CigarCraig's Blog

by Craig Vanderslice | July 28, 2020 · 10:04 am

News: CAO Launches Bones Game Themed Cigar

Here’s a new cigar coming from CAO, and I’m generally (no pun intended) a fan of CAO, as evidenced by my last post and past history. The thought of another Broadleaf cigar from Ricky has my mouth watering. I recently gave the Session another try and was quite happy with it! So I look forward to this. My only thought is the gimmick with the dice thing. Earlier this year we saw another brand come out with a box that included a dice game, so I can’t help but wonder about the copycat factor. I know concepts are months, sometimes years, on the drawing board, and coincidences happen, it’s just too strange…Will it work? Gimmicks can be a crapshoot! (groan).

CAO LAUNCHES BONES

Full-time collection celebrates dominoes, dice and great times with great smokes

CAO presents “Bones,” a collection made to celebrate the memories that are made when a great cigar is lit and the games begin. Bones was named after dominoes and dice, the deeds that are best done with a cigar in hand and in the company of friends old or new.

CAO’s blender/brand ambassador Rick Rodriguez said, “Bones is about kicking back with your friends with a cold beer in your hand, playing a game, smoking, grilling, talking a little trash, and having the time of your life. And that’s what CAO is about, too. It’s about being yourself, enjoying the people you’re with and not having a care in the world while you’re having your cigar. Most of us need a break right now and Bones is just the cigar for that.”

Rick and the Nicaraguan-based CAO blending team set out to make a medium-to-full-bodied smoke that could easily be the topic of conversation or take the backseat during a game night or any smoking occasion with fellow cigar smokers. Rick and the team also developed the blend to complement a wide range of libations that go hand-in-hand with a handmade cigar.

Bones features a four year old Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper over a Connecticut Shade binder. The blend is comprised of two varieties of Honduran tobacco from Jamastran and La Entrada, along with Nicaraguan Estelí and Dominican Piloto Cubano. Bones is a meaty smoke that delivers bold notes of wood, nuts and vanilla.

Bones is a full-time addition to the brand’s top-rated lineup and is handcrafted in Nicaragua at STG Estelí. The brand will ship on August 4^th to cigar retailers across the country and will be available in four sizes, each named after classic games of dominoes. Each box contains 20 cigars, comes with two standard 16mm dice and is outfitted with a felt-covered inside lid which is a suitable surface for playing dice.

Chicken Foot (Robusto): 5” x 54 – SRP per cigar $7.49

Blind Hughie (Toro): 6” x 54 – SRP per cigar $7.99

Matador (Churchill): 7.25” x 54 – SRP per cigar $8.49

Maltese Cross (Gigante): 6” x 60 – SRP per cigar $8.99

For more information about CAO Cigars, please visit www.caocigars.com.

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by Craig Vanderslice | · 9:38 am

News: J.C. Newman Introduces New Cigar: Yagua

Here’s some news from J.C. Newman. I’m looking forward to trying this new, rustic cigar from their Nicaraguan factory. I love the size!

J.C. Newman Introduces Yagua, A Cigar Recreated from the 1940s Cuba

J.C. Newman Cigar Co. introduces Yagua, a classic cigar from the tobacco fields of Cuba that the Newman family has recreated in Nicaragua. The Yagua story is one of Cuba from the 1940s. The cigar was inspired by J.C. Newman PENSA’s General Manager, Lazaro Lopez, who shared the following with Drew Newman (Fourth Generation Owner, J.C. Newman Cigar Company) over dinner in Esteli, Nicaragua last year:

“At our family farm, my grandfather would take fresh tobacco leaves from the curing barns and roll cigars without any molds or presses. In an attempt to give his cigars a traditional shape, he would tie a handful of them together using pieces of the Cuban royal palm tree, known as the yagua. When he was ready to enjoy his personal cigars, he untied the bundle. He loved how every cigar had its own unique shape. I still remember the rich aroma and taste of my grandfather’s cigars. Today, I’ve recreated Yagua, rolling them exactly how my grandfather did a century ago.”

“After hearing Lazaro describe the beautiful Yagua cigars he remembers from his youth in Cuba, I asked Lazaro if he could make this special cigar at our factory in Nicaragua,” said Drew Newman. “We are calling it Yagua, after the palm leaves that give the cigars their distinct shape.”

J.C. Newman is releasing 1,000 boxes of Yagua from its aging rooms this year. Each box features 20 cigars, which measure approximately 6×54.

“Because the cigars are pressed together and bound while they are still wet, each one has a slightly different shape. Each cigar is truly unique,” said Newman

Yagua will ship from El Reloj, the J.C. Newman Cigar Company factory in Tampa, FL beginning next week, and should arrive on select retailers’ shelves in early August.

About J.C. Newman Cigar Co.

Founded in 1895 by Julius Caeser Newman, J.C. Newman Cigar Company is the oldest family-owned premium cigar maker in America. J.C. Newman rolls its El Reloj, Factory Throwouts, and Trader Jacks cigars by hand-operated, vintage cigar machines at its historic cigar factory in Tampa, Florida. It also hand rolls its Brick House, Perla del Mar, El Baton, and Quorum cigars at the J.C. Newman PENSA cigar factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. J.C. Newman’s Diamond Crown, MAXIMUS, Julius Caeser, and Black Diamond cigars are handmade by Tabacalera A. Fuente in the Dominican Republic. With its longtime partners the Fuente family, the Newmans founded the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation, which supports low-income families in the Dominican Republic with education, health care, vocational training, and clean water.

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by Craig Vanderslice | July 26, 2020 · 10:10 am

Some Diesel Torpedos and Some Classic CAO Cigars

First off, let me get this little rant out of the way. One of the first things I saw when I got up this morning was a discussion about removing bands from cigars. In a nutshell, it seemed like there was a thought that there could be one single surefire solution to band removal. Here was my response: “There’s absolutely no set rule on how a band will come off (I’ve figured out RoMa), after thousands of cigars of as many brands, just about as many just slide off as come off cleanly. Some paper absorbs the glue and some doesn’t. Some factories use more glue than others. Uncello’d cigars shouldn’t have the bands glued to the wrapper at all and would be easier. Shade wrappers would be easier to slide off than broadleaf or San Andrés because they are smoother, but would damage easier because they are thinner. 9 times out of 10 your best bet is to wait until you are about to burn the band and carefully slide it over the business end of the cigar, taking care not to burn your fingers or the ring. This is the only way to successfully remove the RoMa bands, by the way!” Now, the only reason I referenced the RoMa bands was because someone else brought it up. It irks me that people put forth the notion that there is, or could possible be, a way to remove a band every time without either damaging the band or the wrapper or both. Some bands come off nicely, some are a trainwreck. As always on forums when I see misinformation, I try to correct and inform in a polite and respectful manner, and I hope to educate, although I often wonder if I’m wasting my time!

I’d like to welcome a new advertising partner, Cigar Thief. You’ll notice their ad on the right side of the website. They have a nice selection of cigars, and I never work with companies I don’t personally do business with, so before taking them on I placed an order for a sampler from their site. I received communication from them promptly that they were out of stock of the item I wanted, with options, which included canceling with a full refund which included the offer to send free cigars! I looked around and chose a less expensive sampler and told them if they wanted to substitute that and credit me the difference it would be fine, freebies weren’t necessary. A few days later the package arrived, well packed and as I expected, only with a 5 cigar Diesel Torpedo Sampler as the “for my trouble” cigars. Totally above and beyond and not needed. The sampler was the classic CAO sampler, the same sampler my wife had gotten me about 10 years ago, the one with the CAO classic in natural and Maduro, an MX2, a Brazilia and an Italia (times two). Excellent service, check them out. I hadn’t smoked a CAO Italia in many years, honestly, it’

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I always wanted to like, but never really did. The Ciao vitola is 5″ x 56, and smoked very well, and I quite enjoyed this one. It has some Habano tobacco grown in Italy, along with some Peruvian tobacco, so it has a unique flavor, so it’s not at all like the Toscanos that use Kentucky tobacco (I know, right?). Different, not as bad as I remembered, I think I like these now!

The Diesel Torpedo sampler was a little frustrating to me, as four of the five cigars are not clearly labeled as to what they are. I suppose the Diesel experts out there will scoff at me for no knowing the color scheme delineating the various series. I figured I’d start with a benchmark, the Unholy Cocktail, of which there is a box in the humidor (from 2011). Clearly the color palate of those bands has changed over the years, because there wasn’t a clear match. The Diesel Uncut had a band on that that said Uncut, so I smoked that one first! I’ll work the rest out later. This is a nice cigar, a natural shade PA Broadleaf wrapper with a good amount of strength and spice. This had a good dose of espresso and cocoa too, I liked it. I think it had a good dose of nicotine, judging by the poor quality of my sleep that night. I still like it quite a bit.

I sorted through the rest of the Diesels, colors on screens never match actual colors on things in your hand, and it isn’t helpful that the folks at Diesel like that PA Broadleaf Maduro wrapper so much. I figured out that the beige band must be the Unlimited Maduro, which made it easy to match up the rest based on the band colors and wrapper colors. So I smoked the Unlimited Maduro. This one has a PA Broadleaf Maduro wrapper with a Mexican binder and Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers. It was rich, earthy, spicy, but not as strong as I figured it would be. Actually, it was downright smooth. Like the Uncut, it burned well, it’s made by AJ Fernandez, so that’s not a surprise, and it’s the 5″ x 56 “Unholy Cocktail” vitola. I’d be interested to see how this compares to the original Unholy Cocktail, but I think I’ll be more interested to see how the current Unholy Cocktail compares to a 2011 Unholy Cocktail, which I might do this week.

I just realized that the last four cigars I smoked were al 5″ x 56, that’s kinda weird. Last night I followed the Unlimited Maduro with a CAO Brazilia GOL. This is a pretty old school CAO, it came out in 2001, so it’ll celebrate it’s 20th anniversary next year. Let’s just get this in the post for the sake of search engine crawling: “CAO Brazilia 20th Anniversary”. There, I said it here first! Ha! Anyway, The Brazilia is a bit of a classic, Brazilian Maduro wrapper, Nicaraguan filler and binder, it’s been a good, consistent smoked for a long time, and I think we all can agree that it’s managed to survive the transition from Ozgener CAO to General Cigars CAO without any issues. It seems like the same darned cigar that it used to be to me, rich and spicy and pretty darned tasty. They even manage to hold the price down pretty reasonably. It’s hard to go wrong and I imagine this is still one of the workhorses of the CAO line.

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

CigarCraig

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by Craig Vanderslice | July 22, 2020 · 8:57 am

Villiger TAA 2020 Exclusive Cigar

Villiger Cigars has a couple of firsts with this cigar. It’s their first TAA cigar, exclusive to participating Tobacconists’ Association of America stores. Looking at the listing on the website, I’m not entirely sure they have the name right, they have it listed as “Villiger 1888 Edicion Regional USA”, where the band just says TAA Exclusive 2020. Considering this second point, it doesn’t have any relationship with the Villiger 1888, except that it’s made in the Dominican Republic. The second first for Villiger is that this is the first time they’ve worked with Ernesto Perez Carrillo Jr. to produce a cigar. It’s a box pressed toro, 6” x 54, with an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers.

When I lit this cigar up, before I looked at the blend and where it was made, I was 99% certain it was a Sumatra wrapper. It had that nice, sweet hard candy flavor I love. I wasn’t surprised when I read who made it either. Ernesto is a huge Sumatra fan, and he used a wonderful tasting Sumatra leaf on this cigar. I absolutely was enamored with the flavor of this cigar! It was a fantastic smoking experience. Like I said, it had that great Sumatra sweet flavor that I love, and it was medium bodied and not overpowering, very well balanced. Of course, as I got to the band it lost some of the sweetness and became slightly stronger, but don’t they all? Later I smoked the Villiger Cuellar Black Forrest toro (yummy), which, up until smoking the TAA, was my favorite Villiger to date. I suppose the limited nature of the TAA will force me to rein in my desire to stock up on these, my local Cigar Cigars stores are TAA members, and one can hope that they have these in stock (if I ever get out to visit one of them again!). By the way, if anyone from Cigar Cigars reads this, let the folks who run the TAA website know that they have the wrong website address listed for you!

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

CigarCraig

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by Craig Vanderslice | July 19, 2020 · 9:08 am

Avo Classic, Regius Orchant Seleccion and Perdomo Habano Barrel Aged Cigars

Another week has passed with some progress made around the house, some applications submitted, and several cigars smoked. I came across a couple Avo Classics while scavenging around the humidors, and it occurred to me that I had never actually smoked and Avo Classic. Sure, I’ve smoked the newer Avos, the Ritmo, Syncro, the odd XO here and there, but never smoked the Classic. Well, it was about time I remedied this situation, I suppose, and I had two Classic No. 2s sitting right here, and the’ve been here for quite a few years! I’m not even sure where they came from! This is a 6″ x 50 toro with a sun-grown Ecuador Connecticut wrapper and DOminican binder and fillers. I’m not sure what I was expecting, perhaps I was expecting a mild, Connecticut shade style cigar, but I was surprised to find that it was a very rich tasting, sweet tobacco flavorful cigar. Naturally, the construction was perfect, it’s a Davidoff product, after all, and solidly medium bodied. This was a great cigar that I regret missing out on all these years. It was loaded with sweet, creamy flavor and quite enjoyable!

Regius Cigars is a brand that’s been around for a decade, but doesn’t have a huge footprint in the US. They are carried by a lot of the bigger retailers, and they are made by Placencia, so they aren’t small potatoes by any stretch. I was introduced to Akhil Kapacee. the principle of the company, several years ago at the IPCPR show by Mitchell Orchant, who, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve known for over 20 years. Mitchell owns C.Gars Ltd in the UK, one of the more prominent retailers of Havana cigars on the planet. Last January at the TPE show I ran into my old friend Ann, who is with Sutliff Distribution Group (who was with Villiger for a long time), who, in addition to distributing Platinum Nova Cigars and introducing me to them, mentioned that they were also distributing Regius. So I went to their booth to say hello to Akhil, and he gave me a Regius Orchant Seleccion robusto, since Mitchell never gave me one ;-). (Note: There’s a Drew Estate Seleccion Orchant that I’d love to sample, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more). Regius cigars I’ve sampled in the past have been exceptional, and this one was no different. I found it to be extremely smooth, with a very clean finish, I’d almost say refreshing. It had a nice sweetness, that is a quality I like, and burned perfectly. As a company with UK roots, and a cigar that made for a UK retailer, I can see how this would appeal to a palate that’s used to Havana cigars, although I think it has more complexity, at least to my palate that’s used to a more diverse flavor wheel. It was very good, highly recommended.

Finally, as I’m typing this, I’m having a cup of black coffee and enjoying a Perdomo Habano Bourbon Barrel-Aged Connecticut Robusto. It’s infrequent that I light up a cigar at 7:30, however for some reason I was up super early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got an early start and decided to sit on the porch and write. As long as I’m on the porch, I might as well have a cigar. The selection process for me wasn’t easy. Sometimes I choose a coffee infused cigar, last week it was a Macanudo M. I had a Tabac Especialle in my hand, then I figured I’d look for a milder Connecticut robusto just to thin the herd of cigars that seem to get passed over more often. I might have had other cigars that would be milder, but this Perdomo stood out to me. You have to admit the bands on these are pretty eye-catching. The wrapper is a 6 year old Bourbon Barrel-Aged Ecuador Connecticut and the Binder and fillers are Nicaraguan. I’m three for three here on good smokes, although I generally don’t write about the sub-par cigars I smoke, and I try not to smoke that many sub-par smokes to begin with! To be honest, some of my choices that I decided against were the Don Juan Calavera Connecticut and the La Sirena LT, both Honduran, both excellent Connecticut cigars that I love, but I passed on them because I only have them in Toro sizes and I wanted a robusto. Considering this Robusto is 5″ x 54, it might have been a wash, but I always consider length to be more of a determining factor when it comes to time than girth anyway. This cigar is not without body, it’s no mild cigar. It has plenty of flavor, rich, creamy, nutty flavors with a little bit of spice. Nice smoke. I still favor the maduros in the Perdomo line, but this is probably my favorite Connecticut in their range. Not bad at all.

For my local golfing friends, come out to Goose’s Golf Even for a great day of eating, smoking, golfing and all that goes with it. I’ve been to many of Goose’s events and they are always top notch. You can’t beat the food, cigars and golf offered with this deal! You can download the registration form here. I plan to be there to offer encouragement and smoke along with the golfers!