First off, let me get this little rant out of the way. One of the first things I saw when I got up this morning was a discussion about removing bands from cigars. In a nutshell, it seemed like there was a thought that there could be one single surefire solution to band removal. Here was my response: “There’s absolutely no set rule on how a band will come off (I’ve figured out RoMa), after thousands of cigars of as many brands, just about as many just slide off as come off cleanly. Some paper absorbs the glue and some doesn’t. Some factories use more glue than others. Uncello’d cigars shouldn’t have the bands glued to the wrapper at all and would be easier. Shade wrappers would be easier to slide off than broadleaf or San Andrés because they are smoother, but would damage easier because they are thinner. 9 times out of 10 your best bet is to wait until you are about to burn the band and carefully slide it over the business end of the cigar, taking care not to burn your fingers or the ring. This is the only way to successfully remove the RoMa bands, by the way!” … Continue reading
CAOTag Archives
A Visit to Best Cigar Pub and Best Cigar Prices Exclusive Rare Select Cigars
Yesterday my wife and I took a drive to Scranton to pick up a cool cigar lamp that she won in an auction, so on the way back we stopped in to Best Cigar Pub in Drums, PA for lunch. I had visited here briefly over the winter and gotten a tour and had a cigar (you can read about it here), today we enjoyed a meal at the pub. They had just re-opened last Thursday, and were observing all of the precautions we need to become accustomed to. Fortunately it was a beautiful spring day, and they had copious outdoor seating, even extending into the parking lot. My first stop was into the retail shop, masks required, with only three patrons allowed in a a time and no handling the product.… Continue reading
CAO Orellana and Fratello Navetta Inverso Cigars
I felt like I needed to give the CAO Orellana a try again after giving them some rest time. The first one I smoked was unimpressive, and I felt like I should have been impressed. This is the fourth cigar in the Amazon Basin trilogy, which I guess isn’t a trilogy anymore. I wasn’t really impressed with the original Amazon Basin, which everyone
raved about, however, the Fuma em Corda and Anaconda I thought were exceptional cigars. This Orelana, which is named after Francisco de Orelana the first European to navigate the Amazon river (is he the guy we have to blame for ruining brick and mortar retail? ) has a Brazilian Cubra wrapper.… Continue reading
CAO Flathead V19, Acid 20 and Coyaba Natural Cigars and CigarCraig’s 10th Anniversary
You may recall that last Wednesday I had typed a brilliant post and lost it. I posted an abbreviated, yet almost as brilliant post, but I wanted to try to recap two of the cigars that I had written about. The first of which was the new
CAO Flathead Camshaft V19, the 5½” x 50 line extension to the Flathead line. The Flathead line is one of my favorites in the CAO range. I enjoy all of them, although the largest of them is the least smoked just because the 70 ring gauge is just too large, but the square press does make it a little more manageable. The flat cap gives me a chance to use my favorite Adorini punch, which has two sides, one of which is 13mm, which makes a nice, large opening in the cap of the 50 ring V19.… Continue reading
Saint Patrick’s Day Cigars, CAO, Villiger and Diesel
I have a slightly different take on Saint Patrick’s Day, not being of Irish descent. I have been known to smoke a candela cigar on March 17 over the past few years, considering the cigar companies like to put them out around this time to capitalize on just this sort of thing. Admittedly, I do enjoy a good candela cigar from time to time, I find them a refreshing change of pace. I may pull out an old Alec Bradley Filthy Hooligan today, I have one of the original candelas, and the first year the made the barber pole, unless I stop at the store and they happen to have this year’s iteration, and/or the Shamrock, which I’m quite interested in smoking. I kinda dig the triple-wrapper barber pole treatment for some reason. Anyway, the main reason I like Saint Patrick’s day so much is less about the green and Irish part, and definitely not about the drinking part, but all about the snakes part. You see, I hate snakes, and I’m a huge fan of anyone who can drive them out of an entire country.… Continue reading



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