Tag Archives: Alec Bradley

by | May 23, 2012 · 6:12 pm

An Ortega, an Alec Bradley and A Special Cain Cigar

Have you ever heard about a new cigar and, sight unseen, knew you’d love it?  When I heard Eddie Ortega of EO Brands/601, Murcielago, etc., was striking out on his own, and I knew he loves the Murcielago, and I love the Murcialago. I had a strong suspicion that his new cigar, the Ortega Serie D would be right up my alley.  Of course, I adore a San Andreas wrapper, and the Serie D has that wrapper!  I love a nice corona gorda, whattaya know, there’s a corona gorda!  While I was at the cigar shop on Saturday I picked up a couple of the Serie D finally, and fired up a No.7 after a nice day out with my wife having dinner at a friends house.  Obviously, I had built this cigar up in my mind pretty well, which can be a recipe for disaster.  No such luck here, it was a fantastic cigar.  Well made, beautiful maduro wrapper and D-licious!  I have a No. 12 that I got at the same time, looking forward to smoking that one too.  Eddie has a real winner here, but I never doubted that!

 

Monday evening I had to pick up one of the cars from the shop, so my oldest son and I decided to walk to the shop and took some Alec Bradley New York cigars with us that we had picked up at De La Concha on a visit last year.  I smoked the “Gotham” torpedo and my son had the “six two” robusto. These are only available from New York State retailers.  I don’t usually like a Criollo wrapper much, but this one was tasty, and it was a reasonably strong cigar.  It was pretty tasty and it lasted the entire 3 mile walk to the garage.  I picked up some of the other New York State specific cigars at the time, a Gurkha and a La Aurora, and I think this was my favorite.  Unfortunately, it’s tough to justify buying cigars in New York if I can help it, but having something exclusive like this makes it difficult to pass up. Nice cigar, try one if you have the opportunity.

 

Tuesday evening I broke down and grabbed one of those special cigars that you look at every time you open the humidor, but find a reason to save it for a special occasion or something.  I finally said “screw it” and selected a Cain Daytona Lancero which was gifted to my by my friend and local Oliva rep, Mike Staiber, last year at the IPCPR show.  I really enjoy the Daytona line, I find it milder than the Habano, Maduro and “F” lines, and well balanced.  This lancero was no different. I always feel a little fancy smoking a lancero, it’s an elegant size.  Unfortunately, it’s not a real popular size, but it’s one I really enjoy as long as I take my time and “sip” the smoke from it so it doesn’t get too hot.  Absolutely fantastic cigar, among the best I’ve had recently.  Fortunately I have another one floating around, as well as an “F” lancero or two.  I understand the Daytona lancero is available now in the special Studio Tabak sampler that is available at their store events.  I’ve liked the flavor of all the Cains I’ve smoked, but some are just too darned strong for me.  The Daytona solves this problem by giving me that great flavor in a friendlier package.  Very nice!

 

It’s a short one this time.  Memorial Day is just about upon us!  I hope everyone can squeeze in a few great cigars over the weekend!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | May 6, 2012 · 10:38 am

Brun Del Rè Cigars, a La Palina Cigar and a Little Rant

I was feeling adventurous again this week and reached for a Brun Del Rè Premium Robusto from last year’s IPCPR.  I had smoked a sample from their Don Corazza line a while ago and wasn’t very impressed.  I fell victim to one of  the classic blunders – The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia”  but only slightly less well-known is this: “Never judge a cigar line based upon a single sample”. Based upon that one sample, I had been hesitant to invest my valuable cigar time in what might have been just another ho-hum, run of the mill trade show sample.   However, my faith has been restored with this cigar.  It was a beautiful Ecuador Connecticut shade wrapped 5″ x 50 robusto stuffed with Nicaraguan filer and made in Costa Rica .  It was well made, had a nice sweet flavor and was on the medium end of mild.  I’m very much looking forward to sampling the rest of this line and even re-visiting the Don Corazza.  This cigar is worth a try in my opinion.

 

Took a long walk on Friday evening and needed a little heftier cigar, so I selected a recently received La Palina Toro.  If I get a mile and a half from home and realize I’ve got a dud cigar I’m very unhappy, so cigar selection in this case is critical.  Of course, I have the foresight to carry a back-up, either to smoke if I get a less than satisfying cigar experience, or to share along the way if the need arises.  With the La Palina, I know I won’t need the back-up. These cigars are always perfectly constructed, they are made in the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras, the same factory that produces such excellent and consistent lines as Alec Bradley and Illusione (the later of which I’ve never had, but heard good things!).  The La Palina Toro is a rich and tasty smoke, although still pricey at $10 each.  It’s a premium smoke that has never failed to deliver in all of the sizes I’ve tried, but I think I like this size and the robusto the best. Thank you to La Palina for providing the samples, and for their support of this site.

 

A Little Rant

This is probably the wrong time to type this. I tend to be the most curmudgeonly on Sunday mornings after I’ve worked at my part time job until 3 am, but I feel the need to vent.  A couple things annoy me when reading/listening to my contemporaries in what I’ll hesitantly call the cigar media.  My first beef involves basic writing skills.  My dear friend Barry Stein made a bit of a joke about his typos, and it annoyed me but I get it.  He had a wildly successful site, did a great job, and it was a bit of an inside joke.  I read other sites (and I’m going to be a wuss and not name names) and I’m appalled.  I’m no writer, but I take what I do here pretty seriously and try to present readable content.  Punctuation, run on sentences, misspelling, I feel like I’m reading something a 5th grader wrote (with apologies to most 5th graders).  Seriously, word processor programs will at least tell you most of this stuff is wrong!  I don’t know how people can put their names on some of the stuff I see.  It’s a blog. It’s not twitter or texting. Please write coherently.  Another thing that rankles me is when I’m listening to a podcast, and I listen to a bunch, and the presenters get basic information wrong.  I’m far from an expert, but after more than a decade and a half of being a crazy cigar fool, I think I can pretty much tell a cigars size on sight, or at least come close.  I also think it’s irresponsible to get the price-point wrong about a cigar, especially to represent it as a much cheaper cigar than it actually is.  Really, as much time as it must take to produce such high quality podcasts, and as readily available as the information is in most cases, I think it sloppy to leave out these little details.  People must think I’m nuts when I’m in the car or out for a walk and start talking back to the podcast trying to correct them!  Anyway, it all comes down to details in both cases. If you don’t have the details, don’t make them up or guess while presenting yourself as an authority.  As I said, I neither think myself an authority, nor any kind of writer, but I try to get the details right as I feel it’s my responsibility. Thanks for listening, and please leave a comment if there’s something I do repeatedly that annoys you.

 

Sometime during the week I smoked a Berger and Argenti Mooch Schnorr that was really good.  I love the size of this cigar, (it’s  5″ x 50 but it seems more like a corona gorda for some reason) and the name always makes me smile as much as the excellent flavor and construction.  This is a reasonably priced, medium bodied cigar that I think can be enjoyed by many different types of smokers.  In all honesty, I probably wouldn’t have mentioned this cigar as I’ve mentioned it before, but I spent a lot of time on the photo of the cigar and didn’t want it to go to waste :-).

 

That’s it for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | March 11, 2012 · 8:39 pm

Saturday Cigar Adventure: Cigars International Alec Bradley Event

Saturday’s cigar adventure took us north to Bethlehem, PA to the Cigars International Super Store.  They were holding an event featuring Alec Bradley Cigars, Alan Ruben, George Sosa and Jonathan Lipson were in attendance.  My wife came along for the ride, so it made for a nice date (for me more than her, I suppose).  I had missed meeting Alan at the IPCPR show  last year, their booth was so stinkin’ busy it wasn’t funny. Every time I stopped by there were tons of folks there doing business.  Alan greeted me at the door and introductions were made. I made my way through the store and grabbed a handful of Alec Bradley American Classic Blend Gordos, received a Black Market with my purchase, and set fire to one of the Gordos.  I really enjoy the flavor of this cigar. It’s not too heavy with some fairly “bright” flavors, and the price point is very friendly at about $5.50 for the 6″x60 size.  I’ve always liked coronas and robustos, as well as the rest of the traditional sizes, but I have to admit the larger ring cigars are a little bit of a guilty pleasure lately, not sure why that is.  I find the band to be visually appealing as well, although I usually don’t concern myself with such things.  While I was enjoying my cigar, I spent a little time talking with Jonathan, who is new to Alec Bradley, but not to the industry, George Sosa, who my wife and I had met at the 2008 IPCPR show, and Alan.  We also roamed around the expansive store, checking out the other merchandise and lounge areas.  If you are within a few hours drive of Bethlehem, PA, you should check this place out.  It’s like a supermarket of cigars, and the staff is friendly and attentive.

 

A question I had for Alan was in reference to one of my favorite cigars from days gone by, their Trilogy line.  These were a triangular pressed cigar, which was unique, that came in three sizes (Churchill, Robusto and Torpedo) as well as three wrappers (Authentic Corojo, Exotic Maduro, and Native Cameroon).  This was the company’s first really big hit, and was an outstanding cigar, whatever you may think of the odd shape.  I enjoyed the line so much that I bought a box once to hand out at a cigar event, because I wanted everyone to try it.  Anyway, I asked what happened to that line, and Alan answered that they had a hard time getting retailers to carry all nine facings, and the sales were sporadic, one month the Maduro would sell like crazy, the next Corojo, and so on.  They eventually discontinued it as they were bringing items like Tempus and other marques that were easier to market.  He also alluded to the fact that he gets this question a lot and they still have the special molds, so there’s a possibility something like the Trilogy may make a reappearance.  I know I’ll be keeping an eye open for that!  A quick search shows me that there are a couple online retailers that may have stocks of what I can only assume are the round versions of the Trilogy.  Might be worth exploring for old time’s sake.   As we were leaving, we were talking to Alan about kids, since our boys like cigars, and his company is named after his boys, one of which is now over 18, and going to cigar events and apparently amassing  a pretty good collection of cigars.  Alan related a story about his son keeping three humidors, one that he puts cigars that his dad can take, one that if his dad takes cigars from, he’d rather he didn’t, but he’d me OK with, and a third that he keeps hidden!  I thought this was pretty funny.  My eldest son has his own humidors and I don’t worry about him, and I told my youngest son, who has recently taken to cigars, to make sure to ask me before he goes into my humidors.  I know he’s done a pretty good job of going through my coolers based on some of the cigars he’s inquired about, but as long as he asks, I’m happy to share.   It was a nice day out.  Maybe I’m a little nuts to drive an hour and a half to go to a cigar shop and hang out for a smoke, but I am a little bit of a cigar geek I suppose (ya think?) It’s never disappointing to meet and talk to people in the cigar industry and smoke a great cigar!

Off Topic!

Here’s a little public service announcement, my wife ran across this on Twitter and it’s pretty funny: http://www.dollarshaveclub.com/

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | January 4, 2012 · 8:07 pm

The J. Fuego Originals and Citizens for Tobacco Rights

I realize that I’ve gotten everyone used to morning posts, but it’s back to work and back to writing when I can.  I have to admit, I’m experiencing some writer’s block at the moment, so bear with me please.  It’s gotten bitterly cold here in south-east, Pennsylvania, which is not awfully conducive to the proper enjoyment of a cigar.  My normal routine is to take a walk, which usually keeps me moving enough to enjoy a small cigar, as it turns out, the rigors of returning to work after a week plus off has left me without the energy to bother.  That’s my excuse, I’m sticking to it.

 

Monday I received a call from my brother-in-law, Jeff, who has recently taken to fine cigars.  He’s been picking one up at his local shop in New Jersey, and called me from my local shop while visiting for the holidays.  He wanted some inexpensive “everyday” cigars, and wanted my advice.  Oddly, on my last visit to the shop the previous Friday, I failed to really take a good look through the humidor.  I was able to direct him to the National Brand bundles, which happened to be in the same place I remembered thme being. Since he really enjoyed the Acid Kuba Kuba I gave him, and had been enjoying working his way through the Alec Bradley range, I figured they’d be a good bet.  I’ve certainly enjoyed my fair share of National Brand maduros, and I hope he likes them too.  Naturally, since he was in the area, I invited him over for a smoke.  I had picked up a pack of the Jesus Fuego Sangre de Toro Originals while I was at the shop Friday.  I had been offered a sample at the IPCPR show by Jesus, but I never managed to get one for one reason or another.  I had enjoyed the heck out of the robusto in this blend, so I figured for $12.95 for five cigars I had to try them.  I’ll eventually try the other two blends in this size as it seems to be a very good “winter” size.  I really enjoyed the cigar.  Great flavor, the mold-less old style shape is fun and burned well, and I can’t wait to smoke another one.  That may be my equivalent to a “10” or whatever rating scale one uses.  Very good smokes.  I gave Jeff a Maria Mancini Magic Mountain to try which he enjoyed.  That’s a hard cigar to beat and they can be purchased for around $2.50 a piece if you find yourself in a JR store.

Editorial

In the “Editorial” department, I wanted to encourage everyone to sign up at Citizens for Tobacco Rights, which is sponsored by Philip Morris USA. Now, I understand that this site is not cigar specific, and is provided by a cigarette company, but the challenges we face as cigar smokers certainly run parallel to those of our other tobacco product using brethren.  So far I’ve received no unwanted e-mail from them, and found no reason not to add my name to their numbers. Registration is free and they provide many of the same tools as Cigar Rights of America and IPCPR for contacting your elected officials. It can’t hurt to take every opportunity we have to have our voices heard as our rights are being eroded. Please write to your senator and congressman about the FDA issue too, there’s a link in my sidebar to enter your zip code and take you to a pre-writen letter you can send.  It really will be a problem if the FDA is allowed to regulate cigars.  Our hobby and passion will be ruined at best, and criminalized at worst.

 

I guess I did OK considering I had no clue what I was going to write about. Please let me know what you think in the comments, and feel free to share your smoking experiences as well!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

 

 

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by | December 28, 2011 · 10:31 am

CigarCraig’s Top Cigars Of 2011

Once again I’d like to thank everyone for making the 12 Days of Spectacular Giveaways a huge success.   I certainly couldn’t have done it without stuff to give away and people to give it to and  the great support I had at home.   It was tons of fun but it was a loads of work and quite tiring.  I’ll plan on doing it again next year but will do a few things a little differently on the back end.  Congrats to all of the winners and thanks to everyone for making it a great year on CigarCraig.com!

 

Everyone’s publishing their “Top Whatever” lists, and I’ve avoided doing anything like that over the years since I don’t really have a quantitative method of reviewing cigars, if you even want to call it reviewing.  I know what I like, I know how a cigar works and I also feel that nobody sets out to make a crappy cigar, so there must be someone, somewhere who likes a given cigar, no matter how offensive it is to me.  Also keep in mind that I’m not the kind of guy who runs all over creation looking for the hip boutique cigars, I’m just as happy with a Partagas Black as I am with some limited edition cigar that only comes out on arbor day and had 7 bands on it (happier, no doubt) So with all that in mind, let’s take a romp through what tripped my trigger over the last year!

 

You’d be hard pressed to find a list without the Tatuaje La Casita Criolla on it, and I have to concur, this is one of the cigars this year that really made me happy.  Broadleaf.  That’s all it is, Broadleaf.  I love Broadleaf.  I only smoked the corona size, but to me it compared favorably with the Liga Privada Serie Unico Dirty Rat in flavor and balance.  Tasty, tasty cigar!  I purchased these at a local shop and they weren’t too much more than $5 or $6 each.

 

A group of cigars that have received favorable reviews everywhere and are on everyone’s lists are the Emilio and Grimalkin cigars from Gary Griffith.  The Emilio AF1 is a nice, dark, heavy, seriously yummy cigar, it’s sibling, the AF2 is different, perhaps a brighter flavor, but equally well made and delicious.  The Grimalkin is a different beast, subtle, complex, an orgiastic feast of the senses.  I have not had the occasion to purchase these, all of the samples I smoked were provided to me by Gary, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t buy them in a heartbeat.  Gary and his partners are producing exceptional cigars, and I’m quite happy to know him.

 

I have also been enamored with the La Gloria Cubana Artesanos Retro Especial and the CAO OSA Sol this year, both new cigars from General Cigar Co., and I’m not just saying that because I had the great fortune of visiting their Dominican factory.  One of the many eyeopeners on that trip, besides revisiting some of their classic cigars and finding them to be outstanding, was the time and passion that goes into making every cigar.  It almost has to be harder to make a million great cigars that are great year after year thank to make a batch of a couple hundred thousand that are gone when they are gone, right?  The La Gloria Retro has been excellent and tasty in all the sizes I’ve tried, cigar after cigar,  and the CAO OSA Sol seems to shine in the Lot 50, or robusto size, but is a nice enough cigar across the board.  Both are in the medium range with lots of flavor.

 

One of my favorite finds of the year has to have been Oja Cigars.  I met the brand owner, Luis Garcia, on my trip to Nicaragua, and we hit it off pretty good.  His cigars are made by Tabacalera Esteli, which is owned by Kiki Berger.  There haven’t been a lot of cigars from Cuban Crafters that have floated my boat, but the Oja line is really nice.  I think my favorite cigar of the year was a Connecticut Toro I enjoyed in the pool on a hot summer day, but that had as much to do with the circumstance as with the cigar.  The line is solid, full bodied (even the Connecticut) and tasty.  The Anniversary, with a Brazilian maduro wrapper outshines them all.  It’s a little more refined and complex.  I love the whole line and look forward to seeing them in stores in my area.

 

I should mention Adrian’s CroMagnon by Michael Rosales and Skip Martin, which is another cigar that’s been on everyone’s list.  I’ve only smoked a couple samples that Skip gave me, but they are definitely up my alley.  Also, for much different reasons, I really like the Berger and Argenti Mooch line, especially the Schnorr.  The name cracks me up, but the cigar is a solid, flavorful medium bodied cigar.  Also the Undercrown and My Uzi Weighs a Ton were on everyone’s list for good reason, and I enjoyed the samples I had.  Alec Bradley is making fine cigars, Toraño is making fine cigars, La Palina, El Primer Mundo, Oliva, everyone seems to be making fine cigars!  It’s a good time, there are so many choices!

 

That’s about all I can think of at the moment.  Honestly, there were a LOT of great cigars this year.

 

Until the next time, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

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