The first day of IPCPR exhibition is over and I wanted to bring you a video interview I did with Steve Saka, president of Drew Estate. Steve talks about their latest product offerings. Enjoy the video!
Again, this is raw video straight from the camera (I’m using an Ipod Touch this time around for interviews. It’s much better than last year’s batch of videos, don’t you think?).
Time to go take a hot shower. <snicker>
More to come.
CigarCraig
Friday evening I decided the time had come for a La Aurora Preferidos No.2 that has been knocking around my humidors for years. I’m going to assume this was a Corojo wrapper, as it certainly wasn’t maduro or Connecticut, and it sure didn’t taste like Cameroon. On side note: on the La Aurora website they either have the Maduro No.2 pictured incorrectly, or the Maduro No.1 labelled incorrectly – Barry: get on that, would you bro!) This cigar is a handsome 5″ x 54 perfecto, really quite a unique shape these days, although it used to be the standard, what cigars looked like 100 years ago. As you can see from the picture, this poor cigar had a couple chips in the wrapper, no doubt from so many years rolling around naked in various humidors over the last 5 or 10 years, I honestly can’t remember how long. This cigar burned perfectly, the draw and smoke were perfect, and it had that smoothness and refinement of flavor that years of age bring. I saved this cigar for a special occasion for so long, I finally decided it was time and went for it. Glad I did, because it was a terrific experience.
Earlier in the week I received a message from Dave, the owner of the Wooden Indian Tobacco Shop in Havertown, PA letting me in on the fact that Gary Griffith and Nathan McIntyre of Emilio Cigars would be visiting Saturday at 9am. Of course, my initial response was something like “9:00 on a Saturday morning?” But I sucked it up, threw on some clothes, and drove out to have a rare morning cigar. When I arrived, the guys were all in the spacious walk-in humidor looking at the selection of Emilio cigars. As I had yet to try the AF Suave, I picked up a handful of corona on Nathan’s recommendation, headed to the cash register, and fired one up. What a tasty cigar, perfect for the morning, although it would certainly be satisfying any time of day. Another winner from the Emilio stable. It was great meeting Nate finally, always a pleasure spending time with Gary, and seeing Alan Price, Emilio rep, CRA ambassador and all-around good guy was an added bonus. As always, Dave and his staff at the Indian are always exceptional and entertaining. If you ever find yourself in the Philadelphia area and want a great selection as well as a very comfortable Liga Privada Lounge (the first!), head west on Market street and find the shop, you won’t be sorry. I wrapped up the day with an Emilio AF1 Toro, which was just delicious and may be my favorite in the line.
What am I going to do in a few weeks when I don’t have a Sunday contest to post? We’ll, I suppose I’ll be at Disneyworld with my wife, and then getting IPCPR stuff ready for you after a short travel break. Anyway, there’s still time to enter the Hoyo de Monterrey Box-a-day give-away at HoyodeMonterreyCigar.com, and I have another pair of Reposados en Cedros 3-packs to give away to a lucky reader who leaves a comment here and send me his (or her) address after the winner is announced on Wednesday. The latter part is critical! My last two winners, Allen and Joel, were very prompt and their packages are on their way. Let the games begin!
That’s it for now, until the next time,
CigarCraig
For the third year in a row my wife and sons and I were invited on a three hour New York City dinner cruise hosted by our dear friend Mitchell Orchant and his wife and daughter, along with Guy Hancock. Mitchell and Guy are international cigar merchants and host this party 
for their friends and customers. The venue was the Cabana, a Marco Polo Cruises boat out of the New York Sky Ports marina. We were able to board about an hour early, which was great since we had left home plenty early to avoid traffic and delays. We were each given really cool goodie bags with a couple cigars, some candies, little bottles of whiskey, cutters, matches, a lighter, all sorts of terrific stuff. There ended up being over 90 invited guests, and the boat had plenty of room on two decks. My sons both lit up the Grafton Reserva corona from their gift bags, which is a house brand for the Decent Cigar Emporium in Dublin, Ireland. This is made for them in the Dominican Republic and the boys enjoyed it and reported that it was a nice, mild smoke. I lit up a Room 101 Connecticut that I had gotten at the event I attended several weeks ago. 
The Room 101 Connecticut is a very nice cigar, rich and flavorful with a perfect draw. After we set out to cruise the East River, and we finished our first cigars, sushi was being served and a jazz combo was playing on the lower deck. A lavish buffet was set out with salad, chicken, eggplant and manicotti, everything one could want. Once again, Mitchell outdid himself and pulled off a fabulous evening. After dinner my son, Corey, and I lit up some special cigars that we brought back from Cigar Safari last year, Liga Privada Dirty Rats in a 7″ x 44 size. The additional length seemed to mellow the blend a little and it was a fantastic smoke, loads of flavor and the extra two inches really added to the cigar. My son Christian enjoyed an Acid Kuba Kuba. The weather, which was threatening, held off and it ended up being a really nice night, kudos to the captain for steering around what little rain there was. Of course, the views of the city from the river are spectacular. The new Freedom Tower is stunning and we got good views of the Statue of Liberty as well as the East River bridges. We saw some old friends, and met some new ones, as usually happens at these sorts of events. We always enjoy getting together with Mitchell of C.Gars Ltd. and his family, and thank him once again for including us. Thanks, as well to Guy of The Decent Cigar Emporium for also being a gracious host. All great folks whom I’m proud to call friends.
Mitchell was kind enough to provide me with an autographed copy of his book, “Once Upon a Time in Cuba” to give away to a lucky reader. Don’t worry, it’s mostly pictures! I’ll throw in some assorted goodies along with the book as well. Usual rules apply, leave a comment to enter, if you’ve won in the past six months you’re ineligible (excluding the Christmas Giveaways). I’ll close the contest and announce the winner on my Sunday, June 10, 2012 post. Many thanks to Mitchell at C.Gars Ltd. for providing these goodies.
See below for some pictures from the evening’s festivities.
That’s about it for now, until the next time,
CigarCraig
Sunday was a beautiful day, and we had plans to attend our grand-daughter’s first birthday party at my daughter’s house. After I finished publishing Sunday’s installment, I had just enough time to relax in the sunshine with a cigar. This was one of those circumstances where the cigar selection is very important, too large a cigar and there’s not enough time to finish. Fortunately, I had picked up a couple small Room 101 Namakubis a few weeks back at an event at one of the local shops. I selected the Roxxo for the morning smoke and it was terrific. It’s a 4″ x 48 stubby robusto, made in the Camacho factory, a Ecuador Habano wrapper around Honduran and Dominican fillers. Such a great size for an hour in the sunshine on a Sunday morning with a cuppa joe. It had just the right balance of spice and sweetness. Really a nice little cigar, I think I liked it better than it’s little bro, the Papi Chulo. Two thumbs up.
Monday was actually my grand-daughter’s birthday, and we had such fun watching her at her party digging into her cake! You may recall, a year ago I celebrated her birth at the Wooden Indian in the town where my daughter lives with Guillermo Leon himself. I had picked up a couple of his Guillermo Leon Signature Corona Gordas and decided that it would be the perfect cigar to mark the occasion. A year of age hasn’t hurt this particular example, it was a tasty smoke. I love the 6″ x 47 size of these and it burned very nicely. While I don’t generally gravitate toward the flavor profile that comes out of the La Aurora factory, I certainly need to re-think that, because I’m enjoying more and more cigars that come from there, and have always had a soft spot for them. It goes back to my first box of cigars being La Aurora Bristol Especiales, purchased largely because my daughter’s name is Aurora. I will always try cigars from La Aurora based on that small fact, and I’ll always find something to enjoy about the experience. Always well made, and the Guillermo Leon Signature will forever remind me of the day my first grand child was born.
Tuesday evening turned out to be a nice, warm spring evening, so I felt like digging into my dwindling supply of Liga Privada cigars, and came up with a T52 Robusto. I probably purchased this at an event a few years ago, so it was not without a bit of age. I love it when a cigar is perfectly flat when you tap off the ash. It’s a testament to the blender that he can select tobaccos that all burn at the same rate. Astounding. really, after having seen how differently various leaves burn. Some leaves burn up almost immediately upon being lit (seco leaves) and others (ligero) smolder and barely burn at all. It’s truly a miracle. Anyway, I’m always impressed with a Liga Privada, and the T52 is no different. One of the few cigars I’ll spend $10+ dollars on, and I don’t do it often. An hour and a half or so of satisfying relaxation in robusto form!
That’s all I have for now. Don’t forget to get on over and sign the Whitehouse Petition, if you haven’t already, and keep pestering your elected officials to keep the FDA out of our humidors!
Until the next time,
CigarCraig
Filed under Review
I have to go back to last Thursday when I smoked a lovely little cigar, the La Palina El Diario KB. This is a pretty little petite corona, 4½”x40 with a Honduran Corojo wrapper and Nicaraguan Corojo and Criollo filler, and a double Honduran Criollo binder. I only had about 45 minutes until the hockey game was coming on so I selected this cigar, which I received from the company as a sample. It’s a tasty cigar, many cigars from the Raices Cubana factory are, and it’s maybe a little stronger than its line-mates due to its diminutive size. It was perfect for two laps around the neighborhood, and finished up just after the puck dropped. It’s a really nice little cigar, but I have trouble with the price tag, which is $35 for a 4 pack. It’s a pricey little smoke, however the rest of the line I consider pricey as well. For me it’s not a daily smoke, but the line is delicious and refined and a very good special cigar.
Friday night I decided to treat myself, and selected an original Liga Privada No. 9 from March, 2007. This had a pre-oroduction band with Saka’s name on it as these were originally rolled as his personal cigar. This was given to me by a former member of the staff at the time. I initially thought that it’s time had passed, it was off to a slow start. After about an inch it kicked in, producing the lush, savory flavors that one would expect. It had a perfect burn and I wasn’t going to put it down. I finally did when it reached the half-inch mark and was too small to hold any more. The Liga Privada series remains a favorite special cigar, one I don’t smoke often, and one of the few I will pay the high price for (although not frequently). I actually did see some Feral Flying Pigs in the shop I mentioned a few posts ago, but couldn’t talk myself into paying the $15+ price tag.
Sunday my wife and I took a ride to Atlantic City in a vain attempt to win a bunch of money. While there we came across a Cigar themed slot machine, and I’ve NEVER played a $2 slot before, but I had to, ya know? I put my $20 in the slot, and within a few pulls I was actually up $22. Normally I would cash that out and walk, but I let it ride, right down to $0. Oh well, the machine was in a smoking section, so I managed to enjoy a wonderful CAO OSA Sol Lot 50. Nice, bright flavors, a really smooth and tasty smoke. Well behaved, I only dropped ash on the floor a few times! When we got home we found that the power was out in the neighborhood, so I sat on the front porch until it got dark smoking a cousin to the OSA, a La Gloria Cubana Retro Especial Cubano. Nice, big cigar, similar to the CAO in that it’s medium bodied and bright. I love both cigars for different reasons. The power came back on around 4:30 am, so it was out for around 12 hours.
If you read my last post about the IPCPR‘s Internet Media Membership, you will see that there were a ton of great comments from my fellow “new media” types, as well as a response from Bill Spann, CEO of the IPCPR asking for a proposal and promising to re-think their current policy. I plan on bouncing this off of the Internet Media Members to see where improvements can be made. I suppose we can call this group Brothers Of The Online Media, or BOTOM. :-).
Until the next time,
CigarCraig
