Tag Archives: Chisel

by | June 4, 2023 · 9:40 am

Smoking Some Tobacco Plaza Ltd. 50th Anniversary Cigars

I was talking to Danny Ditkowich of Tobacco Plaza in Great Neck, NY recently and the subject of the store’s 50th Anniversary and the special cigars that accompanied it came up. So I decided to smoke some and highlight them here.  I’ll get it out of the way, the links I put in this post will go to the store’s website, where you could purchase each of these cigars. Danny mentioned that the Tatuaje (along with the Tuxtla series) are 10% off while supplies last, and there’s free shipping fo the month of June.  All that out of the way, let’s talk about these three tasty cigars!  The first one I smoked was the Tatuaje TP DD 50th Exclusive.  If I recall, Danny worked with Pete on a DD for the 40th anniversary, and it was 6″x 58 torpedo, this one is a 6″ x 60 torpedo, with a beautiful Broadleaf wrapper, over Nicaraguan fillers and binder, rolled at the My Father factory. The original was based on the Fausto blend, and I’m not sure if this one is too, but it’s a pretty strong cigar!  It’s loaded with the coffee and spice that I enjoy, and it was a really great cigar. I may smoke another one today!  If you’re a fan of the Tatuaje Broadleaf, or Tatuaje cigars in general, this would be a great one to try.  Not a cheap date, but what is anymore?

 

I took a relatively early walk yesterday after doing a bee inspection with my wife, planting a tree and doing some trimming, all before 10am for some reason.  So I grabbed the Tobacco Plaza 50th Anniversary Quesada Keg.  I don’t think I ever had the original Keg, as I am not immediately drawn to things drink related, so I can’t compare.  This is another 6″ x 60, and if it’s just a size variation, it has a Dominican Corojo seed wrapper, with Dominican binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers.  It’s presented in a 15 count box as opposed to a barrel. This is another cigar that I enjoyed quite a bit.  It had an interesting bready flavor, kind of a dark bread and it was on the medium bodied side. I know Danny has had a great relationship with Quesada as they make the Oceano brand in the La Sirena portfolio, another cigar I really enjoy.

 

The third and final cigar in Tobacco Plaza’s 50th anniversary series is the TPLFD Magnum Chisel Maduro.  This cigar is listed as 6″ x 58 box pressed, but it’s really 6½”. The chisel shape is cool, and one of the only, if not THE only, shape that’s legally protected by a patent. This is has a maduro wrapper, with the Tobacco Plaza logo applied to the cigar in a lighter leaf.  LFD has made a bit of a name for themselves with these artistic embellishments, I have one from the Ybor festival with a Rooster, and one from a dinner that Tobacco Plaza hosted in 2021 with an Iced Tea glass.  They are quite neat and must take a lot of effort to produce. Someone has to make a “cookie cutter” apparatus to punch the design out of a leaf.  It’s impressive. The cigar is impressive as well, it’s a great tasting smoke. I’ve been enjoying afternoons on my porch watching TV, the last few Saturday’s it’s been an Amazon show called “Clarkson’s Farm”, with Jeremy Clarkson, formerly of the British Top Gear and Amazon’s The Grand Tour (also hysterical).  This Magnum Chisel got me through the last two episodes, set aside 2 hours for this one.  It was rich with cocoa and spice.  Another winner.  I have to get up to Great Neck some time to visit Tobacco Plaza. 

 

That’s all I got for this week, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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by | July 29, 2018 · 12:50 pm

A La Flor Dominicana Event and La Palina Numbers Series

LFD EventWednesday I went to a La Flor Dominicana event at my local CigarCigars shop in Frazer, PA, which featured Litto Gomez, along with our area rep, Kyle Shackleton. It was a casual meet and greet without the usual presentation which Kyle does a great job with, but Litto just hung out with the crowd, and the turn out was quite good for a Wednesday afternoon. This shop is odd, in that it has early hours, opening at 6am and closing at 7pm, and often has events early on weekday afternoons, and they seem to do well with his schedule, and this event was very well attended and they sold a lot of LFD product. There were many people there who I’ve seen at surrounding CigarCigars stores, including several of the store managers and employees. Litto doesn’t make a lot of store appearances, it was special to have him visit our little corner of the world. This shop is only about 2 miles from my house, so it was super-convenient! I spoke to him briefly at the end of the event for an upcoming CigarCraig Podcast episode, so watch for that later this week.  While I was there I smoked a LFD Ligero Natural L-400.  This is a 6″ x 54 toro that I really enjoyed for the first half of the event.  It’s not the power-house that the Double Ligero is, but it’s no light-weight LFD L-400either. It has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper that is flawless, as was the burn and draw, and it was a pleasure to smoke. I picked up another to smoke when I could really pay attention to it. I followed that with the LFD TAA cigar, wich was the freebie with the “buy 4, get one” promo, which I’ve had before and is a perfectly good cigar. I also picked up the TAA maduro, and ended up with one of the old event only cigars which I remember to be an incredible cigar. Like I said, it was a well attended event, the company was great, the selection was great, food from my favorite local Italian restaurant was great, if it hadn’t rained cats and dogs it would have been perfect! Fortunately the event was inside!

 

LFD Double Ligero Maduro ChiselOf course, I was inspired to keep the La Flor Dominicana think going Thursday for my evening walk with a LFD Double Ligero Chisel Maduro that I had picked up at the last event I attended. These are amazing cigars. They have actually patented the shape of this cigar, so any other cigar you see with this shape is in violation of the trademark! I use the technique Litto himself taught me several years ago when I asked him how he preferred to cut these, and he said to just give it a squeeze to pop the cap and peel the cap away, works like a charm. None of the silly punching one side or both or anything, just a squeeze and you’re ready to go. Maybe once in a while a bite sideways to open it up a little, but otherwise it’s all good. It’s also my finding that this method really slows the smoking time down considerably, with no loss of satisfaction. I routinely get a good 2½ hours from a 6″ x 54 figurado, making it an exceptional value if you have the time to commit. Great heavy flavors of espresso and spice.  This has been a favorite of mine for many years.

 

La Palina_Number01_RobustoFriday evening we went to the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, NJ (across the river from Philadelphia) to see David Byrne of Talking Heads fame. It was part of a local college radio station festival, and I wasn’t awfully impressed with the first four acts, and even less impressed with the heavy rains we sat through during those acts (a down side of lawn seats, free tickets, can’t complain). The upside is that smoking is allowed in the lawn seating area! I smoked a lovely La Palina Number Series 01 before the torrential rains, which was pretty a darned nice cigar.  Like the LFD L-400, this also has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, but it has a binder from Costa Rica and Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers, and is made in Placsencia’s Honduran El Paraiso factory.  The example I smoked was a 5½” x 50 robusto, which is a nice size, and only a few people sat down nearby, realized I was smoking a cigar, then moved away. It’s not like people weren’t smoking other stuff…anyway, this cigar has a little of the sourdough bread flavor that I know at least one of my readers digs, and I’ve grown a bit of an affinity for, with some earthiness, quite an enjoyable smoke. Of course, being able to enjoy a cigar and listen to live music isn’t a bad thing. Fortunately, we brought umbrellas and tarps, so we rode the storm out, and it was worth the wait, because David Byrne put on a spectacular show, very unique and entertaining. If you ever liked a Talking Heads song and you get a chance to see one of his shows, I highly recommend it. Heck, look it up on YouTube for a taste.

 

Between sets, after the rain, I smoked one of those little Undercrown Coronets from the tins, and while it was good, it really underscored to me why I don’t care for little cigars. This is a personal thing, and maybe it’s because I’m a reformed cigarette smoker, but I didn’t need that cigar. I felt like it was something I smoked to pass the time, and when I smoke a cigar, I smoke it to relax and I really want to spend an hour or so with he cigar. Like I said, these are fine if you need a fix, I’m not casting aspersions, it just reminds me of when I needed a cigarette at prescribed times and got antsy if I couldn’t do it. I can separate that now, but I got an uncomfortable feeling smoking that little cigar. Perhaps it’s just my current life situation and not wanting stress to push me down any roads I don’t want to go back down…

 

La Palina_Number02_RobustoAnyway, of course, I had to smoke the La Palina Number Series No. 02 Last night. This one has a Costa Rican Maduro wrapper over a Honduran binder and Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers, also made at El Paraiso in Honduras. The Robusto in this one is (unfortunately, in my opinion) a half n inch shorter at 5″ x 52, not sure what went into that decision. For me, that half an inch might represent another twenty minutes of smoking time! When I smoked these two cigars before, I came to the same conclusion, and that was that while I likes the No. 01 well enough, the No. 02 was the cigar that was right in my wheelhouse! This guy has semi sweet chocolate, dark roast coffee, an all around tasty treat. People don’t like the bands and packaging on these, they don’t bother me. Sure, I like the traditional look of the Family series and the Black, Red, Bronze, etc. Labels series, but  I actually prefer these over the Classic series bands which I find to be just blah. I think La Palina has something for every taste, whether it’s flavor or aesthetic.

 

That’s enough for today, off to work on a could projects around the house, have a podcast to put together and cigars to smoke!  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

 

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by | June 3, 2018 · 7:52 am

La Flor Dominicana Event at CigarCigars in Downingtown

Wednesday evening I went to my former hometown of Downingtown, PA (beer lovers may know this is as the home of Victory Brewery, which used to allow cigars at their brew pub, I miss that! They had a great root beer too) to the CigarCigars store there for a La Flor Dominicana event. The store is fairly new, it’s only been open there a few years, and is one of twelve (soon to be thirteen) stores in the chain which recently joined the Tobacconists Association of America (TAA), which you read about here a few weeks ago. This shop has greatly improved under LFD Airbender Chiselthe direction of the store manager, Kevin.  I think once they put a drop ceiling in the lounge, which is a re-purposed garage bay, the acoustics will be much better and it will have a more intimate feel. Otherwise, the selection is good, although when there is an event I pretty much focus on the brand doing the event. I started off with a La Flor Dominicana Airbender Maduro Chisel, which has an Ecuador Habano Maduro wrapper and fillers grown on their La Canela farm.  It’s in the patented Chisel shape, which is a torpedo with a flattened head, measuring 6″ x 54. The fun thing about this shape is that you don’t need a cutter! Squeezing the head makes the cap pop right off, which Lito Gomez himself showed me several years ago when I asked him what his preferred cut was on this vitola. The Airbender Chisel burned for an astounding two hours.

 

LFD KyleKyle Shackelton is our local LFD rep, and does an excellent presentation over a video showing the cigar making process, this time in reverse, from cigar to seed. He explains a lot of the processes in detail, but not so much as to overwhelm his audience. Many consumers don’t understand the extent of the time and care that goes into the cigars we love.  A picture of the aging room at the factory blew me away, they had cabinets with all the wheels stored inside, many aging rooms I’ve seen just have shelves. Their facility in the DR is beautiful, one day maybe I’ll visit.

 

LFD TAAHere’s where I goofed up, or somebody did!  I bought a TAA exclusive La Flor Dominicana, and the “Buy x, get one” special cigar was banded exactly the same, with the TAA secondary band. I smoked one of them, not sure which, but while it started out a little woodier than I like, it developed into a very nice smoke. I didn’t find it as rich as the Airbender Maduro, but it was good. The former event exclusive cigar they had was fantastic, I have one someplace…anyway, it was a great event, Kevin and his staff at CigarCigars Downingtown were excellent hosts, and Kyle put on a good tutorial. Catch an LFD event if you can, I don’t know if all the reps do events as good as Kyle does, but I wouldn’t be surprised! Let me know if you’ve experienced these in other markets.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | July 10, 2016 · 10:41 am

Fourth of July Cigars, a La Flor Dominicana and a Caldwell

Monday was the Independence Day Holiday, and my wife and my 29th wedding anniversary. I know, Independence Day, getting married….it’s a bit ironic, but we figured at least we’d always have the day off, and Montecristo_No2there would always be something somewhere to do. over the last 15 or so years I have made a point to smoke a Havana cigar as a form of  celebration and of civil disobedience. I like to think the founding fathers would be pleased if they stopped rolling in their graves long enough to notice. Sometimes this works out great, other times it’s a disaster, and this time was somewhere in the middle. I’ve smoked some fantastic Montecristo No.2s over the last 20 years, and I’ve smoked some sucky ones. This one fell in the middle somewhere, as it was just a good cigar. I had been given this cigar last year, and I don’t know what the vintage was, so maybe I should have left it in the humidor for another four or five years. Most of the problem was with the draw, the flavor was good, although milder than I recall. It had the classic “twang” and a hint of citrus I expect from a Montecristo I could have dug a little further and found a Havana or two with sufficient age, but I was lazy, and the classic Monte 2 called out to me. After a great dinner out with my bride, I enjoyed the heck out of a Padron Anniversary Exclusivo Maduro that is the quintessential dessert cigar!

 

LaFlorDominincana_AirbenderMaduro_ChiselLater in the week I was moving humidors around and spied a La Flor Dominicana Air Bender Maduro Chisel. I assumed it was the maduro because I think by this point I know the difference, and the natural Air Bender is quite a bit lighter. This is a 6½” x 54 cigar with their patented (or is it trademarked, I’m not certain) Chisel shape, like a torpedo, but with a flattened head, not unlike a pipe mouthpiece. I’ve had success squeezing these to open them, but this time I tried a V-cut across the head. It looked pretty cool, but wasn’t giving me the draw I wanted, so I ended up lopping an eighth of an inch off to open it up a little. While the Air Bender isn’t quite as full-bodied as the Double Ligero line, it’s still a reasonable strong cigar, with rich flavor and a bit of a kick. La Flor Dominicana makes some awesome cigars, and this is one of them. They are almost always satisfying. the Air Bender uses a binder and fillers grown on their own farms in the Dominican Republic, and a very pretty, dark Habano wrapper. These are a treat every time I light one up.

 

Caldwell_TheKingisDead_DiamondGirlFriday I wrapped up another week with a cigar I had some trepidation about.  Las year I caught up with Robert Caldwell at a local shop and bought a handful of his cigars to try. I’ve enjoyed his Blind Man’s Bluff line, but I had so much trouble with the Long Live the King cigars that I was worried I’d have similar problems with The King is Dead. the Long Live the Kings I smoked had such construction problems that they just pissed me off, both because I hate it when a pricey cigar doesn’t work right, and I hate wasting my valuable smoking time fighting with a cigar. It’s just not relaxing for me to have a cigar that doesn’t work right. So I decided to try this the Caldwell King is Dead Diamond Girl, a 6 ½” x 42 pigtail cigar. The blend information provided on the website is exceptional, it’s listed as: Capa (that’s the wrapper): Negrito Dominicano – 2008, Banda (that would be the binder, sometimes called “capote”): Corojo Dominicano – 2006, Tripa (filler…think tripe, yuck): Corojo Ligero Dominicano 30% – 2006, Tripa: Negrito Viso Dominicano 20% – 2008 and Tripa: HVA 20/20 50% – 2010. I think Steve Saka is the only cigar maker who is more specific in his blend information. This cigar smoked great, with some wood and cocoa flavors and solidly medium bodied to me. I’m glad I finally smoked this one.

 

That’s it for now. As you can see, I still seem to be grabbing shaped cigars here and there, not sure what that’s all Hemingway Classic SGabout, but I like torpedos and perfectos.  Sunday I stopped by Holt’s in Center City Philadelphia and enjoyed a Fuente Hemingway Classic Sungrown, another pefecto. It was a fantastic cigar, and while I was there  I had the pleasure of meeting and smoking with former Phillies player and broadcaster Gary Matthews, who I saw play countless times in my youth. He was a super nice guy, and apparently a regular visitor to the store. I would have figured him for just a regular patron if he hadn’t been wearing his huge World Series ring, with was hard to miss. I guess I should have gotten a picture with him, but he was such a “regular guy” it didn’t occur to me. Anyway, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | August 13, 2014 · 11:08 pm

A CAO Flathead, an MBombay, and Some La Flor Dominicana Cigars at Cigar Mojo

We’re getting ready to take a road trip to Chicago for the weekend. My wife’s working the Fest for Beatles Fans and I’m going to explore some cigar shops.  Again, if you are in the area, let me know and we’ll try to connect! I’m already planning to get to Smokey Bear in Evergreen Park on Friday, and TESA Cigars on Saturday afternoon for some events.  I’m going to try something new for me, posting “live” blog posts, so there may be several posts instead of one big one on Sunday.  Since ditching my dumb phone for an iPhone, I’m going to experiment a little with it. We’ll see how it goes and I beg your indulgence.

 

CAO_Flathead_BigBlockSunday was a spectacular day, and after a very busy morning of yard work I decided to spend the afternoon in the pool with a big cigar.  I picked up a CAO Flathead Big Block a while ago, the square pressed 7″ x 70 monster. I generally feel quite uncomfortable with the 70 ring gauge, but I like the Flatheads, so I thought I should try them all.  I gave this a couple punches with my Screwpop punch (by the way, I’m really looking forward to seeing the next generation of this punch. It looks like they took my advice in the redesign. Yeah, I’m taking credit, you heard it here first!  They also have another cigar cutter coming out that looks like it could be interesting) and just about emptied my lighter lighting that monster.  I spent close to two hours reading in the pool, smoking that big Flathead, and enjoying it quite a bit. The enormous size tempers the blend quite a bit, it lacked the punch of the smaller sizes, and needed a few corrections. I got out of the pool and smoked the cigar for another forty-five minutes, until I just plain got tired of it.  Great smoke, but I’ll stick to the smaller sizes.

 

MBombay_BrazilMataFinaMaduro_RobustoAfter a little Sunday afternoon nap and some dinner, I needed to take the dog for a walk, so I grabbed an MBombay Brazil Mata Fina Maduro robusto. The beautiful band dominates this cigar, and it needs to be removed very soon after lighting. this is a super little smoke, smooth and sweet, with a little extra something from the Peruvian tobacco in the blend.  I have been really impressed with cigars from the same factory in Costa Rico, which also makes the Atabey (which I have yet to sample, but we gave away some in the December contests courtesy of Dave Garofalo), the Byron and the Bandolero, all exceptional cigars. The MBombay burned perfectly, nice flat and even burn and a perfect draw. I am very excited to hear that a local shop is trying to bring these in, I’m quite taken with them.

 

LaFlorDominicana_DblLigeroMaduro_ChiselTuesday my youngest son and I went down to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA, for their La Flor Dominicana event. I’ve not smoked a lot of La Flor Dominicana cigars.  Not for any particular reason, I always liked them, I just never managed to pick any up.  Litto Gomez was on hand for the event, along with the local rep, Kyle.  I picked up a couple Double Ligero Maduros in the chisel shape, and some Colorado Oscuro No.3s (and a couple others I can’t bring to ind at the moment and am too lazy to go to the humidor to check) and lit up one of the Chisels.  I asked Litto what the best cutting method was and he suggested just giving it a squeeze which worked well. This is a formidable cigar, loaded with rich, dark flavor. I ended up giving it a bit of a scissor cut afterwhile to open the draw up a little, but other than that, it was a terrific smoke. I was able to have a really nice discussion with Litto, in spite of the fact that the place was packed, impressive for a Tuesday night. I’ve said it before, but the guys at Mojo do a great job. In less than a year they have built a really good shop and have excellent events. It was nice to run into Shaun, the proprietor of D&S Cigar Lounge in Lancaster,PA and Arline, who I met the first time I visited Cigar Mojo before they officially opened, there’s always a good bunch of folks there.  My son seemed to thoroughly the Colorado Oscuro he smoked, and he only smoked cigars occasionally.

 

LaFlorDominicana_ColoradoOscuro_No3

 

Since Christian (my son) enjoyed the La Flor Dominacana Colorado Oscuro last night, I figured I had better see what it was all about tonight. Since I had bought two, I took the second one for a walk and enjoyed the heck out of it.  I didn’t find it to be as strong as the Double Ligero Maduro Chisel, but the burn was much better and it was totally satisfying, and since I had a lot of stuff to do to get ready to go away, the 5″ x 50 size worked into my schedule perfectly. I have been remiss over the last few years where this brand is concerned, but I will work on sampling through the line in the future.  Nice smoke. La Flor Dominicana is one of the great survivors of the cigar boom of the ’90s.

 

That’s it for now, I have twelve hours of driving ahead of me tomorrow, so I need to get some rest! Stay tuned for my experimental posts over the next few days. Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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