Tag Archives: Alec Bradley

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

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

by Craig Vanderslice | February 4, 2021 · 9:42 pm

Alec Bradley Project 40 Maduro Toro Cigar

I’ve been scrounging around for new cigars again, and I had bought some of the Alec Badley Project 40 Maduro Toros from Scotty’s Cigars a few weeks ago and figured I’d smoke a few ad see what they were all about. To digress a little, I had mentioned that I was having some dental discomfort recently, and visited the dentist this afternoon and he referred me to the endodontist who will probably do a root canal or two. This is better than having to have it pulled, and one of the teeth causing the problem already has a porcelain crown from a previous chain dental practice I visited during a period where my usual dentist wasn’t in my dental plan. LEsson LEarned there. At least the crown is good. A tooth extraction would negatively impact my ability to enjoy a cigar for an extended period of time, and we can’t have that! Enough about my problems. The downside was, I missed out on joining in on the Kaplowitz Radio Round Panel, of which I’ve been taking part recently. This is a Podcast which is part of the Kaplowitz Media family of podcasts which I find entertaining. How much I personally contribute remains to be seen. I’ll try again next week. This is also why today’s post is a day late. Back to the Project 40. I haven’t tried the “Natural” wrapper version yet, but I will hunt some down.

The Project 40 Maduro has a San Andrés wrapper, a Brazilian Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers. The Toro is 6″ x 52. I’ll preface this by saying that I generally keep my humidors on the dryer side, but the humidor these cigars were in is sitting around 67%, and something I really hate is when cigars smoke on the over humidified side. This is one reason I tend to check cigars with the Humidimeter, and this cigar measured 65% at the foot, and I think 63% is ideal. Heavier tobaccos hold more humidity than thinner tobaccos, so two cigars in the same humidor can smoke differently, and a little too much moisture can cause a “steamy” quality to the smoke. Like I said, I hate that. Despite the cigar smoking a little on the wet side, which I’ll take responsibility for, this was a nice tasting cigar. The interplay of the Mexican and Brazilian components gives it a nice, meaty spice, with some heavy espresso. I have one more that I’m going to put in a much dryer humidor and get to it in a few months, I’m sure it will be really nice. The price point is really attractive too, at under $7.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Alec Bradley, cigar, cigars, Project 40

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

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

by Craig Vanderslice | September 9, 2020 · 9:35 pm

Labor Day Cigars and a Macanudo Inspirado Green

Labor Day was my first paid holiday since January 1st of 2018! A combination of two streaks of unemployment and a year of working in retail for a company that didn’t believe in paid holidays (something I had trouble wrapping my head around!), I was quite excited about this small luxury! My wife wanted to get away and do something, anything, so we took a drive to Lewes, Delaware, Parked the car at the ferry terminal, and rode the ferry over to Cape May and walked on the beach for a while. I took the opportunity to smoke one of the cigars in the Cigar Prop sampler in the Smoke Inn Battle of the Bands promo that’s going on. I selected the Alec Bradley Black Market Esteli Punk, a little 4¼” x 42 petite corona. This cigar has a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan and Honduran binders amd Nicaraguan fillers. I chose this due to time constraints and the fact that I wasn’t supposed to be actually smoking on the beach really, but the stretch of beach we were on was fairly empty and nobody said anything anyway. I don’t usually favor such small cigars, and it was before lunch, so I took it slow, which was a good thing, because this was a pretty potent little smoke! I really enjoyed it! It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, with a gentle breeze off the bay, and this cigar was just delicious. These are probably about $5 if you find them singley, and well worth it. A great choice by Kevin for his sampler.

On the drive home I lit up another cigar from the “shorties of forty” sampler, as Kevin refers to it, the Papas Fritas from Drew Estate. Obviously, this wasn’t my first go around with this cigar, and I normally wouldn’t opt for a mixed filler cigar while driving a stick shift car in traffic, but I had confidence in this one. The Papas Fritas was made using the sorted bench cuts from the Liga Privadas. It certainly doesn’t smoke like a mixed fill cigar, no mess in the car! Of course, traffic sucked coming home, to be expected, so having a cigar was quite helpful. It occurs to me, I still haven’t smoked any of the Nasty Fritas, the newer shape. Anyway, the two hour drive took nearly three, but the little Papas Fritas took the edge off. I could have smoked and A sized cigar, but that might have hit the windshield. I gotta say, I’ve smoked three of the five cigars in the Cigar Prop sampler and they have all been winners. Great selection so far.

When I got home I felt compelled to smoke another from the samper, and went with one I hadn’t tried before, the Crowned Heads Juarez OBS, the largest cigar in the sampler. This one is 4¾” x 54, seems longer compared to the rest, but it’s the same length as the Sobremesa Short Churchill, the fifth cigar in the sampler (the first one was the Padron 26th No. 35 Maduro). Kevin said that this is the cigar that people raved about in the sampler. I have to say, it was in my top five, but certainly not my favorite. This line is made at Tabacalera Pichardo in Estelí,, it has a natural San Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan fillers. I don’t know if it’s because it was my third cigar of the day, with the first two being fairly strong, or if it’s because it started off a little snug in the draw and took a while to open up, but it was just OK. I’ll certainly give this one a second chance, but it was reasonably blah to me. With the wrapper/binder combination it should have been interesting. I also admit to not taking a shine to a lot of the Crowned Heads portfolio, for some reason, there hasn’t been a lot that trips my trigger. I suppose I’m in the minority.

Tonight I smoked a Macanudo Inspirado Green Toro, my second one. I’ve been looking forward to trying this cigar since I’ve heard about it. I’ve been hot and cold on the Inspirado line, oddly, I really like the Red and White, the Black and Orange are just OK. The Green has a Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper, Indonesian binder, and fillers from Columbia and the DR. The Brazilian wrapper caught my attention, as well as the Columbian filler. The first one I smoked was nice, but I smoked it following a rather strong maduro (Southern Draw Jacobs Ladder), and I felt like I may not have given it a fair shake. I thought it was pretty mild. So I smoked on tonight on a fresh palate and it was quite a bit more flavorful! I enjoyed this cigar, more than the Inspirado Black, which, for me, is odd. It’s odd that I am not that fond of the Black actually, but the Green has some interesting and different flavors. There’s some spice and unique flavors I can’t put a finger on, except to say that I like them and it’s a cigar I’m happy that I bought a handful of. I actually bought these after shopping for something else and not finding what I was looking for. Next to the Inspirado Red, this is my second favorite Inspirado. The green band looks really nice on that dark wrapper too.

One of my pet peeves: The Black Market Esteli Punk size isn’t listed on the Alec Bradley webpage, nor is the Juarez line listed on the Crowned Heads site. I just think it’s weird. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Alec Bradley, Battle of the Bands, Black Market Esteli, cigar, Cigar Prop, cigars, Crowned Heads, drew estate, Green, Inspirado, Juarez, macanudo, Papas Fritas, Smoke Inn

by Craig Vanderslice | March 4, 2020 · 5:20 pm

A Highclere Castle, a Charter Oak and an Alec Bradley Shamrock Cigar

I am late to the game getting around to the Highclere Castle line, Nick Melillo, of Foundation Cigar Co. gave me one of each at the TPE show, and while I still haven’t gotten to the original Connecticut Shade Edwardian blend yet, I did smoke the Victorian this week. We’ve had some nice weather this week, and the Victorian I had was the Churchill vitola, and the afternoon seemed right for a Churchill, so I grabbed it and took Macha for a nice walk. This cigar is 7″ x 48, close enough by US standards, and has a dark Ecuador Habano wrapper, although I hesitate to call it maduro. It has the same Mata Fina binder as the Edwardian, but a different blend of Nicaraguan filler. It’s my understanding that this are made in A.J. Fernandez’ Factory. I wouldn’t be surprised considering the construction, which was perfect, nice burn and draw. It was a very nice cigar, it was a medium to full cigar with a nice spice and some leathery flavors. It was well balanced and sophisticated, and was a nice, long smoke. I had no complaints.

Later that evening I had time for another cigar, and I probably should have smoked the Highclere Edwardian, but I had a hankering for some broadleaf, so I opted for a Charter Oak Broadleaf toro that had been in the humidor for a few years. It’s probably not the first time this cigar has appeared on these pages, or maybe it is! Charter Oak is a spectacular line at an even more spectacular price. This toro was $5.50, I think, and worth every penny. This was a 6″ x 52 toro, my favored size, with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano binder and Nicaragua fillers. I don’t know how they make such a great cigar at such a great price. It’s got a great sweetness and espresso flavors. These even come in boxes, not bundles. A bargain at twice the price.

Finally, I broke away from the Foundation Cigar Co. stable and selected a cigar that I had picked up a few weeks ago when I visited Best Cigar Pub. I was going to save this for March 17, but I figured that would be cliché and everyone else would be smoking it or something similar, and it was begging to be smoked. Of course, the cigar was the Alec Bradley Filthy Hooligan Shamrock. I’ve enjoyed the Filthy Hooligan releases over the years, from the plain candelas, to the barber pole versions. The triple wrapper Shamrock looked intriguing and I wanted to smoke it. This one has a tri-colored wrapper: candela, Habano maduro, and Habano seco with undisclosed fillers, although it’s under the Black Market line, so one must assume there’s some relationship. I really enjoyed this cigar. It has a crisp, clean flavor, the balance of the three wrappers really worked for me. My guess is that the candela provided the base, as the refreshing chlorophyl sort of sensation was dominant. I though it was a good smoke, and it burned well, which is sometimes a concern with barber-pole style cigars. I’ll stash the other one away with the couple other Filthy Hooligans I have from years past I suppose, and find another green cigar for St. Patrick’s Day (I have a good idea what that will be).