Tag Archives: Kristoff

by CigarCraig | June 8, 2014 · 2:26 pm

Kristoff CRA, 601 Bunker Buster and La Jugada Cigars

I’ve been largely absent from writing and social media since my wife’s father passed away this week. My wife has been busy making arrangements and tomorrow he’ll be laid to rest in New Jersey. I’m sure everyone understands why I missed my Wednesday post for the first time in several years. I smoked many cigars with Mario over the years, I remember him telling me early on that cigars cooled you off on a hot day, and he had a story about coming through customs at the Canadian border with a three pack of Havanas, having them confiscated, and telling the agents “I hope you f**king enjoy them!”. He would lick and chew up the cigars I gave him and ruin them, then complain about them not being too good. It didn’t matter to me really as I was happy to share. We lived with him for the last year and a half or so, so it’s going to be weird not having him around. May he rest in peace.

Since it’s been hectic around here, I haven’t really smoked too many notable cigars. Sunday I lit up a Kristoff maduro of some sort which came from the Cigar Rights of America, and I can’t recall which year I got it, maybe this year. I took my favorite summer chair out in the yard and enjoyed this maduro cigar while catching up on podcasts. It had a nice pigtail cap and closed foot, it was a really good looking cigar. Since this is supposed to be a special blend just for the CRA, I don’t know the blend, nor will I speculate on it. It was reasonably heavy in body and full of dark, decadent flavors. I haven’t smoked a bunch of Kristoff cigars, but I should probably try some more based upon this cigar. I have about five more of these special CRA editions that I’ve accumulated over the years that I’ll get to in the near future. Don’t forget, time is running out to leave your comments on the FDA site. Just do it.

Later in the day I realized it was June first, so I figured I’d smoke a 601 of some sort. I had recently received some 601 La Bomba Bunker Buster, which is the newest micro-blend from Smoke Inn. This cigar is a 5 ½” x 56 box pressed figurado that’s lighter in the hand that one would expect. This cigar wasn’t as potent as it’s La Bomba cousins, and I smoked an Atom on Tuesday to get a bit of a comparison. I enjoyed the Bunker Buster immensely on it’s own merit, but I don’t think it packed the punch for me that the regular line does. It’s a really cool shape with a wide open draw and even burn, despite feeling under filled. If you like the 601 line, you have to give these a try if you can, and even if you aren’t a strong cigar fan, try it because it’s not as strong as you’d think.

Later in the week I smoked another cigar from Erik Espinosa’s La Zona factory (the 601 Atom might be a leftover from the My Father factory, it’s been in my humidor for a while), the La Jugada Habano. This is another really great cigar with a perfect burn and draw, and full, rich flavors. This is a great cigar to take a nice long walk with. It’s a 6 1/8″ x 52 belicoso with a beautiful Ecuador Habano wrapper. The website recommends a full meal before this one, but since it’s been a crazy week for me, I can’t remember what I ate, but it was a very good smoke. I think both the Prieto and Habano lines are really good cigars from Moya Ruiz Cigars.

Yesterday, after the majority of guests left our home where the post-funeral reception was held, I lit up a little Montecristo Petit Edmundo that has been in the humidor for about a year. This is a cool little robusto, measuring 4 3/8″ x 52, which is a unique vitola in the Havana range. I picked this because it was pretty short and it was on the top row of the humidor. I enjoyed this cigar so much that I picked up a toothpick to finish it off. It had some sweetness and that unmistakable Cuban “twang”. I felt like my father-in-law would have enjoyed this cigar. I wished it had been longer, but it was tasty. While I don’t feel that Cuban cigars are really any better than Nicaraguan, Honduran, Dominican, etc. cigars, they certainly have a distinctive flavor that you don’t find in others, and I happen to enjoy it from time to time. Real ones are worth sampling.

That’s it for today. It’s been an exhausting week, more for my wife than me, so we’re trying to grab a little bit of normal while we have a chance. Tomorrow will be another busy day as we drive to New Jersey for the cemetery portion of the funeral. Hopefully the coming weeks settle down and we can get our bearings. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

9 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as 601 La Bomba, Bunker Buster, cigar, cigar rights, cigars, CRA, Kristoff, La Jugada, Montecristo

by CigarCraig | January 18, 2012 · 7:20 pm

Midweek Cigars: An H. Upmann and a Kristoff

Welcome to the midweek edition, I’m working on some rather exciting things regarding the appearance of the site, so stay tuned! If all goes well, there will be a new look over the next week or so. I’m excited about it, as the look of the site has remained unchanged for the last 24 months and it’s time to spruce things up a little!

I dipped into the IPCPR show samples again and came up with this short, fat H.Upmann Sun Grown from AltadisUSA. I was taking an evening walk and wanted something short and different, so I picked out this chubby robusto, which they call a Short Churchill. Odd name, but I suppose if the “Churchill” in the line is 7″ x 54, then a 4½” x 54 is a Short Churchill…why not. This was a super enjoyable smoke. Pretty rich in flavor and well behaved, although the draw was a bit loose and it smoked pretty fast. Usually I can get more than a mile and a half (which is about two laps around my neighborhood) out of a cigar this size, with a few more minutes on the front porch to finish. This one was just about done at the end of my walk. This is another instance where, had I know the draw was so loose, I would have tried the punch first before whacking the whole end off of it. At least if the punch doesn’t cut it, I can still give it the full clip, but you can’t really do it the other way around (well, with some pectin, extra wrapper leaf, a little skill and patience, I suppose one could conceivably put a new cap on and punch it, but that’s an awful lot of work…) Anyway, totally decent cigar which I’d smoke again in a heartbeat!

Once again, I was in the mood for something different, so I grabbed a Kristoff Kristania robusto, one of two that I had picked up at Cole’s Tobacco Shop In Pottstown, PA a few months ago. I have very limited experience with the Kristoff line, I think a Corojo that I smoked at the Delaware Cigar Festival was about the extent of my Kristoff exposure. They look like really nice cigars, they always have a nice presentation, nice wood boxes with the cigars comfortably nestled in picadura tobacco. The Kristania, on the other hand, is their budget line, and the cigar looks nice, the wrapper has a nice oil to it, and is kind of mottled in an attractive way. As it turns out, I was very upset with myself for having put a Cain F Corona back in favor of this one. I had some trouble keeping the wrapper burning, and wasn’t a big fan of the flavor. Maybe this is mixed filler, which could account for the tunneling, but I don’t feel like this was worth my $4.95 all things considered. I’m quite willing to explore the other cigars in the line, as the Corojo was a really nice cigar, but I’ll be avoiding the Kristania in the future. I will say that, for the most part, Criollo wrappers don’t typically agree with my palate, and the burn problems and smoke production really took away from the experience.

Not a lot else going on! Don’t forget to go to to the Cigar Rights of America site to send a letter to your elected officials. Or you can use the widget in my side bar on the right, between the IPCPR and CRA logos.
Until the next time,

CigarCraig

6 Comments

Filed under Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk

Tagged as Altadis USA, Churchill, cigar, cigar rights, cigar store, cigars, H.Upmann, IPCPR, Krisania, Kristoff, robusto, Short Churchill, Sun Grown

by CigarCraig | September 21, 2011 · 8:38 pm

Cigars So Far: Kristoff and CAO, A Schnorr, and Some 7-20-4s

I forgot to make mention of the cigars I smoked at the Delaware Cigar Festival. As I said, the format was that cigars were for sale at the vendors tables. $3.00 per cigar, with 100% of the proceeds going to charity, which was the family of a local police officer recently killed in the line of duty. I purchased a handful of cigars, some I wanted to try and some favorites I don’t see very often. Obviously, in most cases $3.00 each is an excellent deal for a lot of the cigars that were offered. I started with a Kristoff Corojo and I regret not getting a second one of these. Very nice cigar and a nice way to start the day. I also smoked a CAO OSA Sol Lot 50 that, while not as good as the first one I smoked, was very nice. Buy the time I picked up the OSA it had been out on a table most of the afternoon, not right out of a humidor. No worries as I did get another one of these. When I buy singles I like to buy in pairs for some reason. I also picked up some Murcielagos from Eddie Ortega as well as a bunch of other assorted goodies.

Sunday I closed out the weekend with a Berger & Argenti Mooch Schnorr which was a sample from the IPCPR show. I love the name of this, even though it’s a little redundant. For those who don’t know “Schnorr” is a Yiddish term for a mooch. I know this because I have a good friend who refers to another friend as such, and it cracks me up. So while I was at the show in July, having a Cuban coffee with Kiki Berger in his booth, he made sure I had some samples. In my limited experience at the IPCPR shows, Cuban Crafters has always been very generous with samples, however, a great many over the years have not been to my liking. This led me to avoid Cuban Crafters over the years, and it wasn’t until spending an excellent evening in Esteli with Mr. Berger that I re-thought that position. I’ve since enjoyed several other cigars that carry the Berger name. The Mooch Schnorr was really a very tasty cigar, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I would even go so far as to say it was the best cigar all week. It was smooth and flavorful and perfectly built. The sample I grabbed did have a small crack just below the cap line which gave me a few problems initially, until I patched it with part of the cap, which solved the problem completely. I smoked this down to a finger burning nub, and was sorry to see it end. The Schnorr is a nice size (robusto) and a tasty, well balanced blend. I can’t wait to dig into the rest of the samples from the show. I have some maduros and some more of the Entubar line to try.

By the time I was ready to sit down and enjoy a cigar on Monday it was getting fairly late. I was rooting through the humidor looking for something small and settled on the 7-20-4 Dogwalker that Kurt Kendal gave me when I met him at the 2010 IPCPR show. Don’t know why it took so long to get around to this one, it jsut did, what can I say. The Dog Walker is a handsome little cigar, 4¼” x 40, with the same straight “pigtail” as the rest of the line. It was definitely full flavored and may have been on the verge of being strong, I enjoyed it quite a bit and it lasted close to 45 minutes before I put it down to go in for the night. I don’t have a dog to walk, but my cat, Frank, hung out with my on the porch while I smoked it. Nice little cigar and Kurt is a nice guy.

I visited Kurt at this years show and he gave me his 7-20-4 1874 blend to try. While the regular line is made in Honduras, the 1874 is made in Nicaragua, with a lovely Nicaraguan wrapper. This one had a very open draw, so I smoked it slowly. It was a really nice smoke, I think it was a little bit milder than the Dog Walker, but had a more balanced flavor. There was a taste in there that I really liked, can’t place it, but it was good. The sample I smoked was a robusto and I would happily smoke it again. Nice job on this line extension.

As long as I’m ending on a 7-20-4 thing, here’s a little video Kurt took with me at the show. Standard disclaimer applies: Don’t forget to turn down your PC speakers after watching so you don’t blow your speakers on the next Windows Error chime (or whatever weird sounds Macs make)!

That’s it for now, don’t forget to go to my previous post and enter the current contest! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under Contest, Events, IPCPR, Review, Video

Tagged as 7-20-4, Berger & Argenti, CAO, cigar, cigars, Contest, delaware cigars, IPCPR, Kiki Berger, Kristoff, Mooch, Murcielago, OSA Sol, schnorr

by CigarCraig | September 18, 2011 · 11:18 am

The Delaware Cigar Festival and Another Contest!

Saturday, September 17 marked the long awaited fifth annual Delaware Cigar Festival, organized and hosted by Gary Griffith, the Premium Cigar Manager of Delaware Cigars and the creator of Emilio and Grimalkin Cigars. The event took place at Delaware Park, which is already one of our favorite places in the area to go and waste some money on the ponies, or drop some pennies in the slots. The event was unique, as it is a big herf disguised as a charity event, although Gary won’t use the charity aspect to promote it. The format is that the manufacturers and reps sell their samples for $3 each, with all of the proceeds going to charity, which this time benefited the family of a slain police officer (news report here), this was just in the last few days and quite tragic.

Photo Courtesy of Charlie Greenbacker

For your entrance price you got a bag with about 20 or 25 cigars (nice stuff too, I looked!) and assorted swag, a nice picnic buffet with burgers, dogs, chicken, ribs and beans, and the opportunity to talk with the assorted cigar makers and reps who were there. Brands represented were: Inked Magazine, Rocky Patel, Arturo Fuente/JC Newman, Emilio Cigars with brand creator Gary Griffith, Drew Estate, Altadis USA, Oliva, Perdomo, La Sirena with Brand Ambassador Arielle Ditkowich, La Flor Dominicana, Cigar Rights of America, EO Brands with Eddie Ortega, Miami Cigar, General Cigar, 262 Cigars, Kristoff Cigars, El Primer Mundo with Sean Williams, Veritas Cigar Co., and The Cigar Agency. Keith Park from Prometheous was also there. All of these companies donated TONS of stuff, either cigars that were sold for $3 each, or stuff to be raffled off (we bought 10 tickets didn’t win a darned thing!). The attendance was capped at 300 people, including staff, press and exhibitors, so it was a nice sized crowd. It was rarely a problem to have a chat with the vendors.

In addition to getting to schmooze with some of my friends on the manufacturers side, I was able to hang out a bit with some fellow blogger types such as Barry from ACigarSmoker.com, Walt from StogieReview.com and Michael from CigarEvents.com. I also had the great pleasure of meeting one of my readers, Charlie, who won big in the raffle give-aways! These events are always about the people, and you just don’t meet nicer folks that those associated with cigars for some reason!

What a wonderful event that I would recommend highly next year if you are within a 3 or 4 hour drive. Gary is a fine gentleman and I appreciate him welcoming myself and my wife for the afternoon. It’s refreshing to see a retailer put on a “not for profit” event, and to have so many people there enjoying cigars and camaraderie. I’d love to see more manufacturers participate in the future as the event is for good causes and shows the cigar business in a positive light. The only downside was that the weather could have been a little nicer, it was overcast and under 70 until we drove off the premises, then the sun came out and it was nice! Hardly anyone’s fault. I managed to win about $4 on the ponies over the course of the day too!

In honor of the event, I’m going to have another quick give-away! I know, I JUST had one that ended this week, but we got a couple Rosie Napravnik Bobbleheads at the park for Racing Fan Appreciation Day and I thought I’d combine it with a beautiful Veritas Connecticut Salamone that I purchased from the Delaware based Veritas Cigar Co. at the event. So leave a comment to enter, and I’ll pick a winner next Sunday, September 25th.