Tag Archives: oliva

Winner of Day 13 of CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways!

We’ve finally reached the end of this amazing journey. It was a wild ride, and I’d go so far as to say that this was one of the best cigar related contests out there. Over the course of two weeks we gave away 265 cigars and a bunch of t-shirts, hats, cutters, ashtrays and even a lighter. I could never have pulled off such an enormous project on my own, so I have to thank some people before I announce the final winner for 2012. First my wife, Jennifer, who puts up with my insanity, moderates the new comments while I’m at work and is my greatest supporter.  Thank you for making this year great.  Of course the sponsors need thanking for offering all the great stuff we had to give away. They are:

 

StogieBoys.com 

Foundry Cigars/General Cigar Co.

Tobaccos Mata Fina USA

United Cigar Retailers

Villiger Cigars North America

Toraño Family Cigars

AJ Fernandez Cigars

Emilio Cigars

The Cigar Agency 

NewestCigars.com

CAO Cigars/General Cigar Co.

Oliva Cigars 

Drew Estate

 

All of these folks provided an unprecedented amount of wonderful stuff.  Thank you to all of them for their participation!  The next group that I want to thank are you, my readers!  Without you I’d just be doing all of this for my own amusement, and I get tired of my same old jokes!  Thanks to all who entered the contests.  I hope some of you stick around as I wander through my cigar journey.

 

DE_UndercrownSo, once again I’ve been torturing you with minutia, when all you really want to know is if you won the box of Drew Estate Undercrown and all of the associated goodies that come with it!  We had 98 entries and Random.org selected 87.  By my count that is cigarsonist.  Please send me your contact information so I can ship all this stuff off to you!

 

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, etc.  I’ll be back on Sunday, maybe I’ll put together a list of my favorites of the past year, or something like that.  Hard to say what I may pull out of my sleeve!

 

Until then,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

Share

22 Comments

Filed under Contest

CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways Day 13!!: Drew Estate

The winner of the final day of this year’s CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways prize, a box of Oliva Serie V No. 4 and a box of Oliva Serie V Maduro Especiale 2010 is Ray Holthaus.  Please e-mail me with your contact info so I can ship these to you!

 

…but IS it the final day?  I hate only giving 100% so I’m adding a thirteenth day to this 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways!  It’s  Christmas Eve 2012 , so we have another excellent Drew Estate gift assortment!  There’s another Stinky floor model ashtray, another Undercrown hat and a My Uzi Weighs a Ton hat, two Drew Estate t-shirts (XL), a  Drew Estate Bulletproof cutter and…..a Box of Undercrown Gran Toro!  The cigars alone would make my day!

Thanks again to John Brooke and everyone at Drew Estate for the goodies!   Leave a comment to enter, but don’t check back tomorrow looking for the winner, because I’m talking a day off to celebrate Christmas with my family!  I’ll leave you hanging until I get around to picking a winner!

 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!

CigarCraig

 

httpv://youtu.be/AioTRzrMlBw

Share

98 Comments

Filed under Contest

CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways Day 12: Oliva Cigar Company

It’s the Sunday before Christmas and I’m up early picking a winner and posting yet another day of contests after a late night out at a friend’s in NJ.  Running this contest is a blast for me, but sheesh, I’m glad it’s almost done! Sometime’s I think that it will never end!  The winner of Day 11’s box of CAO Concert Stage Cigars along with hats and t-shirts is czerbe!  Please send me your contact info so I can ship these goodies off to you (or work out a time to meet up for a smoke since you’re not far from me)!

 

It’s Day 12, and to recap real quick, we’ve given away boxes and boxes of cigars! I’ve always tried to make Day 12 special, and I think you’ll agree that today’s presents are quite special!  Oliva Cigar Company has provided us with a box of Oliva Serie V No. 4, which is the corona size in the delicious Serie V line.  As if that wasn’t special enough, we also have a box of (10) Oliva Serie V Maduro Especiale which is a very limited and very hard to find torpedo.  As I said, day 12 is special!

 

 

Thanks to my good friend Mike Staiber and everyone at Oliva for these outstanding boxes of cigars!  This might be your last chance to win something in this year’s series of contests, so leave a comment to enter and check back tomorrow for the winner!

Until tomorrow,

CigarCraig

 

Share

81 Comments

Filed under Contest

Announcement! CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways (and a Los Regalos)

It’s that time of year again folks, it’s time to officially announce the 2012 CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways!  Last year’s contests were pretty spectacular, but this years will be better!  We’ve  got an abundance of samplers, boxes, accessories from all of your favorite companies, and maybe a couple new and interesting items that you haven’t heard of yet.  The rules are simple.  Every day starting Wednesday, December 12, 2012, around 7 AM Eastern Standard Time I will post that days present.  You’re job will be to leave a comment which will serve as your entry.  Feel free to Tweet about it, Post it on Facebook, post it in whatever groups or forums you like, but only the comment counts as an entry.  Also, I can see your IP address on your comments so no stuffing the ballot box please!  One entry per person per day.  My usual contest rules exclude winners from previous contests  for 6 months, this rule is suspended so everyone starts fresh.  However, once you’ve won a present in the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways you are no longer eligible to win.  I know everyone will behave.  Some gifts are being shipped directly from their contributors, and some are being shipped by me.  I will ship items when I get the chance, please remember it’s a busy time of year for all of us!  If you’ve won, it will be announced the next day, so be sure to check back.  The winner will need to e-mail me their name and address at their earliest convenience.

 

Many thanks to the generous sponsors of this event!  I always say, sure, I could do this without them, but it would cost me a FORTUNE!

 

They are (in alphabetical order):

Please visit the National Cigar Museum - www.nationalcigarmuseum.comAJ Fernandez Cigars

CAO Cigars/General Cigar Co.

Drew Estate

Emilio Cigars

Foundry Cigars/General Cigar Co.

NewestCigars.com

Oliva Cigars 

StogieBoys.com 

The Cigar Agency 

Tobaccos Mata Fina USA

Toraño Family Cigars

United Cigar Retailers

Villiger Cigars North America

These folks all went above and beyond as you will see over the coming two weeks.  I get excited about this all year long, and even though it’s a lot of work, it’s so much fun!  Stay tuned for Day 1 on Wednesday and good luck to everyone who participates!

 

One Last Cigar recap:

As much as running contests for 12 consecutive days is almost a full time job (and thanks in advance to my wife for all her help) it allows me to just grab a cigar from the humidor to smoke and enjoy without having to take pictures or really worry about all the particulars.  However, I need to slip  in one last cigar before my hiatus (although I will be reporting on a cigar event I’m attending tomorrow evening).  This week I fired up a Los Regalos Quetzal from Emilio Cigars.  The cigar was a toro size, and had a little firmer draw than I’d have liked.  It was also much milder than I expected.  Other folks whose, palates I respect, have called this medium to full, and I didn’t get that at all.  Perhaps the firm draw caused me to perceive it as mild.  That’s not a complaint, mind you, but illustration of how preconceived notions can color perception.  The cigar burned well and had a pleasing flavor, with little, delicate flavors popping in and out from time to time that kept me on my toes.  Does the draw effect flavor? Absolutely!  Is everyone’s palate different?  Once again, absolutely.  This is a cigar I will revisit, I know a shop not far from here that’s sure to carry them!  I’ll hold off until conditions are better as I didn’t think this was an ideal cold weather cigar. Thanks to Gary Griffith for sending a sample of this cigar for me to try.  He’s been loading me up with samples of the lines he’s distributing and they all seem to have one thing in common:  I love them!

And finally, I’ll leave you with the video I closed last year’s contest series with, Alan Bernhoft’s Christmas Classic, Imagine Christmas.

httpv://youtu.be/AioTRzrMlBw

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

Share

17 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

A La Palina, a Recluse, an Oja and a Nub (and a little Oliva too)

I had this great idea that I’d try out the WordPress app on my iPod Touch.  It looked like it would be a handy idea, and I already use that device every day.  I used it for the majority of the videos from IPCPR show which I though turned out pretty good.  Unfortunately,  I ran into a little glitch where it wouldn’t connect and sync with the server, so I decided to abort that idea and do it the old fashioned way.  I could have easily gotten away with not boring you with that story, but I decided to do it anyway!  I’ve smoked a few cigars since Sunday, so here’s the recap.

 

Sunday evening I was, once again, in the mood for a San Andreas wrapped cigar, so I grabbed the La Palina El Maduro from the IPCPR show. I really wish I could have gotten a few minutes to talk to Bill Paley this year at the show, but both times I went by his booth it was very busy.  Great for them, lousy for me! Considering my affinity for the San Andreas leaf, I was sure I’d enjoy this one.  This is a dark, sweet and spicy cigar, very well made and smoked perfectly. I really enjoyed the heck out of this smoke, it made me happy.

 

We had a couple days of nice weather, I’ll take 50s and 60s in December any time.  I decided to celebrate with an Iconic Leaf Cigar Co. Recluse Kanu #1.  I got this one at the show as well, and I may not have decided to smoke it if I hadn’t gotten a couple more in the mail recently.  This is a very special cigar, this shape is unique in the industry.  Smoking it was akin to smoking a lancero, it’s a very narrow ring gauge on the ends with a swollen middle.  The box press also makes it unique.  It’s a fun cigar to smoke and it is so full of deliciousness that it’s not funny.  It smokes a little bit different than it’s parejo siblings, which are wonderful cigars, and the Brazilian maduro wrapper is savory.  This is a very nice cigar.

 

Continuing on the Brazilian maduro theme, I decided to fire up the last Oja Anniversary perfecto that I had on Tuesday. The weather continued to be unseasonable, so I took my usual walk and sat outside when I was done to savor every last bit  of the cigar.  This is another hard to find cigar, but it’s another tasty maduro that’s perfectly constructed.  I first encountered the owner of this brand on my trip to Cigar Safari in March of 2011, Luis was staying at Drew Estate while he was working with Kiki Berger on his cigars.  I’ve enjoyed quite a few of his cigars, but none quite as much as the Anniversary, which he made to celebrate his first year.  It’s a darned good smoke.

 

On my way home tonight I stopped at a cigar shop that’s on my way home. I’ve been to this shop several times and had mixed experiences.  Since I moved, I actually pass this store every day and today is the first time I’ve stopped in.  I was actually on a special “12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways”  mission where I met my friend and local Oliva rep Mike.  I picked up a couple of the little Oliva Serie G perfectos and enjoyed one while I waited.  This is a great little smoke and was really enjoyable.  Mike and the folks at Oliva out did themselves, by the way.  Stay tuned for their offerings in the contests starting next week.  When I got home I took my walk with a Nub Cameroon 464T to continue the Oliva and Cameroon theme.  This was a great little smoke, but was gone too soon.  I always joked that these would be better if they were longer, but it’s a great tasting cigar that hit the spot.  I love that special little something that Cameroon leaf brings to a cigar.  There’s a nice, sweet kinda nutty flavor that hits the spot.  It’s not often that I smoke two cigars in an evening, but, in my defense, they were both pretty small.

 

That’s it for now, as I said above, the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways starts in one week.  I have a lot of work yet to do, but it’s shaping up to be pretty spectacular, so don’t forget to check back every day and enter.  As the kids are saying (and the folks at Montecristo, evidently) it’s going to be “epic”!!

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

Share

1 Comment

Filed under Review