Tag Archives: Old Havana Cigars

by CigarCraig | May 26, 2013 · 10:58 am

A Room 101 Event and a Few Cigars on a Saturday Afternoon and Local News

Friday after work I shot down to Old Havana Cigars in West Chester, PA. They were having a Room 101 event and Matt Booth was there, along with the Davidoff rep who prefers to retain his anonymity so we’ll call him “Tom Smith”. I was disappointed that they only had the Serie SA in the 6×60 size, as I had wanted to get some more of those, but Matt talked me into the new Namakubi Ecuador in the Ranfla size, which is a 6.5 x 50 perfecto. Now, it’s no easy feat getting this cheap SOB to spring $10 for a cigar. I find that every time I come back from a cigar factory visit, my price threshold seems to go up a little as my education and appreciation for the work that goes into making these things. It turns out that this cigar was well worth the investment, and I’m glad I got two (and a pair of Ecuador Papi Chulos and a SA). The cigar burned perfectly, drew perfectly and had spectacular flavor. I enjoyed the heck out of the cigar while hanging out in the front of the store watching the antics of some of the regulars and talking with “Tom”. The lounge in the back of the store was packed, so I didn’t even venture back there. I also had the good fortune of meeting Evan, of TheSmokinGreek.com, another blogger who I recently discovered lived in my area. I had a great time, the events at Old Havana are always a hoot. If you ever find yourself in south-east PA, stop in, and as Tony the owner says: “just buy your cigars and get the f*** out!”. It’s always a pleasure hanging with Matt, he’s a character and a hell of a good guy.

Saturday I spent the afternoon hanging around my patio with my childhood friend, Jeff, smoking cigars and shooting the bull. I started with a Gurkha Beauty XO (6” x 60) that was a hand out at the grand opening of the Cigars International store in Hamburg, PA last November. Jeff enjoys the occasional cigar, and prefers milder ones when he smokes, so I set him up with one of my favorites, the Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta. I enjoy the heck out of that cigar, and I think it’s educational as well. The two inches of Nicaraguan leaf on the head of the cigar gives a totally different mouth feel than the Ecuador Connecticut leaf and is a great way to illustrate how the wrapper changes the entire cigar. I enjoyed the Gurkha, it was a mild and smooth cigar, and had a nice flavor. For the first cigar of the day this one wasn’t bad. After we finished with these, round two featured a CAO Concert Roadie for me, and a Rocky Patel Edge Candela for him. I figured (correctly) that he had never had a green cigar, and thought it would be a good continuation of his education. I chose the Concert because we were talking and I wanted a solid, flavorful and familiar cigar that I didn’t really have to pay attention to. I have had occasions in the past when a particularly good cigar distracts me from personal interaction. Not to say that the Concert isn’t particularly good, it is, but I’ve smoked enough of them that I know what to expect. Despite the breezy day (it was only in the 60s, which is disappointing for Memorial Day weekend) my cigars burned straight and well. Jeff had some problems with the candela, but that probably wasn’t the wind’s fault, I’ve had crooked burns with candela cigars plenty in the past. It was nice to spend an afternoon catching up with an old friend and smoking some nice cigars. For those who care, I enjoyed a Vernors Ginger Soda with the Gurkha, and an IBC Rootbeer with the CAO.

News Update (addded 05/27)

Of local interest, and perhaps only of interest to me, The West Chester PA shop, G & G Cigars was recently sold to the Cigar Cigars chain of stores in SouthEastern PA. This will increase the CigarCigars chain to seven stores, including a store in Freehold, NJ (which used to be the brick and mortar side of Firehouse Cigars, which was an early online cigar seller). According the Doug Gianforte, who owned the shop along with his wife, Jan, they will be closing the deal tomorrow and all of the employees are staying on, except for he and his wife, obviously. I will miss running into Doug and Jan at the IPCPR show (where I seem to see them more than I do at the shop). I will be interested to see what changes, if anything, at the shop.

That’s all I got for now, it’s another beautiful day out, and tomorrow is Memorial Day, so spare a moment to smoke a fine cigar in remembrance of all those who gave their lives so that we can sit around smoking cigars!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

1 Comment

Filed under Review

Tagged as CAO, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Gurkha, joya de nicaragua, Matt Booth, Namakubi, Old Havana Cigars, rocky patel, Room 101

by CigarCraig | November 25, 2012 · 9:49 am

A Turkeyday Liga Privada T52 and an Alec Bradley Event at Old Havana

After a fine Thanksgiving turkey dinner with my family I figured something a special cigar was in order. I was in a Liga Privada mood, so I was riffling through the Drew Estate box and came across a 6″x 60 Liga Privada T52. Now tell me, what could be better than more of a good thing? Probably just about every other size of the T52! Not that it wasn’t a spectacular cigar, it certainly was! It was loaded with flavor, just not quite the concentration of flavor that the narrower ring gauge T52s present. I enjoyed every last bit of this cigar, but couldn’t help to think that the wrapper to filer ratio just isn’t quite right to showcase the wrapper on the T52 line. I think this came from a goodie bag at a blogger party Drew Estate threw in Vegas at the 2011 IPCPR show. Great cigar, but I’m not really surprised that it isn’t in regular production, but it’s always fun to see how blends translate into different sizes. It’s a cigar I’m glad to have had the chance to try in this format to see the impact that the wrapper has on a blend.

Friday evening I took a drive down to Old Havana Cigar Co. just south of West Chester, PA. for an Alec Bradley event. This shop always has good events and they have a really nice lounge as well as a huge, well stocked humidor. They have food in the lounge and always have quite a crowd. I picked up a couple of American Sun Grown robustos and lit one up. For right around $5 these cant be beat. I think I prefer them over some of the pricier lines. I had a nice time talking with “the Player”, Jonathan Lipson, and hanging out and enjoying my smoke. Since I moved a few months ago I’m a lot farther away from this shop than I used to be, but I’ll make the trip occasionally to catch an event. I ended up with new Connecticut offering from Alec Bradley which I’ll smoke in the not too distant future (maybe today).

Last night, after a two day battle with a migraine, I went for a favorite, a Gurkha Seduction Robusto. This is an excellent smoke that I really like and didn’t have to think to hard about, I could just enjoy it . A year ago I don’t think I’d even had a Gurkha cigar, and now I find that I have a handful floating around the humidors. So far the Seduction is my favorite, but I have a bunch more to sample. I’ll wait until the weather is nicer though as the all seem to be toro sized!

I hope everyone had a fine Thanksgiving and is ready for the start of my 12 Days of Spectacular Giveaways coming up in a few short weeks! It’s looking like it’s going to be even better than last year! I’m going to go string some more lights outside after I send a few e-mails lining up stuff for the contests.

Until the next time,

CigarCriag

8 Comments

Filed under Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Alec Bradley, cigar, cigars, drew estate, Gurkha, liga privada, Old Havana Cigars, Sun Grown, t52

by CigarCraig | March 18, 2012 · 11:28 am

A Buena Vista Cigar, An Oliva at Old Havana Cigars, a Green Camacho and a Cain

Thursday evening I grabbed a Buena Vista Short Churchill that I was given by Gary Heathcott, the company’s director of global marketing when I was waiting for a Coke at the Cigar Journal awards reception at last year’s IPCPR show. This cigar is unique in that it’s an Ecuador Puro and it’s rolled by Cuban rollers that come to Ecuador on special visas to work in the factory. The cigar had a stunning appearance, very smooth and even in shape and color. I grabbed this based on the size, it’s a 4¼”x 54, so it’s a short, fat cigar, and I only had an hour to smoke. I have to say that I really enjoyed the smoke, it was good, but not as unique as I had hoped. There was really nothing especially different about it. It was a good tasting cigar. I had to touch it up frequently as it wanted to burn faster on one side, but not a bad cigar. If this is priced right, I’d say give it a try, if it’s too expensive, I’d personally choose something else based on this sample.

Friday evening my son and I attended and Oliva event at Old Havana Cigars in West Chester, PA. I’ve been to several events there and it’s always pretty crazy. Nice bunch of folks there and I always enjoy spending time with the local Oliva Rep, Mike Staiber. I picked up some cigars and promptly fired up a Serie G Maduro box pressed belicoso. This is a cigar that I haven’t smoked many of, and I don’t know why. It’s got a really tasty broadleaf wrapper and really hit the spot. I also grabbed a few of the Cameroon in the same size. For my troubles, I was rewarded with a couple free Nub Habanos (it was buy 5, get 2 free). Lots of people buying cigars, quite a few picking up boxes and getting all kinds of freebies and swag to go along with it. My son had a Cain Daytona in a corona size that he enjoyed as well (and is one of my favorites). We had a good time talking with Mike (@olivastaiber on twitter. Follow him!), who I’ve known for quite a while and is a great cigar rep and a very cool guy.

Of course, Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day, so that called for a candela cigar. Several years ago I picked up a box of the Camacho Monarca Candela because I really liked them and they were a nice change of pace. We had to go to a percussion competition at my son’s high school, in which he plays bass guitar in the ensemble, so I grabbed one of these for our walk to the school. If you have never had a candela cigar, you should certainly try one. It’s a different flavor, a little more vegetal or grassy, but refreshing in a way. In this case, we have the Camacho Corojo with the candela wrapper, so it’s no slouch when it comes to strength, as many candela, or as the were once called, American Market Selection (AMS) can be on the mild side. Astral is a cigar that comes to mind in the mild candela area, as does the Arturo Fuente 8-5-8. La Flor Dominicana and Illusione have recently put their spin on this once popular wrapper. Anyway, this box of Camachos has been consistently loose in the draw department, so I’ve taken to punching these to make them a little better in the draw department. Pretty strong for a noon-time smoke, but really tasty with a long finish, so long that I could still taste it several hours later after another cigar and dinner.

On the walk home from the event I had grabbed a Cain Habano Tubo on the way out the door, so I fired it up. This was the 550 Cain in a spiffy aluminum tube, and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and had a mile or so to walk, so I was lamenting my decision to grab this one as I lit it up. My fear turned out to be misplaced, because it was a damned tasty cigar! I spent another 20 minutes with this on the porch when I got home, it was just too good to put down. Perfect burn and draw. Strong, but balanced and, dare I say, complex. Every now and then an interesting flavor would dance across my palate, something I’ve missed in past Cain Habanos. Perhaps this one was well aged, or aged better in the tube, I don’t know, but it was likely the best Cain Habano I’ve had.

I don’t usually have a two cigar day, but the weather was so great, despite it being a very busy day, I had two spectacular cigars walking to and from the high school. The competition was excellent as well, lots of talented kids, and I’m a drum geek as well as a cigar geek, so I always enjoy stuff like that, cigars or not.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as broadleaf, Buena Vista, cain, Camacho, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Ecuador, fuente, IPCPR, maduro, nub, Old Havana Cigars, oliva, Serie G, Take A Cigar For A Walk

by CigarCraig | April 20, 2011 · 11:23 pm

Wednesday Cigar Recap: Maria Mancini, Rocky Patel, StogieBoys.com and a Contest!

Seems like it’s been a busy week so far! This post is going to be a little scattered, so please bear with me! The good news is that the weather in south-east PA is getting more and more Spring-like, which means that it may be warm and sunny one minute and cold and rainy the next! I’ve smoked a few cigars so far this week, and had some other random cigar experiences.

The other night I took a Maria Mancini Magic Mountain for a walk. This is one of my go-to cigars, one I grab when I want a good, familiar cigar that I don’t have to think about too much. It’s a 6″ x 54 square presses torpedo that is a blend of Honduran and Nicaraguan tobacco that I believe is made by the Placencias in Honduras. I rarely have had a bad cigar from this line and they always satisfy me. The fact that they are so inexpensive is a major bonus.

This evening I went to Old Havana Cigar Co. in West Chester, PA to a Rocky Patel event. Rocky was there, along with Mark, the local sales rep, as well as Alan Price, our local CRA ambassador and rep for a couple new lines. I picked up an Edge Missile maduro and wandered into the lounge. One odd thing that happened was that I heard my name from across the room and it turned out to be a dude I went to elementary school with. I couldn’t believe he recognized me, since elementary school was a LONG time ago. It was nice to catch up with him over a cigar. The shop there was very busy, it can get pretty raucous there. I’ve only really gone to events at this particular store, and it always seems to be a big party going on. Terrific if you’re into that sort of thing, I like a quieter environment personally. Anyway, I got to talk to Rocky for a bit, as well as Alan, whom I’ve met several times. I watched a little of the Flyers/Sabres game and then called it a night. I enjoyed the Edge quite a bit, I don’t smoke a great deal of Rocky Patel cigars, and I honestly don’t know why, I generally enjoy them when I do. It was full of flavor and constructed perfectly.

A week or two ago I purchased a Groupon for Stogieboys.com, ya know, when your wife and daughter both e-mail you a Groupon deal, you better jump on it. Sometime in the near future I will make a $40 or so purchase which I only paid $20 for! I’m sure I can find something. Anyway, I e-mailed the site with a question, and received a reply from Paul Eusanio, one of the principles of the company. I ended up having a nice phone conversation with Paul, who told me about the company. They appear to have a pretty good selection and their pricing seems competitive. He also offered me a discount code to pass on to you, my loyal readers.

Here are the details:

Promo code: CigarCraigBlog (enter in promo code box in shopping cart)

10% off next order

Expires 6/30/11

Head on over to http://www.stogieboys.com and have a look. Paul also provided me with some of their Stogie Register Cigar Journals to give away, so leave a comment and I’ll select a random bunch of people to send these to. I’ll announce how many when I announce the winners sometime on Sunday, April 24, 2011. These will be mailed via USPS media mail because I ain’t made of money ya know!

That’s enough for now, I have a lot of exciting things coming up in the near future so stay tuned!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

7 Comments

Filed under Contest, Events, Review, Stores, Take a Cigar For a Walk

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Contest, Edge, Maria Mancini, Old Havana Cigars, rocky patel, Stogie Boys, Stogie Register

by CigarCraig | September 17, 2010 · 6:37 pm

The Week’s Cigars: Camacho, Murcialago, CAO – Friday, September 17, 2010

Sunday evening my family went to our local park to see the final installment of the Concerts in the Park series which featured Liverpool Beat, a Philadelphia area Beatles tribute band. I took along a Camacho Connecticut 11/18 to smoke during the show. Both the band and the cigar were excellent. The 11/18 is a perfecto shape of sorts, looks like a toro with a bulging middle (not unlike myself), at 6″ x 48/54/48 ring gauge. The Connecticut wrapper, which was flawless, tempers the strength of the blend a bit, but it’s still a formidable cigar strength-wise. I like the Camacho line quite a bit, but the lines that lean more toward medium are my favorites, the Havana line, Connecticut and, yes, the Corojo Candela are cigars that suit my palate the best. The band played a rousing set of early Beatles hits in costume and in character and were very entertaining. You can see my wife’s review of the band on her site Beatles-Freak.com.

On Thursday I noticed a tweet from Eddie Ortega (@eddieor) of EO Brands that he was traveling to the Philly area and visiting a local shop. My son and I took the 20 minute drive to Old Havana Cigars in West Chester to say hello. Eddie greeted us like an old friend. I picked up a handful of Murcialago robustos and lit one up (it was the traditional “buy 3, get one” deal, I got 3 robustos and got a free 601 Robusto). I lit up the Murcialago and hung out with Eddie for a while. Old Havana Cigars is a nice shop with a spacious lounge in the back. The walk-in humidor is also quite large and seemed well stocked. I have only stopped into this shop once before and found their prices on the high side, but I’m a cheap bastard and am easily sticker-shocked. The Murcialagos were in the $6 range and the 601s were around $7, which isn’t bad, all things considered. The cigar was very nice. It had a dark Mexican maduro wrapper that was very pretty. The burn was good and it had a nice, full flavor. I gave my son one and he enjoyed it as well. Here’s some cigar math for you: I purchased 3 cigars and got one free. I smoked one and gave one to my son, I walked out with two cigars. My son purchased 3 cigars, got one free, AND Eddie hooked him up with another cigar. He walked out with 5 cigars. Something went horribly wrong for me! Generally the rules of cigar math are that when you go to a herf or an event, no matter how many cigars you smoke or gift, you always seem to come home with more than you took (which, in fairness, I did). I just have to assume that every once in a while there has to be some karmic correction or something. What comes around, goes around. In all seriousness, I take great pleasure in gifting a cigar, and to know that my son enjoyed the cigar and doesn’t mind hanging out with his old dad for an evening is worth much more to me than the cost of a fine cigar. I took a little tangent there… It was a very nice evening hanging out with Eddie, who is a great guy and quite a character, as well as the folks at the shop. We spent quite a while chatting with one of the locals, a lawyer we’ll call “Alex”. Chatting with “Alex” reinforced my opinion that cigars can bring folks together that perhaps normally wouldn’t have the chance to interact with one another. We came across so many little things we had in common in a brief chat that it was pretty incredible. All in all it was a nice way to spend a rainy Thursday evening.

This Just In!

In the “new inmates in the humidor” department, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy a box of Chateau Real Small Club Coronas on JR Cigars Dutch Auction this week. As I’m sure you know, I really enjoy this line and I fear that it is going away. I’ll get some confirmation on that, but I picked up the box of 32 for under $50 delivered, which I thought was a dynamite deal for a cigar I like. Heck, I’ve paid more than that for cigars I don’t like! I also threw in a couple of cheap Klip-it key ring punch cutters to make me feel better about the $8.95 shipping charge. Believe it or not, in 15 years of smoking cigars I’ve never owned a punch. I figured for a whopping $1.25 I’d get a couple and see how they work. s I’m writing this I’m enjoying a CAO Black Bengal that I punched. I have not particularly enjoyed this cigar in the past, but this one is very nice. I doubt very much that the punch has anything to do with that, perhaps a couple more months in the humidor has helped, or maybe something else. This is a nice, medium smoke that I’ve been enjoying on my deck as I type. The burn has been dead even and except for a little flakiness in the ash, it’s exceeded my expectations. The punch will find a home on my key ring for sure.