Tag Archives: Cigar Mojo

by Craig Vanderslice | December 22, 2019 · 10:10 am

Visits to Cigar Mojo and Wooden Indian and Cigar Aficionado’s Top Ten Thoughts

There’s some crossover in the subject line, so I’ll get to that, but first off I had occasion to visit two shops in my area that have recently undergone renovations, and in the case of Cigar Mojo, in King Of Prussia, PA, moved into a new building. Thursday Cigar Mojo had a Drew Estate event, which had the dual purpose of saying farewell to our area’s long time rep Alex, who’s moving up the ladder, and hello to Ali, who we’ve known for years from working in stores in the area and most recently being a rep for EPC. Cigar Mojo is now a free standing building, nestled in between Aldi and Duluth Trading Company stores, with a large and well stocked humidor, public and members lounges, an outdoor patio with a TV (and heaters), kitchen, the works. I think it’s about two and a half times the size of their old location. I smoked a Herrera Esteli Brazilian Maduro Toro while I was there and it was delicious, probably my second favorite Herrera Esteli behind the Norteño, which I smoked later (a Corona Extra). The first time I visited Mojo’s new location was the first day they were there and it was a big mess! It was not now, they have everything sorted out and it was really nice! They even have their name on the big sign on Rt 202. As a bonus, I made a cameo appearance on the Roxxy the Rebel Youtube show.

Friday I happened to see that the Wooden Indian, who had been having a sort of 12 days of events kind of thing going on, was having and Altadis event with Tom Stroud, our area rep. I’ve know Tom a long time, and haven’t seen him in a while. Additionally, I have been extremely negligent in visiting the Wooden Indian since they’ve remodeled. I missed their bid Drew Estate event in September because we went to Miami, and I just haven’t gotten by there. Dave, who owns the shop, acquired the rest of the front part of the space where the store is and did a complete overhaul of the store. Where the Liga Privada Lounge once was is now a spacious humidor. Where the rather cramped humidor was, and bumped out into the new space, is the new and improved Liga Privada lounge. The lounge now has windows, making it nice and bright, with a kitchenette and plenty of space. They also put new flooring in the retail area, brightening it up. I can’t imagine what the carpet there must have been like when they took it up! Anyway, the Shop looks beautiful, the humidor is well stocked and has a great selection, and is still one of my favorite shops in the area. While they didn’t have the Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Maestro, they did have the Espresivo, the Robusto sibling of the Cigar Aficionado No.1 Cigar of the Year. I figured I’d better give it a smoke while it was in front of me to see what the fuss was about. I bought two and they had about 8 left and they weren’t exactly being scooped up, so maybe the WI customers don’t care about the CA ratings, or they were holding out for the Maestro, which is a torpedo, but good luck seeing on of those any time soon. I’ll be honest, I thought it was a really good cigar, and I enjoyed the crap out of it. It was well balanced with some coffee and cocoa and nuttiness. It’s another great cigar from the AJ Fernandez factory. It had a nice, slow burn too for a 5″ x 50, which was nice.

I have to admit, in the CA top ten, I’ve only smoked two of the cigars, and it’s been ten of more years since I’ve smoked either of those two (which should give a big clue which two they are!) If you take vitola out of the equation, that doubles the number as of Friday. I think I smoke I reasonable variety of cigars! I bet if I smoke 400 cigars a year at least 350 of them are different, and that probably a pretty good variety, you’d agree. I could go through my Instagram feed and figure this out, but who has the patience? I could have picked up the Upmann, but I’m not spending $18 on a cigar right now, and I’m not entirely sure why I’ve never smoked a Padron 1926, might be the same reason I didn’t pick up an Upmann, or is it that I can’t imagine that it can be that much better than a 1964, which is darned near perfect? The Tatuaje piques my interest, I haven’t seen the Illusione, the Warped or the RP, I guess. I watched the reveals this year and thought to myself, sheesh, have I gotten that far out of touch? I have to get down into the top 25 to see some more familiar faces. I love the Punch Diablo, but I’m surprised it did so well, I figured it would be to pedestrian for CA (maybe because I liked it?) I’m still itching to try the Enclave Broadleaf, I have to grab on of those one day. I think the Herrera Miami should have been higher, but what do I know? Here’s the thing, the CA list reaches a far different audience than website/blog lists. There’s a whole bunch of different communities in the cigar world, some are on the internet, some aren’t so who’s to argue who’s list is right and who’s isn’t?

In other news, I bought a plane ticket to Vegas for next Month’s Tobacco Plus Expo, and am awaiting approval for my media registration. It seems like a lit of the cigar industry is going to be attending that, so it should be interesting. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Aging Room, altadis, cigar, Cigar Aficionado, Cigar Mojo, cigar store, cigars, drew estate, Herrera Esteli, wooden indian

by Craig Vanderslice | October 30, 2019 · 11:04 am

The New Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA

Yesterday I dropped by the new location of Cigar Mojo, the cigar shop and lounge in King of Prussia, PA. They opened the first shop back in 2013, and I posted about it here. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long, they’ve had their challenges over the years, but Ive been to some great events, and it’s turned into one of the premier lounges in the area. To those not familiar with the area, the name King of Prussia sounds like an odd name for a town, but it’s adjacent to Valley Forge, which holds a significant place in American History, and the Prussian troops played a large part in the Continental Army’s success, hence the area being named after their king. Of course, none of that has anything to do with Cigar Mojo, except that I’m sure some tobacco was smoked at the King of Prussia Inn in the 1700s, as tobacco was one of the things that funded the war. Anyway, The Cigar Mojo guys had enjoyed success in their beautiful lounge, but decided to move a half mile down the road into a vacant bank building and create a bigger and better Mojo. This new location is nestled between an Aldi super market and a Duluth Trading Company store, and has plenty of parking (where as the old location was nestled between a Wawa and a cemetery, and had limited parking). I have only included exterior photos today, as they had just received their occupancy permit and were in the process of moving in, so, while functional, the inside was in a bit of disarray. Trae, one of the owners, was busily stocking the large and centrally located humidor with their generous stock. The store has three lounges, a public lounge to the left of the humidor, the members lounge to the right, and an outdoor lounge in the rear of the building. All of them have plenty of seating, and TVs, even the outdoor area. There is a dominos room and also a kitchen I’m told. As I said, the large humidor is in the center, when you walk in the door, it’s in front of you, and you move through the vestibule to the left to enter the retail space. I look forward to seeing it when it’s all cleaned up and organized, it was understandably a mess as they had to hurry to vacate the old location.

As always, you can go to any cigar shop anywhere and strike up a great conversation with a total stranger. Sure, I’ve been to Mojo plenty of times, and there were several people who came in and out who I knew, but you can just sit and talk to someone new and have mutual friends and interests and have a great time. Trae was kind enough to find me a box of RoMaCraft Baka in the 4″ x 52 Bantu size and open it up and sell me some singles, one of which I smoked in the public lounge. I had gone in thinking I was just going to smoke a particular cigar, then, as I saw the chaos in the humidor, and the tons of cigars there, I forgot what it was I was thinking of. So I grabbed a couple Cromagnons, and, half jokingly, asked Trae where the Bakas were. He said they had them, and dove into a pile and found a box. I really enjoyed this cigar! It’s not as powerful as other cigars in the RoMa line, it’s got a sophistication, along with the nutty “Camerooniness”. The size was deceiving too, as it easily burned for an hour. This is a winner, although I doubt anyone would be surprised.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Baka, cigar, Cigar Mojo, cigar store, cigars, RoMaCraft

by Craig Vanderslice | July 28, 2019 · 10:21 am

ScrewPop’s MagPulse Cutter and the Acid Kuba Arte Cigar

For a year I’ve been looking forward to ScrewPop‘s guillotine cutter, the Magpulse. They teased it in July of 2018, then announced it this July, and it intrigued me from he get-go. I have no idea why. ScrewPop has some really nice keychain tools, and they have some good quality cigar devices in their line-up, obviously they like cigars over there. They’ve missed on a few things, but made up for it in re-designs. I like to think my suggestions led to the punch cutter design being what it is today. They have a cigar scissors sort of device, the Chopo, which works quite well. All of their tools have traditionally included a bottle opener, with the exception of the ashtray, and the Magpulse cutter. The Magpulse is a premium accessory, certainly not a keychain accessory. it’s priced at $149, with an introductory price of $99, so it has a premium price tag too. So far as I can tell, there’s one little spring in this thing, and that’s in the button which releases the blade. There are two strong magnets on either side which are mounted in opposition to one another which force the blades apart, and give resistance when applying the cut. The company say these magnets power will degrade one percent over 100 years, so don’t expect this to work well thousands of years from now. It might still be sharp, though, because the blades on this cut . cigars like a hot knife through butter. I’ve been using it non-stop and never gotten a bad cut. Granted, I have a lot of other cutters I can say the same thing about that I’ve used for years, so time will tell but the 440C Stainless Steel blades should hold an edge for a good long time. Honestly, for a hundred bucks, I expect it to last a lifetime. It is enormous, as cutter go, and something makes me want to find a case for it. As far as the magnets go, if you are in the habit of carrying paperclips in your pocket with your cutter, you might find them hanging on to the cutter, but otherwise it shouldn’t really cause any issues. It’s not like your pants are going to stick to file cabinets or anything. I kinda can’t stop playing with it, and I’ll keep using it all the time just be cause it’s so much fun to open. Thanks to my friends at ScrewPop for keeping me in the loop.

Thursday I stopped in to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA to visit with Alex and Pedro of Drew Estate again, and hear about Mojo’s upcoming move down the street to a new bigger and better location. They are moving to a former bank building and will have a bigger and better space that they will not be sharing, with be easier to get in and out of, and should server their growing clientele better! Anyway, Pedro handed me an Undercrown Manifesto, the 11″ x 40 panatela which is his event only cigar. I have a coffin of two from an event a long time ago, and I’ve never smoked one, so it was pretty cool to get to smoke one with my buddy Pedro. Obviously, a cigar this long, and this thin needs to be smoked slowly so it doesn’t overheat and get nasty. It was a packed house, and I saw some folks I hadn’t seen in…ok, I hadn’t seen them in 5 days…but I hadn’t been to Mojo in a long time, so I caught up with the guys there and heard about the move. It was a bit of a Drew Estate centered week, with the Barnsmoker and the event Thursday, then Friday I come home to a package containing an Acid Kuba Arte Water Tower, many thanks to my friends at Drew Estate! Last night I felt compelled to smoke an Acid Kuba Arte.

I can count the Acids I’ve smoked pretty much on one hand. I took a puff off a Kuba Kuba my wife was smoking in the mid 2000s. I smoked a Kuba Maduro on the second day of Cigar Safari in 2011 after about 7 cigars, it was a the last one of the day and I just wanted something to smoke and I couldn’t taste anything. I smoked an Acid Toast sometime in 2013 or 14. I smoked an Acid Kuba Candela in 2017, which I enjoyed quite a bit. That’s the sum total of my Acid smoking experience. I guess it can be said that they were all memorable cigars. First off, the Kuba Arte packaging is way cool. It’s a metal water tower, with a Boveda pack in it and it’s going to sit on top of my cabinet humidor for now because it isn’t fitting inside, that’s for sure. The cigars are 5 13/16″ x 54 torpedos with a Broadleaf wrapper, and they have a sweet cap, and the weird patchouli aroma off the wrapper and foot that one gets from a Kuba Kuba. I’ll be honest, I have no idea if these had the room note that I can identify a mile away. I will say that I enjoyed the crap out of this cigar! I was a little scared, but I really liked it. The infusion was subtle, not off-putting at all. I remember that first Kuba Kuba experience years ago and having to gargle and brush my teeth, I didn’t care for the pungent flavor at all. This was nothing like that. The Broadleaf wrapper was fairly dominant, and the sweet cap was actually OK, in the way that I like it on the Sweet Jane that I smoked this week too. Maybe I’m becoming more open minded in my old age, or dementia is setting in, or something…I really, really enjoyed the Acid Kuba Arte, and I am looking forward to the Acid 20, one of which is in my possession, thanks to Alex of DE. Who’da thunk it, me smoking Acids….I’m going to have to start counting on the other hand soon!

That’s all for today. Don’t forget to go back to Wednesday’s post and leave a comment for a chance to win the “Welcome Fox Cigars” contest! Enjoy your Sunday, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, Cigar Mojo, cigars, Contest, drew estate, Kuba Arte, Magpulse, Manifesto, ScrewPop, undercrown

by CigarCraig | March 26, 2017 · 10:01 am

La Aurora, a Cornelius and Anthony Event, Avo and a CAO Cigar

Don’t forget to go back to Wednesday’s post and enter to win a ticket to the Philly Cigar Festival being held on June 3, 2017! I will select a winner on Wednesday, so if you think you can make the trip to south-eastern Pennsylvania, put your name in the hat! This promises to be a very cool event!

So, I smoked a few cigars this week, I’ll mention a few of them, there were some I won’t mention either because I’ve talked about them before, or there was something strange going on…for instance, one cigar I really enjoyed in the past had a very strange and awful flavor about mid way through akin to burning plastic. My guess is that a piece of the plastic string they use to tie the hands of tobacco together in the fermenting process may have gotten mixed in the bunch somehow, at least that’s what I want to believe. It’s easier to wrap my mind around that explanation than think of what other foreign objects might have made their way in there. Stuff happens and it’s just unfortunate that it was my last example of this particular cigar. Fortunately, there are plenty of other great cigars to choose from! Mi Queridas seem to be smoking very well, and a 2015 LG Diez Lusitano from La Flor Dominicana was a real treat this week. Another treat was a La Aurora 1903 Cameron robusto, the third new cigar from La Aurora’s Time Capsule series, following the 1987 Connecticut and the 1962 Corojo. This has a Cameroon wrapper, Ecuador Sumatra binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. I have a special affinity for the La Aurora line, it’s special to me personally, but that’s not to say I enjoy a great many of their cigars. I half expected this one to remind me of the first box of cigars I bought back on 1996, the La Aurora Bristol Especiale (I think it was around $40 for the box). I never really took to those, they seemed to have a vegetal flavor that I didn’t care for. I didn’t find that to be the case at all with the 1903 Cameron, it had that unique Cameroon sweetness (Camerooniness, I call it), and was a very pleasant cigar. I know I’ve enjoyed the Connecticut in the past, but that’s coming up in the rotation real soon, I think, as I somehow failed to make mention of smoking it in the past. Good stuff from La Aurora and thank you to Jason at Miami Cigar and Co. for keeping me up to date on these.

Friday evening I finally made it back to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA for a Cornelius and Anthony event where I finally met Steven Bailey, the owner of the company. I’ve been pretty high on this newer brand for the better part of a year now, with the Cornelius toro making an appearance on my end of year memorable cigars list, and will be the subject of my Cigar Notes feature in the May/June issue of Prime Living Magazine (due on Texas newstands in May). I learned a few things about Steven, who has a successful cigarette company which basically bankrolls the premium cigar start-up. Steven has experience with the FDA, having one of two cigarette brands that has been approved by the FDA, out of something like 12,000 applications. He has the experience (and the financial wherewithal) to keep his four excellent lines on the market. Of the four lines, I like the Cornelius the best, with the Meridian a close second, with the Daddy Mac close behind. I haven’t smoked enough of the Venganza to make a good judgement yet. The Cornelius is made at El Titan de Bronze in Miami with the other three coming from Eric Espinosa’s La Zona factory in Esteli. As I sat chatting with Steven, Todd Vance and Jose Galvez (Steven’s faithful minions), I smoked a Meridian toro, which I liked better than the robusto, and I liked the robusto a lot. In the toro I think the strength was tempered a little, and there was an interesting cinnamon note midway through. I think buying a box of these is in my future. It was a great time at Mojo, great cigars, and very happy to meet Steven and his crew. Cornelius and Anthony is a brand to watch, and is high on my list.

Yesterday I smoked a little Avo Syncro robusto since Avo Uvezian passed away on Friday at the age of 91. I never had the pleasure of meting Avo, but many people I know knew him and spoke highly of him. The Avo line (not unlike many of the La Aurora cigars) doesn’t line up with my particular tastes all the time, but he’s certainly left a legacy with many fans of his cigars. I do like the Syncro, perhaps the Nicaraguan component works better for my palate than the Dominican. Not only did Avo lend his name to cigars, but he also wrote “Strangers in the Night” for Sinatra and was obviously an accomplished musician. I never shook the man’s hand, but he was beloved by many, another cigar industry icon has left us (at an advanced age if that says anything).

Last night I finally got around to smoking a CAO Amazon Basin. I recently picked up the last one in a box at a local shop, and this is from the second generation of the line I would think. These got rave reviews, it’s certainly unique in its presentation, with a band made from what I guess to be twisted tobacco coiled around the cigar. CAO is another brand that I really love a couple of their lines and other’s are just “eh”, sadly this one fell into the second category. Give me any Flathead over this any day of the week. Not that it was a bad cigar, although it took a bit of coaxing with the lighter to get lit right, then tunneled a little on my at the midpoint. I didn’t find it to be spectacular, although the last third was getting there and by the time I peeled off the band it was pretty hard to put down. Not sure if I got a flukey one or it need more time in the humidor or what. I am an optimist when it comes to cigars, and it takes a lot for me to give up on a cigar, usually seeing it through to the end, with worked in this case, because the cigar redeemed itself, but it’s sometimes tough to poser through when a cigar starts out questionably. CAO’s Rick Rodriguez was in the area Friday night at another of my favorite shops, sadly I missed him this time around.

That’s all for today, don’t forget to enter the contest! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Avo, CAO, cigar, Cigar Mojo, cigar store, cigars, Contest, Cornelius and Anthony, La Aurora, Meridian

by CigarCraig | April 27, 2016 · 10:08 pm

Perdomo Event at Cigar Mojo, Perdomo Habano Maduro and Sungrown Cigars

Last night I paid a visit to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA where they were having a Perdomo event. When I pulled into the parking lot, which is reasonably large, I was lucky to find one vacant space, and lucky I have a small car! The place was packed, I think the crowd was larger for this event than any I’ve been to at this particular shop. In attendance for the event were Nick Perdomo and his wife, Janine, Arthur Kemper and Joe Winder. This time of year in this part of Pennsylvania there are a lot of cigar people around due to this weekend’s Cigars International Cigarfest. I never had any interest in Cigarfest, 3000 people per day, lined up for a glimpse at their favorite cigar maker isn’t for me. I’m sure it’s fun, just not my kind of fun. I bought some Perdomo cigars upon arrival, I opted for some of the Habano series as opposed to the usual 20th Anniversary Maduros that I enjoy so much. I lit up a Perdomo Habano Maduro Epicure (6″ x 54) and spent the next two hours hanging out, talking to the Perdomo folks and some of the attendees. The Habano series features wrappers that are aged in bourbon barrels, and the Maduro was a nice, medium bodied cigar with subtle flavors of cocoa and espresso, right up my alley. At one point, Nick told us some stories of event attendees going to great lengths to get his autograph or a picture with him, including sliding a magazine under a stall door. Nick is very appreciative of his customers, and goes out of his way to greet everyone and thank them. It was quite an event, loads of great people and great cigars.

Tonight I selected a Perdomo Habano Sungrown Robusto (5″ x 54) that came in a sampler of the three versions (Maduro, Sungrown and Connecticut) from last year’s IPCPR show. This was a really nice cigar, sharing the seco from Condega, viso from Jalapa and ligero from Esteli as the Maduro (and Connecticut), with a bit of a spice and an earthy flavor. It’s amazing the difference the wrapper makes. The Robusto burned perfectly, where the Maduro last night had a little bit of an uneven burn which required some touch-ups. I’m going to credit nine months in the humidor for the perfect burn and draw of the robusto, although another thing Nick mentioned last night was that they can draw test something like eighteen cigars per minute in the factory, and they draw test every cigar. While the 20th Anniversary Maduro is on my “goto” list, these Habanos were very enjoyable, and the bands are really classy too (and they come off easily!). Nick showed me some pictures of the Pearl drums that are being made for him, and each shell features the Perdomo logo. They will be quite beautiful, right up there with my own 1966 Ludwig Holiday kit in Black Diamond Pearl :-).