Tag Archives: Emilio

by CigarCraig | December 26, 2012 · 9:26 am

Winner of Day 13 of CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways!

We’ve finally reached the end of this amazing journey. It was a wild ride, and I’d go so far as to say that this was one of the best cigar related contests out there. Over the course of two weeks we gave away 265 cigars and a bunch of t-shirts, hats, cutters, ashtrays and even a lighter. I could never have pulled off such an enormous project on my own, so I have to thank some people before I announce the final winner for 2012. First my wife, Jennifer, who puts up with my insanity, moderates the new comments while I’m at work and is my greatest supporter. Thank you for making this year great. Of course the sponsors need thanking for offering all the great stuff we had to give away. They are:

StogieBoys.com

Foundry Cigars/General Cigar Co.

Tobaccos Mata Fina USA

United Cigar Retailers

Villiger Cigars North America

CAO Cigars/General Cigar Co.

Oliva Cigars

Drew Estate

All of these folks provided an unprecedented amount of wonderful stuff. Thank you to all of them for their participation! The next group that I want to thank are you, my readers! Without you I’d just be doing all of this for my own amusement, and I get tired of my same old jokes! Thanks to all who entered the contests. I hope some of you stick around as I wander through my cigar journey.

DE_Undercrown So, once again I’ve been torturing you with minutia, when all you really want to know is if you won the box of Drew Estate Undercrown and all of the associated goodies that come with it! We had 98 entries and Random.org selected 87. By my count that is cigarsonist. Please send me your contact information so I can ship all this stuff off to you!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, etc. I’ll be back on Sunday, maybe I’ll put together a list of my favorites of the past year, or something like that. Hard to say what I may pull out of my sleeve!

Until then,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 12 days, aj fernandez, CAO, cigar, CigarBars, cigars, Contest, drew estate, Emilio, Foundry, general cigars, Monte Pascoal, NewestCigars.com, oliva, StogieBoys, Toraño, Villiger Cigars North America

by CigarCraig | December 19, 2012 · 6:28 am

CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways Day 8: The Cigar Agency

Wow, we never had so many entries in a single contest! Watch for some surprises over the next few days, as if every day isn’t a surprise! Once again, I’m grateful for all the sponsors who make it possible for me to play Santa Claus a little bit. Please visit the links in each day’s posts to learn more about these fine cigars. The box of Pinolaro cigars from A.J. Fernandez and a 5 pack of cigars from Emilio Cigars goes to DB! Please forward me your details so we can get this out to you!

I can’t believe it’s Day 8 already! Today we have one of my favorite new cigars this year, a box of ORTSAC 1962 San Andreas from The Cigar Agency. This is a terrific smoke with loads of deep, dark flavors that make my palate dance! The San Andreas wrapper is dark and oily and beautiful. I will personally be quite jealous of the lucky winner of today’s cigars! This cigar was introduced at the 2012 IPCPR show so it’s brand new.

Thanks go to my good friend Victor Vitale of The Cigar Agency for providing this outstanding item! Did I mention I love this cigar? Too bad I’m ineligible! Leave a comment, win a box of cigars, what could be easier?

Until tomorrow,

CigarCraig

Rules

Here’s how you enter: leave a comment. That’s it, plain and simple. Tweets don’t count, but feel free to spread the word, only comments on this page count as an entry. Each day there will be a different prize and the winner will be drawn from that day’s comments. The winner will be announced on the next day’s post. The contest is open to everyone, even if you’ve won one of my contests in the past six months, but once you’ve won, you are ineligible to win again in this series of contests. All prizes will be mailed as soon as I get a chance to go to the post office, or whenever the sponsor decides to ship, whichever is the case, so don’t make me chase down your address! Please e-mail your contact information to 12days@cigarcraig.com as soon as possible!

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Tagged as 12 days, aj fernandez, cigar, cigars, Contest, Emilio, Los Regalos, ORTSAC, Pinolero, The Cigar Agency

by CigarCraig | December 18, 2012 · 6:19 am

CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways Day 7: A.J.Fernandez and Emilio

Yesterday we had a box of the Toraño Family Cigars Blends from the Vault. We had a record breaking number of entries for this, which says something for the popularity and quality of Toraño cigars. I’ve always enjoyed them and the people at the company have always been terrific. Today’s winner is Duane Holmes! Please forward me your details so we can get this out to you!

Welcome to the second half of this enormous project! Kicking off the second half of the contests is the newest offering from A. J. Fernandez, the Pinolero. Pinolero is a word used in Nicaragua for a “local” and this cigar is a Nicaraguan puro wrapped in proprietary Fernandez family leaves. I’ve smoked a few of these and loved them. While many have said they are powerfully strong, I found it on the high side of medium. It’s a delicious smoke and a box of these is a wonderful gift! But, that’s not all! I also have a five-pack of Emilio Cigars and an Emilio Cap! I see an Emilio AF 1 and 2, an Emilio Suave, what looks like Draig K and perhaps a La Musa, all exceptional cigars. Emilio is one of the hottest names out there in the boutique cigar world and these cigars are outstanding. It’s a holiday twofer!

emilio cap and 5er

Thanks to Clay and everyone at A.J. Fernandez and Gary and his team at Emilio for providing the presents for today’s contest! Leave a comment and check tomorrow to see if you won!

Until tomorrow,

CigarCraig

Rules

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Tagged as 12 days, aj fernandez, cigar, cigars, Contest, Emilio, Toraño

by CigarCraig | December 9, 2012 · 10:13 am

Announcement! CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways (and a Los Regalos)

It’s that time of year again folks, it’s time to officially announce the 2012 CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways! Last year’s contests were pretty spectacular, but this years will be better! We’ve got an abundance of samplers, boxes, accessories from all of your favorite companies, and maybe a couple new and interesting items that you haven’t heard of yet. The rules are simple. Every day starting Wednesday, December 12, 2012, around 7 AM Eastern Standard Time I will post that days present. You’re job will be to leave a comment which will serve as your entry. Feel free to Tweet about it, Post it on Facebook, post it in whatever groups or forums you like, but only the comment counts as an entry. Also, I can see your IP address on your comments so no stuffing the ballot box please! One entry per person per day. My usual contest rules exclude winners from previous contests for 6 months, this rule is suspended so everyone starts fresh. However, once you’ve won a present in the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways you are no longer eligible to win. I know everyone will behave. Some gifts are being shipped directly from their contributors, and some are being shipped by me. I will ship items when I get the chance, please remember it’s a busy time of year for all of us! If you’ve won, it will be announced the next day, so be sure to check back. The winner will need to e-mail me their name and address at their earliest convenience.

Many thanks to the generous sponsors of this event! I always say, sure, I could do this without them, but it would cost me a FORTUNE!

They are (in alphabetical order):

AJ Fernandez Cigars

CAO Cigars/General Cigar Co.

Drew Estate

Emilio Cigars

Foundry Cigars/General Cigar Co.

Tobaccos Mata Fina USA

Toraño Family Cigars

United Cigar Retailers

Villiger Cigars North America

These folks all went above and beyond as you will see over the coming two weeks. I get excited about this all year long, and even though it’s a lot of work, it’s so much fun! Stay tuned for Day 1 on Wednesday and good luck to everyone who participates!

One Last Cigar recap:

As much as running contests for 12 consecutive days is almost a full time job (and thanks in advance to my wife for all her help) it allows me to just grab a cigar from the humidor to smoke and enjoy without having to take pictures or really worry about all the particulars. However, I need to slip in one last cigar before my hiatus (although I will be reporting on a cigar event I’m attending tomorrow evening). This week I fired up a Los Regalos Quetzal from Emilio Cigars. The cigar was a toro size, and had a little firmer draw than I’d have liked. It was also much milder than I expected. Other folks whose, palates I respect, have called this medium to full, and I didn’t get that at all. Perhaps the firm draw caused me to perceive it as mild. That’s not a complaint, mind you, but illustration of how preconceived notions can color perception. The cigar burned well and had a pleasing flavor, with little, delicate flavors popping in and out from time to time that kept me on my toes. Does the draw effect flavor? Absolutely! Is everyone’s palate different? Once again, absolutely. This is a cigar I will revisit, I know a shop not far from here that’s sure to carry them! I’ll hold off until conditions are better as I didn’t think this was an ideal cold weather cigar. Thanks to Gary Griffith for sending a sample of this cigar for me to try. He’s been loading me up with samples of the lines he’s distributing and they all seem to have one thing in common: I love them!

And finally, I’ll leave you with the video I closed last year’s contest series with, Alan Bernhoft’s Christmas Classic, Imagine Christmas.

httpv://youtu.be/AioTRzrMlBw

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as 12 days, aj fernandez, CAO, cigar, cigars, drew estate, Emilio, General Cigar Co., oliva, Stogie Boys, Tabaccos Mata Fina, The Cigar Agency, Toraño, United Cigar Retailers, Villiger

by CigarCraig | September 16, 2012 · 8:26 am

Delaware Cigar Festival 2012 Event Report

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of attending my second Delaware Cigar Festival. This festival is held at Delaware Park Racetrack in (duh) Delaware every year and organized by Gary Griffith of Delaware Cigars and Emilio Cigars fame. Gary brings together a bunch of cigar makers and reps and paying attendees get a nice bag of about 25 cigars and the vendors are selling cigars for $3 to $9 with all of the money going to charity. Instead of going from booth to booth getting a cigar from each vendor, you could buy the cigars, many of which retail for much more than $3. I haven’t heard the final tally, but I’m sure they raised many hundreds of dollars for the charity of their choice, The La Musa School of Artl in Esteli, Nicaragua.

Besides having he chance to purchase cigars cheap and talk with the reps and cigar makers, it also provided the opportunity to spend a beautiful afternoon talking to fellow cigar lovers from all over. I spent some time with my old friends Rob Heming and Dennis Shaffer, who rode their motorcycles from the Pittsburgh and Cleveland areas respectively. I had found a great parking spot and saw them circling the lot looking for a space so I invited them to share my spot. We ended up packing 4 bikes into one spot (I also finally met a gent named Ralph who rode down from north of Philly, who I had corresponded with before). It had been several years since I’d seen Rob and Dennis and it was great getting caught up. I also was happy to spend some time with Charlie Greenbacker, who I had met at this event last year, as well as meeting Irv from CigarNews.com. It was a great afternoon, great folks and great cigars.

I started the day with an Ortega Serie D maduro, which I had been craving and headed straight for Eddie’s table upon arrival. It was awesome, of course (the “D” is for delicious!). Next I smoked an Undercrown Corona Doble, which was also awesome. I hadn’t smoked a cigar that large in a while, but I had the time. I wrapped up the afternoon with a Cubanacan robusto from Eddie Tarazona, which was a nice, mild smoke with a nice flavor. This is a cigar that comes in boxes of fifty and has a price-point around$6 (if I recall). Solid, well behaved smoke with was a nice way to end the day. If you can manage to attend this event in the future you should try to do it. I have a video from the event as well as some photos below.

httpv://youtu.be/zJsr2Si-hVo