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by Craig Vanderslice | November 3, 2024 · 9:29 am

A Special Blackbird Cigar and Some New Macanudos

I had the opportunity to purchase some cigars a few weeks in advance of their release thanks to Tyler Caldwell at Smokingpipes.com. I met Tyler a few years ago at the Stillwell Star release event at Low Country Pipe & Cigars in South Carolina. I hung out with him again at the last PCA show I attended, super nice dude. He had a hand in blending the new Blackbird Cigars Flamingo, which is a Smokingpipes.com exclusive. You may recall that Smokingpipes.com (Low Country is their retail outlet) is owned by Laudisi Enterprises, and recently acquired Caldwell Cigars (Tyler Caldwell/Caldwell Cigars? No relation, but it’s a bit funny!). They have a great shop if you find yourself in the Myrtle Beach area. Anyway, the cigar is called the Flamingo, has a pink band and a really nice hat if you’re a hat guy. I might have to become a hat guy, they are piling up over here. It’s a 7″ x 38 lancero format, has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Connecticut Broadleaf binder, and Broadleaf, Nicaraguan and Dominican in the filler. That’s a lot going on in a Lancero! It’s made in Jonas Santana’s Blackbird factory in the DR. I like Jonas, I like his cigars, this should be a treat. If I had a complaint, it would be that it’s too short! This is a delicious cigar, it’s bold, has some warm, savory spices, and some light floral notes in the background. I smoked a couple of these and really enjoyed them. Smoking time was around an hour and fifteen nimues, and I was careful not to oversmoke it, but it was so darned tasty I might have smoked faster than usual (puffs per hour, not overdrawing). Jump on these when they become available later this month, all parties involved did a great job. Thanks to Tyler for allowing me to purchase cigars early!

I recently received some new Macanudo cigars from the folks at General Cigar Co., and I was excited to try them. The first one that jumped out at me was the Macanudo Emissary España Limited Edition Torpedo. I really thought the Emissary España in the robusto was a great cigar, not at all what one expects from a Macanudo. This cigar has a U.S. Connecticut Broadleaf Claro wrapper, aged 5 years, a Nicaraguan Condega binder, aged 6 years, with Dominican Piloto (aged 5 years), Colombian (aged 5 years), Nicaraguan ASP (aged 6 years), and Havana seed tobacco grown in Riolobos, Spain (aged 10 years). The wrapper is described as Claro, but I thought it was pretty dark, not maduro dark, but not light). The torpedo is 6″ x 52. The Broadleaf is apparent, it’s loaded with cocoa, and I get a citrus tang. It’s a heavy cigar, recommended unless you’re expecting a Macanudo Legacy or Inspirado experience. If you don’t go stronger than than an Inspirado White, this one might be troublesome. Great cigar, I really like it, and want to try it in a Churchill.

The Macanudo Estate Reserve Flint Knoll series has eluded me until the No. 3, which means they didn’t send me No.s 1 and 2. I wouldn’t have gone looking for these, being a non-drinker I don’t hunt down cigar with any liquor associations. I will try them when they are presented to me, but I certainly have no frame of reference for anything alcohol related. These aren’t flavored, of course, but have tobacco that is aged in French Oak barrels that was used for Flint Knoll’s 2021 Royal Appointment Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s offered in a beefy 7″ x 52 double corona they call a “Churchill”. The blend is Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, US Broadleaf binder and Brazilian, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Dominican fillers. I only smoked one sample so far, I had a strange time with it. Flavors were delightful, it had some sweet wood and baking spices. Perhaps this needed to be a little bit dryer, is alternated between producing rich mouthfuls of smoke, to requiring double/triple puffs to get anything. very strange. At some point I’ll dry one down a little and give it a try, from what I could tell it was a delicious, sophisticated, medium bodied cigar. Folks with better palates than I rave about it.

That’s all for today. I have some cool plans for this coming weekend, involving hockey, cigars, a cigar factory and a farm. Guesses can go in the comments, maybe I’ll have a giveaway for a correct answer! Next Sunday’s post may be a little late. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Blackbird, Blackbird Cigar Co., cigar, cigars, Emissary, España, Estate Reserve, Flamingo, Flint Knoll, Low Country Pipe and Cigar, macanudo, SmokingPipes.com

by Craig Vanderslice | November 7, 2021 · 6:46 am

Stillwell Star Release Event at Low Country Pipe and Cigars

Friday was the official release event for the long awaited and anticipated release of Steve Saka’s Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Stillwell Star cigars, a foursome of cigars blended with pipe tobacco. The release was held at Low Country Pipe and Cigar, in Little River, South Carolina, which is owned by the same company that owns Cornell & Diehl, the pipe tobacco company that worked with Steve on the blends of the Stillwell Star cigars. Now we know how a shop in South Carolina and their website, SmokingPipes.com, ended up with the exclusive launch. Of course, an event of this magnitude deserved cigar media coverage, and Bob The Cigar Guy, and his son The Chief, popular Youtubers, were on hand. I popped in from Pennsylvania to provide support on the written word side of things since nobody else seemed to be stepping up 😁 . A little backstory: my wife mentioned this event, and wanting to get away for the weekend, and I need to take vacation days, so I made quick work of arranging the day off. As it turns out, the weather in South Carolina this weekend wasn’t much better than in PA, but it was still a weekend away! So I called Tim at Lake Country and bought two tickets for the event (event packs including four DTT cigars). We got up early Friday morning and drove nine hours to a cigar event, a new personal record. When we walked in I think Steve had a WTF look on his face, and I think Zev Kaminetsky, who is brokering DTT in the south now, was similarly surprised. A few words about the shop. Now, I’m not a pipe guy, too much fiddling around for me, I just want to smoke it and put it down, but this place had a huge selection of pipes and pipe tobacco. I took a stroll through the humidor as well and it was adequately appointed with a nice balance of legacy brands and boutiques. I even saw one brand I was unfamiliar with, and I would have explored that further on a day that wasn’t so busy. But this was a Dunbarton event, and it was about the Stillwell Star.

We were welcomed warmly by the staff, who was friendly and attentive, clearly all the folks working here love what they do and do it well. They had a company on site making pizzas that were really good, $10 for a pie that my wife and I split, I’d say it was a 14″ pie, and they were making tons of them, they had an oven right there in the parking lot. I hardly ever eat at cigar events, but after a 9 hour drive I was ready for dinner, so I ate, and it was good. after 35 years, my wife knows my pizza preferences, so my half had sausage, pepperoni, hamburger and bacon. I like a little meat on my pizza. It was mid-bite when Bob the Cigar Guy came up and introduced himself to me. He’s a hoot. Nice guy, has me confused with someone else. I don’t deserve the praise he heaped upon me, but a likable fellow! I enjoyed talking to him and his son over the course of the event. I picked up one each of the Stillwell blends, because they are pricey and, me not being a pipe smoker I really don’t have a frame of reference for the specific pipe tobacco blends, I just want to sample each one, which I shall do on a fresh palate in the comfort of my home lounge (enclosed porch). I did enjoy a Sin Compromiso and a Mi Querida over the course of the evening, while hanging out in the shop, wandering from conversation to conversation, and listening to Saka educate us all on a number of topics, mostly tobacco related. He also autographed various items. This was a great launch event, in a great shop with a great staff. It’s always fun to hang with Saka. I’m just disappointed Dave Lafferty wasn’t there.

Saturday turned out to be a gloomy, windy day, with weather much like we left behind in PA, so we stopped in to Nick’s Cigar World, which was, conveniently, a short walk from our hotel. This turned out to be a nice cigar bar adjacent to a well stocked shop. The cigars were kept in a labyrinth of counter humidors, arranged alphabetically by brand, more or less. Not really needing anything, I picked up a Fuente Rare Pink Signature and a CAO Cameroon Toro and we hung out in the lounge and enjoyed the afternoon. The staff there was attentive, and it was much like being in any lounge, with patrons watching football and busting balls. The staff was friendly and attentive. It was certainly a very nice experience. The cigar was OK, it wasn’t like the L’Anniversaire I remember from the old CAO days (I still have a tubed Churchill from about ’03 I think), but it was satisfying. Overall we had a nice, lazy day in North Myrtle Beach, despite the weather. Driving home today.