Tag Archives: DOn Juan Calavera

by Craig Vanderslice | October 18, 2020 · 11:40 am

An Island Jim San Andrés No. 2 and a Contest!

I know, you’re saying to yourself: “didn’t Craig just have a great contest a few weeks ago? Is he going back to his old ways?” Well, it just works out that a cool item came across my doorstep that I wanted to share with you guys, and why wait, but more on that in a bit. First, I made another visit to one of my local CigarCigars shops, this time the one in Berwyn, PA. Kameron is the manager there, and curates the Instagram account for the shop. I have been seeing his proclivity for pics of vanity license plates, so I figured there was one glaring omission from his collection and it was my responsibility to fill that void! Give him a follow (CigarsBerwyn), and make sure you follow CigarCraig1 (CigarCraig has gone dormant as I can no longer log in!). While there I picked up a few new-to-me cigars, as I do, and smoked the Island Jim San Andrés No.2 last night. I smoked the regular issue No. 2 several years ago on a birthday visit to Cigar Mojo. Holy crap, I just checked and it was 2014, can you believe the Island Jim No. 2 has been around for over 6 years? Damn! That’s just stupid. I guess it’s no more stupid than me eating an Island Jim BBQ Pineapple Pork stick well over two years past its sell-by date (I did this recently, BTW, it was good!). The San Andrés No. 2 has the same 6″ x 52 Torpedo shape as the Original, which has a Jalapa wrapper, and I assume this also has Honduran binder and fillers with, obviously, a San Andrés wrapper. It also has the stripped head and shaggy foot. I really enjoyed this cigar! It reminded me of the old Leccia Luchadors with the spicy cocoa flavors, and I don’t think that has anything to do with both Jim and Sam being from Pittsburgh. This was a really good smoke and I recommend it!

Contest!

Hopefully you didn’t just skip through the Island Jim part, because I really spent some time on it. Anyway, let me tell you about this contest! One of my favorite things to do is to share things that I really enjoy, hoping that others will enjoy them too. My friends at Cigar Oasis are the exclusive distributor of a product that I’ve been using long before they became involved, so when they sent me one, I decided this would be a great time to share one with one of my readers! About 6 years ago I discovered the AshStay ashtray, and I’ve been using mine daily on my porch ever since. This thing is great. It keeps the smell and mess contained, and doesn’t look unsightly. When my grandkids come over I don’t even have to clean up and put it away! It’s super cool! Mine is white, and if I clean it (big if!), it looks brand new. The one they sent is Gunmetal, normally I’m a big fan of Gunmetal, but I have a perfectly good white one, and have plenty of ashtrays, so I’m willing to part with this one! Also, from Cigar Oasis, is a Caliber IV Digital Hygrometer. I have been using one of these for years as well and it’s a great hygrometer! Of course, it wouldn’t be a CigarCraig contest without some cigars. I put together a seven cigar sampler of one of my favorite unknown cigar brands, Danli Honduras Tobacco (DAHOT) from my humidor. These are cigars that I really love, and love to share. There’s Don Juan Calavera in Connecticut, Maduro and Sumatra, Flor Maya in Connecticut and Habano, The Clown Corojo and Marchetti box pressed Maduro. These are some of my go-to cigars, I love them all. The Don Juan Calavera Connecticut is one of my favorite Connecticut cigars, and the Sumatra was my favorite cigar of 2018. The usual rules apply. Leave a comment on this blog post, and this blog post only, to enter. You need to be of legal age in your jurisdiction to win cigars. I’ll select a winner next Sunday, October 25, 2020. It would be great if the winner read the blog post and emailed me their shipping info instead of me having to track them down 😉 ! Good luck!

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

CigarCraig

28 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as Ashstay, Calibur IV, cigar, CigarOasis, cigars, Danli Honduras Tabacos, DOn Juan Calavera, Flor Maya, Hygrometer, Island Jim, Marchetti, The Clown

by Craig Vanderslice | April 19, 2020 · 8:48 am

A Yargüera H. Upmann Toro and Some Other Cigars

I haven’t gotten to anything new in the second half of the week, I went with some standards. I smoked a Mi Querida Ancho Larga, and whenever I smoke one of these I can’t be happier. This cigar is just about as good as it gets. I have a Unicorn in my humidor that I’m kind of saving for when I finally land that next job, but when I smoke a Mi Querida it’s hard for me to imagine how the Unicorn could be that much better! It hits my palate just right. I had the Ancho Larga (might have been my last one), and an Umbagog in my hand and went for the Mi Querida, but the Umbagogs are awesome too. I also went with another favorite, the Don Juan Calavera, this time the Connecticut. This is among my favorite Connecticuts because it has a very rich flavor and doesn’t have any grassy flavors that one finds in some shade wrapped cigars. I had to deliver a new chick to my daughter for my grandaughters to raise (6 chickens isn’t enough, we decided to add a few more to the flock, and the girls needed something to do while they are home), so I took a La Gloria Cubana Serie R Esteli Maduro Sixty for the ride home. I really enjoy this cigar, and I enjoy the Nicaraguan wrapper version too, but I dig the Broadleaf. I prefer the Toro, but I had a handful of the gordos and it was the first one I grabbed out of the humidor. It was a great cigar. With everything going on in the world, having a couple cigars that were just absolute winners to my palate was quite therapeutic.

Yesterday I decided to take a shot and try a cigar for the third time that I didn’t really care for the first two times I smoked it. It’s been a few years, so I figured it was time to give my last Yargüera H. Upmann a try. To be honest, Altadis may not even make this anymore, although the yarguera.com website does have a 2020 copyright date. This toro has probably been in the humidor for close to four years, and I haven’t really been to keen to smoke it since I cared for it so little initially. I have to say, this one wasn’t bad. It performed well, and had a pleasant flavor. I’m not going to bother running out to someplace that’s doing curbside pickup and getting more, because the leathery flavor with very little sweetness or spice isn’t my preferred flavor profile, but it wasn’t bad and I was satisfied with the cigar. I guess it a few years of age helped. I can remember smoking H. Upmanns when I first got started 25 years ago, I think they had Cameroon wrappers, but except for the newer AJ Fernandez Upmann I haven’t been too much of a fan. I do like some of the Cuban H. Upmanns though.

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

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as Altadis USA, cigar, cigars, DOn Juan Calavera, La Gloria Cubana, Mi Querida, Yargüera H. Upmann

by Craig Vanderslice | February 16, 2020 · 10:18 am

A Visit to Best Cigar Pub, Blackbird Cigar Co. Cigars and Video and Contest Winner

Yesterday I found myself wandering much further north in PA than I usually find myself. There was a seminar on Bees and Chickens that my wife and I attended, and I snuck off during the second half to do some of my own research. Twenty minutes away from the venue where the seminar was held happened to be the brand new Best Cigar Pub, and Best Cigar Prices headquarters. I figured this would be a good place to visit. Fortunately, the purchasing manager, Chris O’Neill, managed to arrange a tour for me. Katie (Katy? I forgot to clarify), the Finance/HR director, gave me a tour of the entire facility. Why do small companies always saddle the Finance director with HR responsibilities? Like they don’t have enough to worry about? I digress. I had already given myself a tour of the retail humidor, which has a very nice selection and courteous service. Katie showed me the bar, pointed out many of the little things like custom tables with actual tobacco leaves under acrylic, art on the wall done by a local artist, all of the ashtrays made by a local craftsman. She pointed out the excellent menu as well. She then waled me through the Best Cigar Prices operations, all of the offices, warehouse, shipping and all of the stuff I enjoy seeing as a guy who’s spent his professional career in operations. They run a very clean and efficient pick, pack, and ship operation from what I can see. All of the marketing, customer service, web design is all done there in Pennsylvania. I was quite impressed with the operation. I’ll get back to the Pub, which was even more impressive. Upstairs is a lounge with TVs and comfy chairs, wait-staff is attentive and the air handlers replace all the air in the place every three minutes, so it’s not smokey at all. They even have a coat closet in the entry that has an ozone generator so that your coat doesn’t smell smokey. They’ve really thought of everything to make this not just a place to come have a cigar, but a place that smokers and non-smokers alike can enjoy a meal or a beverage together. I enjoyed a 601 Pennsylvania Edition, which is an Espinosa exclusive for BCP. Chris happened to join me and interrupted me while I was taking in the museum portion of the upstairs lounge, which is an educational feature they’ve added. It has the origin story of cigars with a timeline and facts about cigars, infographics about the tobacco plant, how cigars are made, every conceivable detail. Chris tells me they plan to have monitors with video loops of various processes playing included in the wall as well. Best Cigar Pub is a beautiful place, it’s easy enough to find, although not exactly in the middle of anything. I can see it being amazing in the summer with the outdoor patios and putting green and nobody around to really complain! Certainly worth a visit if you are anywhere near north-east PA.

I had heard of Blackbird Cigar Company, but hadn’t seen the cigars any where. When I walked past the booth and they weren’t busy, it seemed like a great time to stop in and see what it they were all about. Imagine my surprise when the owner and founder of the company, Jonas Santana, looked at me and said “I know who you are”. It seems he used to work for another company, and struck out on his own to start Blackbird. I think it was on CigarProp’s youtube channel that I remember hearing about the brand. Anyway, I asked Jonas to share the story of the brand with me on camera. have a look:

Over the course of the past several days I smoked a few of the Blackbird cigars offerings. I would have lined to have smoked them all, but I just couldn’t get to them. They have six cigars in the portfolio, and I can’t run down my smoking experience for six cigars in one post. They very cleverly make the bands on the cigars easy to remove, which is good because they are large bands and doo need to be removed to fully enjoy the cigar! They have two Sumatra wrapped offerings, and, as I’ve been on a Sumatra kick lately, and I smoked the Sumatra Rook with them at the TPE and really enjoyed it, I smoked the Finch this week. This was another excellent Sumatra wrapped cigar. It had the nice, sweet Sumatra wrapper flavor and a well-balanced core of tobacco goodness withinThis has an Indonesian binder, and Dominican and USA fillers. It was solidly medium bodied and a very nice cigar. Next I went with what you’d expect from me, the San Andrés wrapped Crow. It was Valentines Day, and I figured the red band would be appropriate. This cigar had a closed foot, and a dark, oily wrapper. The flavors were earthy and bakers chocolate, perhaps espresso, without sweetness. The internals on this one include a Habano binder and Nicaraguan, Pennsylvanian, and Corojo and Criollo 98 fillers. Very enjoyable. Finally, last night after a long day trip, I unwound with the Unkind, a Brazilian Cubra wrapped cigar. This was also a maduro cigar, and, like the rest, a 5″ x 50 robusto. The binder on this one is from the DR, with Criollo 09, HBA (not sure what this means), Corojo and Pennsylvania. One thing I can say about all of the Blackbird cigars I smoked was that that all were well made and burned right, an important consideration. It’s possible that the PA tobacco was a common flavor component that I picked up though the few cigar I smoked this week. You’ll see if you watch the video that some thought went into the brand, and the same attention went into the quality of materials and manufacture as well. The Unkind had a unique flavor, also an earthy maduro, not really sweet. It was very good though, I enjoyed it completely. I still have the Connecticut Jackdaw and Criollo Cuco yet to smoke, I kind of like those two wrapper varieties more in warmer weather for some reason. I’ll get to them and let you know.

Contest!

OK, so after a lot of money and aggravation, my site is clean. It’s time to pick a winner of the sampler of some of my favorite cigars, Don Juan Calavera, Flor Maya and Marchetti cigars from Danli Hondura Tabaco, and I had to collect entries from two different places. After collecting all of the names, and putting them into a bowl (OK, I put them into a spreadsheet and randomized the list to mix them up and assign them numbers), the random number generator picked Anthony C as the winner. Please email me your coordinates and proof that you are 21 or older so I can get these goodies to you. I have a KMA Talk Radio hat and shirt and a Stage V Clinger cigar holder to add as well (it’s a big shirt, do with it what you will, I take no responsibility. If it fits, great!).

That’s all for today, and way more than I had planned! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review, Stores, TPE, Trip Report, Video

Tagged as 601, Best Cigar Prices, Best Cigar Pub, Blackbird Cigar Co., cigar, cigar store, cigars, Contest, Crow, Danli Honduras Tabacos, DOn Juan Calavera, Finch, Flor Maya, Marchetti, Rook, Unkind

by Craig Vanderslice | February 12, 2020 · 9:48 am

Danli Honduras Cigars Sampler Contest Extension!

Since I’ve had so much trouble this week that resulted in some significant downtime, as well as maybe some reluctance to visit due to the threat of infection, I figure it’s best to extend the contest until Sunday. Everything is cleaned up now thanks to an investment in SiteLock, lots of aggravation and communication with my host and the folks at Sitelock to get things cleaned up and back in business. So here’s the deal: There are 19 entries on the original contest post (here) I will combine entries there along with entries here (no duplicates please), and pick a winner on Sunday, February 16, 2020. Here is the current prize:

There are two of each of each cigar in the Danli Honduras Tabaco portfolio that I have in my possession. I haven’t gotten my hands on the new Clown barber pole, and I think there’s a natural wrapper Marchetti. This is 14 cigars from my humidor, all cigars that I would happily smoke myself, and do frequently. As a matter of fact, Sunday I stopped by Cigar Mojo and picked up the Flor Maya Maduros, and bought a Don Juan Calavera Sumatra to smoke there, even though I have a box in my humidor at home. Cigar Mojo is one of three retailers that I know of in the country that carries these, so give them a call if you want to get some! I also have some other swag to throw in with the cigars! So leave a comment here, or on the other post!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

10 Comments

Filed under Contest

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Contest, Danli Honduras Tabacos, DOn Juan Calavera, Flor Maya, Marchetti

by Craig Vanderslice | February 6, 2020 · 11:15 am

TPE 2020 Day 3: The Vape/Alternative Side Walk-Around and Contest Time!

I spent this morning cleaning up a malware/phishing situation on my site for which my host suspended my account. If you happened to visit and got a screen saying the account was suspended, that’s why. I only have opt-in email alerts, so don’t say yes to any other prompts for notifications if you get any! I’m working on getting it figured out. I don’t know if I picked up more than a head cold in Vegas or what. Anyway, I wanted to share with you the video walk through of the Vape/ alternative portion of the Tobacco Plus Expo. I’ll be honest, the first few times I ventured onto the blue carpet, I freaked out a little and made a hasty retreat to the safety of the red area. I supposed it validated my old-fuddyduddyness a little. I noticed a great many disposable vape products, which was a surprise to me. The first reason it was a surprise was that I thought the target market for this sort of product was supposed to be more socially conscious and recycling minded. In a world where we have people carrying stainless steel drinking straws, using a disposable vape with a battery seems counterintuitive. That being said, I was approached by a young man who offered me samples, and as I explained my cigar passion and how it doesn’t involve getting a quick fix, I did accept one for my cousin who is a cigarette smoker, and I had observed smoking about half a cigarette at a time. The product was from a company called Hitt, and I mention it here as a courtesy to them as they were kind enough to provide me with samples when I tried to talk them out of it. My cousin, a long time Marlboro Red, and formerly Winston smoker, found that he liked the flavor, and liked that he could just take a few hits and put it down. He was going to experiment with it and see if it could wean if off cigarettes. I hope it works for him as he’s recently lost weight through diet and exercise and quitting cigarettes would be one more thing to help him lead a healthier life (he’s ten years my senior). Anyway, not cigar related, but I wanted to mention that since they were nice enough to force samples on me 🙂 . Enjoy the walk through. If there’s an interest, I’ll put the 20 minute real-time version up on YouTube.

Contest!

I’ve been threatening this for a while. As you well know, I’ve become a huge fan of Danli Honduras Tobacco’s cigars. It’s come to my attention that one of my local shops, Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA, has started carrying the line. I have a feeling that Trae might have gotten the idea to bring them in from me, but I haven’t confirmed that. I need everyone to call or e-mail Trae (610-564-2471 or@CIGAR-MOJO TRAE .COM) and order some Don Juan Calavera or Flor Maya cigars from him! You don’t even have to tell him I sent ya. Anyway, to celebrate another place to buy these great cigars in the US, I’m going to give some of mine away. I’ve assembled a sampler. I have everything in the line except the Flor Maya Maduro and the Clown, the latter of which I haven’t even smoked yet. There’s Don Juan Calavera Connecticut, Maduro and Sumarta, Flor Maya Habano and Connecticut, and Marchitti. If I can get my hands on the other ones they will be included. The prize with include two of each cigar pictured, and there will be other swag included at my whim! That’s a minimum of a dozen cigars, and some other goodies. Usual rules apply. one entry per person, must be over twenty one to win, and I’ll pick a winner next Wednesday, February 12, 2020. Only comments on this site will count as entries. Good luck! The winner will enjoy these cigars!