Tag Archives: liga privada

by | October 22, 2014 · 9:29 pm

Aging Room, Liga Privada and Royal Gold Kismet and Casino Gold Cigars

Thank you all for the kind words about my deer/car incident. There’s a lot of ways it could have turned out much worse, and it sounds like the car will get fixed so I’ll have my sexy black Toyota Yaris back in a few weeks!  I was ready to shop for a used car, something I could pay cash for, but I’d rather have MY used car back, I know where it’s been! I’d have a hard time replacing my Undercrown window sticker anyway!  In other news, this week the announcement came that Swisher International is purchasing Drew Estate, which caused quite a stir in the cigar community. All the folks analyzing this who have no idea about the inner workings drive me a little crazy. As far as I’m concerned, Jonathan Drew and Marvin Samel are very intelligent business men, they wouldn’t have built what they have if they weren’t, and if they are happy, I’m happy. If nothing else, it gives them the ability to do the things they do best without having to worry about the business side as much. The people criticizing this don’t want anything to do with Swisher’s products for the most part. My only concern is the fact that Swisher may not have as big an interest in seeing premium cigars separated from non-premium cigars as far as the FDA is concerned, however now they have a greater interest in doing so. It will be interesting to see what other business moves happen in the cigar industry.

 

AgingRoom_QuatroF55_ConcertoSunday I selected a Aging Room Quatro F55 Concerto, a nice Churchill from Boutique Blends.  I’ve had trouble with many cigars in this line, they tend to put a physical hurtin on me!  I love the flavor, but more times than not they overwhelm me for some reason. Very few cigar get to me the way Aging Room cigars have recently!  this is doubly interesting since it’s a Dominican cigar. I had no such trouble with this size, it was delicious and perfectly behaved.  I’m not surprised that this was the number two cigar of the year last year in Cigar Aficionado, it was a very nice way to finish the weekend. I’ll not be afraid to smoke this line again.

 

LigaPrivadaNo9_CoronaMonday, after hearing the Drew Estate news, I figured I’d smoke something interesting from the Liga Privada line.  Last year around my 50th birthday I received a very generous package from my friend Will Cooper, whom you may know from Cigar-Coop.com and StogieGeeks.com.  In this package was a corona sized Liga Privada No.9, with the story that Steve Saka had these made for his own consumption and shared some with Will. The question is how it compared to the Dirty Rat, which is a similar size. Certainly the Dirty Rat is a stronger cigar, however this No.9 had some age, and the Dirty Rats I’ve had recently also were four or five years old. It’s hard to compare under those circumstances, but the No.9 in the corona size was very nice, although I think the toro size remains my favorite in the line.

 

Royal Gold_Kismet_ChanceI had a couple cigars from Royal Gold, which, ironically, is reasonably new premium cigar division of Swisher International, from when I talked to Alex Goldman at the Famous Smoke Shop Cigarnival back in June. I had smoked and enjoyed the Cameroon wrapped Nirvana, which is made by Drew Estate a couple months ago and had the Casino Gold and the Kismet in the humidor. The Kismet Chance is a 5½” x 46 corona gorda, although thinking back I thought it was a robusto. This is a Dominican puro made at Agusto Reyes factory in Santiago.  I found this to be a very mild and well made cigar, but it was fairly unremarkable. It burned nicely and wasn’t offensive, just didn’t really stand out to me in any way.

 

Tonight I smoked the Royal Gold  in the Queen size. This is a 5¾x52 cigar made by Placencia in Honduras.  I don’t know if it’s because I have a cold coming on or what, but this one fell flat for me too.  Ever have a cigar that isn’t plugged, but draws poorly? Ever wonder why you can blow through a cigar and produce tons of smoke, but drawing produces very little?  I wonder that all the time, and I wondered this again tonight.  It did open up in the second half, and I wonder if the very damp evening air had something to do with it. Chalk it up to experience.  I smoked these this week because I wonder how much attention the Royal Gold division is going to get now that Swisher owns a premium cigar company, factory and all.

 

That’s all I got tonight. I’m watching the Flyers play their arch enemies the Penguins, and they are winning for a change.  I have some great friends that are Penguins fans, but I like them anyway. Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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by | February 5, 2014 · 8:21 pm

Snow, Blue Mountain Cigars, Snow, a 601 La Bomba, a UF-13 and Ice

This winter has been pretty, er…wintery?  We had a mild couple winters in years past, so this one just seems rough, but it’s probably not that bad.  Today we had ice and a lot of broken branches and trees.  It’s going to be a mess to clean up.  As long as there’s no property damage we’ll be fine.  It’s resulted in a couple “snow days” which has given me some time to smoke cigars!  This week, so far, I’ve chosen some old favorites, along with something completely different.

 

BMC_El ThreesomeSunday….what happened on Sunday?  It seems so long ago.  Oh yeah, it was Groundhog Day and the furry little bastid saw his shadow. That and there were a lot of new commercials on TV.  IT was a reasonable nice day, so I figured it was a good time to take a chance on a cigar from the IPCPR show, a 6″ x 60 BMC El Threesome from Blue Mountain Cigars. They say that this cigar not only has three different wrappers (Connecticut, Habano and Maduro), but also has three different blends. The cynic in me finds this hard to believe, it looked to me like a Connecticut shade wrapped cigar with overlays of Habano and Maduro. I guess I’d have to see them being made to actually comment on this with any authority. The cigar started as you would expect, I guess, with a fairly mild and typical Connecticut shade flavor, and it did have noticeable transitions when it burned from wrapper to wrapper. I liked the end of this cigar more than the start, and it’s always interesting to see how the wrapper changes the flavor. If this does, indeed, have three different blends (would that make it NOT a long filler cigar but a mixed filler?), I didn’t get that big a flavor change, it was subtle. this is not a new factory, it’s been in Esteli since 1995, and they make cigars for other people.  I’d welcome comments from the folks at Blue Mountain on this cigar, I thought it was an interesting and entertaining cigar, and I’d love to see a video of these being rolled.

 

601_La Bomba_AtomMonday was a snow day.  When I heard pouring rain, then sleet, then saw it dump about 4 inches of wet, heavy snow in an hour, I decided to stay home.  We ended up with about 10 inches and wore ourselves out shoveling the slop. I decided this wasn’t the time to fool around, and went straight for the 601 La Bomba Atom, a 5½ x 46 corona gorda with a long “Fuse” pigtail. I absolutely adore this cigar. I don’t find this vitola to be quite as strong as some of the larger sizes, but it’s loaded with flavor, and it’s a flavor I really like. This is another great cigar from Erik Espinosa’s La Zona factory (although I can’t say for sure if this wasn’t from an older box from the EO Brands days, which would mean it was made in the My Father factory). If you have a fondness for stronger cigars, you can’t go wrong with this one. I really want to try the La Bomba Warhead, I just haven’t come across them in a shop yet, and I’m really looking forward to the Bunker Buster, Smoke Inn‘s next micro-blend.  This is one of those cigars I reach for when I want a “sure thing”.

 

UF-13 DarkTuesday I grabbed a Drew Estate Liga Privada Serie Unico UF-13 Dark, a birthday present from Steve Saka last August. I don’t like taking cigars from the unemployed, but he was insistent. It was a lazy selection. We had another forecast for snow and rain and ice and stuff, so I wanted a satisfying smoke.  This is just such a smoke. the presentation is awesome with the fan style pigtail.  I just know when I select one of these it’s going to make me happy.  It burned perfectly and tasted great.  I have trouble finding fault with any of the Liga Privada line.

 

Today was quite an adventure.  We awoke to freezing rain. After Monday’s wet snow clung to the trees, there was excessive weight on a lot of branches and we had limbs coming down left and right.  Fortunately, no damage was done, but there were a great many road closures and getting to work was tricky.  At one point I stopped on one local thoroughfare and helped clear a tree from across the entire multi-lane road.  One lane going one direction and two going the other. Last I read about 90% of our county was without power, luckily we have auxiliary power, so I can post as usual. I took a walk tonight with a two plus year old Macanudo 1968 Robusto which was quite nice. It has developed a sweetness over the years and hit the spot after a long day.  It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it hits me just right.

 

I was quite honored to be included in the Famous Smoke Shop Blog‘s “Top 10 Cigar Blogs of 2013”.  Famous Smoke Shop is a supporter of CigarCraig.com, and has recently upgraded their advertising here (look for a new ad on the left side bar coming soon). These guys have been around a long time, as a matter of fact, I signed up on their site in the late 90s and still get alerts when some old favorites come into stock. I should probably go in and edit those alerts, as I probably wouldn’t be interested in some of those cigars any longer anyway. Check them out if you are ever in Easton, PA, they have a nice shop, lounge and restaurant. In addition to their blog, they also have the CigarAdvisor online magazine, as well as the annual Cigarnival. Thank you to Famous Smoke Shop for their continued support and recognition!

 

Also, please join me in welcoming La Sirena Cigars to the CigarCraig family. La Sirena Cigars recently went out on their own after a long association with Miami Cigar and Co. and produce some really tasty cigars. I smoked a Merlion just last week.  I look forward to featuring more of their cigars in the coming weeks. I’m quite pleased to have another cigar manufacturer represented here.

 

That’s about it for now.  Sunday’s post will be up in the air a little, as I have some travel plans.  If nothing else, I’ll have something ready Saturday morning and set it up to go out Sunday. Until the next time, Stay safe!

 

CigarCraig

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by | December 4, 2013 · 8:09 pm

A UF-13 in Atlantic City, Leaf by Oscar, and a Tatuaje at Cigar Mojo with Victor Vitale

LigaPrivada_Serie Unico_UF13From the “I’m not as young as I used to be” file, I’ve been paying for having some fun on Sunday. Sunday my wife and I decided to pay a visit to Atlantic City for some fun. We played some slot machines and I enjoyed the heck out of a Drew Estate Liga Privada Serie Unico UF-13 Dark while playing. It’s nice to smoke a great cigar indoors once in a while! There was even a nice little cigar shop in Resorts International that had a decent selection. By the way, one way to feel young is to go to the buffet at 5:30. We were well below the median age there. We ended up leaving AC at 5 am so I could get to work more or less on time, which made for a long day.

 

 

Monday evening, with my butt dragging, I fired up a cigar from “Island Jim” of Leaf and Bean in Pittsburgh. This cigar is called “Leaf by Oscar” and has been getting a lot of buzz lately. These are presented wrapped in a tobacco leaf as opposed to tissue or cello. They have a unique look on the shelf. George Rodriguez of Rodrigo cigars (who is partnered with Jim) sent me one of each wrapper and I (of course) selected the maduro first. My apologies for not taking a better photo of this cigar. Under that outer leaf is a beautiful dark wrapper. It’s the LeafbyOscarSamplercolor of semi-sweet chocolate (ironically, I think semi-sweet chocolate is contributing to my migraines lately…). The wrapper is Nicaraguan maduro and the guts are Honduran. This cigar was very tasty and burned perfectly, as straight and even as any cigar I’ve ever smoked, with a nice, flat ember. It started off with a nice spice and mellowed to a rich, chocolaty experience. I enjoyed the heck out of this and had planned to move on to one of the others Tuesday.

 

Tatuaje_TraeHowever, Tuesday I left work and drove down to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA to meet Victor Vitale of Legacy Brands for a smoke. In the month or so since I first visited this shop Trae and Wade have done a great job stocking the humidor and getting some displays and furniture in. It’s becoming a very nice shop with a great selection. The lounge is comfortable and the clientele seems to be friendly. They already have a good number of lounge members. I picked out a cigar I hadn’t tried before, the Tatuaje Havana VI Artistas torpedo and chatted with Trae until Victor arrived. I don’t smoke a lot of Tatuajes for some reason. Maybe because I’m afraid I’ll find yet another cigar that I love, but is priced higher than I like. This Havana VI is a little more reasonably priced, about $7 here for the classic torpedo size. I found that the ash dropped easily, much to the proprietor’s dismay. It had a nice flavor and burned well. I’ll smoke it again after some humidor time (I always Tortuga 215_Cedrobuy two). I had a great visit with Victor, and smoked another of his new Tortuga Reserva Cedros which was really, really good. I have it on good authority that the Reserva Cedro line will be out soon in three sizes, if you can find some, give them a try. They aren’t a typical Nicaraguan puro. It’s a refined smoke that exudes quality. I’d say that even if Victor wasn’t a friend, and I’m glad he’s back in Philly so we get to see him a little more often! I’ll probably be back at Cigar Mojo soon, it’s not really close to home, but it’s a nice place, and Trae and his Dad, Wade are doing it right. Good stock, nice atmosphere.

 

I just started evaluating a device from Elertus that wirelessly monitors my humidor. I placed the Smart Sensor in my Adorini humidor in the living room for now, but I’ll try it out in the coolers eventually. This is a neat device. It monitors temperature and humidity, and sends alerts to my cell phone and e-mail if conditions change outside the limits I set. It also senses movement and alerts me (someone moved my humidor while I was at work today!). This would be a reasonable investment for a store owner who wants to know if his walk in humidor needed attention. It’s got features I don’t really have use for, like door sensors, light sensors, and it will even alert you if the WiFi loses connection. You can monitor the status on the website, or on iOS or Android apps. It’s pretty spiffy. I’ll report later on how it works over the course of a few weeks in a few different humidors.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | October 13, 2013 · 2:49 pm

La Gloria Cubana, Cuenca 5 Anniversary, Arandoza White and a Velvet Rat Cigar

Friday evening I dove into the Adorini Cedro – Deluxe humidor and came out with a La Gloria Cubana Serie N GSB, which is a nice chunky robusto size at  5½”x 54.  I haven’t smoked one of these in a long time and I really enjoyed them. Unlike the new Serie R Black and Esteli, these are a heavily Nicaraguan blend rolled in the El Credito Portion of the General Cigar factory in Santiago, Dominican Republic. This is the nice, dark maduro with the little “N” of lighter colored leaf pasted on the cigar.  I’ll never forget seeing the bench in the factory where they painstakingly apply each one perfectly.  The have a hand punch that makes the “N”s and they are scattered all over the place.  It’s a wonder they can sell these as inexpensively as they do.  I picked this particular one up at my birthday party at CI in August along with a couple of the Serie R Black.   I love the rich, hearty flavor of the Serie N, although this one burned a little funky through the first half until it evened out. It happens. It was a lovely smoke and I seriously need to get more of these.  The humidor is still 90% La Gloria Cubana, and holds humidity like a champ.  I’ve said before that this is a solid box, and out-performs the Griffins humidor I have.  BTW, the Griffins humidor does a nice job too, except I have to lock it to keep the lid fully closed. The Adorini’s lid drops with a soft whoosh and doesn’t need to be locked to stay closed.  That’s the only real complaint I have with the Griffin’s box, it’s truly a great looking humidor. It’s the humidor in which I keep all my Liga Privadas and cigars I blended on my trips to Cigar Safari.

 

Cuenca_5Anniversary_RobustoSaturday I took a pre-dinner walk with a Cuenca 5 Anniversary Robusto, one I was looking for and couldn’t find the other night.  This is made for the Cuenca Cigars shop in Florida by A.J. Fernandez.  I smoked the original earlier in the year, a large torpedo, and have smoked a couple of this new robusto size and must say that it’s a very nice cigar.  Full, rich flavor and an excellent burn.  They did a very nice job with this cigar. These run $8.00 a piece, which is pricey, and the much ;larger torpedo is only $.50 more per cigar.  This is consistent with how I understand the costs of producing a cigar (there’s not a very great difference between the cost of making a corona and a Churchill), but not very consistent with normal retail pricing.  Price aside, both sizes are good tasting, good performing cigars that I wouldn’t hesitate to smoke or recommend. They have a shop in Florida somewhere, but if the address is listed on the website, I couldn’t find it and gave up looking after a while.

 

Arandoza_White_RobustoAfter dinner I took another walk and selected an Arandoza White robusto.  This is the second release from Arandoza and is made in Eric Espinosa’s La Zona factory in Esteli.  I’ve been trying to recall if I’ve had a bad cigar from this factory, and I don’t think I have.  This cigar is a Nicaraguan puro with a Dark Habano wrapper. Really a nice looking cigar.  It also burned very nicely, which is a quality I obviously enjoy.  I like seeing a cigar burn evenly, and when you tap the ash it’s perfectly flat.  That, my friends, is one sign of a great blend in my book.  Getting multiple varieties of tobacco with multiple rates of combustion to burn at the same rate is astounding to me.  This was such a cigar.  This has a nice sweet tobacco flavor with some pepper and was quite enjoyable. I have one of re-banded Blue label cigars that I’ve enjoyed in the past. They really fancied up the bands adding a foot band. Nice presentation, nice cigars.

 

LigaPrivada_Velvet RatAs I’ve been writing this, I’ve been enjoying a cigar from the Griffins humidor which returned with me from my last Cigar Safari trip.  It’s one of those unreleased cigars that I may get one or two more chances to smoke again. It’s the Velvet Rat, a smoothed out, stretched out variation of the Liga Privada Serie Unico Dirty Rat. This one has a band on it that says “pre-release sample blend”, and I’m not sure if this is on the market or not. It’s 6¼” x 46, which is a terrific size for me, and I believe the same size as the “Ratzilla”, which I haven’t had grace my humidors. This is a cigar that I’m glad that I’m enjoying on the deck and not out taking a walk.  It’s smooth and rich, not a real heavy smoke like it’s smaller sibling.  It’s sweet and full of flavor and I’m about ready to publish this post right now and just sit and enjoy the rest of the cigar sitting in the sun on a beautiful fall afternoon.  It’s no secret that the majority of the Liga Privada blends suit my palate pretty well, and this is a tasty treat for sure.

 

That’s enough from me, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | September 4, 2013 · 6:24 pm

The Sport of Kings with Kings Cigars, a UF-13 and a Reinado Grand Empire Reserve

OK, it’s time to get back on track! Monday was Labor Day, the last Monday holiday that most of us get off for the year, and the unofficial end of summer. Of course, those of us who are in massive denial will swear to you that September 21st is the end of summer, so there’s still 3 weeks left!  Personally, since August was unseasonably cool, I think we need at least another month of summer! What can I say, I like summer!

Monday my wife, her dad and I went to Delaware Park. I don’t mind dropping a couple buck playing the ponies from time to time, especially when I can enjoy a fine cigar in the process.  I selected a King’s Cigars King of Kings, which is their box pressed, 6” x 60, Habano wrapped beauty that Anwar and Pete said I should let rest for a while as they weren’t quite ready yet.  I figured it had been six or seven weeks since I received the cigars, so it was time to try one.  If you recall, we enjoyed spending some time with the guys from Kings at the IPCPR show, and I really enjoyed the Conde Churchill, which has my favorite San Andreas wrapper.  This cigar has a Habano wrapper, Habano Criollo binder and their proprietary filler blend. I had a heck of a time getting this sucker lit, as it was pretty breezy at the track, and once I finally did get it burning well it started to rain!  It rained off and on while we were there, so we spent a few races sitting in the grandstand under the roof. My main complaint about this cigar, it’s one major failing, was that it failed to discourage a couple with two small crying children from sitting directly behind us.  I don’t understand, since the cigar produced copious amounts of smoke, and there were plenty of empty seats in places where crying children wouldn’t be so much of a bother. It’s not like I walked up and parked myself in front of them with my cigar. A smoke billowing cigar should create a buffer zone around oneself in a place like that! I guess there’s the old fart in me coming out…anyway, great smoke, looking forward to revisiting this in another month or two, and the Barons and Condes remaining in the humidor are calling my name.  Nice smokes, nice guys, have no idea what the price points on these are as I haven’t seen them on any local store shelves. My IPCPR interview with the guys from Kings Cigars is here.

 

 

LigaPrivada_Serie Unico_UF13When I got home I took the dog for a walk with a Drew Estate Liga Privada Serie Unico UF-13 Dark which came back with me from Nicaragua last May. I may be able to confidently state that this is my favorite among the Unico series, I think I like it a little better than the Dirty Rat, however my sample sizes have been pretty small on the other sizes. It’s a happenin smoke, thats for sure. I always seem to lose the fancy fantail when I pull the cigar from the cello, but that’s OK since it’s coming off anyway.  I appreciate the work that goes into these special cap treatments, but it seems a shame since they get lopped off anyway.  Darned yummy friggin cigar!

 

 

Reinado_GER_CGTuesday I grabbed a Reinado Grand Empire Reserve Corona Gorda, which is a new size in the line which was released at the IPCPR show along with the Toro and the Petite Lancero.  This is one of my favorite sizes at 5 5/8” x 46 and punched perfectly with my Screwpop punch.  This dark and oily, rich flavored cigar is described by brand owner Antonio Lam as a flavor bomb, and I couldn’t agree more. I really love the cigars in this line, they really have everything I look for as far as flavor and construction.  I just wish I could get them cheaper!  These are fantastic smokes and if you like the dark side (heavy, dark espresso/cocoa flavors) like I do, seek them out and give them a try. Here’s a video with Antonio from the IPCPR show:

 

 

That’s it for now.  I’m going to hunt down something interesting for tonight’s walk and start getting ready for another weekend!  I would love it if every week was a 3 day weekend and a four day work week.  I have to try to find a situation like that.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

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