Tag Archives: Alec and Bradley

by Craig Vanderslice | February 12, 2023 · 10:57 am

Villiger de Nicaragua, Alec Bradley Fine and Rare and Bocock Brothers Cigars

I’ve been getting into a pattern of smoking what I want to smoke in the beginning of the week, then smoking new cigars for here at the end. So Thursday I smoked a Villiger de Nicaragua torpedo which I had received in a package from Villiger a week or so ago. This is a $15 limited edition ciga made in Villiger’s factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. It’s a pointy 6″ x 52 box pressed torpedo, with an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, San Andrés binder and Nicaraguan and Pennsylvanian filles. This cigar has nice, dark, rich flavors. It’s. got some spice with dark chocolate, very nice smoke. It burned without incident, it was among the best cigars I had all week. Very nice. VIlliger opened their factory in Esteli in September of 2021, they are also making La Meridiana, San’Dorp, La Vencedora, La Libertad, Casa De Nicaragua, and Corrida in that factory now.

I had a trying Friday, so I went to the special humidor where I keep the Secret Santa cigars I received this year. I chose the next Alec Bradley Fine and Rare in the series I received, the 2018 Second Edition. This is the JRS10=(86) blend, all of the Fine and Rares are a blend of ten tobaccos, and they keep those tobaccos to themselves. This one was a 6½” x 56 Gran Toro. I needed a great smoke and I got just that. This is outside of my normal comfort zone, it’s bright, floral, slightly fruity, but it sure tasted good. Perfect construction was a big factor in my enjoyment, if I had encountered one of those cigars that produced loads of smoke when blown through, but you don’t get any when you draw, I would have been homicidal. Why does that happen, by the way, it really pisses me off, I had it happen yesterday. Anyway, the Fine and Rare was just that, thanks again to Mitch for sharing with me, very generous.

Finally, I went into some cigars that I got at last year’s TPE show. I thought about going this year, but I have some scheduling conflicts which made it impossible. I did a video with Bryant Bocock then, and have smoked a few of their Bocock Brothers cigars, but came across this 5″ x 50 World Traveller, which I initially thought was Habano, but now that I think back it might have been the Maduro. I like the rooster on the band, I suppose “cock” in the Bocock name is the reason they use that imagery. I like chickens, we have a few. This was an interesting cigar, it had a nice, meaty flavor. Very dense, rich smoke. I know it was 5″ x 50, but it somehow seemed thinner to me, which was OK, it was the right size cigar for the time available. I know they were doing some cigars with AJ Fernandez, although this wasn’t one of them. It was different from your standard maduro, I enjoyed it quite a bit, I need to see if I have some more floating around.

That’s all for now. I know I’m from the Philly area and should be losing my mind over the Super Bowl, but I honestly don’t give a rats ass about football. Good for them if they win, I hope the city survives the carnage whichever way it turns out. Thanks to all this Philadelphia has become known for having the grease all the light and traffic signal poles so fools won;t climb them, when there are so many other great things about the city to focus on. Whatever, I guess it’s good for business. Until he next time,

CigarCraig

1 Comment

Filed under Review

Tagged as Alec and Bradley, Bocock Brothers, cigar, cigars, Fine and Rare, Villiger, Villiger de Nicaragua, World Traveller

by Craig Vanderslice | November 21, 2021 · 11:07 am

Alec and Bradley Blind Faith, Perla Del Mar Corojo Toro and Platinum Nova Corona Cigars

While we were driving home from South Carolina a few weeks back we took a rest stop at the JRs in Selma, NC. It’s been a few years since we were there, it’s downsized a bit. We were expecting to shop for some bed linens, alas that part of the business is gone, and it’s just a tobacco store. Right inside the door of the cigar department was a large area of stuff marked down 50% off. I immediately rescued a partial box of Sobremesa, and a box of RomaCraft Intemperance. I was told that it was stock from another store that had closed. Upon catching wind of my purchase, Saka (who, by the way, for some reason hasn’t bothered to share any of my Stillwell Star posts, while sharing other content creators work, I thought we were friends…I’m not mad, just disappointed) put his people on JRs about this. My assumption is that he has an agreement with his accounts that he’d rather buy back inventory than have it discounted. I just wanted to spare him the indignity of having it on the discount rack (and get a killer deal on some Short Churchills!). This is all a lot of words leading into talking about the Alec and Bradley Blind Faith. My wife was actually suggesting I buy a box of these, and I didn’t want to without having smoked a few. I know it’s a ridiculous problem to have, and sounds like bragging, but I’m pretty strapped for storage space. I had to shoehorn the little box of Intemperance in, no way I’d fit a box of A&B. Anyway, I bought a couple singles, and I smoked one this week. It’s weird, you know, I went into it hoping I didn’t love the cigar and kick myself for not listening to my wife! When your wife tells you to buy a box of cigars you should do it, right? Anyway, this has a Honduran wrapper, Honduran/Nicaraguan double binder and NIcaraguan fillers, made at Raices Cubanas in Honduras. I would have tolerated having a box in the humidor, but I’m not kicking myself for walking away, let’s put it that way. It’s a good smoke, tasty. Nothing wrong with the burn and draw, nice presentation, and it’s a shame that these were on the discount rack. Honestly, there was a LOT of stuff that was in that area that shouldn’t have been. I could have gone broke, but I’d have had to go back to using coolers for storage.

Last year J.C.Newman re-packaged the Perla Del Mar line, and introduced the Corojo to the mix. Late this year they added the Toro to the Corojo family. I’ve long been a fan of the Maduro, but the Corojo might be my new favorite. This line is another great example of how the wrapper changes the flavor of the cigar. They use the same blend across all three lines, with only the wrapper changing, so smoke all three to get an idea of what the wrapper adds. In the case of the Corojo, which covers Nicaraguan binder and filler, by the way, it adds an almost candy sweetness, as opposed to a dark chocolate sweetness in the case of the maduro. It’s a terrific cigar, well made, nicely box pressed, I just wish they had been a little more creative with the band, the old one was prettier, the new one makes me think of another cigar company. It’s a great cigar and well priced, so screw the band, I’m a fan.

Last night my wife and I went to the movies, probably the first time in nearly two years. The dine-in feature was sub-par, had to order at the bar and food was served in takeout containers, whether that’s life in the pandemic world or life in the short-staffed world, I’m not sure. Call me old fashioned, but if I’m asked to put a gratuity on my check up front without knowing what kind of service I’m going to get, I’m going to tip conservatively. Maybe that works against me? I have no way of knowing. The food was pretty good though, and the movie was entertaining (discount tickets). We got home and I hung out on the porch to watch the last period of the Flyers game with a Platinum Nova Corona from the 2020 TPE. I’ve been passing by these because they are fairly small for me, but it was late, and I didn’t want to be up all night. This is a (ridiculously) expensive cigar, at $23, it’s a pigtail capped 5″ x 43 Ecuador H2000 wrapped cigar with Dominican Piloto Cubano binder and Dominican fillers. The cigar ended up being good for nearly an hour and a half, but I had to relight it a few time. It had a definite floral flavor, nearly perfumy. I rarely get this flavor, it’s not one I’m particularly fond of. I smoked an Undercrown 10 earlier in the day that was more to my liking, much less flowery. It’s not that I didn’t like it, it’s just that it’s not one I’d gravitate to on a regular basis. not offensive, not bad, just not me.

That’s more than enough from me today. What do you all think about doing a CigarCraig.com Secret Santa again? Weigh in in the comments. If we get more than one person I’ll make it happen! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as Alec and Bradley, Alec Bradley, Blind Faith, cigar, cigars, Corojo, JC Newman, Perla del Mar, Platinum Nova

by Craig Vanderslice | January 17, 2021 · 11:40 am

New Govee Sensors, a Few Cigars and a Contest Winner

Image from Amazon

I’ve been using the Govee WiFi and Bluetooth humidity and temperature sensors in my humidors for a while now, and recently got some of their new ones to try out. I got three of them (actually four, one comes in a handy two pack). The first one is the WiFi Smart Thermo Hygrometer, Model H5179. The batteries were included in the device, it just had a strip of plastic that needed to be removed for the batteries to make contact. The Bluetooth pairing and WiFi connection were very simple through the app (which I already had from having multiple other devices). There’s no display on this device, so everything is monitored through the app, Temperature, humidity, along with historical data for something like a year. You can also set alerts for highs and lows so if there are spikes in your humidor you can address them before any long term damage is done. This also had a mounting bracket and a lanyard (the later of which serves no purpose in my application). I will probably mount this in my primary cabinet humidor.

Image from Amazon

The second one is the Bluetooth Smart Thermometer, Model 5174, which is very much the same as the above, in a smaller form factor, without WiFi, and without the mounting bracket. Once again, the batteries are included so it’s ready to go. The instruction booklet is clear and concise, and most of the setup is done through the app anyway. Like the H5179, it has a blue light that blinks every 30 seconds when it takes a reading, which will turn red when the batteries get to 15%, so if you aren’t paying attention to the app you can remember to change them. I’m not sure which humidor I’m going to put this in, probably my large desktop humidor where I put the cigars that I plan to feature, and new arrivals. The older Govee Mini Smart Hygrometer I had in there seems to have drifted to the high side on the humidity reading and I don’t think there’s a way to fix that. I’m going to try resetting it by removing the battery and putting it back in and see what happens, but it might just be replaced. (As of this writing, this unit appears to be unavailable. Not sure why or when it will be available again, no worries, there are options!)

Image from Amazon

these are my images!

Finally the third item is the Smart Thermo-Hygrometer, Model H5101, which has a nice, large 1.8” digital display. I got the two-pack, which is around $20, quite a deal. These have a little tab in the back to make a stand for on a shelf or table, otherwise I suspect some velcro or magnets could be used. I had an older, similar model that didn’t impress me too much, the humidity readings were low compared with other gauges, so I use that in the living room. These seem to be spot on. I conducted a test over the last six weeks or thereabouts, where I placed all four units in a tray with a known good hygrometer and just left them there to do their thing. As you can see in the screen shots from the app, they all are, more or less, right on. Considering the spec is +/- 3% for humidity and +/- .54°f for temp, they are fine. I like that I can see the humidity levels in all of my humidors from one app, when one has six or seven humidors, that’s an issue. I know that there are retailers that have deployed these in their club lockers so they can keep track of them. Even if they aren’t dead on accurate, which they seem to be pretty close,

my screen shot

you can track trends, and sometimes that’s more important to cigars than the actual numbers. Anyway, I’m a fan of these devices, I bought one of their wireless doorbells for my house too. They work well, they look nice, and don’t break the bank. Full disclosure, the Amazon links included here are affiliate links tied to my account, so any sales will drop a couple cents my way. I’ve never gotten paid by Amazon yet, so it’s purely optimistic on my part.

Cigar Aficionado’s list came out last week, of course there was much controversy. People need to realize the target audience of that list is not the same cigar geek crowd that reads cigar blogs and is into boutique cigars. Personally, I think the EPC Pledge is an amazing cigar, and I’m going to try to get my hands on a few more. I smoked the EPC Encore this week, which was number one a few years ago, and people couldn’t figure out why that made number one. It clearly was number one because the tasting panel loved it, as it’s a really good tasting cigar and suited that panels palate! The one I had I had purchased the day after the results came out, so it had rested what, three years? It was delicious, I think the Nicaraguan wrapper must be a Sumatra seed varietal, because it had that flavor, and I know Ernesto is a fan of the Sumatra. I also smoked the Alec and Bradley Gatekeeper, which was also made by Ernesto. This was pretty high on the list, and is a good cigar. I can’t say that I would put it high on my list, it was a good cigar, but not particularly memorable or a stand out to me. But that’s me, and I don’t do a list, and if I did, nobody would be taking a copy of it in to shops asking for cigars that are on it! I guarantee every shop in the country has had customers coming in asking for cigars on CAs list this week. It drives sales.

I need to pick a winner of the Groovy Guy Gifts Good To Go Cigar Case today. I also will need to throw some more cigars in, three, you see, just isn’t enough. That will be a surprise for the lucky winner! As you know, I have a thorough process of double random selection, just to keep things fair. There was a very small pool of long-time readers who entered. Tim McCabe is the winner this time! Please send me your address and proof that you’re old and I’ll get this shipped out to you! Thanks to Groovy Guy Gifts for this cool item! Check them out!

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

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Accessories, Contest, Review

Tagged as Alec and Bradley, Alec Bradley, app, Bluetooth, cigar, cigars, Digital, Encore, EPC, Gatekeeper, Govee, Hygrometer, Thermometer, WiFi