Tag Archives: botl

by | June 10, 2020 · 8:39 am

News: Drew Estate BOTL 2020 Releases Announced

I have to say it, does anyone think it’s funny that a cigar that was started as an internet forum cigar is a B&M exclusive? I just picked up on this and it hit my funny bone. Anyway, it’s a great smoke, I enjoyed the Lancero and Corona Gorda quite a bit. 

 

“B.O.T.L. Brown Label 2020” Set for Yearly Release

Drew Estate announces today the 2020 return of the limited edition “Brothers of the Leaf, Brown Label” cigar as a Brick & Mortar exclusive for Drew Diplomat retailers. This release will be showcased on the upcoming Freestyle Live: Special Edition hosted on facebook.com/drewestatecigar on June 11th from 7:00-9:00pm EST.

 

In 2012, the BOTL cigar platform was created to pay homage to the brothers and sisters of our culture and passion, those with extreme knowledge and true fellowship of premium leaf.  With a lineup of three aficionado sizes, including Corona (5″ x 44), Corona Gorda (6 x 46), and Lancero (7×38), Drew Estate pays tribute to the core, traditional, discerning lord puffer.  B.O.T.L. Brown Label is blanketed in a bold broadleaf wrapper, layered in complexity with an Ecuadorian Connecticut binder and rich fillers from the North of Nicaragua.

 

 

From deep inside the Wynwood Safehouse, Jonathan Drew Founder and President of Drew Estate writes, “In the words of the honorable Notorious B.I.G,  “I been in this game for years; it made me an animal; there’s rules to this shit; so I wrote me a manual; a step by step booklet for you to get; your game on track; not your wig pushed back.”  On a personal level, the B.O.T.L Brown Label provokes each lord puffer to ask the question for him or herself,  “Am I a B.O.T.L./S.O.T.L. or not?  If I am, then let’s burn it down.  If I’m not, that’s ok too .. let me feel this beast out and see what it’s all about.  B.O.T.L. Brown Label holds a unique journey of authenticity and understanding for each person who loves to explore life, period.”

 

BOTL cigars are shipping in August in the following 3 vitolas:

  • Corona 5” x 44 MSRP $133.95 per box/15
  • Corona Gorda 6 x 46 MSRP $144.00 per box/15
  • Lancero 7 x 38 MSRP $153.90 per box/15

 

For full coverage of BOTL and all of Drew Estate’s upcoming national releases check out our 2020 #DESummerTakeover promotion at www.drewestate.com/summertakeover and be sure to tune in to Freestyle Live: Special Edition hosted on facebook.com/drewestatecigar on June 11th from 7:00-9:00pm EST

 

ABOUT DREW ESTATE

 

Founded in New York City in 1996, Drew Estate has become one of the fastest growing tobacco companies in the world. Under their mantra “The Rebirth of Cigars”, Drew Estate has led the “Boutique Cigar” movement by innovating new elements to the tobacco industry with their unique tobaccos and blending styles that attract new and traditional cigar enthusiasts. In their Gran Fabrica Drew Estate, the Nicaraguan headquarters, Drew Estate produces a variety of brands such as ACID, Herrera Estelí, Herrera Estelí Norteño, Isla del Sol, Kentucky Fired Cured, Liga Privada, MUWAT, Larutan by Drew Estate, Nica Rustica, Pappy Van Winkle Barrel Fermented Cigars, Tabak Especial, Undercrown, Florida Sun Grown, and Java by Drew Estate.

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by | May 10, 2020 · 10:16 am

A Micallef Leyenda and a BOTL Cigar from Drew Estate

I finally decided to smoke the Micallef Leyenda No. 2 that I had picked up at the Micallef event I went to just over a year ago at the Cigar Cigars store in Phoenixville, PA. That reminds me, I need to reach out to my friends at CigarCigars and inquire about the status of their stores. When I passed the Phoenixville shop the other day it looked like it was open, and similarly with the Frazer shop. I haven’t had a need to stop in, but I need to drop a ew people a note or two. Anyway, the Leyenda No. 2 was one of several cigars I had bought at the event, and I hadn’t gotten around to it because it was in a really cool little coffin sorta thing, and I tend to hold on to those too long, mostly because I don’t know what to do with them when I smoke the cigar. It seems a shame to toss the coffins out, but I haven’t worked out what to do with them. Stupid, I know. This is why I have a shelf in the wineador tied up with single cigars in coffins. This one is unique because it’s open in one side, and it’s form fitting to the torpedo shape. This poses another ethical dilemma in my mind as I see it as something that a lot of time and energy went into making. Clearly it’s something I need to work through. I did take the first step and smoked the cigar, so that’s something. The cigar was brilliant, I must say. the wrapper is a 5 Year Old Ecuadorian Habano, with a 5 Year Old Nicaraguan binder and 5 Year Old Nicaraguan, Dominican, and Honduran fillers. This was a torpedo with a sharp taper and measured 5½” x 52. It should come as no surprise that it has some woody flavor, having been surrounded by wood on three sides for quite some time, although there was a layer of cellophane as a buffer. It had some slight citrus and spice too, and was quite enjoyable. It burned perfectly and was a fun cigar to smoke. Considering the presentation and the quality, I don’t recall these having been terribly expensive. I’d buy more if I could figure out what to do with the little coffins!

 

Last year Drew Estate re-issued a cigar that they made for the web forum BOTL around 2010. I had the pleasure of going on Cigar Safari in 2011 with a few guys from BOTL, and I remember hearing about this cigar, although I was rather ignorant of it at the time, not having been a BOTL forum member. Tim seemed to have been the guy who worked with DE to make this happen back then, and it wasn’t something that was widely available. Never having smoked one, I can’t make a comparison between what was then and this new iteration, but I have smoked a few of the newer ones over the last year and really quite enjoyed them. They only have what I would call “connoisseur” sizes: Corona, Lancero, and a long Corona Gorda, which is what I had on hand to smoke. There were a couple included in the PA Barnsmoker cigars that I smoked, including the Lancero. The Corona Gorda is 6″ x 46, not a bad size, and has a Broadleaf wrapper, Ecuador Connecticut binder and Nicaraguan fillers. It’s a little bit “Liga Lite” to me, it’s got the Broadleaf sweetness, and is full bodied, and it falls somewhere in between a Liga and an Undercrown and I really like it. It’s still a $10 stick, and, for the money, I’m still going to Nica Rustica for my Broadleaf fix, but the BOTL doesn’t have the rough edges that the Nica Rustica has. So if you want something more elegant, in those elegant sizes, this is a great choice.

 

I smoked a Joya Silver this week, and I had every intention of following it up with a  Joya Cinco Decadas, just to compare, because I think there’s some commonality between the two. I backed off for a few reasons. The dumb reason was that I didn’t feel like I deserved to smoke a $20 cigar at that particular time. The better reason was that the particular evening I thought about doing it happened to get cold and rainy. I’ll get to it one of these days. Anyway, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | December 24, 2011 · 9:22 am

CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways – Final Day Winner and Thanks!

We’ve come to the end of a historic two weeks on CigarCraig.com!  A marathon of daily posts, untold thousands of dollars worth of merchandise (and postage!).  We gave away 167 cigars, 4 cutters, 2 lighters, 2 caps, 2 cigar tubes, a cigar case, a magazine subscription, a gift certificate and a humidor! That’s a bunch of stuff!  Also significant was the all time high numbers of unique visits, as well as comments!  Until last week I didn’t even know if you got to 50 comments it went to a second page.  Pretty crazy!  In addition to everyone who came back day after day religiously for a chance to win fabulous prizes, I want to give my sincere thanks to the cigar companies who made this madness possible!  They are, in no particular order:

La Gloria Cubana

Villiger Stokkebye

Brothers of the Leaf, LLC

Miami Cigar and Co.

Oliva

CAO

Cigar Journal

Pipes and Cigars

C-Gars Ltd. 

Tabacos Mata Fina USA

Oja Cigars

AJ Fernandez 

Emilio Cigars

 

This was an ambitious project.  What started out with the idea of giving away a cutter here and a cap there morphed into something huge.  The generosity of the companies listed above was amazing, as was their willingness to put up with my neurotic and obsessive compulsive tendencies!  The one other person I absolutely could not have done this without is my lovely wife, Jennifer.  You may have noticed her mentioned in the comments here and there, seen her tweets and re-tweets, as well as handling moderating all of the comments while I was at work every day.  Thanks for everything you’ve done for me!

 

Editorial

Now, before I announce the winner of the humidor from Pipes and Cigars, please take a moment to write a nasty letter to the NCAA and The Orange Bowl pointing out their hypocrisy.  David Savona sums it up perfectly in his blog on CigarAfficianado (here).  Head on over to FaxZero.com and send a fax to the OrangeBowl at 305-341-4750.  I saved Mr. Savona’s article as a PDF and faxed it to the attention of the CEO of the Orange Bowl committee.  You can fax twice a day for free using FaxZero.  You can also send them a tweet using @orangebowl or find them on Facebook and voice your displeasure.  You can also e-mail Larry Wahl, VP of Communications and Community Outreach at lwahl@orangebowl.org .

 

Time to announce the winner!  I have been presented with the number 41 by the Random Number Generator, which means that MarcB is the winner! Please send me your contact information!   This concludes this year’s contests! Please visit the sponsoring companies sites and thank them for their generosity.  Also, take a look at my advertisers sites, and join me in welcoming La Palina Cigars to the CigarCraig.com family.  These friends help me to defray costs of doing things to write about and I deeply appreciate their support!

 

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, to everyone. I’ll leave you with this Christmas video from Alan Bernhoft, who you may have seen in the comments over the last few days.  Let’s give him a little Christmas present and help make his song a new Christmas classic!

httpv://youtu.be/AioTRzrMlBw

 

Until the next time,

CraigCraig

 

 

 

 

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by | December 19, 2011 · 6:55 am

CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways Day 8 : Palio and Esencia Cigars

Happy Monday!  Before we get to the next fabulous item, we must once again consult with Random.org to select the winner of yesterday’s box of Oja cigars.  The Random Number Generator regurgitated the number 44, which corresponds to J.A.S.!  Congrats! Send me your info!  And now, on with the show!

 

Today on CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways we have a sampler of cigars and a cutter from Brothers of the Leaf, LLC.  The cigars are Esencia cigars, with sizes only available in this sampler.  The cutter is the incomparable Palio cutter, emblazoned with the Esencia logo.  Both the cigars and the cutter are absolute top quality!  I’ve had the Esencia Lancero before and it was sublime.

 

 

Thanks go to Marc Aub of Brothers of the Leaf, LLC for providing this excellent prize!

You know what to do! Leave a comment to enter and good luck!

Until tomorrow,

CigarCraig

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by | June 5, 2011 · 11:22 am

Cigar Adventures: NYC, an Alec Bradley New York, a Partagas, a Fuente and a Contest!

Last Tuesday was a day we had been looking forward to for some time.  We, once again, had the honor and privilege of being on the guest list for a New York City Dinner Cruise hosted by our friend Mitchell Orchant of C-Gars Ltd.   Mitchell is an old friend.  We first “met” through an e-mail and continued through the alt.smokers.cigars usenet group back in the ’90s.  We met face to face at a little herf in Vegas in 1999 known amongst those in the usenet world as “Boondoggle III“, which was held at the MGM Grand over a 3 day span.  This event comprised about 300 people who only knew one another through the wild west of the internet, an oddity at the time!  Anyway, we’ve been to Mitchell and his wife’s wedding in London, we’ve taken them sight-seeing in NYC, and been friends for a long time. Mitchell has taken to hosting this dinner cruise every year, which I reported on last year, which spends a couple hours cruising around Manhattan, with beautiful views of the skyline, the bridges, and the Statue of Liberty.  I thought it would be appropriate to enjoy an Alec Bradley New York Robusto, which I had picked up at De La Concha on my last visit to the city.  This is a very nice cigar!  This was created for the ridiculously highly taxed  New York State shops, designed to give the local tobacconists a little more margins in hopes that they can stay open!! Anyway, it’s a good cigar, pick some up if you see them in New York and support the oppressed businesses in the state.

Back to the event.  In attendance were  Marc Aub and Mike DaVersa of Brothers of the Leaf, LLC, makers of Palio cutters and Esencia cigars, whom I had met last year and seen at the IPCPR show last July.  Always a pleasure to chat with Marc, who’s as passionate as they come about his products.  Mitchell is the UK distributor for Palio Cutters, and just became the UK distributor for Arturo Fuente cigars, so, in addition to the fine Bolivar Belicoso Finos in the goody bag, there was a Fuente Hemingway Signature as well. These happen to be 2 of my all time favorite cigars that I rarely get to enjoy.We also got to catch up with some other old friends, Karen from Albany, George from South Jersey and even Barry from California.  I finished the night off with a Partagas Petit Coronas Expeciale from a box I had been waiting to arrive at cruise time last year.  I’ve really been digging these cigars and hope that the exchange rate comes down a little in the future so that I can get another box one day! I was even able to gift Mitchell a cigar, something that’s pretty rare as he always declines.  I had an extra Partagas Serie P No.2 that I got at his wedding coming up on 5 years ago. The Hunters and Frankau rep was handing these out at the reception, and Mitchell’s dad insisted I get an extra to take home.  I figured this would be a fitting “thank you” for the nice things he does for us.  At the end of the night Mitchell opened a box of Opus X Perfecxion X and passed it around, to cap off the evening.

Contest!

One of the neat items in the goody bags, was a ring gauge guide.  I managed to score a couple spares and will send one to a random reader who leaves a comment.  Heck, these will be cheap to mail, make that two!  So leave a comment to enter and see the rules on the winners and rules page, and I’ll make this one a short one and announce a winner on Wednesday if all goes to plan.  Give Mitchell’s site a visit when you get a chance and see all the neat stuff he’s got.  Also look for a mention of his book in the latest Smoke Magazine!

 

LAst night I selected a Fuente Anejo 50 that had been kicking around the box for a while now, maybe 4 years.  It was the first of this line that I’ve smoked and boy was it tasty.  It started a little slow, but it built into just the kind of cigar I like.  It had the nice, dark flavors I like and just the right level of nicotine.  Goes with out saying that it was well made, as it’s a Fuente.  I know these are pricey and availability is spotty, but if you have the chance, smoke one, I don’t think you’ll have any regrets. I selected this in honor of Mitchell’s a fore mentioned acquisition of the Fuente distributorship in the UK.

That’s it for now!  We have an update from  Tommy Berry coming up next time, so until then,

CigarCraig

Watch for a new discount code from StogieBoys.com coming soon.

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