Tag Archives: Neanderthal

by Craig Vanderslice | October 29, 2023 · 10:27 am

A Powstanie Wojtek and a Few RoMaCraft Cigars

It’s been a difficult week for me for some reason, physically and mentally. Among other things, our coffee maker crapped out, then the replacement arrived broken, so that added to the general malaise I’ve been feeling. This time of year bugs me. Fortunately, through the kindness of a dear reader, I have been provided with some solace in the form of some new-to-me cigars for me to enjoy and write about. I need to refrain from mentioning that I’m running out of material, it reeks of mooching. Mitch was very generous and shared some of his favorites with me, it’s not the first time I’ve been the recipient of his generosity, he was my Secret Santa last year (do we want to do that again this year?), and went over the top. There were a few cigars that were on a list I had made of cigars I wanted to try, first among them was this year’s Powstanie War Bear, or Wojtek, in a 5¾” x 46 box pressed corona gorda shape. The War Bear is a Habano/San Andrés barber pole wrapped cigar, although both wrappers are on the dark side and it’s hard to tell it’s a dos capos cigar without really looking closely at it. It’s made at Nica Sueno, which will be a theme of today’s post. This starts off with a kick, and settled into a chocolaty spice. I’ve had previous Warbears, I think it was a perfecto, and I didn’t like it as much as I liked this one, it was really good.

The next one that was on my to-try list was the RoMaCraft Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 in the Noble Experiment size. This is another box press, this time a 5″ x 56 robusto. Oddly, I’m a big fan of the Intemperance EC XVIII, I’ve smoked a ton of the Virtue size. The Volstead is interesting in that it uses an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper that is genetically similar to a Cameroon leaf, which is different, over a San Andrés binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. I’m going to just say “wow” about this cigar. It’s a really tasty cigar. I got some creamy coffee, a little nuttiness and cinnamon, and around the halfway point there were some neat exotic spice flavors that I couldn’t put a finger on. This was a fascinating cigar, and will be a buy the next time I see them in a shop. While I’m thinking about this, please do me a favor, if you happen to shop at JRs or Cigars.com, please click through the links on the left side of my page when you make a purchase. Someone was kind enough to make a large purchase, but it’s $.05 under the amount needed to cash out the commission! Don’t go out of your way or anything, but it would help me out! Anyway, the Volstead is probably the best new cigar I’ve smoked in a long time, it was really good.

Yesterday I should have gone to Best Cigar Pub to meet up with the folks from The Cigar Hacks podcast and Mike Weinstein, but it was another one of those situations where I couldn’t mentally or physically handle driving an hour and a half each way, I just wanted to sit at home and spent time alone. It was 80 degrees on the last weekend in October here, and while I regret missing the opportunity to Visit BCP and see the Hacks and finally meet Mike face to face, I’ll get around to it when I break out of my funk. The Intemperance BA XXI Contempt I smoked while watching a Flyers losing effort helped. This is another corona gorda, I believe it was from the 2022 El Catador de Las Gran Coronas, and is 5¾” x 46. I call it a Corona Gorda, they call it a Gran Corona, I think the difference is an eighth of an inch. Either are a great size, one of my favorites behind the Toro and Churchill. Earlier when I said I was a big fan of the Intemperance EC XVIII, that happened a bit by accident. I had my sights set on a box of the BA Avarice size and the box was damaged, so I grabbed another box blindly and when I got home I realized it was the EC. Not at all disappointed, although I would have been happy either way. The BA stands for Brazilian Arapiraca, which is the wrapper, of course, and I’m pretty sure the rest is Nicaraguan. This is a chocolaty cigar with a hint of a citrus tang. It was super-good even though the game, and my mood, were not.

My last cigar of the day yesterday was a Neanderthal HoxD, which is a cigar I’ve had before, but is always a treat. I got to this later than usual, so a small cigar fit in nicely, this is 4″ x 46 with a flat cap. These give me a chance to use my Adorini punch, with a 13mm punch that makes a large opening. This blend has all my favorites, a San Andrés wrapper, Broadleaf binder and Dominican, Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania fillers. Mitch tells me that this is his favorite morning with coffee cigar, which gives me an insight into his psyche. I can immediately tell he’s someone who craves flavor, perhaps enjoys a good hot sauce, probably on everything. No judgement. This 4″ cigar burned for an hour. This is a nutty/leathery cigar with some sweet earth and coffee. It’s delicious, and it’s strong. I taste the Pennsylvania ligero, but I’m born and raised here in PA. I’m not going to say it contributed to my having a restless night sleep, but it might have. Great cigar, and a big thank you to Mitch for sharing these four cigars with me. Look forward to seeing what else he shared next week.

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

CigarCraig

Comments Off on A Powstanie Wojtek and a Few RoMaCraft Cigars

Filed under Review

Tagged as 1920, BA XXI, cigar, cigars, HoxD, Intemperance, Neanderthal, Powstanie, RoMaCraft, Volstead, War Bear, Warbear, Wojtek

by Craig Vanderslice | December 26, 2021 · 10:35 am

A Neanderthal, a Diamond Crown and Boxing Day Cigars?

It’s the day after Christmas, so I don’t have a great deal to write about, since the last few days have been busy with family and the whole build up to the holiday and all. I have just been smoking good cigars, and whatnot. I started off the long weekend with a Paladin de Saka after a private discussion amongst some bloggers about how this yet to be released cigar might end up on the Halfwheel Consensus. A little insider info for you there. I toyed with the idea of doing a top whatever list myself, just to see if I make the consensus again, but it would be a vanity project, and I think I’ll just discuss my favorites of the year in a different way. There were some new cigars that impressed me, and I want to give credit where credit is due, but my ego doesn’t need to be stroked. One of the cigars I treated myself to was a Christmas Eve Romacraft Neanderthal Gran Perfecto. I had purchased a collection of Gran Perfectos from Son’s Cigars a while ago and have been working my way through them. I have to say, the Whiskey Rebellion has been my least favorite, there’s something I don’t like about it. Of course, the Cromagnon was excellent, as was the Neanderthal. This format, the 5 5/8″ x 60 perfecto, changes the flavors ever so slightly. In the cases of the latter two, the flavors seemed stronger, or more focused, which makes sense considering the tapered format. I’m a fan of the brand, of course, I’ve known Skip and Mike for over a decade, they are one of the brands that I’ve purchased 99% of the cigars of theirs that I’ve smoked!

Christmas day, after all the kids and grandkids have gone and our big brunch was cleaned up, I hit the porch with a Diamond Crown No. 7. It has been my tradition over the years to smoke a classic cigar on Christmas day, usually something Fuente or Padron, something I love that I can just enjoy. This is such a cigar and brings with it a lot of memories. I always think of a cigar party in Vegas in 1998 when I smoked a Diamond Crown for the first time. My wife smoked one too, and Saka was there as well as a few other folks I’m still in touch with (Ed Sullivan of The Cigar Authority and The Ashholes podasts, for instance). It’s a quintessential Connecticut shade cigar, mild, bready, a hint of sweetness, and just an all around pleasant cigar. When they came out in the mid-90s, available only west of the Mississippi, oddly, enough, they were absurdly large 54 ring gauge. This pyramid is a 6 ¾” x 54, and manufactured at Tabacalera Fuente. My preference is generally for the maduro, or the Maximus, but the original version is always a treat for me.

Today is Boxing Day in the British Commonwealth countries, and I don’t quite know the intricacies of that holiday, but I know it doesn’t have anything to do with pugilism. There goes my plans to watch Rocky movies all day. That saves me hours of going frame by frame looking for myself in the fight scene in Rocky 5 (we were extras ringside). Anyway, whatever Boxing Day is, for me it’ll mean finding a box of cigars and taking a cigar out and smoking it, maybe doing it more than once. It’s supposed to be a nice day too. I’m certainly not going shopping. Anyway, I only mentioned Boxing Day because I couldn’t think of anything else. Didn’t Rocky Patel make a cigar for a boxer? So, that’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

Comments Off on A Neanderthal, a Diamond Crown and Boxing Day Cigars?

Filed under Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Diamond Crown, J.C.Newman, Neanderthal, RoMaCraft

by CigarCraig | December 31, 2016 · 10:38 am

CigarCraig’s Top Five Memorable Cigars of 2016 and A Contest Winner!

Happy New Year to everyone and thanks for another great year at CigarCraig.com. If you all keep reading, I’ll keep writing! Heck, I’d probably be writing this if nobody was reading. I’m posting on a Saturday instead of Sunday for a couple reasons, mostly because I don’t feel like getting up early tomorrow to post something when nobody will be around to read it, and I slacked off and missed my Wednesday post, it happens. So I figured I wrap up the year with some of the cigars that were memorable to me this year, and my criteria was simple, the cigar, no matter how many I smoked, made a positive impression on me to the point where I really want to smoke more of the cigar. These are presented in no particular order, and I know this keeps me off of Halfwheel’s annual conglomerate list, but so be it, why break the streak?

Maya Selva Flor de Selva Grand Pressé Box Pressed Toro. This really shouldn’t be included as it was an IPCPR sample smoked on the show floor, and I typically think this is a bad place to properly evaluate a cigar. However, my approach was that I only smoked one cigar on the show floor all day, and I practically did smoke this all day. I would let the cigar go out while talking to someone, and relight it and it was still amazing. This was a brand that I had heard of but not tried, and was very impressed. Sadly, I don’t see these around the stores here, but I have to hunt some down. I know this is only based on one example, but it was memorable and fits my criteria!

RoMa Craft Neanderthal HN. Technically I smoked this cigar at the end of last year, but since I smoked it’s little brother, the Shallow Gene Pool, later in the year I’m going to mark it down as Memorable. I really did love the candela wrapped Fomarian , and smoked more of those this year than the Neanderthal, the Neanderthal stuck out in my mind as memorable. It had some strength, but most of all the flavor was exceptional and left a definite impression. The pricetag keeps it out of this cheap bastid’s rotation, but it competes favorably with other cigars at similar prices, such as a Padron 94 Exclusivo or similar. Bottom line is, there aren’t a whole lot of cigars I’d pay $12 for, but the Neanderthal is one of them.

It should be fairly common knowledge by now that Steve Saka and I go way back and I consider Steve a friend. Actually, in March it will be 20 years since Steve and I met face to face. So if that puts a bias on my inclusion of the Mi Querida Gordito (as well as the rest of the sizes) in this list, so be it. It could be argued that knowing Steve shaped my palate and preferences, and if that’s the case than I’m pretty lucky. I first smoke the Mi Querida Ancho Larga (toro) at the IPCPR show at the insistence of Stace Berkland, who was working in the Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust booth, and my initial impression was good, but that age would benefit the cigar, which might have been construed as saying I didn’t like it, which wasn’t the case at all. I’ve smoked several sizes in the line now, the Ancho Corto (robusto), the Muy Gordo Grande and the Gordito, which I am listing here as the most memorable. Hey, I love them all, they are exactly my style of cigar, I like the mellowness of the Muy Gordo Grande, but the punch that the little 4″ x 48 Gordito has really made an impression. I was going to include the Sobremesa Elegentes en Cedros in my list, as I found it to be an awesome cigar, with a slight edge on the also awesome Short Churchill, but I didn’t want to appear totally biased! Unfortunately the Mi Querida Gordito size might be hard to find as I think it’s fairly limited.

I’ve developed an affinity for milder, more complex and sophisticated cigars lately, and one new one that I find myself going to frequently is from Cornelius and Anthony, and is the Cornelius. This is a cigar that’s made at the El Titan de Bronze factory in Miami, and is just a really tasty cigar with a lot of subtlety and class. I’ve smoked several of the sizes and think the toro suits me best, although the corona gorda certainly has a lot going for it if you want a little bit of an edge to the flavor. The Cornelius and Anthony Daddy Mac is a great smoke as well, but not nearly as memorable as the Cornelius. It’s another cigar in the over $10 range that I think is worthwhile. I put it in the same category as the Sobremesa, Davidoff, or some of the Havanas, it’s “clean” and delicious. There are some times that I chose to smoke this cigar that I remember fondly.

Finally, the cigar that was most memorable for me this year. I was tempted to number this list because I knew this was number one, but really couldn’t assign numbers to two through five. At the time I said about this cigar “This was the best cigar I’ve smoked in recent memory” and I stand by that. Of course, the cigar Im referring to was the Fratello Bianco The Boxer. This is a box pressed torpedo, with San Andrés Negro wrapper, binder from the Dominican Republic, and the fillers are Nicaraguan, Pennsylvanian and Peruvian. I dig the Bianco blend, and this tweaked version was just off the charts in flavor, and again, hit my particular flavor preference on the nose. Friggin yummy. Omar de Frias made news this year by quitting his day job at NASA to concentrate on the Fratello brand, a bold move given the whole FDA nonsense. What an amazing cigar.

That’s five, right? There were a lot of runners up, the Hoyo La Amistad, the Foundation Tabernacle, the Foundry Time Flies, Leccia Des Nudos (it should have been in the top five…so close). There were a lot to choose from but these were the most memorable.

Contest Winner!

The last contest of the year was some great stuff from General Cigar Company. We had a Flathead sign, a nice Macanudo Colibri cutter, some La Gloria Cubana scissors and a Punch bobble head. Maybe I should have included a cigar from each brand from my humidors in the contest, because that’s what I intend to include. Many people who have won my contests before can tell you that things often fall into the box when I’m packing it up (has anyone seen my keys?). The FDA says that manufacturers cant give away cigars for free, but they don’t have any say over my personal collection and what I do with it! The winner of the last contest of 2016 is Timmc71. Please send me your info so I can get these goodies out to you!

That’s all for today! Happy New Year again, and here’s to a successful 2017!

CigarCraig

11 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as Bianco, CAO, cigar, cigars, Cornelius & Anthony, Flor de Selva, Fratello, general cigars, La Gloria Cubana, macanudo, Maya Selva, Mi Querida, Neanderthal, punch, RoMaCraft

by CigarCraig | April 17, 2016 · 7:40 am

Avo Syncro, RoMaCraft Cigars at SMoKE Manayunk and a Tatuaje

There are so many cigars out there, it’s really hard to smoke them all, yet I keep trying! I’ve smoked the Avo Syncro Nicaraguan in the Short Robusto and Toro size and, like many Avo cigars, I found them enjoyable, but isn’t really get what the hype was. Perfectly good cigars, but nothing particularly special to me (I really liked the XO though). A couple of weeks ago my friends at Famous Smoke Shop send me some of the Avo Syncro Nicaraguan and I was excited as I really want to like these and appreciate the opportunity to try them in another size. The robusto is a box pressed 5″x 50, with a milk chocolate-brown wrapper, which is actually Ecuador Connecticut, and it has some Nicaraguan Ometepe, Dominican and Peruvian fillers. It’s a solid smoke, medium bodied with some balanced and interesting flavors. So far, this might be my favorite in the bunch, it’s got a little sweet, and a little spice, quite entertaining. I may try to sneak another one of these in today, the Short Robusto might fit my walk today from the Philadelphia Art Museum to the Kimmel Center for the Philly Pops concert. Thanks, once again, to Cory at Famous Smoke Shop for sharing the Avo Syncro Robusto with me.

Friday evening we went down to SMoKE Manayunk to visit with Skip and Mike of RoMaCraft Tobac as they have been on a tour of Philadelphia cheesesteak purveyors and have been taking breaks to have cigar events. First, a little about SMoKE and Manayunk. Manayunk is a very hip main street area in Philadelphia, with loads of bars and restaurants, so there were a ton of younger 20-something folks around, and it was pretty impressive how many came in to hang out and smoke cigars. SMoKE is BYOB, so many people brought in their own beer, wine or liquor and they have refrigerators behind the bar. Kosta is the owner, and has a very good staff headed up by Spencer McGuire, who recently left his post as brand manager of Emilio Cigars. The staff is attentive, constantly emptying ashtrays and seeing to the customer’s needs, as well as helping people in the large and well stocked humidor. The lounge is 3000 square feet, has a very industrial, distressed feel to the decor, and is welcoming and comfortable. The only downside is the parking. I found out the hard way that on street parking can cost $26 if you exceed the 1 hour limit, which I guess I was supposed to know without signing close by (oddly, the “Parking Enforcement” vehicle was parked a car ahead of me and was there longer than I was…I hate double standards!). So the $10 lot nearby would have been a better deal it turns out. It was starting to get crowded when we left, which is pretty cool for a cigar lounge.

So I perused the selection of RoMaCraft cigars they had, and settled on a couple of the Candela Fomorians (I spelled that wrong elswhere), a Neanderthal Shallow Gene Pool, and a couple of CroMagnon Atlatl lanceros, since I like lanceros and Kosta has probably the best selection of that vitola in the area, so when in Rome…anyway, I lit up a Fomorian (along with Mike and Skip) and proceeded to hang out. I’ve known these guys since 2011, which is about when they launched the CroMagnon line, and they make some outstanding cigars. The Fomorian is the CroMagnon blend of Cameroon binder and Nicaraguan fillers, with the Broadleaf wrapper replaced with a fragile Candela wrapper in the 5″ x 56 EMH size. The combination is really quite amazing, there’s the sweetness of the Cameroon, the depth of the Nicaraguan, with that refreshing flavor of the Candela. Along with the long ago discontinued Camacho Candela, this is the best representation of a Candela cigar I’ve had the pleasure of tasting. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed a few, but this one has some giddyup to it, great cigar. I followed that with a little Neanderthal Shallow Gene Pool, the smaller (4½ x 52) sibling of the Neanderthal HN, which I absolutely loved. This cigar has a San Andrés wrapper and a Pennsylvania Double Ligero, which is unusually high in nicotine. You wouldn’t know it, the cigar is very smooth with a great flavor. If these weren’t in the $11+ range, I would smoke these all the time, so good. Interesting to note, lots of nicotine before bedtime makes for a restless night with crazy dreams, at least that was my experience. It could be that, as Skip pointed out, I’m the oldest young guy he knows, which I took as a compliment since I’m pretty old…anyway, it was a great night, smoking great cigars and hanging out at a great place with great folks.

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day, and after getting some things done around the yard, I relaxed on the porch with a Tatuaje Reserva J21. These are made in Miami with a Habano Ecuador wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and filer. This is a 5″ x 50 robusto and is quite an attractive cigar, listed as a full strength offering. This was exactly what I needed after working in the yard and running errands. It started out with some spice and moved to espresso, which we all know I like. It was refined and elegant, and I really liked it. I smoke fewer Tatuajes than I really should, because whenever I smoke one it’s a treat. For some reason, in my mind, it’s a cigar that’s special, in much the same way an Opus or Padron Anniversary is. I don’t why I feel that way, but it’s in my head for some reason, and I don’t end up picking them up as often as I should. I’ll work on changing that.

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

CigarCraig

8 Comments

Filed under Review, Stores

Tagged as Avo, cigar, Cigar Lounge, cigar store, cigars, Famous, Famous Smoke Shop, Fomorian, Neanderthal, RoMaCraft, Syncro, tatuaje

by CigarCraig | December 27, 2015 · 9:51 am

Contest Wrap-up, a Meet-up at JM Cigars, an Event at Mojo and a RoMaCraft Neanderthal

OK, a regular, non-contest post. How do I do this again? It’s been a crazy couple weeks, hasn’t it? Besides the 234 cigars, three ashtrays, two cutters, a lighter, and various other items, including one of a kind art and jewelry, there were some major holidays in there too. Time spent with family is the best part of the holiday for me, but doing this 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways is a load of fun too. My unending thanks to the following companies and individuals who made all this possible, in no particular order: Eric Whitfield, Broc Jackson, Jack at Duran Premium Cigars, David and his crew at 2 Guys Smokeshop, Victoria at General Cigar Co., Fred at Nomad Cigar Co., Victor at Tortuga Cigars, Jason at Best Cigar Prices, Abe and his gang at Smoke Inn, Mel and Ron at MBombay Cigars, Bianca at Gurkha and the folks at Joya de Nicaragua and Drew Estate! As I say every year, I could do this on my own, but it would cost me a fortune! Thanks to all of them and all of you for coming back every day and entering! Next year I have some different plans, but it should still be fun, that is, unless the FDA ruins everything! We’ll remain positive, keep calling your elected officials and letting them know that premium cigars should be exempt from regulation, and keep up your CRA memberships!

One of the things I did last week in, an effort to save on shipping and meet some new friends, was to hand deliver winnings from Days five and six. It turned out that Mike and Andrew were reasonably close by so we met up at JM Cigar in Exton, PA for a smoke. Of course, I spent easily twice what I would have spent on shipping on cigars, but that’s way more productive. While shopping I came across a lone El Rico Habano Maduro Gran Habanaro (double corona) in a box and it look so lonely I had to add it to my cart, so to speak. I haven’t smoked an El Rico in ages, I can remember back in the ’90s when this was one of the strongest cigars on the market, a real powerhouse. It was Ernesto Perez Carillo’s brand that took a back seat to La Gloria Cubana, and I smoked a bunch of them. It’s a minor brand now with General Cigar Co., only available in three sizes and maduro, where the original version was a natural wrapper. I thought the 7½ x 54 size would be a good size for sitting in the lounge, getting to know new friends, kinda cigar. It was good, but not as good as I remember my last one being, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I didn’t want a cigar that would distract me from conversation. As it always seems to be, meeting up to deliver a prize beats USPS every time, I felt like I have a few more friends now, and look forward to meeting up with Mike and Andrew again soon. Thank you to them for adding to the spirit of the season!

Thursday I ran down to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA as they were having a Perdomo event and raffling off a tremendous Perdomo 20th Anniversary humidor. I like the Perdomo 20th a lot, especially in maduro, so I bought a hand full (as if I needed more cigars!) and got one chance in the drawing. The winner was a guy who bought a bunch of boxes of the 20th Anniversarys, so it’s hard to begrudge him the win. It was a beautiful box, but I don’t know where I would have put it, so it worked out in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed a 20th Maduro Churchill while hanging out and talking to our local Perdomo rep, Joe Winder (who is probably the very first cigar company rep I ever met many years ago at a cigar event in Pittsburgh), CRA Ambassador and all-around good guy, Alan Price, who was working at the shop, owners Wade and Trae and various other customers. I didn’t win the humidor, but I did put some great cigars in my humidor and had a relaxing afternoon.

As it was a special occasion, I selected some other great cigars that are worth mentioning. For the second year in a row, I took my Christmas Eve walk with a Padron 1964 Anniversary Maduro Exclusivo, obviously a classic Nicaraguan maduro that’s like desert in cigar form. Absolutely delicious. Christmas day, after the kids and grandkids left, I sparked up a Fuente Hemingway Signature Maduro, again, a spectacular cigar that’s not unreasonably priced. It was rich, burned perfectly and hit the spot. Yesterday Macha and I took a four mile walk with a favorite Nica Rustica Belly, maybe I’m on a bit of a Maduro kick? I must be, because last night I lit up a cigar that caught my eye and I bought while at Mojo, a RoMa Craft Neanderthal HN, with a San Andrés wrapper. Of all the great cigars I’ve smoked over the last couple weeks, this might have been my favorite. This cigar has a couple of distinctions, first, it has a flat head, and a slight taper at the foot, which I didn’t really notice until I looked at the photo, and it still looks like a robusto, as the size is listed at 5″ x 52/58. Now that I look at it, it may taper from head to foot. It could have been shaped like a pretzel for all I care, it tasted fantastic. Not only does it have a beautiful dark and oily San Andrés wrapper, but it has a Connecticut broadleaf binder, and fillers from Pennsylvania, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. About half way in to the cigar I got a really interesting and delicious spice, which really intrigued me. This was a $12 cigar and honestly, I don’t think I realized the price point when I bought them, I might not have taken the plunge. I’m glad I did. I’ve heard from people That this was a super strong cigar, and it didn’t hit me that way at all, it was full-bodied and loaded with flavor, but I didn’t feel the nicotine at all. Stellar cigar from Skip and Mike at RoMa! I used a punch in the flat head of the cigar if anyone was curious.

You probably want to know who won the final bonus day contest, the great painting “Wind” by Eric “The Cigartist” Whitfield. It looked like only those who really wanted and appreciated this item entered (or everyone is sick to death of my contests), so I consulted Random.org and got the number 37, which corresponds to KRUK, who I know will give this a good home, despite the relative creepiness of his comment :-). Bryan, please send me your address so I can forward it on to Eric. Thank you all, and don’t despair, there could well be a Happy New Year contest!