Tag Archives: Contest

by Craig Vanderslice | August 7, 2019 · 9:38 am

Contest: Welcome Fox Cigars Episode Three!

OK, this is the third and final installment of the “Welcome Fox Cigars” series of Giveaways! The first two have been great, I think you’ll agree, but I think you’ll also agree that we’ve saved the best for last! Honestly, I probably could have stretched this out to four, but let’s not get carried away! First we have to determine a winner from last weeks giveaway. Like last time, I made a list of the combined entries from he comments here and on Instagram, and randomized them, and had Random.org pick a number and that was the winner. The winner of the Oliva prize is from the website comments this week! Narciso Lopez, please send me your address, along with proof that you are of legal age, so that I can send you your winnings!

Let’s see what Giveaway numero tres, looks like! Illusione! Dion Giolito makes some great cigars, and has a cigar store in Reno. Here we have an Illusione t-shirt in XL, perfect to wear to the big Area 51 thing next month! And, since Are 51 is in the Nevada desert, you’ll need the Illusione 5 count travel humidor to keep your cigars in good shape. Speaking of cigars, there are some of those too! There are two each of Illusione Cruzado Marelas Supremas and Cruzado Domenicos Extra. There’s an Illusione Rex (the unbanded corona), and an Epernay. Since Illusione is a boutique brand, there’s also a selection of boutique cigars! a selection from Aganorsa Leaf, Warped, Surrogates and Foundation add to the panache of this super-cool prize pack! I’m going to enter (not really, but I haven’t smoked some of these cigars! I’m going to have to order some from Fox).

By the way, I don’t recommend going anywhere near Area 51, I understand it’s not cigar friendly at all. So, leave a comment to enter! I’m going to post this on Instagram, and I’m going to include comments on that post as well, just to make my life more difficult, so you can get two chances. As usual, you must be of legal smoking age in your jurisdiction to win (and even that’s getting to be a PITA these days!), one entry per person (per site). I’ll select a winner next Wednesday, August 14, 2019. Once again, thanks to Rob at Fox Cigars!

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Contest, Fox Cigars, illusione

by Craig Vanderslice | July 31, 2019 · 9:16 am

Contest: Welcome Fox Cigars Episode Two!

OK, so let’s do another giveaway! As we continue to celebrate our new friendship with Fox Cigars, let’s announce the winner of last weeks giveaway before we get on with this weeks. But first…I’ve been announcing things like this on various Facebook groups for years now, and I think I have to stop doing that now. It seems that Facebook frowns upon any sort of tobacco transactions on their platform whatsoever, and has even shut down some groups because of this. I think one of the largest cigar groups on Facebook is gone now. Anyway, I’ll post a link to my root domain with a very general message that there’s something of interest there, just to not rock the boat, I don’t want to be the cause of any groups being shut down. I’ll continue to put this on Instagram, but I’ll be a little careful! Anyway, I made a list of all of the people who commented on the blogpost and Instagram and assigned them a number in the interest of fairness. The winner of the Perdomo goodies is @imatexican8 who was an Instagram entry. Several people took advantage of multiple entries, and many people are Blazing Saddles fans! @imatexican8 needs to send me his address so I can mail out his winnings!

Episode Dos!

Round two of our celebration of Fox Cigars features some Oliva goodies. We have a Nub cap, another awesome Lotus lighter, this one is a nice single jet torch with a double punch which comes out of the side, and an eight pack of cigars.

There are a couple of Nubs, a few Oliva Serie Os, a couple Oliva Serie Gs, and a Cain Daytona. All nice really cigars. So, leave a comment to enter! I’m going to post this on Instagram, and I’m going to include comments on that post as well, just to make my life more difficult, so you can get two chances. As usual, you must be of legal smoking age in your jurisdiction to win (and even that’s getting to be a PITA these days!), one entry per person (per site). I’ll select a winner next Wednesday, August 7, 2019. Once again, thanks to Rob at Fox Cigars!

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cain, cigar, cigars, Contest, Fox Cigars, nub, oliva

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 Craig Vanderslice | July 24, 2019 · 9:18 am

Contest: Welcome Fox Cigars Episode One!

We’re getting back to the old days for a while, the good old days of CigarCraig giveaways! For those of you who may not recall, search back through the archives at the months of December from about 2011 through 2015 and you’ll see where I used to do ridiculous giveaways for 12, 13 sometimes 14 days straight! It was a hoot! It got difficult for several reasons, some personal and some logistical, so I scaled it back. It’s time to relive some of the glory days! We have something to celebrate, and that is welcoming a new member to the CigarCraig family, Fox Cigars. I’ve been following these guys for a while, I’ve seen friends talk about their events in Arizona, and followed them on social media. I don’t put links on my site that I don’t believe in and patronize, and I never solicit at all, so an ad or link you can trust, and these guys are top notch. So let’s extend a laurel, and hearty handshake, to Fox Cigars!

Here’s the contest part! Fox Cigars has provided some goodies for giveaways! First up is some great stuff from Perdomo! There’s a Lot 23 cap, a really nice quad jet Vertigo lighter, and a Connecticut four-pack, which includes a 20th Anniversary, a Habano Connecticut a Champagne, and a Lot 23 (which I didn’t realize was Connecticut, I learned something today!). I just smoked the 20th Anniversary Connecticut a few weeks ago and loved it, and that lighter is super cool.

So, leave a comment to enter! I’m going to post this on Instagram, and I’m going to include comments on that post as well, just to make my life more difficult, so you can get two chances. I slipped an obscure movie reference in above, so amuse me by pointing that out for extra credit. As usual, you must be of legal smoking age in your jurisdiction to win (and even that’s getting to be a PITA these days!), one entry per person (per site). I’ll select a winner next Wednesday, July 31, 2019. Thanks to Rob at Fox Cigars!

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Contest, Fox Cigars, Perdomo, Vertigo

by Craig Vanderslice | July 7, 2019 · 9:53 am

A Couple of Shop Visit, a Couple of Cigars and a Contest Winner!

Happy Sunday! I suppose it’s the end of a holiday weekend for a lot of people, I had Thursday off, and stopped into the CigarCigars shop in the King of Prussia Mall and picked up a couple cigars, one of which I smoked later to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Sure, I have plenty of natural Padron 1964 Anniversary Exclusivos, but I hadn’t had a Maduro in quite some time, so I picked one up. My wife spied a Foundry Compounds, Elements and Musings Uranium box with two cigars left in it, so I bought them and got the box. I’m pretty sure I’ve smoked Uranium before, although I don’t smoke many 7″ x 70s. The artwork is cool and I’ll rig a light in the box and it’ll be a nice shelf piece. Gotta give Mike Giannini credit for creative design! So my wife got a ring from Tiffany, and I got some cigars, it was a good day. The Exclusivo was exceptional, of course. I remember smoking my first one probably 20 years ago and they haven’t changed.

Friday evening I took a ride up to Suburban Cigar Lounge in Mount Penn, PA, which is near Reading. This is a really nice lounge run by Gary, over top of what is, by all reports, a very nice restaurant, which, if I’m not mistaken, his wife runs. I went to meet up with Boston Jimmie, of Stogie Press fame, who took his sweet time showing up. If you advertise that you’re going to be someplace from 7-10, showing up at 8:30 is not acceptable, I don’t care how things are done in Florida. 😜Anyway, Gary has a nice lounge with a friendly clientele, and his humidor has a modest but diverse selection from which I purchased some Alec Bradley Magic Toast Gordos, and RoMaCraft Aquitaine Mode 5s, and lit up a Magic Toast. I love this Magic Toast, it’s my kinda smoke. The dark, oily Honduran wrapper is beautiful, and the flavor is equally dark and lush. I smoked a Mode 5 next, and while I prefer the CroMagnon, the Aquitaine is damn tasty. This is a great example of how the wrapper can completely change the flavor of a cigar, as the wrapper is the only difference between the CroMagnon and Aquitaine lines. Jimmie finally showed up and hung out for a while. I hadn’t seen him since the 2017 IPCPR show, so it was nice seeing him again. Suburban Cigar Lounge is a great place to hang out of you find yourself in the area. I’m sorry I didn’t let long time reader Corey know I was going!

Last night I smoked the 2Guys Smokeshop exclusive Pistoff Kristoff Firecracker. Every year they do a special Firecracker release, last year it was the Mi Querida, prior to that it was the Fratello. I’ve managed to smoke a bunch of them, except for the original ones. It’s a small format, 3½ x 50, in a stronger blend. This was the second Pistoff Firecracker I smoked and I thought it was very good. I’m OK with the Pistoff blend to begin with, so I figured I’d be OK with this, and if I wasn’t, it wasn’t going to be a large time commitment. I do, generally, get an hour out of the Firecrackers, smoking them slowly. Because of the closed foot, a trademark of Kristoff, and usually a Firecracker trait, it starts with a blast of wrapper flavor, and some concern that the draw will be tight, once the wrapper burns, this one opens up to a perfect draw and has a good, bold flavor. It was strong, but well balanced. It looks like these are sold out, as is the case with most of the limited Firecrackers, but often the have second runs, and I would recommend these and others if you like small, strong cigars. They have all been exceptional in my opinion.

Contest

It’s time to select a winner in last weeks contest. To recap, I am giving away some great, in my opinion, Don Juan Calavera cigars from Danli Honduras Tabaco (from my own humidor, to protect the innocent), a Herics Cigar Tape, and a Cigar Prop and Light Bleed Tool from CigarProp.com. It’s possible some other goodies could fall into the box while I’m packing it up. There were 42 entries, and according to the random number generator, the winner is Bob Langmaid! I seems like Bob wins everything all the time, but I could only find one instance of him winning one of my contests, and that was almost 4 years ago. I’d rather have someone who hasn’t won before win, but Bob’s name came up, and he’s been fanatically religious about entering my contests for many years, so fair is fair! Please send me your address Bob!