Tag Archives: Foundry

IPCPR Thoughts and Highlights – Part One

We got back from the IPCPR show yesterday, and it was a whirlwind 3 days at the show. I didn’t do the video interviews like I’ve done in the past, I figure other people are doing them and I don’t do what everyone else does. The only one I did I posted Sunday, and I’ll try to fix the audio when I get a chance. I will have a video montage of the “secret question” which I did for fun. Two years ago I put together the montage (here), and when I get the video put together I’ll post it. It’s a bit of fun and something different. I encourage you to visit my colleagues sites who did run around interviewing everyone, I just didn’t have it in me this time around. Obviously when I got Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust‘s Steve Saka alone at the end of the first day, and was the first blogger type to have talked to him, I had to scoop the competition. I’m not proud of my competitiveness in that regard, but I am proud to have gotten the first interview with Steve out. I asked some questions I’m sure nobody else did.  I’ve known Steve for nearly 20 years, which might have given me a little advantage. I’ve gt samples, and you’ll hear more about them as I smoke them. They are taking a rest in the humidor, and I even shipped a box back that’s due tomorrow.  Anyway, here’s the quick day by day recap.

 

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Friday we drove two hours to Newark, NJ for a 5am flight which took us through Chicago then finally to New Orleans.  Once checked into our hotel, the Hilton Riverside, which is next to the convention center, more or less, we walked to get our badges. This convention center had to have been nearly a mile long, it’s one enormous building, and the IPCPR was on the far end. We went to our hotel and took about a three-hour nap before heading back to the convention center for the gala grand opening reception, which followed the Government Affairs Briefing. This has been poorly attended in the past, and it was quite important to those who make a living in the cigar industry, so it was a stroke of genius offering cocktails to the attendees. The gala offered food and a cash bar, which was exorbitantly expensive. We caught up with quite a few old friends here, spending some time with the Two Guys Smoke Shop crew, as well as many others.  I had run into Scott Weeks of Recluse Cigars, who handed me a Recluse Amadeus in Connecticut and the new Habano, and I smoked the Connecticut at the event, which is a great Connecticut shade cigar, lots of flavor. I can’t wait to try the Habano version, as I’ve been a Recluse fan since their release.  I also smoked something else, but I can’t recall what it was. The evening was sponsored by Fratello Cigars. It was a fun evening, but even after the nap we were running at a sleep deficit, and wanted to be awake for the opening of the show.

 

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Saturday morning we arose refreshed and went to the opening breakfast at the convention center. Smoking is allowed at the breakfast, but I was holding off until we got to the show. There is a business meeting that takes place, with recognition of the outgoing and incoming presidents and the introduction of the new IPCPR IMG_1761CEO, as well as some industry awards. All quite uninteresting to the consumer, but the officers and board of directors do this in their spare time on a volunteer basis, so there behind the scenes work deserves recognition. They always have a keynote speaker, and this year it was Larry Winget, a motivational speaker who was quite insightful and entertaining. I bought his book. He and I have a similar sense of humor, and many of his observations were quite funny. Breakfast was good, the coffee was great and it was a nice way to spend the morning. The show floor opened to the masses at 10:30 and we ran into quite a few old friends on what seemed like a half mile walk to the entrance of the show.  Upon entering, IMG_1780Drew Estate‘s elaborate and expansive booth is straight ahead, so it was mobbed. We had a couple of appointments in the afternoon, so we went to the far end of the show floor and wandered, saying hello to friends, meeting up with fellow bloggers and media types, and getting the lay of the land ( taking note of where the food court was, bathrooms, etc. The first appointment was with Victor Vitale of Tortuga and Legacy brands, where I was reintroduced to IMG_1779the new Tortuga Connecticut, which was my first cigar of the show.  This is a very smooth, creamy cigar with great flavor. I have smoked it before, and it’s a very enjoyable Connecticut, not to be missed. You may begin to notice a trend, I do’t smoke a great many milder cigars, but I’ve been to enough events and trade shows that I know how much it can suck if you blow out your palate early with strong cigars. I typically don’t go through a ton of cigars on the show floor as it’s awkward talking to one manufacturer about his cigar with another manufacturers cigar in your mouth (in the interview with Steve Saka I was smoking the new Leccia Luchadore, more on that later, but I couldn’t put it down and Steve didn’t have any samples of the Sobremesa). Victor was struggling with having his display cases broken and not having the right furniture, so it was a rough show for him, but he kept a smile on his face. This is another trend we saw: broken displays and what appeared to be poor service by whoever was in charge of moving things around with at least one booth never receiving a couch or chairs.  I attended a media briefing at Rafael Nodal’s Boutique Blends/Aging Room booth with was informative, with Rafael telling us about his current selections.  This factory continues to put out some great cigars, I just enjoyed the joint venture between Rafael and Altadis, the Romeo by Romeo y Julieta Aging Room Small Batch F25 in the Cantoar belicoso size and it was very nice. Not a show sample, by the way.  After visiting with Rafael and his boys we went to the General Cigar booth for our traditional 3:00 on the first day of the show tour.  General always rolls out the red carpet for us, and we saw some great looking new products including new branding on the Macanudo line, a Partagas Aniversario which looks really tasty, Bolivar and Ramon Allones reboots from the Foundry division as well as the Leccia Luchador El Gringo line extension (I mentioned before that I smoked it and really liked it, despite the example I smoked being a 70 ring). CAO has the Pilon, Margaritaville and added a round cigar to their Flathead line, the Steel Horse, paying homage to the motorcycles as opposed to the automobile reference in the previous five sizes. More about all of these as I smoke them after the samples have a chance to rest. Cohiba has a new very expensive Luxury Selection No. 2, which is beautiful, and Dunhill has the Heritage and Seleccion Suprema. Finishing off the tour was the Toraño line with the repackaged Brick bundle brand. I like a lot of cigars in the General Cigar portfolio, so I am looking forward to trying a bunch of the new cigars. Stay tuned for a giveaway here in the near future so you too can try some!

 

We free-ranged around the show floor some more until getting to sit down with Steve Saka after the show closed. I had to get the video interview out, which meant napping in between video processing, editing, and uploading over hotel WiFi so I could publish it for you first thing Sunday morning.  Needless to say, the first day was fun, exciting and tiring, and I’m going to Post about days three and four on Sunday.  Lots of great cigars and great people.

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig`

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Montecristo, Romeo and H. Upmann, and Goose’s Cigars Anniversary

imageIt’s been a nutty week. I planned on posting something mid-week, but time got away from me. Then, yesterday we went to our local SPCA to donate some old towels and stuff, and ended up adopting another dog.  I’m already doubting the wisdom of this, but apart from having to break up a bit of an incident last night, I’m sure it will work out OK.  Cherry is a very sweet brindle pitty, and we have a lot to work on.  Most of the time, Macha seems to like having a playmate, but they need some apart time now and then.  It’s part of the experience I guess. Our SPCA is not a no kill shelter, so seeing this sweet, beautiful dog had been the longest resident got to me and made me do irrational things. No excuses for not taking evening walks now!

 

GoosesHumidorWednesday evening we went to Goose’s Cigars in Limerick, PA to help them celebrate their 5th anniversary. It had been a while since I visited Goose’s, and I was surprised to see the humidor vastly expanded. It used to be a rather small, U shaped arrangement with a door on either end, with the area outside of that having tables and displays of gift sets, specials and samplers.  They’ve walled off the whole area and taken the glass out of the old humidor making a huge walk-in humidor that has all of their stock. It was a great improvement.  They also have a imagelarge Vape and Hookah selection, as well as RYO tobacco at the far end of the store, making it a full service tobacco store.  The Montecristo Lounge was the focal point of the anniversary celebration, with the local Altadis rep, Tom there, as well as his boss, Paul.  I chose the occasion to purchase some cigars from the Altadis line that I hadn’t smoked yet, and lit up the Montecristo Espada Guard, a 6″ x 50 toro. This is a unique Montecristo as it’s made in Nicaragua by the Placencias from Nicaraguan tobacco, all from 2008, 2009 and 2010, from Jalapa, Ometepe and Condega (it’s a bit confusing, they list a image“Habano Jalapa Viso Ometepe Vintage 2008” in the filler on the website, perhaps someone from Groupo de Maestros can clarify that!). I don’t smoke a great many Montecristos, for no other reason than I just am busy smoking so many other great cigars that I forget to get back to the traditional brands.  This Espada was really nice, and a special smoke. It was sweet with a bit of spice and quite a good cigar, and, you know me, it should be for the price. I splurged because it was a special occasion, and have no regrets. Happy Anniversary to John, Joanne and the gang at Goose’s Montecristo Lounge, nice to see things constantly improving!

 

imageOne of the cigars I picked up at Goose’s was the H. Upmann The Banker Annuity,  a 6″ x 52 Toro with a very annoying, yet visually attractive paper sleeve. I say it’s annoying because as I was removing the cigar from the cello the paper sleeve and bands stayed with the cello and tore the wrapper near the head. Way too many bands and wrappings for my tastes.  The cigar had a very loose, open draw, and burned quicker than i’d like. However, the flavor was very nice, a bit of coffee and old baseball glove.  I’m glad I got two of them so I can see if I have the same experience.  The website says that the blend is a recreation of the Upmann brothers blend from 1844, which seems like some marketing nonsense to me, but, once again, I invite the Groupo de Maestros to weigh in!  A quick website complaint, since I’ve referenced two Altadis brand websites already, is that they don’t have the sizes listed anywhere. I had to use retailers websites to confirm sizes and names, mostly because I was too lazy to make note of them at the time I smoked the cigars. I think a brand’s website should be a one stop shop for all the information about the cigar, blend, sizes, whatever. Things like this get under my skin!

 

CasadeMontecristo_ExclusivoJohn Giese gifted everyone at the anniversary event one of the Montecristo Casa de Montecristo cigars that only are sold at Montecristo lounges. I’ve had the pleasure of smoking this cigar on one occasion before, and really enjoyed it. It’s not a small cigar, it’s a 6″ x 60, which came out in June of 2014. It’s got a nice, Ecuador Sumatra wrapper and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers and burned really well and was quite tasty. It’s rich and smooth, and not anywhere near as mild as the typical Montecristo.  Quite good, and worth a try if you happen to find yourselves in a Montecristo lounge. I’m fortunate to have two within a short drive.  Both this cigar, and the following cigar have black and silver bands that are very difficult for an amateur like myself to photograph.

 

RoMEo_Anejo_RobustoI took both dogs for separate walks yesterday, and on the latter walk I smoked the RoMEo Añejo robusto, which I had purchased a few weeks ago at another local shop.  This is billed as an aged version of the RoMEo, with a 2010 Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. This has been sitting on the top shelf of the cabinet for a few weeks, where the humidity is slightly lower, but it still burned like it was a bit damp, needing to be re-lit a couple times. It was very flavorful, and I dig the broadleaf, so I imagine one of these that behaved itself would be pretty darned good. I’ll have to pick a few more up to see, and I don’t think they were priced unreasonably.  Good smoke, when it was working right, and lots of potential.

 

I’m going to wrap this up as we have a day full of dog acclimation.  They have taken to rough housing, and we need to break that up quick. I also have some yard work I want to get to, and I’d like to get my annual walk at Valley Forge Park in this Memorial Day weekend, which I find to be inspiring.  Of course, I smoked a bunch of other great cigars this week, the Sindicato Maduro Churchill I smoked on one of yesterday’s many walks was quite good, as well as a great Foundry Worm Hole Hell-E-IN and an Alec Bradley Maxx Connecticut.  It’s the start of my favorite time of year, and while I’ll miss having a pool this summer, it’s going to be a good year with lots of great cigars!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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San Cristobal Revelation, Dubnium and Bernie Parent’s Vezina Cigar

To touch once again on the issue of Cuban cigars I brought up last time, or to expand upon it, I suppose, the issue of fakes was brought up.  I was saving that for a separate discussion, so here it is.  There will be no shortage of criminal behavior in this regard. How many people unfamiliar with cigars would be able to spot the difference between a Partagas Serie D No. 4 and a Rosa Cuba robusto without bands?  It may look like a worthwhile investment to have some bands made and but a bunch of cheap bundles and reband them. I hope I’m not giving anyone any ideas, but I would hope that anyone stupid enough to not have thought of this is scenario isn’t smart enough to run a business anyway.  So unsuspecting newbs wanting to try their fist Cuban cigar and willing to shell out a $20 to do it will get as much of a crappy experience as they might get smoking the real deal right off the truck! How many of us have seen everyone posting pictures of the Cohibas in the box with the sliding plastic lid that they got at a resort in Mexico? Fakes are already a big problem one that will get much worse when the embargo is lifted, and may already considering people misunderstand the recent relaxation of rules about what you can bring back from a licensed trip to the island. As always, I deeply appreciate the comments and discussion!

 

SanCristobal_Revelation_OdysseyOddly, I’ve been on a bit of a large cigar kick, at the time of year I should be smoking little cigars.  Thursday I reached for a San Cristobal Revelation Odyssey, an interestingly sized 5¾” x 60. This cigar was a Christmas gift from one of my vendors at work. This gentleman owns a steel company in Oxnard, CA and shops at Olde Oaks Cigar Co. in Thousand Oaks, CA. This is a really neat shop with a really good and well priced (for CA) selection of cigars, and what appears to this non-drinker to be an incredible booze selection. The lounge is nice as well. Anyway, this San Cristobal Revelation is one of his current favorites and he wanted to share it with me. I can see why he likes the cigar, the man may not smoke cigars more than once a week or so, but he has good taste, and this one is loaded with flavor. I found it to be medium bodied, smooth with a hint of savory sweetness. It started off with a hint of pepper, a signature of the manufacturer, the My Father factory. This size is round, but several other sizes have a box press, and it has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper and a really beautiful band.  This is a winner in my book and I would reach for this cigar without hesitation.

 

CE&M_DubniumFriday evening I thought it would be a good time to smoke the Foundry Compunds, Elements and Musings Dubnium: the Cheshire Cat.  As we all know, Dubnium is a chemical element with symbol Db and atomic number 105. It is named after the town of Dubna in Russia, where it was first produced. It is a synthetic element (an element that can be created in a laboratory but is not found in nature) and radioactive; the most stable known isotope, dubnium-268, has a half-life of approximately 28 hours (thank you Wikipedia), and a Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat popularized by Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, not sure what one has to do with the other except that neither occurs naturally in nature, or has a damned thing to do with cigars. Knowing the beautiful mind of Michael Giannini as I do, one quickly learns not to question these things, the just are, reason and logic play no part, and that’s OK as the Foundry cigars, despite the gimmick and novelty, deliver in quality for me.  This was a cigar on the milder side, but heavy on the creamy soft flavors that I deeply appreciate on occasion. It had a sweetness and perfect burn and I found interesting and unique flavors as I frequently do in this line. That’s probably what keeps me sampling the Foundry line every chance I get, besides the fact that the Compounds, Elements and Musings series is generally wallet friendly, this 6″ x 60 box press cost me under $7 locally, and many are priced lower than that.  Innovative packaging, unique tobaccos (although, to be fair, it could be just about anything considering they rarely specify the tobaccos used), and a neat story and the trust I have in Michael makes me a fan.

 

BSBNo1 40th_VezinaYesterday, after a heavy, wet snow over night which was (thankfully) only a few inches, I opted for the second of three cigars from the Rocky Patel Bernie Parent BSB No.1 40th Anniversary set, the Vezina. It’s All Star weekend in the NHL, so I figured it would be appropriate, and I wanted to smoke it anyway, so there!  The Vezina is the trophy awarded each year to the goaltender “adjudged to be the best at this position”, and Bernie Parent won it in 1974 and 1975.  The cigar has a cedar sleeve, covering a beautiful Ecuador Habano wrapper, and is 6½” x 52. My friends at Halfwheel have a nice write up on this series of cigars, however they have spelt Vezina “Venzia” on two occasions, making it darned near impossible to find in a search, which isn’t pertinent to this story, just fun to point out.  I enjoyed the cigar, although it wasn’t as distinctively good as the Conn Smythe with the broadleaf wrapper. Not to say it wasn’t a wonderful smoke, but those aren’t hard to find these days, and I certainly won’t avoid it. Burned great, tasted great and evokes great memories of both a childhood watching the Broad Street Bullies win the Stanley Cup twice in a row, and times hanging out, smoking cigars with the legendary goaltender and wickedly funny story teller and friendly guy, Bernie.  Now I’m looking forward the the third in the series, the box pressed, Ecuador Sumartra wrapped Lord Stanley. Should I wait until June to smoke that? I’m not sure I can wait.

 

imageMy boss called me into his office yesterday morning, and instead of firing me, he gave me this interesting ashtray made from a well cap by a guy who works for a local well drilling company.  I’m more of a fan of having the business end of a cigar suspended over the ashtray, but this is an interesting design and will have a place in the smoking porch. It’s a much appreciated gift, much better than a pink slip!  That wraps up today’s episode, tune in Wednesday for more literary regurgitation as I meander through the wonders of the cigar world!  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways 2014: Wrap Up!

Well folks, it’s finally over!  It was a great couple weeks worth of great cigar giveaways!  We had a never before seen 14 days!  For that we have a bunch of folks to thank.  Please let all these folks know that we appreciate their generosity.  Nobody HAS to give away their cigars!  We certainly appreciate the opportunity to make a bunch of folks happy and maybe turn people on to some new cigars and brands.  Thanks to the following sponsors:

 

 

The Flor de la Reine was the only cigar in the whole 14 days that I had never smoked, but Barry at The Cigar Authority (which is associated with United Cigar Retailers) gives it the thumbs up, so I didn’t have any reservations about including it.  The rest I had smoked in maybe a different size or shape, but I’ve sampled the brand and they are all cigars I really like. There were a total of 274 cigars, three hats, two ashtrays, two t-shirts, two backpacks, a knife, a metal poster, a lighter and a cutter. Shipping costs are yet to be calculated, but I should loo for an official shipping sponsor for next year! Also, there are a couple of people who I missed seeing this year. Please join me in remembering George Satterfield and Dawn Christopher, who’s untimely departure from this plane of existence left huge voids in their families lives. I never met them, but they were frequent visitors to the site, and the 12SDoCG event.  I missed seeing their comments, and their families have my sincere condolences. If it means anything, I dedicate this year’s contests to their memory.  On a positive note, the next contest will be on New Years Eve, and I’m wiping the slate clean, everyone is eligible to enter this one, and it will be some good stuff!

 

Winners!

2014-12-23 08.34You probably want to know who won the crazy Day 14 prize from Miami Cigar and Company, right?  The lucky recipient of the box of Nestor Miranda Collection Habano 46×6, T-shirt, ashtray and back pack is comment number 110, as selected by the random number generator at Random.org.  I adjusted for a post from a prior winner and arrived at Joe K as the winner!  Joe, send me your address so I can get this to you! I actually met Joe at an event a few months ago, so I might be able to save some shipping money and meet him for a smoke someplace!

 

ArandozaWhiteFinally, the winner of the Arandoza White Labels back on day 7 never sent me his address, and I tried e-mailing twice and both e-mails came back as undeliverable So I picked another name from Day 7’s comments!  Smokin_Dave, please send your address! (I’ll e-mail and hope you gave the right address).  It’s probably best if you enter a contest to check to see if you won (although I’m guilty of forgetting that myself!), but at least leave the right e-mail address! I’m not selling the addresses to spammers or anything, I just would like to be able to contact you to send you cigars!

 

That’s all for now!  I hope you all enjoyed the last few weeks!  Thank you for participating, I wish I could send each of you a box of great cigars, but I can’t so you’ll just have to keep taking your chances on these contests! 🙂

 

Until the next time,

CigarCriag

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CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways 2014 Day 8: Foundry Cigars

Happy Thursday everyone!  I have two days of work and a holiday party to get through this week then I have two weeks off to celebrate the holidays and try to get some things done around the house (including getting packages shipped and perhaps delivered). I’m really looking forward to the time off!  I smoked an Arandoza White Label robusto last night and it was really good, a little spice, great burn, a real winner. Speaking of winners, the winner of the box of Arandoza White Doble Coronas is Rich M! Please send me your shipping info so so I can get this out to you. It’s going to be a White Christmas for Rich (someone left that in a comment, well done!). Today we have another personal favorite of mine, so let’s get on with it!

 

 

Foundry Tobacco Company

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Day 8 brings us an oldie but goodie!  Foundry Tobacco Company is a boutique within General Cigar Co., headed up by Michael Giannini. Their original release is the steam punk themed Foundry, which featured rarely used tobaccos, none of which come from the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua or Mexico. The wrapper is an eight year old tobacco called H-47 Pleno Sol, developed by General Cigar. It’s a unique and complex cigar, and the Cayley is a unique shape. It’s a figurado listed at 6½” x 60 x 56 x 43.  This is a box of 24 cigars. Many have said this was a gimmicky cigar but I really love everything from the Foundry line, it’s different and innovative.  Many thanks to Victoria at General Cigar Co. for providing this excellent box of cigars.

 

Rules

All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment on that day’s post and if you like, in one sentence tell us what comes to mind when you think of Foundry Cigars.  It’s not a condition to win, but I’d like for the folks who make this all possible to come away with some consumer feedback.  Also, be sure to visit the links for each item. Comments on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else will not count, but feel free to spread the word!

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Until tomorrow,

 

CigarCraig

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