Category Archives: Stores

by CigarCraig | May 25, 2014 · 11:21 am

CAO Flathead Tour with Ricky Rodriquez, a Contest Winner and ANOTHER CONTEST!

Yesterday I took a drive out to Colmar, PA to the Cigar Cigars store for a CAO Flathead event with Ricky Rodriguez. I got there a few minutes after the event was supposed to start, so I took a look around he expansive humidor. They’ve rearranged the store since my last visit, moving the counter to the front and making a larger public lounge area. I had mixed emotions about what I saw on the buy one/get one table. On the one hand, I was sad to see cigars like the Leccia Black and White, some EPC and the Compounds, Elements and Musings, on the other hand I got a deal on some cigars I wanted to try. I picked up the H, 2, and O and a Titanium torpedo in an effort to sample the entire line. I also picked up a CAO Brazilia Gol to get my day started, I’ll get some Flatheads when they arrive.
I settled in with the CAO Brazilia Gol, I have always enjoyed this blend, especially in the 5″x 56 size. The Brazilian wrapper is dark and oily, and it has a unique, exotic spice flavor that I enjoy. The burn was perfect, which I take as a sign that this establishment maintains their humidor properly. I got nearly half way through the cigar by the time Ricky and Gary arrived. I first met Ricky when he was on Team La Gloria a few years ago (I smoked an Artsanos de Tabaqueros last week that was incredible), and had the privilege of spending time with him in the Dominican Republic on the trip in 2011. Rick runs the CAO operations now, and studied at the feet of Benji Menendez.

After catching up with Ricky for a bit, I was ready for another cigar, so I made my second purchase of the day, a handful of CAO Flatheads, including the ginormous Big Block, a square pressed 7″x70. On the other end of the spectrum is the new Spark Plug, at 4″x 50, which was my next cigar. I also picked up a Heatwave for future smoking and a Area 9 sampler. The Sparkplug has the same square press and flat cap as the rest of the line, but has a closed foot. It’s a tasty little powerhouse, and smoked much longer that it’s 4 inch length would suggest. I always thought the wrapper on these lines was maduro, but Rick explained that while it is a dark wrapper, they don’t call it maduro because it’s a lower priming Connecticut Broadleaf than can be used for maduro. It’s carefully processed to the dark color. Call it what you want, it both tasty and visually appealing!

Here’s a video with Ricky ‘splaining the newest offerings from CAO. Thanks to Vince from The Cigar Lounger Magazine for doing the camera work for me!

httpv://youtu.be/-cbKxOEVDHs

Ricky went on to give a presentation of how cigars come to be, a seed to smoke kind of thing that wasn’t brand specific or propaganda of any sort. He covered the planting, curing, fermenting, sorting, rolling, quality control and packaging very nicely. If you can manage to catch him on this tour, you won’t regret it. He’s got some great stories (ask him about Philly cheesesteaks!) And is an all around fun guy to hang out with, and his cigars are pretty good too. I enjoyed the afternoon at Cigar Cigars (I sure wish they’d have more events at the three stores within ten miles of home as opposed to having to drive almost an hour!), it was great seeing old friends.

Contests

It’s Sunday, so it’s time to select a winner for this week’s contest. You will recall that I pulled a selection of cigars from my humidor, some I purchased, some were leftover samples, but all are tasty smokes that I’ve enjoyed. I will add a La Gloria Cubana of some sort to the mix, as well as a CAO Flathead Sparkplug, bringing the total to something like 17 cigars. According to the random number generator at Random.org, the winner is number 36, which works out to be foozer6976. Congrats! Please send your address so I can get your goodies to you.

But wait!

I’ve gone contest crazy again! I ended up with some goodies from my escapades yesterday, so I’m going to have ANOTHER CONTEST (actually another series of contests! Stay tuned)! I’ve got a metal CAO Flathead sign,a pair of CAO Flathead Sparkplug cigars, and a CAO Area 9 sampler. Ricky explains the Area 9 in the video, but for those who didn’t watch, there are six cigars that are coded, and all of them are from the pre-General Cigar Co. CAO era. The cigars are anywhere from five to twenty years old. There could be original Anniversary Series from the Costa Rica days, up to La Traviatas. By the second week in June we should be able to visit CAOCigars.com, enter the code on the band and find out what the cigar is!

So leave a comment to enter and I’ll pick a winner on Wednesday. Thanks to Gary and Ricky for enabling me!

That’s all for now! Happy Memorial Day. Remember those who’ve given their lives so that we have the freedom to enjoy a fine cigar. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as CAO, cigar, cigars, Contest

by CigarCraig | March 23, 2014 · 1:17 pm

D & S Cigar Lounge and Fratello Cigars

Yesterday turned out to be a beautiful spring day, so, after cleaning up some more of the tree limbs from one of the winter’s ice storms, I dusted off he scooter and took it for a spin. Now, when I say scooter, I actually mean scooter. I have a 400cc Yamaha Majesty because I’m a geek, what can I say. It’s big enough to go on the highway and gets 65 mpg. Loads of fun. Anyway, I took a ride out to Lancaster, PA to visit D&S Cigar Lounge. I had met Shaun, the owner, at the 2011 IPCPR show and have been meaning to get out there since. This is a really nice shop in a strip mall outside of downtown Lancaster, and features cabinet humidors lining the walls in the front of he store, and a very well appointed 1502 Lounge in the back with a bar, TVs, and plenty of leather chairs. The lounge was pretty populated for the first really nice Saturday in a while. I hung out in the front of the shop with Shaun. Their selection is very good, with a nice variety of boutiques and mainstream brands, priced well.

They were having a Fratello Cigars event, and Omar de Frias was there too. I met Omar at the trade show last year where he was the talk of the town. Imagine a really tall dude, born in the Dominican Republic, works for NASA in DC, makes a brilliant cigar in Nicaragua, and manages to have store events too. This is a hard working dude, and really a super nice guy. I bought a handful of toros and robustos and proceeded to fire up the 6½ x 52 toro. A little part of me is regretting not picking up some of the 6″x60s too, as these are really tasty smoked. They have a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper with a Ecuador Sumatra binder, and the filler is a blend of Nicaraguan and Peruvian tobaccos, and all this works really great together. These are manufactured in one of my favorite factories, but I’m not allowed to say which one. Omar also said that they are working on a box pressed torpedo in this line, and hinted at working on either a Brazilian or San Andrés wrapped sequel. I am excited to try both, they sound yummy. The toro started out with some spice, and smoothed out in the middle, with some spice coming back at the end. I smoked this one to a finger burning nub and enjoyed every last puff. I gave it a V cut which worked quite well.

The 40 mile ride home was uneventful, and I decided to smoke the robusto on my evening walk (I had a delicious dinner of Chicken Parmesan my wife made that I had to walk off!) I thought the robusto was a little spicier than the toro, which is OK, and obviously the stretch in the middle where it smooths out is shorter. I like that it’s a little bit longer than a standard robusto, it’s 5½ x 52. These are really tasty cigars, if you see them, grab one, and if you don’t, ask your tobacconist to get them! Omar tells me he’s in 100 stores now, which is a heck of a deal for a small manufacturer. I’m happy I got a chance to catch up with Omar and finally pay a visit to Shaun at D & S Cigar Lounge in Lancaster. Here’s the video of Omar from the IPCPR show last July:

httpv://youtu.be/IHjzjuaVquU

I work with a guy who collects bottles, and he brought this turn of the century bottle for me to take a picture of to share with you all. It’s hand blown, and the detail is really incredible. He suspects it was a way to get a nip secretly, back when it was far more acceptable to smoke in public than to drink! Now you’d sooner be vilified for even looking like you’re smoking than having a drink! Support Cigar Rights of America!

I don’t want to forget to mention that in between doing all that yard clean-up and heading to a cigar event, I also appeared on the “Blogger’s Corner” segment of Kiss My Ash Radio yesterday. I don’t think Abe (the host, and owner of the Smoke Inn stores in Florida) is very happy with me for reviewing a cigar that’s virtually impossible to buy any more. I’ll have to prepare better in the unlikely event I’m invited back 🙂 . Anyway, if you don’t already listen, check out the podcast version, if you can’t listen live Saturday mornings. I look forward to hearing what my bud Eddie Ortega had to say on the show, he was the guest in the “Meet Your Maker” segment and was there in the studio.

That’s it for now! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review, Stores, Video

Tagged as cigar, cigar rights, cigars, D & S, Fratello

by CigarCraig | March 16, 2014 · 9:12 pm

An Alec Bradley Event, THE Kind, an Aging Room and Cigar Transporter Tubes

Thursday there was an Alec Bradley event at the world famous Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia (that’s about 20 minutes outside Philadelphia for those who don’t know. Ask your wives, they probably know the area for the enormous mall!) Jonathan Lipson was present and managed to sell through all of the Filthy Hooligans before I arrived. Trae, the co-owner of the shop managed to find me one, so I picked up some Nica Puros too and settled in with the candela toro. I enjoyed several of these last year, and still have one buried in the humidor someplace. I think this is a great tasting smoke. I like the way the candela wrapper tempers the Black Market blend. The downside is that the use an inordinate amount of glue on the bands, which is understandable, they have to stay in place through a secondary sleeve, as well as cellophane. Removing the band does a number on the fragile wrapper. The flavor is refreshing to me, it’s clean and I like this cigar. I was unhappy that I couldn’t go home with a handful of these. My brother-in-law was in Holts the previous evening and they had sold out there too. The event was well attended, we even ran into those guys from The Cigar Lounger magazine again. Always a pleasure having a cigar with Vince, Graham, Steve and Drew. Trae and Wade are consummate hosts, always checking in , emptying ashtrays and making sure all is well. A good time was had by all, and I’m still looking for a few Hooligans!

Friday evenings I try to smoke something I know will be satisfying after a long work week, but I decided to try a new cigar that was sent to me by the folks at Nice Ash Cigars in New York State. As it is, THE Kind is an exclusive in their three stores (one of which is in North-western Pennsylvania), but they hope to distribute on a larger scale. The cigar is the Toro, which is 5¾” x 56, is nicecly box pressed and has a closed foot and a pigtail cap. It’s a very appealing looking cigar. It’s made in Omar Ortez’s factory in Esteli, and has a Jalapa Corojo wrapper with Nicaraguan filler and binder. I really enjoyed the cigar, it had a nice sweetness and was full of flavor, but was a solid medium in strength. It burned fairly well, even though it had only been in my humidor for about a week. I’ll give the other sample a few months rest, but I’m sure it’ll be just as good. My thanks to Andrew at Nice Ash Cigars for thinking of me.

This week I also received a prototype of a Cigar Transporter Tube from Kevin, the maker of these tubes and the gentleman behind the Indiegogo campaign to raise capital to purchase a lathe so he can produce these on his own. The tube is a Dupont Delrin® plastic which is an industrial strength thermoplastic used to make precision parts. He machines this to pretty tight tolerances and matches the top and bottom halves to insure a perfect fit. I had one of the machinists where I work take a look and he was impressed with the machining, and he’s a perfectionist. I put a cigar in this tube and toted it around with me and it worked out very well. Check out his Indiegogo campaign here and throw a couple bucks his way, he’s got some tubes listed as perks for donating, I am looking forward to seeing the aluminum version.

Saturday afternoon I took a nice, long walk with an Aging Room M21 Fortissimo that I received at the IPCPR show last July. This was in a coffin box, and is a nice perfecto shape, probably around 5½ x 46, which is a great size. I’ve heard many great things about this cigar, so I had high hopes. A few months ago I smoked an Aging Room M356 Rondo and it conspired to kick my ass, so I was a little worried. Unfortunately, this cigar must have been stored in slightly higher humidity than it should have. Rafael Nodal, the principle at Aging Room told me directly just today that this cigar is all ligero, so it’s sensitive to higher humidity (the humidor reads in the low 60s, go figure). I had a heck of a time keeping it burning, and given my experience with the M356, I was hesitant to over smoke it to keep it burning. The flavor was very good, and I will be looking for another sample to fully appreciate the cigar this is supposed to be. Rafael generously offered to send me another, however I think I’ll try to find one in one of my local shops. These guys are really making some great cigars, so I have every confidence that my experience was a fluke. The fact that the same factory is working with José Blanco speaks to the quality of their tobacco and production.

That’s all for today, apologies for not getting this out this morning, but other projects took precedence. Until the next time,

Cigar Craig

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Filed under Accessories, Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Aging Room, Alec Bradley, cigar, Cigar Transport Tube, cigars, THE Kind

by CigarCraig | March 2, 2014 · 7:53 am

Sampling Some Perdomo Cigars: 20th, Champagne Noir, Lot23 Maduro and Mojo

Thursday evening I went down to Cigar Mojo in King Of Prussia, PA to their Perdomo event. I have not smoked a lot of Perdomo cigars for whatever reason. I may have been turned off to them back in the late ’90s. I’m making a concerted effort to correct this oversight. Perdomo’s sales rep, Joe Winder, was on hand and the place was quite impressively packed for a Thursday evening. Since I’m largely unfamiliar with the line, except for the Lot 23 and a Champagne that I didn’t really care for much a while back, Joe ran through the line with me and a couple other customers. I selected the 20th Anniversary Maduro in the 6½x48 size (which is apparent;y a new size that was the brainchild of Nick Perdomo’s son) a couple Lot 23 Maduro Toros and a 20th Anniversary Sungrown. I lit up the 20th Anniversary Maduro and sat down with Vince, Graham and Steve from The Cigar Lounger Magazine to catch up, after having chatted with Chris (@theLazySmoker), who I seem to run into there more times than not! The 20th Anniversary was an awesome cigar. It was on the high side of medium bodied with good, rich cocoa flavor. I fell in love with this cigar and it made me wonder why I wasn’t sampling more from the Perdomo line. It’s always entertaining hanging out with The Cigar Lounger guys, since meeting them last year, and hanging out with them at the IPCPR show and a few other times, I think I can say they are friends. If you haven’t seen the magazine, check it out, it’s really slick. It’s available as an App for Android or iOS or you can read it on TheCigarLounger.com. I was to find out that they have decided to discontinue their radio show, which I was listening to in podcast form, so I guess I need to find something to fill the gap. After finishing the 20th, I lit up the Lot 23 Maduro Toro. I was half expecting this to be just something to smoke while hanging out. This is another really nice smoke, and the price wasn’t too hard on the wallet. it was a nice, rich, creamy smoke, and I liked it. It’s always fun going to an event at a local shop and hanging out with folks who enjoy a cigar, it’s even better when you hang out with folks who are as passionate about them as we are. Robyn from Villiger Cigars even stopped in. Cigar Mojo continues to impress me also. The space is beautiful, and Wade is an attentive host, and our local CRA ambassador, Alan Price, is a more than capable counter-man. Unfortunately, his son and business partner, Trae, was off with his wife expecting their first child (Congrats again on the birth of James Wade!). It’s always nice stopping in that shop.

Friday I dug out a Perdomo Champagne Noir Robusto for my evening walk. After a less than happy experience with the Connecticut Shade Champagne, I was hoping for the best. The Maduro Noir was much more to my liking. Sweet cocoa and coffee were the predominant flavors in this Nicaraguan Puro. I like the chubby 5″ x 54 size too. It was bitterly cold out, and I didn’t really mind too much because the cigar was so good. I’ve got another cigar around someplace that I thought was just a 10th Anniversary Maduro, without the “Champagne Nior” distinction. I’ll have to look for it in the humidors, I recall like it a great deal too. This cigar is another keeper!

Saturday evening I grabbed the Sungrown version of the Perdomo 20th Anniversary in the same chubby robusto size as the Champagne Noir. This is a really pretty cigar, and after enjoying the Maduro version so much I was quite hopeful that I’d have another positive experience. As I did with the previous three cigars, I gave this a V-cut and the draw was perfect. I can say that all four of these cigars were perfectly constructed, once I lit it, I rarely gave it another thought. I may have touched up one of the two I smoked at the lounge as I was talking more than I was smoking, but they all performed well. Kudos to the folks at Perdomo for making high quality cigars at a fair price. I enjoyed the hell out of the Sungrown, maybe not as much as the Maduro, but enjoyed it none the less. It had a really nice flavor, and I’ll be revisiting this in the future for sure, along with the previous three. Quite nice. Thanks to Joe Winder from Perdomo and Wade (Trae and Alan too!) at Cigar Mojo for making Perdomo believer out of me. As a side note, I stopped back in the shop Saturday to offer congrats again and spent a nice 45 minutes with an Illusione Rothschild and Alan, who’s off to Honduras today (travel safely!). That’s another great little smoke for a very reasonable price.

That’s it for today, until tomorrow,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as 20th, cigar, Cigar Mojo, cigars, Lot 23, Noir, Perdomo

by CigarCraig | February 19, 2014 · 8:29 pm

A Shop Visit with a La Gloria Cubana, a Great Wall and a Monte Pascoal

As you well know, I’ve been tiring of smoking in the cold lately, so I paid a visit to a local shop on Sunday afternoon for a smoke. Lightn’Up in Glenmore, PA is only about 5 miles from home, and I pass it just about every day. I haven’t made a habit of stopping there because the inventory has been quite thin over the last few years. I heard that the store, along with it’s sister store in nearby Frazer, PA, was recently purchased by the CigarCigars chain which is growing steadily in the south-east PA area. I wanted to see what had changed, and the inventory is vastly improved. I selected a couple La Gloria Cubana Serie R Esteli, a CAO Flathead V642 Piston and a huge Foundry Compounds, Elements and Musings Uranium (I have to admit to a fascination with the Foundry line, and I dig the skeleton band on the Uranium. When I’m smoking a 7×70 I can’t say. This, along with the Carbon, are going to be regular production cigars, the rest in the Compounds, Elements and Musings line are limited editions). I sat down and lit up the LGC Esteli, which I like quite a bit. I think it’s the best in the Serie R line. It was the typical cigar shop scene, a few guys sitting around shooting the bull while the History Channel is on the TV. Yes, I wondered why there wasn’t some Olympics on, but there was a show about the White House (actually history programming on that channel, who’d think it?). They close at 4 on Sundays, which isn’t a bad thing, I was there for two hours enjoying the smoke, and it was good. Glad to see the shop improving. It’s in a good spot and is certainly convenient to me. I need to go visit their other recent acquisitions in my county. I was not impressed with the Frazer location when I stopped in last year, and I haven’t visited G&G Cigars in West Chester since they took it over. I’ll be interested to see how they have changed.

After I got home and ran out for Chinese take-out, I figured it would be a reasonably good time to try a cigar I got at the IPCPR show. for the last several years I’ve seen the huge, elaborate booth of the China Tobacco Chuanyu Industrial Co. Limited. I’ll admit that entering the booth held little interest to me. I guess I’m a little closed minded, I see premium cigars as a Latin American product, and it’s hard for me to associate cigars with anything else. I have to applaud the companies persistence, it has to cost a bundle to bring this enormous booth to the show every year, and I honestly don’t recall seeing a lot of traffic there. My friend Mitchell passed his bag from the booth on to me, and I’ve been passing up sampling the coronas that were in with the glossy 50+ page brochure. I figured I already had a great cigar earlier in the day so I figured this was the time to try something outside my comfort zone. Not many things bother me more than wasting quality cigar time on a sub-par cigar. The cigar is called the Great Wall Tudor No. 2, and is about 5 1/8″ x 42. It is described as having Indonesian wrapper and binder and “domestic” filler, which I assume is grown in China. I was expecting the worst, given I’m not a fan of Indonesian wrappers, but it wasn’t a terrible smoke. It was fairly neutral, with some interesting flavors. It burned and drew well, I should hope that a factory that turns out five billion cigars a year (I’m assuming that not all are handmade). I’ve smoked worse, and I have a couple more floating around including a Great Wall Flourishing Age III, which is cello wrapped with a handy pull tab that’s described as “sweet flavored”. This one may wait for a while.

Monday evening I selected a Monte Pascoal Belicoso for my evening walk. This 5½” x 52 cigar was given to me last year by a gentleman know as Matt Ross on Cigar Federation and Twitter. I met Matt up in New Jersey last year when we had a bit of a herf at Cigar Emporium in Lyndhurst, NJ. I figured I was meandering from the traditional tobacco regions with the Chinese cigar, so it wouldn’t hurt to smoke something from south of the equator. This is a Brazilian puro, wrapped in Mata Fina, but not a maduro Mata Fina like we are used to seeing. These are terribly tasty smokes, and I can’t recall smoking one that misbehaved. The laws are such in Brazil with their regulation that it’s costly and difficult to introduce new blends. This is precisely what the FDA would like to see happen here in the US, which will virtually eliminate the need to walk into your tobacconist and ask “what’s new?” Good reason to support all the efforts out there to keep the FDA out of our humidors (CRA). Many thanks to Matt for the cigar! It was greatly enjoyed.