Tag Archives: Gurkha

by | January 30, 2013 · 7:47 pm

An Asylum, a Gurkha, a LegendArio and Some News

We’ve had some unseasonable weather, so I figured I could sneak some larger vitolas in this week.  It’s funny how we adapt to the weather.  Not long ago when the temps were in the 30s I’d be bundled up and freezing.  After a few weeks of really cold weather, a Sunday in the high 30s found me without my gloves, enjoying a 6×60 while walking the dog.  It’s in the 50s today, although it’s raining.

 

Sunday afternoon I grabbed an Asylum 13 Sixty, which is a 6″x 60 cigar made by Christian Eiroa in the Nicaragua American Cigars, S.A. (NACSA) factory. I picked this up the last time I visited Light’n Up Premier Smoke Shop a few Sundays ago, I think it was in the $6 range.  This was a well made cigar of medium strength with a good draw and pleasant flavor.  It really didn’t stand out, but there certainly wasn’t anything negative I can say about it.  It was a nice day and a pleasing smoke while the dog and I walked around the neighborhood.  I ended up nubbing it and wasn’t dissapointed. Worth trying, I think.

 

Monday evening was getting a little warmer so I pulled a Gurkha Royal Challenge out of the samples I got at the IPCPR show. This is a nice looking Connecticut shade wrapped cigar, but as I started taking bands off of it, some of the very thin, fragile wrapper was stuck to the bands and tore a little. Obviously, this did not bode well.  I figure the binder should carry most of the structural burden on a cigar, so it should be smokable with a bit of the wrapper missing.  Of course, I struggled with the burn on this cigar, as well as a large stem running nearly the length of the cigar.  While I really enjoyed the mild and mellow flavors of this cigar, it truly was a Royal Challenge to smoke.  Chalk it up to one bad experience, it happens.  It’s a cigar I’d smoke again because it was a very flavorful Connecticut wrapped cigar that had a lot going for it flavor-wise and I can’t imagine the construction problem I had was the norm.

 

Tuesday I grabbed another large cigar, a LegendArio Bertha from Camacho.  this line has been out for quite a while and this is the first time I’ve smoked one.  I purchased a couple at a Camacho event at International Tobacco in the King of Prussia Mall a while ago and decided it was time.  With a Mexican maduro wrapper I figured it couldn’t go wrong.  I was right, and it was a very nice smoke.  I liked it.  I’d like it better in a robusto, maybe.  Perhaps the burn wasn’t as straight as it could have been, but it didn’t give me too much trouble and I smoked it until it was time for the Flyers game (which didn’t end as well as the cigar did!).  This is a cigar that I wouldn’t mind having more of, and at around $5 for this cigar, it’s a winner.  You know I’m a sucker for the Mexican maduro wrapper.

 

News

For those of you who like to win free cigars, check out the Super Bowl Squares game going on at StogieBoys.com.  There are a few squares left so get on over and sign up.

Also, the same folks at StogieBoys.com have some other news related to this weekend’s big game:

StogieBoys.com, the nation’s fastest growing online retailer, along with Thurman Thomas Cigars, announced this week its sponsorship of the 4th annual Jaws’ Cigar Party at Vieux Bourbon in New Orleans. The party is to be hosted by Ron Jaworski, ESPN NFL analyst.

StogieBoys.com will be the exclusive cigar retailer sponsor at Jaws’ cigar party and will feature NFL Hall of Fame Running Back Thurman Thomas brand cigars. Mr. Thomas entered into a recent relationship with StogieBoys.com to create and distribute his own premium cigar brand.

The Press release is here.

In other news, Albany, NY’s PipesandCigars.com had some folks visit the Davidoff factory in the Dominican Republic recently.  The press release can be found here.  It sounds like they had a very educational trip!

As I’m sure you have read elsewhere, the gigantic Cigar that Grand Habano displayed in their booth at the New Orleans IPCPR show a few years ago sold recently for $185,000, marked down from $200,000.  They claimed it was smokable, and had a contraption with a mess of hoses to affix to the head of the cigar so a whole mess of people could smoke it.  The story is here.

Lastly, CigarFest Tickets go on sale Saturday for approximately 5 minutes if you pre-registered and are quick on the draw or camp out at one of their stores overnight!

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | January 13, 2013 · 9:41 am

End of the Week Cigars: a Padilla, a Dunhill and a Gurkha

We’ve been having unseasonably warm weather here, not particularly warm, but not sub-zero winter weather either.  I certainly prefer balmy temps but I’ll take not getting frostbitten fingers in January over the alternative. Not that the weather generally keeps me from my enjoyment of a fine cigar, I am more likely to try something new when I know that shivering isn’t going to knock the ash off.

 

Padilla_Reserva MaduroThursday I grabbed a Padilla Reserva Maduro that my local Oliva rep, Mike, handed me when I met up with him last month.
He was delivering the very impressive prizes for Day 12 of the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways and slipped a couple Padilla cigars to me (Oliva is distributing Padilla cigars). I haven’t smoked many Padilla cigars over the years, and the few I’ve smoked I’ve really enjoyed. Of course, if I have some cigars to smoke and one is a maduro, you know that’s the one I’m smoking first! This was a beautiful dark and oily toro sized cigar, in the neighborhood of 6×50. The band has a really cool lion with the secondary band identifying it as the Reserva Maduro. I looked, but the website doesn’t have any information, but I bet a dollar that this is a San Andreas wrapper. It wowed me from the get go with everything I love in a maduro cigar. Overall a really enjoyable experiences, I will have to get my hands on more of these and add them to my list of favorites! Yum.

 

Dunhill_Aged Reserva Especial 2003Friday night was rainy. I took the dog for a quick walk sans cigar as I’ve found the combination of dog, umbrella and cigar to be way too much to handle in the rain (and I’m guessing it would be no easier without the rain). I put the dog in the house and set up in the garage with a Dunhill Aged Reserva Especial 2003 which I received as a sample from the folks at General Cigar Company. This cigar is a Robusto Grande, measuring 5½” x 54 and is wrapped in a stunning U.S. Connecticut Shade wrapper.   Clearly this is a cigar better suited to a walnut paneled parlor in front of a roaring fire than a garage on a rainy night, but my walnut paneled parlor was in the shop :-).  This is a milder cigar with loads of bright flavors that kept me interested for the nearly an hour and a half it took me to smoke it.  I’m looking forward to smoking another one of these, but with a $15 price tag it probably won’t be on my personal buy list, just too rich for my blood.  Delicious smoke though.

 

Saturday was a very nice day after a rainy, foggy start.  I took the dog on a nice long walk with a Gurkha 125th Anniversary Toro.  This came in a sampler from the IPCPR show which was presented in a very cool package which is reminiscent of the sort of thing fine silverware Gurkha_samplersettings might me stored in.  Very cool presentation for trade show samples, but what else would one expect from Gurkha?   Along with the 125th is a Ghost, a Seduction, a Cellar Reserve and a Royal Challenge, all in a 6″ x Gurkha_125th54ish chunky toro shape.  Admittedly, I’ve been intimidated by the Gurkha line in the past due to the vast number of lines and my inability to every be able to keep them straight.  I do love the Seduction, and I’ve sampled a few more that have made me want to explore the line further.  The 125th is a solid cigar.  The construction was darned near perfect, I love watching a well made cigar burn and this was beautiful. It was medium bodied and seemed to me like the kind of cigar that a lot of people would be able to enjoy.  It was a very enjoyable 2 hour smoke, or a 3 mile walk with a 45 minute “warm down” on the patio.  I still have a selection of Gurkha cigars that I haven’t tried yet. I’ll get to them when the weather warms up as they all seem to be in that toro or larger size. I smoked the Ghost a few weeks ago and enjoyed it, but was a little dissapointed, I guess I was expecting something different. I’ll smoke it again under better circumstances.

 

That’s about all I have for now, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | January 2, 2013 · 6:31 pm

Another Visit to Cigars International Hamburg and the Gurkha Contest Winner

It’s been a while since I’ve written a “normal” blog post, and you’re just going to have to wait a little longer since I’ve contracted the funk that my wife had just after Christmas.  I don’t even want a cigar, except that I fantasize about the day when I will feel like smoking one again.   Combine that with a first day back to work after 11 days off, I’m lucky to have the cognitive powers to construct this post.  However, I can tell you about Sunday’s cigar journey.

 

As I said, my wife had been sick and really needed to get out of the house. If it had been just about any other cigar store it probably wouldn’t have been a good call, but the new Cigars International Super Store in Hamburg, PA is well ventilated and more of a destination than just a cigar shop.  We went there to meet up with Corey (@czerbe) and Walt (@WaltW of Stogie Review) and hang out for a while. I grabbed a few Undercrown Corona Vivas and promptly lit one up.  These are a fine smoke, but both examples I smoked while there had some issues in the middle of the cigar where undercrownthe wrapper wanted to stop burning. I don’t know if that’s because the store is kept a little too humid or what (the whole  enormous space is kept humidified).  Nobody else seemed to have a problem with their cigars and Walt mentioned having issues with that size.  I haven’t myself in the past and it’s unusual to get a poorly made cigar from Drew Estate, but it really didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment.  At one point we phoned in an order to the Red Robin and they delivered it to our comfy leather chairs. It was a great day and I even got to save some shipping by hand delivering Corey’s Day 11 prize.  It was a great way to spend an afternoon, especially chain smoking Undercrowns.  Glad I got that in before getting sick!

 

Gurkha_contest010113I’ve held you hostage long enough, it’s time to announce the winner of the Gurkha Goodies!  Thanks again to Oliver at Gurkha for sending us the good stuff!  Random.org selected 29 and taking out past winners I declare Jake to be the winner! E-mail me with your details so I can ship this stuff to you!

 

That’s it for me, I’m going to bed…until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | January 1, 2013 · 12:00 am

Happy New Year From CigarCraig and a Gurkha Contest!

Happy New Year to you all!

To get the year off to a great start, I couldn’t resist having yet another contest!  The folks at Gurkha weren’t too happy that they missed out on the 12 13 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways, so they sent some great stuff for a Happy New Year Contest!  There is a really cool Gurkha back pack (I love this…I want one!), a sweet Gurkha ceramic ashtray, 5 packs of the Gurkha Ghost Shadow and East India Trading Co. Red Witch XO, and a Gurkha cap.  The only rule this time is if you won a prize in my 12 13 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways I’m afraid you are ineligible.

Gurkha_contest010113

There you have it!  Leave a comment and I’ll announce the winner Wednesday evening.

I hope everyone has a safe and cigar loaded New Years Eve and are ready for 2013!

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | November 25, 2012 · 9:49 am

A Turkeyday Liga Privada T52 and an Alec Bradley Event at Old Havana

After a fine Thanksgiving turkey dinner with my family I figured something a special cigar was in order. I was in a Liga Privada mood, so I was riffling through the Drew Estate box and came across a 6″x 60 Liga Privada T52. Now tell me, what could be better than more of a good thing? Probably just about every other size of the T52! Not that it wasn’t a spectacular cigar, it certainly was! It was loaded with flavor, just not quite the concentration of flavor that the narrower ring gauge T52s present. I enjoyed every last bit of this cigar, but couldn’t help to think that the wrapper to filer ratio just isn’t quite right to showcase the wrapper on the T52 line. I think this came from a goodie bag at a blogger party Drew Estate threw in Vegas at the 2011 IPCPR show. Great cigar, but I’m not really surprised that it isn’t in regular production, but it’s always fun to see how blends translate into different sizes. It’s a cigar I’m glad to have had the chance to try in this format to see the impact that the wrapper has on a blend.

 

Friday evening I took a drive down to Old Havana Cigar Co. just south of West Chester, PA. for an Alec Bradley event.  This shop always has good events and they have a really nice lounge as well as a huge, well stocked humidor.  They have food in the lounge and always have quite a crowd. I picked up a couple of American Sun Grown robustos and lit one up. For right around $5 these cant be beat. I think I prefer them over some of the pricier lines. I had a nice time talking with “the Player”, Jonathan Lipson, and hanging out and enjoying my smoke. Since I moved a few months ago I’m a lot farther away from this shop than I used to be, but I’ll make the trip occasionally to catch an event. I ended up with new Connecticut offering from Alec Bradley which I’ll smoke in the not too distant future (maybe today).

 

Last night, after a two day battle with a migraine, I went for a favorite, a Gurkha Seduction Robusto.  This is an excellent smoke that I really like and didn’t have to think to hard about, I could just enjoy it .  A year ago I don’t think I’d even had a Gurkha cigar, and now I find that I have a handful floating around the humidors.  So far the Seduction is my favorite, but I have a bunch more to sample.  I’ll wait until the weather is nicer though as the all seem to be toro sized!

 

I hope everyone had a fine Thanksgiving and is ready for the start of my 12 Days of Spectacular Giveaways coming up in a few short weeks!  It’s looking like it’s going to be even better than last year!   I’m going to go string some more lights outside after I send a few e-mails lining up stuff for the contests.

 

Until the next time,

CigarCriag

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