up to Famous Smoke Shop‘s Leaf Cigar Bar in Easton, PA. It was about an hour and a half drive, but Steve and Cindy Saka were in town visiting, and we wanted to stop in and say hello. I purchased some of Steve’s Sobremesa Robusto Largo and El Americano cigars as I hadn’t yet sampled the Robusto Largo size yet. Over the course of the evening I smoked said Robusto Largo and a Cervantes Fino generously gifted by Cindy, and thoroughly enjoyed them both, as well as the company. Both of the cigars were superb, with the Robusto Largo (5¼ x 52) having rounder, smoother flavors, much like the El Americano toro, and the Cervantes Fino (6¼ x 46) having a little sharper edge. The Leaf bar and restaurant was hopping, with excellent service. The place is in the same building as Famous Smoke Shop’s enormous warehouse (which I’ve been promised a tour of one day), and it’s located outside of Easton in an industrial park, it’s an odd location for a retail store and lounge, but it still draws a crowd. It was noisy, which taxes my ability to hear conversation, but we had a great time catching up with Steve and Cindy. Later this year it will have been twenty years since the first time I talked to Steve on the phone, back when he was holding the Monthly Officious Taste Test on the alt.smokers.cigars Usenet group, of which I was a part.

Yesterday I relaxed on the porch after a busy day with a cigar that has a special meaning to me, at least over the last year. I selected a My Father Connecticut robusto. From the website (which has music that plays automatically, which I really don’t like):

My Father Connecticut is going to be an extension of the already existing line My Father and My Father Le Bijou; the cigar is blended by Jose “Pepin” Garcia and his son Jaime Garcia at the My Father Cigar Factory in Nicaragua : It features an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, Nicaragua Corojo 99 Binder and Nicaragua Habano-Criollo filler, all the tobacco coming out of the Garcia’s farms with the exception of the wrapper which comes from Ecuador.

This is one of my favorite Connecticut wrapped cigars, not that the list of favorites is really short. There are a bunch that I enjoy, but this one is one I purchase and enjoy having in my humidor. As a matter of fact, there’s a My Father event this week at one of my local shops that I might stop in on and pick up a few more. It’s creamy, but flavorful and satisfying. I should make a note to buy some larger sizes, as this robusto was nice, but was over too soon. The band and overall presentation is really classy too.