Quatro Cinco | CigarCraig's Blog

It was another week of smoking worthy cigars! I’ve been quite fortunate lately, at least as far as cigars go. I was less fortunate on my commute home Thursday when I hit my first deer. I suppose the deer was even less fortunate than me, and it bothers me that it probably died a slow, painful death someplace. I’d have felt better if I had killed it, I think. Some damage to the Yaris, which I had switched to last week after a deer ran in front of me on the scooter. Coming home at dusk around here is no fun on two wheels or four, the deer are everywhere. I think I see about a dozen every day. Anyway, I lit up the new Joya de Nicaragua Quatro Cinco to console myself after the traumatic event. This is a limited edition cigar to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the company. It’s a 6″x54 box pressed cigar with wrapper and binder from Jalapa and barrel aged Jalapa and Esteli fillers. More information can be found here. Of course, I’m a ginormous fan of the Joya de Nicaragua company and their cigars, having had the privilege if visiting the factory on two occasions, so I was quite pleased when a pair of these showed up courtesy of John at Drew Estate (DE is the distributor for JdN, thanks JB!) as only 4500 cigars were produced. I marveled at the quality of this cigar. The draw and burn were perfect. The smoke was smooth and cool, both in flavor and body. It is a refined blend, worthy of it’s heritage. This is a fitting tribute to the company, and if you see these on your tobacconists shelves, give one a try. this is probably (definitely) priced outside my comfort zone, but I think I would shell out to have a few more of them in my humidor.

Friday evening I usually pick out a sure thing, but I was feeling adventurous and decided to try a Crossfire Corojo Toro that was an IPCPR sample. I had an incident at the show where I ended up losing some video files, causing me to run around like a mad fool on the last day of the show (which is a half day) trying to re-do some interviews. It was embarrassing and maddening. Working from memory, I managed to get most of the ones I lost, but Crossfire is one that fell between the cracks. I apologize to those guys and hope to catch up with them again next time. The premise of their operation is that they are a faith based company that puts their profits back into the community where the cigars are made, The Dominican Republic. From their website:

Our mission is to build a hand rolled premium Cigar Company that will make an excellent cigar at an affordable price. We will make the cigar, boxes and labels in the Dominican to be sure that we are investing in the local economy. We will provide employment for local workers and create a family atmosphere where they can be proud to be a part of a company dedicated to giving back.

The cigar is good, and I’m looking forward to trying the rest of the samples. The cigars are made in the Dominican Republic with William Ventura (Rodrigo Cigars, Psyko 7, Project 805) and are well made and have a well balanced flavor. It was a straight medium bodied cigar to me, and flavorful. While it’s not in my wheelhouse, it was a very nice way to spend a Friday evening.

Saturday I had some choices to make. There were Alec Bradley events happening at Famous Smoke Shop‘s Leaf Cigar Bar in Easton, PA as well as an Alec Bradley event at CigarCigars in Phoenixville, PA. After weighing the difference between an hour and a half ride to and from Easton, and a ten minute ride to Phoenixville, the clear choice was to stay close to home and visit with my friend Jonathan “The Player” Lipson at Cigar Cigars. I’ll let the guys from Over a Cigar/The Cigar Lounger cover the Famous event! I bought some of the new Mondial and Raices Cubanas cigars, as well as some Nica Puros and plopped myself on the leather couch and lit up a Mondial Punta Lanza No. 4. This is an expensive cigar, however with the buy 3, get 2 deal it made it a little more reasonable. These had just been received in the store the previous day, so they really needed a little more time to recover, so the second one I bought will spend a few weeks in time out in my humidor, but the one I smoked was very nice. It had a little bit of a tartness that was interesting. Certainly worth a try and I’ll look forward to seeing what a few months rest does for these. I followed it with a Nica Puro, and I really like this cigar. It’s a full flavored cigar that is quite satisfying. I’m finding that I like several of the cigars that have come out recent;y and have “Nica” in the name. These are more reasonably priced and are a must try. I think if I had these, and the American Classic and Sungrown in my humidors all the time, I’d be quite happy. Alec Bradley is doing it right, great product at a great price, and the guys they have on the street are first class. at the IPCPR show they were constantly busy and I couldn’t get an interview, but they threw a hell of a party at the Palms Hotel pool. Just about everyone was there. It might have been nicer with out the loud dance music DJ, but it was a hopping party.

In a very peripherally related note, the 50th anniversary of the death of John F. Kennedy is this week ( know where I was, three months old, either eating, sleeping or pooping!) and a gentleman of my acquaintance just released his book “Changin’ Times: 101 Days That Shaped A Generation” about the time between Kennedy’s assassination and the arrival of the Beatles. If you are a history buff, give this a read. It’s available on Amazon. I could put it in my Amazon store, but then you’d just think this was a sales pitch and it is a little, but I don’t stand to profit. Al’s a great guy, and expert on all things Beatles, and has a unique take on a pivotal time in world history.