Tag Archives: Dunhill

by CigarCraig | October 23, 2016 · 9:01 am

Some Tatuaje Cigars, a Cromagon, an Event and a Disappontment

Thursday evening my wife and I went into Philly for a show, and stopped into Holts for a quick cigar before hand. I picked out a Tatuaje Verocu No. 5 and we hung out in the lounge and watched the beginning of the Flyers home opener. The Verocu No. 5 is a 4″ x 40 little guy, with tons of flavor. It has an Ecuador wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and filler and is a terrific little treat. It went great with a cup of black coffee, and a relaxing hour in Holt’s lounge. It had that great cocoa and strong, black coffee flavor I love, with a hint of spice. These are very good cigars. Pete Johnson happened to be doing an event at Holt’s other location the same night, and was going to be in the downtown store Friday. I was sorry I didn’t catch up with him, but we had a nice evening anyway.

Friday I decided to give a reasonably new cigar a second chance, since to first one had some construction issues. I’m not going to name names in fairness to the cigar, as my experiences may have been atypical, but I will talk about the experience. Clever readers who folow me on social media will be able to connect the dots. This cigar has been resting in the humidor, along with all the other cigars I regularly smoke, since it came home from the IPCPR back in July. Basically, it burned and smoked like it was wet. Perhaps this particular wrapper, which is touted as a new hybrid leaf, just holds a lot of moisture and needs to be dry boxed or stored at a lower humidity. It just seemed wet to me. It wouldn’t stay lit, and when it was it had that steamy quality to the smoke. It was one of those rare cigars that makes me wish I carried a back-up on my walks. When I got home I did something I rarely do and abandoned it and lit up a short robusto from Dunhill, their new Aged Maduro. This just looks like a delicious cigar, but it had a funky flavor that I wasn’t expecting. I’m going to give this one a second chance as maybe my palate was out of whack from the first cigar, it’s not fair to make a judgement under those circumstances.

Yesterday I went up to Cigars International in Hamburg as they were having a big Drew Estate event, and it was a rainy, ugly fall day. The CI store there is a destination, and adult Disneyland, and it’s hard not to spend five hours there. I went up with Mike C., and met an old friend there, and said hello to a bunch of my Drew Estate friends. I couldn’t decide on a DE cigar to smoke, it seems I’ve smoked everything I wanted to smoke from them, and had plenty in my humidor at home, so Mike and I went off the menu and picked out a couple Tatuaje Avion 11, a 6¾ x 52 perfecto. This was a beautifully crafted cigar with an Ecuador wrapper again, and Nicaraguan binder and filler much like the aforementioned Verocu. It started off with a blast of spice, settled into a rich espresso and cocoa flavor, and finished of with some more spice. I noted that the burn was just about perfect, with a nice, flat ember that I really enjoy, as it shows the care that went into blending a cigar in a way that all the components burn at the same rate, a rare feat. After that I picked up some RoMaCraft Cromagnon Fomorian candela robustos, to finish off the afternoon. While this probably should have come before a full-bodied cigar like the Avion, it still has the horsepower to keep up, and I like the refreshing kind of feeling the candela wrapper gives this cigar. Of course, Jonathan Drew was scheduled to be at this event, and hadn’t shown by the time we left. It was nice to see a lot of my DE friends though, and we had a nice afternoon of conversation and cigars.

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

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as Avion, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Cigars International, Cromagn, drew estate, Dunhill, Fomorian, holt's, tatuaje, Verocu

by CigarCraig | August 5, 2015 · 9:38 pm

What’s New at General Cigars and a Contest!

This week I’ve been smoking some of the samples from the General Cigar Co. booth from the IPCPR show, and I found myself with an abundance of samples that I want to share with one of my readers. One of several new offerings from CAO is the Pilon, which I smoked this week in the robusto size. In the Pilon line they are fermenting the tobacco in small, round pilons, as opposed to large rectangular versions that most cigar tobacco is fermented in. They are using a Cuban seed Ecuador wrapper and fillers from Esteli and Ometepe. The cigar smoked well and was woody with some spice and sweetness. I thought it was a very nice smoke and enjoyed it on a beautiful Sunday Afternoon.

After dinner I revisited the new Leccia Luchador El Gringo Frog Splash. I smoked one at the show on the first day and I’m a big fan of the Luchador line, and enjoyed this fat little cigar quite a bit. You may think a 4½” x 70 would be unwieldy, but the box press makes if feel quite a bit smaller than the 70 ring gauge in the round. It’s still got a little bit of a wavy burn, but it’s a flavorful and spicy smoke. It’s got a dark and oily Nicaraguan Oscuro wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano binder and blend of three ligeros from Esteli, Jalapa and Pennsylvania. It’s a funny shape, but a really good smoke that I’m having trouble leaving alone.

Monday evening I wanted something a little more refined, so I selected the new Dunhill Signed Range Selección Suprema, released in just one size, a 6×50 Toro. I wanted something a little larger than a robusto too. This is a smooth smoke, and very delicate and subtle. It’s made with a Nicaraguan Jalapa shade wrapper with three exceptional fillers: full-bodied Nicaraguan Esteli and Jalapa, and rare Brazilian Matafina, and a hearty Connecticut Broadleaf binder. There’s a lot of sweet flavors and it burned exceptionally well. This would be a great early cigar. Dunhill is not c cigar I generally reach for, but this was a pleasant diversion, for sure.

Last night I smoked one of the new CAO Margaritaville cigars. These are licensed under the Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville brand, and are available in two versions, a Piña Colada flavored cigar available in a corona and petit corona with a Cameroon wrapper and a blend of Dominican tobacco, which will fall under the Flavors line, and the one I smoked, the Havana Daydreamin’ line, which is a blend of Nicaraguan tobaccos wrapped with an Ecuadoran Connecticut wrapper. As I smoked this I couldn’t help but think that it’s targeting the occasional smoker, someone who picks up a cigar once in a while on vacation, at a bar or concert, as it was a nice enough cigar, but fairly middle of the road as far as the flavor goes. It burned quickly, but evenly, and left me a bit underwhelmed. Certainly it’s mild enough to smoke several in a row on the beach. I’ll give the flavored version a try one of these days.

Tonight I went with a personal favorite lately, the CAO Flathead in the new Steel Horse size. This was the “Apehanger” size, a 5½” x 58 cigar in a round format. I’ve mentioned this in a recent post, so I won’t spend too much time on the specifics, but it’s a lovely cigar. It’s got a Connecticut Habano wrapper that is dark and oily, with the signature flat head that just about demands a punch cut, which works well (I recommend a larger bore punch if at all possible, the ScrewPop 2.0 worked well). The fillers are Honduran, Nicaraguan and Dominican and the binder is a Brazilian Arapiraca, making it a five country blend. I’m a fan of the whole line, and this shape is a great addition. Very rich and satisfying with lush flavors of espresso and dark cocoa. As I said, I’m a big fan of he Flathead line in all sizes, and this is a very nice addition.

Contest

Here’s your chance to win some of the cigars mentioned above. There are five packs of both the CAO Magaritaville cigars, as well as the CAO Pilon and Flathead Steel Horse, the Dunhill Signed Range Selección Suprema, the new Macanudo Estate Reserve Jamaica, which I haven’t gotten around to smoking yet, but the last Estate Reserve was really good, so I have confidence in this one, and a couple of the Leccia Luchador El Gringo Frog Splash (and a Luchador El Hombre for good measure). It’s hard to say what else might fall into the box while I’m packing it up, it’s happened. 33 cigars in all, not a bad little prize pack! Many thanks to my friends at General Cigar Co. for their generosity this year. Same rules as always, leave a comment on this post to enter, and I’ll select a winner next Wednesday, August 12, 2015. It’s been a while since I had a contest, so everyone is eligible, must be 18 to enter, one entry per person please.

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

CigarCraig

97 Comments

Filed under Contest, IPCPR, Review

Tagged as CAO, cigar, cigars, Contest, Dunhill, general cigars, leccia, Luchador, Margaritaville

by CigarCraig | May 21, 2014 · 9:21 pm

A Sindicato, a Dunhill, a Debonaire and a Cigar Contest

I finally got around to putting some contest goodies together. Some of the cigars were some spare samples, and some were ones I bought and enjoy quite a bit. More on that at the end of the post, maybe folks will read to the end, some may scroll down. If you scroll down, you might miss reading about some of the cigars I’ve smoked so far this week.

Monday evening I picked out a new cigar from Sindicato Cigars. These guys are a little different than other manufactures. Jim Colucci is the president of the company, and he comes from many years at the helm of Altadis, probably the largest cigar company on the planet. The company is made up of a bunch of retailers across the country, so they have a unique perspective of what sells in tobacco shops and what consumers want. Last year they came out with the Hex and Affinity, along with the very inexpensive Casa Bella. I’ve smoked all three and they are very nice smokes. This latest offering, the Sindicato, is at the high end of the price range, running from $10.95 to $13.95 and are made by the folks at Casa Fernandez with Aganorsa tobacco. I smoked the Corona Gorda, a 5½” x 48 cigar with a nice pigtail and partially closed foot. I really enjoyed this cigar, it was lush and meaty and loaded with delicious tobacco flavor. It burned perfectly and was a very satisfying smoke. Thanks to Yoffy for sending these along.

Tuesday I selected another new cigar, this one from General Cigar Co. This is the Dunhill 1907 Box Pressed Toro, measuring 6″ x 54 with a Honduran Olancho wrapper. The wrapper is wrapper mottled, not at all what I expected from a Dunhill, as they are generally beautiful cigars. The rest of the cigar is Dominican and Brazilian Mata Fina. It was a nice smoke, although I think a few more months in the humidor will benefit it. I received two, so I’ll revisit it in a few months. It was medium bodied, and had a nice flavor, reminiscent of the CAO OSA Sol, which has a similar wrapper (although I think the OSA Sol’s wrapper was prettier). It had similar bright tobacco sweetness that I enjoy from time to time. This was a nice smoke, I look forward to smoking it again after a long rest in the humidor.

Tonight I smoked a Debonaire Sagita petite lancero. The reason I grabbed this one is a little less than debonair, I’m afraid. Phil Zanghi is the man behind the brand. He developed the Indian Tabac line back in the ’90s and sold it to Rocky Patel. I’ve heard him on at least two podcasts describe this cigar as a 5½ x 48, which I knew was wrong. It’s a 38 ring gauge (I measured it), although I would have loved this in a corona gorda size. This is an ultra premium cigar, it even states it on the band. Another feature of the band was on the inside, where it has the box date, which was July of 2013 (this was an IPCPR show sample). The blend isn’t listed specifically, but they use high priming, excellent quality tobaccos, and are rolled with great care. The cigar was exceptional, it was meaty, like prime rib, and burned perfectly. It had a nice little pigtail cap too. I put a very small nub in the ashtray when I was done. I would almost say this would be worth the nearly $10 price tag, if I wasn’t such a cheap SOB. Worth trying if you have the opportunity.

Contest

OK, it’s been over 5 months since I had a contest. Sorry about that, but after the December contests I guess I got a little burned out. So here is the prize.

There are 15 cigars, including some special cigars from La Sirena (including a Merlion Sea Lion and a La Sirena Dubloon, which are very limited), a couple Alec Bradleys, a couple of the New Partagas 1845 offerings, and some of the house brands from Best Cigar Prices. There’s a few other cigars in there that I enjoy too. Also a CAO cap (had to include a CAO concert to go with along with it), a Nomad S-307 and a Foundry Compounds, Elements and Musings Vanadium from the box I bought a few months ago. There’s a nice La Gloria Cubana tube too (now I have to find a La Gloria to throw in). A little something for everyone, I can’t imagine anyone complaining. So leave a comment to enter. Feel free to Tweet and share, but only the comments on this post will count. Good luck, and I’ll select a winner on Sunday!

That’s it, until the next time,

CigarCraig

47 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as Alec Bradley, Best Cigar Prices, CAO, cigar, cigars, Contest, Debonaire, Dunhill, general cigars, La Sirena, Sindicato

by CigarCraig | March 9, 2013 · 3:54 pm

Some Cigar News, a Toraño, a Dunhill, and a StogieBoys Contest!

There has been a great many news items coming out lately, and I won’t bore you with repeating what many of my fellow cigar blogger types have already posted. Punch has a new Rare Corojo and there’s a new cigar coming from a Kentucky based cigar company. If you haven’t seen the press releases for those, they are not hard to find. One item of interest that you won’t find anywhere else is the announcement of the new and improved website featuring the largest collection of cigar store Indians (Native Americans?) on the planet. OldCigarStoreIndians.com features the collection of Mark Goldman, formerly of Mom’s Cigars and House of Oxford, a New York City Cigar Store and distribution company respectively. The site features photos of Mark’s collection as well as a video from the PBS series “Antique Roadshow” featuring several pieces from the collection. This is a nice piece of cigar related Americana. Thanks to Bobby Holstein for sharing this site with me.

In other news, I received an e-mail from my Congressman, Jim Gerlach, in response to my letter asking him to support H.R. 792.

Dear Mr. Vanderslice :

Thank you for contacting me about H.R. 792. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

As you may know, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) in 2009 which provided the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with authority to regulate certain tobacco products. As enacted, the law focuses on under-age access to tobacco and named a few tobacco products subject to regulation: cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco. Because traditional large and premium cigars are not a product often used by youth, they were not included within the Tobacco Control Act’s scope.

Recently, the FDA has indicated it may advance regulations that would go beyond the new law by regulating premium cigars under the Tobacco Control Act. As a result, Rep. Bill Posey of Florida introduced H.R. 792 which would clarify the FDA’s jurisdiction over traditional and premium cigars. This bill has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce for consideration. Should this bill begin moving through the legislative process, I will certainly weigh your views in deciding whether to support this bill. Right now, I am leaning in support of the bill since I don’t believe the FDA has the authority to promulgate these new regulations. But I do want to hear the proponents’ side of the issue too before drawing a final conclusion.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this issue with me. If I can be of any help to you or your family in the future, please do not hesitate to let me know.

With kind regards, I am

Sincerely,
Jim Gerlach
Member of Congress

I’ve e-mailed Congressman Gerlach dozens of times regarding the previous iteration of this bill without anything but a boiler plate response. I appreciate this specific reply and hope that he signs on. Pennsylvania is a very important state to the cigar industry, oddly enough. Since we don’t have a cigar tax, we have many of the larger distributors and mail order houses located here accounting for thousands of jobs, and millions in state tax revenue. I urge everyone to contact their representatives and ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 792. There are links in the left sidebar of my site that will help you write the letter.

Back to the cigars!

Friday evening I decided to try the Toraño Vault A-008 Corona Gorda that was included with the Smoke Inn Special I picked up a few weeks ago. This cigar is a 5 5/8″ x 46 traditional Corona Gorda, and the blend is: Wrapper: Shade Grown Nicaraguan Colorado, Binder: Ometepe, Nicaragua and Jamastran, Honduras, Filler: Esteli and Condega, Nicaragua. First, I love this size, the corona gorda has long been a favorite of mine. This is a nice, dark cigar with a deep, rich flavor. It was packed with tobacco, resulting in a little bit firmer draw than I would have liked, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying the heck out of this cigar. Considering I got this cigar, along with two El Suelos and two My Uzi Weighs a Ton for under $14 delivered, I think it was well worth it. I have another one floating around someplace that I look forward to smoking. One of my readers, Duane, won a box of these in the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways, I’d be interested in hearing what he had to say about them. While I’m thinking about it, if any of the winners of anything from my site wants to submit a review of their winnings, I’d be happy to include it as a guest review. Anyway, great smoke, great size, great overall experience.

Saturday was a stunning day, so my wife and I took the dogs for a walk after a very disappointing Flyers game. As much as I like watching Hockey, I feel a little bit put upon when they play on a weekend afternoon. I kinda feel like I have better things to do than sit in front of the TV, and DVRing games never seems to work out. Anyway, I was looking for something interesting to smoke after the game and I came across a Dunhill Aged Cabraras in a tube. It’s an interesting story about where this came from. Back in 2005/2006 I administered a monthly cigar swap on the alt.smokers.cigars usenet group. Every month I’d ask for participants and pair people up and they’d exchange cigars. One particular time I paired myself with a gentleman from Australia, who sent me two of these cigars after the original shipment of cigars were never received. I was concerned that this mild, Connecticut shade cigar would be way past it’s prime. I have to say that this cigar held up very well over the years. It had the nutty/grassy kind of flavor that Connecticut shade wrapped cigars have, but there was an underlying strength of flavor that hinted at something more. There is Brazilian leaf listed in the filler of this, perhaps that’s what gave it a little extra flavor. Anyway, it was a great cigar, I’m glad I dug this one out of it’s hiding place and smoked it. I really should smoke more Churchill sized cigars, in this day and age 7″ x 48 doesn’t really seem that large!

Contest!

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day next weekend, We have a StogieBoys.com prize pack courtesy of StogieBoys.com of course! Included in the prize pack is a box of Erin Go Bragh cigars, a Dominican cigar infused with Irish whiskey and made in the La Aurora factory. To go along with the cigars, there is a whole mess of cool StogieBoys.com swag, playing cards, can koozies, a lighter and v-cutter, a cap and t-shirt, and whatever other goodies the folks there decide to include! Thanks to Sheryl at StogieBoys.com for putting this fine St. Patrick’s Day Prize Package together! Please leave a comment on this page to enter and I will select a winner next Sunday, March 17th, 2013. Check out StogieBoys.com when you are shopping online, they are quickly becoming one of the major players in the world of online cigar retailers!

That’s it for today, I’ll be digging through the humidors today to find another interesting smoke, as well as picking out a short smoke to enjoy after tonight’s Flyers game at the cigar bar instead of sitting in the parking lot traffic!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

46 Comments

Filed under Editorial, News, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigar rights, Cigar Store Indians, cigars, Contest, Dunhill, E, Erin Go Bragh, H.R. 792, Stogie Boys, Toraño

by CigarCraig | January 13, 2013 · 9:41 am

End of the Week Cigars: a Padilla, a Dunhill and a Gurkha

We’ve been having unseasonably warm weather here, not particularly warm, but not sub-zero winter weather either. I certainly prefer balmy temps but I’ll take not getting frostbitten fingers in January over the alternative. Not that the weather generally keeps me from my enjoyment of a fine cigar, I am more likely to try something new when I know that shivering isn’t going to knock the ash off.

Thursday I grabbed a Padilla Reserva Maduro that my local Oliva rep, Mike, handed me when I met up with him last month.
He was delivering the very impressive prizes for Day 12 of the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways and slipped a couple Padilla cigars to me (Oliva is distributing Padilla cigars). I haven’t smoked many Padilla cigars over the years, and the few I’ve smoked I’ve really enjoyed. Of course, if I have some cigars to smoke and one is a maduro, you know that’s the one I’m smoking first! This was a beautiful dark and oily toro sized cigar, in the neighborhood of 6×50. The band has a really cool lion with the secondary band identifying it as the Reserva Maduro. I looked, but the website doesn’t have any information, but I bet a dollar that this is a San Andreas wrapper. It wowed me from the get go with everything I love in a maduro cigar. Overall a really enjoyable experiences, I will have to get my hands on more of these and add them to my list of favorites! Yum.

Friday night was rainy. I took the dog for a quick walk sans cigar as I’ve found the combination of dog, umbrella and cigar to be way too much to handle in the rain (and I’m guessing it would be no easier without the rain). I put the dog in the house and set up in the garage with a Dunhill Aged Reserva Especial 2003 which I received as a sample from the folks at General Cigar Company. This cigar is a Robusto Grande, measuring 5½” x 54 and is wrapped in a stunning U.S. Connecticut Shade wrapper. Clearly this is a cigar better suited to a walnut paneled parlor in front of a roaring fire than a garage on a rainy night, but my walnut paneled parlor was in the shop :-). This is a milder cigar with loads of bright flavors that kept me interested for the nearly an hour and a half it took me to smoke it. I’m looking forward to smoking another one of these, but with a $15 price tag it probably won’t be on my personal buy list, just too rich for my blood. Delicious smoke though.

Saturday was a very nice day after a rainy, foggy start. I took the dog on a nice long walk with a Gurkha 125th Anniversary Toro. This came in a sampler from the IPCPR show which was presented in a very cool package which is reminiscent of the sort of thing fine silverware settings might me stored in. Very cool presentation for trade show samples, but what else would one expect from Gurkha? Along with the 125th is a Ghost, a Seduction, a Cellar Reserve and a Royal Challenge, all in a 6″ x 54ish chunky toro shape. Admittedly, I’ve been intimidated by the Gurkha line in the past due to the vast number of lines and my inability to every be able to keep them straight. I do love the Seduction, and I’ve sampled a few more that have made me want to explore the line further. The 125th is a solid cigar. The construction was darned near perfect, I love watching a well made cigar burn and this was beautiful. It was medium bodied and seemed to me like the kind of cigar that a lot of people would be able to enjoy. It was a very enjoyable 2 hour smoke, or a 3 mile walk with a 45 minute “warm down” on the patio. I still have a selection of Gurkha cigars that I haven’t tried yet. I’ll get to them when the weather warms up as they all seem to be in that toro or larger size. I smoked the Ghost a few weeks ago and enjoyed it, but was a little dissapointed, I guess I was expecting something different. I’ll smoke it again under better circumstances.