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by Craig Vanderslice | November 10, 2024 · 1:42 pm

A Quick Florida Trip, Part One: The J.C. Newman Experience

When I saw that the Flyers were playing the Lightning in Tampa, my wife encouraged me to plan a trip down there to take my buddy Kevin (CigarProp) to his first NHL game. I made some inquiries and managed to secure two club level tickets with access to the Diamond Crown cigar lounge in the Amalie Arena. We were allowed in 90 minutes before game time, so we went into the lounge for a cigar. Kevin selected some PDM Corojo Robustos, a favorite of us both. Christina and Nidya work in the lounge, they get the cigars out of the humidor cabinets, ring them up and cut and light. I was wearing my Flyers sweater, I may have felt a little out of place. We watched the first period from our seats and grabbed some food, which was a n upgrade from what we would have gotten if I had just bought nosebleed seats off of stub hub! There was brisket and pork belly, sushi and all manner of delicious desserts. We were definitely spoiled. We watched the second period from the lounge, where I selected som Fuente 8-5-8 Sungrowns. The humidor in the lounge has a nice selection of J.C. Newman and Fuente cigars, and they weren’t priced bad, a buck or two over what they would be in a shop (in a no tax state!). The lounge has windows overlooking the arena, and several televisions, but it’s hard to watch unless you’re right at the glass, but any time I can watch hockey and smoke a cigar I’m happy. We returned to our seats for the third period, overtime and the shootout, where the Flyers managed to win. I enjoyed the game, and I think Kevin had a good time too. It was a really good time and the ladies working the lounge were outstanding. I think at one point I counted 30 patrons in the lounge, which isn’t huge, and the ventilation was really good. I have no idea how one would get tickets, but if you are in Tampa and have the opportunity, jump on it! Many thanks again to J.C. Newman for the tickets!

Friday we spent the day at the J.C.Newman headquarters and factory, El Reloj (that’s El Relow, no matter how you’ve heard it pronounced). This is a historic building, and the only major factory left in the country. There’s a few little cigar factories here and there, but this one is producing millions of cigars using machines from the 1920s and ‘30s. They refer to this as machine assisted and not machine made, as these are not automated and require some human input. This is another tour I recommend if you’re in Tampa. The tour is very educational, there’s a museum aspect, with a lot of J.C. Newman memorabilia, Tampa cigar history, and even the oldest known cigars from the mid-1800s that were found in a shipwreck not all that long ago! The basement has another museum area, as well as an aging room for the handmade cigars they make, and some tobacco processing areas. The second floor has the machine made production and packaging, and the third floor has a rolling gallery where they make the American, Angel Cuesta and some special cigars. One of the special cigars they were making was the Tampa Smokers, named after the old baseball team and shaped like a baseball bat. I always wondered how they made these. Now I know.

We would stay on the third floor for the rolling seminar. This is where they provide bunches and one has to apply the wrapper. We wrapped five Robustos, and this is harder than you think. I’ve done it a few times before, and I think my results were pretty good, except for applying the cap. I struggle with the cap. The blend they provided is special, I’ll have to reach out to Holden who led the class and find out, but I believe it’s a modified American blend. I should have paid more attention, but I was trying to finish my darned caps right.

Following the rolling exercise, we embarked upon a tasting seminar. Puritos of various tobacco varietals and primings were supplied, along with a flavor wheel and a sheet for notes. I am better at finishing caps on cigars than I am at this. Regular readers know that I have a fairly limited vocabulary when it comes to tasting cigars, and it’s even worse when one’s had a bunch of cigars the previous day and one’s palate is fatigued. Cody did I really nice job at leading this, as he did giving the factory tour. Once again, and I can’t stress this enough, if you find yourself in Tampa, set aside an afternoon and experience El Reloj. I’ve taken the tour twice now and seen different things each time. I still haven’t risen in the haunted elevator yet. Thank you very much to everyone at J.C.Newman, especially Sydney!

On Thursday before the game we delivered some cigars to Single Barrel Cigar Co. for a project Kevin is working on, visited Tampero Cigars in Ybor and enjoyed a Tampero Maduro torpedo, and we stopped by Corona Cigars and talked to Ricky Rodriguez for a bit. It was a great couple of days, I enjoyed spending some time with Kevin and got to see some more of Tampa and Ybor City.

Check out Kevin’s pics and videos, he’s far more talented with that than I am! It was a whirlwind couple of days, but there’s more! I just got home around noon, and I’m working on very little sleep, so excuse any typos please. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Trip Report

Tagged as 8-5-8, cigar, cigars, Diamond Crown, factory, Flyers, J.C.Newman, Lightning, PDM, Rolling, Tasting, tour

by Craig Vanderslice | October 27, 2024 · 9:50 am

A Few Arturo Fuente Cigars and a Visit with José Blanco

Let me start with this:

This is an excerpt (about 4 minutes) from my final podcast episode in 2019 with Steve Saka where I plant the notion of a Candela Lancero in his head. First he says it won’t happen, then he backpedals a bit to leave the possibility open. As we now know, he’s made one, and actually likes it. I didn’t spring for the Lancero sampler, so I may never know what it’s like. The whole podcast should still be available wherever podcasts can be found (I know it’s on Spotify and Apple Podcasts), it was an interesting and unique conversation.

This week I went on a bit of an Arturo Fuente binge. José Blanco was in town being chauffeured around by Michael Rushing, the region’s sales rep for Fuente and J.C.Newman. I met up with them at the Wooden Indian in Havertown, PA. I took a half day off work because, when José is in town I gotta go hang out with him. I’ve had the very good fortune of knowing José for quite a while, I think the first time we met face to face was at the 2011 IPCPR show where he did a tasting session (he was with La Aurora at the time). It was in a room with about 500 people. One on one time with him is rare, so I made the most of it. Today is José’s birthday, wish him a happy one of you see him! They were visiting Cigar Mojo – The Grove afterwards, so I met them there, it’s on my way home after all. It’s always great talking to José, and it was great to meet Michael. I never have any regrets when I visit the Wooden Indian, Dave and his team are always gracious hosts.

I picked up some cigars while visiting the shops, some Arturo Fuente cigars that I hadn’t tried, or hadn’t smoked in many years. Before I get to them, let me tell you about the Casa Fuente Churchill that I smoked. This was a generous gift from my friend Stace, who I sent a few things to, not expecting him to return fire. The guy friggin apologized for taking so long! No apology needed for something that wasn’t expected! Anyway, what didn’t surprise me was the quality of the gift. One of the cigars was this Casa Fuente Churchill. This line used to only be available at the Casa Fuente in Caesars Forum Shops in Vegas, but they made it more available a few years ago. This is a 7¼” x 48 Churchill with a Cameroon wrapper over Dominican binder and fillers. I love the size, and it was a beautiful cigar. It was definitely a sweet, nutty cigar with some exotic spices that kept me entertained. Perfect burn and draw. I think the only other Casa Fuente I had was gifted to me at Casa Fuente in Vegas maybe a decade ago (TY Fich). This is a brilliant cigar.

When I picked out cigars I went with a theme. I could have done the 858s in all three wrappers, maybe I should have, but I decided to sample cigars across the Sungrown range. It’s come to my attention that the 858 Sungrown is now a regular release, not just a seasonal thing. This is a good thing, because the 858 Sungrown is a spectacular cigar, especially for $8ish. The 858 is 6″ x 47, a short Churchill, or a thin toro, I don’t know, nor do I care. This has some cedar and spice, along with a licorice sort of sensation. This is a cigar I want a box of, my only criticism is that I wish they put the green fuente band on this like the rest of the 858s, since it doesn’t seem to be a special release any more, it seems to me it should be consistent with the Grand Reserva line.

I also picked up a Cuban Belicoso Sungrown, which is in the Chateau Fuente line. This is a 5¾” x 51 belicoso, also with the Ecuador Sungrown wrapper over Dominican binder and fillers. Also priced in the $8ish range, this has some similarities to the 858 SG, but concentrated. I thought it started with some bitter wood, then got more licoricey, as in it was more pungent and cloying on the palate than the 858. Fortunately I’m not opposed to that, so I enjoyed it, and it lasted nearly 90 minutes, which exceeded my expectations for what I consider a short cigar.

Finally, I smoked a Queen B Sungrown, also in the Chateau series. This is a 5½” x 52 torpedo, similar in size to the Cuban Belicoso, but shorter and pointier. This has basically the same blend description as the 858 and the Belicoso, Ecuador Sungrown wrapper, Dominican filler and binder. All three of these come wrapped in a cedar sleeve, which is pretty obvious by the pictures. I’m not generally a fan of the sleeves, if they sit in the humidor too long in the sleeves the cigars end up just tasting like wood, which is fine if you like that. I don’t. I think if I had a box of any of these I’d remove the sleeves for long term storage. The Queen B is sort of in between the 858 and the Beli, it’s got the cedar and licorice, but not as pungent as the Beli but more pronounced that the 858. As with all of these, burn and draw were perfect. I’ve long been a fan of the Fuente Don Carlos, Hemingway, and Ańejo lines, but these Sungrowns are really good. I’ve been kind of lax in branching out across the brand, but I need to, there’s some great cigars, and they have been for many years.