Tag Archives: Butthead’s

A Monte Pascoal Cigar, Beatles and Other Assorted News Items

It’s been an odd week!  Since Sunday I’ve only managed a couple cigars, one of which was a Monte Pascoal Corona and the other doesn’t warrant mention, unfortunately.  The Monte Pascoal is a Brazilian puro and a very nice cigar. I’ve heard it described as “Cubanesque”, but I don’t get that.  What I get is a well made and tasty smoke.  I’ve smoked several sizes and I think this corona is one of my favorites.  It’s loaded with flavor.  The other cigar I had, which will remain nameless, was a disappointment, it didn’t draw well, and wasn’t particularly pretty, and the flavor was just OK, nothing special. I could excuse some of these in a cheap bundle cigar, but not in a Super Premium cigar.  I’ll write it off as another failed experiment and more forward.

 

News

In an odd cross-over, my friend Mitchell Orchant, of C.Gars Ltd., recently came into possession of, and sold, a rare framed presentation of Beatles banded cigars.  The story is currently featured on BeatlesNews.com.  I guess I need to hold on to the Burt Reynolds and Mickey Rooney cigars I have buried in a humidor someplace (I always wondered why the Mickey Rooney is a Churchill and not a robusto!)

 

In other news, I received an e-mail this week from Enrique Seijas telling me about his new project since leaving Altadis. CigarCountry.com sells name brand, premium cigars, and you can get them with custom printed cello or cedar sleeves.  The price is extremely competitive and I’m seriously looking for a good reason to buy a box with my name and website on the cello.  I wish they’d been around when my daughter was married, and they are a great step up from the usual “It’s A Boy/Girl” cigars.  It’s a very cool idea, check it out.

 

Some upcoming events to look forward to:  The Chattenooga Tweetup in August (info here). The Delaware Cigar Festival in September (info here, apologies to non-Facebook users!) I got an e-mail from Sir Stogies, a really nice little shop in Gilbertsville, PA saying that Jose Blanco was going to be there on Tuesday, June 26 at 11am. Another case of the day job getting in the way of fun!  Another event I plan on trying to get to is a Drew Estate event on Thursday, June 28 at a much more realistic time of 6pm, at the Humidor at the Leaf, which is Famous Smoke Shop’s retail store in Easton, PA.  Of course there’s the Jose Blanco blending event hosted by Buttheads Tobacco Emporium tomorrow, June 21, which will be a first of it’s kind live stream event.

 

I’ve come up with about as much non-sense as I can muster, but I have one more piece of business to attend to.  It seems that our winner of the last contest never came forward to collect his prize. I sent two e-mails and didn’t get a reply.  So I have to select an alternate winner.  Random.org spit the number 18 at me this time, which corresponds to my old buddy Bob Greene.  I’ve known Bob for years, and I’m certain he will enjoy Mitchell’s book!  Bob, please send your mailing address so I can get this stuff out to you!

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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A Gurkha, An E-Doble, a Romeo and Some More News

Sunday my wife and I decided to take nice long walk before the heat of the day kicked in.  We needed to tire out the son’s dog, so she came along.  I grabbed a Gurkha Cellar Reserve Churchill since I wanted something reasonably mild for an early cigar, yet big enough to last the entire walk.  For some reason I have trouble walking now without a cigar!  Anyway, this is a nice enough cigar, it’s pretty big at 7″ x 54, and it’s well made.  The dog got a kick out of running into the creek, and we managed a 3 mile walk (through the park with the “no dogs” signs….oops!  what’s next, no smoking”)  I’m not a huge fan of Criollo wrappers, but I like this one enough for it to hold my interest through out the smoke.

 

After a day spent doing something other than what we had planned, I finished the day with an E-Doble from Smoke Inn.  This is such a beautiful cigar, burned perfectly even, has a terrific flavor, it’s hard to believe it’s a $50 per bundle cigar.  I can’t even begin to recall how many cigars I’ve smoked that have cost two or three times the price of this and was dissapointed by them.  Eric Espinosa (of EO Brands, 601, Murcialago, etc.) has a winner with this one.  I can see myself getting a bundle of these at some point, and I want to turn my brother-in-law on to them as well.  This is a cigar that he will enjoy, as will just about anyone especially if you don’t have a lot of cash to drop on cigars.  Really, really good. Thanks to Abe at Smoke Inn for sending me samples, I’m super impressed.

 

Monday evening my hand came out of the humidor holding a Romeo, the new offering from Altadis and Romeo y Julieta.   There are a few in the Romeo y Julieta range that I like, but most of them don’t do it for me.  This was a good cigar, the ash held for nearly half of it’s 5″ length, which I found to be impressive.  I suppose it was stronger than many cigars in the range, it wasn’t unpleasant at all, it just wasn’t really my cup of tea.  No fault to the cigar, it’s just me.  Technically it held up it’s end of the deal, it burned perfectly, and produced mouthfuls of smoke, and the wrapper was very pretty.  Try it if you get the chance, never rely on my tastes, I like Hamburger Helper for crying out loud!

 

News

 

Lot’s of news coming out recently!  Emilio Cigars had the Draig K leaving the factory at the end of the month.  The Draig K is a terrific cigar if you like a good maduro.  Gary also has the AF Suave hitting the shelves by the end of this month.  I haven’t had the opportunity to smoke this one, but it’s an Ecuadoran Connecticut wrapped cigar reportedly on the milder end of the Emilio range.

 

General Cigar has the Hoyo Reposado Box a Day Giveaway going on, the CAO Last Stick Standing promotion, as well as a Father’s Day contest on the La Gloria Cubana site.  I’ll have more on the Hoyo de Monterrey contest in the near future.  Follow the links for information on these promos.

 

Butthead’s Tobacco Emporium in Connecticut will be hosting what’s belived to be the first Virtual Cigar Workshop with José Blanco of Joya de Nicaragua on Thursday June 21.  José does an excellent presentation on cigar blending that’s a real eye opener.  He has cigars made with 4 different wrappers so one can taste how the wrapper effects the flavor of a cigar.  There’s some video and my impressions on my post from last year’s IPCPR show where I caught his blending session.  It’s a pretty cool experience and I recommend it highly. there is info available on the Butthead’s Tobacco Emporium site.

 

That’s about all I have for now, except to announce that if the winner of this month’s contest doesn’t contact me by Sunday, I may have to select another winner! I e-mailed directly, I shouldn’t have to work this hard to give stuff away!  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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Filed under News, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk

A Griffins, a Band and a Tortuga EL and Some News

Thursday was a big day for my youngest son and his band, Air Sur La Terre.  They’ve been playing together for a few short months and are really coming together.  They were interviewed on a local AM radio station in the afternoon, the podcast version can be heard here, and played at an open mike night at a coffee house in the area.  While at the coffee house, I decided to take a Griffins 500 for a little walk down the street to check out a new “smoke shop”.  I walked in, cigar in hand, and asked if smoking was permitted, and was told no.  So I turned around and left.  I noticed two cabinet humidors with what appeared to be a very modest selection of cigars.  They seemed to specialize in roll-your-own and “glass wear”, so you get the impression that premium cigars are not the focus.  Now I know, and don’t have to worry about going there again!  On my way back to the coffee house, I snapped a picture of the Griffins in front of the iconic Colonial Theater in Phoenixville, PA.   This theater was immortalized in the classic 1953 movie ” The Blob”.  The kids put on a great two song set, they have videos (I took them with my iPod, so please forgive the quality) as well as their single, “Fade Away” on their website.  The cigar is a classic Connecticut shade wrapped cigar with plenty of flavor and a perfect burn.

 

Tortuga Edicion Limitada 2011 Torpedo that Victor Vitale had sent me a while back.  The EL 2011 is made in the Dominican Republic with Honduran and Dominican fillers and Nicaraguan wrapper and binder.  It’s a pretty cigar, they wrapper is dark and a little mottled and it’s rolled with a very pointy head.  Draw and burn were very nice, although it needed a few touch ups here and there which can be contributed as much to the breeze as the cigar.  It had a really good flavor, and was solidly medium in strength to me.  If you can find these, try them.  I will admit that of the three cigars in this line, the EL 2011, 1948 Connecticut and 1950 Maduro, the EL was third on the list behind the Connecticut and Maduro, with the 1950 Maduro being my absolute favorite.  The Connecticut and Maduro each had unique flavors that really distinguished themselves to me, and the Edicion Limitada while an excellent cigar, didn’t hit me with any of those surprises.  This is an exceptional line which deserves your consideration, and Victor is a terrific guy, and I appreciate the opportunity to try these special cigars.

 

News

On the cigar event side, Butthead’s Tobacco Emporium announced that they are going to host a series of cigar events in their stores in Connecticut which they will stream live video from and offer the same deals to their on-line customers.  This is a pretty cool way to see what’s going on at the events if you can’t get to them yourselves, or live someplace where there are few events.  You can see the press release for this at Cigar Coop’s site here, and here is a sample promo video for your entertainment.

httpv://youtu.be/kJS4qV2yi_8

More News

In other news, You may recall a month or so ago I posted an article about the IPCPR‘s Internet Media Membership.  I’m pleased to announce that the organization had decided to change the membership in such a way that the benefits are more equal to the other membership levels.  I still need to figure out the details, but it looks like I’ll be attending the show.  Thanks to last year’s media members for their contributions and to Bill Spann and the board for their consideration.  Also, I’d like to welcome a new sponsor,  BnB Tobacco to CigarCraig.com.  They have a great selection and prices, so check them out the next time you shop.

 

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

CigarCraig

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