Tag Archives: general cigars

by CigarCraig | October 8, 2014 · 9:00 pm

A Montecristo, a Gurkha and a Cohiba, and Some Cigar News

I’m sitting here watching the first Flyers game of the season, trying to write. Hockey is the only sport I have any interest in, so it’s nice that it’s back! Anyway, I stuck with some classic brands this week, starting off with a Montecristo which was given to me by Tom, our local Altadis rep a few weeks back at The Smokin Goose Festival. Goose’s Tobacco is a Montecristo Lounge, so they have the exclusive (and aptly named) Casa de Montecristo Exclusivo. Obviously, this cigar is only available at Montecristo lounges. This is a 6″ x 60 with an enormous band in addition to a black and silver Montecristo band. The wrapper is Ecuador Sumatra, with Nicaraguan binder and fillers. The cigar burned very nicely, and it had a reasonably sweet tobacco flavor. I enjoyed this cigar, I suspect I would smoke this again if I found myself in a Montecristo lounge and had $12 burning a hole in my pocket.

Tuesday I heard the news that Carlos Llaca Toraño is now the Director of Operations at Gurkha Cigars. He was previously the Operations Director at Toraño Family cigars until their recent acquisition by General Cigar Co. This prompted me to select the newest offering from Gurkha’s East India Trading Co., The Classic Cigar – Havana Blend in the XO size. The square press on this 6″ x 60 makes it feel smaller than it is. This is another nice smoking cigar which I found to have a pleasing flavor on the light side. Once I realized that this wasn’t a powerful cigar I really enjoyed the delicate flavor. At right around $8 each, this is a nice smoke. I only had to touch it up once or twice, otherwise it burned quite well. This would probably be a nice morning cigar with a cup of coffee.

Tonight I went with the new Cohiba Nicaragua in the N50 robusto size. The samples I received from General Cigar Co. are cellophaned 5″ x 50, which only appear to be available in glass tubes commercially. This is the first Cohiba to be blended and handcrafted in Nicaragua. The fillers are from Esteli and Jalapa and the wrapper is listed as Colorado Oscuro, no mention of country of origin. Obviously the Cohiba name comes with some expectations, whether positive or not, so I was interested to see what this new Nicaraguan blend brought to the table. It started out very sweet, and developed very nicely. It burned like a super premium cigar should, a nice flat and even burn with a perfect draw through a V-cut. I suspect these will age nicely, but they are smoking well now.

As I was getting a lighter out the other day I realized that I have a few of them laying around. One thing that stands out to me is that the lighters I have range from a couple dollars to around $60, and with the proper care, the cheaper ones generally work as well as the expensive ones. In this picture you’ll notice that none of the three Blazer torches I’ve had over the last 17 years or so have survived. The Zippo with the z-Plus insert has been the most impressive, as well as the Ronson. The newest addition is the Jetline triple torch (at about 9 oclock) which came from the Rocky Mountain Festival goodie bag. This is a very nice lighter. The yellow one will be recognized by some of my blogger bretheren, it actually has what is basically a Cricket lighter inside of it and I have had good luck taking it apart and spreading it out through my luggage when I travel. Only the white La Gloria lighter is a soft flame, hence it gets very little use. I have some other ones here and there, I hate not having a lighter handy!

News

The first big news relates to my mention of Carlos Llaca Toraño joining Gurkha, his cousin Jack Toraño, who was also displaced in the acquisition, has joined Roberto P. Duran Premium Cigars. Look for a press release in the coming days announcing this. Anyone who knows Jack knows what a great guy he is, and I’m very glad to hear he’s re-joining the workforce after a reasonably short hiatus.

In other news, The Charlotte Observer reports that the JR Statesville store will be closing at the end of the year. There are three stores in North Carolina, and they are all large outlet stores with all kinds of merchandise from Jeans and toys, to cigarettes and premium cigars. If you ever drove down I-95 through North Carolina you can’t miss the entertaining billboards. Apparently the owner of the property isn’t renewing their lease and has plans to re-develop the entire shopping center that is aging. Seventy-seven jobs will be lost, however JRs says they will open a cigar only store nearby in the future. The full story is here. This is the only North Carolina location I haven’t visited, I’ve stopped at the Selma store on the few trips I’ve made down I-95, and I had a tour of the massive distribution center in Burlington many years ago.

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

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under News, Review

Tagged as Casa de Montecristo, cigar, cigars, cohiba, East India Trading Co., general cigars, Gurkha, Lighter, Montecristo, Roberto Duran, Torch

by CigarCraig | September 24, 2014 · 9:37 pm

Smoking Some Assorted Foundry and Michael Giannini Cigars

After hearing the news last week of Sam Leccia joining General Cigar Co., and his lines being absorbed into the Foundry Tobacco division, and having spent some time with Michael Giannini at the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival, I decided to spend the first part of the week, at least, smoking some cigars from the Foundry line. I started out Sunday afternoon with a Compounds, Elements and Musings Titanium Torpedo that I bought a few months back on clearance at a local shop. I’m kicking myself for not buying more of them, as I found it to be a really enjoyable cigar. The blend is listed simply as Nicaraguan and “Smoke it”, so there’s not a lot of information about this cigar. I can almost guarantee that the wrapper is a Connecticut shade wrapper of some sort, my guess is Ecuadoran. This was a nice, smooth cigar, on the mild side, but loaded with creamy flavors. The construction was perfect, and it really was a nice, mellow, Sunday afternoon smoke. I don’t know how many of these are still in circulation, but these are not to be avoided!

I followed the Titanium with the first of a new Foundry series, The Worm Hole 1964 Blend. In the video below Michael tells us about the concept behind the cigars. The 1964, like the rest of the line, is a mystery as far as the blend goes. General Cigar Co. had an enormous library of tobacco, and Michael finds unique and rare tobaccos and makes the Foundry cigars. This was another milder cigar, but with a ton of flavor. Initially, I thought the size was the same as the Partagas Robusto, 5 ½ x 49, and I even measured with an aluminum ring gauge checker I have, but they list these at 5½ x 50. It’s still a great size, regardless oif the ring gauge. This was a nice smoke.

Monday I took a break from the Foundry line to smoke the joint venture between Michael Giannini and his mentor, Ernesto Perez Carillo, the Re+United. This was a limited edition made at EPC’s Tabacalera La Alianza S.A., around the corner from General Cigar’s factory in Santiago, DR. The wrapper is a high priming Ecuador Havana leaf from General’s library, the binder a Connecticut broadleaf from EPCs inventory, and a mix of fillers from both companies. This is a large cigar, 6½ x 54, and was difficult to find. I bought two from Serious Cigars in Texas last week. This was a stronger cigar, very different from the Foundry and Compounds, Elements and Musings cigars I smoked this week. I found it very interesting and satisfying, and look forward to smoking the other one I have after a nice long rest.

Tuesday I chose the present in the Worm Hole series, the 2014. You know me well enough by now to know that unless there’s a maduro in a series, I have to smoke them in order. It’s a CDO thing (which of course is OCD, in alphabetical order like it should be). This was another beautiful cigar, in the 5½ x 50 format, that burned perfectly. I like the copper colored band on this one, with out the band it would be very hard to differentiate between the three cigars. The wrapper is smooth and without blemish, and, once again ,the burn was very good. It may have had a bit more strength than the 1964, but was still on the milder side with a nice, clean flavor.

Tonight I went with the 2064. This is meant to represent the future, and is reported to contain Martian tobacco. Of course, this would involve time travel, which reminds me of a recent conversation I overheard and chimed in on. We were at the Fest for Beatles Fans back on August and while eating breakfast a couple next to us was speculating about going back in time and writing all of the Beatles’ songs and selling them to the Beatles and I suggested that maybe Paul McCartney had actually done that, I mean, if anyone could afford a time machine, it would be Sir Paul! Anyway, this cigar really smoked well. I also have some of these in the larger 6 x 52 size that I can’t wait to smoke. There is a common thread among the three of these cigars, they are all on the milder side, but are all packed with flavor and made with quality ingredients. Like the previous Foundry lines, the original line with the gears on the band and the War Of Currents line, this line has unique and interesting flavors that are different from other cigars in the marketplace. I look forward to smoking more and really concentrating on the flavors. My La Gloria Cubana humidor is now more than half filled with Foundry cigars!

Here’s the video with Michael Giannini, one of the most creative guys in the cigar industry.

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under Review, Video

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Compounds Elements and Musings, Foundry, general cigars, Re+United

by CigarCraig | September 1, 2014 · 5:20 pm

CAO Cigars and Flying Dog Brewery “Art of Craft” Beer and Cigar Pairings and a Contest!

A month or so ago a box showed up on my doorstep (ok, it was at the garage….it’s a figure of speech) containing four bottles of beer and a four pack of CAO cigars (with a CAO bottle opener attached). This represented a pairing event held at the Flying Dog Brewery back in June with Rick Rodriguez of CAO called “The Art of Craft” They put together the following pairing suggestions:

OSA Sol and Snake Dog IPA: The zesty spice of OSA Sol meets its match with the citrus and resinous hop aromas and flavors of Snake Dog.
CAO Brazilia and Gonzo Imperial Porter: Both big and bold, the bitter coffee and chocolate flavors in CAO Brazilia are mimicked by the same robust notes in Gonzo.
CAO Gold and Raging Bitch Belgian-Style IPA: The wildly complex hop bitterness and fruity sweet Belgian yeast notes in Raging Bitch are soothed by CAO Gold’s caramel creaminess.
CAO Mx2 and Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout: Dark and dry is the name of this pairing’s game with Mx2’s rich notes of earth and Pearl Necklace’s dry, roast, and slightly bitter character.

This put me in an awkward position. As many of you know, I gave up alcoholic beverages completely over twenty years ago, so I would either have to jump off the wagon, or figure something else out. Now, I was a big fan of beer in my twenties, but to be honest, I was more into quantity over quality, and I would make projects out of finding how little I could pay for beer. One experiment included a two dollar six-pack of Carling’s Black Label (even then it was NOT worth it), and countless cases of National Bohemian in 16oz returnable bottles and good old Rolling Rock, which was practically a boutique brand at the time. Needless to say, my palate wouldn’t be up to this task anyway. So I asked a couple friends over to drink these beers and smoke these cigars, which was a surprisingly easy sell. I’ve known Bruce Kramer since the old days of the Usenet cigar group back in the ’90s. Bruce is a certified beer judge and a home brewer, and quite the foodie. Obviously, he’s also been a connoisseur of exceptional cigars for a long time. Bruce also is involved in the production of The Bacon Jams, a spreadable bacon product that is about to be featured on QVC, and is taking the bacon world by storm. He was an obvious choice for a panelist in this project. As I figured four cigars and beers would be a lot to tackle in one sitting I reached out to another friend with a beer, food and cigars background, local author and food writer, Jim Breslin. Jim recently released a novel called “Shoplandia“, which is a fun book based upon his lengthy career s a producer at QVC ( I read it, loved it and could relate since I worked at QVC myself briefly in the ’80s). He also writes for the West Chester Dish, a local food and restaurant guide here in Chester County, PA. as well as founding and hosting Story Slams locally. Jim also enjoys fine cigars and has been a reader here, I’d like to think I’ve been able to steer him toward some new and interesting cigar choices. You may also remember Jim from my review last fall of his “Stooges and Stogies” event. I chose to pair the CAO Brazilia with a Reeds Extra Ginger Brew, and the CAO MX2 with a Natural Brew Draft Root Beer. We sat down in front of the video camera and captured our thoughts on these pairings. The video runs about 12 minutes, a bit long for my tastes, but I think these guys made some great tasting observations and it’s well worth the watch. Please pardon the umbrella pole, but it only really blocked me out, so no big deal.

Let’s give Jim and Bruce a round of applause for helping out, and subjecting themselves to an evening of fine conversation between segments and some free beer and smokes! If you want to check this out yourself, the CAO “Art of Craft” cigar pack will be available alongside each corresponding beer exclusively at 46 Total Wine stores throughout Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, and California beginning July 1. Thank you to Victoria McKee Jaworski and her crew at General Cigar Co. for providing the samples and a great excuse to get three friends together for some smokes and drinks. Bruce and Jim hadn’t met prior to this, and had an amazing amount in common. Another great story about cigars opening doors to friendships! Now Bruce and Jim are after me to arrange another beer and cigar pairing evening!

Contest!

What the heck, let’s give some CAO goodies away! I have a metal CAO Flathead 660 sign (a pain in the ass to mail, BTW. My problem, not yours!), a CAO Area 9 pack containing six vintage CAO cigars from the original CAO aging rooms, anywhere from 5 to 20 year old! Also a couple of the new Flathead Sparkplugs and a 554 Camshaft. Sorry, I don’t have the 660 Carb that goes with the sign. Leave a comment with your favorite cigar and beer pairings (I’ll accept soft drink and coffee pairings too!) and I’ll select a random winner on Sunday.

Thanks for watching, and until the next time,

CigarCraig

49 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review, Video

Tagged as beer, CAO, cigar, Cigar and Beer Pairing, cigars, Contest, Flying Dog Brewery, general cigars, Pairing

by CigarCraig | June 15, 2014 · 10:06 am

Another CigarMojo Event, an Alec Bradley, a Recluse and a CAO Cigars Contest

Thursday came around and one of our favorite lounges in the area was having an early Father’s Day event, so we (my wife and I) took a drive to King Of Prussia PA for a visit. For those of you unfamiliar with the Philadelphia area, King of Prussia is the home of the larges shopping mall on the east coast. It’s big, actually two malls, and it’s evolved from a strip center in the ’60s to what it is today. There is a cigar shop in the mall with a smoking area, which is nice when your wife wants to shop and doesn’t require you to play the part of Sherpa. Cigar Mojo is down the street a bit, occupying a free standing building nestled between a cemetery and a Wawa (another fairly regional convenience store chain with a nearly fanatical following). They were concurrently having an Alec Bradley event with “The Player” Jon Lipson, a Xikar event with local rep Rich, and a Cigar Rights of America membership drive with Alan Price. Having stocked my humidors with Alec Bradly cigars at the last couple events I’ve been to, I perused the generously stocked humidor and came out with a handful of reasonably new singles. Trae does a very good job of having the newest releases on hand. I picked up a couple of the new Tattoo from Tatuaje, some Leccia Luchador El Castigo, a Cro Magnon, and a Nica Rustica. I always get the CigarCraig discount, where they add 10% 🙂 I smoked one of the Luchadors, which I really think is my favorite cigar to come out in the last year. I hadn’t smoked this size, which is the 6″x60, and it was great. I love the interplay of sweet and spicey that goes on. Once again, The guys there at Cigar Mojo put on a great event, if you ever find yourself in the area, check them out.

Friday I took my usual evening walk with a cigar that was generously gifted to me by Jon Lipson, the new Alec Bradley Family Blend “The Lineage” in the toro size. This cigar has a nice caramel colored wrapper with a pigtail cap which is from Honduras. The rest of the cigar is a mix of Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos. I should have given this cigar some more humidor time, I think, because it smoked a little bit moist. It has been raining here all week, so it’s damp everywhere. Still, the cigar had very nice flavor, was solidly medium bodied to me, although if it were drier it may smoke a little more on the full bodied side. I’m looking forward to trying this one again because the flavor was very appealing and the finish was clean. It opened up in the last third and gave an indication of its potential for me.

Saturday I had two cigar opportunities, one sitting in my favorite beach chair out back soaking up some sunshine. I smoked another Cigar Rights of America cigar that I’ve had for a few years. This one was a Cuba Aliados Miami, and I hadn’t smoked a Cuba Aliados in years. Back in the day, Rolando Reyes made the Puros Indios and the Cuba Aliados. The Puros Indios were tasty, but almost always had a draw like a dowel rod. This one was a nice smoke, medium bodied, fairly normal good tobacco flavor and burned well without dropping ash anywhere it shouldn’t have. I had the Perfecto Cigar Holder clipped to the chair arm, which reminds me, I need to do a whole post on some accessories I’ve been using lately. I enjoyed the cigar and had a very relaxing time sitting in the sun reading a book. Don’t forget to let the FDA know how you feel about regulation of premium cigars, and if you aren’t already a member of the CRA, join!

Last night I took a walk with a new cigar from the folks at Iconic Leaf, the Recluse Amadeus. This is a box pressed Ecuador Connecticut wrapped beauty in a toro size, 6¼” x 50. Iconic Leaf uses the entubado method throughout their lines, and this one smokes no different, nice, open draw and even burn. This is another Connecticut Shade cigar with a little more spice and body. I’ve always liked the flavor that the Connecticut wrappers have as a change of pace, so this trend of slightly stronger shade cigars is welcomed. This sample came without bands, but I’m to understand they will be using a similar design in white as opposed to the black bands they use on the OTG and Draconian lines. Tremendous cigars all around. Interestingly (to only me, probably), Trae’s, of Cigar Mojo fame, uncle came to him with a scap of paper with the name Recluse Draconian written on it as a cigar he was looking for. I was able to educate Trae and his uncle on the line. Perhaps he’ll look into stocking something from Iconic Leaf.

Contest

It’s, once again, time to give away some CAO goodies! This time we have two of the cool tin CAO Flathead signs and a four pack of the new Flathead Spark Plug, which is a delicious little box pressed 4½” x 50 smoke. I’m doubling up the signs because, quite frankly, it cost me a bundle to ship these things. I’ll have one more contest coming up with these, I’ll look for more cost effective shipping method for sure. Anyway, my problem, not yours! Leave a comment to win, and I’ll pick a winner on Wednesday. Thanks again to Gary and Ricky from CAO for providing these goodies.

That’s it for now, Happy Father’s Day to everyone who either is, or has a father. I’m going to enjoy my special traditional cigar, a Esperanza par los Niños from 1998. I was recent;y gifted more of these by my dear friend Mike Perry, so I can continue the tradition through 2020! Thanks!

31 Comments

Filed under Contest, Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Alec Bradley, Amadeus, CAO, cigar, cigar rights, cigars, Cuba Aliados, general cigars, Iconic Leaf, Luchador, Recluse

by CigarCraig | May 21, 2014 · 9:21 pm

A Sindicato, a Dunhill, a Debonaire and a Cigar Contest

I finally got around to putting some contest goodies together. Some of the cigars were some spare samples, and some were ones I bought and enjoy quite a bit. More on that at the end of the post, maybe folks will read to the end, some may scroll down. If you scroll down, you might miss reading about some of the cigars I’ve smoked so far this week.

Monday evening I picked out a new cigar from Sindicato Cigars. These guys are a little different than other manufactures. Jim Colucci is the president of the company, and he comes from many years at the helm of Altadis, probably the largest cigar company on the planet. The company is made up of a bunch of retailers across the country, so they have a unique perspective of what sells in tobacco shops and what consumers want. Last year they came out with the Hex and Affinity, along with the very inexpensive Casa Bella. I’ve smoked all three and they are very nice smokes. This latest offering, the Sindicato, is at the high end of the price range, running from $10.95 to $13.95 and are made by the folks at Casa Fernandez with Aganorsa tobacco. I smoked the Corona Gorda, a 5½” x 48 cigar with a nice pigtail and partially closed foot. I really enjoyed this cigar, it was lush and meaty and loaded with delicious tobacco flavor. It burned perfectly and was a very satisfying smoke. Thanks to Yoffy for sending these along.

Tuesday I selected another new cigar, this one from General Cigar Co. This is the Dunhill 1907 Box Pressed Toro, measuring 6″ x 54 with a Honduran Olancho wrapper. The wrapper is wrapper mottled, not at all what I expected from a Dunhill, as they are generally beautiful cigars. The rest of the cigar is Dominican and Brazilian Mata Fina. It was a nice smoke, although I think a few more months in the humidor will benefit it. I received two, so I’ll revisit it in a few months. It was medium bodied, and had a nice flavor, reminiscent of the CAO OSA Sol, which has a similar wrapper (although I think the OSA Sol’s wrapper was prettier). It had similar bright tobacco sweetness that I enjoy from time to time. This was a nice smoke, I look forward to smoking it again after a long rest in the humidor.

Tonight I smoked a Debonaire Sagita petite lancero. The reason I grabbed this one is a little less than debonair, I’m afraid. Phil Zanghi is the man behind the brand. He developed the Indian Tabac line back in the ’90s and sold it to Rocky Patel. I’ve heard him on at least two podcasts describe this cigar as a 5½ x 48, which I knew was wrong. It’s a 38 ring gauge (I measured it), although I would have loved this in a corona gorda size. This is an ultra premium cigar, it even states it on the band. Another feature of the band was on the inside, where it has the box date, which was July of 2013 (this was an IPCPR show sample). The blend isn’t listed specifically, but they use high priming, excellent quality tobaccos, and are rolled with great care. The cigar was exceptional, it was meaty, like prime rib, and burned perfectly. It had a nice little pigtail cap too. I put a very small nub in the ashtray when I was done. I would almost say this would be worth the nearly $10 price tag, if I wasn’t such a cheap SOB. Worth trying if you have the opportunity.

Contest

OK, it’s been over 5 months since I had a contest. Sorry about that, but after the December contests I guess I got a little burned out. So here is the prize.

There are 15 cigars, including some special cigars from La Sirena (including a Merlion Sea Lion and a La Sirena Dubloon, which are very limited), a couple Alec Bradleys, a couple of the New Partagas 1845 offerings, and some of the house brands from Best Cigar Prices. There’s a few other cigars in there that I enjoy too. Also a CAO cap (had to include a CAO concert to go with along with it), a Nomad S-307 and a Foundry Compounds, Elements and Musings Vanadium from the box I bought a few months ago. There’s a nice La Gloria Cubana tube too (now I have to find a La Gloria to throw in). A little something for everyone, I can’t imagine anyone complaining. So leave a comment to enter. Feel free to Tweet and share, but only the comments on this post will count. Good luck, and I’ll select a winner on Sunday!

That’s it, until the next time,

CigarCraig

47 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as Alec Bradley, Best Cigar Prices, CAO, cigar, cigars, Contest, Debonaire, Dunhill, general cigars, La Sirena, Sindicato