Tag Archives: Gary Griffith

by CigarCraig | February 5, 2012 · 8:49 am

A Cigar of My Own Blending, a 777 and a Grimalkin Contest!

In March of last year my son and I went to Nicaragua for Drew Estate’s Cigar Safari. One of the many cool things we did on the trip was to blend a cigar at the Joya de Nicaragua factory. The exercise highlighted Nicaraguan tobacco, there were Seco, Viso and Ligero leaves from Condega, Jalapa and Estili to choose from, as well as Habano Criollo, Dark Corojo and Ecuador Connecticut wrappers and Habano Volado, Sumatra and Ecuador Connecticut binders. It was quite the experience touching, smelling, looking at all these leaves, and watching how each leaf burned. I selected the Dark Corojo wrapper and Sumatra binder, along with Condega Seco, Esteli Viso and a blend of Condega and Esteli Ligero. The factory rolled five robustos for each of the attendees which were delivered to us on our last night. I smoked one of these after about 3 months and was amazed, and the one I smoked Friday evening was no less amazing. It burned perfectly, even burn, nice flat coal. It was vaguely reminiscent of the Antaño Dark Corojo, no surprise there given the wrapper I selected. I have 3 left, and it will be fun to pull them out after another six months or so. On this occasion my son, who had traveled with me, joined me with an Acid Kuba Kuba Maduro.

Yesterday, after napping through a near comeback by the Flyers (helpful hint, don’t get down 6-0 and expect to win…) I needed a pick-me-up so I grabbed a J. Fuego 777 Maduro Belicoso for an afternoon walk. I have really been enjoying the cigars in the J. Fuego line. So far I’ve loved them all, but the Maduro 777 has been my favorite. Dark, rich, and savory, this cigar is always a treat for my taste buds. Normally I’m not a fan of Criollo wrappers, but this one is done just right. These aren’t priced too bad either. I could smoke these all the time. I will probably shy away from this shape in the future though, as it wanted to shoot out of my mouth easier than most figurados for some reason, maybe it’s oilier than most torpedos and belicosos I smoke!

It’s contest time again!

It seems like just yesterday I was in daily contest mode! December’s 12 days of Spectacular Giveaways was a huge success (for the winners and the USPS for sure!). Thanks again to all of the sponsors for taking part. A few weeks ago I went to visit Gary Griffith of Emilio Cigars at the Peoples Plaza Cigar-ette City location and he gave me these two Grimalkin mugs for a future give-away. The future is today, my friends, so leave a comment on this post to enter and I’ll post the winner on Wednesday. The mugs are magic! they look like the one on the left until you put hot liquid in, then the eyes appear! I’m also going to include a Grimalkin Robusto from my humidor, and you never know what else might fall into the box as I’m packing it up! I will have to try to get some more of these before they change to La Musa. Many thanks to Gary for providing me with these collectors items to give away!

That’s it for today! Enter the contest, tell your friends and enjoy the day! I understand there’s some sort of sporting event on today…oh yeah, the Flyers and Rangers game this afternoon!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

39 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk

Tagged as 777, cigar, Cigar Safari, Cigar-Ette City, cigars, Contest, delaware cigars, drew estate, Emilio, Gary Griffith, Grimalkin, J. Fuego, joya de nicaragua, La Musa

by CigarCraig | January 15, 2012 · 9:17 am

A Visit to Cigar-Ette City and Gary Griffith (and a Grimalkin)

Yesterday was a bit on the chilly side, so I figured I’d look for a nice, warm indoor smoking location. I’ve been wanting to take a ride south of the boarder and visit Gary Griffith at his Peoples Plaza Cigar-Ette City store for a while, and decided the time had come. I grabbed the GPS and hit the road, taking the 1 hour and 7 minute drive. I got there a bit ahead of schedule and Gary greeted me warmly and we went into the enormous walk-in humidor. It was at that point that I realized the flaw in my plan: The State of Delaware frowns upon smoking indoors! Here we have a store that sells cigars and other tobacco products, and you can’t smoke in it. If you have been complacent in contacting your elected officials about the FDA issue, do it now. Not being able to smoke in your local shop is only scratching the surface of the “inconveniences” we’ll face it the FDA is allowed to regulate Premium Cigars.

Anyway, all was not lost. I wandered around the humidor for a while talking to Gary, and marvelling at the ridiculous amount of inventory. He had all kinds of boutique brands that I don’t see a lot of in my local shops, but hear about everywhere. The Viajes, Tatuajes, Illusiones, 262s, you name it. Boxes stacked to the ceiling, I even saw a stack of the Para Japon cigars that La Aurora made to aid the Japanese earthquake relief. Of course the Emilio and Grimalkin lines were well represented, and I picked up a couple Grimalkin Robustos while I was there. The moral of the story is that one could leave a ton of cash behind in this store, and the prices were competitive with Pennsylvania prices given that the lack of a state sales tax offsets the cigar tax.

Here’s a little video I shot with Gary telling us about what’s coming down the line in 2012 for the Emilio family of cigars. I know I’m excited to see what comes next.

httpv://youtu.be/VzeaLToxhR8

After I got home and fed, I still needed to smoke the cigar I set out earlier in the day to smoke, so I grabbed a Grimalkin Robusto and took a long and satisfying walk. The cigar was awesome, although I believe more of the subtlety and complexity is apparent when the temperatures aren’t around freezing. Still, this is an incredible cigar that everyone should try if they can. My thanks to Gary for his hospitality, and for making dynamite cigars.

That’s it for now. I used a new camera for the video this time, I’d like to know if you think the quality is better than my previous videos.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

6 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review, Stores

Tagged as 262 Cigars, cigar, cigar store, Cigar-Ette City, cigars, delaware cigars, Emilio, Gary Griffith, Grimalkin, illusione, IPCPR, La Aurora, Para Japon, Take A Cigar For A Walk, tatuaje, Viaje

by CigarCraig | December 21, 2011 · 7:24 am

CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways Day 10: AJ Fernandez/Emilio

We’re getting close to the end, I sure wish I could run contests every day, but I think 12 days in a row is enough for just about anyone. We’ll go back to monthly (or as the spirit moves me) after the first of the year. I can always find something to give away! Now, once again we consult Random.org for a number, and that number is 3. So would Brian please e-mail me so I can send you your gift certificate! (I save postage on this one!)

Today on CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways we have a selection of cigar from AJ Fernandez! We have two San Lotano Oval Toros and two San Lotano Habano Robustos. Cigar Journal just named the San Lotano Oval as #2 best cigar of 2011, and it is a really nice cigar! Co-sponsoring today is Emilio Cigars. The AF series are made and named after AJ Fernandez and are exceptional cigars! Gary Grifith has provided 3 each of the AF1 and AF2s.

Thank you to Clay Roberts at AJ Fernandez and Gary Griffith of Emilio Cigars for their generous contributions, and to AJ for making exceptional cigars!

You know what to do! Leave a comment to enter and good luck!

Until tomorrow,

CigarCraig

62 Comments

Filed under Contest

Tagged as 12 days, af1, af2, aj fernandez, broadleaf, c-gars ltd, cigar, Cigar Journal, cigars, diesel, Emilio, Gary Griffith, san lotano

by CigarCraig | November 13, 2011 · 9:51 am

A 601 La Bomba, a San Lotano Oval, News and a Contest Winner!

While perusing CigarEvents.com it came to my attention that Eddie Ortega of EO Brands was going to be making an appearance at my local shop, JM Cigars, in Exton, PA. After dinner my son and I made our way over there. We promptly purchased some of the last 601 La Bombas that they had and fired one of these badboys up and visited with Eddie for a while. I have been patronizing this shop since the mid-90s and it’s one of the best around. The shop was packed and the LA Bomba was awesome. I had only previously had a pre-release sample, which I loved. These are terrific cigars with a little bit of strength. It’s always a good time hanging out with Eddie, and I got to catch up with an old friend, Rob, after the shop cleared out. Nice bunch of folks, and a fine way to spend a chilly Friday evening.

Saturday’s walk cigar was a San Lotano Oval which I received from Clay at AJ Fernandez a few months ago. These cigars are unique in the fact that they, as the name implies, are oval shaped. I smoked the 6 x 54 toro, which looks like it was squished. The shape is very comfortable to smoke, and, like a box press, it doesn’t roll off the table when you set it down. there’s a bright flavor in this cigar that I enjoy but can’t put a finger on. All I know is that this is a tasty, well made and interesting cigar! I look forward to a maduro version one day!

News

There were two new entries into the blogosphere recently that I think are notable. First, Frank Seltzer, who you see writing in all the big cigar magazines and around the web, is now contributing to the JR Cigars blog. Frank is a real journalist, and I’m proud to say he’s an old friend. He has a couple articles in the latest JR catalog as well. Also breaking into the blog world is Gary Griffith of Emilio Cigars, with “From Seed To Smoke“. Gary’s pretty prolific on Twitter and he’s making some outstanding cigars and is a heck of a nice guy who I’m also proud to call friend. I look forward to reading what he has to say. I HAVE to get down to Delaware and visit him at his shop one of these days!

Contest!

Let’s get to the part you’ve all been waiting for, the selection of this month’s contest winner. The prize consists of the following: a Drew Estate cap and a Liga Privada cutter, a Stogieboys.com Cigar Journal, a C-Gars Ltd. ring gauge card, a Liga Privada T52 Belicoso, a Monte Pascoal Belicoso and a American Eagles Half Corona. Thank you to all of the generous sponsors of this contest. As usual, I created a spreadsheet of the eligible entries and assigned them numbers based upon the time of the entry. I consulted with the Random.Org True Random Number Generator for the winning number. The number 19 came up, which corresponds to an entry via Twitter by @s5592c, aka Steve Christopher. Congrats to Steve and thanks for reading! Please e-mail me your contact info so I can ship this stuff out to you! Thanks to everyone for entering, and keep an eye out for next months contest!