I got back late last night from another great Drew Estate Event, the Connecticut Barnsmoker. I would have just gone to the PA Barnsmoker last month, but testing positive for Covid after the PCA show made that sound like a bad idea. Fortunately Connecticut is only 4½ hours away (6 with traffic), so we drove up Friday to go to the VIP Pre-event event. I can tell you, and my wife, who accompanied me and took a lot of the pictures will attest, this event alone would have been worth the trip! First, the SWAG and cigars are ridiculous. Great food and a band from Minnesota called Viva Knievel who played all the hits! The event was held at the New England Air Museum, and we were treated to a walk through two hangars loaded with vintage aircraft. There were large planes outside which provided an amazing backdrop. The food was very good (I passed on the alligator), and many fine cigars were smoked. I ran into a bunch of old friends, and we had a great time!
As if all of this wasn’t enough, Saturday we arrive bright and early at the Foster Farm for the first of the two day event. I’m guessing that they split it up over two days because of the number of attendees, as the group there was smaller than I remember from past Barnsmokers. The day started with presentations at three stations, with Jonathan Drew, Pedro Gomez and Willie Herrera, accompanied by the principles of the farm, telling us about the planting, cultivating and processing of the various tobaccos grown on the farm. The backdrop here, among several curing barns, was a large field of tobacco destined to me Liga Privada T52 wrapper. After this was another great meal of barbecue, there was chicken and pork, as well as brisket, slaw and mac and cheese, and apple crisp. All very delicious! Then there were all of the activation stations! This was a bit of a Trick or Treat, with coupons for each station and activities, in some cases revolving around the brand. Besides the ten great DE cigars we got upon entry, along with more neat SWAG, we collected more cigars. I also got a haircut at one of the two barbers there, I got a new look from the Barber and Cigar Company (@the_barber_and_cigar_company on IG) and nobody seemed to notice! I passed on the cigar rolling at the Undercrown activation, although I wish I had dragged my wife there to see how she’d do! 🙂 (she took a lot of the great pictures here). I’ve done it plenty of times and wanted to give others a chance! The event ended with raffle prizes, one dude won BOTH of the barrel shaped bars! I hope he didn’t fly in, but he was very excited about it. I got the spend some time with some great friends who I hadn’t seen much, and I’m sure I missed a few people. I think Op: Cigars For Warriors raised about $32k over the three day event!
The Barnsmokers are events I heartily recommend, you certainly get a lot out of it, in education, in cigars and SWAG, and in joining friends for a great time! I really missed the PA event in my backyard, but this one was well worth the trip. Thanks to Joe and the whole DE crew for a great experience!
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
