Tag Archives: punch

A Few Cigars International Exclusives: MAXX, Punch and Man O’ War

The next series of retailer driven reviews are brought to you by Cigars International. I was approached by Scott, a web guy at CI, and he sent along some of their exclusive products. Of course, my CDO (that’s OCD in the correct, alphabetical order) makes me worry too much about the order that I smoke the cigars, so it’s a constant battle. Should I smoke them alphabetically? Lightest to Darkest? Shortest to longest? I decided to smoke them in the order of my own personal interest level. I hadn’t previously smoked, nor in most cases even heard of most of the included cigars. So I started with the one which intrigued me the

buy lasix online https://belugasp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/png/lasix.html no prescription pharmacy

most.

 

The Alec Bradley MAXX Brazil was a beautiful, dark robusto. Whether I’ve ever stated it publicly or not I don’t know, but the robusto is my default size. 4”-5½” x 49-54, although a rather broad range, is the size range I find myself reaching for regularly. I rarely have the time to commit to a larger cigar, although I do like toros, and torpedos. I love the occasional corona or lancero too. I guess it would be safer to say my favorite size range is 4” to 7” x 38 to 60 ring. I’ve gotten silly and I digress. The MAXX Brazil was a fantastic smoke. It had that nice balance of flavor and strength. it’s not a heavy smoke, but

very tasty and very satisfying. I loved the dark and rich cocoa flavors. This cigar suits my palate just about perfectly, and they are quite fairly priced, going for $3.00 to $5.00 each.

 

The next cigar I selected was a Punch Bareknuckle, this example being the Belicoso, weighing in at 5” x 50. Where the MAXX was smooth as butter, this Punch was a powerhouse. Despite the fact that the picture on the website shows a cigar with a smoking ¾” ash and an uncut cap, and I don’t care for footbands (another inconsistency in said photo) this is also an outstanding cigar. If you like the standard Punch line, this will appeal to you as well. It’s got a little more oomph, maybe a more concentrated flavor. Burn and draw were perfect and the belicoso shape was fun and interesting. Another winner.

 

Third up was the Man O’ War Side Projects Little Devil. This was a corona which fought with the previous two for my interest, but something in my head told me that this would be a tasty smoke, it being from A.J. Fernandez. I can’t think of a cigar from A.J. that I haven’t liked. I lit this cigar up and BAM!, there was a blast of loamy, musty, earthy tobacco goodness from the uncut foot. All that extra wrapper folded over the foot really shows how much flavor that Habano wrapper has.  This cigar also burned very well and was very nicely presented with the unfinished foot and the little pig-tail head.  These are still fairly priced at around $4.  Steve Saka once told me that coronas cost almost as much to make as larger cigars, but they have to be priced quite a bit lower because of the percep

buy singulair online https://belugasp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/png/singulair.html no prescription pharmacy

tion that a smaller cigar has to cost a lot less than a larger one. So the people who buy larger cigars actually subsidize those of us who buy smaller ones!  Anyway, this was a fun cigar to smoke.

 

I have two more cigars to smoke, I’ll cover those in Sunday’s installment.  Tomorrow evening I’m going to visit International Tobacco in the King Of Prussia mall.  This mall is one of the largest in the country, and it’s nice to have a shop in the mall where one can stop and smoke a cigar.  They are having a Camacho event and I certainly like Camacho cigars.  Probably an uninteresting fact, but the very first cigar I reviewed online was a Camacho Monarca back in 1996 when Steve Saka held a blind taste test on the alt.smokers.cigars news group, which eventually ended up on the now defunct CigarNexus website.  I loved the Camacho, but one of the other cigars in the test was a Havana Montecristo No.2 that I called a dogrocket because it w

as so terrible.  Anyway, thanks to Scott at CI for letting me try these cigars, they were all new to me and I think I found some gems.  Is this post a big CI commercial? Maybe, but the cigars are good and well priced, worth a look if you have the chance.

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

Share

7 Comments

Filed under Review, Stores

A Xikar Executive Lighter and A Little of This and a Little of That


When we left off on Sunday, I had a cold coming on, and it came on in full force that day, but the worst of it passed quickly.  I still didn’t really feel like smoking too many cigars, so I’m left with not a lot to talk about today.  So I figured it would be a good enough time to showcase a piece of equipment I’ve been using lately, a red Xikar Executive lighter.

 

I won this lighter at an event at the Wooden Indian a few months ago and have used it pretty regularly with generally good results.  The single jet flame is more than adequate to light and touch up a cigar, it has plenty of horsepower and even works OK in a light breeze.  It seems to run through fuel pretty quickly, but many jet flame lighters do, but I find myself filling this one more than other lighters.  I’m going to guess that this is an old model, it looks like the Executive II has replaced it and has a fuel window, which is a welcome improvement.  Another little thing I’ve notic

buy desyrel online https://ozgurmd.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/png/desyrel.html no prescription pharmacy

ed is that it’s finish is already starting to chip, and I’ve been VERY careful with this lighter.  I make sure to put it in it’s own pocket in my pants, and don’t throw it in the drawer with other things.  It’s still gotten a couple chips, but the important thing is that it works well to light a cigar. If I have occasion to need a fancy lighter, I’ll just pull out the gold Dupont….I can’t even finish the sentence…I don’t have a gold Dupont lighter….wouldn’t know what to do with one if I did!  I bet they don’t do any better job of lighting a cigar.  As an aside, a few years back I was in Vegas and stopped into the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop of Pawn Stars fame, and they had a Punch Dupont lighter.  It had a $3000 price tag on it, but they would have let me have it for $2500.  For that kind of money it better have MY name on it!  Anyway, I like the Xikar lighter, it’s been reliable and easier to put in my pocket than my other favorite lighter (see my post about that lighter).  This review was not solicited by Xikar, I won this as an event attendee, I bought some cigars and got a raffle ticket!

 

Speaking of Punch, head on over to http://www.punchcigars.com/tailgating/ and sign up to win a cool six-pack of Punch cigars. They are giving one away every day until December 28, 2012.  I saw these at the IPCPR show and it is a really neat presentation. It comes with an assortment of Punch cigars, a cutter and a bottle opener.  It’s a very cool piece, go try to win one or pick one up if you see it in your local shop!

 

On a sad note, we lost one of our feline family members last night.  Frank was a good companion for the last 16 years and was never too far from my lap whether I was on the porch

buy zydena online https://ozgurmd.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/png/zydena.html no prescription pharmacy

enjoying a cigar, or on the couch watching TV.  He even made a few cameo appearances in my CAO Last Stick Standing video.  He was pretty straight laced, when the other cats were rolling around in the catnip, he would have nothing to do with it.  But he did seem to like sitting on my lap while I smoked.  He had a good, long life and we will miss him.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

Share

4 Comments

Filed under Accessories, IPCPR, News, Review

IPCPR 2012 – A La Sirena Merlion and Someone Wins Some Cigars!

Friday evening, the start of a holiday weekend, the (sigh) end of summer, all good reasons to spark up a good cigar.  One of the cigars I’ve really been looking forward to smoking from the IPCPR show is the Merlion from La Sirena and Miami Cigar and Co.  The sample I smoked was the Toro size, measuring 5½” x 54, which is a nice size for a late summer evening.  The cigars are made at the La Aurora factory with Ecuadoran Corojo wrapper, a Brazilian Sumatra binder and Dominican Corojo, Dominican Criollo, Nicaraguan ligero and Brazilian Mata Fina fillers.  It’s a very nice cigar.  I could certainly taste the influence of the La Aurora factory in the blend,

there’s a signature flavor that I’m familiar with that stands out.  It performed perfectly and was a nice, satisfying smoke. Another winner from Arielle Ditkowich and the folks at Miami Cigar and Co.  Arielle took a few moments to talk to me at the show, here’s the video.

 

 

Thank you, Arielle, for being one of my first few interviews at the show. Keep making tasty smokes!

 

buy tadalista online https://chinaacucenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/pdf/tadalista.html no prescription pharmacy

Contest

 

I know, nobody is interested in video of me talking to a lovely lady about cigars, you just want to know who won this weeks contest!  I was pretty amazed by the response, especially considering I was pretty vague about what the prize was (and I’m sorry, there will not be a Taboada in the prize pack! I had one and that was it).  What is in the package is a pair of Tortuga LE 2011 torpedoes from Victor Vitale, along with a selection of General Cigar Co. goodies, including some new releases and special cigars that are only available at special events. I also threw in a few favorites from my humidors.  As usual, I’ve consulted with the Random Number Generator at Random.org which has produced the number 15, which corresponds to Christian Logay by my figuring.  Congrats Christian!  Please send me your contact info so I can get this in the mail to you!   Again, thanks to everyone for reading along and making the last 3 years very special for me.

 

That’s it for now!  Have a great Labor Day weekend.

 

CigarCraig

 

Share

4 Comments

Filed under Contest, IPCPR, Review, Video

A Gran Habano, a Broadway Series and a Contest Winner!

Sunday was a beautiful day. I slept in a bit after working at my part time job until 3am, went out to breakfast with my lovely wife, then came home to have a nice cigar before settling in to watch the Flyers playoff game. I had a Gran Habano Gran Reserva torpedo floating around the humidor that one of my loyal readers had shared with

buy trazodone online https://bondchc.com/language/overrides/html/trazodone.html no prescription pharmacy

me. Todd at Kutztown Tobacconist  recommended this same cigar to me, so it looked like a good cigar for a nice afternoon. It turns out, I made a good choice. The cedar sleeve came off and underneath was a nice, clean wrapper leaf, very pretty. It was smooth, well balanced and flavorful. It went well with the bottle of Appalachian Brewery Ginger Beer, which I found to be a little sweeter than I’d prefer, but a nice, tasty g

buy xenical online https://bondchc.com/language/overrides/html/xenical.html no prescription pharmacy

inger beer. I still prefer the bite of a nice Reeds Extra Ginger Brew, but this one is a nice change of pace. The Flyers game was fantastic…

 

Monday I selected a Broadway Series by La Aurora, which was a gift from my bro Barry Stein, formerly of acigarsmoker.com, currently of Miami Cigar and Co. First, let me say that I really like the La Aurora Company, and Miami Cigar And Co. All the folks involved with these companies are top-notch. I have smoked La Aurora cigars for years, the first box of cigars I ever purchased was La Aurora Bristol Especiales back around 1996. There’s something about the flavor profile of a lot of the cigars from La Aurora that just doesn’t float my boat. I don’t quite know what it is, the construction is always excellent, and they generally burn well. I’ve had this cigar before, which was made by La Aurora for the New York tobacconists to be able to sell at a reasonable price in their high-tax environment. I like it. Maybe I’m starting to “get” the flavor profile from La Aurora, there were several times when I got a flavor that caught my interest. Really nice smoke, if you can find these, try a few. I’ll keep trying the cigars from these companies for sure. Thanks again to Barry for the smoke!

 

 

 

Contest!

 

It’s Wednesday, and I promised to announce the winner of Sunday’s contest. I was surprised by the number of entries, thank you all for reading and leaving a note. So I’ve consulted the great Random.org’s random number generator and it tells me that comment number 5  is the winner.  Doug Bryant:  please e-mail me with your address so I can get these goodies out to you!  Many thanks to the companies who, either directly or indirectly, made this contest possible!   Camacho, Joya de Nicaragua/Drew EstateStogieBoys.comGurkhaOlivaThe GriffinsJoya de Nicaragua, and General Cigar Co.  As promised, a similar, but doubled, package will go to Cigars4Troops.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

Share

9 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

It’s Contest Time Again! Cigars and Swag

I realized I haven’t had a contest for a while, and I came across some stuff laying around the CigarCraig.com herfquarters, so it’s time to give stuff away!  This is a multi-vender prize package, there’s a calendar from Camacho, there’s a hat and cutter from Joya de Nicaragua/Drew Estate, there’s a Cigar Journal from StogieBoys.com.  I’ve also put together a cigar pack with cigars from my humidor from Gurkha, Oliva, The Griffins, Joya de Nicaragua, and General Cigar Co., including a La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros that is not in regular production (Sumatra and Broadleaf…delicious!).  All cigars are ones I smoke pretty regularly and enjoy.   I’ll put together a similar cigar package to send to Cigars4Troops, but I’ll double the amount of cigars, and try to scrounge up some cutters.

It’s easy.  Leave a comment, and on Wednesday, April 18  I’ll select a winner randomly from the entrants.  The winner will get the stuff pictured above, and I’ll send at least 20 cigars to Cigars4Troops.

If you haven’t already, get on over to https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/#!/petition/not-allow-fda-regulate-premium-cigars/BKspSSnN and sign the petition.

 

That’s all I got, good luck, go Flyers!

 

CigarCraig

Share

55 Comments

Filed under Contest