Here’s another little video from last week’s Tobacco Plus Expo. I hadn’t seen Dean Parsons for a while, since he sold his company to Nat Cicco and went to work for them. I also had never smoked a Nat Cicco cigar until just tonight. I selected the Liga No. 4 in the Aniversario 1965 line. This was a square pressed Toro with a closed foot and a pigtail cap and a dark Ecuador Habano wrapper. It was a beautiful cigar with some strength and loads of dark, rich flavor. It was chocolaty, earthy with some spice, right up my alley. It was a really beautiful cigar, and I really enjoyed it. I’ve known Dean since 2014 and enjoyed many of his Epic cigars. It was great seeing him at this show.
I hope you enjoy my video content. It was challenging doing it alone, without a cameraman, but I think I was able to pull it off. If you’ve watched the evolution of my video coverage I hope there’s been some improvement over the years. It’s not my main focus, but I try to at least make them audible. I have a couple more to feed in over the next couple weeks. Stay tuned.
Until the next time,
CigarCraig
Comments Off on TPE2022: Epic Cigars and Nat Cicco Cigars
As I’m getting ready to fly home I’m reflecting on the last few days at the TPE show. This was my first major event in two years, mostly pandemic related, but there were also some personal concerns. At the risk of appearing less than humble, I had forgotten how many people I knew in the cigar industry. It was great reconnecting with so many old friends, and making a bunch of new ones! Actually one of the things I was thinking about going in was the media attendance. I have a very narrow sphere of podcasts and sites I follow, I’m less in tune with the “influencers”, be they Instagramers or Youtubers out there. I met a few of the Youtube folks with whom we have mutual friends, or other business crossovers, and I saw a bunch of people taking selfies in the aisles, but I couldn’t tell you who they are. One thing I think the TPE could do better is to put the name of the media outlet on the badge instead of just the person’s real name and “Media”. I learned on my first go around to put one of my logo stickers on my badge to visually identify myself. One of my favorite things about the last few days was hanging out with friends I don’t get to see often, they are in my ear on a weekly basis, but we never share the same space. Over the next few months you’ll hear about the cigars I came across, but for me the show was about networking, and I was able to talk to just about everyone I wanted to talk to.
One of the people I talked to quite a bit at the show was Micky Pegg of All Saints Cigars. Of course, the Saint Francis was one of my favorite cigars of last year. The funny thing is that Micky lives a few mile away from me, and had to fly 2500 miles away to hang out with him. I mic’d him up and we chatted for a few minutes:
Stay tuned for more quick video interviews over the next few days. Other people do it better, but it’s easier than taking notes and typing!
I’ve been hearing a lot about Bocock Brothers Cigars lately, and between my buddy Kaplowitz raving about them (and I mean “raving” in a good way, not in the “raving lunatic” sense, which comes to mind when his name is mentioned. I kid, sorta). I had also received an email from Doug Bocock inviting me to meet up prior to the TPE, so I kept an eye on their busy corner of one of the pavilion spaces and caught an opening yesterday. I talked to Bryant Bocock for a few minutes, he handles the blending and manufacturing end, while Doug is more on the sales and marketing end. check out the video:
While I haven’t yet sampled their cigars, I have some and will smoke them when I get home and have a clean palate. I think I smoked seven or eight cigars yesterday, it was a little ridiculous. I’m very interested in trying them. I had my eye on them just for the chicken tie in!
One of the first booths on my list that I wanted to visit was the DAHOT booth. As you know, I’ve been a big fan of their cigars for several years. Their Don Juan Calavera and Marchetti cigars have been some of my favorites over the past three years. I was honored when Susana Piñeda, the owner of the company, recognized me when I approached the booth. Today I sat down with her for a few minutes to chat. the video is unedited, as the WiFi her is abysmal.
Stay tuned for more TPE coverage in a timely manner, or over the coming weeks as resources allow. If nothing else, the Media Lounge has chairs, where there are none on the show floor, and my back gave out yesterday!
Yesterday I found myself wandering much further north in PA than I usually find myself. There was a seminar on Bees and Chickens that my wife and I attended, and I snuck off during the second half to do some of my own research. Twenty minutes away from the venue where the seminar was held happened to be the brand new Best Cigar Pub, and Best Cigar Prices headquarters. I figured this would be a good place to visit. Fortunately, the purchasing manager, Chris O’Neill, managed to arrange a tour for me. Katie (Katy? I forgot to clarify), the Finance/HR director, gave me a tour of the entire facility. Why do small companies always saddle the Finance director with HR responsibilities? Like they don’t have enough to worry about? I digress. I had already given myself a tour of the retail humidor, which has a very nice selection and courteous service. Katie showed me the bar, pointed out many of the little things like custom tables with actual tobacco leaves under acrylic, art on the wall done by a local artist, all of the ashtrays made by a local craftsman. She pointed out the excellent menu as well. She then waled me through the Best Cigar Prices operations, all of the offices, warehouse, shipping and all of the stuff I enjoy seeing as a guy who’s spent his professional career in operations. They run a very clean and efficient pick, pack, and ship operation from what I can see. All of the marketing, customer service, web design is all done there in Pennsylvania. I was quite impressed with the operation. I’ll get back to the Pub, which was even more impressive. Upstairs is a lounge with TVs and comfy chairs, wait-staff is attentive and the air handlers replace all the air in the place every three minutes, so it’s not smokey at all. They even have a coat closet in the entry that has an ozone generator so that your coat doesn’t smell smokey. They’ve really thought of everything to make this not just a place to come have a cigar, but a place that smokers and non-smokers alike can enjoy a meal or a beverage together. I enjoyed a 601 Pennsylvania Edition, which is an Espinosa exclusive for BCP. Chris happened to join me and interrupted me while I was taking in the museum portion of the upstairs lounge, which is an educational feature they’ve added. It has the origin story of cigars with a timeline and facts about cigars, infographics about the tobacco plant, how cigars are made, every conceivable detail. Chris tells me they plan to have monitors with video loops of various processes playing included in the wall as well. Best Cigar Pub is a beautiful place, it’s easy enough to find, although not exactly in the middle of anything. I can see it being amazing in the summer with the outdoor patios and putting green and nobody around to really complain! Certainly worth a visit if you are anywhere near north-east PA.
I had heard of Blackbird Cigar Company, but hadn’t seen the cigars any where. When I walked past the booth and they weren’t busy, it seemed like a great time to stop in and see what it they were all about. Imagine my surprise when the owner and founder of the company, Jonas Santana, looked at me and said “I know who you are”. It seems he used to work for another company, and struck out on his own to start Blackbird. I think it was on CigarProp’s youtube channel that I remember hearing about the brand. Anyway, I asked Jonas to share the story of the brand with me on camera. have a look:
Over the course of the past several days I smoked a few of the Blackbird cigars offerings. I would have lined to have smoked them all, but I just couldn’t get to them. They have six cigars in the portfolio, and I can’t run down my smoking experience for six cigars in one post. They very cleverly make the bands on the cigars easy to remove, which is good because they are large bands and doo need to be removed to fully enjoy the cigar! They have two Sumatra wrapped offerings, and, as I’ve been on a Sumatra kick lately, and I smoked the Sumatra Rook with them at the TPE and really enjoyed it, I smoked the Finch this week. This was another excellent Sumatra wrapped cigar. It had the nice, sweet Sumatra wrapper flavor and a well-balanced core of tobacco goodness withinThis has an Indonesian binder, and Dominican and USA fillers. It was solidly medium bodied and a very nice cigar. Next I went with what you’d expect from me, the San Andrés wrapped Crow. It was Valentines Day, and I figured the red band would be appropriate. This cigar had a closed foot, and a dark, oily wrapper. The flavors were earthy and bakers chocolate, perhaps espresso, without sweetness. The internals on this one include a Habano binder and Nicaraguan, Pennsylvanian, and Corojo and Criollo 98 fillers. Very enjoyable. Finally, last night after a long day trip, I unwound with the Unkind, a Brazilian Cubra wrapped cigar. This was also a maduro cigar, and, like the rest, a 5″ x 50 robusto. The binder on this one is from the DR, with Criollo 09, HBA (not sure what this means), Corojo and Pennsylvania. One thing I can say about all of the Blackbird cigars I smoked was that that all were well made and burned right, an important consideration. It’s possible that the PA tobacco was a common flavor component that I picked up though the few cigar I smoked this week. You’ll see if you watch the video that some thought went into the brand, and the same attention went into the quality of materials and manufacture as well. The Unkind had a unique flavor, also an earthy maduro, not really sweet. It was very good though, I enjoyed it completely. I still have the Connecticut Jackdaw and Criollo Cuco yet to smoke, I kind of like those two wrapper varieties more in warmer weather for some reason. I’ll get to them and let you know.
Contest!
OK, so after a lot of money and aggravation, my site is clean. It’s time to pick a winner of the sampler of some of my favorite cigars, Don Juan Calavera, Flor Maya and Marchetti cigars from Danli Hondura Tabaco, and I had to collect entries from two different places. After collecting all of the names, and putting them into a bowl (OK, I put them into a spreadsheet and randomized the list to mix them up and assign them numbers), the random number generator picked Anthony C as the winner. Please email me your coordinates and proof that you are 21 or older so I can get these goodies to you. I have a KMA Talk Radio hat and shirt and a Stage V Clinger cigar holder to add as well (it’s a big shirt, do with it what you will, I take no responsibility. If it fits, great!).
That’s all for today, and way more than I had planned! Until the next time,
Here’s another little video from last week’s Tobacco Plus Expo. I hadn’t seen Dean Parsons for a while, since he sold his company to Nat Cicco and went to work for them. I also had never smoked a Nat Cicco cigar until just tonight. I selected the Liga No. 4 in the Aniversario 1965 line. This was a square pressed Toro with a closed foot and a pigtail cap and a dark Ecuador Habano wrapper. It was a beautiful cigar with some strength and loads of dark, rich flavor. It was chocolaty, earthy with some spice, right up my alley. It was a really beautiful cigar, and I really enjoyed it. I’ve known Dean since 2014 and enjoyed many of his Epic cigars. It was great seeing him at this show. 
