CigarCraig's Blog

by Craig Vanderslice | February 23, 2020 · 11:05 am

More Platinum Nova Cigars and a Stolen Throne Cigar

I dipped into the stash of Platinum Nova cigars I brought back from the TPE show again this week and started with one of their Limited Editions, the Park Avenue. This is one of their more expensive offerings, coming in a a whopping $31 per cigar. This has an Ecuador 2000 wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican fillers. If I understand correctly, their factory is in Palm Beach, Florida, which will account for the price tag. Since last posted about Nova, they entered into a distribution arrangement with Sutliff Tobacco, who also distributes Regius Cigars in the U.S. now. The Park Avenue is a 6¼” x 54 toro. It’s a nice looking cigar with a flawless milk-chocolate brown wrapper, and the burn and draw were just fine, what one expects in a cigar of this caliber. As with the other Nova cigars I’ve smoked, there is a unique flavor that I can’t describe except that it’s very elegant. Perhaps the price point is in my head a little, but there is something special in the flavor of the Nova Park Avenue. It’s probably not a cigar I’d personally spring for, but I’m quite glad for the opportunity to have smoked it.

A few weeks ago when I visited Cigar Mojo, Wade, one of the owners, gave me one of the new cigars that they had that was moving well and he was impressed with for me to try. I was unfamiliar with this cigar, so I looked it up when I got home and only found a Facebook and Instagram page. The cigar is the Stolen Throne Crook of the Crown and it was a 5″ x 50 Robusto. Fortunately, Lee, who is behind the Facebook page, and presumably the, or one of, the brand owners, is quite responsive via messenger, because I had questions as I was really enjoying this cigar yesterday! He confirmed my suspicion that it has a San Andrés wrapper, and told me that it has an Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan fillers. He let me know that it is made at the Flor de San Luis factory in Esteli under the supervision of Noel Rojas. I thought this was an incredible cigar. There’s a lot of things I don’t agree with Wade at Mojo upon, but he was right about this cigar. It had a rich cocoa and coffee flavor, but every now and then an interesting floral taste snuck in. It was quite entertaining to smoke while I watched a very good Flyers matinee on the porch. It did have some nicotine kick to it. I will take a look at these the next time I’m in Mojo. By the way, don’t forget, Cigar Mojo carries my favorite cigars from Danli Honduras Tabaco, including the new The Clown and the Box Pressed Marchetti maduro! Good stuff.

Last night I grabbed another Platinum Nova cigar. I don’t really know if I’m supposed to call them Platinum Nova, or just Nova…When I was introduced to them by Ann at Sutliff, and I’m starting to connect the dots there, something might already have been in the works, they were just introduced as Nova, with is the most prominent word in their branding. For my own ease I’m going to go with Nova from here on out, I’m beginning to get that they are Platinum level in quality! I selected the Leo X, which is the personal blend of Leonor Abzaradel, the CEO of Nova Cigars. it’s a 5¾” x 50 with the Ecuador 2000 wrapper again, and Dominican HVA binder and Dominican fillers. I’d say that it was a very sophisticated blend, with some floral notes, and a lot of flavor. It didn’t surprise me that this was the favorite of Leonor, it struck me as a cigar one could smoke over and over without tiring. It was light enough to not fatigue the palate, yet loaded with interesting flavors. It certainly was not a girly smoke, and I don’t want to sound chauvinistic. I’d smoke it, I DID smoke it and I loved it! It’s a great cigar, and falls somewhere between their LE line and the regular line on the price scale in the $21 range, so, again, not a cheap date, but one you won’t forget.

In an odd twist, my wife and I were only Friday talking about low airfares to south Florida and how if I had known a few days earlier I could have flown down for the Great Smoke and seen of one of the vendors needed some booths help or something, and doesn’t CigarProp Kevin post on his way to the event that he has an extra pass? talk about bad timing! A day or two earlier and I could have been a special guest helper at the I’d Tap That booth! Damn! That’s about all I have for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Crook of the Crown, Leo X, Nova, Park Avenue, Platinum Nova, Stolen Throne

by Craig Vanderslice | February 19, 2020 · 5:21 pm

Cuevas Reserva Natural and Maduro Cigars and Casa Cuevas La Mandarria

I smoked a pair of Cuevas Reserva cigars before heading to Las Vegas and really enjoyed them, then I had occasion to meet Luis Cuevas at the Tobacco Plus Expo and talked to him about the cigars. I didn’t really have a chance to write about the cigars before I left, but I had a pair of each left and wanted to give them some more attention after I got back. Yesterday was the day when I had the chance to smoke one more of each of the Natural and Maduro in the Robusto size. Both were 5″ x 52, but are also offered in toro and torpedo sizes. The first time around I smoked the Maduro first, followed by the Natural, this time I flip-plopped. The Natural is a Ecuador Connecticut wrapped cigar, with a “Havana” binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and the U.S.A. I’m unclear on what the binder actually is, is it Habano, and from where? And the U.S.A. in the filler? PA or Connecticut Broadleaf? My palate says PA, because this cigar had some body and unique flavor that is unusual for a Connecticut wrapped cigar. That being said, what do I know? The wrapper gave it some creaminess, along with some toasty flavors, without a lot of sweetness. I found it to be enjoyable, and well made.

The Maduro has a San Andrés wrapper, a Piloto Cubano binder from the DR, and Dominican and Nicaraguan (Ometepe) fillers. The cigars are made in the Casa Cuevas‘ Las Lavas factory in the DR. These are the first Cuevas branded cigars I’ve smoked, but I’ve smoked many cigars that they’ve made over the years. They’ve made cigars for the Toraños and Sam Leccia, among others in the past. Obviously, the Cuevas Reserva Maduro was very different from the Natural. The Mexican wrapper gives this an earthy flavor, and, like the Natural, it’s not a sweet cigar. It has a very nice tobacco flavor, and, like the natural, was very well made. The fact that the folks at Casa Cuevas Cigars sent me robustos allowed me to smoke them both in the same day, which was good, but I will be on the look out for these in the toro size, which you well know I really like. Luis Cuevas was a super-nice dude, and I wish I had sat down with him and done a video interview. I’m sure I could have worked it out, I know somebody…that one’s on me.

Just as I was starting to wonder if I couldn’t taste sweetness in cigars any more after coming home from TPE with what has come to me known in some parts of the cigar industry as the “Kostavirus” (named after Kosta Fotiadis, the proprietor of SMōKe Cigar Lounge in nearby Manayunk, PA), I smoked the Casa Cuevas La Mandarria today. This was originally a limited edition cigar that commemorated the robbery of the Cuevas warehouse in Miami last year. This sort of thing seems to happen annually to one company or another, most recently effecting Jochi Blanco’s Indian Head Cigars Warehouse. In the case of the Cuevas break in, the thieves broke through a wall with sledgehammers, hence the name La Mandarria, Spanish for sledgehammer. This cigar is now a regular production cigar, and what a great thing that is, because it’s a wonderful cigar. The cigar has an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, Dominican Olor binder, and fillers from Dominican and Nicaragua. It’s a 6″ x 52 toro with a curlicue pigtail cap and a shaggy foot. The first three quarters of an inch of binder only are fairly unremarkable, but when the Habano wrapper catches, the sweetness kicks in and the full flavor comes through. There’s a bit of nice spice, but it’s mainly a nice, sweet smoke, and fairly full bodied. I loved the flavors of this and the burn and draw were absolutely perfect. I was sorry to put this one down when it reached about three quarters of an inch in length and threatened to burn my lips. I thought I really liked the two Cuevas Reserva cigars, but I really, really loved this one!

Take a look on the left sidebar at the CigarPage graphic, it’s new, and if you click through and make a purchase and use the code “CigarCraig10” in the checkout, you’ll get 10% off your purchase! Full disclosure, it’s an affiliate link, so I’ll get a little something out of it, which I could use to pay for the the “maintenance” I just had to do last week! CigarPage is a great outfit with some great deals! Unfortunately it doesn’t look like they carry Cuevas cigars though!

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Tagged as Casa Cuevas, cigar, CigarPage, cigars, Cuevas Reserva, La Mandarria

by Craig Vanderslice | February 16, 2020 · 10:18 am

A Visit to Best Cigar Pub, Blackbird Cigar Co. Cigars and Video and Contest Winner

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!

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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 Ho

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ndura 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,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Review, Stores, TPE, Trip Report, Video

Tagged as 601, Best Cigar Prices, Best Cigar Pub, Blackbird Cigar Co., cigar, cigar store, cigars, Contest, Crow, Danli Honduras Tabacos, DOn Juan Calavera, Finch, Flor Maya, Marchetti, Rook, Unkind

by Craig Vanderslice | February 12, 2020 · 9:48 am

Danli Honduras Cigars Sampler Contest Extension!

Since I’ve had so much trouble this week that resulted in some significant downtime, as well as maybe some reluctance to visit due to the threat of infection, I figure it’s best to extend the contest until Sunday. Everything is cleaned up now thanks to an investment in SiteLock, lots of aggravation and commu

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nication with my host and the folks at Sitelock to get things cleaned up and back in business. So here’s the deal: There are 19 entries on the original contest post (here) I will combine entries there along with entries here (no duplicates please), and pick a winner on Sunday, February 16, 2020. Here is the current prize:

There are two of each of each cigar in the Danli Honduras Tabaco portfolio that I have in my possession. I haven’t gotten my hands on the new Clown barber pole, and I think there’s a natural wrapper Marchetti. This is 14 cigars from my humidor, all cigars that I would happily smoke myself, and do frequently. As a matter of fact, Sunday I stopped by Cigar Mojo and picked up the Flor Maya Maduros, and bought a Don Juan Calavera Sumatra to smoke there, even though I have a box in my humidor at home. Cigar Mojo is one of three retailers that I know of in the country that carries these, so give them a call if you want to get some! I also have some other swag to throw in with the cigars! So leave a comment here, or on the other post!

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Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Contest, Danli Honduras Tabacos, DOn Juan Calavera, Flor Maya, Marchetti

by Craig Vanderslice | February 9, 2020 · 11:04 am

A Nova Limited Edition Platinum Torpedo and a Buffalo Ten Cigar

The first order of business involves a website problem I’ve been having, and I have to think it’s had an impact on the low number of contest entries! I’m working on getting it resolved, but if you get a notification pop-up like pictured here, click DENY! If you clicked allow and are getting weird notifications, go to your browser preferences and reset the settings. In Chrome this is preferences>advanced>reset settings. You may have to log in to a few things, but it will get rid of the annoying notifications. I think I know where this came from, but I’m rather hesitant to go back and look, if you know what I mean. It was a cigar manufacturers website, before you make any assumptions! Anyway, I’m working tirelessly to get this fixed without paying an exorbitant ransom. The advise I got from the WordPress community was general, and the first scanning plugin told me I had malicious files, but not what the files were and it would be $249 to fix it. I can delete files if only I know what they are! Anyway, I’m working on it and will get it figured out. This also seems to be affecting the RSS feed somehow, so the e-mails aren’t going out. All very frustrating. I’ll have to have a cigar to calm down.

One of the cigars I smoked this week was a cigar I got at the TPE show from a company with whom I was previously unfamiliar. I was introduced to Ari and Leonor, the principles of the company (principals? I’m never sure…they are the ones in charge) and they told me their story of how they both worked at Nat Sherman in Manhattan, and split off to start Nova Cigars. For a new brand, they have a very large range, I count 16 frontmarks. Now, it’s not like they have several sizes in each line, every line is a unique size and blend, and each one has a secondary band with the name of the marque. They also are not inexpensive, with their “value” line starting in the $9 range, and the premium offerings running over $30. They were very generous with the samples, and I selected one of the $30 Nova Platinum Limited Edition Torpedos for my evening smoke on Thursday. This is a 5½” x 55 torpedo with a Habano 2000 wrapper and Dominican binder and fillers made in their own factory in the Dominican Republic. They stressed their commitment to quality, which should be a given at the premium price points. I’m quite certain my readers know that I’m not one to spend that kind of money on a cigar, especially something new to the market. To be honest, I have. hell of a time spending $17 on a Sin Compromiso and I know that’s a great cigar (although, also relatively new to the market also, butI know it’s provenance). So I had some expectations, and I had smoked a Sultan at the show, and it was very good. This cigar was very different, not only from he Sultan, but from just about any other cigar I’ve smoked. It had a unique flavor, almost like Christmas cookies! But it changed from time to time, and remained entertaining. The construction was without flaw, and it certainly was an exceptional smoke. I greatly anticipate meandering my way though the other samples I came home from the TPE show with, and am quite pleased that I made friends with the folks at Nova Cigars! I really enjoyed my time talking to Leo and Ari, and hope to see them again.

In a relative 180° turn from the Nova, I decided to smoke a less expensive cigar that I also smoked at the TPE and really enjoyed. I’ve seen friends smoking the Buffalo Ten and certainly posted the press release back in June when El Artista announced the release. This is a really cool cigar, it’s a 6″ x 50 box pressed cigar and sells in paper wrapped five packs or boxes of 40. It has a San Andrés wrapper, Dominican Negrito binder and fillers from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Columbia and right down the road from me here in Pennsylvania. This is a really flavorful cigar, and you know that because it says so on the band! Fun fact: the European version of this does not have the word “Flavorful” on the band! Apparently they thought it meant flavored and they have a flavored cigar ban in Europe, or are taxed differently or something, so they have different bands. If it were me I would have just left the word off all of the bands and had one band, but it’s not me. I can’t argue with the cigar being flavorful! I really like this cigar because it’s different from other San Andrés wrapped cigars. It has a more savory, meaty flavor than the standard earthy, coffee that I really love, by the way. It’s a really comfortable shape, it’s a tasty smoke, and the price hovers in the $4 range if you live in the right place and can buy more than a few at a time! I have smoked a lot of El Artista’s cigars, I think this might be my favorite. This comes highly recommended as a value cigar.