Tag Archives: Nomad

by Craig Vanderslice | April 30, 2023 · 9:44 am

Nomad, Cert Maith Bruscar, La Gloria Cubana and Macanudo Cigars

This week was challenging. I had a tooth pulled on Monday, and I’m not altogether sure that one or more of the medications I’m taking isn’t affecting my palate. Let’s start out with my pre-procedure cigar, a Nomad SA-17 Shorty, which is 4″ x 56. I’m unsure of the provenance of these cigars, they were a generous gift from a friend, and I want to say that they are pre-Ezra Zion because they have Fred’s twitter name on the band, but anecdotal evidence would suggest that they were recently purchased. If I recall, these were made at A.J. Fernandez’ factory, and has a San Andrés wrapper over Nicaraguan guts. Perhaps it’s a bit uncool to smoke a cigar right before going to the oral surgeon, like eating Oreos before going in for a cleaning, but it is what it is. I knew I was going to be taking a few days off from cigars, nobody wants dry socket! This is a great cigar, loads of earthy, coffee and cocoa flavors. Burn was perfect, and this little cigar lasts almost an hour. Many thanks to Phil for sharing these with me!

On to some new stuff! Like I said, after a couple days off cigars, and between an antibiotic and a rinse, my palate may be off, or maybe not! I tested this theory by smoking a cigar from Kevin at Trash Panda Cigars, the Cert Maith Bruscar. I hope Kevin made sure this name wasn’t already trademarked before using it! Cert Maith Bruscar is Gaelic for “Real Good Trash”, in keeping with the Trash Panda theme, and is an homage to Kevin’s probably 8th or 9th great grandfather, who came to the US in 1679 from Ireland, around the same time my ancestor came from The Netherlands. This is a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper cigar that has a Cameroon binder and fillers from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and US. I typically like the combination of Broadleaf and Cameroon, this is an interesting blend. The first time I smoked this my wife commented on the aroma, which she characterized as fruity. This is consistent with what I perceived as the dominant flavor, which I called citrus. I struggled to gut much else around the citric tang, it was a good cigar, performed well, and certainly was unique. I smoked a couple of these (before and after dental work) and had the same experience. On paper I’d expect this to be a cigar for me, in practice, while it was a good cigar, I’m just not sure about the dominant citrus flavor. This just might be me, as Kevin said he didn’t get that from this cigar.

New from Forged Cigars is the La Gloria Cubana Corojo de Oro. Last year they had the Criollo de Oro, with a hybrid of Criollo and Pelo de Oro tobaccos. This has a hybrid of Corojo and Pelo de Oro (I think that means “golden hair”, it’s a narrow leaf if I remember correctly from my visit to the Garcia’s farm in 2011). I’m much more a fan of Corojo than Criollo, and I liked the Corojo de Oro much more than the Criollo de Oro. This was a 6″ x 50 toro, with a Ecuador Habano wrapper, the hybrid tobacco as the binder, and Brazilian Mata Fina, Dominican Piloto and Nicaraguan Ometepe in the filler blend. I found this to be a well balanced cigar, with some sweet earth, and some spice. I’m not sure how many La Gloria Cubana marques there are now, I like a lot of them (the Serie S was a miss for me, and I love San Andrés), but it just seems like I don’t see many of them in stores.

Finally, I tried a new Macanudo Inspirado, the Tercio-aged. Tercio refers to the practice of wrapping the bales in palm bark to age as opposed to burlap. In this case, the Dominican Piloto Cubano filler component is aged in Tercio, while (because they mention that specifically and omit the rest), the San Andrés wrapper, Indonesian binder and Columbian fillers are aged in burlap bales. For me, this cigar was a great representation of the concept of body vs. strength. The flavors were very interesting, some baking spice, sweet earth (again) and some pepper spice. The smoke was very thin, not a lot of body, but the flavor was there. It was a little strange, and I’ll have to revisit this again. Maybe it was just me. I liked the cigar overall, might me my 4th favorite Inspirado (another line with a lot of extensions!).

That’s more than enough for me today. Next Sunday may be tricky, as we are taking a weekend road trip. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

Comments Off on Nomad, Cert Maith Bruscar, La Gloria Cubana and Macanudo Cigars

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Tagged as Cert Maich Bruscar, cigar, cigars, Corojo, Inspirado, La Gloria Cubana, macanudo, Nomad, SA-17, Tercio, Trash Panda

by CigarCraig | September 16, 2018 · 10:06 am

Wooden Indian Drew Estate Charity Pig Roast and Some Nomad Cigar Acquisition Questions

Yesterday I attended the 8th annual Wooden Indian Drew Estate Charity event, and I think it was the most successful so far, at least it was the one I personally enjoyed the most. The setting is the Wooden Indian Tobacconist in Havertown, PA, in the shop, in a tent on the front lawn of the shop, and on the driveway along the side of the building (which, conveniently, maybe, is next door to the local fire department…how often do we see cigar stores near firehouses? hmm…). Dave and his staff always do a great job with this event. I’m not quite sure how $20 pre-event registration which includes a $20 store credit toward Drew Estate purchase the day of the event and the pig roast works out, but I bought in and re-supplied some favorites that I like to have around. Pedro Gomez, the Factory Spokesperson for Drew Estate, and my longtime friend, was there, and I like to catch up with him when he’s around. You may remember that I talked to him on the Barnsmoker episode of the CigarCraig Podcast, if not, go back and give it a listen! The Pig was delicious, the fellowship with the attendees was excellent, and the cigars, of course, were great. I started with a MUWAT Swamp Thang Toro, because I like that cigar, hadn’t had one in a while and had a hankerin’ for one! It’s almost become a tradition for me to smoke a Nica Rustica El Brujito with Pedro when I see him because we have a mutual connection to that cigar, so I had one of those as well. The main event at this, er, event, was the auction of unique and interesting Drew Estate goodies, including several pieces of original artwork by Jessi Flores of Subculture Studios. There were several serious bidders in the crowd, and a couple bidding by proxy on the phone (who had deep pockets and won the majority of the big-ticket items). In an interesting turn of events, an item came up that had been auctioned off at this same event in 2012, and is documented on my site here, and would be hanging on my own wall if not for the persistence of the person who had to have the piece, and ended up selling it later. It took a circuitous route, but through the generosity of the gentlemen who ended up with it, it generated several hundred more dollars for charity. I’m told that over $11,000 was raised for Operation: Cigars for Warriors at this event, which is quite impressive. The event was well attended, although many of the people I have seen at the event in the past were absent, however there seem to have been a ton of events happening around the northeast yesterday, Buffalo, New York, New Hampshire, all had some big events going on. I would recommend keeping an eye open for 2019’s Wooden Indian Annual Charity Pig Roast, considering what I saw yesterday, I can’t imagine it won’t be even more spectacular. Once again, kudos’ to Dave Mayer and his staff, Ray, Alex and Pedro from Drew Estate, and all the supporting cast members who made this all possible, and to those who attended and supported the excellent cause!

Editorial

This week it was announced that Ezra Zion Cigars acquired Nomad Cigar Company from Fred Rewey (for an undisclosed amount of bacon, but that not important to my editorial on this). This was reported on Cigar Coop, Halfwheel and Cigar Federation (which is owned by the owners of Ezra Zion Cigars, by the way), and I would probably have published a news item if Gmail hadn’t sorted the e-mail into a lesser viewed folder for me, I would have been late to the party anyway. This transaction left me with some questions, so I figured I’d throw them out here and see if it generates any discussion. To understand what I find interesting about this we have to go back a few years. I first met Chris and Kyle at the 2012 IPCPR show when they had a booth debuting both Cigar Federation and Ezra Zion Cigars together, at the time neither was selling cigars direct to consumer, Cigar Federation was a start-up cigar community and blog site, Ezra Zion was a new cigar line. I developed a good relationship with these guys, one I hope, continues to this day. Eventually, Ezra Zion came to be one of the brands distributed by the House of Emilio, distribution company which had its roots with Gary Griffith and Delaware Cigars, and LJ Zucca Co., which had as many as nine boutique brands under its umbrella at one point. for a few years, maybe 2014, 2015, the House of Emilio was huge, they had a national sales force, Nate McEntire (now with Miami Cigar & Co) was once leading it, and Kyle and Chris of Ezra Zion were heading it at one point too (which may seem like a bit of a conflict of interest, when the sales force s reporting to one of several brand owners?). Over a relatively short period of time, Gary Griffith retires (deservedly so, some say he was close to 900 years old!), several brands either take their distribution elsewhere, or, in the case of Ezra Zion, direct to consumer. I may have the timeline a little off, but somewhere in here House of Emilio changes the name to Boutiques United (which Dave Garafalo, I assume, challenged), then Boutiques Unified. The last couple of years Boutiques Unified has represented the Emilio brand, Black Label Trading Co/Black Works Studio, and Nomad. Running Parallel to the above timeline, Chris and Kyle sold Cigar Federation, which eventually became the online storefront for Delaware Cigars, which I mentioned above was owned by LJ Zucca, and associated closely with what’s now Boutiques Unified. Last year Chris and Kyle bought back Cigar Federation, so now they own the online storefront for, what we’ll call for simplicity’s sake, the company they used to be the sales managers for, but left. Now, they have bought one of the last brands in the Boutiques Unified stable and intend to distribute it themselves. My question/confusion in this is does this leave BU (I’m tired if typing Boutiques Unified) as basically the sales organization for Black Label/Black Works? Granted, Oveja Negra is a hot factory, and seems to be worthy of its own representation, is it big enough? Is the Emilio brand have enough legs any more? I honestly don’t know if the AF1 and AF2 are in production any more or not, the new Grimalkin is exceptional, but is made at Oveja Negra. Where does Ezra Zion and Nomad fit in, not to mention all the Cigar Federation cigars, are they still a thing? I’ll admit I lost track of a lot of the small batch crazy stuff EZ did after they left wider distribution (I live in an area that had pretty good BU representation). I have to assume that things are good between the EZ guys and the Delaware Cigars guys and there’s no animosity, right? I find it all very interesting, I’m probably the only one, and I apologize for boring you all with this rambling nonsense, I’m just trying to make sense of all this. I certainly get why Fred sold Nomad so he could concentrate on his social media joke telling, obviously cigars were getting in the way of the quality in that department!

**note: I just saw an email from a retailer saying they were discontinuing the Nomad line because the only reason they kept it on was the relationship they had with Fred, the sales weren’t enough to sustain it in their shop. – edit 9/17 **

That’s way more than enough for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Editorial, Events, Review

Tagged as Boutiques Unified, cigar, cigars, drew estate, Emilio, Ezra Zion, Nomad, Operation: Cigars For Warriors, wooden indian

by CigarCraig | June 4, 2017 · 9:41 am

A Fratello Cigars Event, a La Aurora, a L’Atelier and a Contest!

Friday evening we took a family trip over to the Wooden Indian cigar shop in Havertown, PA to have a visit with Omar de Frias and his amazing Fratello cigars. When I say family, my wife sometimes joins me on these trips, but this time my son Corey came along, and, at the invitation of the shop owner, Dave, Macha joined us too. Macha loves these outings as she gets a lot of attention and loves everybody. She was well-behaved, most of the time just laying down and relaxing, something I wish she’d do at home when we get back from a long walk and I just want to finish my cigar and she wants to play in the yard! Anyway, she had a great time, and I smoked one of my favorite cigars from last year, the Fratello Bianco Boxer. This is a box pressed torpedo wrapped in a beautiful San Andrés wrapper, Dominican binder and fillers from Pennsylvania, Nicaragua and Peru. What distinguishes the Boxer from the regular Bianco line, and this holds true with the regular and Oro Boxers as well, is that they use a little extra ligero in the blend. Not only does the cigar smoke perfectly and taste amazing, it’s got a little extra kick! I picked up a few more for the humidor, along with some other goodies, and enjoyed a great evening at the Wooden Indian with my buddy Omar. It was the fist time I’ve seem Omar without his goatee, is that the breaking news here? Omar Shaves Goatee!…only at CigarCraig.com, Sorry Halfwheel and Cigar-Coop, I was first with this bombshell!

Yesterday was a beautiful Saturday to go to the track, and my daughter decided to have our grand-daughters joint birthday party in the picnic grove at Delaware Park. We got there early to secure a spot, and while we were waiting for everyone I smoked a La Aurora Preferido Corona in the Diamond or Broadleaf wrapper. Since I smoked this the first time over two years ago the pungency and cloying flavor I got then has settled down and it’s more like what I would expect from an aged Connecticut Broadleaf. It was a little over the top the last time I smoked it, but it was slightly underwhelming to me yesterday. Honestly, I forgot that I didn’t really like this cigar the first time around, but was looking forward to a tasty Broadleaf cigar. I usually don’t choose my granddaughters events to enjoy a cigar, but when it’s reasonably appropriate, like at the track 45 minutes before they arrive, I go for it, and it’s usually something from La Aurora because Aurora is also my daughter’s name and how could she get mad at me, right? It works in my head. Anyway, I didn’t lose all my money, had a nice day playing the ponies and hanging with the family.

Last night I rummaged through the Lancero tray and came up with a L’Atelier LAT 38 Special. This 7½” x 38 Lancero was a beauty, with a dark, Sancti Spíritus Ecuador wrapper, binder and filler from Nicaragua rolled at the My Father Factory in Nicaragua. I wanted to smoke something from the Johnson family of cigars, but I was only finding rubustos, and I craved more than that. I have a ton of rubustos in the humidor and should probably just go on a rubusto bender and work them down. There was a time when that was my vitola of choice, but I’ve either gotten more patient or have more time because I want a toro or larger more times than not. I digress, theLAT 38 was a beauty, and the flavor was outstanding. It had the savory and sweet flavor I’d expect more from the Broadleaf than the Sancti Spiritus that the L’Atelier line is known for. I can’t remember when I got this, it may have been at an event at a shop in Colorado I was at back in 2014, but it was good. I haven’t found many cigar in any of Pete Johnson’s portfolio that don’t satisfy my palate. My only complaint with this cigar was that it suffered from Nomex Wrapper Syndrome (Nomex is the stuff that electrical wiring is wrapped with so it doesn’t burn) it required a lot of attention with the lighter, and I was being careful not to overheat the cigar since Lanceros can easily be ruined by smoking too aggressively. The humidor these are in stays in the mid to low 60s so it wasn’t wet.

Contest!

Since we got to the track early yesterday they were giving out hats, and since I’m not a huge hat wearing guy, I figured it might be a good time to have another giveaway. I’ve assembled some odds and ends that have been collecting for a while to go with the Delaware Park hat. There are a couple of bottle openers including one for your key chain from Nomad Cigars, a torch lighter from El Artista, a couple cutters, a highly collectible Matt Booth Room 101 punch cutter, a Ninety Degree magnetic cigar holder and a nice Balmoral flask. As always, a few cigars might fall into the box as I’m packing it up, it happens, I can’t help it! So the usual rules apply, must be of legal smoking age in your municipality, one entry by way of leaving a comment on this post, and have fun! I’ll pick a winner next Sunday, June 11, 2017.

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Balmoral, cigar, cigars, Contest, Fratello, L'Atelier, La Aurora, Ninety Degree, Nomad, Room 101, wooden indian

by CigarCraig | April 2, 2017 · 9:59 am

A Montecristo Pilotico and a Gurkha Cellar Reserve Cigar

Yesterday was April 1, and I was tempted to post an April Fools post announcing that I was changing focus to vapes, but I wasn’t committed to the plan enough to register vanderslicevapes.com and put the web pages together. Maybe next year…wait, I’ve given it away, haven’t I? It would have been a lot of work and I didn’t have it in me yesterday and the idea didn’t come to me until yesterday. I did see some funny ones yesterday, though. Mark Weisenberger (I hope I spelled that right), the new VP of Marketing at Rocky Patel, and former Northeast sales manager, put out a press release about Rocky adopting Hamlet Peredes which was pretty funny. Of course, Fred Rewey of Nomad Cigars is a comedian, he announced his Nomad soap on a rope, is he planning on going to prison soon? Over on Halfwheel.com, Brooks continued his April Fools tradition of seriously reviewing absurd cigars, this time the 20″ x 80 La Aurora La Stravaganza. I think he’s still waiting for the smoke to travel the 20″ from foot to head! Happy April Fools! I failed to do any pranking at all yesterday.

Didn’t do a lot of smoking this week, instead I went to a Flyers game Thursday, in which they beat the Islanders mostly just in the first period, scoring 5 goals with two players recording Gordy Howe Hat Tricks! I had said there was no reason for me to go to the games any more since they closed the cigar bar and made the whole building smoke free, but we got tickets real cheap and hadn’t been to a game for a while. I loved it when they had the cigar bar there, it was preferable to go after the game and have a cigar while everyone else sat in their cars in the parking lot waiting to get out. Bernie Parent was always there to having a cigar, I wonder where he goes to smoke after the games now? So I took Thursday off, Friday it rained like hell and I decided not to go to a Romeo y Julieta launch event and camped out on the porch with a Montecristo Pepe Mendez Pilotico Toro. This was a re-do for me, Last September I wrote this:

Another IPCPR sample was a new one from Montecristo, the Montecristo Pilotico Pepe Mendez in the Toro size. This toro is a 6¼” x 52, and has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Dominican binder, and both Nicaraguan and Dominican Pilotico fillers. The Pilotico varietal is an old seed that Pepe Mendez brought from Cuba in the ’60s and revitalized in the Cibao Valley in the DR. There was some of this tobacco in the Montecristo 80th anniversary cigar that was out last year. It was hard to find anything bad to say about this cigar, it burned right, it had nice flavors along the leathery lines, with a hint of sweetness. It’s one of those cigars that is, no doubt, a very good cigar, but not in line with my preferred flavors. There are a few Montecristos I really like, most on the mild end of the spectrum. The box is cool with an old-timey suitcase motif, paying homage to Pepe Mendez’ travels in the 60s to find the right area to plant his prized seeds.

The one thing that changed this time was that I found that I enjoyed the leathery flavors more than I did previously. Perhaps some humidor time helped, or, just as likely, I ate something different this time that effected my perceptions. Whatever the reason, I enjoyed the flavor of this cigar and will smoke it again without hesitation.

Yesterday I was rummaging through the humidor looking for something to smoke and I came across the tray with the Gurkha cigars. I seem to have amassed a load of cigars, not bragging or complaining, but it sometimes makes it hard to make a selection, especially when I want to smoke something and talk about it here without smoking the same rotation all the time and getting boring (which is what the FDA wants, by the way, so head to CigarRights.org and use their forms to write to your elected representatives). So I grabbed the Gurkha Cellar Reserve Platinum in their Hedonism size. Gurkha also threw out an April Fools funny yesterday:

GURKHA UNVIELS THE ROYAL COURTESAN

The $1,000,000 Cigar Is The Most Expensive Cigar Ever

Fort Lauderdale, FL – Gurkha Cigars has created the world’s most expensive cigar ever! The handcrafted stogie retails for a cool $1,000,000 and is delivered to customers’ door by a messenger who will only handle the cigars with white (kit) gloves. The cigar is infused with Remy Martin’s Black Pearl Louis XIII, which retails for $165,000 per bottle.

The cigars are rolled by a select group of hand rollers who are blindfolded throughout the process to allow their senses to guide their movements naturally and minimize distraction during this artistic process. The cigar is made with filler from ancient lands in the Himalayas with tobacco that has been watered exclusively with Fiji water. The wrapper is gold leaf and the band is encrusted with diamonds totaling five carats.

“The Gurkha clientele is use to only the best and Gurkha continuously produces only the best,” said Kaizad Hansotia, CEO of Gurkha Cigars. “This cigar is only for those who want the most exclusive, most luxurious and most ostentatious experience a cigar can offer.”

Gurkha Cigars are known throughout the world for their premium and luxurious cigars, so it’s no surprise that they are the most sought-after cigars around the globe. Gurkha produces 12 million cigars per year that are sold in more than 70 countries worldwide. And while Gurkha is known for its exclusivity, it has an impressive array of 105 brands of flawlessly handcrafted, premium cigars created in a variety of strengths, tasting profiles, and price-points. No matter what your taste, there’s a Gurkha cigar that’s perfect for your palate. For additional information visit www.gurkhacigars.com.

###

It’s a little unfortunate that it didn’t occur to me until after I read it that it was an April Fool, I mean, a one million dollar cigar from Gurkha doesn’t seem that implausible at this point, right? Anyway, back to the Cellar Reserve Platinum. I like the Hedonism size (I kind of identify with the name too), it’s a fat, pigtailed perfecto along the lines of the Feral Flying Pig from Drew Estate’s Serie Unico line, 6″ x 58. It’s got an Ecuador wrapper and Nicaraguan fillers and just a pretty straight-forward leathery/nutty profile to my palate. It was good, burned right and whatever factory makes these does a good job. There are several cigars in the Cellar Reserve line that I like, and, for all the criticism Gurkha gets, I think their brick and mortar lines are pretty darned good. (note: looking back it appears that I smoked this and wrote about it back in September of 2015, fortunately, I liked it then too! I smoke too many different cigars and can no longer remember them all!)

OK, both cigars were re-dos….sorry about that! I’ll work on smoking some more interesting cigars this week! That’s all I have for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Flyers, Gurkha, Montecristo, Nomad, rocky patel

by CigarCraig | June 5, 2016 · 10:17 am

Nomad, Capo de Mundo, El Centurian, Neya and Torano Cigars and a Contest Winner

It’s been a long week for me, we had a holiday weekend, then four days of trying to wrap up a thirteen year career at my day job, and prepare people to take care of all the stuff I did. Now I’m between jobs, I start the new one next week, don’t you know I manage to break a couple molars Thursday?! Who knows what the dentist will say when I get there Tuesday, there might be a smoking hiatus in my future…but I’m hopeful that they can be saved. Anyway, I have a bunch of cigars worth talking about today, so let’s get on with it. Monday I managed an early cigar, so I chose a Nomad Therapy Connecticut. The Therapy line comes in three blends, two sizes each (Toro and Robusto) and goes to retailers in refillable trays. This isn’t a bundle cigar though, it’s a really nice, high quality smoke. This one had an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, San Andrés binder and Nicaraguan filers. I enjoyed this for a milder, very smooth, yet quite flavorful shade cigar. It burned well, drew well, and tasted good. Another very nice cigar from Fred Rewey, and I’m looking forward to trying his new SA-17.

Tuesday I smoked a cigar bought on a visit to a shop in Ridley Park, PA a few months ago. We were in the area for another event and ran across Jacoub’s Cigars, a nice little cigar and hookah shop with a lounge and a well appointed walk-in humidor. I picked a few cigars up that I hadn’t tried yet, including some of Jacoub’s own brand, Capo de Mundo. I bought robustos in the maduro and Corojo, but they also have a Connecticut version. As one would expect, I smoked the maduro first. The Capo de Mundo was a good smoke, it had what one would expect from a maduro cigar, cocoa/coffee and a little bit of sweetness, all things I like. I don’t know that $9 is an appropriate price point though, I get that it’s a small production, that certainly plays in to the price, but I didn’t find that it had enough going for it to warrant the price. This would be a great $5 cigar for me, but there are many other cigars from $5 up to the $9 range that excite me more. I’m afraid this was unremarkable, not a bad cigar at all, just not different from a hundred other maduros. I look forward to seeing what the Corojo brings to the table. This, my friends, is about as close to a negative review you will get from me.

Friday evening my wife wanted to get out, so we went to the King of Prussia Mall, which is probably the largest shopping mall on the east coast. One of the very nice things about this mall is that it has a cigar shop which my wife refers to as “Husband Day Care”, something she borrowed from Dave Garofalo at Two Guys in New Hampshire. Anyway, it’s certainly nice to stop in for a cigar instead of wondering through racks of ladies clothes in various stores. International Tobacco has a nicely stocked walk in humidor (is a Davidoff retailer) and a bar with coffee and soda available. I bought a handful of My Father El Centurian H-2K-CT in the Corona size, which is closer to a robusto at 5½” x 48, not that I’m complaining, that’s a near perfect size as far as I’m concerned. This cigar has a hybrid Habano 2000 wrapper grown in Connecticut, wrapped around components grown and processed by the Garcias in Nicaragua. This was a terrific smoke, with that typical My Father spice in the beginning then some nice sweet, savory flavor throughout. It turns out that this size was perfect for the time it took my wife get tired of shopping, after 30 years I have a good idea how long it takes. I’m glad I bought a few, I love the size and it’s a tasty and interesting cigar. It was nice to be able to relax with a nice cigar, baseball on the TV and pleasant conversation with other patrons and Tom, the owner. If I could afford it, I’d send my wife shopping more often :-).

Yesterday was a two cigar day, after getting some things done around the yard and house, I sat down with a Duran Premium Cigars Neya F8 Big Jack. I really like the flavor of the F8 line, I’ve only smoked this size and the 6 x 60 Yankee, and they come in a bunch of sizes, some of which are quite close to one another (5 x 52 Patriot, 5 x 58 Gringo, 6 x 56 Toro, 6 x 60 Yankee,6½ x 54 Loyalist and 7 x 70 Big Jack). One can assume that this range might be trimmed in the coming years if the FDA requires mega-bucks approvals for each size. Anyway, the line features an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and smoked really well. It’s sweet and smooth and quite good to my palate. the “Big Jack” is a 7″ x 70, named after the very recently former marketing and sales manager Jack Toraño, who has just left the company to join General Cigars as the face of the Toraño brand, a wonderful move in my opinion. Having an actual Toraño on board for the centennial of the brand is certainly key, and Jack is well known and loved in the industry. Anyway, the Big Jack was a tasty cigar and took me well over two hours to smoke. My only gripe with the cigar (and I’m sure Jack never tires of hearing this), is it’s just too damn big! I’ll happily smoke any size in this line, but 70 ring gauge is ridiculous. Great cigar though, even down to the last inch and a half, and after sitting id down and running an errand. I’m sure Jack’s talents will be missed at Duran Premium Cigars, but I’m glad to see him “home” with his family brand.

After dinner, I dug deep and found a Toraño toro with a Cigar Rights of America band, which came either when I joined CRA in 2009, or renewed the year after. I have no idea what the blend on this toro was, it had the burgundy Toraño band like on the Casa Toraño line along with the CRA secondary band. I have a bunch of the CRA cigars in the humidor from renewing every year, I’ve yet to get a CRA Opus or Liga yet though. This cigar was just fine. Good, savory flavors, and a razor sharp burn with a flat ember. The ash fell off by itself a couple times, no big deal as I was out walking, had it done that on my new patio carpet I might have been annoyed. Certainly you can’t run out and buy these, so my opinion means nothing really, except to go join the CRA if you haven’t already and maybe you’ll get one of these, or some other good cigars. Which is a good segue to the final paragraph of this post!

Contest

Last week I offered a T-shirt (which I purchased from Smoke Inn) and a handful of cigars from my humidor, including a few that I threw in over the course of the week that weren’t pictured. I honestly thought the turnout would be better than it was. Maybe I didn’t include enough great cigars, or maybe it’s a commentary on the over-all apathy among the cigar smoking public, I don’t know. It’s good for the folks who entered, as it increases the odds. Trust me, when these FDA regulations take effect, it’s going to be much harder for me to have giveaways! Anyway, thanks to all that entered, and thanks for Abe dropping by and commenting and for his dedication to the cause. He certainly won’t be able to offer his Micro-Blend series with the regulations as they are. So, the winner of the T-shirt and cigars from CigarCraig’s humidors is…..KOPTim. Tim, please send your contact info so I can get this stuff to you, or, better yet, if I remember correctly, you’re in the area, lets meet up for a smoke and hand-off! Thanks for all who entered and shared, you can still go to https://www.smokeinn.com/FDA/ and buy a shirt or two to support the cause.

That’s more than enough for today! Look for a single cigar focused mid-week post or two as I have a bunch of interesting samples to get to and I’ve been rather selfishly smoking for myself this week! I also want to get a few posts in the bank, so to speak, in case there’s some dental interruption (fingers crossed). Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Review, Stores

Tagged as Capo de Mundo, cigar, cigar rights, cigars, Contest, Duran, El Centurian, general cigars, H-2K-CT, Jacoub's, My Father, Naya, Nomad, Therapy, Toraño