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by Craig Vanderslice | November 17, 2024 · 8:50 am

A Quick Florida Trip, Part Two: The Drew Estate Florida Barn Smoker

Last Friday, after finishing up a long and excellent day at J.C. Newman, I hopped in my rented Polstar 2 and made my way to the Orlando area. Traffic sucked, and I never really got to see what that car could do. It was about the cheapest rental I could find, and I only spent about $22 charging it after driving it around all weekend. I forgot to mention in my last post about the “lunch” I got from the La Segunda Bakery a short walk from El Reloj. Not the healthiest choice, but the cinnamon rolls and apple turnovers were delicious, and filled me up for the day. The iced coffee was darned good too. I could do some damage there under different circumstances. Also notable was the park the Newmans have built across from the factory, the Cigar Workers Park. It was a beautiful place to pre-game before our tour. Now that I’m caught up, it’s on to the Barn Smoker. I left the hotel early, and got to the Florida Sun Grown Farm about two hours before the event opened, so I got a good parking spot. I managed to get in line with some folks who manage two of the CigarCigars shops in Sarasota, so we had some mutual friends. CigarCigars has a bunch of stores in my area. I’ve been to Barnsmokers in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, so I had an idea what to expect, and I’ve toured the FSG farm before. I went into this one to enjoy myself, and see some old friends. Amongst the friends I spent some time with were Rebecca and Jason of Ash Quarterly Magazine. I met them at the last PCA show I attended and Jason and I hit it off. I was very happy to be able to hang out with them for a while. As I’ve done in the past, I smoked the Liga Privada Serie Unico A, as I never have any faith that a cigar that long is going to survive the trip home. It was excellent, although t didn’t burn particularly well.

The grounds were set up nicely, with a lot of room to spread out. Of course, there was a big tent with tables (as per tradition, most of the ashtrays were stolen early). DJ Eli was playing music, too loud in my opinion. It always mystifies me that companies get 6-800 people together and drown out conversation with loud music. They had a live band playing later in the day. I made my way around all te activation stations early before they got crowded. There only seemed to be one educational portion, in the past it was very scheduled, with the crowd broken into several groups who rotated through several stations with various people, WIllie Herrera, Pedro Gomez, Jon Drew and usually the farm owner, giving talks on various aspects of the life cycle of a cigar. Another thing that was different from other events I’ve attended was the food. There was a buffet/food line after the educational portion in the past, this time they had several food trucks with coupons for each. This was a better way to do it, from my standpoint. Folks were free to get food at their leisure. There were also a lot of liquor stations, in which I was not interested. They did have plenty of water and soft drinks available at all times. The food was good, I sampled smash burger and some BBQ pork sliders with mac and cheese.

Only because I know somebody, I snuck in the back of the “Black Widow Saloon” for the tasting seminar that was going on. This was an inflatable, air conditioned structure for the VIPs (I was just a P). It was packed with people, and had a nice spread of cookies and brownies and assorted goodies. Rob Dietrich, the master distiller of the Blackened Whiskey, and JD were leading the tasting. Again, booze isn’t my thing, but I’m glad I got to see inside the saloon. This would be a nice place to cool off if it wasn’t so crowded. The baked goods were excellent.

I stayed until the end, my flight home wasn’t until 5am Sunday, so I didn’t have anyplace else to be. Traveling alone, I sometimes get bored, this time I knew and met enough people there to occupy my time. It was a good time, people were well behaved for the most part, almost surprising given the amount of booze available. Cigars were plentiful and delicious. Everyone should go to at least one of these events, remember to bring $10 to “buy” your pack of cigars at entrance. The swag was very nice (picture above), not over the top. I did have an interesting experience with the spray can lighter going through TSA, they had never seen anything like it before and it took much examination and scrutiny to get through. I would have surrendered it rather than cause any trouble, but it got through fine (the actual working lighter in my other bag went undetected). It will probably end up in the Christmas Givaway! Thanks to the folks at Drew Estate for including me. I wish communication would have been better between some parties, that would have made the weekend a 100% success. I spent the week smoking some of the cigars I got there, it annoys me that I like the 20 Acre Farm as much as I do, and the Blackened S83 has grown on me. There wasn’t a bad cigar in the bunch.

I’ve opened up the annual CigarCraig.com Secret Santa, if you want to join in, here’s the link: CigarCraig’s Secret Santa 2024. We’ve had a small, but high quality, group in the past. Jump in, it’s a lot of fun sharing your favorite cigars with people! That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Barn Smoker, cigar, cigars, drew estate, El Segunda, Florida, Florida Sun Grown

by Craig Vanderslice | May 17, 2024 · 8:22 pm

JR Cigars Exclusive Deadwood Girl With No Name

Drew Estate’s Deadwood line has really taken off in popularity over the last few years. The line is an expression of the Natural, later Larutan, line, which uses varieties of tobacco which is more usually used in pipe tobacco. It’s even cased like pipe tobacco, giving it a sweetness. I used to argue that these aren’t flavored or infused, but technically they are flavored, in as much as an aromatic pipe tobacco is flavored. Recently Drew Estate has begun producing The Girl With No Name, exclusively for some of the large retailers. This iteration has an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, as opposed to the maduro wrapper on the Fat Bottom Betty, Sweet Jane, Crazy Alice, and Leather Rose. JR Cigar’s exclusive is a robusto size, 5″ x 50. You can get a 5-pack at JR’s for $23, which is pretty reasonable.

I smoked a few of these, as well as a Leather Rose for reference and quite enjoyed the cigars. They do have a sweet cap. so if your opposed to that, this might not be for you. I smoked them with desert in mind, after dinner, and I enjoyed the sweetness, it’s a nice change of pace. There’s sweet exotic spice, and some mellow nuttiness from the shade wrapper. Burn and draw were perfect, which I’ve come to expect from Drew Estate products. One thing I will say is that smoking another cigar after this isn’t recommended, the finish is quite long. If you like the Deadwood line, I think this would be a nice change of pace, I might even like it more, it’s brighter and rather tasty!

JR Cigars provided these cigar for me to sample, links included are affiliate links, Use code FORYOU for 25% OFF. That’s all for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Deadwood, drew estate, Girl With No Name, JR Cigars

by Craig Vanderslice | November 26, 2023 · 9:57 am

A Drew Estate Nightshade and a Few Lampert Cigars

Thanksgiving is behind us and we have Christmas and Hanukkah to look forward to, then New Years and we can start this whole mess all over again! As we’ve done for the past few years, I’ve started a CigarCraig Secret Santa through Elfster. You can go HERE to sign up. It’s a simple $40 minimum, send what you like. I send without expectation, it isn’t a trade, I look at it as gifting, I don’t worry about getting! I think that’s the most healthy way to go into these things. So far there are 7 people signed up, let’s get a bunch of people this year! I also have some of the usual holiday giveaways planned, so stay tuned! I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend!

I smoked a few new cigars this weekend, one wasn’t new but new to me. I’ve been hearing about the JR Cigars Exclusive Drew Estate Nightshade for quite a while and never got around to trying it, so I ordered a five pack recently. Don’t forget to click through the JR Cigars and Cigars.com affiliate links on the left sidebar if you order from either place! I got the 5″ x 52 robusto because that’s what was available in a fiver at the time, of course I would rather have had the toro. This cigar has a maduro Connecticut Habano wrapper, Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. I think this falls somewhere near a Nica Rustica and an Undercrown Maduro for me, which both have Broadleaf wrappers, so are sweeter. This is a little earthier than those, but it has a nice flavor, for a reasonable price, it’s an interesting cigar. I think if you like the Liga Privada T52, you’ll enjoy this. I think you can get a box of 20 for around a c-note. That moves it well into the great cigar for the price category.

I’ve recently gotten a sampler of cigar courtesy of Lampert cigars, a company I’ve heard of, but haven’t really seen on local shelves. I tried three this week and will attache the other three next week. I tried to arrange them logically, next weeks will be the three in the Nicaraguan 1675 line, this week I smoked the cigars made in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. The first one was the Lampert 1593 Oscura. Lampert is another company that devotes one size per blend apparently, with this one coming in a 6″ x 52 toro. Is it any wonder I was drawn to it first? It’s listed as having a Mexican wrapper, Indonesian binder and Dominican filers. The factory is called El Maestro, which is the smaller William Ventura factory, the one that didn’t burn down. I don’t have a track record of liking cigars from this factory, however this one is an exception, it was really good. I questioned the wrapper seed varietal, which is listed simply as “Mexican”. It clearly isn’t San Andrés to my palate, it was more reminiscent of Sumatra, and I was told that it was Indonesian grown in Mexico, and since Sumatra is in Indonesia, I’m going to go with that. It’s good. It has some of that cane sweetness I like, along with just good tobacco. It’s a really nice cigar.

Next up was the Lampert Ocean Breeze. This is a 5″ x 54 Robusto with an Ecuador wrapper and binder and “undisclosed” fillers. I’m told that some tobaccos in this blend are aged near the ocean, hence the name, and I’m not sure about that, and the name sounds more like a cologne than a cigar, but what do I know, I’m just some cynical old jackass who smokes cigars. I do know that this cigar, along with the next one, is made at the Tobaccos de Costa Rica factory, the same factory that makes Atabey, Byron, Bandelero, Alphonso, apparently some El Septimos, used to make Mbombay Cigars, and, as far as I know, still makes Vegas de Santiago. I go back 20 years with Vegas de Santiago, they made some great, affordable cigars back then. Last I heard, they got rollers from Cuba on special work visas and sorta rotated them in and out as the visa allowed. It’s rumored that they use some Cuban tobacco in the blends, but Villiger tells me there’s some in the Exports too, so believe what you want. Back to the Ocean Breeze, this was a really well made cigar, and was very interesting. I found it to be bright and a bit floral, perhaps that’s the saltiness from the ocean? My compadre Kaplowitz likes this cigar, he likes stuff that isn’t necessarily in my wheelhouse.

Finally, the other cigar made a the Costa Rican factory is the Lampert Oro Don Patron. The band has a top hat wearing, bearded gent who should probably have a monocle, but does not. This is the mild line, with an Ecuador wrapper (obviously a Connecticut Shade variety), an Ecuador binder and Dominican and Peruvian fillers. This is a really well crafted cigar with a perfect burn and a well formed ash, and when I lead with construction, most of my regular readers know that I’m not excited about the flavors. True, this isn’t my style of cigar, it’s light, creamy, with some herbal and gassiness. It’s very good, if that’s what you’re looking for. I had just had Thanksgiving redux for dinner (day three!), something with more weight would have been better, but I’m not doing this for me, readers…I’d say if you are a fan of the Atabey, this will probably be a good fit for you. No idea what they cost, gotta think it’s less than the Atabey! So far, the Lampert line is impressing me.

That’s all for now, sign up for Secret Santa! Until next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 1593, cigar, cigars, Don Patron, drew estate, JR Cigars, Lampert, Nightshade, Ocean Breeze, Ora, Oscura

by Craig Vanderslice | October 15, 2023 · 11:25 am

Some Foundation Cigars, a Big Payback and a Little Papas Fritas

I went and got a flu shot and a Covid vaccine yesterday and the combination has really kicked my ass. Can’t recommend that pairing. Not sure which one gave me the fever and chills, but it was a miserable night last night, and I’m not exactly Mr. Happy this morning. We’ll see if the grass gets cut today or not, or if any cigars get smoked. Anyway, I stopped in to Cigar Mojo Thursday for their Foundation Cigars event with Eduardo Aguilar and Miguel “La Chaveta” Montanez for a quick visit. I probably could have stayed for a while, but I wanted to watch the Flyers game in the comfort of my own lounge, and I was fighting off a migraine, and a smokey lounge isn’t great for that. So I did the grab and go thing, and went home and fired up a Tabernacle Havana Seed No. 142 Doble Corona and watched some hockey. The Doble Corona is a 7″ x 54 cigar, good for the pre-game show and into the second period. The wrapper is a Connecticut grown Havana No. 142, obviously, which is a hybrid seed which is dark and oily and really quite beautiful. The binder is San Andrés and the fillers are from Estekli and Jalapa in Nicaragua and JAmastran in Honduras. This is a rich, spicy cigar with some sweetness. I also picked up a toro and a lancero, which I haven’t gotten around to smoking yet. really looking forward to those. I love the original Tabernacle, but this one is something special.

Friday I grabbed a Foundation The Wise Man Maduro in the Robusto size. I like their Robusto because it’s 5½” x 50 and skirts the line between toro and robusto. This was the sequel to the El Güegüense, which people fumbled over pronouncing. It seems it was easier to just call the maduro version by the translation: The Wise Man. Hard to argue the logic. This has a San Andrés wrapper, a COrojo 99 binder from Jalapa and fillers from Nicaragua. Being a fan of the Mexican wrapper, it’s hard for me not to love this cigar, it’s one of my favorites in the Foundation line. It checks all the boxes for me, coffee, cocoa, some spice. I dig it. I was disappointed that the new offerings from Foundation were a couple weeks out at the time they had this event. I was hoping to get the new Charter Oak offerings, even though I’m not sure I get the trend of budget lines coming out with premium offerings (Rocky Patel Edge, Brick House come to mind). I still want to try them, I’m desparate for anything new at this point!

So desperate I am for something new that I decided to smoke the new Room 101 Big Payback Redux while watching hockey yesterday afternoon. I figured this would be good for the better part of the game. Here’s what Matt Booth has to say about this cigar: “It has been my life’s mission to produce a combustible vessel so engorged and far more magnificent than its standard counterpart in cylindrical presentation, and it’s my greatest honor to offer our people such a product that overflows with both girth and grandeur.” If you’ve ever heard Matt, you just read that in his voice. This is a 7″ x 70 cigar, outside my usual comfort zone. I’ll do a 60 no problem, but a 70 is just unwieldy. I can count the number of 70 ring cigars I’ve smoked on one hand. This is a $9 cigar, and that’s the point of the brand, to give back to the loyal Room 101 supporters with a good cigar at a reasonable price. I have to say, mission accomplished, it’s a tasty cigar. This is made in Honduras, using a Honduran Olancho San Augustin wrapper (STG must grow a crapload of this as it’s been popping up on just about everything in their portfolio for the last dozen years, including Cohiba), a Connecticut Broadleaf binder and Nicaraguan, Dominican and Honduran fillers. I actually really enjoyed the cigar, which is good, because it’s a three hour commitment (a colleague noted a smoking time of 4½ hours! In a row?). Smooth, sweet nuts and creamy coffee notes. I can’t say this will be a regular for me, but if I find I need a three hour cigar, I won’t hesitate to grab one of these.

In an effort to balance things out, and since the effects of the vaccines were beginning to kick in, I decided to have something small for mey Saturday evening smoke. I hadn’t gotten around to smoking the Drew Estate H99 Papas Fritas yet, and I had bought a few several weeks ago. I figured I had smoked a behemoth cigar earlier, might as well off set things with something on the small side. This is 4½ x 44 with a pigtail cap, and made from the trimmings of the Liga Privada line. Steve Saka launched this line when he was at DE to utilize some of the valuable bench trimmings, and named it after one of his favorite things. Oh, I know, you think I’m being mean, but I’ve known Steve for over 25 years, and his favorite things are cigars, food and booze, gimme a break. Anyway, the H99 version came out last year as one of the Freestyle Live packs, and I’m not sure it would have been a big mystery, although I never saw the Freestyle Live pack, it’s a fairly distinctive format. This isn’t a pretty cigar, but it is tasty, and it burns well for a short filler cigar. I like having some short smokes around, and this and the original Broadleaf version are good ones to have. I still haven’t had the Nasty Fritas.

That’s all for today, I feel like the fever has made me drone on a bit. I’ll read this later and maybe do some editing (probably not). Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Big Payback, cigar, cigars, drew estate, Foundation, Foundation Cigar Co., H99, Havana Seed No 142, Papas Fritas, Room 101, Tabernacle, The Wise Man

by Craig Vanderslice | September 3, 2023 · 10:51 am

Rocky Patel Sixty, La Gloria Cubana Serie S, Wooden Indian’s Pig Roast and Crux Cigars

It was a busy week, I celebrated a birthday and my daughter took us all out to a Brazilian Steakhouse for dinner. That was a lot of fun, it was a tremendous parade of meat, and I dined on plenty of steer and swine. I think Evan Darnell of Red Meat Lover’s Club would have been proud. I had a lot of great cigar choices available to celebrate, but my son got me a couple of Rocky Patel Sixty Toros, which was an absolutely appropriate choice to celebrate this particular birthday. This cigar came out two years ago to celebrate Rocky’s 60th, it has a San Andrés wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and is made in Rocky’s Nicaraguan factory. I’m fortunate that Rocky made a cigar for his birthday that exactly aligns with my palate, where a lot of Rocky Patel cigars really don’t. This is a luscious, dark, rich, cigar with heavy espresso and earthiness in the second half. This was a great gift, my son has been to Nicaragua and an IPCPR show with me, so he’s no stranger to the leaf, he did well, although this one was a no-brainer. Recommended regardless of your age (within reason, you know what I mean!).

I smoked a few of the new Maduro cigars over the last couple of weeks, with some trepidation. I was so tremendously underwhelmed with the “natural” version of the Serie S, it just made me wonder how it actually got past the decision makers, I’ll give it another try in the future, maybe it needs age, but I remain dubious. Regular readers will know I’m a big La Gloria fan, it hurts my heart when I don’t like a release. I was hoping the Maduro version would offer some redemption. This was the Robusto Gordo size, 5½” x 56, which is a perfectly acceptable size. It has a San Andrés Maduro wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers, made in the El Credito sub-factory within STG’s Santiago factory. This reminds me a little of the Serie N in strength and earthiness. It’s better than it’s natural counterpart, however I don’t know that, for me, it competes favorably with the like of the Serie R Esteli Maduro. Additional samples will be put to rest for later evaluation in the LGC humidor.

Yesterday I stopped by the Wooden Indian Tobacconist in Havertown, PA where they were having their annual Drew Estate Charity Pig Roast. I may have missed dropping by one or two of these over the last decade or so, but I try to stop in, it’s always an amazing event. Dave Mayer and his staff put on a great spread, Pedro Gomez has replaced Marvin Samel as the face of Drew Estate, Matty Rock, and of course several levels of sales staff were on hand. I don’t remember it being on Labor Day weekend in the past, but I could be wrong, but the usual gang of DE loyal weren’t there, although some people came from Maryland and New York to attend. There was a good crowd for the few hours I was there (long enough to enjoy a Blackened M81 Toro, about 2 hours or so), and I enjoyed fellowship with some old and new friends. I assume a significant sum was raised for Operation: Cigars for Warriors. Wooden Indian is amongst the best shops around and they are one of two Liga Privada lounges, and, therefore, one of the only stores that has an exclusive Laga Privada, the Pancetta.

I happened to come by some Crux Epicure Habano cigars this week, in Toro and Robusto, and couldn’t wait to light one up. It’s been years since I had Crux cigar, maybe the only ones I’ve smoked are the Ninfamaniacs going back maybe a decade. They just don’t seem to be present on the shelves around here, or I don’t notice them. The line has somehow avoided my notice one way or the other. This one has a Nicaraguan Habano seco wrapper, over Nicaraguan binder and fillers made at the Plasencia factory in Nicaragua. This is a really nice, well balanced smoke, there’s a sweet spice that makes it a little brighter than the darker cigars I like, making it a pleasant change of pace. I’m actually smoking the Robusto as I type and it’s very nice with coffee, and my wife just set a plate of home fries in front of me…be right back…shit, they are hot, I’ll get back to them. Now I have a problem, because I want to try the Maduro in this blend, going to have to hunt around.