Tag Archives: CAO

by CigarCraig | December 31, 2016 · 10:38 am

CigarCraig’s Top Five Memorable Cigars of 2016 and A Contest Winner!

Happy New Year to everyone and thanks for another great year at CigarCraig.com. If you all keep reading, I’ll keep writing! Heck, I’d probably be writing this if nobody was reading. I’m posting on a Saturday instead of Sunday for a couple reasons, mostly because I don’t feel like getting up early tomorrow to post something when nobody will be around to read it, and I slacked off and missed my Wednesday post, it happens. So I figured I wrap up the year with some of the cigars that were memorable to me this year, and my criteria was simple, the cigar, no matter how many I smoked, made a positive impression on me to the point where I really want to smoke more of the cigar. These are presented in no particular order, and I know this keeps me off of Halfwheel’s annual conglomerate list, but so be it, why break the streak?

Maya Selva Flor de Selva Grand Pressé Box Pressed Toro. This really shouldn’t be included as it was an IPCPR sample smoked on the show floor, and I typically think this is a bad place to properly evaluate a cigar. However, my approach was that I only smoked one cigar on the show floor all day, and I practically did smoke this all day. I would let the cigar go out while talking to someone, and relight it and it was still amazing. This was a brand that I had heard of but not tried, and was very impressed. Sadly, I don’t see these around the stores here, but I have to hunt some down. I know this is only based on one example, but it was memorable and fits my criteria!

RoMa Craft Neanderthal HN. Technically I smoked this cigar at the end of last year, but since I smoked it’s little brother, the Shallow Gene Pool, later in the year I’m going to mark it down as Memorable. I really did love the candela wrapped Fomarian , and smoked more of those this year than the Neanderthal, the Neanderthal stuck out in my mind as memorable. It had some strength, but most of all the flavor was exceptional and left a definite impression. The pricetag keeps it out of this cheap bastid’s rotation, but it competes favorably with other cigars at similar prices, such as a Padron 94 Exclusivo or similar. Bottom line is, there aren’t a whole lot of cigars I’d pay $12 for, but the Neanderthal is one of them.

It should be fairly common knowledge by now that Steve Saka and I go way back and I consider Steve a friend. Actually, in March it will be 20 years since Steve and I met face to face. So if that puts a bias on my inclusion of the Mi Querida Gordito (as well as the rest of the sizes) in this list, so be it. It could be argued that knowing Steve shaped my palate and preferences, and if that’s the case than I’m pretty lucky. I first smoke the Mi Querida Ancho Larga (toro) at the IPCPR show at the insistence of Stace Berkland, who was working in the Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust booth, and my initial impression was good, but that age would benefit the cigar, which might have been construed as saying I didn’t like it, which wasn’t the case at all. I’ve smoked several sizes in the line now, the Ancho Corto (robusto), the Muy Gordo Grande and the Gordito, which I am listing here as the most memorable. Hey, I love them all, they are exactly my style of cigar, I like the mellowness of the Muy Gordo Grande, but the punch that the little 4″ x 48 Gordito has really made an impression. I was going to include the Sobremesa Elegentes en Cedros in my list, as I found it to be an awesome cigar, with a slight edge on the also awesome Short Churchill, but I didn’t want to appear totally biased! Unfortunately the Mi Querida Gordito size might be hard to find as I think it’s fairly limited.

I’ve developed an affinity for milder, more complex and sophisticated cigars lately, and one new one that I find myself going to frequently is from Cornelius and Anthony, and is the Cornelius. This is a cigar that’s made at the El Titan de Bronze factory in Miami, and is just a really tasty cigar with a lot of subtlety and class. I’ve smoked several of the sizes and think the toro suits me best, although the corona gorda certainly has a lot going for it if you want a little bit of an edge to the flavor. The Cornelius and Anthony Daddy Mac is a great smoke as well, but not nearly as memorable as the Cornelius. It’s another cigar in the over $10 range that I think is worthwhile. I put it in the same category as the Sobremesa, Davidoff, or some of the Havanas, it’s “clean” and delicious. There are some times that I chose to smoke this cigar that I remember fondly.

Finally, the cigar that was most memorable for me this year. I was tempted to number this list because I knew this was number one, but really couldn’t assign numbers to two through five. At the time I said about this cigar “This was the best cigar I’ve smoked in recent memory” and I stand by that. Of course, the cigar Im referring to was the Fratello Bianco The Boxer. This is a box pressed torpedo, with San Andrés Negro wrapper, binder from the Dominican Republic, and the fillers are Nicaraguan, Pennsylvanian and Peruvian. I dig the Bianco blend, and this tweaked version was just off the charts in flavor, and again, hit my particular flavor preference on the nose. Friggin yummy. Omar de Frias made news this year by quitting his day job at NASA to concentrate on the Fratello brand, a bold move given the whole FDA nonsense. What an amazing cigar.

That’s five, right? There were a lot of runners up, the Hoyo La Amistad, the Foundation Tabernacle, the Foundry Time Flies, Leccia Des Nudos (it should have been in the top five…so close). There were a lot to choose from but these were the most memorable.

Contest Winner!

The last contest of the year was some great stuff from General Cigar Company. We had a Flathead sign, a nice Macanudo Colibri cutter, some La Gloria Cubana scissors and a Punch bobble head. Maybe I should have included a cigar from each brand from my humidors in the contest, because that’s what I intend to include. Many people who have won my contests before can tell you that things often fall into the box when I’m packing it up (has anyone seen my keys?). The FDA says that manufacturers cant give away cigars for free, but they don’t have any say over my personal collection and what I do with it! The winner of the last contest of 2016 is Timmc71. Please send me your info so I can get these goodies out to you!

That’s all for today! Happy New Year again, and here’s to a successful 2017!

CigarCraig

11 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as Bianco, CAO, cigar, cigars, Cornelius & Anthony, Flor de Selva, Fratello, general cigars, La Gloria Cubana, macanudo, Maya Selva, Mi Querida, Neanderthal, punch, RoMaCraft

by CigarCraig | December 26, 2016 · 10:19 am

CigarCraig’s Holiday Contest Number Four: General Cigar Co. and the Tommy Bahama Winner

I hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Christmas yesterday. As JJO suggested in his comment on the last post, it turns out I did have better things to do yesterday than post the winner, including having a big breakfast at our daughter’s house with the granddaughters and our kids, then taking a drive to visit more family in New Jersey. While at my bro-in-law’s in Jersey I got to smoke a glorious Sobremesa Short Churchill, which was wonderful. Christmas Eve I managed to smoke a Davidoff Golf Scorecard Edition, a gorgeous 6″ x 55 toro. These are presented in a five pack, ostensibly four cigars for your golf foursome, and one with a gold secondary band for the winner. These carry a pretty hefty price-tag , $114 for 5 at CI, who starts off the description with “Some things are matches made in heaven â€“ like bacon and eggs, mac and cheese, and of course, golf and cigars. “, which I find to be a rather pedestrian way to start a paragraph about a pretty expensive cigar! Anyway, it was a spectacular smoke, even though I don’t golf. It had loads of creamy, spicy flavors that were quite entertaining. It turned out to be pretty hard to find something suitable to follow such a stellar smoke, so I went with a Bolivar Royal Corona that had been floating around the humidor for 5 years or so. It was up to the task and was a great smoke, on the milder side, on par with the Davidoff. It was a pretty great couple of cigars on a reasonably nice winter’s day.

Contest!

Let’s keep it going! I have some goodies from General Cigar for today’s giveaway! Â There’s a Punch Bobblehead, a tin CAO Flathead Steel Horse sign, a pair of very nice La Gloria Cubana Cigar Scissors, and a Macanudo Inspirado Colibri Grip cutter, which is rubberized with orange blades, very sharp-looking. It’s hard to say what else might fall into the shipping box while I’m packing it up too, it’s been known to happen. Anyway, usual rules apply, leave a comment to enter, Â I’ll announce a winner on Wednesday!

Winner!

I almost forgot to announce the winner fo the Tommy Bahama ashtray and travel humidor, and Island Lifestyle Cigars! Â I wore my blue check Tommy Bahama shirt yesterday with my blue check Vans, it was quite the look. Â Many thanks to Ryan at Island Lifestyle Importers for providing this wonderful present! I can’t say how much I like the Tommy Bahama branded stuff, my wife told me I was crazy to give it away! But, giving is so much fun, so it’s off to Random.org to find the winner! Â I’m not sure how this happened, but the winner isÂ Andy Klueber. Â Every once in a while someone calls their shot, but Andy chose the opposite, pessimistically entering saying he wasn’t going to win, several times! His number came up this time, and I’ll be sending him some great stuff!

That’s all for now! I got some chicken harnesses for Christmas so I can try taking chickens for a walk instead of Macha, that should get the neighbors talking….until the next time,

CigarCraig

36 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as bolivar, CAO, cigar, cigars, Contest, davidoff, general cigar, La Gloria Cubana, macanudo, punch, Sobremasa

by CigarCraig | October 5, 2016 · 10:17 pm

CroMagnon Firecracker, Mi Querida, Belstaff Bond, CAO Flathead and Cigar Prop

I had a long day Sunday with my brother-in-law framing out two walls in my living room. I guess in the late 50’s when the house was built heating was cheap and insulation wasn’t a big concern, so putting drywall right over brick and block walls was OK. Over the years people also thought it was a good idea to wallpaper, then after wallpaper was out of fashion it was OK to paint the wall paper. We’ve been systematically removing old drywall and insulating the outside walls. This is all irrelevant except that it was a long day, and by the time I got to a cigar, I wanted something short, but satisfying. At the IPCPR I finally met an old friend, Dave Payne, and he generously shared with me some cigars, one of which was a RoMaCraft CroMagnon Firecracker, this years Two Guys Smoke Shop special edition. In years passed they have had the Firecracker vitola made by La Flor Dominicana and Tatuaje (I think?). It’s a 3″ x 50 with a closed foot and a long pigtail “Fuse”. I have to think this is a goosed up version of the CroMagnon blend, it’s a powerful little cigar and was just what I needed to wrap up a productive day. While it was strong, it was loaded with those deep, dark flavors that I love in the CroMagnon blend. Of course, I wanted it to be longer, but it was a great little smoke. Thanks to Dave for sharing it with me, Skip for making it, and Dave Garofalo for dreaming up this vitola. I have a suspicion that this will be a very hard cigar to find.

Monday I figured it was time to give Steve Saka’s Mi Querida another try, dubbing the occasion “Mi Querida Monday”. Maybe we can make this a thing, #miqueridamonday needs to enter the lexicon. Anyway, I smoked one of these at the show and saw the potential, trade show samples smoked in the Las Vegas environment is rarely a good way to sample a cigar. I found another one in my samples, and had been salivating over it waiting for the right time to smoke it. Monday was the night. I’m anxiously awaiting these showing up in one of my local shops so I can put some more in my humidor. This cigar had everything I love about cigars, great construction, perfect draw and the Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper was delicious. This could become one of those “goto” cigars that always satisfies. I obviously have a bias, I’ve known Steve for 20 years, but I know him well enough to be honest with him if I don’t like something he made, but I would like this cigar no matter who was behind it. Another winner from Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust.

Tuesday I came across a cigar that came from the Bugatti Cigars booth, which was within the Meier and Dutch booth (the distribution arm of Cigars International). This was a toro called Belstaff Bond, and is made in General Cigar’s Santiago, DR factory. This cigar had a nice, dark Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, and was quite a good smoke. I have smoked several cigars from the Bugatti line, and found them to be quite nice. This reminds me that I’ve been using the new Xikar Xidris lighter pretty exclusively for the last few weeks and am finding it to be an excellent lighter. It holds a lot of fuel and lights every time. It has a solid, hefty feel, and Xikar says that it has super car styling (see the tie in?). It’s a classy lighter, I just have to make sure I have it oriented the right way or I’ll burn my palm one of these days. It’s a very nice lighter.

Tonight I got a hankering for a “goto” cigar, and opted for the CAO Flat Head Steel Horse Apehanger, a 5½” x 58 cigar with a Connecticut Habano wrapper. I really love the Flathead line, the Steel Horse series is round instead of square pressed, but still has the flat cap, which is best approached with a large-bore punch. The released two new sizes this year at the show, and I’ve yet to get my hands on either one (the Handbrake and the Roadkill, both in the robusto range at 4½ x 50 and 5½ x 54 respectively), and as soon as I come across some I’ll be picking them up, but the Apehanger does it for me. I once joked about putting Apehanger handlebars on my Yamaha Majesty 400 scooter…

Finally, you’ll recall a year or so back I mentioned some nice cigar tubes that Kevin Shahan was making in his Florida machine shop, and he’s moved into making another useful cigar product, the Cigar Prop. This is a machined aluminum cigar stand that is very handy. I tried to make a poor man’s version of this a few years ago out of a piece of bamboo and a 1″ hole saw. I would walk to the local convenience store, set my cigar on the ice cooler outside (or the top of the Red Box machine) while I went into the store. One day a Liga Privada number nine rolled off and I had to reach under the machine to retrieve it and it had been damaged in the six-foot drop and just wasn’t the same after that. That’s when I started carrying the bamboo stand with me. Not that I have too much of a need for that anymore, but this Cigar Prop is a handy addition to the collection of cigar tools. It’s very nicely machined, cradles the cigar nicely and is attractive. You can see it in use in two of the photos above. Give Kevin’s Cigar Prop site a look, and for you bearded guys, he also has a line of beard products called Irish Beard Balm.

That’s ll for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

9 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as Belstaff, CAO, cigar, Cigar Prop, cigars, CroMagnon, Dunbarton, Firecracker, Flathead, Mi Querida, RoMaCraft, Two Guys Smoke Shop

by CigarCraig | August 28, 2016 · 7:02 am

A CAO Cigars Event, an EP Carillo and a Padilla IPCPR Release

Thursday we went to G & G Cigars in downtown West Chester, PA to see Ricky Rodriquez at a CAO event. G & G changed hands in the last couple years, and while the selection in the humidor changed a bit, it remains a very nice shop managed by Mike, who keeps a clean and inviting lounge. I picked up a few Flatheads in the 660 size and the Steel Horse Apehanger size and wandered into the lounge and sat down next to Ricky, who was deep in conversation with another patron. I have known Ricky since probably 2010, having spent some time with him in the Dominican Republic in 2011, and seeing him at the IPCPR show just last month. My son and I actually hung out with him and Ed McKenna the first night we were in Vegas at the Circle Bar in the Venetian, where he shared the new CAO Consigliere with us (the re-release of the Sopranos). I sat next to Rick smoking my Flathead 660 for close to ten minutes before he got up and my wife “introduced” us…it was a very amusing moment. It was fairly quiet in the lounge, so we had a great time talking about the cigar world, and the world in general with Ricky. He had been at another location about two miles from home that afternoon, but who among us working folks can make a 12-3 event on a Thursday? It worked out well, the Flathead line remains one of my favorites, and the one I smoked was quite satisfying and lasted until the parking meter expired. Ricky knows his tobacco and is always a treat to hang out with. If he comes to your area don;t miss the opportunity to hang out with him.

Friday I opened the IPCPR sample humidor (which, by the way, is a reasonably large Psyko Seven humidor that my wife won on a Best Cigar Prices Facebook Contest, totally legit and above-board, I checked! It’s a pretty darned nice humidor that can be had at a very reasonable price. It’s been working very well with Boveda packs. Enough of the commercial, and there will be more on Psyko Seven in the near future. Please note that nobody asked me to say anything about this) and pulled out an EP Carillo Dusk Obscure, the largest in this new line at 7″ x 54. The Dusk has a US grown wrapper, clearly a Broadleaf, an Ecuador binder and Nicaraguan fillers, made at Ernesto’s factory in the Dominican Republic. Having been a fan of Ernesto P. Carillo’s work over the last 20 years, it was a treat to finally sit down with him and meet him at the trade show. I don’t get starstruck by many in the cigar world anymore, but Ernesto was one of the people who I was nervous about meeting. The Dusk was a great cigar, and another cigar I will seek out to further sample. It was sweet and had the dark flavors I prefer.

Saturday I wound up a busy day with another IPCPR sample. Remember I said there seemed to be a lot more larger sized samples at the show this year? Well, I’ve been selecting the larger cigars as the weather allows, I’ll have plenty of robustos to get through the winter. I selected the Padilla Anniversary in the 7″ x 50 Churchill size. I’m not entirely clear which anniversary this line celebrates, the company has been around for about 14 years, but I don’t suppose it matters as special anniversary releases will be severely limited moving forward thanks to the FDA regulations. The Padilla Anniversary is a Nicaraguan puro made at Raíces Cubanas in Honduras. It’s got a Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan Corojo binder and fillers from Esteli and Jalapa. This cigar started out pretty smooth and built in strength, ending up to be quite a powerhouse. The burn and draw were perfect, with a good amount of smoke. The band is really beautiful, with the Padilla signature lion holding a trident. It’s quite stunning, and the presentation is completed by a cedar sleeve. This will be a regular release, although limited. It was quite a nice smoke for a Saturday evening.

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

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under IPCPR, Review

Tagged as CAO, cigar, cigars, EP Carillo, IPCPR, Padilla

by CigarCraig | March 13, 2016 · 10:28 am

Smoking Alec Bradley, CAO, Macanudo and My Father Cigars

Finally it’s here, the day we’e all been waiting for (me at least), it’s Daylight Savings Time! I don’t even really mind losing the hour, it’s a good trade-off for the extra evening daylight hours. It also means spring is coming, which means summer’s coming, which I like. I’ll try to find a good cigar to smoke to celebrate today, but for now, I have a few cigars I smoked this week to discuss. I found myself a bit torn between smoking something “new to me” and smoking an old familiar friend, so I did both. Balance is the key to life. Thursday I lit up an Alec Bradley Post Embargo in the 6½” x 54 Toro size. This one falls into the “new to me” category as I have only smoked one before back in November of last year around the time they were released. I stand by my original thoughts that the wrapper isn’t the most flavorful, but it was a very nice, medium bodied smoke, with some leather and earth, no real sweetness to my palate. I don’t know that 5 months in the humidor did anything to this cigar one way or the other, but I think it’s another solid Alec Bradley cigar, of which they have many. Their Nica Puro still remains my favorite in the brand.

This week was a beautiful week, weather wise, which made for a long week in the office, stuck behind a desk while it was sunny and in the 70s outside. As I mentioned in my last post, I was able to take two wheels to work this week, which makes the commute a little more bearable, but by the time 4:30 hit on Friday I was ready for a sure thing to wrap the week. After a delicious diner featuring corned beef, I grabbed my final CAO Flathead 554, which was probably a leftover from samples I received when they were first released. I punched this with my ScrewPop 2.0 punch (the website lists a 3.0 now, I’ll have to find out how they improved this already fine tool) and lit it up. This must have had one vein in a leaf near the foot with a lot of oils left in it, because I got a runner that got nearly an inch ahead of the rest of the burn. This didn’t have any effect on the flavors of dark, black coffee and cocoa, which I love in this Broadleaf wrapped beauty. At some point in the future there’s going to be a box of Flatheads in my humidor, I’m just now sure which one. CAO has just announced the release of two smaller sizes in the Connecticut Habana wrapped Steel Horse line, the Handbrake (4.5” x 50 – SRP per cigar is $6.99) and the Roadkill (5.5 x 54 – SRP per cigar is $7.00) which I’ll need to try before making a decision. I might just have to load up on singles of all the sizes just to have variety.

Saturday afternoon I took a walk with a Macanudo Maduro Vintage 1997. I bought a handful of these a few years back at my local shop, they were reasonably priced, and there were only a few left in the box, which I wanted as I had seen them making these boxes in the factory when I was there in 2011. That box sits on my desk holding things like cords and flash drives and is a pleasant reminder of that trip. I’ve had this cigar floating around the humidor for about four years now, and with the big metal band it has, it’s always been a bit awkward. I worried about it damaging other cigars, or having the 1997 Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper damaged by something else since it’s uncello’d. So I smoked it, and it was good. This has a Honduran binder and fillers from Nicaragua, Brazil and the DR, and is a really nice maduro cigar. Macanudo’s are often dismissed as mild and flavorless, I’ve not found that to be the case with the maduros. This was a refined blend with some sweet and spicy notes, quite entertaining. I think these are still around and worth trying if you like a good maduro. One thing that was very surprising on that trip back in 2011, by the last day my palate was pretty fried after smoking cigars nonstop for several days, so I grabbed a regular old Macanudo Maduro and I could taste it! Now, I just need to figure out what to do with the metal band (and where I stashed my other ones…), it reminds me of my old Boy Scout neckerchief slides, although I hardly think that would be tolerated in this day and age.

Last night I was in an exploratory mood, so I selected a cigar from CDMCigars.com‘s exclusive collection, the My Father Oro de NicaraguaRobusto. Holy crap was this a great cigar! There’s not a lot of information about the blend on the website, as I’ve complained about before, so I can’t tell you what differentiates this from the regular My Father line, but I can tell you it’s very good. It’s smooth, rich, loaded with a bunch of flavors and is interesting right down to the nub. If I’m not craving a sweet, mocha maduro, this is exactly what I want a cigar to be. It wouldn’t be a My Father cigar without a little spice right at the start, and this one had it, although it was far more subtle. I’m going to have to pick up some of the regular My Father line , or rummage through the humidors to see if I have one, which happens more than I’d like to admit…Thanks to Craig at CDMCigars.com for sharing this great smoke. I imagine they have these in the Casa de Monteristo store in Chicago? These also come in a bunch of cool sizes.

That’s it for now, I have somethings that need doing today that I’m going to try to get out of the way early, then find something good to smoke this afternoon, and maybe something this evening to celebrate the extended daylight! Until the next time,

CigarCraig