Tag Archives: cigar rights

by CigarCraig | May 8, 2016 · 9:52 am

Some Bobalu Cigars, Camacho Shellback and the Contest Winner

A while ago I had included a cigar quiz courtesy of Bobalu Cigars in Austin, Texas which was pretty educational, so I wanted to smoke some of the cigar they roll right in Austin to see what they were all about. These guys have been around for a long time, kind of flying under the radar, at least mine. I remember hearing about them a long time ago, but they fell off my radar, I guess I assumed I would have heard more about a factory making cigars in the US. Anyway, I smoked a few of their cigars this week, the Texas Select Torpedo, and the Red Label Sun Grown Toro Grande. I would suspect the Texas Select is their flagship line. It’s got a Sumatra wrapper with Dominican fillers and all the tobaccos are aged five years. I had a pretty good experience with this cigar, it burned right, smoked right and had a little nutty flavor with a subtle milk chocolate. Not a bad smoke.

I followed that with the Red Label Sun Grown Toro Grande, which is a huge 7″ x 54 parejo. While I generally smoke the first half of my evening cigar while taking a walk, it was raining, so I skipped the walk and settled in on the back porch to enjoy this rather large cigar. This line was to commemorate the company’s 15 year anniversary, and If I knew how long the cigar has been on the market, I could deduce how long they have been around. If it just came out, they’ve been on the scene since 2001, which isn’t too shabby anyway, but one can assume this cigar has been around a few years longer than that, as my feeble memory seems to remember hearing about them in the later part of the 1990s. This cigar is a Nicaraguan puro, it’s woody and nutty, and well made, requiring only a few touch-ups. I’d be interested in visiting the factory one day if I ever find myself in Austin, but in the mean time they have live Roller Cams (that they seem to have had since the invention of live cams) here if you want to watch them work. While neither of these cigars were in my particular wheelhouse, they have a large range of offerings listed on their site, many of which I’d be interested in trying.

Of course, we’ve all read about the FDA issuing the worst possible option for regulating cigars, the dreaded Option 1, which would basically do away with all cigars that came out since 2007, effectively ban any kind of cigar event (including the IPCPR show) and make things like me having contests giving away cigars impossible. I’m hoping that our elected officials can squash this nonsense through legislation and prevent the FDA (who, by the way, are defying Congress and the Office of Management and Budget, who’ve both said that Premium Cigars should not be included in regulation) from putting thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Latin Americans out of work. If you aren’t a CRA member, now’s the time to join, tell them I sent you, and shame on you for waiting this long.

Yesterday it rained again in the morning, but finally started clearing up later in the day. I tried another Bobalu offering, but it didn’t work as well as I would like and I’ll revisit that line some other time. For my evening walk I selected a Camacho Shellback, which I picked up a few weeks back when I was visiting a few shops in Delaware. While cigar taxes are higher in Delaware, they have no sales tax like we have in PA, so the cigar prices are just a little bit higher there than in PA, but not a big difference like other states. I think I paid $12 for this cigar because I wanted to try one, and it was there in front of me. I was a bit upset when I removed the foot band to find some chips in the wrapper, to me, a $12 cigar should be perfect buck naked, not using the band to hide damage. This was a limited edition released in 2015, and Shellback relates to a US Navy term for a sailor who has crossed the equator. It’s got Nicaraguan guts with a Ecuador Habano wrapper. I enjoyed the cigar, although it had a drying effect on my mouth, an almost tannic quality. This is another cigar that’s not up my alley, really, but it was well made (except for the foot chips), and milder than I expected (or desired). There was some spice, there was some sweetness. The best cigars of the week were the Sobremesa and Nica Rusticas I shared Wednesday night with a great friend from high-school, those two are tough to follow, and there’s nothing better than sharing cigars and catching up with an old friend.

Contest Winner

Hopefully this isn’t the last contest here, heck, I’ll keep giving stuff away until the black helicopters catch up with me! To recap, Today’s lucky winner will receive an AJ Fernandez cap, a really nice metal ashtray, and a five pack of the new cigar from AJ Fernandez, the Last Call, loveley and tasty little petite robustos (I guess). I’ve consulted with the random number generator at Random.org, and was given the number 30. By my count, Howard Glaeser is the winner, please send me your address so I can ship these goodies out to you! Thanks to all who entered, and thanks to Javier Carranza at AJ Fernandez Cigars for sending these goodies (even though his e-mail address comes back undeliverable, anyone have a contact at AJF?).

That’s it for now. It’s Mother’s Day in the US, so do something nice for your mother if you want, take care of your children’s mother (or mothers, I’m not judging) or be a mother, listen to The Mothers, whatever…until the next time,

CigarCraig

6 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review, Stores

Tagged as Bobalu, Camacho, cigar, cigar rights, cigars, Contest

by CigarCraig | March 1, 2015 · 10:57 am

Punch, Ora Vivo, Quesada cigars: Go Big or Go Home!

For no other reason than I had the cigars and time, I smoked some large cigars this week. Punch has come out with two new sizes in the Rare Corojo line, the Rare Lapiz, a figurado, and the great big El Diablo, a 6½” x 66 box pressed monster. You’d expect a cigar called Rare Corojo to have a Corojo wrapper, right? It has a Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, a Connecticut Broadleaf binder and fillers from Nicaragua, Honduras and The Dominican Republic, with no real mention of Corojo tobacco in any of the literature! It’s been a few years since I smoked a Rare Corojo, but I always liked them, there’s a distinct flavor that this line has that I can’t put a finger on, but I really like it. I suppose it’s both sweet and savory at the same time, and maybe a little creamy. The size was a bit much, although the box press made it seem a little smaller than it’s 66 ring gauge, it was still a devil to hold on to, not real comfortable in the hand. I look forward to trying the 6¾” x 56 figurado (which they only describe as “tapered”). One interesting note, I didn’t feel that the immense size of this cigar watered down the flavor of the blend at all, it tasted like I remember the robusto tasting when I first smoked this maybe ten or more years ago, an impressive feat.

Friday I took a day off to get some things done, and took a nice long on a local trail with a Ora Vivo Armand Asante World Edition 6×56. I wrote about this cigar in the November/December Issue of Prime Living Magazine. I said: “The brand made its debut in July 2013, with the original blend having sold out, as well as the European blend. The latest release is the World Edition, of which the 6×56 is the subject of this review. The cigar is a Nicaraguan Puro, manufactured in Honduras. The blend is comprised of tobacco from three growing regions in Nicaragua. The wrapper is from the Jalapa valley, the binder is from Condega and the fillers are a blend of Esteli and Condega tobacco. I find this cigar to be smooth, medium bodied, well balanced and refined. The flavors are sweet and earthy tobacco, and the construction is perfect and consistent as one would expect from a premium boutique cigar. The Ora Vivo Armand Assante World Edition is Armand’s tribute to the cigar industry, a cigar he truly loves, and it’s a great smoke.” Of course, this cigar is a sibling of the Tortuga line, both are from Victor Vitale’s Legacy Brands, and share great flavor and balance. I’m hoping to get together with Victor this week for a smoke, watch Wednesday’s post.

Yesterday I made some real headway on a cabinet project in a utility room. The previous owners wouldn’t recognize the room, when we moved in it had walls which were still showing unfinished 1959 drywall and had simple shelves, pegboard and a workbench of sorts and an unfinished concrete floor. In addition to the shiny new furnace and water heater, it also has a nice epoxy floor, patched and painted walls, and a wall of cabinets and counter we purchased from a medical office clean out for a reasonable price. With my son-in-law’s help we got the cabinets in, I just need to do some finish work and it’s done. To celebrate, I took a walk with a 6″ x 65 Quesada Oktoberfest Uber (should it be Über? German for “super”). I picked up a handful of these on closeout locally for $5 a cigar, and at that price it’s a nice smoke, I don’t know that I would be as enamored with it at $10. The burn and draw was perfect on this cigar and half of the cigar was good for a two mile walk. I probably spent the better part of two hours with this cigar, and I did enjoy it quite a bit. I was going to crack open a bottle of Goya Ginger Beer with it, but I knew that particular ginger beer would over power the cigar, it’s really spicy.

I used a new cutter on the last couple cigars I smoked from the folks at Screwpop, makers of the Screwpop Punch and other key chain multi-function tools. This is a cigar scissors of sorts, which requires a bit of practice. I closed the blades around the cap of the cigar and applied some pressure while turning the cigar to remove the cap. In the case of the Quesada, this method removed the cap nicely, however the binder was still folded over and I had to pick it out with my fingers. Anyway, I’ll continue testing this new tool and get into it more later. I haven’t tested the bottle opener part yet, but there’s really not a lot that can go wrong with that part.

Editorial

In my continuing support of Cigar Rights, I used the CigarRights.org site to send some letters to my elected officials this week, and this is the reply I received from my Senator, Mr. Casey. I knew he had been a co-sponsor of the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2015, but I wanted to make sure he knew I was still paying attention! His letter starts off being worrisome, but takes a turn for the better, I’m pleased to see that this legislator “gets it”. Of course, the premium cigar lobby in Pennsylvania is strong, being that we have quite a great many large retailers here.

Dear Mr. Vanderslice:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me about the regulation of tobacco products. I appreciate hearing from you about this issue.

Protecting Americans from the harmful effects of tobacco is a priority of mine, which is why I am proud to have been a cosponsor of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009. The bill was signed into law on June 22, 2009, and gives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight of the tobacco industry’s advertisement and promotion of their products, and the authority to regulate tobacco products. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act became law independent of the World Health Organization’s global tobacco treaty, which was signed by President Bush in 2004 but has not been submitted to the Senate for ratification.

Tobacco products are proven to have harmful effects on their users. Cigarettes and other forms of tobacco contain the addictive drug nicotine, which hooks users on the drug and endangers their health. There are also dozens of cancer-causing ingredients in tobacco products. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability and death in the United States. Secondhand smoke can also cause premature death and disease in those exposed to tobacco users.

This law is an important step forward because it protects children from being targeted by tobacco companies. It also ensures that tobacco products are appropriately labeled. Please be assured that I will continue to monitor efforts to regulate tobacco products, and will keep your views in mind should the issue arise again in the Senate.

Although I am a proud supporter of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, I am also a cosponsor of S. 441, the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2015. This bill would clarify the Tobacco Control Act by exempting traditional large and premium cigars from the FDA’s regulatory authority. While I understand the serious threat that tobacco products pose to the health of our Nation’s youth, premium cigars are not marketed to children nor are premium cigars easily obtained by children, due to their higher cost relative to products such as cigarettes.

While I support this bill, I am open to reasonable proposals that might further balance the ability of adults to purchase a legal product with our need to fight underage consumption of tobacco products. One concern I had with the version of the bill that was introduced in the 112th Congress involved the definition of “traditional large and premium cigars.” In response to feedback from myself and others, the current version of this bill tightens that definition considerably. I am satisfied that this tightened definition will effectively confine the exemption from FDA regulatory authority to true premium cigars and will not include inexpensive cigars that are easier for children to purchase. Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind as the Senate considers S. 441.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.

For more information on this or other issues, I encourage you to visit my website, http://casey.senate.gov. I hope you will find this online office a comprehensive resource to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington, request assistance from my office or share with me your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you and to Pennsylvania.

Sincerely,

Bob Casey

United States Senator

I urge everyone to visit CigarRights.org and send letters to your legislators. Some of them really do listen, and it doesn’t take much time. It’s important to peoples livelihoods to have premium cigars protected from FDA regulation, not just our personal enjoyment of cigars.

That’s it for now, until the next time.

Craig

4 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigar rights, cigars, Ora Vivo Armand Assante, punch, Quesada, rare corojo, Tortuga

by CigarCraig | August 6, 2014 · 10:04 pm

Working Through the Gurkha Crest Metal Sampler Cigars and a Buena Vista Piramide

Before I get into the Gurkha tin, Sunday evening I felt compelled to smoke theÂ Piramide from the Buena Vista Reserva 2008 sampler I recently received. At the risk of repeating myself, the presentation of this sampler was pretty outstanding, and I was quite impressed with theÂ Prominente, or double corona, size I smoked. Â The Piramide size was just as impressive. I really enjoyed the clean, refreshing and almost minty sensation I got while smoking this cigar. Â I’m told that these should be shipping to shops soon, but I’ve seen these online for under $25, and even more reasonable in boxes of ten. Â I’d like to keep these around because I really enjoy them from time to time and they are a nice cigar to share. Â I remain impressed, especially over the Buena Vistas I sampled three years ago. Â This is a really nice smoke, and I now have a really nice three cigar travel humidor too!

Monday I was digging through one of the coolerdors and came across a Gurkha Crest Metal Sampler that my wife had gotten me through a Groupon or Living Social deal, I seem to remember it being around $50, which puts the cigars at $10 each. I must have had this for two or three years,Â I see that Famous has this same or similar sampler on their website. Â I decided now was as good a time as any to dig in, and I may as well smoke all five cigars in succession over the course of this week. Maybe I should have waited and put them all in one post, but I don’t have that kind of patience. Â I started with the Gurkha Shaggy toro. I felt like these were all 6″ x 50, but the description at Famous says they are 6″ x 53, who am I to argue (and I was too lazy to measure them!). Â The Shaggy is characterize by about Â¾” of the foot of the cigar left without wrapper and binder. Â It smoked really well and was enjoyable, with lots of smoke. I didn’t really sense a huge change when the wrapper started burning, but it was smooth and rich. Â I don’t even know if these are still produced, but I know they’ve been around a while, and this is the first one I’ve smoked. Â I’ll admit that I was attracted to the copper colored band, not sure why that appealed to me so much. Nice cigar.

Tuesday I chose the Gurkha Beast, which was a dark chocolate brown wrapped cigar. This is the counterpoint to the Gurkha Beauty, with a Connecticut shade wrapped cigar which I’ll get to later in the week. Â Since I love maduros, I was excited about this one. Â The flavor was nice, it was chocolaty and smooth, with a hint of spice. Â About half way through there must have been a void in the filler because it got a bit stingy with the smoke, much unlike the Shaggy which almost smoked itself. Â then the wrapper started to split and at about the two-thirds mark the wrapper started coming off. At that point it started smoking better, and the flavor was fine, but I was a little miffed that a $10 cigar would behave this way. Â All in all, a less than satisfying experience.

Tonight I went with the last maduro in the collection, the Gurkha Titan. Â This has a similar Costa Rican maduro wrapper to the Beast, and, honestly, I didn’t really taste a lot of difference, except that the Titan didn’t explode on me. Â Perhaps it was a bit smoother, it didn’t seem to have the spice that the Beast had. Â It burned very well, and had a smooth chocolaty flavor. Â Of the first three I smoked, I think the Shaggy was my favorite, but none of them were really up to the price point, and while the tin case is nice, and potentially usable as a five finger carry case, I don’t count packaging into the price. They were all good cigars for a couple bucks each, and I apologize to my friends at Gurkha for saying that. Despite the reputation they’ve had in the past for making tons of cigars for the catalogs with a lot of hype, lately they’ve really been making some great smokes, the Cellar Reserves, the Seduction, the 125th anniversary are all very high quality smokes, and their lower priced East India trading Company lines are also pretty enjoyable.

I’ll finish out the week with the Crest and the Beauty, then see what I can scrounge up for the weekend. I’ll be in Chicago next weekend, so if anyone is available to meet for a smoke, please let me know. Also, Friday is the last day to comment on the FDA deeming document, so get to it! Â Go HERE to link to the regulations.gov site to let them know you don’t want premium cigars regulated out of existence! Â Also, go to Gran Habano’s website and help them fight the US Trademark Office, who have decided that using “Habano” in the name (which they’ve had for how many years?) is confusing to the public. Â Another case of a government office sticking their noses in where it doesn’t belong. Â Morons.

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

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as Buena Vista, cigar, cigar rights, cigars, Gurkha

by CigarCraig | July 2, 2014 · 9:30 pm

A 5 Vegas Miami, a Reinado GER and a Nica Rustica Cigar

Things have been going very well with our new dog, Macha. She’s a sweetie, and we’ve been taking short walks since she’s only been three legged for a few weeks. She does remarkably well, and we learned something about her tonight: she’s not a fan of thunderstorms! We also found out that she CAN go up the stairs, where she ran to hide. I’m hoping none of our neighbors have fireworks this weekend! She’s been a joy so far, I think we got lucky.

Monday I selected a 5 Vegas Miami Toro, a traditional 6″ x 50. This cigar has a Ecuador Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan filler and smoked very well. These are made in the G.R. Tabacaleras Co. in Miami. I received this sample in a pack from Gran Habano, and I really haven’t smoked many 5 Vegas cigars lately. This was a really tasty and well behaved cigar despite having a slight bend to it. I found it to have a nice strength, and some pepper and nuts. I really enjoyed this cigar after a short walk and hanging out on the deck with the dog.

Please join me in welcoming Reinado Cigars to the CigarCraig Family! Click the graphic on the right sidebar to see everything they have to offer in the Reinado Empire! I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with Antonio Lam, the man behind the brand on numerous occasions and he’s a great guy, and makes some delicious cigars. Tuesday I decided to smoke their newest offering, the Reinado Grand Empire Reserve Ecuador Connecticut Petit Lancero. This cigar is being released at the IPCPR show later this month, so look for it on store shelves sometime soon. My only complaint with this cigar is the “petit” part, I wished it was a longer cigar, the experience ended too soon. I seem to be smoking quite a few really good Ecuador Connecticut cigars lately, and I don’t regularly reach for that wrapper. Along with cigars like the Recluse Amadeus, the Nomad Connecticut Fuerte, and the Jaxx LT, this is another winner in that category. A few years ago the “not your father’s Connecticut” schtick was getting a little tired, but this years batch of Connecticuts are very good. The Reinado is medium bodied and loaded with flavor, and is smooth and well balanced. This would be a great cigar in the morning with a cup of coffee. If it were 7½” x 38 instead of only 6″ it would be even more awesome than it is. If I were using my rating scale with this one it would fall somewhere between 98 and 99!

Tonight I was lazy and grabbed a Nica Rustica El Brujito from Drew Estate. I make sure I have some of these on hand at all times, as it’s become one of my favorite go-to cigars. After a short walk with the dog, who lets me know when she’s ready to head home by stopping and refusing to go any further, forcing me to turn back. We sopped to introduce her to a neighbor and we talked for five minutes before she realized the dog was missing a leg. Macha doesn’t realize she’s any different from any other dog. As I said before, a thunderstorm rolled in, frightening the dog and forcing me into the garage to finish my cigar. The Nica Rustica is a terrific smoke, if you like no-nonsense, strong, dark flavors. The Broadleaf wrapper is dark and rustic, and has some sweetness. I miss the wild grown nicotiana rustica that they used in the prototypes, but the regular production is really good.

Once again, don’t forget to head over to Cigar Rights of America and follow the links to comment on the FDA Deeming Document. In talking with Glynn Loope on Saturday he pointed out that two of our (Premium Cigars) opponents are the health care organizations and big tobacco! I guess I get the fact that the cigarette companies want the playing field leveled, but it’s a shame that they aren’t fighting more tobacco legislation instead of trying to hurt the cigar industry. The FDA needs to know that regulation of Premium Cigars will not only put Americans out of work and close hundreds of small businesses, but will have a devastating impact on the economies of the cigar and tobacco producing companies in the Caribbean and Central America. We need to push for exemption with no price or weight restrictions, or all of the cigars will be over $10 and we won’t have new blends, cigar events, or any of the other cool things we enjoy about this adult pastime.

If you get a chance, check out Houston’s Prime Living Magazine. Page 55 has a little article about cigars in what looks like it will be a regular cigar feature. That’s it for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

7 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as 5 Vegas, cigar, cigar rights, cigars, drew estate, Nica Rustica, Prime Living, Reinado

by CigarCraig | June 25, 2014 · 9:22 pm

Tatuaje Tattoo, Surrogates Bone Crusher and a Six-Zero Cigar

I don’t know if it’s the change of seasons or what, but I’ve been having some cigar troubles lately. I had some cigars that should have been great, but were underwhelming to me. This is frustrating, because I only have a limited amount of time each day to enjoy a cigar, so It annoys me when I get a dud. It could be that I’ve been munching on licorice for the last week or two, as my boys both gave me some nice black licorice for Father’s Day.

I had to test my palate, so I went to a cigar I’ve smoked several of recently and really enjoyed. The Six-Zero line is a proprietary brand from Best Cigar Prices made by Boutique Blends in The Dominican Republic. The Robolo is a 4½” x 60, and Best Cigar Prices had a whole range of “house blends” in this size. Oddly, I find the size rather appealing. This is also a very inexpensive cigar, coming in around $3 each or less. I love the San Andrés wrapper on this cigar and it burns perfectly. This was the first really satisfying cigar I’ve smoked in a few days, the whole experience, from burn to the flavor, was very good. I’ve only smoked this size in the line, but I like it a lot. This confirmed to me that my palate isn’t that far off.

Monday evening I selected a Tattoo Caballero, the new line from Tatuaje. I picked up a few of these last week and they are in the $5 range, making this a budget line in the brand. These are made by Pepin Garcia, not in the My Father factory, but his TACUBA factory in Esteli. It’s got a pretty Ecuador Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan fillers. It starts with a nice dose of pepper, as you might expect. Mine had a bit of a crooked burn which required some touch ups, but was a very nice smoke. I judge it to be medium bodied. I’ll be interested to see how this smoked after a longer rest in the humidor.

Another cigar I picked up last week was the Surrogates Bone Crusher. I had a really good experience with its sibling the Skull Breaker, so I wanted to give this chunky 5¼”x 55 robusto a try. Maybe my palate is fatigued a little, because it seems like I’m finding the stronger cigars more fulfilling. This is a strong cigar, but well balanced. It was loaded with dark flavors, no doubt attributed to the Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. I’m sure this has a slightly different blend than the Skull Breaker, but I found it to be very entertaining. I was wishing it was a longer cigar by the time I was finished, and maybe left a half inch nub in the ashtray. If you like strong cigars, this line is worth a look. I’ve been quite impressed with everything from the L’Atelier line that I’ve smoked, which is admittedly few.

Editorial

I listen to a lot of cigar podcasts, and I recently ran across a very entertaining bunch this week. First, give The Cigar Authority a listen, the latest episode features Victor Vitale, whom I had the good fortune to spend some time with last week. Of course, Dave and Mr. Jonathan are friends too, and I’ve been entertained by their brand of entertainment for some time. I even had the pleasure to be a guest on the show once. Next up was Kiss My Ash Radio, hosted by another major retailer, Abe of Smoke Inn. This week’s installment featured several short vignettes with Matt Booth of Room 101 reciting poetry. I laughed out loud at each one. Last, but not least, and on a serious note, The Stogie Geeks this week featured by buddy Will Cooper interviewing Glynn Loope, the executive director of Cigar Rights of America about the pending FDA regulation. I’ve heard Glynn on several other shows, but this one concentrated on the issue at hand for a good hour or more, and was very in depth. Give this a listen as I found it very educational. Broken record time, support the CRA, make sure you follow the links on their site and comment on the FDA site following their recommendations. It’s quite important that we convince the FDA to leave hand made, premium cigars alone. There have been some positives in the last few days, such as an extension of the comment period and The White House’s Office of Management and Budget acknowledging that there would be a major economic impact if the FDA has their way. Educate yourselves and make your voice heard, or this glorious industry will cease to exist as we know it.

I almost forgot, my son spent the last two days making a cigar box guitar out of a La Gloria Cubana Retro Especiale box.