I didn’t smoke any new cigars this week, so this will be pretty short and sweet (every time I say that I end up running on or a few paragraphs!). I have to work today too, and I’m up early writing. It was another busy news week. I skipped a few items that I thought were less interesting, I doubt many of you are really that interested in Scandinavian Tobacco Group looking for a new president for General Cigar since Régis Broersma is leaving that post. I figure if you’re in line for that job you aren’t relying on this site to hear that news. Also Drew Estate had a few that I skipped over, one about Acid and Tabak Frenchies, which are cigarillos, which I care little about, and another about 60 ring Tabak Espeicales with I should have posted but I had already had a few news items that day and couldn’t fit it in. I actually would smoke a 60 ring Tabak Especiale. Another one I missed was the announcement of the Protocol Official Misconduct Corona Gorda. Cubariqueño has a history of following their releases with a corona gorda line extension, so this is no surprise. Plenty of other sites had the news, I’m sure. Anyway, I can only do so much, and, regrettably, it seems that every year at IPCPR time when all this news comes out I get some unsubscribes from the mailing list. Sorry for the barrage of e-mails. I guess I can see if I can adjust the e-mails to twice a week or something.
Anyway, there were a could great cigars I smoked this week, a few of which took me back twenty years or so into my cigar smoking history. I had a Fuente Don Carlos No.2, the 5.875 x 55 pyramid, was this one of the the original three vitolas in the line? I know the Robusto and the No.3 were original, but I can’t remember if the No. 2 was or if it came along later. Anyway, I have memories of smoking a Don Carlos Robusto in Vegas in 1997, many more over the years of course, but this is a cigar that has remained consistent in flavor over the years, an amazing thing. Same goes for the Hemingway line, consistent over the years. I like to have some of these in the humidor all the time, classics like the Don Carlos, Hemingway, and Añejo because they are just great cigars!
Another cigar I smoked that brought back some Vegas memories was a Diamond Crown (hey, another DC!). J.C. Newman was kind enough to send me a cool little four-pack of Diamond Crown No. 4s a week or so ago, so I had to light one up yesterday. Here is another cigar that hasn’t changed over the years. It’s a mild, complex Connecticut Shade cigar. There’s a couple interesting factoids about this cigar. When they released this cigar, it was only available west of the Mississippi. At the same time, Opus X was only available east of the Mississippi. These are two completely different cigars, but this caused a bit of a competition between the two, and some trading went on. Another interesting thing was that Dia
mond Crowns all had 54 ring gauges which was HUGE at the time. Anyway, The Diamond Crown remains a classic Connecticut Shade cigar, it’s rich and complex, it had a good flavor with a perfect burn and construction and is hard to beat. In the picture here from 1998 in Vegas I’m smoking a Diamond Crown No. 2, and my wife (also pictured!) is smoking one too!
Speaking of J.C. Newman, they have been running a contest here for the last few months, if you haven’t entered yet I strongly recommend doing so! Click the ad at the top of the right sidebar, or right here, and enter to win a beautiful Brick House Humidor. It’ll be ending at the end of June, so get to it! Many thanks to J.C. Newman for their continuing support. Please flood them with entries and make them give one of you a humidor so that they know that people are seeing their message here on CigarCraig.com!
That’s it for today. I’m going to get through the day at work so I can come home and smoke my traditional Father’s day cigar, one of my last two 1999 Esperanza para los Niños toros. Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of my buying the box of them and the last cigar from that box will be smoked. It’s been a good run. If you don’t know about them, search my site, I’ve told the story several times. Have a great day, until he next time,
CigarCraig
Nice Pic of you and your better half, Craig. Throw my name in the hat, please.
Click the link! It’s JC Newman’s contest!