Tag Archives: hockey

by | January 25, 2012 · 9:13 pm

CigarCraig’s Celebrity Cigar Chat with Brian Propp

I haven’t done a Celebrity Cigar Chat in a while, and what better way to launch the new and improved CigarCraig.com.  Brian Propp has been a fixture on the Smoke Magazine tasting panel for a while and I figured I’d reach out to him with a couple questions.  For those of you who don’t know, here’s a bio from his website:

 

Brian Propp was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round in 1979, and launched an outstanding career in the National Hockey League that spanned three decades. The first round pick joined the Flyers team in 1979 and made an immediate impact on a line with Bobby Clarke and Reggie Leach. The Flyer’s recorded a record 35 games without a defeat that season. A complete player in all aspects of the game, Propp put up his best scoring totals during the 1984-85 and 1985-86 seasons, accumulating 97 points in each season. Propp was elected to the Flyers Hall of Fame in 1999.

He is currently the Vice President of Strategic Account Management at The Judge Group.  The Judge Group specializes in technology consulting, enterprise-wide staffing, corporate training and unified communications.

1. When did you start enjoying premium cigars?

“I started smoking cigars after my daughter’s birth in 1996. I usually have them when I am playing golf.”

2. What are some of your favorite cigars?

” My two favorite cigars are Hoyo de Monterrey double coronas and Montecristo # 2’s.”

3.  What do you find most interesting or challenging about being on the Smoke Magazine tasting panel?

“I believe that it is interesting to be on a Smoke Magazine tasting panel because of the different tastes and types of cigars. The challenging part is that most countries have improved their product so it is tough to rate the different cigars.”

4.  If you blended your own cigar, what traits and flavors would you try to achieve?

“I would like to have a cigar that was consistently well rolled with mild-medium taste with earthy yet chocolate flavor.”

5. How do you like the Flyers Cup chances this year?

“I have seen the Flyer’s this year score a lot of goals. They are very fast and have a nice mix of veterans and young players. If they get great goaltending down the stretch they will have a chance to win the Stanley Cup this year.”

 

Thanks, Propper, for taking the time to answer my questions.  I always enjoyed watching you play, then listening to you on the radio when you did the color commentary for the Flyers games.   I hope everyone enjoyed this brief glimpse into the cigar life of a celebrity!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | May 19, 2010 · 7:31 pm

Mid-Week Cigars: Punch Rare Corojo and Partagas Cifuentes Julio – Wednesday May 19, 2010

I started out the week grilling some pork chops and felt compelled to smoke one of the cigars out of the Punch Grill box.  I selected the Punch Rare Corojo, since I’ve had these in the past and enjoyed them.  This example was no different.  This one was the 5¼” x 54 Magnum.  The pork chops were good, and the cigar capped off a busy day very nicely.  The Ecuador Sumatra wrapper was nice and tasty and the cigar burned quite well.

I’ve been “theme smoking” lately, so I grabbed a Partagas Cifuentes Julio (also from General Cigars) out of the humidor and went for a nice long walk.  These are apparently seasonal blends, and I jumped the gun a little smoking a July cigar in May.  Sorry about that.  It still was a nice cigar.  It was medium bodied with a long finish, tongue coating in a not unpleasant way.  I had to correct the burn a few times and it wanted to tunnel a little, but both are forgivable considering how much I enjoyed the flavor.  These are fairly beefy cigars in a 6″ x 54 format.  This was a single that was amongst the goodies sent by my buddy Jason at Rock’s Smoke Shop.  Thanks!  Another winner from that collection.

I received a very nice delivery today from Vegas de Santiago.  You may recall one of my loyal readers, DJ, kindly sent me a couple of these to smoke and I enjoyed them quite a bit.  Rudy and Lani in Costa Rica are making some very nice cigars in beautiful presentations.  One of these weeks real soon will be Vegas de Santiago week and I’ll smoke and review (and I use that term loosely, I’m a crappy reviewer!) some of them.  I have a cigar from an event that they sponsored back in 2004 that I will finally smoke to compare and contrast. The wooden tubes are really cool and almost too cool to open.

Here’s another site for the blog junkies:  Cigar TopSite.  This is a simple listing of some of the more popular sites.  CigarCraig.com has been listed there since the beginning.  I’d LOVE to see it climb up the rankings, so if you wouldn’t mind spreading the word, I’d appreciate it.  I’m almost as bad at self-promotion as I am at cigar reviews.  I know what you’re thinking: “if more people follow the CigarCraig.com blog then there will be less chances for me to win some of the great stuff Craig gives away!”  I understand, but the more readers I have, the better my chances of mooching quality goodies to give to you, my loyal readers (there will be a new contest soon!).

Well, that’s about enough from me, until the next time,

CigarCraig

Oh yeah…..GO FLYERS!

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by | May 16, 2010 · 4:18 pm

A Reyes Family Cigars Weekend – Sunday, May 16, 2010

I did something unusual for me, I smoked a bunch of the same cigars in a row. I found myself with a handful of Puros Indios Viejo Media Coronas and smoked about 3 of them in a row.  For the price, these are terrific cigars, and at  5½” x 45 is one of my favorite sizes.  These are touted as well aged cigars with a 10 year old Ecuador Sumatra wrapper and filler from the DR, Nicaragua and Brazil.  They burn pretty well with a good draw and a nice flavor.  I remember back in the boom years Puros Indios were known for having a tight draw,  I recall having one that was a really great tasting cigar, but it was like smoking a wooden dowel it was so tight.  Clearly this problem no longer exists. I smoked 2 of them during the excellent Flyers win over the Bruins.

I figured since I was on a Puros Indios kick, I’d fire up a Reyes Family Cigars Premier Gordo that I got at the IPCPR show back in 2008.  This is a big  perfecto, 6″ x 60 ring gauge at it’s largest point.  The  maduro Ecuador Sumatra wrapper is rustic, not the prettiest thing, but quite tasty and the shape is just amazing.   It’s burn wasn’t dead even, but didn’t take anything away from the experience.  I’m a reasonably fast smoker, but this cigar seemed to last forever.  I think I smoked this for over an hour and a half.  It was medium bodied and tasty.  Not a bad cigar at all and a good one to follow the Puros Indios Viejos I had smoked earlier.   Except for a few more of the Viejos, I think I’ve exhausted my supply of Reyes Family Cigars.  What ever happened to the 18″ x 66 Puros Indios Chief?

In The News:

I came across a really neat site for all you blog junkies to bookmark: http://www.cigarosphere.com/ .  This is a cool page that has an  excerpt from a ton of different blogs all on one page.  They have graciously added the CigarCraig..com blog to the site, despite the fact that they state that they trying to aggregate QUALITY blogs. It’s neat to be able to see a whole bunch of different blogs on one site.  Keep up the great work guys!

Please keep up with http://www.cigarrights.org/ as the FDA starts looking at ways to screw up out enjoyment of cigars.  Don;t be afraid to write to your representatives when you hear about possible injustices where cigars are concerned.  The folks at CRA are doing great things to protect our rights, I urge you to support them.

Oops, I almost forgot!

I keep forgetting to mention that last week I enjoyed the Vegas de Santiago Don Luis Secretos de Maestro Canionazo that DJ sent me.  It was another very nice cigar which burned well and had a pleasing flavor. Vegas de Santiago deserves more notoriety than they receive.  They produce a very nice product and are always very willing to sponsor events when asked.    I’m sorry that things got a little busy around here and I kinda forgot to mention it in my last post.  I truly appreciate the opportunity to  try these cigars, thank you sir!  I still have a Vegas de Santiago in a wooden tube somewhere in the bottom of the coolerdor that’s about 5 years old that I need to exhume and smoke.

Also, Joel Scott, winner of the box of 5 Liga Privada‘s, was kind enough to send me a couple pictures of the opened box, since I resisted the temptation to open them before shipping them out. You may drool now, and remember that I just may have more of these for future prizes, as well as a bunch of other goodies!  Keep checking back, the cats are looking forward to the next contest video!  Testimonials from past winners are always welcome.

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

CigarCraig (GO FLYERS!)

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by | April 11, 2010 · 8:21 pm

Weekend Cigar Post: Romeo y Julieta, Padron – Sunday April 11, 2010

Beautiful weather this weekend, I managed to get in a couple cigars.  Last night, after spending all day putting down hardwood flooring on a staircase landing, I fired up a Romeo y Julieta Reserve Maduro Robusto.  This was a well made  cigar that was fairly mild, with flavor reminiscent of  bitter chocolate.  The afternoon’s worth of sawdust didn’t exactly compliment the cigar. Nice cigar for a beginner.  I don’t understand the wording on the website about the wrapper, they call it a “Blackened Connecticut Broadleaf”, what does “blackened” mean?  Could it be that the largest cigar company in the world takes shortcuts with their maduro wrapper?

Today, after going to a local restaurant with my son to watch the Flyers game, which was a “do or die” game, I felt the need to celebrate with a very old Padron Anniversario Principe.  This cigar must have been in my humidor for close to 10 years.  It burned perfectly and tasted great.  It had a really nice long finish that just clung to the tongue. I smoked it down to about a half an inch.  The Flyers game was quite exciting, it ended in the shoot-out, and if they hadn’t won it would have been the end of the season.  Now they move on the the play-offs.  It was fun to see the game with my son in a restaurant with a crowd of enthusiastic fans.

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by | April 4, 2010 · 8:20 pm

Sunday Cigar: CAO Black Bengal and a Contest! – Sunday April 4, 2010

It’s been a strange couple of days.  Friday morning the transmission on my 2002 Connecticut Shade PT Cruiser went out while my wife was driving it, so Saturday we went out and bought a brand new Toyota Yaris.  The PT has been a good car, but after it was involved in it’s second accident and probably got wet, once the weather warmed up it developed a mildew odor that we couldn’t get rid of, I even tried multiple cigars and the smell wouldn’t go away!  It stank!  The Yaris gets much better gas mileage than the PT, and using less gas is something that’s important to me.  I only use the car when the weather is bad as I prefer to ride my Yamaha Majesty to go to work or if I have to go someplace by myself.  The PT is being donated to the Purple Heart Car Donation Program, which benefits wounded and disabled veterans.

After we got home from a great Flyers game today, I lit up a CAO Black Bengal (6″ x 50) and took a short walk and finished up on my front porch listening to the latest  Stogiefresh podcast.  The cigar was pretty nice, however there were a couple of wrapper defects at the head that, while not effecting the performance of the cigar, the splitting wrapper detracted slightly from the experience.  It was a smooth cigar, with what I would call a woody flavor.  Certainly a decent cigar that burned well and tasted nice, despite the wrapper flaws.

Contest time!

I’ll return to having the cats choose the next winner, but this time we’ll place the cards with the names face down because I think some of the cats can actually read.  I want to make every effort to have the selection of the winner as fair and impartial as possible.  The winner will be selected from those who leave a comment on this blog post.  This months prize is a really cool Drew Estate Hat and a Liga Privada cutter, courtesy of my friends at Drew Estate.  So leave some comments and win some stuff!

**Late note:  it occurred to me that I forgot to set an end date for for this month’s contest.  The cut off is midnight on Saturday, April 17.  I’ll put the cats to work the following day and post the winner in my Sunday post.**

That’s all for now, until the next cigar,

CigarCraig

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