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by CigarCraig | February 5, 2012 · 8:49 am

A Cigar of My Own Blending, a 777 and a Grimalkin Contest!

In March of last year my son and I went to Nicaragua for Drew Estate’s Cigar Safari. One of the many cool things we did on the trip was to blend a cigar at the Joya de Nicaragua factory. The exercise highlighted Nicaraguan tobacco, there were Seco, Viso and Ligero leaves from Condega, Jalapa and Estili to choose from, as well as Habano Criollo, Dark Corojo and Ecuador Connecticut wrappers and Habano Volado, Sumatra and Ecuador Connecticut binders. It was quite the experience touching, smelling, looking at all these leaves, and watching how each leaf burned. I selected the Dark Corojo wrapper and Sumatra binder, along with Condega Seco, Esteli Viso and a blend of Condega and Esteli Ligero. The factory rolled five robustos for each of the attendees which were delivered to us on our last night. I smoked one of these after about 3 months and was amazed, and the one I smoked Friday evening was no less amazing. It burned perfectly, even burn, nice flat coal. It was vaguely reminiscent of the Antaño Dark Corojo, no surprise there given the wrapper I selected. I have 3 left, and it will be fun to pull them out after another six months or so. On this occasion my son, who had traveled with me, joined me with an Acid Kuba Kuba Maduro.

Yesterday, after napping through a near comeback by the Flyers (helpful hint, don’t get down 6-0 and expect to win…) I needed a pick-me-up so I grabbed a J. Fuego 777 Maduro Belicoso for an afternoon walk. I have really been enjoying the cigars in the J. Fuego line. So far I’ve loved them all, but the Maduro 777 has been my favorite. Dark, rich, and savory, this cigar is always a treat for my taste buds. Normally I’m not a fan of Criollo wrappers, but this one is done just right. These aren’t priced too bad either. I could smoke these all the time. I will probably shy away from this shape in the future though, as it wanted to shoot out of my mouth easier than most figurados for some reason, maybe it’s oilier than most torpedos and belicosos I smoke!

It’s contest time again!

It seems like just yesterday I was in daily contest mode! December’s 12 days of Spectacular Giveaways was a huge success (for the winners and the USPS for sure!). Thanks again to all of the sponsors for taking part. A few weeks ago I went to visit Gary Griffith of Emilio Cigars at the Peoples Plaza Cigar-ette City location and he gave me these two Grimalkin mugs for a future give-away. The future is today, my friends, so leave a comment on this post to enter and I’ll post the winner on Wednesday. The mugs are magic! they look like the one on the left until you put hot liquid in, then the eyes appear! I’m also going to include a Grimalkin Robusto from my humidor, and you never know what else might fall into the box as I’m packing it up! I will have to try to get some more of these before they change to La Musa. Many thanks to Gary for providing me with these collectors items to give away!

That’s it for today! Enter the contest, tell your friends and enjoy the day! I understand there’s some sort of sporting event on today…oh yeah, the Flyers and Rangers game this afternoon!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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

Tagged as 777, cigar, Cigar Safari, Cigar-Ette City, cigars, Contest, delaware cigars, drew estate, Emilio, Gary Griffith, Grimalkin, J. Fuego, joya de nicaragua, La Musa

by CigarCraig | January 15, 2012 · 9:17 am

A Visit to Cigar-Ette City and Gary Griffith (and a Grimalkin)

Yesterday was a bit on the chilly side, so I figured I’d look for a nice, warm indoor smoking location. I’ve been wanting to take a ride south of the boarder and visit Gary Griffith at his Peoples Plaza Cigar-Ette City store for a while, and decided the time had come. I grabbed the GPS and hit the road, taking the 1 hour and 7 minute drive. I got there a bit ahead of schedule and Gary greeted me warmly and we went into the enormous walk-in humidor. It was at that point that I realized the flaw in my plan: The State of Delaware frowns upon smoking indoors! Here we have a store that sells cigars and other tobacco products, and you can’t smoke in it. If you have been complacent in contacting your elected officials about the FDA issue, do it now. Not being able to smoke in your local shop is only scratching the surface of the “inconveniences” we’ll face it the FDA is allowed to regulate Premium Cigars.

Anyway, all was not lost. I wandered around the humidor for a while talking to Gary, and marvelling at the ridiculous amount of inventory. He had all kinds of boutique brands that I don’t see a lot of in my local shops, but hear about everywhere. The Viajes, Tatuajes, Illusiones, 262s, you name it. Boxes stacked to the ceiling, I even saw a stack of the Para Japon cigars that La Aurora made to aid the Japanese earthquake relief. Of course the Emilio and Grimalkin lines were well represented, and I picked up a couple Grimalkin Robustos while I was there. The moral of the story is that one could leave a ton of cash behind in this store, and the prices were competitive with Pennsylvania prices given that the lack of a state sales tax offsets the cigar tax.

Here’s a little video I shot with Gary telling us about what’s coming down the line in 2012 for the Emilio family of cigars. I know I’m excited to see what comes next.

httpv://youtu.be/VzeaLToxhR8

After I got home and fed, I still needed to smoke the cigar I set out earlier in the day to smoke, so I grabbed a Grimalkin Robusto and took a long and satisfying walk. The cigar was awesome, although I believe more of the subtlety and complexity is apparent when the temperatures aren’t around freezing. Still, this is an incredible cigar that everyone should try if they can. My thanks to Gary for his hospitality, and for making dynamite cigars.