ScrewPop’s MagPulse Cutter and the Acid Kuba Arte Cigar

For a year I’ve been looking forward to ScrewPop‘s guillotine cutter, the Magpulse. They teased it in July of 2018, then announced it this July, and it intrigued me from he get-go. I have no idea why. ScrewPop has some really nice keychain tools, and they have some good quality cigar devices in their line-up, obviously they like cigars over there. They’ve missed on a few things, but made up for it in re-designs. I like to think my suggestions led to the punch cutter design being what it is today. They have a cigar scissors sort of device, the Chopo, which works quite well. All of their tools have traditionally included a bottle opener, with the exception of the ashtray, and the Magpulse cutter. The Magpulse is a premium accessory, certainly not a keychain accessory. it’s priced at $149, with an introductory price of $99, so it has a premium price tag too. So far as I can tell, there’s one little spring in this thing, and that’s in the button which releases the blade. There are two strong magnets on either side which are mounted in opposition to one another which force the blades apart, and give resistance when applying the cut. The company say these magnets power will degrade one percent over 100 years, so don’t expect this to work well thousands of years from now. It might still be sharp, though, because the blades on this cut . cigars like a hot knife through butter. I’ve been using it non-stop and never gotten a bad cut. Granted, I have a lot of other cutters I can say the same thing about that I’ve used for years, so time will tell but the 440C Stainless Steel blades should hold an edge for a good long time. Honestly, for a hundred bucks, I expect it to last a lifetime. It is enormous, as cutter go, and something makes me want to find a case for it. As far as the magnets go, if you are in the habit of carrying paperclips in your pocket with your cutter, you might find them hanging on to the cutter, but otherwise it shouldn’t really cause any issues. It’s not like your pants are going to stick to file cabinets or anything. I kinda can’t stop playing with it, and I’ll keep using it all the time just be cause it’s so much fun to open.  Thanks to my friends at ScrewPop for keeping me in the loop. 

Thursday I stopped in to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA to visit with Alex and Pedro of Drew Estate again, and hear about Mojo’s upcoming move down the street to a new bigger and better location. They are moving to a former bank building and will have a bigger and better space that they will not be sharing, with be easier to get in and out of, and should server their growing clientele better! Anyway, Pedro handed me an Undercrown Manifesto, the 11″ x 40 panatela which is his event only cigar. I have a coffin of two from an event a long time ago, and I’ve never smoked one, so it was pretty cool to get to smoke one with my buddy Pedro. Obviously, a cigar this long, and this thin needs to be smoked slowly so it doesn’t overheat and get nasty. It was a packed house, and I saw some folks I hadn’t seen in…ok, I hadn’t seen them in 5 days…but I hadn’t been to Mojo in a long time, so I caught up with the guys there and heard about the move. It was a bit of a Drew Estate centered week, with the Barnsmoker and the event Thursday, then Friday I come home to a package containing an Acid Kuba Arte Water Tower, many thanks to my friends at Drew Estate! Last night I felt compelled to smoke an Acid Kuba Arte. 

I can count the Acids I’ve smoked pretty much on one hand. I took a puff off a Kuba Kuba my wife was smoking in the mid 2000s. I smoked a Kuba Maduro on the second day of Cigar Safari in 2011 after about 7 cigars, it was a the last one of the day and I just wanted something to smoke and I couldn’t taste anything. I smoked an Acid Toast sometime in 2013 or 14. I smoked an Acid Kuba Candela in 2017, which I enjoyed quite a bit. That’s the sum total of my Acid smoking experience. I guess it can be said that they were all memorable cigars. First off, the Kuba Arte packaging is way cool. It’s a metal water tower, with a Boveda pack in it and it’s going to sit on top of my cabinet humidor for now because it isn’t fitting inside, that’s for sure. The cigars are 5 13/16″ x 54 torpedos with a Broadleaf wrapper, and they have a sweet cap, and the weird patchouli aroma off the wrapper and foot that one gets from a Kuba Kuba. I’ll be honest, I have no idea if these had the room note that I can identify a mile away. I will say that I enjoyed the crap out of this cigar! I was a little scared, but I really liked it. The infusion was subtle, not off-putting at all. I remember that first Kuba Kuba experience years ago and having to gargle and brush my teeth, I didn’t care for the pungent flavor at all. This was nothing like that. The Broadleaf wrapper was fairly dominant, and the sweet cap was actually OK, in the way that I like it on the Sweet Jane that I smoked this week too. Maybe I’m becoming more open minded in my old age, or dementia is setting in, or something…I really, really enjoyed the Acid Kuba Arte, and I am looking forward to the Acid 20, one of which is in my possession, thanks to Alex of DE.  Who’da thunk it, me smoking Acids….I’m going to have to start counting on the other hand soon!

That’s all for today. Don’t forget to go back to Wednesday’s post and leave a comment for a chance to win the “Welcome Fox Cigars” contest! Enjoy your Sunday, until the next time, 

CigarCraig