Tag Archives: drew estate

by | September 18, 2020 · 3:47 pm

News: Liga Privada Unico Serie Pancetta Returns to Wooden Indian and Barrister Cigars!

Friday news from Drew Estate. This one is special for me because it involves my friends at the Wooden Indian! I have a Pancetta in the humidor that Dave gave me out of his personal stash after the first batch had sold out, maybe that’s tonight’s cigar! It seems that folks who order a box will get some special goodies!

 

 


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rew Estate announces today the 2020 release of the limited-edition Liga Privada Unico Serie Pancetta, an exclusive cigar to the two Liga Privada Lounges, Wooden Indian Tobacco Shop in Havertown, PA and Barrister Cigars in Union, NJ.  The Pancetta will be available beginning on September 25th, when each of these exclusive retailers will be hosting a special virtual launch event.

 

The Liga Privada Unico Serie Pancetta is the union of two renowned Liga Privada blends, Liga Privada T52 and the Liga Privada Unico Feral Flying Pig. Featuring a Connecticut Stalk Cut and Cured Habano capa, this cigar starts off with a spice blast and hearty aroma, leading the enthusiast on the complex journey through “LigaLandia.” To add raw might to the blend, a bold Brazilian Mata Fina binder and powerful filler leaves from Nicaragua and Honduras were selected. These binder and filler leaves are the very same that go into the Liga Privada Unico Feral Flying Pig. These majestic tobaccos are skillfully rolled into a 4 ¾” x 50 belicoso, identified by a 2020 Release footband, to make for an unforgettable smoking experience.

 

 

From the Wynwood Safehouse, Jonathan Drew President and Founder of Drew Estate adds, “The Pancetta brings us back to the early days of the Liga Privada brandmark, representing the important brick & mortar friendships that deeply contributed to our initial success with the brand.  We took the approach of selecting a small group of accounts who we felt believed most highly in the LP project … and slowly, carefully, one-by-one, added accounts that shared our vision for the Connecticut River Valley, as well as a “Stalk Cut – Stalk Cured” process.  Barrister Cigars and Wooden Indian were among our first accounts, immediately understanding the vision and showing the love and passion for the brand.  The Pancetta is so crazy dope that I firmly suggest listening to the song “Dope Beat” while smoking this banga … btw … that’s Boogie Down Productions for those who don’t know … “who got the dope beat … we got the dope beat!!!””

 

David Mallow, owner of Barrister Cigars notes, “Since the opening of our Liga Privada Lounge with Jonathan Drew and the National Launch of two sizes of T52, Liga Privada has continually been one of the bestselling lines in our store. Our customers seek us out because of our Liga Privada selection and hard to find DE classics.”

 

David Mayer, owner of Wooden Indian, adds, “We were one of the first stores in the country to bring in Liga Privada, and we consider it a cornerstone of our humidor.”

 

The Liga Privada Unico Pancetta is packaged in 24 count boxes with an MSRP of $299.00/box, sold exclusively through Wooden Indian Tobacco Shop and Barrister Cigars. It will be available at a virtual launch event held at 5:00pm on September 25th, consumers can register via Zoom at https://Swisher.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0qdeiuqDssGtzf6vm1mUFDl8Xros3baAgu.

 

ABOUT DREW ESTATE 

Founded in New York City in 1996, Drew Estate has become one of the fastest growing tobacco companies in the world. Under their mantra “The Rebirth of Cigars”, Drew Estate has led the “Boutique Cigar” movement by innovating new elements to the tobacco industry with their unique tobaccos and blending styles that attract new and traditional cigar enthusiasts. In their Gran Fabrica Drew Estate, the Nicaraguan headquarters, Drew Estate produces a variety of brands such as ACID, Herrera Estelí, Herrera Estelí Norteño, Isla del Sol, Kentucky Fired Cured, Liga Privada, MUWAT, Larutan by Drew Estate, Nica Rustica, Pappy Van Winkle Barrel Fermented Cigars, Tabak Especial, Undercrown, Florida Sun Grown, and Java by Drew Estate.

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by | 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 had 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 same 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 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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by | September 2, 2020 · 9:48 pm

Byron 19th Century, Undercrown ShadyXX and Micallef Grande Bold Sumatra Cigars

I smoked a bunch of great cigars on my birthday weekend. After the Padron and the Unicorn on Saturday, I had to step down gradually! Sunday afternoon I selected a Byron 19th Century Grand Poemas that had spent a few years in the humidor. This cigar was a gift from David Garofalo at an IPCPR show a few years back, it had to have been 2017, as that was the last show I attended. This cigar was 6″ x 56 and I don’t believe it’s even available any more. It’s listed as a 2013 limited edition, and the blend is undisclosed. I know that it’s made in Costa Rica under the supervision of Nelson Alphonso. This was a spectacular tasting cigar, it had that hard candy sweetness that I haven’t been able to identify yet, but I love. I really need to buy a bag of old school hard candies and find that flavor, it’s one that grandma would have in her candy dish. It was perfect in burn and draw, as a cigar with a $33 price tag should be. You know me, I’m not dropping that kind of coin on a cigar,  but I certainly appreciate when I have the opportunity to sit back and enjoy such a great smoke. it was truly wonderful. Later I had another wonderful cigar, as I finished the weekend, a Joya de Nicaragua Cinco Decadas El General, a large, delicious cigar.

 

Back to reality, I decided to sample the Drew Estate Undercrown Shady XX, a line extension to the Undercrown Maduro line that came out a few years ago and I never got around to smoking. This returns this year as a limited release in the DE Summer Takeover. It’s a 5″ x 50 box pressed belicoso, for some reason it feels a little bigger than that. Usually box pressed cigars feel smaller. Much like the Dogma, this is based on the Corona Viva blend, which has some more ligero than the run of the mill Undercrown Maduro. This was a strong cigar. I felt like the strength overpowered the blend, and it was just too spicy. Maybe it was the wrong cigar for me for how I felt that day, or whatever the case, I generally like the Corona Viva and Dogma, although it’s been a few years since I’ve smoked either, oddly enough. It’s not that it kicked my ass, it was just more spice than the usual espresso/cocoa that I enjoy in the Undercrown Maduro. I’ll smoke one again under different circumstances, but I found this to be a spicy powerful smoke. 

 

Last night I went with one of my favorite milder cigars, the barber pole cigar from Danli Honduras Cigars, or, as they are now known, DAHOT cigars, The Clown. I always enjoy this smooth, flavorful cigar! Tonight I found a cigar that I got at the TPE show last January, back when things were normal. By the way, next years TPE show has been moved to May, which is interesting because it put is pretty close to the PCA show. I may be able to go, as I will have vacation time by then, and I wouldn’t have if it had been in January, not that there’s any guarantee that travel would be possible then anyway. Tonight’s cigar was the Micallef Grande Bold Sumatra. I would have thought I had smoked this cigar before, but I searched my own site and didn’t find a reference to it, so if I’m repeating myself, my apologies. This cigar was the 5″ x 54 and was box pressed, has a Sumatra wrapper (it would be dumb to name it “Sumatra” if it didn’t, right?), a Broadleaf binder, and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. I love Sumatra wrappers, and I love Broadleaf, oddly the two play nicely together making for an interesting smoke. Both qualities come through with the sweetness and some nuttiness. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was really quite good, and I enjoyed it. I think these are priced reasonable and, if I recall, are readily available, at least in my local market. The sales rep in my area is someone I’ve known for a long time, going back to the Usenet days, I seem to recall him winning an inflatable sheep at a large herf in the 90s, but perhaps that’s another story. Micallef seems to be making good cigars and doing the right things for retailers and consumers from what I can see.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | August 23, 2020 · 10:46 am

A Liga Privada Serie Unico “A” and Some JRE Aladino Cigars

Friday wrapped up my first week at the new job, and I felt like it was a success, and my boss expressed his satisfaction, so it seems like it’s going to be a good gig. As I often do, I rummaged through the humidors looking for a cigar, and I wanted something befitting the occasion, but not only did I want something to celebrate the end of the work week (by the way, this is the first time since April of 2018 that I’ve worked Monday to Friday, 8-4:30, like a regular person!), but I also wanted something that would get me fairly deep into game 6 of the Flyers, possibly clinching, playoff game. I was in the NewAir CC-300H and spied a pair of Drew Estate Liga Privada Serie Unico “A”s, one each from two of the Barnsmokers I’ve been to on the top shelf. I also have a coffin with two that’s probably 6 years old in there, but these two were just sitting there on the shelf, vulnerable, so I took one to smoke. I figured this was a great occasion for a 9¼” x 48 cigar. I must have smoked one of these sometime over the past few years, because I should have had one more I think, but I can’t really remember. I took a walk, my usual one mile loop, and got back and had a double corona. By the time the Hockey game started I had a Churchill. The cigar got me through the first two periods. The timing was excellent. Flavorwise it was a nice cigar, T-52ish on the Liga scale. It has the Stalk Cut Connecticut Habano wrapper, which is amazing that the grow the leaves that large.  It starts a little milder than a normal Liga, but the smoke has a mile of tobacco to filter it. It was a great tasting cigar, not overly unique or exciting, but interesting enough to not get bored with it over the two and a half hours I spent smoking it. Would I smoke another one? You bet! 

 

I’m smoking an JRE Aladino Connecticut Robusto as I type this, more as we go along. CigarProp Kevin sent me an Aladino sampler and apart from the Maduro, Toro and Lancero I really haven’t smoked any JRE cigars. I’ve been working my way through the sampler this weekend. I started with the Aladino Corojo Reserva. One can’t help but notice the similarity between the Aladino band and the old Camacho bands, and the similarity extends to the authentic corojo in blend and the fact that the flavor of the cigar harkens back to the many Camacho Corojos I smoked in the 90s and early 2000s, when Julio Eiroa and his son Christian owned Camacho. I actually smoked my first Camacho in 1996, but it was pre-Christian’s involvement I think. This is a bold smoke with rich leather and spice and I liked it a lot, as much for the sentimentality as the flavor. It was perfectly constructed, and a pleasure to smoke.

 

The Connecticut is very flavorful, not at all mild, and quite tasty! Perfect with coffee and staying lit while I’m ignoring it for long stretches while I type my nonsense. I was quite intrigued by the JRE Aladino Cameroon. Any time I see a Cameroon made by someone that’s not Fuente, La Aurora, Partagas, or someone who’s been making Cameroon cigars for decades, I look forward to seeing the interpretation. I love Cameroon, it’s a great tasting wrapper, and even when used as a binder it adds a little something extra (look at the CroMagnon, it has a Cameroon binder and I think that is part of what makes it unique). This is another Aladino that burned perfectly. They really know how to make cigars right in this factory. I’m guessing the whole Bayer Crop Science processes they use on the farms extends to the factory as well, with regards to the quality control processes. The Cameroon had the nutty flavor on top of a fairly full bodied core which is a little different. Cameroon was almost a background flavor and not dominant, as it is in many cigars with that wrapper. That was my take on it anyway. The same can be said for this Connecticut I’m smoking now, although the shade wrapper flavor is a bit more dominant, but the slight sweet grassiness is there, but it’s got a bit off ass to it! It’s no wimpy smoke. I have to say, my favorite Connecticut wrapped cigars hail from Honduras, and this ranks right up there. Very nice. 

 

So far, I have to say that to my palate, the JRE line suits me more than the CLE line. I’ve known Christian personally for many years (and he’s never once given me a cigar, btw 😁, no that it factors in to this), but I haven’t yet found a CLE cigar that trips my trigger. The Asylums I like. JRE, in my limited sampling, are outstanding, remind me of the tons of Camachos I smoked years ago, and get my attention. Thanks again to Kevin for sharing. Speaking of Kevin, and there will be more on this later, but head over to Smoke Inn and buy one of his samplers in their Battle of the Bands! All of the contestants are great, all of them are friends of mine, but I think Kevin is the new guy on the block and the underdog, and has a great sampler. That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig 

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by | July 29, 2020 · 8:28 am

Undercrown Sungrown Dojo Dogma Cigar

We have been working on freshening up the screen porch over the last several weeks, and got one of the bigger parts of it tackled for the most part over the last couple days. That, along with a long awaited NHL game yesterday afternoon, I felt like a special treat, so I grabbed the new Undercrown Dojo Dogma sample that I recently received from Drew Estate and fired it up. You may recall from my post in June (here), this is the follow-up to the Undercrown Dogma, which was Smoke Inn‘s and Cigar Dojo‘s first collaboration, and was a 6″ x 56 box pressed version of the Undercrown Corona Viva blend, which was a punched up version of the Undercrown blend. It had a little extra ligero. Think of a world where Steve Saka never worked for Drew Estate, now imagine the Mi Querida is the Undercrown, and the Triqi Traca is the Corona Viva/Dogma blend, that’s the best comparison I can make. Steve would probably get mad at me for making that comparison, but he never reads this, so I’m pretty safe, unless one of you jerks outs me. Anyway, The Sungrown Dogma has one distinct disadvantage off the bat from the Maduro version, in my opinion, it’s an inch shorter at 5″ x 56. Otherwise, it’s a beautiful cigar. It’s nicely box pressed, it’s firm, it’s solid, it burns well, the ash is perfect, and the draw is perfect. I lit this up and got the sweetness I love from the Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, but there’s the little extra oomph that’s not there in the regular line! There are  the familiar spices and sweet bready flavors that I like in this line with a little bit extra! By the way, I did  smoke a Gran Toro later to satisfy my curiosity, and, yes, the Dogma does have some more punch than the Gran toro! Maybe five inches IS the right size for this blend! When I got to the end, about half way through the first period of the exhibition game between the Flyers and the Penguins, it had picked up in the strength department. In comparison, later that night, I didn’t feel like the Gran Toro was as strong as it neared the end, and I typically smoke cigars until either my fingers burn or I get bored with them, these bothe burned my fingers. By the way, interestingly, this cigar has the T52 wrapper as the binder (obviously not wrapper quality leaves). Shoot, that was my last Gran Toro, I need to get some more. Great job with these Mr. Herrera. 

 

So, a couple notes. I still need to smoke the new version of the Maduro Dogma, I have one from the original release in my humidor. I know they have a corona (actually a corona gorda technically) in the Sungrown line, but will they make a Corona Viva with the punched up blend? Will they “Dogmafy” the Undercrown Shade, or will that just be whoring out the name or jumping the shark? Things that pop into my head. Anyway, the Undercrown Sungrown Dojo Dogma is awesome, if you like the Sungrown, or like Sumatra, you’ll dig it. 

 

Finally, next Monday is Goose’s Philly Golf outing, I’ll be there cheerleading, or something, so if you are in the area and golf, hit Goose up and come along, it’ll be a great day!  You can download the registration form here. 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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