Tag Archives: Nica Rustica

CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways 2013 Day 12: Toraño Family Cigars

I can’t believe it’s almost over! Here we are at the 12th day already.  Almost 2 weeks worth of getting up early, choosing a winner and publishing a post before 7am EST. It’s been crazy. But it’s nearing the end and I appreciate all of the positive comments and for everyone taking the time to try to weasel win some great cigars from our generous sponsors!  The winner of the excellent Nica Rustica El Brujito bundle, Undercrown cap and Acid cutter is smoke770. Please e-mail your address so I can ship this stuff to you!  Once again, many thanks to the folks at Drew Estate! Let’s see what wonders Day 12 has in store for us:

 

Day 12

The folks at Toraño Family Cigar Co. have been great supporters for a long time, even before I started this site when we’d have events.  Once again they come up big with a box of Blends from the Vault D-042 Robustos.  This new cigar has an Ecuador Habano wrapper and the filler blend contains some tobacco from my home state of Pennsylvania! But that’s not all.  They’ve also thrown in a beautiful leather cigar case to carry a few of these around in style.  A box of twenty 5″ x 52 cigars and a cool cigar case.  These will be great under someone’s tree this year!

 

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Once again, thanks to Jack Toraño for putting this present together!  This is a great family and they make great cigars. Good luck folks!

 

Rules

Here’s how you enter: leave a comment.  That’s it, plain and simple.  Tweets don’t count, but feel free to spread the word, only comments on this page count as an entry.  Each day there will be a different prize and the winner will be drawn from that day’s comments. The winner will be announced on the next day’s post. The contest is open to everyone, even if you’ve won one of my contests in the past six months, but once you’ve won, you are ineligible to win again in this series of contests. All prizes will be mailed as soon as I get a chance to go to the post office, or whenever the sponsor decides to ship, whichever is the case, so don’t make me chase down your address!  Please e-mail your contact information to craig@cigarcraig.com as soon as possible! That’s it, leave a comment to enter and good luck. Check back tomorrow to see if you won and enter tomorrow’s contest!

 

Until Tomorrow,

 

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CigarCraig

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CAO Flathead, Alec Bradley Nica Puro, Recluse and Drew Estate Nica Rustica Cigars

It’s Thanksgiving Eve, and I’m sure most of my US readers are getting ready for a nice turkey dinner tomorrow. Don’t forget to pick out some great cigars to smoke after dining with family. A big Happy Thanksgiving from CigarCraig.com!

 

I’ve been smoking some new, but familiar to me cigars this week. It’s gotten wintry cold around here and I wanted to smoke some cigars that I knew wouldn’t get lost in the frigid outside conditions. Sunday I picked out a CAO Flathead Camshaft (5½x54) for a late afternoon walk. I gave this one a punch cut, but, as with the other examples I smoked, the cap just popped off. I trimmed it up with the scissors and hit the road. I really like this cigar. It’s deep and dark. It’s severely box pressed. It burns and draws well, is big enough to handle with gloves on, but not too big. It holds a nice ash too. I want to try the other sizes in the line, I just haven’t gotten around to looking for them in the shops yet. I personally am pleased with the last several offerings from CAO, they are tasty and well priced. I have an irrational desire to get my hands on a couple of the Angry Santa and Evil Snowman holiday releases to see what they are all about. Perhaps they could release a “Mildly Irritated Elf” for a morning smoke.

 

Alec Bradley_Nica Puro RobustoMonday evening I pulled out another Alec Bradley Nica Puro (5×50) for my walk. I think Monday was about the coldest it’s been in quite some time. I don’t like it. Not one bit. Anyway, unless it’s windy or precipitating or both, I find that I don’t get too cold if I keep moving, which is one of the reasons I’m always taking my cigar for a walk. The dog needs the exercise too, as do I. This Nica Puro is a tasty smoke. It’s syrupy sweet tobacco flavors really appeal to me. The wrapper has a reddish hue which is easy on the eyes. It’s a fantastic cigar, I’m glad I bought a few to have on hand. There’s something about cigars with “Nica” in the name that are really appealing to me. Great smokes, it’s not often I have the same cigar twice in a week!

 

 

Tuesday it was raining, so I took the dog out for a quick little walk/run (yes, I ran a little bit…) and came back and had a Recluse Robusto (5 x 52) from Iconic Leaf Cigar Co. in the garage. This is another box pressed maduro, not unlike the CAO. Perhaps the Recluse is a little more refined in flavor. I love the rich cocoa that this cigar has. Since it’s rolled entubado (and I think you’ll find that many cigars are rolled this way, although they may not necessarily make mention of it) and box pressed, it’s almost guaranteed to draw well. I purchased this example at the same local shop that I got the Nica Puro from, only it was sometime last spring, I think. I’ve really enjoyed the Recluse line since being introduced to them a year and a half or so ago. If you can find them, give them a try, great smokes.

 

Nica Rustica_El BrujitoTonight I took a walk with another Drew Estate Nica Rustica El Brujito (6×52).  Have you ever smoked a cigar that tasted like old newsprint wrapped in kraft paper?  This is nothing like that.  Burn: perfect.  Draw: pretty good.  Flavor: loads of it.  I still think the prototype I brought back from Nicaragua with some Nicotiana rustica was a little more interesting, but this production version is a delicious smoke, and the price point makes it very accessible.   It’s a heck of a good smoke.  Hopefully my week of repeats wasn’t too boring!

 

I’m still working on the 12 Spectacular Days of Giveaways, hopefully it will all go off without hitch! I’m going to have a busy week at work the week the contests start too, so I’m trying to get as much set up in advance as possible. Be ready for some great presents this year!

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

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A Tortuga, a Nica Rustica and a Pair of Casa Fernandez Cigars

I was just thinking how I really haven’t had a bad cigar, or even one I didn’t care for, in a very long time!  I hope I don’t jinx myself having said that.  I still have a bunch of IPCPR samples to get into, so all hope isn’t lost. 🙂

 

Tortuga 215_CedroSaturday I was gifted a new size of the Tortuga 215 Reserva by Victor Vitale. This is a 5” x 48 cigar with a cedar sleeve and is yet to appear on retailers shelves. The Tortuga line is a limited edition, boutique line made in Honduras. In the past I’ve enjoyed the 215 Edition Limitada, and 1948 Connecticut, and my favorite, the 1950 Maduro, as well as a few of the new 215 Reserva which was released at the 2013 IPCPR show. The Cedro is a Nicaraguan puro that starts out with a delicious cedar flavor, no doubt a result of being wrapped in cedar! It’s a very savory, woody smoke with a little sweetness thrown in. I love the size. IF you can find these treat yourself to one.

 

Nica Rustica_El BrujitoAny time we have to change the clocks it causes a disturbance in The Force, but it’s hard to pick up on the first day. When the work week begins and you get a full appreciation of it being almost dark on the way home, it sinks in. I prefer not to smoke in the dark. I’m weird, but I get as much enjoyment out of watching my cigar burn as I do enjoying the flavor. It also makes it easier to know when you’re going to burn your fingers! Anyway, I needed a Monday sure thing, so I took a gamble on an IPCPR sample of the Drew Estate Nica Rustica  which shipped this week. I loved the pre-release sample I brought back from Nicaragua last May, it was something special. It seems that they removed the “wild” Esteli leaf from the production blend (ironic that this “jungle” leaf was used in the above mentioned Tortuga 1950 Maduro, or something very similar). The production Nica Rustica is still an excellent smoke. It’s rustic, but it burns arrow straight, and the flavor isn’t what I’d call refined, but it’s heavy and right up my alley. If the Undercrown is the poor man’s Liga Privada, then this is the poorer man’s Undercrown, and I’ll probably get in trouble for that comparison. At around $6 for a Toro if you like fuller bodied cigars you really can’t go wrong. This is a cigar I could smoke every day. Even without that special “wild” tobacco, it’s another winner. It even has a pigtail cap and a closed foot!

 

CasaFernandez_ReservaMaduroA couple weeks ago I received some samples from the folks at Casa Fernandez Cigars.  My experience with this line was previously limited to an Aganorsa Leaf Toro, which I loved, and a similar cigar with the secondary CRA bad which I didn’t love so much.  The cigars I received were both similar in size to the Tortuga Cedro, the Casa Fernandez Reserva Maduro Corona Extra 5” x 46 and the Aganorsa Leaf Maduro ‘Ilustre’ 5 x 48.  Once again, these are a perfect size for my evening walks now that the weather is colder and it’s dark early. Both cigars are made in the Miami factory, and both carry a retail price of $8.90.  I smoked the Reserva Maduro last night after a nice steak, and it shared the savor, meaty flavors and was a CasaFernandez_AganorsaMaduroreally nice cigar.  The performance was perfect, it burned well, it drew well and, as much as I like the size, I ended up wishing is was longer!  Same with the Ilustre.  This one has my favorite wrapper, the San Andrés, and it was reminiscent of strong, black coffee.  It also was constructed perfectly and also left me yearning for more.  Both fit the time I had allotted though, I hate it when I have a nice cigar that I can’t finish.  I certainly have smoked cigar that contained some of the Aganorsa leaf, and I will need to seek out some more of the Casa Fernandez lines to sample.  I’ll state publicly that I don’t care for their website, and I said that privately as well, and was assured that they are working on it.  Flash sites are impossible to link directly to various pages, and I couldn’t view it at all on my Android tablet.  I think more and more people are using devices that don’t work with Flash these days, and it doesn’t seem wise to alienate that large an audience.

 

alexaI’d like to thank all of my readers and visitors.  Alexa is a site that tracks the relative popularity of websites around the world, and I’m pleased to see that I’ve broken the top one million websites worldwide, and have what I consider a pretty respectable ranking in the US.  So thanks for reading, and as your reward I will have a couple contests in December (regular readers will know that I’ve been having pretty terrific contests for the last couple Decembers!).  Stay tuned.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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Getting Ready for Vegas, a Perdomo, a Four Kicks and a Nica Rustica

In the week leading up to our trip to the IPCPR show in Vegas I’m losing track of what I’ve smoked!  I had to go back and check twitter and Instagram to refresh my memory. My wife is right, I need to take a note book along this time to write things down along the way. I’m certain to forget something in the information overload that is the IPCPR  show. Case in point: I smoked a couple cigars on Sunday, I think a CAO Concert and a Gurkha Seduction. Both are cigars that are on my “go to” list when I want to smoke something, enjoy the heck out of it, and not have to worry too much about it. The Concert went very nicely in the pool, and the Gurkha was perfect after a end of the weekend rainstorm complete with a double rainbow. These two cigars capped off a pretty great holiday weekend for me.  I had to go look up what I smoked!

 

Perdomo_10th Maduro RobustoMonday evening I grabbed one of the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Maduros I had picked up recently. I was in the mood for something new and I really don’t smoke a ton of Perdomo cigars for whatever reason. I’m not sure if it goes back to the 90s when I had a string of bad luck with the brand or what. This cigar was pretty darned sublime. The flavor was right up my alley, chocolatey and espressoey  and well balanced. Well worth the $5.25 I paid for it. It was a lovely smoke and I’ll certainly have to pay a little more attention to this brand. Yes, I know that chocolatey and espressoey aren’t real words (I already had that argument with the spell check…).

 

Four Kicks_RobustoLast night I selected a Four Kicks robusto that was gifted to me a few months ago in New Jersey by Alex “StogieCop” Martinez. I’ve enjoyed a few different sizes in this line, and they are nice cigars to be sure. I kind of wanted to get some older (ie. last years) cigars smoked before going to the trade show and being inundated with new stuff. This was a worthy smoke, although I just can’t get as excited about it as some do, perhaps it doesn’t suit my preferences as much as some others. Still a terrific smoke, thank you Alex for allowing me to revisit this one.

 

DE_NicaRustica_ToroChanging gears, tonight I wanted to preview a cigar that I gather is being released at the show this year. In the past few weeks I’ve smoked some NicaRoma cigars from Villiger,the Nica Puro from Alec Bradley, so I thought I better smoke the Nica Rustica that’s coming out from Drew Estate. I was given a sample a few months ago when I visited the factory and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit intimidated by this stick! Will at Cigar-Coop.com posted a nice write up on this last week, where he notes that the blend includes a Nicaraguan Rustica tobacco grown in Esteli that is among the most potent of tobaccos it’s wrapped in a San Andreas binder (yay!) and a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper (another yay!) and will be offered in a 6″x52 toro shape. The example I smoked had an unfinished foot and a pigtail head. It certainly was a rustic looking cigar, and had a wonderful syrupy sweetness on the wrapper.  You an feel the tingle of the nicotine in the mouth, and there is a ton of flavor. This is like a Liga Privada on steroids. I have yet to find anythig remotely subtle about this cigar, it’s just loaded with great, in your face flavor and strength. I’m sitting on the deck finishing this off as I type, and I already look forward to smoking another one. Now, I have to admit that I don’t know if this is the finished blend or not, but I hope it is close.  I remember Steve Saka saying that production capacity was holding this release back, apparently they made some room to produce a bunch of these. At the reported under $7 price tag, this is a no brainer for anyone who doesn’t mind having your ass kicked around the block a few times. Highly recomended and anticipated!

 

That’s it for tonight. The next post will probably be from the IPCPR show. I’ll do my best to get some interesting and entertaining video here, assuming I can get some WIFI connections here and there.

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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