Tag Archives: Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust

by | June 19, 2022 · 9:10 am

Red Meat Lovers Battleship New Jersey Meat and Cigars Event

Happy Father’s Day to everyone! Later today I will smoke an Esperanza Para Los Niños torpedo, a cigar which was my traditional Father’s Day cigar for the better part of 20 years, until I smoked the last cigar out of the box I bought in June of 2000. An old friend sent me the better part of a box earlier this year so I could continue the tradition, after taking last year off.  For those unfamiliar, this cigar was made by Christian Eiroa with the help of some members of the alt.smokers.cigars Usenet group back in 1999 and sold to benefit children orphaned by hurricane Mitch. It’s a maduro cigar, and the last one’s I smoked had held up well over the 20 years, we’ll see how they’ve continued to mature later today!  Thanks Roger Farnsworth!  

 

Thursday evening we had the great fortune of attending the Red Meat Lover’s Club “meating” on the Battleship New Jersey, which is docked right across the river from Philadelphia in Camden, NJ. I’ve seen it, but never been aboard, one day I would love to go back and take the tour.  It’s a big ship, and we dined on the fantail. The event was a benefit for the ship, and it’s my hope that a substantial sum was raised, I know that we contributed through the silent auction (my wife purchased a Beatles piece). We arrived early and hung out with Steve Saka (my wife now refers to him as “SquishySquatch”), who was also early, so that was nice. The food was amazing and abundant. Guys were walking around sucking on tomahawk bones, we had cheese steaks, smashburgers, delicious ribeye, and “macaroni and cheese” from an outfit from my wife’s ancestral home of Abruzzo, Italy.  I was trying to steer (😉) clear of carbs and stick to proteins at this event, but the pasta was outrageously good. I also got sucked into some rolls, as the cheesesteak and smashburgers seemed to be a bad idea without them. I consumed a satisfying amount, and they had cookies too!  I skipped the pig, and there was something salad-like I saw (that’s what food eats!) Evan Darnell, the secretary of steak, the head cheese, the ringleader of this whole thing, put on an amazing event. We even got to hang out with some old and new friends! Kevin and Jessica from CigarProp were there, and I finally got to meat and hang out with Lee McClain, LeeMack912 on Youtube.  Lee was one of those guys who, even though you’ve never met, you feel like you know, and you’re instant friends, great dude. We also met some other great folks there, and saw other old friends, it was a good time. I highly recommend attending a Red Meat Lovers Club event if one comes to your area.  Since Saka was the cigar sponsor, of course the cigars were outstanding, everyone got a bag with a Sobremesa Brulee, a Mi Querida and a Sin Compromiso, all top notch smokes. Casa de Montecristo was there selling Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust cigars as well. Let me tell you, there’s not many things better than a Sin Compromiso after a smorgasbord of meat!  Thanks Evan!

 

 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | December 5, 2021 · 10:05 am

Crook of the Crown, Triqui Traca, and Room 101 Cigars

As the holidays and year end gets closer things seem to get busier. As I mentioned in last Sunday’s post, I went to Son’s Cigars and hung out with the crew from Stolen Throne Cigars, less brand-owner Lee Marsh, who’s wife has been expecting their son to be born any day and felt that being five hours from home would be less than prudent. What a wuss. 😀. I got past the initial disappointment, and hung out and smoked cigars with them, and my friend Greg, whom I’ve known since high school. I smoked another Three Kingdoms Toro, and a Crook of the Crown Robusto while there, and during the week I smoked a Crook of the Crown Toro. These are some outstanding cigars. The Crook of the Crown has a San Andrés wrapper, and is exactly my kind of cigar, it’s down and dirty, reich and earthy, but I think I like the Three Kingdoms a little more! I love the sweetness it has. They both have a place, and I think I smoked more of those two cigars last week than I’ve smoked any one brand of cigars in a week in a long time. I just got hooked on them. Great stuff from the Rojas factory in Esteli. I’m still looking forward to meeting Lee, I’m told there will be another event in the Spring at Son’s, hopefully he doesn’t have another lame excuse! Meeting Kevin, JR, and Josh made up for his absence. 

 

I know a lot of seasoned cigar smokers like smaller cigars, and I do consider myself a seasoned cigar smoker. Heck, I’ve been smoking cigars for 25 years, that should count, right? I actually prefer larger cigars, smaller cigars don’t satisfy me. There are times, however, when time doesn’t allow for a larger cigar. If I don’t have 45 minutes, Im just not even going to have a cigar, if I have 45 minutes to an hour, I figure I can squeeze in a petite corona or a short robusto or one of the smaller formats. Such an occasion presented itself Friday. My youngest son (27), graduated from Nursing school Thursday evening, so we celebrated Friday evening with a family dinner. I snuck in a Montecristo No. 5 which I had purchased at the Duty Free in the Rome airport back in 2018 when one could do such things, before dinner (which was a very nice little cigar) and then when everyone had gone, I sat down with the new Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Mi Querida Triqui Traca 448. Steve (who still hasn’t shared my Stillwell posts, while sharing everyone else’s!) had given this one to me when we saw him in South Carolina a few weeks ago, it’s basically his regular production version of the Firecracker, which was the genesis of the Triqui Traca blend. This is a bold little smoke, and there’s really nothing unsatisfying about it. It’s got some pepper to it, along with the espresso that I love. It’s definitely the Mi Querida on steroids, and I love it. I was afraid that smoking it as late as I did would give me problems, as sometimes happens (trouble falling asleep, weird dreams, etc), but I was OK. If you loved the Firecrackers and can’t get any more, this is a reasonable alternative. If you never had the Firecracker, and like small, delicious cigars, you’ll like this one.

 

I like listening to podcasts, and one of the ones in my rotation is the A Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Ironically, there’s a cigar store called Cigar Hustler, and the guys on the Podcast are also involved in the store, one of them even is one of the owners! I suppose this helps to avoid trademark infringement. It was on this show where I heard about the Room 101 Who Shot Ya, which is an exclusive for Pospiech, which is, ironically again, owned by Mike Szczepankiewicz of the aforementioned Cigar Hustler. I saw these on the counter at Son’s and had to give one a try, or a shot, I guess. Like the Bangarang, which is the other non-Powstanie cigar in their portfolio, it’s also a pretty strong cigar, and starts with a heavy pepper flavor. It’s a well behaved torpedo, it burns well and was a nice smoking experience throughout the 5″ x 52 of the cigar. The components of the cigar are not disclosed, but it tastes good, definitely worth a “shot”. The podcast is fun too, I recommend it, and Mike and Mike are nice guys, I’ve met them, and they’ve met me!

 

Wednesday I posted the link for the CigarCraig.com Secret Santa, so get in on that if you would like to!  I need  to get a few giveaways together for the holidays I suppose, I have a few goodies laying around! That’ll do it for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig 

 

 

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by | November 17, 2021 · 6:20 pm

Stillwell Star Bayou No. 32 and Navy No. 1056 Cigars

This is the second and final installment in my series of posts recapping my experiences smoking the Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust Stillwell Star cigars that I purchased at the launch event in South Carolina a week and a half ago. I went into this exercise with an open mind, but with very little experience with pipe tobacco.  I’ve smoked a pipe in a the past, but I always found that there was too much work involved and I didn’t get enough satisfaction from it commensurate with the effort involved, the preparation, the cleaning, the general fiddling around involved in smoking the pipe. I’m much happier to just light a cigar and put it down when I’m done and be finished with it. I find that far more relaxing. Of course, that’s just me, there seem to be dozens of people who enjoy smoking a pipe. I even saw Saka smoking a pipe at the event, first time in the twenty-some odd years I’ve known him that I’ve witnessed that. Anyway, Monday I smoked the Bayou No. 32, which I was quite looking forward to. This cigar, like all of them, has the Ecuador Habano Oscuro wrapper and San Andrés cultivo tonto binder with Nicaraguan fillers. It also has a blend of Bright, Red Virginia and St. James Parish Perique pipe tobaccos. This was another one that struck me as more cigar than pipe, which I suppose is the point. This one started out with some pepper spice, a more unique pepper than one usually finds in a cigar. As the cigar progressed, the spice became a little mouth coating, perhaps cloying is a word one might use. It was interesting, a different texture than normal in a cigar. I’ve smoked cigars with Perique in the blend before, but none have been this unique. This was an interesting smoke.

 

Finally, there’s the Navy No. 1056. This one has Red and Golden Virginias,  “Naval Rations,” Orientals and Latakia pipe tobaccos blended with dark air-cured black cigar leaves in the filler. As with the other three, I polled others on the room note, and on all but the first one I got “cigar”. I suppose it would be different if people were familiar with pipe aromas, sadly we are not. This was another good tasting cigar. It had a smokey sweetness, throughout, very interesting. It was medium bodied, like the other three, and very smooth.  All four samples burned perfectly, which was interesting, I wasn’t sure how the different tobaccos were going to burn, but I suppose Steve wasn’t going to put something out that isn’t going to work right. I found smoking these four cigars to be an interesting exercise, however, these aren’t going to be regular rotation cigars for me, I doubt I’ll even go back to them  to be honest. As good as they are, they didn’t excite me as much as the other cigars in the Dunbarton portfolio. I’m glad I smoked them, but I’m happier with a Mi Querida, Sin Compromiso or Sobremesa any day of the week. Of course, that’s just me, your mileage may vary.  

 

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

 

CigarCraig

  

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by | November 14, 2021 · 10:31 am

Stillwell Star Aromatic No. 1 and English No. 27 Cigars

I wanted to get through all four of the new Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star cigars, but stuff came up and I didn’t have time to get the other two in.  I will smoke the Bayou No. 32 and Navy No. 1056 this week and write about them in a separate post. Stretches things out a little anyway. I picked up one each of these at the launch event at Low Country Pipe and Cigars last week in South Carolina, long drive for four cigars! The company was good though! As I mentioned in last weeks post, I didn’t want to smoke any of them there in a room full of various aromas, choosing the solitude of my enclosed porch. As is my way, I arranged them numerically, doing otherwise would be an abomination. So I started out with the Aromatic No. 1. Zev Kaminetsky, the local broker and an old friend, told me at the event that this was his favorite (or the only one he’d tried, I can’t remember), and it was reminiscent of another cigar that used pipe tobaccos in the blend. I knew what cigars he was referring to, but I can’t agree. While the Aromatic No. 1 was heavily and distinctly “pipey”, it wasn’t spicy like the other one. My dentist when I was a kid smoked a pipe, he was old school, you walked into his office, he was a one man show, he put his pipe down, cleaned your teeth, filled your cavities, lit his pipe and wrote up you bill at his desk. Those were the days. This reminded me of the Captain Black he used to smoke in his office. Of course, the tobaccos in this blend are the same that’s used in Captain Black, Black Cavendish, Golden Virginia and Burly pipe tobaccos as well as Nicaraguan in the filler, with an Ecuador Habano oscuro wrapper over a Mexican San Andrés binder (from the wrapper leaves used on the Sin Compromiso). I wasn’t a fan, although it either grew on me, mellowed, or I got used to it. Starting out with this one caused me some concern.

 

Yesterday afternoon, after giving the chicken habitat a thorough cleaning out, and then showering so as not to compromise my senses, olfactory and otherwise, I delved into the next Stillwell numerically, the English No 27.  This one is a blend of Turkish and Burly pipe tobaccos, as well as Latakia from Cyprus, again with Nicaraguan in the filler, and the same wrapper and binder combination. I’d probably benefit by sticky my schnoz in some of these tobaccos to better understand what I’m tasting, because I’m rather ignorant in the ways of the pipe. This one was much more cigar-like, even third party observers when polled, commented that the room note was “cigar”, as opposed to “pipe” the night before. I found it on the woody side, with some occasional mellow sweet spice. It was pretty good, and allayed my fears from the No. 1. I suppose I was expecting more flavor from the Latakia, based solely on reputation. I am looking forward to smoking the final two, especially the next in line, the Bayou No. 32, as I actually have smoked Perique in a cigar blend. I’m not sure what to expect from the Navy.  I’ll know in a few days. 

Just a quick gripe.  Have you ever avoided something for personal reasons? Then someone, probably not even knowingly, gives you something from that entity? Perhaps it’s something that you don’t even know is from that entity, and you consume it. when you find out where it’s from, do you feel a little betrayed? Duped? I’ve kinda, sorta had this happen twice in two different ways with the same entity this week. I’ll probably just let it slide, but you know, the same way that some people stop doing business with some people for personal reasons, other people might stop doing business with those people for the same reasons, and those people have to realize that. Lots of ambiguity and between the lines stuff here, I know, I’m wishy washy about displaying my politics here. I will come out and say that I think that I think that Privada/ LCA is bad for the cigar industry with their childish branding, and I think their “hacking” thing was a publicity stunt. Also, implicating cigar media and retailers is childish. If you hate your website, it’s yours to change, bud. 

That’s more than enough from me today, until the next time, 

CigarCraig

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by | November 7, 2021 · 6:46 am

Stillwell Star Release Event at Low Country Pipe and Cigars

Friday was the official release event for the long awaited and anticipated release of Steve Saka’s Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star cigars, a foursome of cigars blended with pipe tobacco. The release was held at Low Country Pipe and Cigar, in Little River, South Carolina, which is owned by the same company that owns Cornell & Diehl, the pipe tobacco company that worked with Steve on the blends of the Stillwell Star cigars. Now we know how a shop in South Carolina and their website, SmokingPipes.com, ended up with the exclusive launch. Of course, an event of this magnitude deserved cigar media coverage, and Bob The Cigar Guy, and his son The Chief, popular Youtubers, were on hand. I popped in from Pennsylvania to provide support on the written word side of things since nobody else seemed to be stepping up 😁 .  A little backstory: my wife mentioned this event, and wanting to get away for the weekend, and I need to take vacation days, so I made quick work of arranging the day off. As it turns out, the weather in South Carolina this weekend wasn’t much better than in PA, but it was still a weekend away! So I called Tim at Lake Country and bought two tickets for the event (event packs including four DTT cigars). We got up early Friday morning and drove nine hours to a cigar event, a new personal record. When we walked in I think Steve had a WTF look on his face, and I think Zev Kaminetsky, who is brokering DTT in the south now, was similarly surprised.  A few words about the shop. Now, I’m not a pipe guy, too much fiddling around for me, I just want to smoke it and put it down, but this place had a huge selection of pipes and pipe tobacco. I took a stroll through the humidor as well and it was adequately appointed with a nice balance of legacy brands and boutiques. I even saw one brand I was unfamiliar with, and I would have explored that further on a day that wasn’t so busy. But this was a Dunbarton event, and it was about the Stillwell Star.

 

We were welcomed warmly by the staff, who was friendly and attentive, clearly all the folks working here love what they do and do it well. They had a company on site making pizzas that were really good, $10 for a pie that my wife and I split, I’d say it was a 14″ pie, and they were making tons of them, they had an oven right there in the parking lot. I hardly ever eat at cigar events, but after a 9 hour drive I was ready for dinner, so I ate, and it was good. after 35 years, my wife knows my pizza preferences, so my half had sausage, pepperoni, hamburger and bacon. I like a little meat on my pizza. It was mid-bite when Bob the Cigar Guy came up and introduced himself to me. He’s a hoot. Nice guy, has me confused with someone else. I don’t deserve the praise he heaped upon me, but a likable fellow! I enjoyed talking to him and his son over the course of the event.  I picked up one each of  the Stillwell blends, because they are pricey and, me not being a pipe smoker I really don’t have a frame of reference for the specific pipe tobacco blends, I just want to sample each one, which I shall do on a fresh palate in the comfort of my home lounge (enclosed porch). I did enjoy a Sin Compromiso and a Mi Querida over the course of the evening, while hanging out in the shop, wandering from conversation to conversation, and listening to Saka educate us all on a number of topics, mostly tobacco related. He also autographed various items. This was a great launch event, in a great shop with a great staff. It’s always fun to hang with Saka.  I’m just disappointed Dave Lafferty wasn’t there.

 

Saturday turned out to be a gloomy, windy day, with weather much like we left behind in PA, so we stopped in to Nick’s Cigar World, which was, conveniently, a short walk from our hotel. This turned out to be a nice cigar bar adjacent to a well stocked shop. The cigars were kept in a labyrinth of counter humidors, arranged alphabetically by brand, more or less. Not really needing anything, I picked up a Fuente Rare Pink Signature and a CAO Cameroon Toro and we hung out in the lounge and enjoyed the afternoon. The staff there was attentive, and it was much like being in any lounge, with patrons watching football and busting balls. The staff was friendly and attentive. It was certainly a very nice experience. The cigar was OK, it wasn’t like the L’Anniversaire I remember from the old CAO days (I still have a tubed Churchill from about ’03 I think), but it was satisfying. Overall we had a nice, lazy day in North Myrtle Beach, despite the weather. Driving home today.

 

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

 

CigarCraig 

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