Tag Archives: general cigars

by | February 5, 2011 · 9:07 am

This Weeks Cigars: Nub, Tabacos Baez, Punch, Partagas – Saturday February 5, 2011

I’m making every attempt to get into shape before going to Nicaragua, despite the terrible weather, which has been less than ideal for outdoor smoking.  I’ve kicked up the evening walk routine which I used two years ago to lose 23 pounds. Walking makes the cold bearable.  I need to build up my stamina so I can handle the physical rigors of travel as well as the anticipated non-stop cigar consumption.

I started the week with a Nub Cameroon 358.  I picked up a few of these at an event last year and felt like smoking one.  I enjoy these cigars quite a bit despite my initial feeling that they were gimmicky.  I like the Cameroon wrapper over the Habano, but have yet to try the Connecticut or Maduro.  These have that delicious Camerooniness that I enjoy, especially in the winter.  My only complaint is that these are too short, which I know is the point, but I’d like it to last a little longer. They are also tricky to finish while wearing gloves.

Next up was a Tabacos Baez Serie SF Robusto which I picked up in New Orleans.  This is a budget priced, mixed filler cigar that is purported to be 75% long filler and 25% short.  I’ve smoked a few of these and never noticed anything that would indicate it was different from a long filler cigar.  Tasty cigar, on the milder side of medium in strength and body, a very nice cigar for any time of day.

Wednesday brought freezing rain and ice, which canceled work for the day, and gave me an opportunity to take an early walk and enjoy an Upper Cut by Punch Robusto.  This cigar was in a sampler that I received last year from General Cigar.  This cigar features filler tobacco from Ometepe, Nicaragua as well as Dominican and Nicaraguan tobacco.  In truth, I chose poorly when I selected this cigar, as it turned out to be a little colder and windier than I anticipated.  This would have been better saved for a warm spring evening on the front porch, but it was still an enjoyable cigar which burned well and had a pleasing flavor.  This has a foot band, and I hate those, but I’ll pick up a few more of these in the future anyway.

I wound up the week with an old favorite, the Havana Partagas Petit Coronas Especiales.  These are a perfect sized cigar for me at 5.2″ x 42 and a really nice, fairly priced Havana.  They have that little something that only Cuban cigars have and I really enjoy.  It burned well and was very satisfying on my evening walk.  I’ve had these for almost a year and they keep getting better. I hope I can hold on to the rest of the box for a few more years to see how they age.

That’s about it for the week, it’ll be interesting to see what the next week has in store.  There is talk of more winter weather in our future, I’ll be very happy when spring is here!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | August 11, 2010 · 4:00 pm

My Latest Cigar Adventures, IPCPR Show – Wednesday August 11, 2010

My family vacation to New Orleans this past weekend allowed me the opportunity to make a quick stop at the annual International Premium Cigar and  Pipe Retailers convention.  The IPCPR’s annual show is where all of the manufacturers and distributors gather to sell their wares to the retailers.  I had 3 hours to spend at the show as I had to catch a plane, so I tried to visit as many old friends as I could and meet some new ones.  As I was standing in the wrong line to register I met Wesley Gensel, who handles several brands of cigars from Brazil.  He had been interviewed not long ago on  Dogwatch Cigar Radio, real nice guy.  I moved from the “exhibitors” line to the empty “retailers” line and got my badge and waited to enter the show where I struck up a conversation with Thomas Bender and a couple of his cohorts from Cigar Weekly.  I also ran into Mark Aub from Brother’s of the Leaf/Palio whom I had met a couple months ago.

At about 10 minutes to 10 they opened the doors to the show.  I remember two years ago when we visited the show in Vegas it was like opening the floodgates when the show opened.  This time it wasn’t quite so crowded.  I’m not sure if it was a lower turnout or the exhibit space was larger, but it just seemed like there was a lot more room to move.  I headed over to the Drew Estate booth (which was awarded “Best in Show”) and Steve Saka was there, who is an old friend, and I introduced myself to Jonathan Drew and Johnny Brooke, whom I hadn’t met before.  It was nice to see Marvin Samel again, as well as Dave Lafferty and Kevin McCormack,  the sales guys for my area.  The booth was loaded with sneakers.  Racks of hightops on the floor and shelves of them around the perimeter.  Very cool and quite different.  I didn’t notice if Saka was wearing a pair of Liga Privada Chuck Taylors or not.

I stopped and introduced myself to Pete Johnson of Tatuaje and Dion Giolito of Illusione cigars.  I stopped to see Charlie Toraño, who’s booth was quite busy, said hello to Sam Leccia and  Dave Weber at the Oliva booth.  Stopped by the Camacho booth to see Christian Eiroa, and ran into old friend Bobby Holstein from Fuji Publishing, who used me to mule a cup of Scotch to Saka.  I also stopped by the CAO booth to see Paul Spence, whom I’ve met on several occasions before, and said hello to Jon Huber on the way out.   I was able to meet Bob and Dale from Dogwatch Cigar Radio finally, after having corresponded with them for quite a while, and ran into the crew from Stogie Review, of whom I’d only met Walt White prior. I also ran into Scott Smyth of Scott Smyths World of Cigars while talking to Kurt Kendall of 7-20-4 Cigars, both of whom were very nice guys.  I also ran into Abe Dababneh of Smoke Inn, whom I had met at the 2008 show.  He is on the IPCPR board and gave me some very interesting information about why they have restricted the number of passes available to retailers for the show.  It seems that some retailer was buying additional passes and reselling them to their customers for a profit.  They currently only allow two passes per store from what I’m led to believe.  I may have to break down and get press credentials the next time I go!

One of the highlights for me was visiting the General Cigar booth.  I had been contacted (me and a bunch of other blog types) by Victoria McKee Jaworski, General’s Director of Public Relations, some time ago and stopped to say hello. She was busy with a customer, but her assistant gave me the tour of the booth, introducing me to the brand managers and providing me with samples of some of the new offerings.  In the not so distant future I will be smoking a new Macanudo, the Cru Royale, a couple new La Glorias and a new Hoyo de Monterrey.  What is most interesting about these new offerings is that they are not ridiculously priced.  I’m especially eager to try the LA Gloria Cubana Serie N, which is Nicaraguan and will have an “N” made out of light colored tobacco leaf  as part of the wrapper.  The presentations of all of these new items are very impressive and will stand out on tobacconist’s shelves.  They also have some pretty cool items that will be coming out for the holidays, various collections and samplers with lighters and ashtrays and such.  They also showed me a Partagas 150 humidor and a La Gloria Cubana Travel bag which were beautiful and very high end.  Along with the samples, they provided me with a CD with photos of everything, which is good because I took a bunch of pictures at the show on the macro setting and everything came out blurry…anyway my visit to General’s booth was extremely positive, and I’m pleased that they see a value in what people like me do (free advertising?) and really go a long way to make us feel welcome at what is supposed to be a selling show.

I was a little disappointed  that I couldn’t find the La Aurora booth, either it was hidden away or not as big as I expected, or I was just in such a hurried and sensory overloaded state that I missed it, hard to tell.   There were a few other blogger types that I had hoped to run into but didn’t, but in three hours I managed to cover a lot of ground and make some good contacts.  I wish I had some good pictures, but there will be plenty floating around.

In an unrelated note, I received an e-mail while I was away telling me that CigarCraig.com was included in an article, Top 50 Cigar Appreciation Blogs For Becoming a True Aficionado”, which is pretty cool!  I appreciate being included in their list.

More on my adventures the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | August 5, 2010 · 4:28 pm

This Week’s Cigars: Liga Privada, Hoyo de Tradition – Thursday August 5, 2010

I’ll be taking a the weekend off, so I figured I’d better get a little something out before I go.

Since I gave away some Liga Privadas last time, I decided to smoke one on Sunday evening.  I lit up a No. 9 Parejo I purchased last November at a Drew Estate event at The Wooden Indian in Havertown PA.  These are easily in my top 10, if not top 5, for balance of flavor, construction and overall enjoyment.  I can see why Steve Saka, el Presidente of Drew Estate and the creator of this blend, can smoke these non-stop without getting tired of them.  Just a wonderful smoke.  I was very sad when I dropped the ½” butt in the ashtray.  Yummy!!

Tuesday I grabbed a Hoyo de Tradition Toro.  I really like these, but this one didn’t perform as well as I would have liked. It may have been that it was pretty humid and I took the cigar out of the humidor and let it sit out for a bit while I did something around the house, as others out of the same box haven’t burned this way.  It burned as if it were over-humidified, as a few I had a week or so ago did.  I love the flavor, but when it’s difficult to get the smoke out of the cigar and when you do, it’s what I would describe as steamy, it takes away from the experience.  Anyway, still a nice cigar, keep an eye open for a 5 pack contest for some of these in the not too distant future!

That’s it for now. I’ll post again sometime in the middle of next week.  Maybe I’ll come across something interesting to write about in my travels.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | July 21, 2010 · 5:12 pm

Mid-week Cigar Post: Cohiba, Punch, Maria Mancini – Wednesday July 21, 2010

Saturday, after posting about the recent Cohiba judgment in favor of General Cigar, I pulled a Cohiba Puro Dominicana out of the box of goodies my friend Jason sent me some time ago. Cohibas, Dominican or Cuban, have never been in my regular rotation. I’ve always enjoyed them, but they just don’t really have the “bang for the buck” that falls into my comfort zone. I smoked this particular cigar, which measured about 5½ x 50 and it was OK…good cigar, but not mind-blowing. With about 2 inches or so left it didn’t want to stay lit. I was a little bored with it anyway so I let it go out. Since I couldn’t find this listed in my 2008 Perelman’s Guide, I assumed that it was a sample from last years IPCPR show. I looked on line and was stunned to find that these retail for between $13 and $16 each! Well, there are a lot of cigars that cost a lot less that I enjoy a lot more, heck, one can get very nice Cuban cigars for half that or better (not that I advocate any illegal activities such as purchasing contraband cigars). I would almost be more inclined to pay that much for a Havana Cohiba…almost. I would like to try the Lancero one of these days, but I’m not going to go out of my way to get one.

Sunday after grilling some very interesting seafood sausages we found at Trader Joes, I lit up a Punch Gran Puro Rancho. The sausages were interesting, a casing stuffed with shrimp, scallops and white fish which I grilled until they were nice and hot with grill marks. We ate them on some Amorosos rolls, but we just weren’t sure how to condimentize them. I suppose tartar sauce would have worked. Anyway, this isn’t a grilling blog, it’s about cigars. The Gran Puro was a nice cigar, not overpowering and it worked well after the seafood sausage. It had the consistency I expect from a Punch. Burned and drew nicely. A very pleasant hour or so spent smoking while I walked to the convenience store to collect my lottery winnings ($7 in the Powerball! Woohoo!).

Tuesday brought the first really disappointing cigar I’ve had in a while. I was in the mood for a Maria Mancini, and grabbed a Robusto Larga. These are stored in the same humidor as the rest of the cigars I have been smoking, but this cigar seemed like it was over-humidified. It tasted fine, but the smoke took some effort to get to and just felt damp. It wasn’t plugged, nor did it have any wrapper flaws, it just seemed too wet. I stuck with it for a while, but did put it down sooner than I would normally. I shouldn’t be to upset that a $2 cigar wasn’t great, but I’ve had a lot of luck with this line. I have so little time in my day to enjoy a cigar that when I get a dud it hurts a little.

Blowing Off Steam

It seems that rants have become fashionable in the cigar blogosphere, so here’s mine:   Foot bands.  I don’t like ’em.  They make the first part of the cigar taste funny….ok, kidding here, I do take them off before I light ’em, but that’s a pain as far as I’m concerned.  If I have a cigar with a normal band I leave it on until I get to the point where it’s going to be in the way, unless it’s coming off by itself. Foot bands have to be removed, no ifs, ands or buts.  Sorry Rocky, Sam, whoever else uses foot bands, if I’m cigar shopping I’ll probably pass unless it’s a single I really want to try.  I wouldn’t buy a box of foot banded cigars as that would just drive me insane.  Since I have to take the band off to light it, besides possibly damaging the foot of the cigar, I sometimes forget what it is I’m smoking!   And how are my pretentious friends supposed to know that I’m smoking?  Where’s the fun in that? So if you are coming out with a new cigar, skip the foot band, stick with the traditional placement. While your at it, don’t pattern the band after the Cuban Cohiba either, that’s just cliche and hokey.

That’s all I got for now,Time to go smoke a cigar.

CigarCraig

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by | July 17, 2010 · 5:06 pm

The Week’s Cigars: Flor de Gonzales, Cain F – Saturday July 17, 2010

Not too much going on around here cigar-wise this week, but I did manage to get a couple in.  Wednesday I grabbed a Flor de Gonzales 90 Miles Robusto.  I had won a 5 pack of these in a contest on the My Cigar Ashes blog a while back and have been enjoying them here and there.  These are really nice medium cigar that’s quite well made. I only have a couple left from the 5 pack and look forward to seeing how they age.  I looked on the Flor de Gonzalez website and oddly couldn’t find a mention of this relatively new cigar.  I’ll drop them a note to see what’s going on.

Last night, after a really aggravating day at work, I decided to punish….er, treat myself (?) to a Cain F.  I’ve smoked a few of the Cain range, and they all seem to be just too strong for my liking.  I like the flavor, they are very well made, but they just always seem to overwhelm me.  I remember last year stopping into my local tobacconist, JM Cigars, after the IPCPR show and Jeff, the proprietor just couldn’t say enough about these cigars. He said to get rid of all your Cubans, because the Cain is better.  I was dubious at the time, and when I did treat myself to one a month later I could understand the appeal, but it was just too much of a nicotine kick.  I have been a fan of stronger cigars, but Cains are just too much for me.  That being said, I very carefully smoked and enjoyed the Cain F, which had been given to me a few weeks back by Dave Weber, the Oliva National Sales Manager.  It didn’t get to me, but I smoked it almost hesitantly.

In the News

There were several news-worthy events this week that were the subject of just about every blog out there, so I sill only give them a brief mention.

Toraño Cigars have separated from C.A.O. International and is re-taking control of their distribution and re-emerging as Toraño Family Cigars. I always liked the cigars from Toraño, especially the Roots Run Deep cigars that Felipe Sosa rolled at their events.

Also in the news,  the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of General Cigar in the latest round of litigation in the Cohiba® trademark case, affirming that General Cigar is the rightful owner of the Cohiba trademark in the U.S.    I may have to grab a Cohiba for this evening’s walk.  I haven’t smoked very many Cohibas from either party, they always seemed to be priced beyond my comfort level, but I have a couple floating around the humidors.  The question will become which version to grab?

That’s all I got for now!  I’m working on a couple of new ideas that I hope will be entertaining and enlightening, so stay tuned.  Also, I imagine it will be contest time again soon.  By the way, any of my prior contest winners that want to send a photo or leave a comment about your winnings, please feel free.  I may even put up a page with the winners, sort of a hall of fame (which will be as much for me to keep track as anything…)

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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