Tag Archives: holt’s

by CigarCraig | June 14, 2017 · 8:56 pm

An Old La Gloria Cubana, and a Cigar PSA: Father’s Day Specials at Holt’s and Davidoff

I’ve been slacking off this week not really paying attention to what cigars I’ve been smoking, sorry about that! I made my IPCPR reservations this week, I was going to skip it this year, but changed my mind. I hope to bring another perspective this time around. I did select a well aged La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros one evening that was fantastic. This was from 2011, and I was just bout to grab a Serie R Esteli when the Artesanos poked its head out and said “smoke me!” I have a precious few of these left, on;y one of which, to my great dismay, is an event only version with a Connecticut broadleaf and Sumatra wrapper. I was in the mood for something lighter, so I went with the production version (I don’t think they make these any more), Ecuador Sumatra and Connecticut shade in the toro size. This starts off with a creamy Connecticut wrapper on the first third, and segues into the Sumatra. It’s funny in that the band covers the transition between the wrappers, and is closer to the foot than the head. This cigar aged beautifully, it was smooth and still had a load of flavor, and the transition between the wrappers is prominent. I only have a couple of these in the humidor and will be sad when they are gone! I love most LGCs, this was among my favorites. I especially wish I had more of the broadleaf versions!

The folks at Holt’s contacted me a few weeks ago and asked me to put something together about their Father’s Day specials, and I dropped the ball, failing to send them a draft for approval, so I hope they don’t mind if I just point you toward their web page with the specials. I looked through and was tempted to spring for their special on the Xikar XO cutter, which I’ve lusted after since seeing it at the IPCPR last year. Dropping coin on the IPCPR trip cooled my jets on that, and I have so many cutters it’s not funny. They have a lot of great stuff there, so head over to Holts.com and check out what they have!

I was also directed to Davidoff of Geneva’s Father’s Day page. They have a lot of great stuff for the discriminating dad, cutters, lighters, cases and humidors, as well as some of their great cigars in handy sampler packs. Davidoff always offers the highest quality accouterments and cigars. I can’t imagine any father that wouldn’t be elated at opening a gift from Davidoff from under the Father’s Day tree on Father’s Day morning (everyone does that, right?).

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

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, davidoff, Father's Day, holt's, La Gloria Cubana

by CigarCraig | December 18, 2016 · 7:56 am

CigarCraig’s Holiday Contest Number Two: Xikar Xidris Lighter and Holt’s Contest Winner

OK, OK, I know, I said I was going to post the winner of contest number one earlier, but I slacked off Friday and went to visit a shop in Chestnut Hill (Philadelphia), PA called BnB Cigars (not to be confused with BnB Tobacco, different company altogether). I’ve met Vince, the manager of this shop on several occasions and consider him a friend, he’s been a long time reader and I was long overdue paying him a visit. Vince as stocked this shop with the most impressive selection of boutique cigars I’ve seen. He’s got the largest RoMaCraft selection anywhere, just a ridiculous depth of product. He also knows way more about some of the really geeky boutique stuff and will be my go to info source on such things, I think. I walked out with a handful of cigars that I had read about, but never seen in the wild. But the motivation to pay this great little shop a visit was my old friend Steve Saka was dropping by, and I had to pick up some more Mi Queridas and smoke them along with Steve and the fine folks there at BnB. I smoked the Mi Querida in the larger Muy Gordo Grande size, the 6″ x 56 and loved it. It was a bit smoother than the smaller ring gauges, obviously, which was OK with my for a multiple cigar evening. I also managed to get my hands on Steve’s new 4″ x 48 Gordita size in the Mi Querida line. If it compares to the line like the Short Churchill compares to the Sobremesa line it will be a winner. It’s always educational and entertaining hanging out with Steve, and I was glad to finally get to visit this terrific shop. Thanks to Vince for the hospitality (including a great cup of Twin Engine Coffee that, along with the cigar, prevented me from sleeping most of the night!), definitely a must visit shop in the Philly area (and online, they ship!).

Contest!

Today’s holiday giveaway is a new Xikar Xidris single flame torch lighter courtesy of the fine folks at Xikar. This one is the very sporty yellow and black version. When Xikar sent me two of these to try out I was honestly torn between this one and the tan with gun-metal, and opted for the tan because I needed a “classy” as opposed to “sporty” lighter in my portfolio. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been using the Xidris lighter exclusively for the past several months and it works great. It’s my go to lighter, it’s got a great heft, yet not too heavy as to pull your pants town, and lights every time, unless it runs out of gas, which isn’t very often because it has a generous fuel tank and a window so you can see when it’s low. Anyway, one lucky reader will win this beautiful and functional yellow and black Xikar Xidris lighter. So leave a comment like usual, I will be picking a winner on Wednesday this time for sure, so stay tuned (spoiler alert: contest number 3 looms). Thanks to Xikar for sending these lighters along for me to try, and going along with my giveaway plans!

Winner!

I’ve consulted with Random.org’s random number generator and, after taking out a couple of comments that weren’t eligible, it was determined that the winner of the Holt’s $20 Gift Card is Tommy D. Please send me your details so I can pass them on to Holt’s so they can get you your gift card! Thanks to Lexi at Holt’s for making this possible! I like to visit the center city Philly store when ever I’m nearby, and they might even be carrying Sobremesa and Mi Querida sometime soon! Thanks to everyone who entered, and good luck in the upcoming contests!

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

CigarCraig

61 Comments

Filed under Contest, Stores

Tagged as BnB, cigar, cigars, holt's, Mi Querida, Sobremesa, Xidris, xikar

by CigarCraig | December 11, 2016 · 9:30 am

CigarCraig’s Holiday Contest Number One! Holt’s Cigar Company

OK, so we all know now that I won’t be doing what I’ve done for the last five years, and that’s running a huge daily cigar giveaway featuring box upon box of great cigars and assorted goodies. That means I don’t have to spend countless hours writing posts, getting up early, choosing daily winners, shipping packages, all during the busiest time of the year. But, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some great giveaways! Today we are kicking things off with the Holiday Gifts from Holt’s Cigar Company. Click HERE to shop at Holt’s Christmas and Holiday Cigar Gift Shop where they have curated a lovely selection of cool cigar gifts! I love visiting the store when I’m in Center City Philly and generally spend more than I want picking up great cigars. Today’s giveaway is for a $20 Holt’s Gift Card, which can be used in the store or on their website. Buy yourself something nice for yourself or someone else! The usual rules apply! Leave a comment on this post to enter, and I’ll announce the winner on Wednesday, December 14, 2016. The winner will need to e-mail me their address so I can pass it on to Holt’s so they can send you the card! Must be 18 to enter and a resident of the U.S. (sorry international folks!).

Quick anecdote about Holt’s. It was the summer of 2000, and I had some extra cash on hand that I wanted to turn into cigars. Holt’s had a ridiculous sale on bundles of El Rico Habano, I think something ridiculous like $20 for a bundle of 25 or something. So, before driving into the city on a hot, muggy Saturday, I check the website to make sure they were open, yup, open ’til 5. Got into the city and parked by 4:15, walked up to the store to find them closed with a sign saying their summer hours were until 4pm. I was pissed. Even in 2000 it would have been a simple thing to update the website with the summer hours, especially in late July, well into summer. When I finally got home I sent an e-mail to Holt’s complaining and suggesting that they update the website to reflect the actual hours. A couple days later I received an e-mail from the Sr. VP apologizing up and down and offering to send me the El Ricos gratis. I was quite impressed with the service, and continue to be a customer of Holt’s largely for that reason. A little history on the El Rico Habanos: These were originally made by Ernesto Carillo at his El Credito Factory before the sale to Swedish Match, and they were butt-kickers! They were spice and power bombs before such a thing was fashionable, and I loved them. The company sold in 1999, and the El Ricos I received in this story were a milder version of the blend (they were a corona extra size if I remember correctly). They were still excellent cigars, but they weren’t quite as special as the original blend. I smoked a bunch, and gave a bunch away, and wish had gotten more, especially for that price. I think the current version of the El Rico Habano is very good, but for some reason gets no marketing push from General Cigar, and it’s a shame, it’s a brand with a lot of history. I’d be willing to bet many reading this have never heard of the brand.

So I usually post about some cigars I smoked over the previous few days, and I did smoke some cigars. My practice is generally if I don’t have something nice to say, I don’t say anything, but that can be misleading and lead people to think a particular cigar (and if you follow my Facebook/Instagram/Twitter feeds you’ll see my daily smokes) isn’t to my liking. In one case this week, the cigar didn’t really do anything for me, in another two cases I loved the cigars, but one was one I’d smoked a lot before, and the other was one that got interrupted and I can’t wait to smoke again. I will say that the Sobremesa Short Churchill, Nestor Miranda Corojo and Henry Cay Tattoo are exceptional. I hate trying new things when it’s as cold out as it’s been, although I did get some propane for the porch heaters. So you’ll just have to be happy with a chance to win a nice Holt’s gift card today!

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

CigarCraig

50 Comments

Filed under Contest

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Contest, holt's

by CigarCraig | October 23, 2016 · 9:01 am

Some Tatuaje Cigars, a Cromagon, an Event and a Disappontment

Thursday evening my wife and I went into Philly for a show, and stopped into Holts for a quick cigar before hand. I picked out a Tatuaje Verocu No. 5 and we hung out in the lounge and watched the beginning of the Flyers home opener. The Verocu No. 5 is a 4″ x 40 little guy, with tons of flavor. It has an Ecuador wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and filler and is a terrific little treat. It went great with a cup of black coffee, and a relaxing hour in Holt’s lounge. It had that great cocoa and strong, black coffee flavor I love, with a hint of spice. These are very good cigars. Pete Johnson happened to be doing an event at Holt’s other location the same night, and was going to be in the downtown store Friday. I was sorry I didn’t catch up with him, but we had a nice evening anyway.

Friday I decided to give a reasonably new cigar a second chance, since to first one had some construction issues. I’m not going to name names in fairness to the cigar, as my experiences may have been atypical, but I will talk about the experience. Clever readers who folow me on social media will be able to connect the dots. This cigar has been resting in the humidor, along with all the other cigars I regularly smoke, since it came home from the IPCPR back in July. Basically, it burned and smoked like it was wet. Perhaps this particular wrapper, which is touted as a new hybrid leaf, just holds a lot of moisture and needs to be dry boxed or stored at a lower humidity. It just seemed wet to me. It wouldn’t stay lit, and when it was it had that steamy quality to the smoke. It was one of those rare cigars that makes me wish I carried a back-up on my walks. When I got home I did something I rarely do and abandoned it and lit up a short robusto from Dunhill, their new Aged Maduro. This just looks like a delicious cigar, but it had a funky flavor that I wasn’t expecting. I’m going to give this one a second chance as maybe my palate was out of whack from the first cigar, it’s not fair to make a judgement under those circumstances.

Yesterday I went up to Cigars International in Hamburg as they were having a big Drew Estate event, and it was a rainy, ugly fall day. The CI store there is a destination, and adult Disneyland, and it’s hard not to spend five hours there. I went up with Mike C., and met an old friend there, and said hello to a bunch of my Drew Estate friends. I couldn’t decide on a DE cigar to smoke, it seems I’ve smoked everything I wanted to smoke from them, and had plenty in my humidor at home, so Mike and I went off the menu and picked out a couple Tatuaje Avion 11, a 6¾ x 52 perfecto. This was a beautifully crafted cigar with an Ecuador wrapper again, and Nicaraguan binder and filler much like the aforementioned Verocu. It started off with a blast of spice, settled into a rich espresso and cocoa flavor, and finished of with some more spice. I noted that the burn was just about perfect, with a nice, flat ember that I really enjoy, as it shows the care that went into blending a cigar in a way that all the components burn at the same rate, a rare feat. After that I picked up some RoMaCraft Cromagnon Fomorian candela robustos, to finish off the afternoon. While this probably should have come before a full-bodied cigar like the Avion, it still has the horsepower to keep up, and I like the refreshing kind of feeling the candela wrapper gives this cigar. Of course, Jonathan Drew was scheduled to be at this event, and hadn’t shown by the time we left. It was nice to see a lot of my DE friends though, and we had a nice afternoon of conversation and cigars.

That’s all for today, until the net time,

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as Avion, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Cigars International, Cromagn, drew estate, Dunhill, Fomorian, holt's, tatuaje, Verocu

by CigarCraig | July 10, 2016 · 10:41 am

Fourth of July Cigars, a La Flor Dominicana and a Caldwell

Monday was the Independence Day Holiday, and my wife and my 29th wedding anniversary. I know, Independence Day, getting married….it’s a bit ironic, but we figured at least we’d always have the day off, and there would always be something somewhere to do. over the last 15 or so years I have made a point to smoke a Havana cigar as a form of celebration and of civil disobedience. I like to think the founding fathers would be pleased if they stopped rolling in their graves long enough to notice. Sometimes this works out great, other times it’s a disaster, and this time was somewhere in the middle. I’ve smoked some fantastic Montecristo No.2s over the last 20 years, and I’ve smoked some sucky ones. This one fell in the middle somewhere, as it was just a good cigar. I had been given this cigar last year, and I don’t know what the vintage was, so maybe I should have left it in the humidor for another four or five years. Most of the problem was with the draw, the flavor was good, although milder than I recall. It had the classic “twang” and a hint of citrus I expect from a Montecristo I could have dug a little further and found a Havana or two with sufficient age, but I was lazy, and the classic Monte 2 called out to me. After a great dinner out with my bride, I enjoyed the heck out of a Padron Anniversary Exclusivo Maduro that is the quintessential dessert cigar!

Later in the week I was moving humidors around and spied a La Flor Dominicana Air Bender Maduro Chisel. I assumed it was the maduro because I think by this point I know the difference, and the natural Air Bender is quite a bit lighter. This is a 6½” x 54 cigar with their patented (or is it trademarked, I’m not certain) Chisel shape, like a torpedo, but with a flattened head, not unlike a pipe mouthpiece. I’ve had success squeezing these to open them, but this time I tried a V-cut across the head. It looked pretty cool, but wasn’t giving me the draw I wanted, so I ended up lopping an eighth of an inch off to open it up a little. While the Air Bender isn’t quite as full-bodied as the Double Ligero line, it’s still a reasonable strong cigar, with rich flavor and a bit of a kick. La Flor Dominicana makes some awesome cigars, and this is one of them. They are almost always satisfying. the Air Bender uses a binder and fillers grown on their own farms in the Dominican Republic, and a very pretty, dark Habano wrapper. These are a treat every time I light one up.

Friday I wrapped up another week with a cigar I had some trepidation about. Las year I caught up with Robert Caldwell at a local shop and bought a handful of his cigars to try. I’ve enjoyed his Blind Man’s Bluff line, but I had so much trouble with the Long Live the King cigars that I was worried I’d have similar problems with The King is Dead. the Long Live the Kings I smoked had such construction problems that they just pissed me off, both because I hate it when a pricey cigar doesn’t work right, and I hate wasting my valuable smoking time fighting with a cigar. It’s just not relaxing for me to have a cigar that doesn’t work right. So I decided to try this the Caldwell King is Dead Diamond Girl, a 6 ½” x 42 pigtail cigar. The blend information provided on the website is exceptional, it’s listed as: Capa (that’s the wrapper): Negrito Dominicano – 2008, Banda (that would be the binder, sometimes called “capote”): Corojo Dominicano – 2006, Tripa (filler…think tripe, yuck): Corojo Ligero Dominicano 30% – 2006, Tripa: Negrito Viso Dominicano 20% – 2008 and Tripa: HVA 20/20 50% – 2010. I think Steve Saka is the only cigar maker who is more specific in his blend information. This cigar smoked great, with some wood and cocoa flavors and solidly medium bodied to me. I’m glad I finally smoked this one.

That’s it for now. As you can see, I still seem to be grabbing shaped cigars here and there, not sure what that’s all about, but I like torpedos and perfectos. Sunday I stopped by Holt’s in Center City Philadelphia and enjoyed a Fuente Hemingway Classic Sungrown, another pefecto. It was a fantastic cigar, and while I was there I had the pleasure of meeting and smoking with former Phillies player and broadcaster Gary Matthews, who I saw play countless times in my youth. He was a super nice guy, and apparently a regular visitor to the store. I would have figured him for just a regular patron if he hadn’t been wearing his huge World Series ring, with was hard to miss. I guess I should have gotten a picture with him, but he was such a “regular guy” it didn’t occur to me. Anyway, until the next time,