Category Archives: Stores

by CigarCraig | November 1, 2013 · 5:30 pm

Cigar Mojo – New Shop and Lounge in Suburban Philly

Wednesday evening I stopped into a new shop and lounge in the King of Prussia area outside Philadelphia, PA. Cigar Mojo is a joint venture between father and son, Wade and Trae Roberts. I first met Trae a couple months ago at the Wooden Indian in nearby Havertown, PA. They finally opened for business on Wednesday, so I stopped in to see the place. I’ve been following their progress on their Facebook page with interest, and had been invited to a pre-opening event they held back in early September but was unable to attend. It was worth the wait, the shop is beautiful. They have a large walk-in humidor that has all Spanish Cedar walls and shelves which is in the process of being stocked. They have a large shop area with plenty of room for accessories and some seating. The most impressive part is the lounge. The space is beautifully done with reclining leather chairs and TVs on either end. The lounge is open to patrons during business hours, and they have a membership program that offers 24 hour access. They also have a bank of humidor lockers for members. The membership options are outlined on their website. I’m impressed so far. Wade and Trae are passionate about cigars, and they seem to have the right idea about how to serve their customers. I purchased a couple of the new Saint Luis Rey Gen 2 Toros and enjoyed one of them thoroughly while chatting with Ryan, the local Altadis rep. The SLR was a tasty, medium bodied cigar, very nice. It’s one I’ve been wanting to try but haven’t managed to until it jumped out at me in the humidor. Great combination of flavor, construction and price point (around $6). Both the Saint Luis Rey and Cigar Mojo are highly recommended. The photos don’t do it justice. Click on any picture for a slideshow.

That’s it for this special Friday edition, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Review, Stores

Tagged as altadis, cigar, Cigar Mojo, cigar store, cigars, King of Prussia, Saint Luis Rey

by CigarCraig | October 30, 2013 · 6:54 am

IPCPR 2013 – Epicurean Cigars, Gonzo Vintage 2007 and AG Azul Vintage 2008

Sunday afternoon I found myself browsing the expansive humidor of the Cigar-ette City store in Peoples Plaza shopping center in Newark , Delaware. This is the flagship store of the Delaware Cigars chain which is managed by Emilio Cigars’ Gary Griffith. Jim was working in the humidor and was very helpful and knowledgeable. This humidor is stacked to the rafters with just about everything you could imagine. It would be no problem to stock the humidors of the three or four stores closest to my home fully and still have a great stock left over. They had a full compliment of the Liga Privada Serie Unicos on hand (I can’t remember if I saw Dirty Rats…I’m sure they were there), as well as what looked like full lines from Don Pepin, Tatuaje, etc, etc. It’s an overwhelming selection one could easily go broke quickly. I selected a handful of cigars, including some Emilio AF1 and 2 coronas, a La Musa Melete, and a few of the Gonzo Vintage 2007 Lanceros from Epicurean Cigars. Since I had a few hours to kill, and the state of Delaware bans ALL indoor smoking, even in cigar shops, I pulled a folding chair out of the car and sat on the sidewalk in front of the store to enjoy a cigar.

The cigar I chose was one of the Epicurean Gonzo Vintage 2007 Lanceros. I’m kicking myself a little for not getting a robusto or two to sample, because this box pressed lancero was a terrific smoke. For my palate, Connecticut Broadleaf over a San Andrés binder is a double whammy flavor explosion, and this perfectly built panatela was as rich, dark and flavorful as I had hoped. I’m glad I got two, and I’m glad Gary had just sent me one recently. I’m salivating thinking about it, and may just smoke another one this week. I must make a point to sample more sizes, perhaps they will be a little less expensive here in Pennsylvania. Two thumbs up on this one. This is a cigar that is right up my alley, perfect in every regard, burn, draw, flavor and appearance.

After I packed up my impromptu sidewalk cigar lounge, I headed back to the university where my wife was busy doing some research, and parked my butt on a bench and lit up an Emilio AF1 Corona. You may recall in my last post I wondered out loud if one existed and lo and behold it did! I snagged a couple, and I do believe I liked the AF2 better in the corona size than the Broadleaf wrapped AF1. For me I think the AF1 works better in the larger ring gauge. I’ll let the other ones I bought sit in the humidor for a little bit too. Maybe the wrapper overpowered the filler on this one, I don’t know, I just felt like the toro version suited me better. Not that I didn’t enjoy the heck out of it, I certainly did!

Monday evening I pulled one of the other Epicurean cigars that Gary had sent me, the AG Azul Vintage 2008 in the toro size. This is a nicely presented cigar with a shiny foil band and a cedar sleeve hiding a flawless sun-grown Ecuador Habano wrapper. This has a Honduran binder and Nicaraguan fillers from Esteli and Jalapa . I found this cigar to be on the low end of medium, but full of flavor and a perfect burn. I love it when a cigar burns flat and even, I find that miraculous considering that the various tobaccos in the blend may burn at different rates. When everything combusts completely and at the same time it just makes the cigar experience that much more special for me. I know, I’m weird. I’m full of regret once again, because I was going to grab a couple of the AG Armando Gutierrez Vintage 2007 too and I decided to wait and see what this 2008 was like. I’ll have to try that one when I go looking for more of the Gonzo! Another great cigar from Steve Ysidron and Epicurean Cigars.

Here’s the final video from the 2013 IPCPR show. As it turns out, it’s Steve Ysidron talking about his Epicurean Cigar line! What a happy coincidence!

http://youtu.be/jMZ-R-7r-hQ

As it works out, last night I couldn’t help but take another of the Gonzo Vintage 2007 Lanceros out for a walk and it was perfect again. Loads of dark, rich flavor and a perfect burn. My only regret was that it wasn’t larger as the lancero only lasted just under and hour. It reaffirms my desire to try these in a larger ring gauge. Yum.

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under IPCPR, Review, Stores, Video

Tagged as AG, cigar, cigars, Emilio, Epicurean, Gonzo, IPCPR

by CigarCraig | October 7, 2013 · 12:53 am

2 Guys Smoke Shop and The Cigar Authority

Editor’s Note: I warned you last time that today’s post might be late! I was writing this on my tablet on the road, and somehow, I inadvertently posted the first paragraph last night. Sorry for the false start! It’s not quite as easy posting from the tablet. So here’s the real deal, better late than never.

This weekend my wife and I got in the car and drove north to New Hampshire for a weekend getaway. One of the destinations on our list was the 2 Guys Smoke Shop in Nashua. I’ve been hearing about this chain of shops for years through various channels, it was about time I paid a visit. Dave Garofalo just celebrated his 28th year in business. As well as running the three stores in New Hampshire, he has a mail order business and sits on the boards of the IPCPR, the TAA, and the CANH (Cigar Association of New Hampshire). The store in Nashua is impressive. They have 1100 open boxes in display cases surrounding the shop, a huge walk-in humidor filled with boxes, and a Diamond Crown Lounge. The pricing is excellent considering there is no cigar tax in New Hampshire, and they do my home state of Pennsylvania one better by not having sales tax. I bought a handful of cigars and settled in with a Bandolero Traviesos robusto and chatted with Dave. The Bandolero is an exceptional smoke. It was sweet, smooth and had a curious little twang in the background. This cigar is made by Nelson Alfonso, the guy behind a lot of Habanos S.A.’s packaging like the ceramic jars and such. The packaging for these is equally as cool. These are offered in tin “jars” each of which has a picture and the story (in Spanish) of the Bandolero, who was someone who kind of black marketed tobacco in the days when Spain had a monopoly on cigar production. The tins even have a humidifying element in the lid. It’s a terrific cigar with great presentation.

One of the things Dave does in his free time is a two hour radio show every Saturday called The Cigar Authority. I’ve been listening to the podcasted version of the show for a couple years and have corresponded with Dave several times about things that have come up. I was excited when Dave invited me on the show, clearly it was a slow week for them. The first cigar we smoked was a Psyko 7 from Ventura Cigars, which was very nice. It was medium bodied and had a nice sweetness. It was quite enjoyable. I’m not going to go into what was discussed, you can listen yourself at TheCigarAuthority.com or find it on iTunes. I ended up sitting in on the rest of the show. In the second half we smoked one of Dave’s own brands, La Gianna Havana, in honor of his daughter’s birthday. He gave me a Maduro which was a really nice, tasty mild cigar. While I was sorry to put the Psyko 7 down, this was a suitable replacement. It was a great time, an I was honored to ba able to participate. My one regret was that I wasn’t able to follow the chat-room or Facebook and failed to give a shout out to my old friends Mike Perry and Mark Williams (and maybe Dan Poe). Sorry guys! Jenn was trying to type it in a large enough font on her tablet for me to see but the show was over by then. Next time, I promise. I also had the pleasure of meeting a Facebook friend, Charlie Pitarys, who has a cigar lounge in Tennessee. He was there celebrating his birthday. Many thanks to Dave and Mr. Jonathan for their generosity! They made us feel like family and that we belonged there.

I’m not sure when I’ll visit New Hampshire again, but you better believe I’ll be visiting one of the three 2 Guys shops while I’m there. In a funny coincidence, we ran into Johnny Brooke, the PR guy for Drew Estate, who just moved to the Boston area from Miami. He was there with Derek Stewart from the reddit.com/r/cigars forum. I had no idea John had moved north and it was a bit of a “what the f*** are you doing here” moment for both of us! Small world. Jenn and I said our goodbyes and headed to Maine for a lobstah dinnah, and passed the 2 Guys Seabrook store on the way. Today we headed to Burlington, Vermont, then home to PA. We had a whirlwind weekend, covering eight states! Lots of fun and lots of great friends and cigars.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Review, Stores, Trip Report

Tagged as 2 Guys, Bandolero, cigar, cigar store, cigars, La Gianna Havana, Psyko 7, The Cigar Authority

by CigarCraig | September 8, 2013 · 12:18 pm

Azan White and Burgundy from Roberto Duran and a Drew Estate Event

While at the IPCPR show last month I managed to end up with samples of the Azan line of cigars from Roberto Duran. The booth was busy the times I came across it, but a friend gave me some samples, and I think there was someone around the booth handing them out. These were highly recommended and I was looking forward to smoking them, but I really didn’t know much about them. It turns out that Azan is an old Cuban trademark that has been out of production for so long nobody remembers it! Interestingly, the brand was created in Cuba by Chinese immigrants back in the 1920s. So, after hearing from Gabriel Piñeres of Creativas, the PR firm that handles Azan, as well as Toraño Family cigars, I figured it would be prudent to smoke some of these up.

I started with the White Premium Line Campana. This is a traditional belicoso size at 5½ x 52 with a tapered head. It was a very nice looking cigar, the Corojo wrapper was flawless and was smooth and symmetrical. It’s burn was perfect, just the way I like it with a straight, flat burn. It was a very enjoyable cigar to smoke both in the aesthetics as well as the flavor. The flavor was clean, smooth, with a nice spice and great, rich body. I really enjoyed smoking this cigar and will be on the lookout for more. I have a robusto remaining which may not last long. This was a hidden gem and thanks to my friend Joe and whoever else handed me samples!

I figured the logical thing to do the following evening was to smoke the Azan Burgundy line robusto. This cigar is a little more rustic in appearance than the White line. According to the website they use a lower grade of Corojo wrapper on this, and the appearance is a little lumpier. The flavor was nice. It shared a certain sweetness I came across in it’s classier sibling, and the burn and draw were just as good. This is certainly a nice alternative to the White, which I can assume carries a higher price tag. Laziness on my part leads to this assumption as I haven’t yet had the chance to shop these yet. I can conclude that Roberto Duran is doing things right. He’s reviving a historic brand with quality cigars that are smoking well. I look forward to smoking more of both of these.

Saturday brought yet another trip up to Hamburg, PA to the Cigars International store. My friend Bacon Jams Bruce and I went up for the Drew Estate Event. We smoked some fine cigars, including my favorites, the Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta #13 Lancero and an Undercrown Corona Viva. I used some gift cards I received for my birthday to pick up the Xikar MTX multi tool/cigar scissors. Thanks guys, you know who you are. This tool will requite some practice, but I’ve hear and seen really good things about it. My concern is that it’s too small and I’m worried about losing it. Perhaps I’ll put it on a lanyard and wear it around my neck! Anyway, the Drew Estate event was well attended, but it didn’t look like the silent auction items were getting a lot of bid action. There was another custom carved humidor but Jessi Flores, the director of Subculture Studios that was a work of art. The auction was again supporting TECHO. This isn’t a criticism, but an observation, but I really think a store like CI is a place people go looking for bargains, not necessarily the well heeled clientele that you find at some upscale shops. I hope they raised a lot of money for this worthwhile charity. Also there were the Operation: Cigars for Warriors folks, and the local Drew Estate Rep, Chris Stone, donated 10″ of his hair to Locks Of Love. Well done, once again, to the generous cigar community. I admit, my reason for going in the first place was to see the Drew Estate crew, and say hello to Jonathan Drew, who hobbled in around 6:30. We had a nice little visit on my way out the door. My apologies to the line of guys waiting to meet him. He’s a good friend and a heck of a nice guy. There were also the usual Drew Estate ambassadors and fans present, always nice to see that cast of characters.

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

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Events, IPCPR, Review, Stores

Tagged as Azan, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Cigars International, drew estate, joya de nicaragua, Operation: Cigars For Warriors, Roberto Duran, TECHO, Toraño

by CigarCraig | September 1, 2013 · 10:28 pm

Birthday Cigars, a Contest Winner and Random Sunday Nonsense

I’ve been a slug this week. We’ve had a busy week here with our youngest going to the National Outdoor Leadership School for 3 weeks, my birthday, along with my wife planning my party on Saturday, as well as it being a holiday weekend. Autumn bums me out a little too, so the specter of summer ending is tough for me. I’ve been just grabbing smokes without concern for writing about them and just enjoying them. I’m old. You kids get the hell off my lawn! Anyway, I’ll get back on track this week.

Thursday was my birthday, and I wanted to smoke something special. I couldn’t really decide what I wanted to smoke, so I went with one of the cigars I blended at Cigar Safari last May. This is the third one of these I’ve smoked, and it’s an enjoyable smoke for me. I used a San Andreas maduro wrapper over a Cameroon binder, along with fillers from Brazil and Nicaragua. Obviously a cigar of your own blending is special, and there’s only seven of these left on the planet, so they are quite rare. I enjoyed the heck out of the cigar, although if I were to do it again I would’t have selected the 6″ x 54 size. The 5×44 size I made two years ago was nice, I shouldn’t have gone quite so much larger. I still love them and they are a special cigar to me. It was a great way to celebrate my 50th birthday.

Saturday we went up to Cigars International in Hamburg, PA to have some cigars with some friends for a few hours. I tried the newish La Gloria Cubana Serie R Black for the first time. The La Gloria Serie R Esteli is a brick and mortar only, while the Black is just for online and catalog sales. Buying this in a brick and mortar location of a major catalog merchant blurs the lines a little bit, but at least it gave me the chance to try this without springing for a five pack and shipping. It was a fine cigar. I think the Esteli version is a richer cigar, a little deeper in flavor than the black. Granted, this was smoked off the sales floor and hasn’t had the advantage of aging, but the Esteli samples haven’t really either. Of course, I’m a La Gloria Cubana fan, and pretty much enjoy everything from the line. I picked up some more of the Rabitos de Cocina and Serie Ns while there.I also smoked a Don Pepin Garcia Original Lancero, a gift from Graham of Over a Cigar podcast and The Cigar Lounger magazine. This is a fantastic smoke. I love the Lancero shape, it’s a perfect format for a social situation. It needs to be smoked slowly, and a good one can be a distraction from conversation. We had a great time at the Hamburg CI, managed to be the last people out of there sometime after 11. I had friends from high school, as well as friends from the cigar world there and everyone had a great time. Thanks to everyone who made it out.

Wednesday I offered a contest featuring The Bacon Jams from my friend Bruce at www.TheBaconJams.com. I’m going to send a taster with the three flavors to the winner, and a couple cigars could fall into the box too, it’s happened before. This seemed appropriate since yesterday was International Bacon Day. I don’t know about you, but every day is a good day for bacon, and this Bacon Jam makes it easy to enjoy it’s bacony goodness. The odds are better than most of my contests, and I have to say I’m a little disappointed in the response. I consulted Random.org, and the random number generator gave me the number 2. So I am the winner….no that’s not right….jjo is the winner! Please send me your address and I’ll get this out as soon as I meet up with Bruce for a cigar or two this week.