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by CigarCraig | February 3, 2013 · 9:11 am

A La Palina, a Guayacan, Some Upcoming Events and a Contest!

Those of us who live in the colder climates may look forward to cigar events to enjoy cigars and the camaraderie that goes along with them. While I have been to many events over the years, from Buffalo to North Carolina, and from New York City to Las Vegas, these events have evolved from intimate gatherings to events with thousands of attendees and all of the great cigar makers attending. I’ve recently run across a couple that were announced that I won’t be attending, but are worth looking into if you want to attend a cigar event. Of course, keep an eye on CigarEvents.com to find things going on in your area. The first event to keep an eye on is a charity event in Washington DC, the DC Tweet-up 2013 on March 13 and 14. This event has a meet-up Friday night and a bus crawl Saturday. In May is the New Jersey Cigar Festival at the Park Avenue Club in Florham Park, NJ. Next, JR Cigars is having a cigar event in North Carolina on June 8th with cigars and Barbecue and other fun. Of course, Smoke Inn has their Great Smoke on February 16 in Florida, Cigars International’s CigarFest is no doubt sold out as tickets went on sale yesterday, and the Delaware Cigar Festival is generally held in September. Add these events to the many cigar store events and there should be no shortage of opportunities to hang out with like minded folks and smoke cigars!

A while ago I smoked a La Palina Classic and was underwhelmed. It was a nice cigar, but didn’t really seem all that special. The one I smoked was a sampled from the IPCPR show. Friday night I picked out another Classic Robusto to give it a second chance. This one came from La Palina as well, but had rested in my humidor for the last four or five months. I really enjoyed this robusto quite a bit, it was well balanced and had a little bit of savory sweetness that was very nice. It was perfectly built and a nice medium bodied smoke. I think if this came wrapped in the San Andreas Maduro wrapper they used on the Maduro I’d be in heaven!

Saturday afternoon I selected a Guayacan Torpedo for my afternoon walk. This is a cigar that is distributed by Gary Griffith and was included with a bunch of brands in his stable. So far I’ve been pretty impressed with the cigars he’s distributing, they all have a little bit something special, and this Guayacan was no different. What a nice smoke! I love a cigar that burns perfectly, and this one did, as well as having a great draw with only a small bit of the tip cut off. I’m impressed with this and most of the cigars that Gary has been distributing, every one seems to have something that appeals to my taste buds with few exceptions.

Contest!

I think it’s time for another contest, it’s been a month. A couple of weeks ago I told you about the ScrewPop punch. I’ve been using this punch quite a bit lately and it works very well so I have one of those to give away. The size of this punch very nice for a corona or petite corona so I think it would work well on something like a My Uzi Weighs a Ton Bait Fish. So how about we also throw in a 5 pack of the My Uzi Weighs a Ton Bait Fish and a cool hat to go with it. Not a bad little prize! So you know the rules, leave a comment and I’ll pick a winner on Wednesday. The six month time-out for previous winners is in effect, so if you won something in the last 14 contests you aren’t eligible to win. Thanks to Brett at ScrewPop and Drew Estate for the goodies!

That’s enough for today, I understand there’s some game on tonight, so enjoy the festivities surrounding that! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as cigar, CIgar Events, cigars, Contest, drew estate, Guayacan, La Palina, My Uzi Weighs a Ton, ScrewPop

by CigarCraig | September 18, 2011 · 11:18 am

The Delaware Cigar Festival and Another Contest!

Saturday, September 17 marked the long awaited fifth annual Delaware Cigar Festival, organized and hosted by Gary Griffith, the Premium Cigar Manager of Delaware Cigars and the creator of Emilio and Grimalkin Cigars. The event took place at Delaware Park, which is already one of our favorite places in the area to go and waste some money on the ponies, or drop some pennies in the slots. The event was unique, as it is a big herf disguised as a charity event, although Gary won’t use the charity aspect to promote it. The format is that the manufacturers and reps sell their samples for $3 each, with all of the proceeds going to charity, which this time benefited the family of a slain police officer (news report here), this was just in the last few days and quite tragic.

Photo Courtesy of Charlie Greenbacker

For your entrance price you got a bag with about 20 or 25 cigars (nice stuff too, I looked!) and assorted swag, a nice picnic buffet with burgers, dogs, chicken, ribs and beans, and the opportunity to talk with the assorted cigar makers and reps who were there. Brands represented were: Inked Magazine, Rocky Patel, Arturo Fuente/JC Newman, Emilio Cigars with brand creator Gary Griffith, Drew Estate, Altadis USA, Oliva, Perdomo, La Sirena with Brand Ambassador Arielle Ditkowich, La Flor Dominicana, Cigar Rights of America, EO Brands with Eddie Ortega, Miami Cigar, General Cigar, 262 Cigars, Kristoff Cigars, El Primer Mundo with Sean Williams, Veritas Cigar Co., and The Cigar Agency. Keith Park from Prometheous was also there. All of these companies donated TONS of stuff, either cigars that were sold for $3 each, or stuff to be raffled off (we bought 10 tickets didn’t win a darned thing!). The attendance was capped at 300 people, including staff, press and exhibitors, so it was a nice sized crowd. It was rarely a problem to have a chat with the vendors.

In addition to getting to schmooze with some of my friends on the manufacturers side, I was able to hang out a bit with some fellow blogger types such as Barry from ACigarSmoker.com, Walt from StogieReview.com and Michael from CigarEvents.com. I also had the great pleasure of meeting one of my readers, Charlie, who won big in the raffle give-aways! These events are always about the people, and you just don’t meet nicer folks that those associated with cigars for some reason!

What a wonderful event that I would recommend highly next year if you are within a 3 or 4 hour drive. Gary is a fine gentleman and I appreciate him welcoming myself and my wife for the afternoon. It’s refreshing to see a retailer put on a “not for profit” event, and to have so many people there enjoying cigars and camaraderie. I’d love to see more manufacturers participate in the future as the event is for good causes and shows the cigar business in a positive light. The only downside was that the weather could have been a little nicer, it was overcast and under 70 until we drove off the premises, then the sun came out and it was nice! Hardly anyone’s fault. I managed to win about $4 on the ponies over the course of the day too!

In honor of the event, I’m going to have another quick give-away! I know, I JUST had one that ended this week, but we got a couple Rosie Napravnik Bobbleheads at the park for Racing Fan Appreciation Day and I thought I’d combine it with a beautiful Veritas Connecticut Salamone that I purchased from the Delaware based Veritas Cigar Co. at the event. So leave a comment to enter, and I’ll pick a winner next Sunday, September 25th.