Tag Archives: Best Cigar Prices

by CigarCraig | December 11, 2015 · 6:08 am

CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways 2015 Day 1: Best Cigar Prices Duality

Welcome to the 2015 Cigar Craig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways! I’ve, once again, assembled an all-star cast of great giveaways for the next 12 days, so strap in and get ready for the ride! I’ll be posting a new present every morning and announcing the previous day’s winner, so check back often. It will benefit you to subscribe to the e-mail list, Facebook page, Twitter or Google+ so you make sure not to miss a day. People put up with my crap all year for this! We’re going to get things started with some cigars from Best Cigar Prices, Duality cigars. These are made at Tabacalera Palma, the same Dominican factory that make Boutique Blends Aging Room, Señorial, and a bunch of other terrific cigars. These are a “dos capas” style, made with a Mexican San Andrés wrapper and finished with Ecuador Connecticut at the head. There is a Box of 15 Duality Robustos, and a box of 50 Duality Cigarillos. Don’t forget that you can get 10% of and $.99 shipping every day at Best Cigar Prices with the discount code CRAIG1099.

I actually got confused and wasn’t sure which way this picture was supposed to go! There you have it, the start of this year’s celebration of cigars! Thanks to Jason and the folks at Best Cigar Prices for getting us started off right!

You know what to do now, leave a comment here, check back tomorrow to see if you won!

RULES

All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment on the post of the day, if you can, try to post what you know or how you feel about today’s present, the folks donating the gift should get some feedback for their troubles! It’s not a condition to win, but it’s nice to have something to read. We did this last year and it benefits everyone. Once you’ve won, you’re out, let everyone else have a chance. Must be over 18 to win. Also, be sure to visit the links for each item. Comments on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else will not count, but feel free to spread the word!

Until tomorrow,

CigarCraig

88 Comments

Filed under Contest

Tagged as 12 days, Best Cigar Prices, cigar, cigars, Contest, Duality

by CigarCraig | May 21, 2014 · 9:21 pm

A Sindicato, a Dunhill, a Debonaire and a Cigar Contest

I finally got around to putting some contest goodies together. Some of the cigars were some spare samples, and some were ones I bought and enjoy quite a bit. More on that at the end of the post, maybe folks will read to the end, some may scroll down. If you scroll down, you might miss reading about some of the cigars I’ve smoked so far this week.

Monday evening I picked out a new cigar from Sindicato Cigars. These guys are a little different than other manufactures. Jim Colucci is the president of the company, and he comes from many years at the helm of Altadis, probably the largest cigar company on the planet. The company is made up of a bunch of retailers across the country, so they have a unique perspective of what sells in tobacco shops and what consumers want. Last year they came out with the Hex and Affinity, along with the very inexpensive Casa Bella. I’ve smoked all three and they are very nice smokes. This latest offering, the Sindicato, is at the high end of the price range, running from $10.95 to $13.95 and are made by the folks at Casa Fernandez with Aganorsa tobacco. I smoked the Corona Gorda, a 5½” x 48 cigar with a nice pigtail and partially closed foot. I really enjoyed this cigar, it was lush and meaty and loaded with delicious tobacco flavor. It burned perfectly and was a very satisfying smoke. Thanks to Yoffy for sending these along.

Tuesday I selected another new cigar, this one from General Cigar Co. This is the Dunhill 1907 Box Pressed Toro, measuring 6″ x 54 with a Honduran Olancho wrapper. The wrapper is wrapper mottled, not at all what I expected from a Dunhill, as they are generally beautiful cigars. The rest of the cigar is Dominican and Brazilian Mata Fina. It was a nice smoke, although I think a few more months in the humidor will benefit it. I received two, so I’ll revisit it in a few months. It was medium bodied, and had a nice flavor, reminiscent of the CAO OSA Sol, which has a similar wrapper (although I think the OSA Sol’s wrapper was prettier). It had similar bright tobacco sweetness that I enjoy from time to time. This was a nice smoke, I look forward to smoking it again after a long rest in the humidor.

Tonight I smoked a Debonaire Sagita petite lancero. The reason I grabbed this one is a little less than debonair, I’m afraid. Phil Zanghi is the man behind the brand. He developed the Indian Tabac line back in the ’90s and sold it to Rocky Patel. I’ve heard him on at least two podcasts describe this cigar as a 5½ x 48, which I knew was wrong. It’s a 38 ring gauge (I measured it), although I would have loved this in a corona gorda size. This is an ultra premium cigar, it even states it on the band. Another feature of the band was on the inside, where it has the box date, which was July of 2013 (this was an IPCPR show sample). The blend isn’t listed specifically, but they use high priming, excellent quality tobaccos, and are rolled with great care. The cigar was exceptional, it was meaty, like prime rib, and burned perfectly. It had a nice little pigtail cap too. I put a very small nub in the ashtray when I was done. I would almost say this would be worth the nearly $10 price tag, if I wasn’t such a cheap SOB. Worth trying if you have the opportunity.

Contest

OK, it’s been over 5 months since I had a contest. Sorry about that, but after the December contests I guess I got a little burned out. So here is the prize.

There are 15 cigars, including some special cigars from La Sirena (including a Merlion Sea Lion and a La Sirena Dubloon, which are very limited), a couple Alec Bradleys, a couple of the New Partagas 1845 offerings, and some of the house brands from Best Cigar Prices. There’s a few other cigars in there that I enjoy too. Also a CAO cap (had to include a CAO concert to go with along with it), a Nomad S-307 and a Foundry Compounds, Elements and Musings Vanadium from the box I bought a few months ago. There’s a nice La Gloria Cubana tube too (now I have to find a La Gloria to throw in). A little something for everyone, I can’t imagine anyone complaining. So leave a comment to enter. Feel free to Tweet and share, but only the comments on this post will count. Good luck, and I’ll select a winner on Sunday!

That’s it, until the next time,

CigarCraig

47 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as Alec Bradley, Best Cigar Prices, CAO, cigar, cigars, Contest, Debonaire, Dunhill, general cigars, La Sirena, Sindicato

by CigarCraig | May 11, 2014 · 10:16 am

Cigar Rights and Some Alec Bradley Cigars

I usually present the cigars I’ve smoked over the last few days, but I had a weird experience this week, and I’m going to hold off on talking about those cigars until I give them some more humidor time and revisit them. All I’ll say is I smoked two cigars that had a really odd finish, and while they were from the same company, they were made in completely different factories. Unless they had a common component that had a flavor that just didn’t play well with my chemistry, I’m going to give them a do-over in a couple weeks. It was weird and had me second guessing myself! In other news, Cigar Rights of America has published a response to the FDA’s deeming document with excellent recommendations on how to respond, and we MUST respond in numbers, or life will change negatively for many thousands of people. Glynn Loope, the director of the CRA made a comment that no cigar related anything should be published without including a link to http://cigarrights.org/fda-response.php. I created a simple animated 125×125 graphic and included it at the top of the right-hand column on this site (scroll down for mobile users), I don’t think my advertisers will mind being bumped down a spot for this. Anyone who wants to use it is free to to so, and if someone with talent in creating graphics (I have none) wants to improve upon it, please do. We need to make an intelligent and unified response to the FDA’s proposed destruction of cigars as we know them.

Yesterday was Saturday, and I had received an email earlier in the week that one of my long time favorite local shops was having an Alec Bradley event. I’ve been begging to get email notices about JM Cigars events for years, and finally got on the list! I figured it would be rude if I didn’t stop in. Jonathan “The Player” Lipson, the local Alec Bradley rep, is a good guy and I like Alec Bradley cigars. I smoked a Nica Puro robusto, of course, one of my go-tos, mostly to see if that odd taste I was getting was me or not. It wasn’t, as the cigar was excellent as usual. The event was well attended for a spring Saturday afternoon. I’m not sure if it’s just that Jonathan does a lot of events or what, but I find myself going whenever I see one pop up, and, as a result, I seem to have quite a few Alec Bradley cigars in my humidors. I picked up a few American Sungrown torpedos too, for five bucks these are impossible to pass up!

After a blustery storm blew through, I decided to keep with the Alec Bradley theme, and took a walk with an Alec Bradley MAXX Connecticut Robolo, which is a BestCigarPrices.com exclusive (~~the size, not the blend~~ It turns out the Maxx Connecticut line is a BCP exclusive, thanks to Jason there for the update). Something about the 4½x60 size appeals to me, not sure why that is. This cigar has fillers from Nicaraguan, Colombian, Mexican, and Honduras, with a Connecticut wrapper, which I assume is Ecuador Connecticut judging by the flavor and the price point, however both BestCigarPrices and Alec Bradley’s sites just say Connecticut, so I could well be wrong. These can be had in the five dollar range. I found this to be a really nice, milder smoke with great flavors. The burn and draw were very good, and I burned my fingers a little finishing it up. It probably smoked for over an hour, not bad for a four and a half inch cigar. In the Maxx range, I’ve only had the Brazilian wrapped version, which is exclusive to another retailer, and I really liked that cigar. This one was tasty, perhaps a better choice for earlier in the day than I smoked it, but a very nice cigar. Thanks to Jason at BCP for providing this sample.

That’s all for now. It’s Mother’s Day, so if you have one in your life, try to do something a little special for her today. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

7 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as Alec Bradley, Best Cigar Prices, cigar, cigar rights, cigars, FDA, JM Cigars, Maxx

by CigarCraig | March 30, 2014 · 11:43 am

A Relajado, a CAO Flathead, and a Byron Cigar

Thursday I revisited the Relajado Robusto, which is a house brand from Best Cigar Prices. The cigar is made by General cigar, the trademark rounded head gives that away. Despite the band being pretty cheesy, and looking like a cheap bundle cigar instead of a reasonably priced boxed cigar, this was pretty darned nice. It reminded me a little of the Macanudo Cru Royal…a little…it has an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. This is a mild to medium cigar that has some sweet leather flavors. It burned OK, not razor straight but not needing correction. Nice smoke, but the band kills me on this, Based solely on presentation, I’d definitely pass this up on the shelf (figuratively, this is only available at Best Cigar Prices). I’ve mentioned this to Jason there, so I’m not blind-siding him. I hope to get up-state to Drums, PA to visit these guys one of these days. Thanks to Jason for sending these along to try, so far I’m quite impressed with the exclusive cigars from BCP. I really like the Six-Sixty and the Alec Bradley Star Insignia too.

A few weeks ago I lied to you. I said that I had the CAO Flathead Big Block 770 in my humidor, when I actually had the Carb 660. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again. I took Friday off from work to get some things done, and one of the things I got done was taking this CAO Flathead Carb 660 for a walk. Our dog and I took a nice long walk while I smoked this 6″ x 60 square pressed cigar. I am going to have to bite the bullet and get one of the 7x70s just to complete the set, I suppose, as I really enjoy the dark roast coffee, cocoa flavors these cigars have. I think I like the Camshaft the best of the bunch, 5″X 56 is just an all around more manageable size and of the three of four sizes I’ve smoked I liked that one the best in terms of balance. I can make the assumption that the 7″ x 70 won’t be as good as the 6″ x 60, but I like to collect the data first hand. That’s not to say I didn’t like the Carb, I did. The square press makes it feel smaller than the 60 ring, and it burned unusually well. This line is loaded with Connecticut Broadleaf goodness. I know there are loyalists and purists who poo-poo the CAO line in the General Cigar era, but they are missing out. Rick, Ed and their team have really made some good cigars for CAO, and the Flathead line is, so far, my favorite. I purchased this Carb, as well as the Piston I smoked previously, and I’ll buy them again.

Saturday was a rainy day, so my plans to do some yard work were put off once again. I ran a couple errands and took a chair out to the garage and lit up a cigar I’d been trying to find a good reason to smoke since Dave Garofalo, of 2 Guys Smoke Shop, gave this to me at the IPCPR show last year. The Byron line of cigars is made in Costa Rica by Nelson Alphonso. Señor Alphonso is the gentleman responsible for most of the modern Habanso S.A. packaging, the jars and humidors, all the fancy stuff. He started making cigar in Costa Rica under the Byron, Attabey and Bandolero marques a few years ago. I smoked the Byron Londineses, which is 5½ x 54. These are seriously pricey cigars, they come in a beautiful ceramic jars, not unlike the Cuban special editions. As far as the tobaccos involved in these, it’s a big secret, but I seem to recall hearing that they color sort the filler leaves to make sure the flavor is consistent. This certainly adds to the cost of production. I knew going in that this was a pricey cigar, but I had no idea it was a $30 cigar. You know me, I’m a cheap bastid, I think the most I’ve paid for a cigar is around $12. I did smoke this with an open mind and a clean palate and it was a wonderful cigar. At one point, I swear I had a hint of buttered popcorn in the middle of the cigar. It came and went quickly, but it was there. The rest was a buttery smooth, flavorful cigar that burned perfectly. This was quite a nice smoke and I appreciate Dave giving me the chance to try a cigar I certainly wouldn’t purchase for myself. I was told once that a small amount of Cuban product is allowed by law based on weight, so the heavier the packaging, the more Cuban ingredients could be used. I found this to be hard to believe, and I haven’t been able to verify it, but I’ve smoked the Byron and Bandolero and there’s a little “Twang” in both that is reminiscent of Cuban tobacco. Considering Señor Alphonso’s close ties to the Cuban cigar Industry, he certainly has access to Cuban tobacco, or he was able to find other tobaccos that replicate this profile. I don’t suppose we’ll ever know, and if anyone knows anything about this loophole in the trade embargo, please let us know!

That’s it for today. I’ll be looking for a cigar later today to either celebrate the Flyer’s victory, or console myself. I hate weekend afternoon games, I have so many better things I could be doing. I suppose if it’s rainy like it is today it makes it a little easier to handle. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

9 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as 2 Guys, Best Cigar Prices, Byron, CAO, cigar, cigars, Flathead, general cigars, Relajado

by CigarCraig | February 26, 2014 · 7:07 pm

An Avo, a Six Zero and Transporter Tubes

I don’t have a lot happening so far this week, I’m afraid! There were a couple cigars I smoked that I want to give a second chance to. Based on the experiences I had, I don’t think it would be fair to the brands to say anything at this time. This is generally my modus operandi, I guess that’s why it looks like I always smoke cigars I like. Trust me, I prefer to smoke cigars I like! I’m an optimist, for the most part, and I really want to like everything I smoke, and I hate it when I feel like my time was wasted. I think if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything, so I’ll revisit a couple cigars in the next couple weeks and see how they go!

Sunday afternoon was beautiful here in SE PA. Temperatures in the 50s melting off the snow, or at least making the piles a little smaller. I took a nice walk with the pup and a cigar I’ve been sitting on for six months, an Avo LE10 that Will Cigar-Coop Cooper sent me. I’ve heard constant raves about this cigar, and my experience with the Avo line is limited to a La Trompeta LE12 that was an OK cigar but burned poorly and didn’t excite my taste buds. I spent a little over an hour and a half with this LE10 and it was a perfectly fine cigar. I guess I just don’t have the palate for these, because I didn’t “get it”. It was good, but didn’t blow me away with the flavor. Some people have expensive tastes, and some people consider a Big Mac a treat I guess, and I fall into the later group. I’d rather have Hamburger Helper than some fancy risotto, so I guess it stands to reason that I lack the sophistication to appreciate such an obviously wonderful cigar. I’m stubborn though, I keep trying! Thanks very much, Will, and I have a couple more from that generous gift you sent that I’m waiting for nicer weather to smoke! If you don’t know of Cigar-Coop.com and StogieGeeks.com, check them out. Will’s just about the hardest working man in cigar media, and rumor has it he has a full time job and a family too! I consider Will a good friend.

Sunday evening I reached for Hamburger Helper….not really, but a fairly new $3.00 cigar from Best Cigar Prices. The Six-Zero line is all 60 ring gauge cigars made by the folks at Boutique Blends. Of course, we know that name from the Aging Room and Swag lines of cigars. I got some of the Robolo size, which is 4½” x 60, and am really enjoying them. The well aged San Andrés wrapper is very tasty and the cigar is well made. I actually enjoy the short, fat format. Call it a guilty pleasure, but I find myself not minding a 60 ring cigar, and the shorter varieties tend to fit my schedule better than the longer ones. Anyway, these are tasty, dark chocolaty cigars that are well worth the money. I could actually smoke these regularly, if I were one to regularly smoke anything!

I recently received an e-mail from a new reader named Kevin, who is making some pretty neat looking travel tubes. He’s got an Indigogo campaign going to raise some start up costs and offering these tubes as perks for contributing. I should be seeing a prototype next week, but they look well done and I liked the looks of it enough to kick start his campaign with a contribution, I can use a nice aluminum tube! Give it a look at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/transporter-tubes and https://www.facebook.com/transportertubes. I often try to think of something I could make that people would think is neat and want, but I guess I’m just not that creative. Certainly there are other tubes on the market, some cheap and some way more expensive, but these look darned nice. He seems to be making them for Churchill sized cigars, which, in my mind, should accommodate several normal sizes. I wish Kevin the best!