by | January 16, 2019 · 8:46 pm

Xurvivor Americano and Galano Primero Cigars

Xurvivor Cigars is based in Ybor City in Florida and has been an advertiser here on CigarCraig.com for a couple of years, and I’ve featured their cigars before, but I came across a few in the humidor and figured a redux was in order. Ybor City had come up in conversation recently, and it had slipped my mind that Xurvivor was making cigars there. The Xurivor Americano 2018 has a Maduro wrapper from Nicaragua, with a binder from Ecuador, and a Nicaragua & Dominican filler blend. It’s available in one size, a 6″ x 52 toro. Their website store appears to be under construction, but I recall these being in the $10 range. I found this to be on the medium to full-bodied side, with a nice, balanced flavor, on the savory side, with very little sweetness. The construction was excellent, it burned perfectly. It was a nice companion on a cold winter evening.

 

Before Xurvivor Cigars was Xurvivor Cigars, they were called Galano Cigars, and were also made in Ybor City, but in the end of 2017 they underwent a complete rebranding to become Xurvivor. Tonight I smoked a Galano Primero from early 2017. This was a limited release, and had a hefty price tag, I think they ran around $25ish, it considering they only made 2500 of these and they were made in the US, I suppose that’s justifiable. This cigar is a 6 1/2″ x 52 with a pigtail cap, and a Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper, which, as I noted when I wrote about his almost two years ago, is fairly rustic and not particularly pretty. However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and PA Broadleaf is a personal favorite wrapper variety. Like the Americano, construction was perfect, the burn and draw were exactly what one expects of a cigar of this price (to be honest, it’s what I expect of any cigar, but I’m often disappointed). The cigar has some strength, and the flavor has some savory and sour notes, in a good way, like the Americano, but there’s a sweet spice too.

 

Keep an eye on the website for when the store comes on-line, perhaps Joshua Candamo, the president of the company, will chime in with an update. That’s all for today, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | January 13, 2019 · 8:59 am

GTO Cigars, Pendrey Guillen Cigars and a Green Hornet

I had the opportunity this week to smoke some new-to-me cigars courtesy of Kevin of CigarProp.com.  Kevin and I have been friends for several years and have been known to exchange cigars from time to time. It can bee a challenge to find cigars I haven’t tried, or at least some people think so, really there are a lot I haven’t had the chance to smoke.  Kevin manage to find a bunch that I hadn’t tried. One of them was the GTO Mandinga, a 6″ x 60 from the Dominican Republic. I’ve heard about GTO Cigars, Oscar Rodriquez is an emergency room physician and owns the brand, which is distributed in the southeast of the US. I don’t see these in this neck of the woods. The Mandinga has a Domincan Maduro wrapper, Dominican binder and triple ligero fillers of un-defined origin (presumably also Dominican). This is definitely a cigar I’d happily smoke again. It had the flavors and perfect burn and draw characteristics that I like in a cigar. It wasn’t overly strong for being listed as triple ligero, it had the espresso flavors I like with some sweetness. It was perfect for the cold winter night. I had heard about this line on the Smooth Draws radio show, smoking it did bring to mind the late Gary Laden, who passed away last year. I had spent time with Gary at the 2017 IPCPR show and have fond memories.

 

Another line that I hadn’t heard of which Kevin sent a sampler was the Pendrey Guillen Cigars line from Honduras.  Of the five cigars in the sampler, I smoked two this week. I reached out to Carlos Pendrey, who shared some of the details of the line with me.  They have four lines, the COMANDO(camos), COMBAT(dark), Serpentinas(barbel poles) and CANDELA (green), in Robusto 5″ x 50, Toro 6″ x 52, and GORDO: 60×7 or 60×6. The Comando was the fist one I smoked, which has a Maduro/Connecticut Base wrapper, with fillers from Jalapa, Indonesia and La Entrada.  This line has a Camo wrapper treatment, with strips of candela ,maduro and Connecticut leaf applied. I’ve smoked cigars like this before and one would think that, like a barber-pole wrap, the flavors would meld together, but there actually is some interplay of flavors from the various wrapper appliqués throughout the smoking of the cigar. This was a nice, medium smoke with a nice flavor, with variations to keep it interesting. There was mostly maduro sweetness, with the occasional grassiness of the Connecticut and crisp chlorophyll refreshing flavor of the candela here and there. I liked it.

 

The next one I tried was the Combat, a dark maduro cigar.  I should mention that both samples were the 6″ x 52 toro vitola, which is my preferred size. This is listed as a Double Ligero, with components from Jalapa, Indonesia, La Entrada and Esteli. This cigar looked great, it had a very oily sheen on the dark wrapper. It had the rich flavors I had hoped for, more bitterness than sweetness, which is OK, I like black coffee, and every maduro doesn’t have to be sweet. The wrapper didn’t burn as well as I’d have liked, and when I removed the band it had what I can only describe as a reverse tan line, the wrapper was darker where the band had been, when I hadn’t thought was possible. Looking at the brand’s Facebook page (they don’t seen to have a website yet), they offer their cigars in hand carved boxes as well as standard boxes, as well as samplers, and the pricing that Carlos shared with me seemed to be quite fair. They seem to ship directly from Honduras, and may be distributing in the US. I still have a few more to sample, I think I’ll save the Candela and Connecticut offerings for warmer weather as I worry that they won’t hold up to the cold.

 

Finally, I had picked up a couple Black Works Studios Killer Bee Green Hornets a couple of weeks ago since I’ve been behind in sampling the Black Works line. The shops near me have started carrying them so figured I’d grab a couple here and there to try to catch up. The Killer Bee Green Hornet is a 5″ x 48 Robusto with an Ecuador Maduro wrapper accented with a candela covered foot and several little candela stripes on the head. The binder and Filler are Nicaraguan and it’s made at Fabrica Oveja Negra in Esteli. On cigars with a covered foot I forgo the toasting ritual, not wanting to waste the extra flavor the maker intended you to get from the wrapper material there on the foot.  In this case, it’s a contrast of candela on a maduro cigar, an interesting counterpoint of the herbal, grassy flavor with the rich, sweetness of the maduro. This was an enjoyable cigar, although the draw seemed to increase in resistance along the duration of the smoke, which was odd. I might have given it a second cut, but I was too lazy to try that.  I enjoyed the flavor and will continue experimenting with the brand as I have found enjoyment in everything I’ve smoked from that factory.

 

That’s all for now, off to work today, but it looks like I have next weekend off, a first since October! Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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by | January 8, 2019 · 11:19 am

News: J.C. Newman Cigar Co. Launches New Website

Many may not realize that J.C. Newman has been on the cutting edge when it comes to using the internet as a medium, they were one of the first cigar companies to have a website and use forums to interact with their consumers. Here’s news of their latest website update:

 

J.

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C. Newman Cigar Co., America’s oldest, family-owned premium cigar maker, has officially launched its newly designed website: www.jcnewman.com.

 

The new site showcases each of the company’s 20 brands, taking special care to illustrate the craftsmanship and legacy of e

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ach cigar. The streamlined and simplified design improves navigation and highlights rich content about the company’s history, the Newman family, and its wide portfolio of brands.“The new

 jcnewman.com tells our story as a 124-year-old, four-generation family business,” said Drew Newman. “My favorite feature is the e-books of my great-grandfather and grandfather’s autobiographies, Smoke Dreams (1957) and Cigar Family (1999).”The improved functionality and clean, modern design enhance the user experience. This site also begins the preparation for inevitable web traffic increases upon the renovation and restoration of J.C. Newman’s historic Tampa factory and the company’s 125th anniversary in 2020.

The J.C. Newman website will be updated wh

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en new cigars are launched and will feature company and industry news in the form of a blog.

Visitors to www.jcnewman.com are encouraged to explore J.C. Newman’s brands, family stories, and to sign up for the monthly newsletter to get a first-hand look at the legacy that is the last operating cigar factory in America.  

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by | January 6, 2019 · 10:52 am

A Gran Habano, An Emilio and Cigar News

On this day, in 1838, the electrical telegraph first debuted, setting in motion what would one day bring you the technology to read my nonsense about smoking rolled up leaves! I don’t imagine they were using Morse code to discuss where to get the best deals on cigars, whether the cigars their relatives brought back from vacation for them in the glass top box were genuine Havanas or not, or whether to remove the cello for storage back then. How times have changed. Anyway, I smoked a few of Gran Habano’s new Blue in Green toros, er…Gran Robustos…the 6″ x 54 vitola in the line.  I’m grateful that they sent my favorite size, although any size would be OK, as they only make this in a 7″ x 48 Churchill and a 5″ x 52 Robusto. The cigar is presented in a cedar sleeve, and has a Connecticut wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and

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fillers. The documentation says Connecticut, not Ecuador Connecticut (twice!). I wanted to write about this earlier, but it seemed like every time I pulled this out to smoke it, I saw one of my colleagues in the blogosphere  was also featuring it on their sites.  To be honest, I enjoyed the first one I smoked so much I felt compelled to smoke another one and write something about it. This is one of those Connecticut shade cigars that tastes like a nice sugar cookie! It has some of those subtle spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, and a little woodiness. It’s a really well made, nice tasting shade cigar, not overly mild, medium bodied with a lot of flavor.  I like the Gran Habano Blue in Green a lot, I’m not quite sure what the significance of the name of the cigar is, but it’s a good cigar, and I like it a lot.

 

I would have posted this as a stand-alone news post yesterday, but I didn’t have time, as I had to work and then go to a company holiday party right after work. It’s some news from my friends at J.C. Newman down in Tampa, who you’ll be seeing more from on these pages in the coming months.

 

Yesterday, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) reintroduced legislation in the United States Senate that would exempt premium cigars from FDA regulation.  Joining Senator Rubio in co-sponsoring this bipartisan bill were Senators Corey Gardner (R-CO), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Joni Ernst (R-IA).  This legislation was just the ninth bill filed in the Senate in the new 116th Congress.
This morning, Fox 13 News visited J.C. Newman Cigar Company’s historic cigar factory in Tampa, Florida to discuss Senator Rubio’s legislation.  Reporter Josh Cascio interviewed Eric and Bobby Newman, third-generation owners of J.C. Newman, a 124-year-old family business.  A video of their interview is online.  In 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided to apply the same massive and costly regulations designed for cigarettes to handcrafted, premium cigars, like J.C. Newman.  According to the FDA’s own estimates, regulation is expected to put up to 50% of the cigar industry out of business.“Senator Rubio’s bipartisan bill would exempt our premium cigars from regulation,” said Bobby Newman. “It would allow us to continue our family business without this tremendous albatross over our heads.”

In announcing his 2019 legislative priorities, Senator Rubio stated, “I will also continue the fight for small, traditional cigar manufacturers, a quintessential Florida industry, that are on the verge of being snuffed out by egregious federal overreach.”

Congresswoman Kathy Castor (D-FL) and Congressman Bill Posey (R-FL) are in the process of refiling this legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.  In the prior Congress, this legislation had 149 co-sponsors in the House and 21 in the Senate.

“We are tremendously grateful to Senator Rubio, Congresswoman Castor, and Congressman Posey for their leadership in helping to save Florida’s historic premium cigar industry,” said Eric Newman.  “We are hopeful that our leaders in Washington will provide relief from these excessive regulations.”

 

 

Last summer when I was at BnB Cigars in Chestnut Hill visiting Vince there one night, he handed me a couple cigars that had just come in called Emilio M5, an Ecuador Connecticut and a Maduro, unbanded, simply called C5 and M5. Apparently these were exclusive to BnB and Underground in Texas, and had been made at Oveja Negra (Black Label Trading Co.) originally as a project for another small company who happens to be an old friend who has made some favorite cigars, so it was a little disappointing to hear that this project didn’t work out for whatever reason, and they were being sold off, basically, under the Emilio name. Oveja Negra makes great cigars, and Emilio certainly needs a boost.  It looks like these may still be available in multiple sizes, so they must have made a bunch. It took me about 6 months to get aground to trying these for whatever reason, and I might get to the shade C5 today or this week. The M5 is a 5½ x 48 Robusto

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-ish size with a kind of a nipple cap, a very unique shape. Also unique is the flavor, it doesn’t really have the sweet maduro flavor one expects, but more the brown bread kind of flavor, and it’s very interesting. It’s a savory smoke, with a hint of some spice, and the burn and draw were spot-on.  I really enjoyed this, it was certainly on a par with what I expect in terms of quality from that factory. I do feel bad that things didn’t work out with the original arrangement though, it would have done well.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | January 4, 2019 · 9:26 am

News: Ventura Cigars To Start 2019 with New Focus

Here’s some Friday news from Ventura cigars. I did hear from our winner of the Ventura contest and he received his goodies. Ironically, he is in California, just like Ventura! Hopefully we get to partner with them officially on some projects this year! (hint hint…)

 

Ventura Cigars is pleased to announce its new status as a stand-alone business unit and full subsidiary of Kretek International, Inc. Initially a division of Phillips & King, this reorganization enables Ventura Cigars to focus on their premium tobacco sales channel while building their portfolio of proprietary brands. 

 

Says Patrick Hurd, Vice President of Sales for Kretek International, Inc., “We’re excited to bring a cigar division directly under our wing. Kretek will give Ventura Cigars the autonomy it needs to flourish, while providing some of the bigger picture infrastructure like staffing, warehousing, and distributing. As a former General Manager for Ventura Cigars, I know that this newly applied focus will help them succeed as aserious player in the Cigar space. Ventura Cigars has great products and a solid team, and I’m looking forward to being involved with bringing their portfolio to market in a better way.”

 

For the last few years, Ventura Cigars has enjoyed the initial successes of their exclusive brands like Archetype, Case Study, and PSyKo Seven. Now able to fully utilize the horsepower ofKretek’s cross-functional resources, Ventura Cigars will be equipped to develop, manufacture, and market their products. 

 

“We’re truly excited about this new phase,” says Michael Giannini, General Manager of Ventura Cigars.  “We’ve come a long way with Phillips and King, but as a standalone company, Ventura Cigars will be able to build out our brands and really put ourselves on the map as a big player in our industry.”

 

Under the new organizational structure, Ventura Cigars will shift to a direct-to-retail model, servicing premium tobacconists. They are constructing a sales team dedicated to offering their products to this channel under the leadership of Barry Bennett, Ventura Cigars’ National Sales Manager. Phillips & King will continue to play a vital role with Ventura Cigars as their largest distributor and will sell its brands to much of its customer base, along with the over 12,000 other products in their portfolio.

 

Says Giannini, “Ventura Cigars has enjoyed much success under Phillips & King for the past 7 years. And now we’ve put the pieces in place to stand on our own and build upon the exceptional work that Phillips & King started. We’ve got the people, the products, and now a bigger infrastructure and focus. The future of Ventura Cigars is looking great, and I’m pleased to be a part of it.”

 

The transition of Ventura Cigars moving under the Kretek umbrella is effective as of January 2019. For questions or additional information about Ventura Cigars, please call 800–358–8100 or visit venturacigar.com.

 

 

About Ventura Cigar Company

 

Ventura Cigar Company (VCC) is a unique cigar brand born in sunny Southern California that is on a mission to create memorable, complex cigar blends that excite the senses and reward discriminating palates. Their flagship Archetype, Case Study, Project805, and PSyKo SEVEN brands offer multiple award-winning blends that earned 90+ ratings in Cigar Aficionado, Cigar & Spirits, and Cigar Snob. And Archetype’s Axis Mundi won #13 Cigar of the Year for 2017 from Cigar Aficionado. Ventura Cigar Company also distributes the 4thGeneration and Comoy’s of London line of pipe tobacco products, extending its reach and tradition of offering top-quality tobacconist products. Pipes and blends under these brands are cultivated through generations of craftsmanship, making them longtime favorites of pipe tobacco enthusiasts.

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