I’m in Las Vegas at the PCA show and my first order of business was to catch up with the folks at Cigarmedics! We’ve had a great partnership over the years, and I’m happy to finally meet these guys. I sat down with Luigi for a few minutes and we talked about their new cutter, The Baller, that I’ve been so enamored with.
Stay tuned for more as I get the chance to post. Until the next time,
CigarCraig
I went out shopping this week and picked up some new cigars that I’d been wanting to try. One set I’m going to withhold comment on because there was something off about them and I want to pick up some more and give them another shot. I also want to discuss this with the manufacturer and I’ll probably see him next week. So yesterday I smoked the Knuckle Sandwich cigars from Guy Fieri and Espinosa Cigars. Of course, I bought Toros, which may or may not have been the only size they had at the shop, I really don’t recall. Nine times out of ten if there’s a Toro I’m getting it, you know me. These are made in A.J. Fernandez’ San Lotano factory in Ocotal, Nicaragua, blended by the Espinosa folks with Guy Fieri’s involvement. I think I talked about this with Erik in the interview video I did with him at the TPE (here). I started of with the Habano after lunch. The wrapper is an Ecuador Habano and the binder and fillers are Nicaraguan. What could go wrong? Nothing, that’s what. This was a delicious cigar. I was hoping for some good cigars after a couple days worth of disappointments, and I got them. It was bold and spicy, with some nuttiness. I was impressed. Not surprised, but impressed.
I moved on to the Knuckle Sandwich Maduro Toro after dinner. Again, this was much anticipated, and we all know how much I like maduros. This one is a Sumatra varietal, grown in Ecuador and fermented to a rich, dark maduro. I also like Sumatra. This has to be a winner for me, right? Of course it was. Again, this is a cigar that has some strength, and I imagine Guy Fieri to be someone who is all about flavor. This, as well as the Habano, had tons of flavor. The Maduro, of course, had more of the rich cocoa/espresso flavor, with a healthy spice. Both cigars had exceptional burn and draw, and were a pleasure to smoke. A great tasting cigar can be a bad experience if the cigar falls apart or doesn’t draw well, not the case here. I really enjoyed these two cigars. I understand that Guy may be making an appearance at the PCA show at some point. I doubt I’ll get to actually meet him, but I know some people, I have to see what I can do.
I used a new cutter on both of the Knuckle Sandwich cigars, which was a little risky, but I have a lot of faith in the guy that made the cutter, as I know he’s been working on it for a long time and wouldn’t put something on the market that wasn’t perfect. This cutter is called The Baller, from the folks at CigarMedics. and is really unique. It has a curved blade that literally takes a scoop out of the head of the cigar, leaving a hole like a punch, but removing some of the tobacco in the end. This is a bit of a hybrid between a V cut and punch in a way. So far, the three cigars I’ve used it on have performed well, and I’m going to use it primarily (except next weekend, I’m not risking losing it to TSA in my travels, my advice is always to not travel with any thing you don’t mind losing) for the foreseeable future. I think it’s neat, although a little heavy in the pocket, fortunately it came with a case that has a belt loop! Awesome device! I’m looking forward to finally meeting Luigi and his team at the PCA show! I made a little video, check it out!
That’s all for today. Of course, it’s the Fourth of July weekend, as well as my wedding anniversary tomorrow, so I’ll be breaking out the good stuff over the next couple days! Everyone stay safe and enjoy! Until the next time,
CigarCraig
Filed under Accessories, Review
I’ve been testing out some items from CigarMedics, the folks that make the Humidimeter, which is a great device that checks the internal moisture content of your cigars and lets you know that they are ready to smoke. 
The genius of this device is that it takes the absolute moisture reading and translates it to a relative humidity number that makes sense to us in relation to the RH of out humidor. For instance, instead of a reading of 12% absolute moisture content, it’ll read 63% RH, read at the foot of the cigar. The RH number seems to make more sense than the absolute moisture number. It’s a cool device which has saved me from smoking cigars that were too wet to smoke, and I really hate smoking wet cigars! CigarMedics has been making some other cigar devises, which I’ve been testing, a cigar cutter, and a couple draw enhancement tools, one of which Luigi made just for me after some discussion. These have a serrated piercer, which is akin to a spiral saw bit. They work very well at opening up those cigars that are sometimes packed a little too tight at the head, or have a twist in the bunch. But nevermind all that, I wanted to talk about the triple flame torch lighter that they offer. I recently came into possession of one of these lighters and have been using it exclusively for the last couple months.
The CigarMedics 3-in-1 Torch Lighter is a hefty triple jet torch with a punch in the bottom and a cigar rest on the top. You have to manually flip the lid open, which is fine, less mechanism to fail, in my opinion, and the trigger is nice and large. It has a nice fuel window so you can see when it’s running low, and I’ve had no issues with it not lighting when I needed it to. The 
flames are strong and even, some people think three jets are overkill, I have torch lighters from single to four and really don’t notice too much difference to be honest. I always have my cigar well above the 
flame anyway. Since I am in the habit of purging my lighters when I fill them, I never have a problem with lighters either (get CigarProp’s purge tool, you won’t be sorry). As far as the punch goes, I haven’t had opportunity to use it yet, it’s small, maybe 7mm, if I 
use a punch I have an Adorini punch that has 9 and 13mm punches. As with most lighters with built in punches, it’s handy to have in an emergency. The way this one is made it would easily eject the waste when it retracts into the lighter, which is nice. It also securely locks, making ugly pocket accidents unlikely. As far as the size, it’s large, but not bulky, so it fits nicely in the pocket. It’s also reasonably priced, which is a good thing. I like it a lot, and it continues to me my primary lighter, and I have a lot of lighters.
Contest
Once again, I consulted the Google Random Number Generator, and Duane Holmes was selected as the winner of the 90+ Rated All-Star Sampler and cutter. I know Duane said he ordered one, but his number came up, so how he’ll have two. I kinda got the impression that many of you ordered them, for which I am appreciative. When people react to my advertisers, it helps me out! Thank you! It also sounds like Duane has a birthday coming up, so Happy Birthday! I know he’s a long time reader, so there might just be a little something extra in the box!
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
Filed under Accessories, Contest, Review
I finally dipped my toe in the V-Herf pool last night briefly. I was smoking a fairly old Cain F Lancero Tubo (having removed it from the tube, of course), and checked out the Smoke Inn Room on the Whereby app. It was fairly early, and there were only a few people there, but it was pretty cool, and I enjoyed it and will return for more virtual herfing. Perhaps I’ll try to pop in at various times of the day to see who might be in there. In all the years I’ve been interacting digitally with people, I haven’t just video chatted with people, so this was neat, and I’ll keep doing it. I usually just sit around listening to podcasts keeping to myself, but I’ll try to be more social. Suggest some other popular video herfs besides Smoke Inn. I’ve been trying to get in on the Jersey Cigar Lounge’s herfs on Discord, but they always seem to be too late for me! Oddly, by 8:30 I’m done with my cigar and on to other things!
On to cigars. The Cain F Lancero I smoked last night was spectacular. I had a ten count box I bought several years ago, and still have a few tubos left. It’s been a while since I smoked one, I tend to save tubos for some time that never seems to come because they are nice and portable and I can throw one in my pocket. I either forget to do that, or end up packing a travel humidor or case, rarely just taking one cigar. I end up with a load of tubos, I have a 
few that are pretty old. I won a box of Don Tomas Classico Tubos well over ten years ago and have two left, I should smoke them and see who they are. I really liked them. I think I still have a Montecristo Tubo from one time when I had lunch at JRs in Whippany, and that was 10 years ago. I suppose that one is ready to smoke! Like I said, I save them for a time that never comes. Maybe that’s this week’s project for Wednesday’s post. Anyway, the Cain F had the Studio Tobac footband, and was generally the stronger of the Can line, but the lancero was not strong at this point, but a wonderful smoke, with a hint of sweetness and earthiness. It burned perfectly and I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I have every one over the years. I had sen several friends post pics of this cigar on social media recently, which inspired me to grab one. So glad I did. I need to rummage through my lanceros, I know there’s at least one Can Daytona in there, might be more! Oliva doesn’t list Cain or Nub on their website, are they even still a thing? I still see them around. We have Sam Leccia to thank for both of those great lines!
My new cigar of the week was the Vicarias Negotiator. I met Jay Clark at the TPE and he gave me his Negotiator cigar and told me the story behind it. He used to be a buyer in the metals industry, and I used to buy metal powders and steel, among many other things when I was a buyer, so we had some common ground. He would go into negotiations and had out this cigar, which is a box pressed, 5″ x 48 robusto (Hermoso?) with a San Andrés wrapper, DR binder and fillers from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The negotiations would last the duration of the cigar, and if a deal wasn’t done when his ciga was finished, he would walk away. As a former buyer myself, I could relate to this story and wish I had used this tool in some negotiations myself! The only trouble I might have would have been that the cigar was so good that I might have been distracted from the task at hand! It was just the kind of cigar I like, dark, espresso flavors, good amount of strength, and a perfect burn and draw. The only thing I didn’t care for was that it wasn’t a toro, but that would defeat the purpose, right? No need for negotiations to go on for an hour and a half or so, right? I really enjoyed The Negotiator, Might not be easy to find, but really a great cigar.
Happy Easter to all who celebrate. A few months ago I removed a cigar from a tube I had put it in several years ago to see how long it would last in the tube before it would dry out. When I started the experiment I really had no way to tell how dry it would get. Through the miracle of technology, I have cince gotten a way to find these things out, the CigarMedics Humidimeter! I removed the cigar from the glass tube with the corks stopper, and the foot of the cigar read 35%, not good. Not 0, but certainly not optimal for smoking. So I labeled it and put it in the humidor. After about a month I checked it again and it was up to 54%. Getting there. I tend to think it might take longer than two months for a dried out cigar to rehydrate, but maybe not! It’s nice to have a tool to actually check without guessing. I do have a control cigar, one from the same box that’s been properly stored (for the last 8 years), when the time comes to smoke the cigar, I’ll see what effect the drying/restoring process had on the flavor. I should have started this project much earlier, it would have been appropriate to post the findings today. ( I think I’ve made that joke before…probably every year). Until the next time,
CigarCraig
Comments Off on Vicarias Negotiator and Cain F Lancero Cigars and a V-Herf
Filed under Review
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and had plenty to eat and adequate cigars! I took some along to the feast I attended, but it was too windy and cold to enjoy one, so I waited until I got home and enjoyed an Ashton VSG on the porch. I usually reach for a classic cigar of some sort on days such as this, and after spending over five hours in the car and a long day of eating, the VSG was a delightful end to a long day. Because of the holiday it was a slow news week, and I was lazy about a midweek post, so I slacked off this week. Let’s make up for it today. Early in the week I dug deep in the humidor and pulled out one of the original Epic Maduro Double Coronas from my stash of 
Epic cigars. I knew it was an old one because it only had the Epic band, no second band with the “maduro” designation. Oddly, the website incorrectly lists the Double Corona as 5″ x 54, when it’s clearly 6″, Dean will need to look into that. This maduro is a Brazilian Arapiraca, over a Cameroon binder with Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers made in the Charles Fairmorn Factory in the DR, the same factory that makes Kristoff cigars. I think the Cameroon binder is one of the things that makes me love this cigar, I’m drawn to maduros with a Cameroon binder, Cro-Magnon immediately comes to mind. Age has been kind to this cigar, it was smooth, rich, with coffee and sweetness and some earthiness. According to Dean Parsons, Epic Cigars have been in “10x production” and have something new planned for 2020. I’m excited as I’ve never met an Epic cigar I didn’t enjoy!
Also this week I smoked a Cohiba Connecticut again. I had listened to Sean Williams on a podcast and he talked about this cigar and I realized I hadn’t smoked it in a long time, so I thought I’d smoke one. Funny thing is I had hung out with both Sean and Dean at a shop in Philly a few years back, before Sean was with General Cigars, I 
hadn’t made that connection until just now. Anyway, I like their idea of a Robusto, it’s 5½” x 50, and it has an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, San Andrés binder and the fillers are Brazilian Matafina, Jalapa, Nicaragua and Piloto Cubano and Olor from the DR. I actually found this to be almost off-puttingly strong to start! Maybe my expectation of a mild cigar was the problem, but it just seemed overly powerful. It settled down, and was very good. It isn’t a mild cigar, it has some oomph, but it does have the creamy, grassy flavor of the Ecuador Connecticut. Overall it was a very good, satisfying cigar and, of course, the construction was spot on, and for a $16 stick, it certainly should be, heck, and $8 cigar should be constructed right, or a $4 cigar for that matter. If it isn’t made right, what’s the point? In another website gripe, Cohiba needs to update their website.
Let’s take a break and let me get something off my chest. Long time reader Bob L. brought up a great point on a Facebook group yesterday regarding the etiquette behind using a product I’ve promoted here on my site. I feel that since I’ve used the product and endorsed it, I should weigh in here in more detail than I did in response to his post. Bob’s question was, more or less (I was going to quote it verbatim, but the post must have been deleted from the facebook group because I can’t find any reference to it!), is it appropriate to use the Cigarmedics HumidiMeter on a cigar in a store before you buy it? The short answer is “NO”, but I think some common sense reasoning and 
explanation is in order. After you buy the cigar it’s yours to do with as you please, but once you stick the probes of the Cigarmedics HumidiMeter in the cigar it belongs to you in my opinion. You’ve “broken the seal” by penetrating the cigar, no different from licking it or cutting it. In that thread there was some discussion of the utility of the tool in general, bruoght up by Skip Martin, who made some valid points. It’s important to know that this tool should be used to set a baseline. Different blends will smoke better at different moisture contents. It takes a while to get to know the acceptable range where generally cigars can be expected to perform well. Too wet and too dry should stick out like a sore thumb. Remember, as nice a tool as the HumidiMeter is, it’s a consumer item and is inexpensive, it’s not a lab grade instrument like Saka has, and Saka knows what absolute moisture level each one of his blends (he would say “ligas”), should be to smoke right. Also keep in mind that the HumidiMeter converts the absolute moisture number to a Relative Humidity equivalent number that we can relate to our humidors. This is all going a long way to say not to use the HumidiMeter in a store before you buy a cigar!
OK, The last two cigars I smoked were, once again, from my friends at Joya de Nicaragua. It seems like just last week I included a pair of Joyas in my Sunday Post, in actuality, it was. For some reason, some Joya de Nicaragua Numero Uno L’Ambassadeur ended up in my humidor, and I really needed to smoke one. This was originally the Number 1, only available as an event only cigar, or, before that, as a diplomatic gift for ambassadors from Nicaragua. It’s a Lonsdale with a fantail cap, measuring 6 5/8″ x 44, and has an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper over Nicaraguan fillers, just like the Joya de Nicaragua Classico. These are not a cheap date either, and come in a beautiful blue lacquer box. Like the above mentioned Cohiba, also not inexpensive, this is a Connecticut cigar with some strength and loads of flavor. Skip the narrow ring gauge, wrapper to filler ration BS, smoked slower, this was a smooth as silk smoke, creamy, elegant with enough spice to keep it interesting. Super yummy, and deserving of the accolades it’s received, and many thanks to my friends at JdN for sharing these with me!
Finally, I decided to give the Joya Black another try. Since these came out I wanted to like them. It has a San Andrés wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and filler, what’s not to like, right? It’s always perplexed me why I didn’t love this cigar. OK, the first few I smoked I struggled with poor draws, tight, either over-humidified, or over-filled, not sure which. I let them sit in the humidor for a long time, smoked some from different batches, couldn’t really get any flavor. I decided to give one another go, this time in the Double Robusto shape, 5″ x 56. Draw was perfect, burn was perfect, it was either very mild, or there just wasn’t a lot of flavor. I remain perplexed. There is a sour note when I do get some flavor, and it just doesn’t seem to be a cigar I enjoy very much. I don’t get it. This is a real scratcher for me. I should absolutely love this cigar, it’s from Joya, it’s got the right components, what the heck? I the “Joya” series, I really like the Silver and Cabinetta, and I’m pretty apathetic about the Red, and the one that should be at the top of my list based upon my overall likes, is at the bottom. Weird stuff, man.
That’s should about do it for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
