Tag Archives: Crowned Heads

February 5, 2023 · 10:02 am

Oliva Serie V, Cuba Aliados and La Patissier Cigars

Last Sunday I was out and about and came across a couple cigars that I hadn’t tried yet, so I bought them.  I smoked a couple this week, although by Saturday it had gotten ridiculously cold, so I opted for a shorter smoke so as not to over-tax my propane heater.  I started off with the Oliva Serie V 125th Anniversary Edicion Limit

ada. I thought this would be priced higher, but it was reasonable $10, and well worth it.  It wasn’t all that long ago that I felt like I was really going top-shelf spending $8-12 on a cigar.  Times have changed.  Still, what else could I do for an hour and a half or more that costs less than $10?  This is an interesting figurado, it’s tapered at the foot, once you burn past the first inch and a half it may as well be a parejo.  It measures 5½” x 54 overall and is Nicaraguan filler and binder wrapped in a Sungrown Ecuador Habano leaf.  That narrow foot not only makes it easy to light, but seemed to make the opening few puffs pretty sharp and powerful.  It settled into leathery and earthy with some cocoa sweetness.  Overall I really enjoyed this cigar. I haven’t smoked a lot of Serie Vs lately, they have to be priced higher than this one.  It’s highly recommended.  By the way, the 135 refers to the anniversary of when Melanio Oliva started in the tobacco business, Oliva cigars has only been around for about 30 years.

 

Next up was another cigar connected with Oliva, from the  recently acquired Cuba Aliados brand. I smoked a bunch of these in the ’90s when they were made by Rolando Reyes and existed alongside Puro Indios in their lineup. I can’t say I remember too much about them, but I know the Cuba Aliados brand was a favorite of Steve Saka back then.  This one is made by Ernesto Carillo, it has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. Ernesto is kinda famous for using Sumatra, and I like Sumatra. The cigar I smoked was a 6″ x 54 torpedo, and I probably selected that because it was the only vitola the shop had available. This was a really nice tasting cigar with a sweet spice.  It’s burn and draw were perfect and I quite enjoyed it.  It was closer to $15, so I don’t think I’ll smoke a lot of them, but it was worth the money.  I’m a fan if EPC from way back, so that probably worked in the cigar’s favor.  

 

Like I said, Saturday was super-cold, and I know we weren’t along in this weather pattern, a lot of the country seems to have had a cold snap. below a certain temperature, my propane heater doesn’t do as good a job.  This is the perfect time for shorter cigars, so I had a La Patissier No. 50 from the PCA show that would fit into this scenario perfectly.  It’s 4 3/8″ x 50, not tiny, but not huge.  I don’t smoke a lot of Crowned Heads cigars, and this particular one was made at the Pichardo factory before they had the falling-out. I don’t recall where they will be having this made, it might be made by Ernesto Carillo which would connect all three of today’s cigars in some circular way.  Anyway, this cigar has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Jalapa binder, and fillers from Costa Rica, as well as the Ometepe and Pueblo Nuevo regions of Nicaragua. My guess would be that future iterations of this cigar will not have the Puebla Nueva tobacco, as that seemed to be a favorite of Luciano Marielles. This cigar was really good, although I’m a little surprised to see it was Broadleaf, it didn’t smoke that way to me. It started out bold, and had an exotic spice that I couldn’t put a label on.  It was very good, I may see if I can find some of these older ones so I can see if it changes.  

 

A week or so back I smoked a La Gloria Serie S, their new San Andrés offering, and I guess I bought a couple of them and forgot that I had, because I couldn’t remember where it came from. Last week I got some samples of these and smoked one yesterday.  I’m going to set them down for a while, lets just say that I had pretty much the same experience the guy who smoked one on Dojo’s last Smoke Night Live show had.  I like San Andrés and I love La Gloria, so I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. More to come on that. That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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August 21, 2022 · 10:11 am

A Couple PDR Cigars and a Las Calaveras

I’m working on something a little different, should be announced any day now.  I found myself with more gear from the Barnsmoker than I know what to do with, so I’m going to have a fundraiser raffle for a worthy charity. I’m still working out the details, but the prizes are pretty cool.  I felt the need to do something more than just the usual pick a random comment giveaway. We’ll see how it goes, stay tuned. I did manage to smoke some cigars this week, funny that there were sev

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eral that I just didn’t enjoy, but here are a couple highlights!  Let’s get the Las Calaveras from Crowned Heads out of the way. This was the first Las Calaveras I’ve smoked. A friend commented that he was surprised by this, but I don’t fall all over myself for Crowned Heads in general. I did, however pick one of these up a week or two ago when I saw them, out of curiosity. The one I

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smoked was the Las Calaveras Edición Limitada 2022 LC46 (5¾” x 46).  It’s a Nicaraguan puro made at the My Father factory in Esteli.  It has a dark Corojo wrapper, I believe, and packs a punch. I enjoyed the rich, espresso flavors, but. I thought it was stronger than I’d have liked, the strength overpowered the flavor at times. Perhaps a few years in the humidor would settle it down, but I

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‘m not inclined to go out of my way to find out. I did enjoy it, and it was not, by far, the worst cigar I had all week. 

 

PDR Cigars has been sending samples to me on a regular basis. They could save a lot on shipping by combining shipments, but that’s their business.  One of the first cigars they sent me, maybe 6 weeks ago now (this summer has gone by far too fast for my liking), was the Flores y Rodriguez 10th Anniversary Reserva Limitada.  I smoked one on or around my wedding anniversary and quite enjoyed it. It’s a beautiful perfecto, 6½” x 52, but it’s als

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o available in a Robusto, Gran Toro and Wide Churchill. it has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Dominican Olor binder and 7 year old Dominican Seco and Piloto Cubano Ligero, as well as Viso from Jalapa, Nicaragua.  The filler tobaccos aren’t specifically named, but they taste great! The cigar burned perfectly and had nice sweet, nutty flavors.  This may have been the best cigar I smoked all week (starting the week on Monday, of course, the bar was admittedly pretty low!).  It’s a fairly sophisticated cigar, befitting of a milestone anniversary.  

 

Another PDR cigar I smoked was the El Trovador Rosado,

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in the Corona Gorda (6″ x 46) size.  Again, PDR isn’t very specific with the varietals, but it has an Ecuadorian Rosado wrapper, double binder described as one Nicaraguan and one Nicaragua Corojo, and fillers described as 2 Ligero Nicaragua, 1 ½ Viso Nicaragua. I really loved this cigar, second best of the week.  It was pretty strong, without sacrificing

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flavor. It had some dark flavors, with some leather and spices.  I dug it, and, like the other PDR cigars I’ve smoked recently, it burned perfectly.  I have a few more to get to, and another package due this week, so watch for more PDR cigars sneaking into my rotation in the coming weeks.  

 

That’s all for today. I need to get to work on that fundraiser thing. Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

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March 13, 2022 · 10:55 am

Memento Mori and CHC Serie E Cigars and a Short Rant

Friday evening I got back to working at Son’s after a two week hiatus, and the new Memento Mori from Black Works Studio had just come in. Of course, I had to sample one, so I selected the Lonsdale.  This cigar has a Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper, Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers and starts out smacking you on the face with a load of pepper. This is a fairly heavy cigar, it’s rich, decadent, and loaded with flavor. I think it’s quintessentially Black Label, if that makes sense. I really like this cigar. I’ll certainly be picking up some more of these, they hit my palate just right, although I wouldn’t recommend smoking one on an empty stomach! One of my goals working at Son’s is to smoke more BLTC cigars, since they have a large selection and a great relationship with the company. 

 

I had a whole Op-Ed piece written on the “responsible marketing” stuff that’s been in the cigar news lately, actually it was fairly short. I’ll summarize it here.  I think , probably cynically,

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that the government doesn’t really care about cigars, they just want to see tobacco eradicated. To the brand owners who insist on “having fun” with their marketing by using names and images that could maybe in some way appeal to a child, think about all the people that will be displaced when the government shuts down the industry for a minute. When manufacturers family legacies are destroyed, and their employees families are starving, you can think of all the fun you had selling childishly branded cigars. That will be a pretty cool feeling, I imagine. Not really. By the way, I think “S

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elf Regulation” means be responsible adults and do the right thing, not that there’s going to be a cigar industry rulemaking committee with Jorge Pardón, Carlito Fuente and Pepin Garcia sitting around telling everyone what to do.  Let’s resist the urge to draw attention to ourselves, maintain the traditions of this 500 year old art form and not say f*ck the FDA every chance we get, or they are going to f*ck the cigar industry. 

 

Another cigar I picked up was the Crowned Heads CHC Serie E Hermoso No. 2. While I have not typically been enamoured with Crowned heads cigars, or marketing (tho not irresponsible), I have been impressed with cigars made by Tabacalera Pichardo, so I thought I’d give this one a try. This is the cigar with the Eddie Van Halen theme on the band and box, the E in the name stands for Eruption, one of Van Halen’s famous guitar solos. I’m a musician, I’ve never made the connection between cigar flavors and music, but good for Jon Huber for conceptualizing cigars in that manner. Some people smoke in color too. This cigar has an Ecuador Habano oscuro wrapper, a binder from Jalapa, and fillers from Jalapa, ometepe and Pueblo Nuevo. They say where the tobacco is grown, but not the varietal. Pichardo likes using the Pueblo Nuevo tobacco, perhaps that’s a common denominator in cigars I like from that factory. I found this cigar to be thoroughly enjoyable, even delicious. There’s a sweetness, like warm breakfast rolls of some sort, along with some leather and spice. Despite not liking a lot of what Crowned Heads does (even though I like Miguel Schoedel!), I really liked this one. 

 

I still need to hear from Xolotal! Don’t make me hunt you down! That’s about it for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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September 9, 2020 · 9:35 pm

Labor Day Cigars and a Macanudo Inspirado Green

Labor Day was my first paid holiday since January 1st of 2018! A combination of two streaks of unemployment and a year of working in retail for a company that didn’t believe in paid holidays (something I had trouble wrapping my head around!), I was quite excited about this small luxury! My wife wanted to get away and do something, anything, so we took a drive to Lewes,  Delaware, Parked the car at the ferry terminal, and rode the ferry over to Cape May and walked on the beach for a while. I took the opportunity to smoke one of the cigars in the Cigar Prop sampler in the Smoke Inn Battle of the Bands promo that’s going on. I selected the Alec Bradley Black Market Esteli Punk, a little 4¼” x 42 petite corona. This cigar has a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan and Honduran binders amd Nicaraguan fillers. I chose this due to time constraints and the fact that I wasn’t supposed to be actually smoking on the beach really, but the stretch of beach we were on was fairly empty and nobody said anything anyway. I don’t usually favor such small cigars, and it was before lunch, so I took it slow, which was a good thing, because this was a pretty potent little smoke! I really enjoyed it! It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, with a gentle breeze off the bay, and this cigar was just delicious. These are probably about $5 if you find them singley, and well worth it. A great choice by Kevin for his sampler.

 

On the drive home I lit up another cigar from the “shorties of forty” sampler, as Kevin refers to it, the Papas Fritas from Drew Estate. Obviously, this wasn’t my first go around with this cigar, and I normally wouldn’t opt for a mixed filler cigar while driving a stick shift car in traffic, but I h

ad confidence in this one. The Papas Fritas was made using the sorted bench cuts from the Liga Privadas. It certainly doesn’t smoke like a mixed fill cigar, no mess in the car! Of course, traffic sucked coming home, to be expected, so having a cigar was quite helpful. It occurs to me, I still haven’t smoked any of the Nasty Fritas, the newer shape. Anyway, the two hour drive took nearly three, but the little Papas Fritas took the edge off. I could have smoked and A sized cigar, but that might have hit the windshield. I gotta say, I’ve smoked three of the five cigars in the Cigar Prop sampler and they have all been winners. Great selection so far. 

 

When I got home I felt compelled to smoke another from the samper, and went with one I hadn’t tried before, the Crowned Heads Juarez OBS, the largest cigar in the sampler. This one is 4¾” x 54, seems longer compared to the rest, but it’s the s

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ame length as the Sobremesa Short Churchill, the fifth cigar in the sampler (the first one was the Padron 26th No. 35 Maduro). Kevin said that this is the cigar that people raved about in the sampler. I have to say, it was in my top five, but certainly not my favorite. This line is made at Tabacalera Pichardo in Estelí,, it has a natural San Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan fillers. I don’t know if it’s because it was my third cigar of the day, with the first two being fairly strong, or if it’s because it started off a little snug in the draw and took a while to open up, but it was just OK. I’ll certainly give

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this one a second chance, but it was reasonably blah to me. With the wrapper/binder combination it should have been interesting. I also admit to not taking a shine to a lot of the Crowned Heads portfolio, for some reason, there hasn’t been a lot that trips my trigger. I suppose I’m in the minority. 

 

Tonight I smoked a Macanudo Inspirado Green Toro, my second one. I’ve been looking forward to trying this cigar since I’ve heard about it. I’ve been hot and cold on the Inspirado line, oddly, I really like the Red and White, the Black and Orange are just OK. The Green has a  Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper, Indonesian binder, and fillers from Columbia and the DR. The Brazilian wrapper caught my attention, as well as the Columbian filler. The first one I smoked was nice, but I smoked it following a rather strong maduro (Southern Draw Jacobs Ladder), and I felt like I may not have given it a fair shake. I thought it was pretty mild. So I smoked on tonight on a fresh palate and it was quite a bit more flavorful! I enjoyed this cigar, more than the Inspirado Black, which, for me, is odd. It’s odd that I am not that fond of the Black actually, but the Green has some interesting and different flavors. There’s some spice and unique flavors I can’t put a finger on, except to say that I like them and it’s a cigar I’m happy that I bought a handful of. I actually bought these after shopping for something else and not finding what I was looking for. Next to the Inspirado Red, this is my second favorite Inspirado. The green band looks really nice on that dark wrapper too.

 

One of my pet peeves: The Black Market Esteli Punk size isn’t listed on the Alec Bradley webpage, nor is the Juarez line listed on the Crowned Heads site. I just think it’s weird. That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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January 26, 2020 · 10:39 am

A Diesel Whiskey Row Sherry Cask and a Montecristo Ciudad de Musica Cigar

I feel like a put out a load of posts this week leading up to the TPE. There was plenty of other news, but I’ve made a pledge to myself to keep things positive, and

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not report anything negative or divisive! I’m going to advocate unity from here on out and try to keep my cynical, sarcastic (I had a superior call me that once, then he gave me an award!) comments to myself. Sure, I have my opinions on things, and I have recently voiced my opinions on things and stand by them, but from here on out I’m taking the “can’t we all just get along” stance. I have to back-burner some other website ideas I had, but I’d have register them anonymously anyway 😁.  Anyway, I smoked a few other cigars this week, I want to write an in-depth post about one, but I’m waiting for more information. I revisited the Diesel Whiskey Row Cherry Cask, this time in the Toro size. I’m not sure if I’ve written about this in this size, I know I’ve really enjoyed the robusto, and, being a bit of a Toro fan, I wanted to try it in that size. I bought a few last week, and didn’t get around to smoking them, but found myself meeting a friend in the cigar shop again and felt like that’s what I wanted to smoke, so I grabbed a couple more. I’m not sure why I can’t just buy one cigar. Anyway, I seem to think I smoked the Toro a while ago and liked the Robusto better, but this time I really did enjoy the Toro. In this cigar, and I don’t know whether it has to do with the color of the band, or the cask aging, but it’s like smoking a raspberry chocolate cake to me. I love the sweet, dessert flavor I get from the cigar. I suppose I’ll have to give the 6″ x 60 a try, but I wonder if that might dilute the flavors I like. I won’t know until I try, I suppose. These are priced well in the $7-9 range, and have a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Brazilian binder and Nicaraguan fillers. Without the cask aging, there’s a lot to like

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The other cigar I want to talk about was a gift from my Secret Santa Adam. This is a cigar I probably wouldn’t have chosen to sample on my own, as it only really has one thing appealing to me. Honestly, there aren’t a great many Montecristos that I really like, there’s the White Vintage Connecticut, and the Espada, and Probably the AJ Fernandez. The Montecristo Ciudad de Musica is a collaboration between Crowned Heads and Montecristo, made at E.P. Carrillo‘s Tabacalera Allianza in the Dominican Republic. I’ve always approached Crowned Heads with some ambivalence, bordering on apathy. They always had a “we’re the little guy, we are anti-corporate” thing going on, then they go and make a cigar with the biggest company out there. I get that it’s a huge deal to have your company name on the biggest name in the biz, it’s really cool. Hang on, let me go back and read my first few sentences…OK…I’m back on track. This cigar pays homage to Nashville, the City of Music, or Ciudad de Musica, and has a Habano wrapper grown in Ecuador, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers and comes in four sizes. Initially, this was only available in Casa de Montecisto stores (CdM, see a pattern?, like Crowned Heads and Condor and Huber?, The Angels Anvil and TAA? Jon Huber loves that stuff apparently), then sold in TAA stores, and I did see these in my local shop which is a TAA store. I’m not sure if these are available to a wider range than that at this point or not. So I would like to thank Adam fo sharing this delicious cigar with me, because it was probably one of the most delicious cigars with the either the Montecristo, or Crowned Heads name on it. It was medium bodied, and had a very nice sweetness that I found very appealing. It wasn’t too heavy, or too light, it was just right, and the construction was perfect. I am a fan of much of EPC’s products, and have been for an awful long time, and this one is among the better I’ve enjoyed. I was stunned. I had mixed expectations. I expected a great smoke because of the person who shared it with me, but I had reservations because of my past experience with Montecristo. This is definitely a case of keeping an open mind, it was a delicious cigar, I may try other sizes.

 

That’s all for today. I need to spend the day packing for my trip to the TPE show.  Please let me know if there’s anything you want to know from the show! I have a few appointments, but will be free-ranging otherwise. That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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