Category Archives: Trip Report

by CigarCraig | July 21, 2013 · 3:54 pm

IPCPR 2013 – Kings Cigars

A day or two before leaving for the show I received a curious package in the mail. In it were a couple of cigars, a t-shirt and a cutter with the name “Kings Cigars” all over them. I had never heard of these guys, why are they sending me stuff? So one of my first missions at the IPCPR show was to seek them out and see what they were all about. It turns out Anwar and Pete are a couple entrepreneurs with a passion for cigars and quality who decided to try their hands in the cigar business. They have been working for the better part of 3 years to make a product that is ready to bring to market, and now was the time. I spent a few hours today in the pool with the Conde Churchill, a San Andreas wrapped beauty. This is one that came in the mail last week, so it had a little bit of humidor time while I was away in Vegas. The other two that were included were the box pressed, 6″x60 “King of Kings”, which we were told at the show to give them some humidor time before smoking, a month or two. It’s a shame to see some reviews popping up already for cigars that aren’t quite ready yet. It may be a few weeks until I dig into the show samples as I like to give them time to adjust from their journeys. The Conde Churchill was an outstanding smoke. I smoked it in the pool, which was very relaxing on a hot summer day. It only needed a minor correction and the draw was perfect with a V cut. I don’t know if I could have enjoyed this cigar more, and I think I saw a couple of robustos floating around which I look forward to. If the rest of the line is as good as this, I think the Kings guys really have something, and I’m not just saying this because we had such a great time visiting with Anwar, Pete and their crew at the show. Their booth was an oasis for us, and they were always quite friendly and accommodating (the Cuban coffee wasn’t bad either!).

Here’s the video telling us about Kings Cigars:

Thanks to Anwar and the guys for everything, and we wish you the best. It’s hard to get a new boutique going, but having a solid cigar is a step in the right direction.

In other news:

Saturday my lovely wife and I went to Cape May, NJ to go on a four hour fishing trip off the coast on the Cape May Lady. Now, you can take my man card away if you want, but I’m not very interested in fishing. I was afraid of getting my line tangle with someone else, or, worse, actually catching something! I had made certain that cigars were allowed, of course, so the only stick I was interested in holding was a 7½” x 56 Box Pressed Recluse Excepcionales. This had a year of age on it as the folks at Iconic Leaf had given it to me last year at the trade show. This, like every cigar I’ve tried in the line, was exceptional! We had planned on getting to Cape May early, having lunch, and getting on the one o’clock trip. Traffic foiled that plan, so we had lunch and wandered around the outdoor mall there for a few hours (where I enjoyed a CAO Concert while Jenn shopped) while we waited for the 7pm night fishing trip. We got on the boat and I lit up my cigar, which was stellar, and we got under way. Seas were choppy, and the cigar kept my mind off of the fact that I was queasy. We stopped near the Cape May lighthouse and dropped lines (I was waiting for the boat to stop pitching!). A couple guys caught little sand sharks, but about 40 minutes in the deck hand came around to tell us that we had to go in because the generator failed and we didn’t have lights. They get a hefty fine from the Coast Guard if they are caught without lights! It was dark by the time we were getting in, an it was a bit eerie. They gave us tickets to use in the future with their apologies, so we may go try again, although we seem to have a track record with missing boats! We had a great day, though, it was certainly something to talk about!

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under IPCPR, Review, Trip Report, Video

Tagged as Cape May Lady, cigar, cigars, IPCPR, Kings Cigars

by CigarCraig | May 15, 2013 · 8:45 pm

Trip Report: Drew Estate Cigar Safari – Part 4

In the saga of my latest trip to Nicaragua and Cigar Safari, we are up to Tuesday afternoon. First, I want to take care of the current contest business. It seems that I don’t read my own posts and inadvertently changed the rules in the middle of the contest. As I commented on the last post when this error was pointed out, I’ve decided to attempt to make this right by awarding two prizes, the initial prize of two 5-packs of My Uzi Weighs a Ton Baitfish, a cap and cutter and assorted goodies to the person who guessed the exact number of banded cigars I smoked (the first to guess that number), and a 5-pack of Baitfish, a cap and cutter and assorted goodies to the person who came closest as of Sunday, May 11 prior to the last post. I apologize for the misstep on my part and it won’t happen again. The winning number was 14. Lloyd L. had guessed 13 in the first round and should have been the winner, all I can say is that he should be happy with the consolation prize. smoke770 was the first to guess 14, so he is the winner of the original prize. These gentlemen need to send (or re-send to verify) their addresses so I can mail this stuff out. Thanks to all who participated and to Brian for pointing out my blunder in a gentlemanly way.

When we got back from our tour of the tobacco bodegas and the new construction at Drew Estate, we had a nice lunch and I enjoyed a Liga Privada No.9. We then started our tour of the Drew Estate factory. Much of this I missed, along with the pre-industry portion of the tour, two years prior. The rolling galleries are expansive. Every wall has tremendous artwork on the walls and on various items throughout It’s a very clean and pleasant place to work. I do admit it was a little surreal hearing a Barry Manilow song piped into the main gallery. Hundreds of pairs are rolling thousands of cigars. We were all given the opportunity to apply wrappers to bunches under the tutelage of experienced rollers and I can do OK up until it’s time to finish the cap, which I can’t get the hang of cutting the flag and finishing it off, and I might as well have hooves when it comes to cutting out the cap and applying it. It’s very humbling and gives one a renewed appreciation for the art. In another area we each had to remove the center vein from a leaf. The women working there do hundreds of leaves a day without even blinking. I managed to do it cleanly on my first try, but chalk that up to beginners luck and a cooperative leaf.

We wandered through packaging areas, cold storage rooms and more tobacco storage on our way to the blending session. Last time my son and I worked off of a menu in the Esteli emergency room and my cigars turned out to be very good in my estimation. I was going for a certain taste and strength and I was very happy with the results. I went into this thinking of recreating my blend in a larger size, but there were many more varieties of tobacco to choose from, and I had the benefit of seeing, feeling and smelling the leaves. I ended up with a similar, but different blend that I hope will be just as good. In a few weeks I’ll let you know. Of course, I used my favorite San Andreas wrapper again, but with a Cameroon binder. I used a similar proportion of Brazilian Mata Fina in the filler, some Ometepe and Jalapa Ligero that smelled really good. Instead of the 5″ x44 corona I made last time, I went with a 6″ x 54 toro for reasons I’m not completely sure of, it just seemed right at the time. It was great fun and will be really interesting to compare the two.

After we finished there we took a short tour of Jessi Flores’ Subculture Studios. This is where all of the art happens. The were secretive about the current project, which was the booth for the upcoming trade show, but they silk screen all of the boxes there, as well as t-shirts, stickers and other goodies. Again, the walls are painted with various scenes and designs. It’s quite a unique and amazing department that is very different from other factories.

DSCN3267

The evening was spent dining and enjoying fine cigars with Jonathan, Steve, José, Nicholas, Johnny Brooke and Pedro, who had been generous and gracious hosts to us on the trip. I constantly marvel at the great friendships I’ve made in the cigar industry, just because I decided to talk about cigars on the internet. The group of bloggers and media folks I consider friends and look forward to seeing them all again. You will find some great posts about this trip at CasasFumando.com, Cigar-Coop.com, and StogieGuys.com and I imagine several other outlets, many more detailed and informative than mine. Thanks to everyone at Drew Estate for including me in this adventure, I learned many things and will always treasure the memories and friendships.

Here’s the slideshow from the factory tour and the final evening:

httpv://youtu.be/erYXGmuco1I

That concludes my recap of the trip for the most part. I will, no doubt, throw in pictures and videos and commentary where I think it may be relevant to the content of the day. Now I have to go back to paying attention to the cigars I smoke so I can get back to my normal routine (for instance, tonight I smoked a Gurkha Seduction Toro that was outstanding, I really love that cigar!)!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, Cigar Safari, cigars, Contest, drew estate, joya de nicaragua

by CigarCraig | May 12, 2013 · 10:54 am

Trip Report: Drew Estate Cigar Safari – Part 3 (And a Contest, AGAIN!)

In the last installment (http://www.cigarcraig.com/?p=5594) I offered two five-packs of My Uzi Weighs a Ton Baitfish and some other gooddies (including surprises!) to whomever could guess how many banded cigars I smoked and noone got the right number! So, go back an look at all the numbers and try again! Rules are simple: guess a number (your best path to success is to NOT guess a number that was previously guessed, as we know that they are all wrong!) I understand that this makes it a little harder, but that’s the deal, so there! I’ll attempt to select a winner on Wednesday! Remember, the wrong answers are here. Good luck!

We left off on Monday, April 29, having visited both the Oliva Tobacco operations and the Joya de Nicaragua factories, having had a ton of knowledge dropped on us at every turn. Tuesday evening was spent hanging out after dinner and socializing and smoking cigars. It had been a good day. Tuesday morning we awoke bright and early in anticipation of touring Drew Estate’s pre-industry operations, their new construction, as well as the factory and Subculture Studio (which I’ll cover on Wednesday). I was looking for a “start the day” smoke, a rare treat for me, as I hung around with Will Cooper and Stace Berkland waiting for breakfast. When one has to choose a cigar from the likes of Liga Privada T52, No.9 and Dirty Rats, Joya de Nicaragua Antaño 1970, MUWAT 7×60 and Undercrown first thing in the morning it’s tough, you know? Fortunately there was also a box of Hererra Esteli there which would server quite well as a morning smoke (sure, I could have been cliché and smoked a Tabak Especiale, not that there’s anything wrong with that). Anyway, the Hererra Esteli is a terrific smoke, Willy was with us the whole trip, and I am sorry I couldn’t manage to see him last week when he visited a shop about 20 miles away. We boarded the bus and headed to one of the Drew Estate tobacco bodegas in town, of which they have several. Here they were storing tobacco in pilons, carefully monitoring them and turning them as needed. They also had storage in bales and more sorting operations. Steve and Nicholas walked us through the entire operation. They use different colored string to tie the hands of tobacco together when they sort it to identify the priming and are very conscientious about what goes where. Once again, I’m in awe of the detail that goes into these things we burn up in an hour or so. After this we returned to the Drew Estate factory and donned hardhats and took a tour of the new construction going on across the street of the building that will consolidate all of these little bodegas around town into one building. This is a 70,000 square foot warehouse which will be state of the art, have storage and sorting operations and they anticipate it will be at capacity within 18 months! In the slideshow below you will see some pictures. After walking through the new construction (which includes a new cafeteria and healthcare clinic as well) we returned for lunch.

Here’s the slideshow:

httpv://youtu.be/QvyJm03UOmU

I’m going to cut it short here because it’s Mother’s Day and it’s beautiful out. Don’t forget, leave some more comments here with your gueses of how many banded cigars I smoked on the trip, and have a great day! Also, please join me in welcoming Tobacco Specialists to the CigarCraig.com family. They carry a wide range of tobacco products and accessories.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, Cigar Safari, cigars, Contest, drew estate

by CigarCraig | May 8, 2013 · 6:56 pm

Trip Report: Drew Estate Cigar Safari – Part 2 (And a Contest!)

After visiting the Oliva Tobacco operations, we returned to the Drew Estate compound for a delicious lunch. The food is always great on the Cigar Safari, no need to worry about going hungry. I’ve evolved over the years, instead of having a cigar in my hand the entire time, I’ve begun waiting until down time to enjoy a smoke. There just seems to be too much to take in on these tours to be concerned with a cigar, and I’m juggling cameras as well. I’ve lost track of what I smoked when, but all the cigars smoked there were good! More on that later…

Since Will Cooper (cigar-coop.com) recently posted an excellent article on the Joya de Nicaragua factory history, direction and the presentation that we were given, in today’s installment I’ll focus on an exercise administered by José Blanco, a gentleman who is a legend in the industry and whom we had the great privilege to spend quite a bit of time with on this trip. In the past we took part in a blending session consisting of wrapper, binder and filler tobaccos from the Esteli, Condega and Jalapa tobacco growing regions of Nicaragua. I must say that I still enjoy the cigars I blended at Joya de Nicaragua on my last visit in March of 2011, I have 2 left. Since we had all done that before, José Blanco and the group there decided that we should do something different. We were given an exercise. We would be given three little cigars that Jose called “Grado Puro”, which were made entirely of one leaf variety, binder, wrapper and filler. These were different than the fumas style cigars I’ve had in the past for tasting tobaccos in that they were very nicely rolled little petit coronas. We were tasked with trying to determine the country of origin, the priming (Seco, Viso or Ligero) and list what we liked and disliked about each variety. Of course, this was a disaster for me, as well as many of my media compadres. I was fairly adept at mis-identifying each tobacco, and I probably didn’t even get my likes and dislikes right! I don’t think any of us expected one of the puros to be Peruvian tobacco! I had a Peruvian puro not too long ago and I missed that completely. After we fried our palates on the Grado Puros, we were asked to evaluate a 6″ x 60 unbanded cigar that we assumed may be a new offering, fully appreciating the folly of trying to taste anything at that point in the afternoon! Many bailed after the first inch or two, but I stuck with it for a while and while it started out a little slow, it built into a nice tasting smoke by the middle. I’ll be interested to see what this was, I suspect it was NOT a Nicaraguan puro, but what do I know?

Here is a slideshow of some photos I took while we were there:

Of course, The folks at Joya de Nicaragua were excellent hosts. Mario Perez is always a very knowledgeable and articulate host, and they have some younger folks working to update their image through social media and the like. The renovations they have done to the building, inside and out, are major improvements. The natural light and brightly painted walls make for a pleasant working environment inside, and the renovation to the facade of the building is both updated and an homage to the past simultaneously. Juan Martinez, Dr. Cuenca’s eldest son, is the new president of the company, and he’s obviously got his head on straight because he’s got a great group of folks and a terrific product to work with. I smoked an Antaño 1970 Consul last night and it was a terrific smoke, dense, rich and delicious!

You can see in the above before and after pictures the dramatic difference that they’ve made! Thank you to everyone at Joya de Nicaragua for rolling out the red carpet to us last week. I never tire of visiting your lovely factory!

Contest!

What the heck, I have some extra goodies laying around here that are relevant to the subject matter described herein, so let’s give stuff away! I have two 5-packs of My Uzi Weighs a Ton Baitfish, I MUWAT trucker cap, an Acid Bulletproof cutter, and some assorted surprise odds and ends I’ll scare up! I’m going to make you work this time. While I was at Cigar Safari I saved all of the bands from the cigars I smoked. Some were regular production, some had factory ID bands, but I have them here, and I need you to guess how many I have. The winner is whoever guesses correctly, or is closest by Sunday, May 12, 2013. Ties will be decided by the timestamp on the comment, so pay attention! Good luck, it may not be as easy as it sounds!

Here’s Will Cooper’s video of the presentation I mentioned earlier. Thanks, Will, for saving me the trouble of editing mine!

httpv://youtu.be/FNz9m8SlNco

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Contest, drew estate, joya de nicaragua, My Uzi Weighs a Ton

by CigarCraig | May 5, 2013 · 1:26 pm

Trip Report: Drew Estate Cigar Safari – Part 1

On April 28 I began what would be my second Drew Estate Cigar Safari. This time was a little different than the last time, as this was a trip composed entirely of the media, bloggers and print media. I was fortunate to have already known all but 2 of my fellow Safarians, and it didn’t take long to get to know them. Present on this trip were Will of Cigar-Coop.com, Stace of LeafandGrape.com, Tony of CasasFumando.com, Brian and Ben from StogieReview.com, Jay and Dan from Cigar Press Magazine and Steve from Tobacconist Magazine and myself. After an uneventful couple of plane rides, we landed in Managua and got through immigration without issue. Pedro was, of course, waiting for us with the bus to take us on our journey. Because this was a media trip, we skipped the sightseeing portion usually present on the Cigar Safari, and, after a delicious lunch, headed to Esteli. Sunday evening was pretty laid back and after dinner we just kind of sat around socializing over cigars.

Monday we arose bright and early to an excellent breakfast, then loaded onto the bus to visit the Oliva Tobacco Company‘s farm in Esteli, Finca La Joya. This late in the season most of the crop has already been harvested, but there were still some crops coming in and being hung in the massive curing barns. It’s here where one really starts to appreciate all the steps that go into making a premium cigar. On the farm the plants are raised from a seed, tended, weeded and thinned out, then planted in the field, then tended, weeded and thinned out. After several months they start methodically taking the leaves from the bottom of the plant, and hanging them in the barns. But they aren’t just randomly hung, they are paired and hung over sticks back to back and handled in such a way as to prevent damage and promote even coloration. The conditions in the barn are carefully monitored, the floor is soaked with water if it gets too dry, and charcoal is burned if it gets too humid. This is all just the first leg in the journey the tobacco takes on it’s way to becoming a cigar that we will spend an hour or so enjoying.

Fast forward about 6 months from when that tiny little seed is planted, and the tobacco is sorted for texture and size. They make bundles of leaves called “hands” and build very well organized piles called “pilons”. These pilons weigh about 5000 pounds and are closely monitored for temperature. When they reach a certain temperature for a certain amount of time they are taken apart and rearranged so the hands in the middle are on the outside, the top on the bottom and so forth. This takes a great deal of manpower and enough room to move 5000 pounds of tobacco around. This can be done several times over a course of months before the tobacco has properly fermented. I took a bunch of pictures while there, here’s the slideshow for your viewing pleasure. I’ll try to get some captions in there at some point, but please ask any questions you may have in the comments.

httpv://youtu.be/MtjxWS2IEXw

When the leaves are done doing their thing in the pilons, they are sorted once again for size, texture and color and compressed into more manageable bales which will be stored, typically by whomever purchased the tobacco, for several years. The tobacco continues to rest in these bales until it’s time to make cigars, at which time it’s sorted again. a few hundred hands have already touched each leaf and it’s not even close to being a cigar yet. There’s no way I can cover every aspect of the process, so these have just been the highpoints. It definitely illustrates the care and expense that goes into a bundle of leaves to which we set fire!!

Here’s a little video with Steve Saka and Nicholas Melillo of Drew Estate discussing some ways that conditions are maintained in a curing barn.

httpv://youtu.be/3HdpyCY–Rs

It’s at this point that we broke for lunch, and it’s a logical stopping point for today. Next time we will visit one of my favorite places, the Joya de Nicaragua factory. It’s a beautiful Sunday here in PA and I intend to make the best of it before having to go back to the office tomorrow after a week off.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, Cigar Safari, cigars, curing barn, drew estate, farms, oliva, sorting