Tag Archives: My Father Cigars

by | June 23, 2024 · 9:47 am

La Union, Cro Magnon, EP Carrillo and JFR Lunatic Cigars

My week started with a really nice Father’s Day with all my kids and grandkids visiting.  My youngest stopped at CigarMojo and asked for a recommendation, and, once again, they sold him a very expensive cigar.  I’m never super happy about him spending his hard earned cash, and part of me feels like the guys at the shop take advantage, but he does make a good point: it’s not something I would buy for myself.  He picked up the new(ish) My Father La Union Black para Tatuaje .This is certainly a cigar that piqued my interest, but there was never any way I was shelling out for it.  I’m a cheap bastard, my sphincter tightens when I look at a cigar over $15. This is a 100% improvement over 12 or so years ago.  So, it being Father’s Day, and having this wonderful gift, I had to smoke it.  The cigar is 7¼” x 50 with a 109 head, the head is slightly tapered and rounded. It has an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan fillers, including Pelo de Oro. I’ve walked through the Pelo de Oro fields, although it’s been 13 years, so probably not the same stuff.  This was blended by the Garcias for Pete Johnson’s palate, I almost expected it to be heavier. It wasn’t.  It had a very delicate, nuanced flavor, started with an interesting mintiness, some woodyness and some spice.  It almost reminded me of a Havana, but loads better.  This was a brilliant cigar, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to try it.  Later I smoked the now 25 year old Esperanza para los Niños, which has held up well!

 

I’d been itching to try the new Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapped variant of the RoMaCraft CroMagnon which came out recently, so I had added a couple of the 4½ x 60 Mandibles on to a recent order.  I haven’t seen these locally, although I haven’t been out shopping much lately. This version uses a Pennsylvania broadleaf wrapper, Sumatra hybrid binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.  The original CroMagnon didn’t have any Dominican leaf in the blend.  I was hoping to try the Cranium (toro) size, but this was what was available.  I thought this was spicier than the original, and it wasn’t for the faint of heart. I thought I got some grilled steak, but that might have been a neighbor cooking.  I’ll be on the look out for other sizes, but this one hit the spot, although I’ll always have a soft spot for the original. 

 

E.P. Carrillo is launching a line called the Essence series, the Sumatra and Maduro should be on shelves, with more wrapper variations on the horizon.  I smoked the Maduro Friday evening on a drive north.  My wife offered to drive the first leg so I could enjoy my cigar. I actually don’t like to smoke while driving my car because it’s a manual and it just isn’t relaxing.  Fortunately, we were in her car.  Ain’t she the greatest?  The E.P. Carirllo Maduro has a San Andrés wrapper, Honduran binder and Nicaraguan fillers. While it’s made in the D.R., note that there is no Dominican leaf.  I couldn’t help but remember my first La Gloria Cubana Maduro back in the ’90s.  This cigar had some spice with espresso and cocoa, it was right up my alley.  Burn and draw were perfect (which is nice in the car) and it smoked for about an hour and a half.  I’m excited to try the Sumatra, and add some more of  the Maduro to my humidor.  

 

Finally, when we got home last night fairly late, I sat down with the newest Firecracker offering from United Cigars.  This year it is the JFR Lunatic Firecracker, Made by Aganorsa Leaf.  I’m hit of miss on the Aganorsa cigars, but the JFR Lunatic is a good one, although I haven’t smoked any of the obscenely large sizes (there’s only a few 60 ring and under).  This has what they are calling a shade grown Corojo maduro wrapper, and I assume Aganorsa Nicaraguan fillers and binder.  It’s 3½” x 50 with the signature “fuse”, which I get rid of right away.  Smoking time was the better part of an hour, which is good for a little guy.  It had that cane sugar sweetness that I like, and was quite tasty, one of the better Firecracker treatments in my mind.  Not that any are bad, this one distinguished itself. Super-tasty and it looks like it might still be available.  Grab some to try if you see them!

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | March 3, 2024 · 9:55 am

My Father, Metapa, and Perdomo 30th Anniversary Cigars

This week I smoked some cigars I bought on recent forays into some of my local cigar spots.  All were new to me, although not necessarily new to the market. This happens, I don’t always jump right on the new stuff, and sometimes I miss out!  Thursday evening I met up with my fellow Craig, and recent contest winner, at Cigar Mojo – The Grove, to  hand deliver his prize.  Shipping is always less expensive than visiting a cigar shop!  I picked up a few cigars, and lit up a My Father The Judge in the 656 Toro size.  This has been around for a while, I just never got around to it. Since Mojo carries a lot of My Father cigars I see myself catching up on them.  I’ll grab something I haven’t tried whenever I stop in.  This is a 6″ x 56 cigar, oddly they call their 6″ x 52 a Toro Fino, which seems like a toro to me. Maybe the 6″ x 56 should be a Toro Gordo and the 52 should just be the Toro?  Not my circus…anyway, this has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, and Nicaraguan binder and fillers, with a nice box press. This got off to a slow start, good, although fairly mediocre.  It built up some sweetness, which I like, of course, and worked out to be a very enjoyable cigar, one I’ll smoke again.  Naturally, the company was exceptional, I always enjoy time with my fellow Craig. We’ll definitely have another Craig cigar summit soon.

 

Friday evening had us attending a middle school theatrical production that one of the granddaughters was in, so I got a late start. I was going to skip a cigar altogether, but I had picked up a Foundation Metapa Corona Gorda at Mojo and it wasn’t that big, so I figured I’d light it up.  Sometimes having a cigar too late gives me sleep issues, not the case this time, although I did get to bed a lot later than usual!  I wanted to smoke a Metapa because these are being rebranded to Aksum, I guess to keep in line with the Tabernacle/Menelik/Ark of the Covenant theme. I’ve heard mixed reviews on this cigar, and maybe it’s the Maduro vs. Claro?  I only had the maduro to chose rom, so that’s what I got, as if anyone would be surprised at that. This is a nice 5½” x 48 with a coil pigtail cap (I know there’s a name for it, just can’t remember it!).  This was the best cigar I had all week.  It started a bit heavy, cloying like licorice, which worried me.  It settled in to a really nice, dense dark chocolate, not much sweetness, the kind with a high cacao percentage. I found this to be quite enjoyable, whatever the name, and I might have to see if I can find the claro version (although I still need to try the Olmec Claro!).  It’s hard for me not to like Foundation Cigars, there seems to be something for everyone.

 

Last week I stopped in The Wooden Indian looking for some new cigars, and picked up some Perdomo 30th Anniversary Epicures in Sungrown and Maduro.  These come with a lot of hype, and my expectations were high.  I’m a big fan of the 20th Anniversary Maduro, probably my favorite Perdomo.  I thought the 10th Anniversary Sungrown was my favorite of that line, which, oddly, only really came out a couple years ago.  The 30th aren’t priced bad, I could see companies asking a higher price for  their anniversary cigars, but Perdomo does things right in this respect.  I admire them for keeping their cigars pried within reason.  I decided that yesterday was going to be Perdomo day, so I started with the Sungrown.  I chose the 6″ x 54 Epicure size because, well, that’s the size I like.  This has a 15-year-old bourbon barrel-aged Cuban-seed Nicaraguan Sun Grown wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and has a nice box press.  I think this one had a patch near the cap on the underside of the cigar, which I find to be unacceptable on a cigar like this, regardless of price.  This, of course, came off and I had to do some wrapper surgery because I don’t care for the mouth feel of a flappy wrapper.  Other than that, the burn and draw were very good, and the cigar had a sweet spice that was nice.  Not blown away, I’ll stick with the 10th Sungrown.

 

I had high hopes for the Perdomo 30th Anniversary Epicure Maduro.  This has the same 15-year-old bourbon barrel-aged Cuban-seed Nicaraguan wrapper processed to a maduro, not overly dark, but dark enough, with a nice oil.  This is a nice looking cigar, again, lods of hype, best Perdomo cigar ever, yada yada…It was a good cigar. It had rich dark roast coffee and cocoa and was very nice.  For me, I find that the 20th Maduro to have more that I enjoy, to be honest. I suppose I was expecting a more refined experience, and maybe my palate just isn’t acute enough to appreciate the subtleties of these cigars. I’m told that the 30th Connecticut is something special.  Given I was never a fan of the Champagne, I actually disliked it ( a rarity), I always pass on the Perdomo Connecticuts. Perhaps I’ll give this one a try, for science.  

 

The folks at Best Cigar Prices posted a  bunch of pictures of the cigarlebrities that will be at their Smoke-onos event in May, but they didn’t ask for my picture.  If you’re there, hunt me down!  Also, keep an eye out for upcoming details about a multi-vendor event at Goose’s Montecristo Lounge in Limerick, PA which will be in the beginning of May.  That’s more than enough for today, until the next time.  

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | April 12, 2015 · 12:55 pm

Orchant Seleccion, My Father Cigars and a Cain F Lancero

Oliva_Orchant Seleccion_ShortyFor the first time in several years I went through the week without worrying about a mid-week post.  Do you know what I did? I worried about it…this is going to take some getting used to!  So Wednesday, instead of writing a post, I smoked a Orchant Seleccion by Oliva Shorty, a 5″ x 50 robusto which is only available in the UK through C.Gars Ltd., and is alleged to be based on the Oliva Serie V blend.  I have now smoked all three vitolas in this line, and I think my favorite is the 4″ x 60 Chubby. I think this is ironic, in that it’s probably the least “British” size , but for me it was the most flavorful of the bunch.  Now, one caveat: I’ve had something going on where I’m getting a bit of an odd metallic flavor no matter what cigar I seem to pick up, and It may well have something to do with trying a new toothpaste (it should be called “teethpaste”, shouldn’t it? there’s a joke in there somewhere, but I don’t want to offend my readers in West Virgina). This might have caused the problem, and I’ve had similar things happen before. Fortunately, I understand that the problem is with me, and not the cigars. Back to the Orchant Seleccion by Oliva, these are tasty, and if you’re in the UK and can get to one of Mitchell Orchant’s retail locations (I hear they deliver in London too), give these a try. These are a great “new world” option for those looking for a change of pace from the typical UK diet of Havana cigars.  Thanks to Mitchell for sharing these tasty buggers with me.

 

11046704_1829390583739701_3906437041710664562_nThursday evening my wife and I went to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia to take in one of the last Flyers games of the season.  We got some great lower level seats for a good price, and watched another loss against a team that was also out of the play off race. Hoe a team can dominate teams that are above them in the standings, and suck against teams below is a mystery I suppose we will never have an answer to.  Anyway, as you’ve read here before, the Wells Fargo Center has a cigar bar where we watched the last 5 minutes of the game in a nice leather chair and a My Father Le Bijou 1922 Petite Robusto. On these occasions, I like to select a cigar that is just about long enough for the traffic to exit the parking lot, but not so long as to run into the traffic exiting the Phillies game traffic from the adjoining venue. This was just such a cigar, my first of this line, and I look forward to smoking it again. The Habano Oscuro wrapper was dark and oily and quite tasty. The cigar started with the signature Pepin Garcia spice and smoothed out into a rich, yet full strength smoke.  Of course, as always, I stopped on the way out to say hello to the great Bernie Parent, a fixture in the cigar bar there during home games. He was smoking his BSB by Rocky Patel, of course, and was joking around with fans like he normally does. Great cigar, nice time in the lounge, kind of a lack-luster game, but lots of fun.

 

imageSaturday we had the memorial service for my father, which was held at the church where he had been the choir director for 33 years. He had also been a high school vocal music director and adviser for 30 years, so he had a significant impact on the community. It was humbling to hear the outpouring of appreciation for his efforts. I can only hope to accomplish a fraction of what he accomplished in his lifetime during mine.  It was nice to see family that I haven’t seen in many years, it’s a shame that it takes occasions such as these to bring people together. When I got home, Macha and I took a nice long walk with a favorite cigar of mine, the Cain F Tubed Lancero. Frequently ligero is left out of the lancero vitola, it’s a thicker leaf, it burns slower than other primings, and causes more problems in that narrow format. In the Cain F case, the cigar is mostly ligero, and for some reason it’s  just about the smoothest, most well-balanced Cain cigar I’ve come across. the burn was perfect, the draw was perfect, and it is very flavorful, and switching teethpaste helped considerably as the flavors were what I expected with only a little of the metallic twinge that I was dealing with all week. These are hard to find, but generally well priced at between $6 and $7 each, and are well worth it. One small gripe about the Oliva website, they seem to ignore the Can and Nub lines on the main site, not even linking to the Studio Tobac site where the Cain and Nub info resides. Again, companies make it hard to find info, where they could very easily make it simple. I happen to really like the Cain line-up, but this Lancero is the best of the bunch.

 

Please take a moment to visit some of our new (and not so new) site supporters by clicking on their graphics on the right and left sides of the page. Our latest additions are GetTheSmokeOut.com, GlobalCornerCafe.com, ItalianSmokes.com and ThompsonCigar.com.  Of course I’d like to thank these latest supporters, as well as the rest of my loyal and long-time supporters. All of these companies help me do what I do, and I appreciate their confidence and assistance. I make it  point of only advertising for companies I like and respect, so they all have my stamp of approval for whatever that’s worth!

 

It’s a beautiful day, finally, so I need to go try to get some things done in the yard that I’ve been unable to do due to the weather, so I’ll keep an eye out for something interesting to fill the mid-week void. Feel free to follow me on Instagram, Twitter of Facebook to catch my daily smoking ritual.  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | November 16, 2014 · 9:26 am

A Hand Rolled Cigar, a Chillin Moose, and a La Antigudad

First a couple housekeeping items!  I sent Tim his prize from  the ScrewPop contest yesterday, but I haven’t heard from Jeff Ketcham yet!  Jeff was a prize winner in the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways in 2011 and 2012, so I probably have an address someplace, but I hate to ship without verifying addresses.  I suppose I’ll drop him a note if I don’t hear from him soon. I sure hate having to chase people :-).  Speaking of the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways, it’s on pace to commence on December 12, and if I had to start today I could pull off a 8 Crazy Days of Cigar Giveaways (don’t think it hasn’t crossed my mind, 12 days is a long stretch at an already busy time of year!) thanks to the generosity and expedience of several of this year’s sponsors!  The prize coolerdor is filling up and it’s likely to be another exciting couple of weeks!  If you aren’t already, subscribe to the e-mail list (on the left sidebar) so you get a reminder when I update, which in the case of the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways will be daily!  So get ready to join in the fun, I already have some great cigars lined up.

 

HandRolledCigars_2GuysThursday evening called for a short smoke.  Last year when we went up to New Hampshire for a weekend we paid a visit to 2 Guys Smokeshop in Nashua to spend some time with David and Mr. Jonathan and I picked up a couple of David’s Hand Rolled Cigars that he had for Halloween.  As you can see in the picture, this is about a 4″ x 50ish cigar wrapped in a paper wrapper similar to a Tootsie Roll candy wrapper made at the Camacho factory.  I cant find any information on this cigar as it was a limited release, but  remember them coming in jars. I think it’s a risky play packaging cigars to look like candy in this day and age, but I understand that it’s Dave’s bit of a middle finger to the nannies.  Anyway, the cigar was pretty good, nothing really memorable or outstanding, just a nice, solid half hour smoke that behaved itself and was satisfying. I’m still stuck on using the Screwpop punch, which worked very well on this cigar (and the rest of the cigars I smoked this week, so I don’t have to repeat myself!)  I have one left from last year, but I kinda wished I had bought more, as I can see that it would be fun to have a pocket full of these to share, perhaps on Halloween night while the dad’s are walking around with their kids. I’m sure that’s politically incorrect, but the heck with it!

 

ChillinMoose_CoronaFriday evening I wanted another shorter smoke, so I went with a Chillin’ Moose Corona from Foundry Tobacco.  This is a budget cigar, comes in under $3.00 here in PA and is from the mind of Michael Giannini. I like the size of this corona, 5 ½” x 45, and features a  blend of Nicaraguan, Dominican, US Broadleaf, and Mexican San Andres tobacco with an Ecuador Sumatra binder and a Connecticut Habano Rosado wrapper.  That’s an impressive list of tobacco for a very inexpensive cigar.  It is a very good cigar for the money, but, once again, it’s not particularly interesting, but it served its propose in being a good companion on my evening walk and giving me some entertainment. I’m a moose fan from way back so the packaging appeals to me, it’s a Chillin’ Moose! I also am a fan of the Foundry line in general, I enjoy the innovation and know I’m in for something unique and different when I light up a Foundry cigar.

 

LaAntiquidad_ToroSaturday after a nice steak dinner out with my wife, I came home to a La Antiqudad from My Father Cigars. This one was the Toro size, which is 5.6″ x 55, which is very close to the  size of the Robusto in that line, which is 5.2″ x 52.  This is a box pressed cigar with an Ecuador Habano Rosado wrapper surrounding a double binder of Nicaraguan Criollo and Corojo and Nicaraguan fillers from Esteli, Condega and Jalapa.  I really enjoyed the rich,  thick flavors that this cigar started out with. It had the “Pepin” spice to start out that seems to be a hallmark, and mellowed out about half way though. The burn was perfect, with one exception. At one point I noticed it flattened out in the flavor department, and the wrapper had stopped burning. I relit it and the flavor came right back, which tell you how much the wrapper contributes to the flavor. Good cigar, I’m glad I have a robusto in the humidor for another time. One other thing about this cigar is the band, which is absolutely beautiful and classic.

 

That’s it for today. Off to the new house to cut down some more shrubbery to make way for a fence that’s going in on Wednesday.  Good fences make good neighbors and Macha need a safe place to run around when we aren’t taking our walks!  So until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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