Tag Archives: delaware cigars

by CigarCraig | October 27, 2013 · 10:05 am

IPCPR 2013 – Emilio Cigars and House Of Emilio, an AF2 and a La Musa

I’m getting down to the last couple videos from the IPCPR show, and I had, up until recently, no cigars to pair with them. That’s not entirely true, I have a selection of cigars from Gary Griffith’s Emilio line and various brands he distributes, but nothing new and exciting. That is until a box arrived in the mail last week with some new samples! Thanks Gary! Perfect timing! The House of Emilio handles a bunch of great boutique brands which all seem to fall in line with my tastes. Please watch the video with Gary and Nate as they explain both the Emilio line and the brands they distribute.

The cigar which immediately caught my eye, and looked like it would best fit into the time I had available was the Emilio AF 2 in the corona size. I’ve enjoyed plenty of this blend made, by AJ Fernandez, in the toro size, its a little brighter in flavor than the AF 1 which is also a terrific smoke. The corona size really made the flavor pop, it was so good, I didn’t want to put it down. It’s a solid, enjoyable cigar that most fans of medium to full bodies cigars can enjoy, I think. Can we look forward to the AF 1 in this size, or would that be too much of a good thing? Highly recommended if you enjoy exceptional cigars.

Yesterday, after enjoying a 1502 Black Gold toro (also a House of Emilio brand, and excellent!) I selected a cigar that I actually received at the end of last year, the La Musa Melete robusto. If the Emilio AF 2 is a brighter version of the AF 1, the La Musa Melete is the darker version of the original La Musa. The wrapper is visually darker, but I’m talking about flavor and the flavors are lush, deep and decadent. It starts with a nice spice and takes off from there. It smooths out and finishes off with the espresso flavors i find so enjoyable. The construction was perfect. The Grimalkin was an exceptional cigar, the La Musa (same cigar, different name) is exceptional, but the Melete is something very special. Kudos to Gary and the super secret factory that makes this (is it still a secret?)

That’s it for today. I may find myself at one of Gary’s stores in Delaware this afternoon, looking for more Meletes and coronas! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under IPCPR, Review, Video

Tagged as 1502, cigar, cigars, delaware cigars, Emilio, IPCPR, La Musa

by CigarCraig | September 23, 2012 · 8:13 am

IPCPR 2012 – Oliva and Studio Tabac Cigars and a New Shop Visit

After enjoying the heck out of a Cain Daytona No. 4 the other night I figured it was about time to dig into some IPCPR show samples and see what the deal was with the new Oliva Serie V Melanio Torpedo. I smoked this cigar during my Thursday evening walk. Since we moved from a house “in town”, where I could walk to the local convenience store, or around the neighborhood, or a bunch of places, I now live in a more rural area where my walking options are more limited. As usual, it’s never about the destination, but the journey, so I just walk down the street for a while then turn around and come home to finish my cigar on the deck or back porch. I’ve been taking my son’s dog along and she loves all the new smells and sights, such as deer and the occasional fox. Back to the Melanio. What a beautiful cigar, just about perfect in appearance, 6½” x 52 and nicely box pressed. The Nicaraguan tobaccos in the blend are largely from Jalapa, which accounts for the bit of sweetness in this very powerful blend. It’s a pretty great cigar. I’ve enjoyed the few Serie V’s I’ve smoked and this one is a really nice addition to the line.

Friday evening I selected a Cain F Maduro that was in the same batch of samples from the trade show. My usual experience with Cain cigars tells me to leave these rest for a year or so to mellow out a little, but in the interest of providing timely information and experiences, I had to smoke this gorgeous robusto. The cigar was about 5 x 50 with an oily, dark Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. While this was certainly a powerhouse, it was loaded with deep, dark flavor. I love the Cain line in general, especially with a little age, and the Daytona is a wonderfully well balanced smoke on the high end of medium, but I sure hope I come across this maduro again. What a fantastic smoke.

While at the trade show I had the opportunity to sit down with Bryan Scholle, the face of Studio Tabac, and talk about what’s new. Here’s a little video we took at the show, many thanks to Bryan for taking a few minutes to talk to me. It was the first time we’d met, and it was like we’d know one another for years. Bryan is a very cool guy, if you have a chance to catch him on the Studio Tabac tour, do it.

In Other News

Yesterday I stopped in to the new Total Tobacco shop in Newtown Square, PA, not far from home. This shop is a part of the Delaware Cigars empire, so Gary Griffith was on hand for the grand opening. They are still waiting for some displays and fixtures, but the large walk-in humidor is very well stocked with many fine cigars. I could have gone nuts, but I showed some restraint and only picked up a couple cigars I’ve wanted to try, but haven’t seen locally, notably, a Room 101 OSOK as well as a Cro Magnon EMH. I’d be shocked if there’s another retailer in the area that has the RoMaCraft Tabac line, but there were all of the CroMagnon sizes as well as Aquataine in Connecticut shade and maduro. They have a great selection and the prices are in line with the pricing we enjoy in Pennsylvania. I’ll make a point to stop in from time to time to see how the shop progresses. One downside is that there’s no smoking in the store, but the selection makes up for that and they have chairs on the sidewalk outside to enjoy a smoke on a nice day. It’s always nice to see my friend Gary and I wish them the best of luck with this new location.

I’ve gone one quite long enough, that’s all I have for now. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under Events, IPCPR, News, Review, Stores, Video

Tagged as cain, cigar, cigar store, cigars, delaware cigars, IPCPR, oliva, Take A Cigar For A Walk, Total Tobacco

by CigarCraig | September 16, 2012 · 8:26 am

Delaware Cigar Festival 2012 Event Report

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of attending my second Delaware Cigar Festival. This festival is held at Delaware Park Racetrack in (duh) Delaware every year and organized by Gary Griffith of Delaware Cigars and Emilio Cigars fame. Gary brings together a bunch of cigar makers and reps and paying attendees get a nice bag of about 25 cigars and the vendors are selling cigars for $3 to $9 with all of the money going to charity. Instead of going from booth to booth getting a cigar from each vendor, you could buy the cigars, many of which retail for much more than $3. I haven’t heard the final tally, but I’m sure they raised many hundreds of dollars for the charity of their choice, The La Musa School of Artl in Esteli, Nicaragua.

Besides having he chance to purchase cigars cheap and talk with the reps and cigar makers, it also provided the opportunity to spend a beautiful afternoon talking to fellow cigar lovers from all over. I spent some time with my old friends Rob Heming and Dennis Shaffer, who rode their motorcycles from the Pittsburgh and Cleveland areas respectively. I had found a great parking spot and saw them circling the lot looking for a space so I invited them to share my spot. We ended up packing 4 bikes into one spot (I also finally met a gent named Ralph who rode down from north of Philly, who I had corresponded with before). It had been several years since I’d seen Rob and Dennis and it was great getting caught up. I also was happy to spend some time with Charlie Greenbacker, who I had met at this event last year, as well as meeting Irv from CigarNews.com. It was a great afternoon, great folks and great cigars.

I started the day with an Ortega Serie D maduro, which I had been craving and headed straight for Eddie’s table upon arrival. It was awesome, of course (the “D” is for delicious!). Next I smoked an Undercrown Corona Doble, which was also awesome. I hadn’t smoked a cigar that large in a while, but I had the time. I wrapped up the afternoon with a Cubanacan robusto from Eddie Tarazona, which was a nice, mild smoke with a nice flavor. This is a cigar that comes in boxes of fifty and has a price-point around$6 (if I recall). Solid, well behaved smoke with was a nice way to end the day. If you can manage to attend this event in the future you should try to do it. I have a video from the event as well as some photos below.

httpv://youtu.be/zJsr2Si-hVo

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

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under Events

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Delaware Cigar Festival, delaware cigars, Delaware Park, Emilio

by CigarCraig | February 5, 2012 · 8:49 am

A Cigar of My Own Blending, a 777 and a Grimalkin Contest!

In March of last year my son and I went to Nicaragua for Drew Estate’s Cigar Safari. One of the many cool things we did on the trip was to blend a cigar at the Joya de Nicaragua factory. The exercise highlighted Nicaraguan tobacco, there were Seco, Viso and Ligero leaves from Condega, Jalapa and Estili to choose from, as well as Habano Criollo, Dark Corojo and Ecuador Connecticut wrappers and Habano Volado, Sumatra and Ecuador Connecticut binders. It was quite the experience touching, smelling, looking at all these leaves, and watching how each leaf burned. I selected the Dark Corojo wrapper and Sumatra binder, along with Condega Seco, Esteli Viso and a blend of Condega and Esteli Ligero. The factory rolled five robustos for each of the attendees which were delivered to us on our last night. I smoked one of these after about 3 months and was amazed, and the one I smoked Friday evening was no less amazing. It burned perfectly, even burn, nice flat coal. It was vaguely reminiscent of the Antaño Dark Corojo, no surprise there given the wrapper I selected. I have 3 left, and it will be fun to pull them out after another six months or so. On this occasion my son, who had traveled with me, joined me with an Acid Kuba Kuba Maduro.

Yesterday, after napping through a near comeback by the Flyers (helpful hint, don’t get down 6-0 and expect to win…) I needed a pick-me-up so I grabbed a J. Fuego 777 Maduro Belicoso for an afternoon walk. I have really been enjoying the cigars in the J. Fuego line. So far I’ve loved them all, but the Maduro 777 has been my favorite. Dark, rich, and savory, this cigar is always a treat for my taste buds. Normally I’m not a fan of Criollo wrappers, but this one is done just right. These aren’t priced too bad either. I could smoke these all the time. I will probably shy away from this shape in the future though, as it wanted to shoot out of my mouth easier than most figurados for some reason, maybe it’s oilier than most torpedos and belicosos I smoke!

It’s contest time again!

It seems like just yesterday I was in daily contest mode! December’s 12 days of Spectacular Giveaways was a huge success (for the winners and the USPS for sure!). Thanks again to all of the sponsors for taking part. A few weeks ago I went to visit Gary Griffith of Emilio Cigars at the Peoples Plaza Cigar-ette City location and he gave me these two Grimalkin mugs for a future give-away. The future is today, my friends, so leave a comment on this post to enter and I’ll post the winner on Wednesday. The mugs are magic! they look like the one on the left until you put hot liquid in, then the eyes appear! I’m also going to include a Grimalkin Robusto from my humidor, and you never know what else might fall into the box as I’m packing it up! I will have to try to get some more of these before they change to La Musa. Many thanks to Gary for providing me with these collectors items to give away!

That’s it for today! Enter the contest, tell your friends and enjoy the day! I understand there’s some sort of sporting event on today…oh yeah, the Flyers and Rangers game this afternoon!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

39 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk

Tagged as 777, cigar, Cigar Safari, Cigar-Ette City, cigars, Contest, delaware cigars, drew estate, Emilio, Gary Griffith, Grimalkin, J. Fuego, joya de nicaragua, La Musa

by CigarCraig | January 15, 2012 · 9:17 am

A Visit to Cigar-Ette City and Gary Griffith (and a Grimalkin)

Yesterday was a bit on the chilly side, so I figured I’d look for a nice, warm indoor smoking location. I’ve been wanting to take a ride south of the boarder and visit Gary Griffith at his Peoples Plaza Cigar-Ette City store for a while, and decided the time had come. I grabbed the GPS and hit the road, taking the 1 hour and 7 minute drive. I got there a bit ahead of schedule and Gary greeted me warmly and we went into the enormous walk-in humidor. It was at that point that I realized the flaw in my plan: The State of Delaware frowns upon smoking indoors! Here we have a store that sells cigars and other tobacco products, and you can’t smoke in it. If you have been complacent in contacting your elected officials about the FDA issue, do it now. Not being able to smoke in your local shop is only scratching the surface of the “inconveniences” we’ll face it the FDA is allowed to regulate Premium Cigars.

Anyway, all was not lost. I wandered around the humidor for a while talking to Gary, and marvelling at the ridiculous amount of inventory. He had all kinds of boutique brands that I don’t see a lot of in my local shops, but hear about everywhere. The Viajes, Tatuajes, Illusiones, 262s, you name it. Boxes stacked to the ceiling, I even saw a stack of the Para Japon cigars that La Aurora made to aid the Japanese earthquake relief. Of course the Emilio and Grimalkin lines were well represented, and I picked up a couple Grimalkin Robustos while I was there. The moral of the story is that one could leave a ton of cash behind in this store, and the prices were competitive with Pennsylvania prices given that the lack of a state sales tax offsets the cigar tax.

Here’s a little video I shot with Gary telling us about what’s coming down the line in 2012 for the Emilio family of cigars. I know I’m excited to see what comes next.

httpv://youtu.be/VzeaLToxhR8

After I got home and fed, I still needed to smoke the cigar I set out earlier in the day to smoke, so I grabbed a Grimalkin Robusto and took a long and satisfying walk. The cigar was awesome, although I believe more of the subtlety and complexity is apparent when the temperatures aren’t around freezing. Still, this is an incredible cigar that everyone should try if they can. My thanks to Gary for his hospitality, and for making dynamite cigars.