Tag Archives: Powstanie

by Craig Vanderslice | August 3, 2022 · 6:00 pm

PCA 2022: Powstanie/Cigar Hustler with Mike Szczepankiewicz

Mike Szczepankiewicz of Cigar Hustler/Powstanie Cigars is another one of those guys in the cigar industry who’s a triple threat. Mike has a podcast, a store and a brand (the later two co-owned with his brother, Greg). I’ve known Mike for a few years and I find him to be a likable fellow. It’s nice when you find someone who has the same muscular physique (of course, I kid. I haven’t set foot in a gym since high school). After an interesting interaction with Mike, which I may or may not go into some day, we had a brief chat about all of his various projects.

Again, thanks to Ed O’Neal for manning the camera for me. I think the videos he shot look much better than the ones I do solo (the front facing camera has a lower resolution, and the angles are a problem, I need to get a better tripod). Also thanks to Mike and his crew for taking a few minutes and having my back.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, Cigar Hustler, cigars, Powstanie

by Craig Vanderslice | March 1, 2020 · 12:18 pm

Some Powstanie Cigars at Philadelphia Cigar & Tobacco Company Event

Friday afternoon I traveled to Northeast Philadelphia to the Philadelphia Cigar & Tobacco Company shop for the event they were having with Mikes Szczepankiewicz and Palmer. Mike Szczepankiewicz is one of the owners of Cigar Hustlers cigar shop in Deltona Florida, and the Powstanie cigar brand, which is made at the Nica Sueña factory in Esteli. Mike Palmer is Mike Szczepankiewicz’s co-host on the Cigar Hustler’s Podcast, which is in my regular podcast rotation. There’s two things that I’m really spoiled with, one is that I really like smoking cigars and knowing the people behind the brands, and the other is listening to podcasts where I know the people behind the voices. I’m very fortunate to have had opportunities to know a lot of the people who make cigars and present podcasts. There’s nothing special about me, anyone could have put themselves in the position to know these people, and I’m not particularly outgoing by nature. Anyway, when I know the people I’m listening to I feel like I’m listening to friends, more so than when I haven’t really met them. Oddly, when I do meet them, I feel like I know them already, which is awkward, because it’s not always reciprocal. Enough about that. I got the the Philadelphia Cigar & Tobacco Company early, because it seems to take a really long time to get there from my house. I can be in downtown Philly in 40 minutes on a good day, but it took over an hour to get to this location, 33 miles away. I had visited the shop several years ago, back when Bryan Scholle was doing the Studio Tabac rolling events for Oliva (June 2013). The setup of the store has changed since then, the checkout counter is in the humidor now, and the lounge is set up differently. I selected a Powstanie Broadleaf Belicoso and joined the gentlemen in the lounge, where much spirited ball-busting was ensuing amongst the indigenous population. It was entertaining. The Powstanie cigars are made at the Nica Sueña factory, where CroMagnons are made, and this cigar was just brilliant. I really enjoyed it very much. It was full-bodied and rich and right up my alley. I would have liked this in the toro, but the Belicoso was the only size they had. I went back and bought more later, along with some of the Warbear (Wojtek) which I smoked next. The Broadleaf Belicoso is 5½”x 54 with a Broadleaf Maduro wrapper and, I’m guessing, Nicaraguan binder and fillers? It was a fantastic smoke.

I introduced myself to Mike and Mike and chatted with them for a bit, then delved into the Powstanie Wojtek, or Warbear. I figured I wasn’t going to drive an hour to smoke one cigar and leave right after they arrived. I’m not going to comment too much on the flavor of this 5″x 50 perfecto, I’ll smoke another one another time on a clean palate and maybe give my impressions. It’s a barber pole wrapper consisting of Habano and San Andrés, so it’s pretty subtle, you have to look for the difference as there isn’t a lot of color contrast. It did really enjoy the cigar, although after smoking a full bodied Broadleaf cigar, there’s no really getting a good handle on any real flavors. Of course, the construction was perfect, when was the last time you had a poorly made cigar from Skip Martin’s factory? He’s got the whole ISO9001/Lean Manufacturing/Six Sigma thing going on in the factory down there, I imagine it to be quite impressive, hopefully one day I’ll get back down to Esteli for a visit. Anyway, I enjoyed meeting Mike and Mike (super nice dudes) and smoking the Powstanie cigars and hanging out at Philadelphia Cigar and Tobacco CO., but I wanted to get. home and watch the majority of the Flyers beating the Rangers (hopefully they do as well today on national television!).

Yesterday I was putting away the cigars I picked up at the previous evening’s event, which I need to stop buying, and I held out one of the Powstanie Habano Toros and took a bit of a walk with it. It’s been quite a while since I smoked the Habano, I recall picking up a few of these at BnB cigars a few years ago and enjoyed it, but not as much as this Toro. This cigar was impressive! I really enjoyed it, and I’m not sure if it was the size, the former was a Belicoso, I’d have to dig around, there may be one left someplace. The Toro is 6″ x 52, perfect size for me. It has a Habano wrapper, Indonesian binder with Dominican criollo, Estelí ligero and filler from Condega and Jalapa. This had a nice sweetness that I liked, and rich tobacco flavors throughout the smoke and was really a very nice cigar. I highly recommend this, and these are widely available, it seems, if not in your better brick and mortar shop, they are in the larger online shops (or Cigar Huslter’s web store). Very different from the other cigars from Nica Sueño, but equally as awesome. I had initially underestimated this cigar, or when I smoked it 3 years ago I was just coming off a cold. Powstanie is Polish for “rise or “uprising”, and I’m not going to go so far as to say they were so good that “it moved”, but they are really good cigars.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, Cigar Hustler, cigars, Philadelphia Cigar and Tobacco Co., Powstanie

by CigarCraig | January 4, 2017 · 8:54 pm

Happy New Year! An old Liga Privada, a Guáimaro and a Powstanie

Well, I had an exciting New Years, mostly involving removing the old drywall and insulation from my living-room, putting in new insulation, all in preparation for new drywall which is going in now. I managed to get a little cold in the process which, thankfully, seems to be short-lived. I celebrated progress on the house and New Years Eve with an Opus X that has been in the humidor for a few years. This was a cedar wrapped Opus X, but it was only 5¾ x 48 or 50, so I really don’t know which one it was. This one was given to me by Mitchell Orchant, who is the UK distributor for Fuente, so maybe it was a special size for the UK market. It was a really good cigar, whatever it was, a great way to end a year with a lot of changes for me personally, professionally and for the cigar industry.

After a long day of tearing down a ceiling and putting up insulation, I dug deep in the humidor and lit up a Liga Privada No. 9 Tubo that Steve Saka gave me at the 2012 IPCPR show (I think). This year the tubos went into regular production, but at the time, the only way to get one was from Steve’s shirt pocket. This was probably the finest example of the No.9 toro I’ve smoked. It was smooth as silk and the aging in the tube didn’t hurt it one bit. In most cases, I’ll buy two Nica Rusticas over one Liga Privada No.9 every day, but it’s not every day you get to smoke a cigar handed to you by the guy it was blended for specifically. Truly a great way to start a year, you have to smoke a great cigar on New Years, right?

I had Monday off in observance of the holiday, so I finished up the insulation (had to run out to Home Depot as I used all my staples the day before. Helpful hint: an electric staple gun saves potential carpal tunnel, a tool I inherited from my dad, who’s wisdom I appreciate and greatly miss. I cleaned up and took a nice walk with a cigar I picked up at B and B Cigars in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia when I went there a few weeks ago to hang out with Saka. Vince recommended a few cigars made at Nica Sueno, which is jointly owned my Skip and Mike of RoMaCraft and Esteban Disla. The cigar I chose was the Guáimaro Robusto, at 5″ x 52 with a San Andrès wrapper, Brazilian Arapiraca binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers (note to Will Cooper: I believe Nica Sueno is in Esteli, Nicaragua, not the Dominican Republic. See his excellent article on this line here). If you like the offerings from Nica Sueno, give this one a try. It has some great dark cocoa flavors, but seemed smoother to me than, say, a Cromagnon. Perfectly put together and quite a pleasure to smoke.

The cold came on pretty hard Tuesday, so I went with something familiar and plentiful in my humidor, and I can’t recommend the new Fonseca Nicaragua enough. It had enough flavor to cut through the cold, but wasn’t overwhelming. Feeling better tonight, I decided to venture into another cigar from Nica Sueno that I picked up at B and B. The Powstanie Habano Belicoso is a 5 ¼ x 54 belicoso with a Habano wrapper, Indonesian binder with Dominican criollo, Estelí ligero and filler from Condega and Jalapa. This was made for Mike Szczepankewicz, co-owner of Cigar Hustler, and there is a Broadleaf iteration for his brother Greg, which I need to seek out. This line is being distributed nationally in a limited manner, and I think B and B is one of the few retailers, at least around me, that has them. I found this to be quite a good smoke, medium bodied with a load of flavor. It had a little burn deviation that fixed itself, otherwise it burned perfectly and was very enjoyable. Vince at B and B (not to be confused with B & B Tobacco) has curated a pretty amazing selection and ships. Check out their website and shop with confidence.