Tag Archives: Best Seller

by Craig Vanderslice | December 10, 2023 · 11:01 am

Boliche Blvd, Some Classic Fuentes and a 1502 Cigar

This week I found myself out and about more than usual! Monday I met up with my friend Steve Tabak from Tampa at the Cigar Mojo location nearest to me. I stopped into the Cigar Mojo original location on Thursday for their Fuente event, then was back at The Grove location Friday for a 1502 event. That’s enough running around for me for this month! Anyway, Monday I picked up a few of the new Boliche Blvd by West Tampa Tobacco. I had smoked a pre-release sample several months ago before I knew exactly what it was, and was looking forward to trying it again. This is made at the NACSA factory, which is the same factory that makes Dunbarton’s Mi Querida and Red Meat Lovers cigars, among others. This is a 6″ x 60 and is presented in boxes of 50, it’s a big box, and they only made 500 boxes. The blend has not been disclosed, all that is said is that the tobacco is sourced from the Oliva Tobacco Co., who owns part of the NACSA factory, so it could come from anywhere. It’s a medium to full bodied cigar, and I’m standing by my original impression that it’s more on the savory side than sweet. I smoked two this week and enjoyed them, not as much as I enjoy the Attic, Red or even the Black, I’m afraid, but I like that sweetness for the most part. Definitely a high quality cigar and worth a try! I wish I had gotten a chance to catch up with Ricky while he was in the area this weekend, but I hung out with Steve, which is always cool!

I stopped in to the King of Prussia Cigar Mojo location (King of Prussia is the name of the “town” in PA, home of one of the largest shopping malls in the country), because one doesn’t often come across Fuente events, and I wanted to see what was up. By the time I got there, maybe two hours after the event started, a lot of the selection was picked over. They had some nice sampler packs though, but I couldn’t justify the spend this time of year, I have a good many Fuente cigars in the humidor as it is. I did pick up some Hemingway Maduros, Short Story, Best Seller and a Classic, as they are few and far between. In my opinion, Fuente does some great work with Broadleaf, putting it on the Opus bunch to make the Ańejo made a better Opus, in my opinion. I think the Ańejo is about my favorite in the Fuente line. Don Carlos and Hemingways are a close second, and putting the Broadleaf on the Hemingway is a treat. The lounge was full at Mojo Thursday, so instead of sitting on their heated outdoor patio, I opted to go home and enjoy the Classic Maduro in my own heated patio. I love the over-roasted coffee flavor of this cigar, it’s not subtle or complex, it’s just good, and it’s fairly priced. I smoked the Best Seller yesterday and it’s more of the same, or I guess it’s less of the same, because it’s a smaller format! The neat thing about the Best Seller is that it has a really tight draw until it burns past the “nipple”, then it opens up and is perfect. The Classic is basically a Churchill in a perfecto shape, 7″ x 48, while the Best Seller is 5″ x 55. I’ve been smoking the Hemingway line for over 25 years and they never fail to disappoint.

Friday I stopped back into the Cigar Mojo The Grove location, with is close to home, to see an old friend, Enrique Sanchez of Global Premium Cigars. He was there with Ron Melendi, who is brokering the 1502 line in the Northeast. It’s been years since I have hung out with Enrique, it was great to be able to relax and enjoy a 1502 Ruby Toro with him and Ron. The 1502 Ruby Toro is a 6″ x 50 with a box press, and is made by Plasencia in Nicaragua. The wrapper is Ecuador Habano and the fillers are from Esteli and Jalapa in Nicaragua. As much as I love the Black Gold (the Maduro in the 1502 line), this Ruby really does it for me. This isn’t a new cigar, if you searched it on my site you’d find that I mentioned it back in 2012, back when 1502 was part of the House of Emilio distribution group. A lot has changed over the years, but this cigar remains consistent, it’s really good! There’s some spice and some citrus sweetness. I arrived fairly late at the shop, hung with the guys until closing, then went home and finished the cigar. I did, indeed relax and enjoy this cigar. I enjoyed catching up with my old friend, and finally meeting Ron, whom I’ve known of for years, I used to visit his shop in New York City, De La Concha from time to time.

I never said this was a new cigar blog, but a blog about my smoking experiences, although I do try to smoke newer stuff. This week was some oldies, but goodies! There are a lot of classic cigars that are worth smoking. I like to have certain Fuente cigars in my humidor all the time, I just love smoking them, and sometimes I don’t get around to them as much as I’d like. In other news, Secret Santa names have been selected and I’ll be working on putting my SS package together today. Don’t delay! Finally, stay tuned for a giveaway or two in the coming weeks! Tis the season! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as 1502 Cigars, Arturo Fuente, Best Seller, Boliche Blvd, cigar, cigars, Classic, Global Premium Cigars, Hemingway, Ruby, West Tampa Tobacco Co.

by CigarCraig | September 7, 2011 · 8:53 pm

Rainy Week! More Cigars! Outlaw’s 13, Puros Indios, Fuente Hemingway

Don’t forget to go back to the last post and ever my contest to win one of two Macanudo Millionaire prize packs, and head over the MacanudoMillionaire.com and enter their contest to win a trip to Vegas and hang out with fuzzy little bunnies (I’m guessing they aren’t too fuzzy, but that’s a post on another blog…) I love sending out cigars to people!

On to this weeks cigars so far! Sunday evening I sparked up a cigar that I acquired on a trip, the 13 from Outlaw Cigars in Kansas City. I’m not supposed to say anything about the provenance of this cigar, or how it came into my possession, but these are readily available at Outlaw Cigar‘s site. I really liked the cigar. Like every cigar I’ve smoked that was made in this particular factory, it performed flawlessly. I noticed that the ligero seemed to billow smoke from the burning foot like no other cigar I’ve seen. I’m guessing it was the ligero since it was one small spot in the center of the cigar that was emitting the smoke, the rest of the coal seemed to behave normally. It was weird, but didn’t take away from the cigar. I imagine if this cigar had been released in it’s original intended brand it would have been one of the more highly sought after cigars of last year, so here’s a tip: go to Outlaw and pick some of these up. There is a clue on the website what these were intended to be.

I finished off the holiday weekend with a Puros Indios Miami that Frank Santos of Reyes Family Cigars gave me at the IPCPR show. I’ve long been a fan of the Puros Indios and Reyes Family cigars, even back when you could almost count on a Puros Indios cigar being plugged. I never smoked a Chief, don’t even know if they are still made, but 18″ x 64 is an enormous cigar even by todays standards. Back to the Miami, this one had a big vein that didn’t have any effect on anything, except that it was ugly. It almost looked like the wrapper leaf was put on inside-out. For those who don’t know, or never really thought about it, of course a leaf has 2 sides, on one side, the veins are raised, the other side is normally smooth. The wrapper leaf is always applied with the smooth side on the outside of the cigar, which just makes sense, aesthetically. I don’t imagine that it makes any difference at all to the way the cigar tastes or burns, but a wise man once said that we first smoke with our eyes (I can’t recall who said that, but it’s quite true and a brilliant statement!). Anyway, the Puros Indios Miami was a very nice cigar, well made and flavorful.

Here’s a picture of some cigars that were on display in the Reyes Family Cigars booth at the trade show. Amazing wrapper artistry.

Click to enlarge, you’ll want to see this full size!

Here’s a short video from the trade show with Frank Santos from Reyes Family Cigars:

As I’m writing this, I’m smoking a nice Arturo Fuente Hemingway Best Seller. It was a long, rainy day. Flooding in town hampered our ability to get home after some evening errands, when we finally got home I just wanted something delicious and reliable. This fit the bill nicely. I had picked up a pair of these on my Father’s Day foray. I suppose I could have chosen the aged Work of Art in either Cameroon or maduro, but the Best Seller seemed more replaceable, if that makes sense. As with all of the cigars mentioned here, I used the Ergonomic 4.5″ Cigar & Pipe Butane Torch Lighter from ButaneLightersWholesale.com to light this and it worked very well on the perfecto tip.

While I’m thinking about it, please pay a visit to my advertisers, I don’t want them to think that I’m just a hole in the internet to throw money into…need to give them some bang for their buck! As long as I’m reminding, don’t forget to pester your elected officials about supporting HR1639 and S1461 to protect our freedoms and keep people employed! Go to the legislative action center at IPCPR.org (or use the link in my sidebar) to send their well written letters!

That’s all I got, until the next time,

CigarCraig

Comments Off on Rainy Week! More Cigars! Outlaw’s 13, Puros Indios, Fuente Hemingway

Filed under Accessories, Contest, IPCPR, Review, Video

Tagged as 13, Best Seller, cigar, cigars, Contest, fuente, IPCPR, macanudo, outlaw cigar, Puros Indios, reyes family

by CigarCraig | June 19, 2011 · 7:58 pm

Father’s Day Cigars, A Ride, and a Big Oja Contest!

Today is Father’s Day, and recently on LivingSocial.com, which is a site like Groupon.com for the Philadelphia area, a local cigar store chain called Light’n Up Cigars ran a special for $20 worth of cigars for $10. Of course, I purchased one of these, and both my wife and daughter surprised me with one for Father’s Day. So this afternoon I hopped on the old scooter and took a ride to two of the shops in the area. You had to specify which of the 5 shops you wanted the deal at and I received certificates for two different shops. I headed to the Glenmoore, PA location with is about 10 miles or so from home. I shopped through the humidor for a bit and settled upon 3 cigars, an Casa Fernandez Aganorsa Leaf, an Alec Bradley Family Blend, and a Perdomo Reserve Champagne, all cigars I have yet to smoke. From there I took the 12 or so mile trip down PA Rt 401 and made my way to the Frazer, PA store. I selected a pair of Fuente Hemingway Best Sellers, and a Brick House. I thought both stores seemed a bit sparse in their stocks as there were a lot of empty boxes. The clerk in the Frazer store blamed the winter months and the economy, both valid points, but I would have expected more cigars in the store, especially with the added business coming in from the special coupon deal. I have one more coupon to use and the pessimist in me thinks I should probably use it soon, although my suspicions are probably off base and I’ll see the stocks restored in the next month or so. The Frazer, PA store has a very large walk-in humidor, while the Glenmoore store’s is smaller, but the later store has a more comfortable lounge area. The cheap bastard in me is appalled at 6 cigars for $40, but I guess the same cigars for $20 is a great deal.

As I compose this edition, I am smoking my annual Father’s Day cigar, an Esperanza para los Niños. I Have smoked one of these every Father’s Day since I bought a box in 2000. I detailed the background of this cigar in my June 20th post last year, so I won’t repeat it. I’m enjoying this tasty, well-aged cigar with an IBC root beer which was a gift from my son. As it has been for years, it’s a chocolaty maduro that’s burning very well and goes well with the root beer. This is a tradition which I can only continue for another 4 years, at which time my prized stash of these will be exhausted, never to be replenished. I will savor each and every one until then, and remember that they were made “For the Children”.

Contest

For the last couple weeks you will, no doubt, have noticed the name “Oja” coming up in my posts. I have been enjoying sampling these cigars made in Nicaragua and blended by Luis Garcia, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Nicaragua. I most recently smoked the 6 x 60 Mestizo (Habana2000) Artefacto. I really enjoyed the sweetness that dominated this cigar. It was a really nice cigar and I seem to be getting used to this idea of 60 ring gauge cigars (a good thing, since I also received a couple of Jonathan Drew’s newest cigar, the My Uzi Weighs a Ton). The other two lines, an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper and a Brazilian Araparica wrapper, have also been very tasty, but this H2000 is my favorite of the bunch. Luis has very generously provided me with a BOX of the Oja Mestizo Artefactos which is the prize for this month’s contest! That’s right, a whole box of very nice cigars to be won by a lucky reader. The contest will run until Sunday, July 3, in honor of the July 4th holiday, and I’m going to have to make you work a little harder than the usual random selection that I normally do. In the comments of this post, place a link to a picture of ~~you smoking a cigar in a patriotic setting of some sort~~ any patriotic theme which includes a cigar or cigars. Let’s try to keep the photos g-rated and within the bounds of good taste (I have the power to edit and delete and disqualify at my discretion). I will close the comments at Midnight on Saturday, ~~July 2~~ July 9 and a selection committee of my choosing will select a winner. The only other proviso is that the photos must be publicly accessible, so all can enjoy, and I’m going to suspend the six month rule for this contest to give everyone a chance to win. This is a pretty big prize in my opinion, so let your creative juices flow! A big THANKS to Luis at Oja for providing such a great prize!