Tag Archives: cigar rights

by | February 12, 2012 · 9:42 am

A Couple of Cigars: a La Libertad and a Cain F

A few months ago I received some cigars from Villiger-Stokkebye, a couple of their newest offerings, and a 4 pack of their current brands. Since the only Villiger cigars I’ve smoked in the past have been the little machine made Exports (which, by the way, are excellent little cigars!), I figured I’d start with the older lines and work my way up to the newest.  So, since there were 2 of the La Libertad Robustos, I snagged one and fired it up the other night.  Let me briefly explain my thought processes in the winter when it comes to smoking samples.  I’ve come to realize that winter time outdoor smoking is NOT the best time to fairly and accurately judge several aspects of a premium cigar.  That’s largely why I’ll smoke old favorites over the winter, or items that I have more than one of on hand.  I like to give cigars, especially those generously provided to me, a fair chance (not that my opinion means anything really).  If this La Libertad had given me problems, I’d have a back-up to try again under better conditions.  In this case, I get a bonus, because the cigar was very nice, burned about perfectly, and had a very nice flavor.  Kudos on the construction of this, it has to be difficult to make a cigar out of what the website says is “mainly Ligero tobaccos from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua” and have it burn so dead even.  Interesting that the Habano seed wrapper and Nicaraguan seed binder are both grown in Peru, you don’t see that every day. Nice cigar, good flavors and perfect burn. I’d be interested to hear from Tad Smith, who was the reader who won the Day 2 prize in my 12 Days of Spectacular Giveaways back in December.  I’d like to know if he’s smoked this cigar and what he thought.

 

Friday night rolled around and I wasn’t taking any chances.  I’m not  sure how many times a Cain F 550 was in my hand and I put it back  in favor of something perhaps less scary.  Yeah, the Cains still intimidate me.  With the exception of the Daytona (which, incidentally, can be mistaken for a Cain F in low light, not-really-paying-attention conditions), I’ve had my tuckus kicked by more than one Cain cigar, Habano, Maduro, F….I don’t discriminate.  I’ve come to make sure that Cain examples spend a minimum of 6 months in “time-out” in my humidor, seems to mitigate the head spins and nausea…but, I digress.  So I grabbed this Cain F, with is 5¾ x 50, but feels more corona gorda-ish to me.  Exceptional cigar.  Great construction, once again, the slow-burning ligero somehow is blended to burn perfectly with the rest of the blend, amazing.   Bold, decadent flavor, perfectly balanced.  Brilliant cigar. I can hardly wait for the perfect occasion to smoke the lancero that Mike Staiber gifted me back when he hooked me up with the excellent Oliva prize package  for Day 6 in my December give-aways.

 

Thanks to Anne at Villiger-Stokkebye and Mike at Oliva for the gifts and for their support!  I love cigars, but the most amazing thing is all of the wonderful people I’ve had the opportunity to meet over the past  16 years of on-line cigar discussion.  Please get over to the Cigar Rights of America site and write to your elected officials so we can keep all of these fine people, as well as your shop owners, internet retailers, distributors in jobs, as well as all of the fine folks in the Caribbean and Central America who rely upon the cigar industry to feed their families.  The FDA must not be permitted to regulate premium cigars.

 

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

CigarCraig

 

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by | January 18, 2012 · 7:20 pm

Midweek Cigars: An H. Upmann and a Kristoff

Welcome to the midweek edition, I’m working on some rather exciting things regarding the appearance of the site, so stay tuned!  If all goes well, there will be a new look over the next week or so.  I’m excited about it, as the look of the site has remained unchanged for the last 24 months and it’s time to spruce things up a little!

 

I dipped into the IPCPR show samples again and came up with this short, fat H.Upmann Sun Grown from AltadisUSA. I was taking an evening walk and wanted something short and different, so I picked out  this chubby robusto, which they call a Short Churchill.  Odd name, but I suppose if the “Churchill” in the line is 7″ x 54, then a 4½” x 54 is a Short Churchill…why not.  This was a super enjoyable smoke. Pretty rich in flavor and well behaved, although the draw was a bit loose and it smoked pretty fast.  Usually I can get more than a mile and a half (which is about two laps around my neighborhood) out of a cigar this size, with a few more minutes on the front porch to finish.  This one was just about done at the end of my walk.  This is another instance where, had I know the draw was so loose, I would have tried the punch first before whacking the whole end off of it.  At least if the punch doesn’t cut it, I can still give it the full clip, but you can’t really do it the other way around (well, with some pectin, extra wrapper leaf, a little skill and patience, I suppose one could conceivably put a new cap on and punch it, but that’s an awful lot of work…)  Anyway, totally decent cigar which I’d smoke again in a heartbeat!

 

Once again, I was in the mood for something different, so I grabbed a Kristoff Kristania robusto, one of two that I had picked up at Cole’s Tobacco Shop In Pottstown, PA a few months ago.  I have very limited experience with the Kristoff line, I think a Corojo that I smoked at the Delaware Cigar Festival was about the extent of my Kristoff exposure.  They look like really nice cigars, they always have a nice presentation, nice wood boxes with the cigars comfortably nestled in picadura tobacco.  The Kristania, on the other hand, is their budget line, and the cigar looks nice, the wrapper has a nice oil to it, and is kind of mottled in an attractive way.  As it turns out, I was very upset with myself for having put a Cain F Corona back in favor of this one.  I had some trouble keeping the wrapper burning, and wasn’t a big fan of the flavor.  Maybe this is mixed filler, which could account for the tunneling, but I don’t feel like this was worth my $4.95 all things considered.  I’m quite willing to explore the other cigars in the line, as the Corojo was a really nice cigar, but I’ll be avoiding the Kristania in the future.  I will say that, for the most part, Criollo wrappers don’t typically agree with my palate, and the burn problems and smoke production really took away from the experience.

 

Not a lot else going on!  Don’t forget to  go to to the Cigar Rights of America site to send a letter to your elected officials. Or you can use the widget in my side bar on the right, between the IPCPR and CRA logos.
Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

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by | January 11, 2012 · 7:41 pm

A Few Short Smokes: Chateau Real, American Eagles and a Griffin’s

I dipped into the little guys for the early part of the week.  It’s been cold, and time has been limited.  I usually save up the little cigars for this time of year, coronas, half coronas, short 30 or 45 minute cigars that taste good, and are perfect for a quick mile or so walk around the neighborhood.

 

I began the week with a favorite, the Chateau Real Small Club Corona Maduro.  I believe these are discontinued, which is a shame, because I really like the Mexican maduro wrapper on these. As with everything from Drew Estate, they always burn well, and, let’s face it, a four inch cigar doesn’t have a lot of room for error.  I bought a box of these sometime in the fall of 2009, and just dug into the last half of the box.  Nice little smokes!

 

Last night I grabbed an American Eagles Half Corona, which I received a few months back from Chris at Sardell Imports.  This is a camouflage wrapped cigar, it had a beautiful Connecticut shade wrapper that’s overlaid with maduro and candella pieces to give it the camo look.  Sure, it’s gimmicky, but it’s a really solid cigar, perfect burn and draw, and a rich mid to medium bodied flavor that is really nice, smooth, creamy and delicious. It a fun cigar, quite tasty and well behaved. I have a whole comedy routine ready for the day I smoke one in a public place and someone complains about it. Seriously, a  portion of the proceeds from these cigars go toward the Semper Fi Fund, and they are blended by Hendrick Kelner, so they are very high quality. I side note, there was a cigar shop in the hotel I stayed at in the Dominican Republic that sold these.

 

This evening I decided to break into one of the boxes of Griffin’s 500 coronas that I inadvertently won on a face book contest. I swear, I have no recollection of entering, although I must have because a beautiful Griffin’s Humidor and two boxes of these beauties showed up at my door last month.  I can always use more humidor space, and these cigars are nice.  These 5 1/16″ x 42 coronas are a classic Connecticut shade cigar. Mild, but no shortage of flavor. Of course, the construction was perfect, as these come from the house of Davidoff.  I honestly have never had a Griffin’s before, always priced outside of my comfort zone.  This will be a great cigar for that first balmy Saturday morning on the deck with coffee.

 

Don’t forget to pester your elected officials about the FDA nonsense! It’s important!  Here’s the link to the form again:

 

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

CigarCraig

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by | January 8, 2012 · 10:08 am

Take A Cigar For a Walk – A Gurkha, a Maldonado Dynasty and a Rodrigo

We had our first taste of brutal cold here in the North-East, with night-time temps in the teens or lower with no shortage of wind. I guess I’m just a wimp, but I can’t do that kind of cold long enough to enjoy a cigar anymore! However, Friday turned out to be unseasonably warm, getting into the 50s.   Perfect excuse to smoke a cigar or two without shivering so much that I get ash everywhere.

 
I grabbed a Gurkha Seduction Robusto and went for a walk. I received this cigar as an unexpected gift from Gurkha, and I want to thank them for reaching out to me. Looking at this cigar, I had an idea it would be up my alley, nice, dark Habano wrapper, a chunky 5″ x 55 size, and the band is quite attractive, although the second band is a little too much, but you know how I feel about bands (I’m lazy and the fewer the better!). The cigar had a very open draw, I’ll probably use a punch on the next one and see how that works, but it really wasn’t too big a problem. The burn was just about perfect and required no attention after the initial light. The flavors were those nice, dark, rich flavors that I enjoy on a crisp evening, really a nice cigar in my opinion, I enjoyed it quite a bit, so much so that I smoked it to a finger burning nub.

 

Saturday brought even warmer temps and I took a nice long walk with a Maldonado Dynasty Mogul Toro. I’m a little conflicted on this cigar that I won a five pack of on CasasFumando.com.  An aside: I didn’t mean to enter their contest.  I made a donation to Daniel’s Movember project, just wanted to give some dough to a bro for his mo. I should have made a note to exclude me from the drawing, but I never thought I’d win.  I did, tried to get out of it, but Tony threatened me.  Back to the cigar.  This is the second one I’ve smoked, and both had some wrapper cracking issues. The flavor is nice enough, although not particularly mind-blowing to my palate, but I expect a cigar at this price point to not split. The wrapper is a really lovely rosado with a velvety appearance, very nice looking when you get past the tears in the leaf. These have been in my humidor for several weeks since receiving them, along with all the rest of the cigars I smoke on a regular basis.  Strange.  I have three more, which I will leave in the humidor for a few months and see if that makes a difference.  I look forward to revisiting these in a few months, because based upon the two samples I smoked so far, if I had smoked them blind I would have put them in the bundle cigar category, and I know these are sold as a super-premium luxury cigar.

 

I completely forgot to mention my first cigar of the new year, one that I smoked while taking the outdoor lights down on New Years Day.  I had a Rodrigo Habano Classico Belicoso that George Rodriguez had sent to me some time ago rolling around the humidor.  Out of the four he sent me, one of each vitola, this was my second favorite of the line behind the lancero. This beautifully made belicoso was a treat, and it burned perfectly, and was really tasty.  George seems like a really nice guy who makes some terrific smokes, even though he’s from Pittsburgh and is probably a Penguins fan.  I know some people from Pittsburgh that are Pens fans that I don’t hold that against, but not too many.

 

That’s it for today, don’t forget to write to your elected officials about the FDA nonsense, as our cigar smoking future depends upon the FDA NOT regulating premium cigars.

 

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | January 4, 2012 · 8:07 pm

The J. Fuego Originals and Citizens for Tobacco Rights

I realize that I’ve gotten everyone used to morning posts, but it’s back to work and back to writing when I can.  I have to admit, I’m experiencing some writer’s block at the moment, so bear with me please.  It’s gotten bitterly cold here in south-east, Pennsylvania, which is not awfully conducive to the proper enjoyment of a cigar.  My normal routine is to take a walk, which usually keeps me moving enough to enjoy a small cigar, as it turns out, the rigors of returning to work after a week plus off has left me without the energy to bother.  That’s my excuse, I’m sticking to it.

 

Monday I received a call from my brother-in-law, Jeff, who has recently taken to fine cigars.  He’s been picking one up at his local shop in New Jersey, and called me from my local shop while visiting for the holidays.  He wanted some inexpensive “everyday” cigars, and wanted my advice.  Oddly, on my last visit to the shop the previous Friday, I failed to really take a good look through the humidor.  I was able to direct him to the National Brand bundles, which happened to be in the same place I remembered thme being. Since he really enjoyed the Acid Kuba Kuba I gave him, and had been enjoying working his way through the Alec Bradley range, I figured they’d be a good bet.  I’ve certainly enjoyed my fair share of National Brand maduros, and I hope he likes them too.  Naturally, since he was in the area, I invited him over for a smoke.  I had picked up a pack of the Jesus Fuego Sangre de Toro Originals while I was at the shop Friday.  I had been offered a sample at the IPCPR show by Jesus, but I never managed to get one for one reason or another.  I had enjoyed the heck out of the robusto in this blend, so I figured for $12.95 for five cigars I had to try them.  I’ll eventually try the other two blends in this size as it seems to be a very good “winter” size.  I really enjoyed the cigar.  Great flavor, the mold-less old style shape is fun and burned well, and I can’t wait to smoke another one.  That may be my equivalent to a “10” or whatever rating scale one uses.  Very good smokes.  I gave Jeff a Maria Mancini Magic Mountain to try which he enjoyed.  That’s a hard cigar to beat and they can be purchased for around $2.50 a piece if you find yourself in a JR store.

Editorial

In the “Editorial” department, I wanted to encourage everyone to sign up at Citizens for Tobacco Rights, which is sponsored by Philip Morris USA. Now, I understand that this site is not cigar specific, and is provided by a cigarette company, but the challenges we face as cigar smokers certainly run parallel to those of our other tobacco product using brethren.  So far I’ve received no unwanted e-mail from them, and found no reason not to add my name to their numbers. Registration is free and they provide many of the same tools as Cigar Rights of America and IPCPR for contacting your elected officials. It can’t hurt to take every opportunity we have to have our voices heard as our rights are being eroded. Please write to your senator and congressman about the FDA issue too, there’s a link in my sidebar to enter your zip code and take you to a pre-writen letter you can send.  It really will be a problem if the FDA is allowed to regulate cigars.  Our hobby and passion will be ruined at best, and criminalized at worst.

 

I guess I did OK considering I had no clue what I was going to write about. Please let me know what you think in the comments, and feel free to share your smoking experiences as well!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

 

 

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