Category Archives: Uncategorized

by | March 29, 2012 · 9:36 pm

A Cain and a Villiger La Capitana or Two

Tuesday evening I took my walk with a Cain Daytona robusto.  I was in the mood for a great cigar, and haven’t gone wrong with the Daytona, it’s strong enough so you know it’s there, but not so much that it makes the room spin!  I find the Daytona to be the best in the line, although I enjoy all of the Cain line, assuming they’ve had some time to rest in my humidor.  They can be pretty heavy, but almost always have great flavor.  I have some Daytona Lanceros that I’m saving for a time when the weather is perfect and I can enjoy them without distraction.  Good cigars, perfect construction and I still can’t figure out how they get al that ligero to burn so well!

 

Wednesday I selected a new cigar that was provided to me by the fine folks at Villiger.  The cigar is called La Capitana, and the samples I smoked were robustos.  These have a really pretty, oily, reddish wrapper.  When I put the cigar in my mouth before lighting I tasted something that I hadn’t tasted in many, many years.  Don’t laugh, and I don’t mean this in a bad way, but the unlit flavor was that of RedMan or Beechnut chewing tobacco.  I know, I know….but that’s what I tasted!  I haven’t chewed since my misspent youth experimenting with various tobacco products.  I don’t think I’ve chewed tobacco since discovering girls…it’s not an attractive quality, chicks don’t dig it!  So tonight I had to smoke another one just to be sure.  Yup, same flavor. Once lit the cigar has a bit of the sweetness that the cold draw had, and was a very nice and interesting cigar.  The second sample gave me some burn problems, but I attribute that to the wind and the fact that I tried a punch on this one which I quickly abandoned, it caused a really bad tunnel and wasn’t the best idea from the get go.  Of course, it’s much easier to punch first, then cut than the other way around.  My biggest complaint with this cigar is the band.  It’s nice enough, but is utterly lacking in text, there’s no way to know what it was, and I had trouble remembering the name.  The design is nice, but to my old eyes it requires a magnifying glass to see the detail.  Villiger has a nice cigar here, but needs to work on the band.  I love the look of the wrapper, very pretty, a winner if priced and packaged right.  I really appreciate the opportunity to try these new cigars.

 

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

CigarCraig

 

Share

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | January 11, 2012 · 7:41 pm

A Few Short Smokes: Chateau Real, American Eagles and a Griffin’s

I dipped into the little guys for the early part of the week.  It’s been cold, and time has been limited.  I usually save up the little cigars for this time of year, coronas, half coronas, short 30 or 45 minute cigars that taste good, and are perfect for a quick mile or so walk around the neighborhood.

 

I began the week with a favorite, the Chateau Real Small Club Corona Maduro.  I believe these are discontinued, which is a shame, because I really like the Mexican maduro wrapper on these. As with everything from Drew Estate, they always burn well, and, let’s face it, a four inch cigar doesn’t have a lot of room for error.  I bought a box of these sometime in the fall of 2009, and just dug into the last half of the box.  Nice little smokes!

 

Last night I grabbed an American Eagles Half Corona, which I received a few months back from Chris at Sardell Imports.  This is a camouflage wrapped cigar, it had a beautiful Connecticut shade wrapper that’s overlaid with maduro and candella pieces to give it the camo look.  Sure, it’s gimmicky, but it’s a really solid cigar, perfect burn and draw, and a rich mid to medium bodied flavor that is really nice, smooth, creamy and delicious. It a fun cigar, quite tasty and well behaved. I have a whole comedy routine ready for the day I smoke one in a public place and someone complains about it. Seriously, a  portion of the proceeds from these cigars go toward the Semper Fi Fund, and they are blended by Hendrick Kelner, so they are very high quality. I side note, there was a cigar shop in the hotel I stayed at in the Dominican Republic that sold these.

 

This evening I decided to break into one of the boxes of Griffin’s 500 coronas that I inadvertently won on a face book contest. I swear, I have no recollection of entering, although I must have because a beautiful Griffin’s Humidor and two boxes of these beauties showed up at my door last month.  I can always use more humidor space, and these cigars are nice.  These 5 1/16″ x 42 coronas are a classic Connecticut shade cigar. Mild, but no shortage of flavor. Of course, the construction was perfect, as these come from the house of Davidoff.  I honestly have never had a Griffin’s before, always priced outside of my comfort zone.  This will be a great cigar for that first balmy Saturday morning on the deck with coffee.

 

Don’t forget to pester your elected officials about the FDA nonsense! It’s important!  Here’s the link to the form again:

 

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

CigarCraig

Share

10 Comments

Filed under Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | September 18, 2011 · 11:18 am

The Delaware Cigar Festival and Another Contest!

Saturday, September 17 marked the long awaited fifth annual Delaware Cigar Festival, organized and hosted by Gary Griffith, the Premium Cigar Manager of Delaware Cigars and the creator of Emilio and Grimalkin Cigars.  The event took place at Delaware Park, which is already one of our favorite places in the area to go and waste some money on the ponies, or drop some pennies in the slots.  The event was unique, as it is a big herf disguised as a charity event, although Gary won’t use the charity aspect to promote it.  The format is that the manufacturers and reps sell their samples for $3 each, with all of the proceeds going to charity, which this time benefited the family of a slain police officer (news report here), this was just in the last few days and quite tragic.

 

Photo Courtesy of Charlie Greenbacker

For your entrance price you got a bag with about 20 or 25 cigars (nice stuff too, I looked!) and assorted swag, a nice picnic buffet with burgers, dogs, chicken, ribs and beans, and the opportunity to talk with the assorted cigar makers and reps who were there.  Brands represented were:  Inked Magazine, Rocky Patel, Arturo Fuente/JC Newman, Emilio Cigars with brand creator Gary Griffith, Drew Estate, Altadis USA, Oliva, Perdomo, La Sirena with Brand Ambassador Arielle Ditkowich, La Flor Dominicana, Cigar Rights of America, EO Brands with Eddie Ortega, Miami Cigar, General Cigar, 262 Cigars, Kristoff Cigars, El Primer Mundo with Sean Williams, Veritas Cigar Co., and The Cigar Agency. Keith Park from Prometheous was also there.  All of these companies donated TONS of stuff, either cigars that were sold for $3 each, or stuff to be raffled off (we bought 10 tickets didn’t win a darned thing!).  The attendance was capped at 300 people, including staff, press and exhibitors, so it was a nice sized crowd. It was rarely a problem to have a chat with the vendors.

 

In addition to getting to schmooze with some of my friends on the manufacturers side, I was able to hang out a bit with some fellow blogger types such as Barry from ACigarSmoker.com, Walt  from StogieReview.com and Michael from CigarEvents.com.  I also had the great pleasure of meeting one of my readers, Charlie, who won big in the raffle give-aways!  These events are always about the people, and you just don’t meet nicer folks that those associated with cigars for some reason!

 

What a wonderful event that I would recommend highly next year if you are within a 3 or 4 hour drive.  Gary is a fine gentleman and I appreciate him welcoming myself and my wife for the afternoon.  It’s refreshing to see a retailer put on a “not for profit” event, and to have so many people there enjoying cigars and camaraderie.  I’d love to see more manufacturers participate in the future as the event is for good causes and shows the cigar business in a positive light.   The only downside was that the weather could have been a little nicer, it was overcast and under 70 until we drove off the premises, then the sun came out and it was nice!  Hardly anyone’s fault.  I managed to win about $4 on the ponies over the course of the day too!

 

In honor of the event, I’m going to have another quick give-away!  I know, I JUST had one that ended this week, but we got a couple Rosie Napravnik Bobbleheads at the park for Racing Fan Appreciation Day and I thought I’d combine it with a beautiful Veritas Connecticut Salamone that I purchased from the Delaware based Veritas Cigar Co. at the event.  So leave a comment to enter, and I’ll pick a winner next Sunday, September 25th.

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

CigarCraig

Photo Courtesy of Charlie Greenbacker
Share

14 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | July 20, 2011 · 12:13 pm

IPCPR Show Report, Blogger Party, Marc Aub from Palio and Esencia Cigars

I’ve been quite busy running around at the IPCPR show, talking to people and collecting great information and education to present to you over the coming weeks and months. Some of the highlights have been a New Media party held by Drew Estate at the MGM Grand, which was a veritable who’s who of bloggers and journalists (and me!). Several traditional print media folks were there, including Frank Seltzer (an old friend who writes for Smoke Magazine, Cigar Weekly and many others, Thor Nielson (Cigar Press Magazine) and his crew, Stephen Boyajian (Cigar Network Magazine), Jerry and Brian from StogieReview.com, Charlie from TheCigarFeed.com, Brooks from SmokingStogie.com, Mario from CigarExplorer.com, Teresa and Tim from SmokingHotCigarChick.com, Mitch from About.com, Patrick from Examiner.com, William Cooper from Cigar-Coop.com, and I’m sure some others whom I’ll be embarrassed about omitting when they tell me I forgot to mention them! Steve Saka, Marvin Samel, Jonathan Drew and Scott Chester all were there as well as Johnny Brooke, who, along with Charlie, were instrumental in organizing the event. We all received and incredibly generous bag of smokes and had a great time schmoozing. This is another example of why I hold Drew Estate in such high regard and think of them as great friends. I also had the good fortune to meet and talk to Tom Navarro, who is the worlds biggest Drew Estate fan, a CigarCraig.com reader and a fellow Cigar Safarian. It was a wonderful night with a balcony overlooking New York, New York and Excalibur hotels with great friends new and old. Thank you to Drew Estate for hosting (even though getting all these people in one place at the same time would have given Seltzer a great opportunity to get rid of us en masse!)

Last night I had the good fortune to have attended the Cigar Journal annual awards, where at one point I was sitting between Mitchell Orchant of C-Gars Ltd. And Jose Blanco, talk about rubbing elbows with giants in teh industry! I’ll expand more on that after I’ve had a chance to go through the video and transcribe all the winners. After that I had been invited to attend General Cigar‘s party, which was held in the Tryst nightclub in the Wynne hotel. Everyone was hanging out on outside by a waterfall smoking and drinking. I again managed to sit with Frank Seltzer along with Victoria McKee, General Cigars PR Director and a great friend of CigarCraig.com, who I thank for her support, the invitation and for rolling out the red carpet once again in the trade show booth and really treating us blogger types well!

I’ve got some appointments this morning to talk to some more wonderful folks on my last day at the show. I fly home tonight after what has been a pretty long but productive and enjoyable week. I’m going to leave you with the first of many short videos I’ve been taking of exhibitors. Here’s Marc Aub, another great friend and supporter, telling us about the great products at Palio and Esencia!

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

Share

3 Comments

Filed under IPCPR, Trip Report, Uncategorized, Video

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

by | July 18, 2011 · 10:35 pm

IPCPR Day One

Day one of the IPCPR show went very well.  I managed to see a whole bunch of folks and capture some great videos that I will post over the coming weeks.  I’ve included, for your amusement, the opening stampede of retailers from this morning.  It’s rather amazing the sheer numbers of folks that attend the show.  Some of the highlights of the day was Ron White “speaking” at the opening breakfast and Vegas icon Wayne Newton accepting a donation from General Cigar on behalf of the IPCPR for the USO.

Here’s the video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKamhZ_pZ_s

Much more later,

CigarCriag

Share

3 Comments

Filed under Events, IPCPR, Trip Report, Uncategorized

Tagged as , ,