Tag Archives: general cigars

by | July 11, 2012 · 6:57 pm

A Pool Cigar, Chateau Real, Hammer & Sickle and another Hoyo de Monterrey Contest Winner!

Sunday I spent a few hours lounging in the pool with my wife, enjoying a couple of frosty IBC root beers and a Maria Mancini Robusto Larga. After working until 3am and getting a few hours sleep, hanging out in the warm pool was very relaxing. I encountered an interesting phenomenon with the cigar though. In my sleep deprived state, I absent-mindedly dropped my travel humidor in my cooler bag along with my supply of frosty root beers. By the time I lit up a cigar it was pretty cold. I noticed that the cigar, of which I’ve smoked hundreds of over the years and almost never had a problem with, didn’t draw as well as I would have liked until about half way through the smoke. Is it possible that the sudden temperature change effected the relative humidity that quickly? I suppose that the lower temperature would allow the leaves to hold more moisture and give me that over humidified, “steamy” tight draw. I’ll have to do some reading on RH and see if that even makes sense, but I know that temperature determines whether a water molecule is in a gas or liquid state, and at lower temperatures it’s more likely to be in a liquid state. Would this have a profound effect on our beloved roll of leaves in a hour or two’s time? It turned out to be a very enjoyable smoke, once it got going, but just about any cigar would have been good under those circumstances.

 

Monday I took a nice little walk with an old friend, the Chateau Real Gran Cru Perfecto Maduro. I absolutely love these cigars. I purchased a box nearly two years ago and have been smoking them very sparingly, as the maduro seems to be discontinued. It’s a real shame too, because I adore the Mexican maduro wrapper on these, I think it makes the cigar. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the mild and creamy Ecuador Connecticut wrapped version, but the maduro hits the spot for me. I have a handful of these left, as well as nearly half a box of the Small Club in maduro and will be sad when they are gone. I’ll have to find another favorite, I suppose! With so many great cigars sporting that San Andreas maduro wrapper lately, it shouldn’t be hard, but it’s a shame to see a favorite go away.

 

Tuesday I decided to re-visit the Hammer and Sickle Robusto that I was given last year at the trade show. My dear old friend Mike Perry was working the booth for Eric Hanson and Victor Vitale last year and made sure I got a couple of these to try. Sadly, I hear he won’t make it to the show this year due to recovering from some health issues. I met Mike at a herf in Vegas in 1999, he’s a tremendous guy, and I look forward to seeing him again soon. Anyway, I believe these are made by Hendrik Kelner, and the quality really shows. I love a cigar that burns with a flat coal, all of the tobaccos burning at exactly the same rate. It’s a thing of beauty. It’s a nice smoke, I’d smoke it again for sure, and if you ever come across a box of these you’ll know it, it’s probably the only cigar to come in a crystal box! Always an interesting presentation from The Cigar Agency! I look forward to seeing Victor again at the show, his Tortuga 1950 Maduro is amazingly good!

 

Contest

 

So it’s time to select another winner! I’m embarrassed to admit that I haven’t yet shipped out Allen’s cigars, I was waiting for some boxes that I received Monday. I’ll get it shipped out tomorrow I promise!  I’ve closed the comments and consulted once again with Random.org‘s random number generator and came up with the number 8, which corresponds to JScott. Congrats!  Please send me your address so I can ship your pair of three-packs of Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros cigars, even though I probably have it around here someplace!

Don’t forget to enter the Box-a-Day contest at HoydeMonterreycigar.com, and keep an eye here on Sunday for another Reposado en Cedros six-pack contest!.

 

That’s it for today, until Sunday,

 

CigarCraig

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by | July 8, 2012 · 8:18 am

4th of July Cigars, an Oliva, a La Gloria, and Hoyo De Monterrey Reposados Contest No.2

As I mentioned in my previous post, the 4th of July was my 25th wedding anniversary, so special cigars were in order. I have a humidor that my wife had custom made for me for our 10th anniversary in which I keep a selection of “special cigars”, some Opus X and Ashton VSG, a couple of specially rolled cigars that I can’t see ever smoking, and a handful of Havanas collected over the years. It’s my custom to select from this humidor on my anniversary.  I selected an old favorite, a Bolivar Belicosos Finos for my first celebratory smoke. I know what you’re thinking, this is usually a breakfast cigar!  OK, that’s an old joke most won’t get.  The Belicosos Finos, or BBF, or Boli Beli, has a reputation as a strong cigar.  The Havana Bolivar line has long been a favorite of mine, but more for the interesting flavors than the strength.  I once had a Coronas Gigantes that tasted line cinnamon, the first and only time I remember tasting that in a cigar.  Anyway, this Boli Beli was enjoyed after a dinner out with my wife for our anniversary.  It had been in my humidor over a year, and I have no idea how old it was when it came into my possession, but I suspect that it would have been ready to go.  I can see that this cigar would have been fine if I had waited several more years to smoke it, but it hit the spot.  I will say that every Cuban cigar I have smoked over the last few years really proves the point that cigars from the rest of the cigar producing countries have caught up and in many ways surpassed Cuba.  There still remains a flavor, a “twang”, if you will, that sets Havana cigars apart from the rest.  An awesome cigar to celebrate a wonderful day.

 

We can watch our town’s fireworks from our front porch, which is preferable to  battling the crowds in my opinion.  Sure, there are some trees obscuring the view of some of the lower altitude fireworks, but it’s still nice to be at home for the show.  I went back to the anniversary humidor and selected a little Ashton Virgin Sungrown Tres Mystique for the show.  This cigar has been in that humidor for well over 5 years, I honestly can’t remember where it came from, certainly in a trade or something like that.  It’s a 4 3/8 x 44 petit corona with a beautiful dark brown wrapper that glistens with oil.  I have to describe the smoke as lush and meaty, like a great steak.  I wish it had been a little longer, as I had to put it down before the show ended.  That’s OK, it was a stellar cigar, worthy of the moment.  I forgot to snap a photo of it before I lit it up, so the photo here is from Ashton’s website (which will explain it’s superior quality!).

 

Thursday, after a delicious sausage, peppers and pasta dinner made by my wife, and a relaxing swim in the pool, I came home and dug out an Oliva Serie G Belicoso and took the dog for a walk.  The last natural version of this cigar let me down a little, but this one had Camerooniness all over the place!  It burned well and tasted great. I don’t think I would have wanted to smoke this in the pool, the wrapper is a little too delicate for that, but it was perfect for relaxing after.  Nice cigar and quite reasonably priced.

 

Friday evening I had La Gloria Cubaba Serie N on my mind, and dug out the last one from over a year ago, a 5½” x 54 JSB.  I love the dark, oily wrapper on these, and I’ll never forget getting to see the “N” being painstakingly applied in the factory when I visited. They have a punch, like a paper punch, that punches the “N”s out of light colored leaves.  The “N”s are all over the benches and the poor ladies have to carefully apply them just right on the cigar.  It’s a neat touch that sets this cigar apart from the rest.  Another thing that sets it apart are the rich and dark flavors. This cigar is darned tasty!  It’s dark maduro Ecuador Sumatra wrapper is delicious, but mine didn’t want to stay light as well as I’d like.  Still, a nice smoke, I’d buy a box in a heartbeat (and the box is way cool too).

 

Contest!

 

Once again, it’s contest time!  I have another two (2) three-packs of Hoyo de Monterrey Reposados en Cedros cigars for one reader who leaves a comment on this post.  I got a timely response from last week’s winner, Allen, and his cigars will be heading out to his duty station where ever that may be next week.  So, leave a comment, tell your friends, win some cigars courtesy of our friends at General Cigars.  If you haven’t already, head over to HoyodeMonterreycigar.com and enter to win a box of these.  They are giving a box away every day through the end of the month!  (note: There is still the CAO Last Stick Standing contest going on at lss.caocigars.com too!)  Please note, the prize is the two 3-packs.  The photo here has a display representing of the special “Inmersion” process used to age these cigars, not part of the prize.

 

That’s all I have for now! Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | July 1, 2012 · 10:06 am

Some Stronger Cigars: Joya de Nicaragua, Cain, Ortega, a Cusano and a Contest!

I found myself smoking more powerhouse cigars lately for some reason.  Maybe it was the need for a satisfying smoking experience, or just the luck of the draw, I don’t know.  I do know that Wednesday evening I wanted a sure thing, no gambling on a new cigar, something tried and true.  I had actually wanted to drive up to Easton to see Jonathan Drew at the Drew Estate event at Leaf cigar bar, but after a long day at work spending three and a half more hours in the car didn’t appeal to me.  I’ll see JD at the IPCPR show. So I went for a Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Dark Corojo El Martillo that I had picked up a few months ago when I visited a little shop in Kutztown, PA.  The El Martillo is a 5 ½” x 54 over sized robusto and has a beautiful dark wrapper.  This is a strong cigar.  I remember smoking one of these in Nicaragua while touring the Joya de Nicaragua factory and having to put it down before the strength of the cigar and the heat and humidity in the factory got the better of me.  This one was similar, I really needed some sugar when I was done to offset the nicotine effects.  A tremendous cigar, maybe less suitable for sultry weather than some other cigars though!

 

Thursday was the exception to the rule, I had a Cusano 18 Double Connecticut that a business associate had sent me because he came across it and wanted me to try it, unaware that I have smoked these in the past.  Of course, I appreciate the sentiment and I do give him a cigar when he visits from the west coast.  These are a nice, mellow, flavorful Connecticut wrapped cigar.  They were exceptional when Cusano was privately owned, and are no less exceptional under the wing of Davidoff.  Pretty, well made and tasty.  Gave me an hour and a half or so of pleasure.

 

Friday I took the day off to visit Monmouth Park in New Jersey with my wife’s family.  My Father-in-Law likes to go there, so we celebrate his birthday at the park every year.  I took a pocket full of cigars, and spent a few races outside enjoying the heck out of a Cain F Tubed Lancero.  I love the Cain line of cigars, I just usually find them too powerful.  The beauty of the Lancero is the format forces one to smoke slowly, which keeps the strength from really being a liability.  I love the elegance of the Lancero, and this one was perfectly built, loaded with spicy, deliciousness.  Like a fine steak, when you take the last bite you’re sad that it’s gone, this cigar made me forget that every darned horse I bet on, whether he led the whole race or not, came in in the bottom three.  I strayed from my usual system at the track, yeah….that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

 

Upon arrival home, I took the dog and an Ortega Series D No. 6 for a walk to the local convenience store to pick up a lottery ticket.  I’m starting to sound like a real gambler, no wonder I get offers from poker sites for paid links.  I’m really a light weight, 2 dollar bets at the track and a dollar twice a week in the Mega Millions isn’t really too bad. I’ve seen people drop thousands on the tables in Vegas.  Back to the cigar.  Did I mention that the temps were pushing 100° F yesterday?  Hot stuff!  The No. 6 is a perfect sized cigar, 4½” x 48 and had a beautiful and oily San Andreas Maduro wrapper.  Lately, when I know I want a great smoke, I choose one with this wrapper.  It just suits me, what can I say.  The Series D has a really smooth, refined flavor.  No rough edges at all, you could pop these in your mouth all day long like Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Kisses, so it’s not really strong, but very rich and satisfying. Gotta get me some more of these!  Well done Eddie!

 

Contest!

 

General Cigar Co. has been having a contest on their HoyoDeMonterreyCigar.com site where they are giving away a box of their Reposado en Cedros cigars every day so head over there and try to win a box!  These are really tasty smokes!  From the press release:

After being handcrafted by a handpicked team of artisans, each Reposado en Cedros cigar undergoes Inmersión, an innovative method of aging created at HATSA, General Cigar’s Honduran cigar factory. With this technique, each cigar is enveloped in fragrant cedar and left to rest for an extended period of time. The cigar matures to a complex, medium-bodied smoke that has won the brand stellar ratings and praise from the premium cigar category’s most discerning experts. 

In honor of that, I will give away two (2) Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros 3-packs courtesy of General CigarCo.  to a lucky reader for the next four weeks!  Please leave a comment to enter. Usual rules apply, and I’ll stress that if you enter, and are chosen as the winner, please contact me with your mailing address so I can send your winnings!  A new contest will start each Sunday and the winner will be announced the following Wednesday. If you’ve tried these, you know how good they are, and if you haven’t, here’s a great opportunity to try them!

 

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

CigarCraig

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by | June 27, 2012 · 6:17 pm

A Visit to JR Cigars, Peter of ACigarSmoker.com, Nat Sherman, Don Pepin, etc.

Sunday I took a two and a half hour drive to have a cigar.  I went to JR Cigar’s store in Whippany, NJ to meet up with Peter Glad from ACigarSmoker.com.  The plan was to have a nice relaxing lunch and smoke a cigar, but it turns out that the restaurant is closed on Sundays in the summer!  This was a disappointment, as there’s just something special about sitting down at a table with a knife, fork and a Montecristo Tubo wrapped in a napkin.  Here’s a little suggestion for the folks at JRs, sell some beverages in the store?  They have all sorts of candy and nuts and baskets and leather jackets and assorted stuff. Get a cooler full of sodas, for crying out loud!  Anyway, my first stop was the gents room, and as I was coming down the stairs a guy asked me where the restaurant was and I pointed it out and went into the cigar shop to pick up a few things.  My phone rings a moment later and it was Peter, who turned out to be the guy who I had just directed to the apparently closed restaurant.  We picked out a few things including a Nat Sherman Omerta #7, which is a big 7″ x 54 double corona with a nice dark maduro wrapper. We repaired to the lounge and fired these bad boys up and spent a good 2 hours getting acquainted and trading stories and smokes.  Peter is doing a nice job writing for ACigarSmoker.com. He had big shoes to fill and seems to be keeping up rather nicely.  The cigar was very good.  I hadn’t had a Nat Sherman in a very long time, and this Nicaraguan was quite nice. I smoked Nat Sherman cigarettes briefly in the ’80s, and this was nothing like those, but it was chocolaty and with a nice amount of sweetness and it was good to the last drop.  I’m sure Peter will have a good review on his site (here it is).   I always enjoy meeting fellow cigar bloggers and have been fortunate to have met a bunch.  It was a great day and well worth the 5 hours driving time!

 

Last night I decided to smoke a cigar that I picked up at JRs, in retrospect I should have put it back after I cut it and found that it had a tight draw. Believe it or not, I had yet to smoke a Don Pepin Garcia Series JJ and was overly anxious to try one.  Nice flavor when I could get some smoke out of it, but I mangled it pretty good trying.  My mistake not letting a new purchase rest for a few weeks.  I also picked up a five-pack of Maria Mancini Robusto Largas and should have pulled an old one of those out of the humidor instead, but I didn’t.  I can’t wait to smoke one of the Series JJ in the future and hope that this one was a fluke.  JR’s is an interesting store. It’s owned by Altadis, but it has a great deal of General Cigar product, owing mostly to the close ties Lew Rothman, former owner of JR’s, had with Villazon, which eventually became General. I miss Lew’s stories in the old JR catalogs.  Lew may be able to claim credit for giving the term “Herf” a wide distribution by featuring the word on a fighter pilot’s helmet on a catalog cover (winter 1997, if memory serves).  Prior to that point the term was unknown outside the alt.smokers.cigars usenet group (at least in the context of cigars!).  That’s more of a history lesson than I planned, unfortunately I don’t have anything more to say about the Series JJ, as I was left unsatisfied, but I’ll accept responsibility for this one.

 

That’s it for now, I’m going to try to pick something out that won’t disappoint me for tonight’s smoke.  Check out Peter’s take on our meeting Sunday here, and  don’t forget to give a listen to last Saturday’s Kiss My Ash Radio show, where I didn’t make as much of a fool of myself as I expected!  Keep an eye out for another quick contest coming up and get on over to HoyodeMonterreyCigar.com and enter to win a box of Reposados!

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | June 24, 2012 · 8:39 am

Accessory/Website Review, Flor de Gonzales, San Lotano, KMA, Alec Bradley and Partagas

Last week I received an e-mail from CigarBargains.com about a Combo Cigar Cutter/Knife w/ Belt/Money Clip.  CigarBargains.com is a site run by CheapHumidors.com which allows one to negotiate with “Suzy” and work the price down.  I thought it would be a neat experiment and always kinda wanted a knife like this, knowing full well it would be crap for properly cutting a cigar (more on that later).  I buy stuff for a living, Buyer is actually my job title, so I know how this works.  I start out looking at the shipping and deciding how much I’m willing to pay. In this case, the farther under $10 the better.  Their starting offer for this item was $10.99, so my opening offer was $3.  “Suzy” replied with “I might have peed myself a little at your offer of $3.50. You need to be closer to $9.68.”.  This went on for a while, with various comments about needing a new purse, feeding the kids and such.  When all was said and done, I ended up getting this for $9.05 delivered, which met my requirements.  Shipping from Florida was reasonably quick as I received it on  Thursday after completing the transaction last Friday.  As anticipated, the knife does a reasonably good job of mangling a cigar, I had the strangest cut, but I have to admit it cut cleanly and I ended up having an excellent smoking experience.  I think it would work better using the blade to make a V cut, or, and I haven’t tried this yet, putting the cigar in the hole, putting the blade up to the cigar with a little pressure, and rotating the cigar, then pealing off the cap.  It was a worthwhile experiment, and there are some decent deals to be had with enough patience to follow through with the negotiating.

 

The cigar I cut with the new knife was a Flor de Gonzales 90 Miles Robusto, the last of a 5 pack I won well over 2 years ago.  I’ve enjoyed smoking these cigars, the construction was flawless and the flavors agreeable.  The poor cut, while offensive to my CDO (OCD in alphabetical order as it should be)  addled brain, was not a factor and didn’t take away from the experience.  It was a smooth, flavorful medium bodied smoke which I enjoyed to the fullest. The two years or so of age didn’t hurt this cigar either.

 

Friday evening calls for a little bit of a special cigar, so I selected a San Lotano Habano Lancero for my evening walk.  I had picked this up at a San Lotano event at Olde World Tobacco in Lancaster, PA several months ago.  This is a beautiful 7″ x 38 lancero, with a nice little pigtail cap.  I went back to my regular cutter for this one, no reason to risk mangling this cigar.  Burn was perfect.  I love it when a cigar burns with a nice flat ember, not pointy, all the tobaccos burning at exactly the same rate.  It’s a miracle that this can be accomplished and I always appreciate it it when I see it.  AJ Fernandez makes some terrific cigars, this was no different.  I love the lancero format.

 

Saturday morning I had the great pleasure of being the guest on Kiss My Ash Radio‘s Bloggers Corner segment.  I was nervous as hell, and there were some things I planned on mentioning but missed. Fortunately, Abe had done a piece on pairing root beers with cigars, which I’ve been doing for years.  I wanted to suggest Victory Brewery‘s root beer, as it is exceptional and made right here in my home town.  I even had notes and in my nervousness I didn’t look at them!  Oh well, I hope I didn’t make too much of a fool of myself, I appreciate being invited on the show.   Saturday afternoon I stopped by JM Cigars in Exton, PA to say hello to Jon Lipson, the Alec Bradley rep, who was having an event there.  I picked up a few American Classic Blends in Corona and Robusto and smoked a Corona while catching up with Jon and the folks at the shop.  For an absolutely stunning day I was surprised at the traffic in the store.  I guess I figure people have better things to do on a stunning Saturday, I know I did.  I enjoyed the American Classic Corona very much and went home to change the oil in the scooter and mow the lawn.

 

To finish up the day I fired up a Partagas 1845 Gigante that I received in a sample pack from General Cigar.  It’s a 6 x 60 that feels much bigger for some reason.  I took my son’s dog for a nice walk and enjoyed the heck out of this cigar. So far I think I liked the Robusto better, but this monster was very good, burned well and lasted for quite a while.  So far I’m impressed by this line, although I really can’t think of a Partagas cigar I really haven’t enjoyed, General Cigar Co. or otherwise.  Dirty little secret: Havana Partagas Presidente is one of my all time favorite cigars.  Give the Partagas 1845 a try, it’s a very tasty smoke.

 

I’m off today to Whippany, NJ to meet up with ACigarSmoker.com‘s Peter Glad at JR Cigars‘ store and lounge.  It’s always fun going to the store there and having a nice lunch and cigars, and I’m looking forward to meeting Peter.  Of course, stop on by if you’re in the area and say hello and join us for a smoke!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

 

 

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