Tag Archives: Rome y Julieta

by Craig Vanderslice | December 18, 2023 · 7:00 am

Contest! Travel Humidor, Cap and Coozy from Cigars.com

It’s that time of year, and thanks to the folks at Cigars.com, we have a cool giveaway for you! They have provided me with a Montecristo Travel Humidor, a RoMEo Cap, and a Romeo y Julieta Can Coozy. I have seen a lot of travel humidors, but I was surprised when I opened this one up and it had wood inside instead of foam! This is a really nice item. I think everyone knows me well enough by now, I’ll be adding a few surprises to the humidor before I send it to the lucky winner! I can’t send out packages without cigars! Don’t worry, they will be consistent with the theme of the contest! This should make someone’s holiday a little brighter!

The usual process applies: Leave a comment on this post to enter. One entry per person, you must be of legal age in your jurisdiction, and the winner must contact me with your shipping details. I’ll announce the winner on Sunday, December 24, 2023. I might be able to find a little something to give away next week too!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, CIgars.com, Contest, Montecristo, Rome y Julieta, Romeo

by Craig Vanderslice | February 14, 2021 · 10:59 am

Romeo y Julieta 1875 Nicaragua and a Partagas Serie D No. 6

Let’s talk a about a couple of completely different cigars! Yesterday I was out and about and I decided to stop in my local shop on the way by and see if they had anything new. There are shops in the same chain a few miles east and west that I would probably have had a better chance of finding newer stuff, but I had been running errands for a while and was tired of driving around. The only thing that struck me as new (judging by the self talker that said “new arrival”, which may or may not have actually been “new”), was the Romeo y Julieta 1875 Nicaragua. I picked up a few toros, what the hell. Historically, there have not been a lot of Romeos that have tripped my trigger in the 25 or so years I’ve been smoking cigars, at least not the ones made outside Cuba. I have to confess an affection for the RyJ Coronitas en Cedros as I bought a box to share at my daughter’s wedding that was spectacular, so that’s a sentimental favorite. It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, what’s more romantic than a cigar named after a couple who committed suicide together in the name of love? Anyway, the cigar is a 6” x 52 Nicaraguan puro made by Plasencia for Altadis, who is owned by someone now.

Quick aside: with all the discussion of General Cigar splitting off a bunch of their brands into the new Forged Cigar Company, has anyone considered that they could be positioning their portfolio of legacy Cuban brands for sale? It seems funny to me that they have placed all of the old Cuban brands under this umbrella, leaving the brands that have the brand ambassadors, like Macanudo, CAO and Cohiba (not a legacy Cuban brand, but a post-embargo brand), with General Cigar. It seems like a nice package deal to sell to, I don’t know, maybe whoever just bought the Altadis brands like RyJ, Upmann and Montecristo (along with the portion of Habanos). It would tie things up pretty nicely from a trademark standpoint. Just a thought, probably doesn’t make sense, but what makes sense? Wait, Punch isn’t included in Forged, that throws a monkey wrench into my theory, and why does “Forged” have to be so similar to “Foundry”? Couldn’t they come up with something more original? There’s something funny about the Punch trademark that I can’t recall. It’s all very confusing.

Back to the 1875 Nicaragua, it’s a nice cigar. Oddly, still not my cuppa tea for some reason, but a perfectly good cigar. The construction was perfect, and it smoked for a good two hours plus. Why is it that the cigars you love don’t seem to smoke long enough and the one that you tolerate last forever? It was woody, with some subtle spices, but more on the leathery/earthy side than I prefer, which seems to be the trend with the RyJs to me. I think the Reserva Real Nicaragua was one I liked, which seems consistent because I recall liking the original Reserva Real. Different strokes, right?

Back in May of 2018 my wife and I took a trip to Rome, Italy to see the sights. Of course, I took some cigars with me, but I picked some up while I was there. Toscanos were very inexpensive there, and I bought some that I hadn’t seen here. I’m pretty sure I had Toscano Garibaldi’s before they were available in the US. I think a 5-pack of Toscanos was €7 or something. I probably still have some I haven’t opened. That was also at the time that you could still legally buy Cuban cigars abroad. I don’t desire a lot of Cubans, but I do like one now and then, so I picked up a five pack of Montecristo No.5 and a five pack of Partagas Serie D. No.6, both small cigars. I hadn’t smoked any of them until last night when I was looking for a short smoke and came across the pack of D No. 6 and opened it up. This is 3½” x 50, a nice little smoke for under an hour. Of course, it’s a Cuban puro, and one never knows if you’re going to get the one that’s plugged or not. Cuban Roulette? This one wasn’t, and it was a good smoke, typical Cuban twang, and what I like in a Cuban Partagas, which is my favorite Cuban brand anyway. This was a pretty cool little smoke, I’m sorry I didn’t get more than one of the five packs.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as altadis, Altadis USA, cigar, cigars, Forged, general, Partagas, Rome y Julieta, Serie D No. 6

by Craig Vanderslice | January 3, 2021 · 10:59 am

New Year’s Cigars, A Don Lino Africa and a La Aurora 107 Nicaragua

Happy New Year and welcome to the 12th year of CigarCraig.com. Hopefully everything keeps going on the same as it has been for the past 11! I hope everyone had safe and healthy celebrations on New Years Eve, I fell asleep on the couch after smoking a really good cigar. I dug to the bottom of one of the rarely ventured into humidors and found a Havana Romeo y Julieta Tubed Churchill that has been there for well over a decade that was simply sublime. I figured with everything happening in the world it was as good a time as any to smoke this cigar. It was floral and woody (cedar sleeve in the tube, ya know), burned perfectly and was absolutely wonderful. I find that I’m more often than not disappointed by Havanas lately, but this older cigar was exceptional. I have a few very old Havanas in the humidor yet, I hope they provide a similar experience.

For my first cigar of the new year I selected a Liga Privada Serie Unico Year of the Rat. This is a Corona Gorda, 5 1/2 x 46, with a Broadleaf wrapper, Brazilian binder and Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers. One may think that this cigar is in the same family as the Dirty Rat and Ratzilla, but those two have the Stalk Cut Habano wrapper and this has a blend closer to the No.9. It’s a really good, bold cigar, lots of dark espresso flavor and very meaty. I would love to have tried the original 2016 version that was made for the lounge at the Florida Panther’s Sunrise Center Arena, but I never made it to a game, and I don’t know if they ever managed to sell any there anyway! I’m sure they are pretty much the same as they were then. I had one of these art the TPE show and it was quite good too. A nice way to start the year. I could do without the foil wrap, only because it’s a pain to remove, but it looks spiffy.

Yesterday I stopped into Top Shelf Cigars in Skippack, PA for a visit with Jim Cronin, the owner. This shop, in a kitschy little village with crafty shops and restaurants, has been there for 18 years, and has a very nice classic selection of cigars. I say classic, in that there is not a lot of boutique selections, in a location like this, I imagine that recognizable brands sell better than more cigar geek type of stuff. I still was able to find some cigars I hadn’t smoked yet (although nothing on my top ten list), the Miami Cigar & Co. Don Lino Africa, which I smoked in the Duma Robusto size. This is a new version of this cigar, if you looked way back at one of my very early blog posts, you’d find that I bought a five pack of Africas at Holts, but those are long gone. These are now made by AJ Fernandez, with a Habana 2000 wrapper, Cameroon binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. The old version was far more “Cameroony” than the new, although there is still a hint of the Cameroon sweetness from the binder. It was a good performing cigar with a nice flavor. I enjoyed the Robust and brought home a toro to try another time.

Since the topic of La Aurora’s distribution with Miami Cigar and Company (who owns the Don Lino Africa brand) came up, and whether Miami Cigar Co. was going to continue to distribute La Aurora after letting their sales staff go recently, I figured I’d smoke the new La Aurora 107 Nicaragua. I thought I’d read that La Aurora was sticking with Miami Cigar, but there seems to some confusion in the market about that. Without a sales force, does either brand really have that much of a market presence to keep up? Has 2020 given companies the notion that Zoom meetings can replace face to face interaction, both in the way of sales calls and in store events? It’ll be interesting to see, and I feel really bad for all the great sales reps who find themselves out of work. Anyway, I had picked up a couple of the La Aurora 107 Nicaraguas in the Gran Toro, 6” x 58 size. This is a Nicaraguan puro. I probably should have gotten a smaller size, because this one took half the cigar to really get going. The first half of the cigar was mild to the point of almost being without flavor. When it finally got there, it was very tasty, nice, earthy flavors, although not awfully distinctive or overly interesting. I’ll try a few more in different sizes, but this might fall into the 50% or so of La Aurora cigars that I don’t really like.

Well, that’s all for today. There is one more thing. I tried to do a Reader’s Poll, which I need to either find a better way, or abandon completely. The winner, by the way, was the Southern Draw Rose of Sharon. It was unanimous, as there was only one response. Considering it’s a delicious cigar, definitely in my top five Connecticut cigars, I’ll let it stand. With that, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 107 Nicaragua, cigar, cigars, Don Lino Africa, drew estate, La Aurora, liga privada, Miami Cigar and Co, Rome y Julieta, Serie Unico, Year of the Rat

by CigarCraig | October 8, 2017 · 10:46 am

A Special Havana Cigar, a Kristoff Event and Invaluable Auctions

Back in 2007 I had very little idea what a blog was, nor would I have imagined I’d be writing one, but I was still a little over ten years into my cigar obsession (no relation). I was known in my circle of friends as the go to cigar guy. So when my only daughter announced her wedding plans, I went to work myself and quickly procured a box of Romeo y Julieta Coronitas en Cedro to share on the special day. Mitchell Orchant of C-Gars Ltd in the UK had recently partnered in the Casa del Habanos in Hamburg, Germany, I only would buy Havanas from a trusted source, and Germany had a much better pricing structure than the UK. So the Romeo y Julieta Coronitas en Cedro is a Petit Cetros in Cubas Vitolas de Galera, or a Petite Corona measuring a shade over 5″ and 40 ring gauge. I selected this cigar for a couple of reasons: small format to not spend too much time away from the reception, the presentation is nice with the cedar sleeves, it’s a mild and flavorful cigar that can be appreciated by occasional smokers and seasoned veterans alike, and while not the best story of long-term romantic commitment, it’s the most romantic of the Cuban marcas. I passed out the majority of the box, be held on to four of them. Two were smoked when my youngest son turned 18 (he’s 23 now), since his older brother had smoked his first cigar at 18 at his sister’s wedding, it was a tradition. I smoked one Friday evening on my daughter and her husband’s tenth anniversary and the cigar was fantastic. It was smooth and refined, with some floral notes and a hint of the Cuban “twang”. Ten year’s rest didn’t hurt this cigar at all. If I was smart I’d buy a box to bury in the humidor for 10 years. I’m saving the last one for their 20th anniversary!

Photo by Robyn Parsons

Later in the evening I took a drive down the street to Old Havana Cigar Company where they were having a Kristoff event. Glen Case was there with the local rep, Robyn, so I figured it was the excuse I needed to pick up some Kristoff cigars I haven’t tried. I’ve been woefully negligent of this line. No real excuse, I love the Epic line which is made at the same factory (Charles Fairmon cigar factory in Santiago de los Caballeros). I’ve been hearing a bunch about the Pistoff Kristoff for the last year, and had just picked up a couple of the Corona Gordas in the last couple weeks. I lit up a 6 x 60 there at the shop. I met Glen Case at the IPCPR briefly a couple of years ago, but never really got to talk to him, then last summer we were in line together at the hotel check-in and he greeted me like he knew who I was. I don’t expect to be remembered by these cigar company owners who meet hundreds of people, so it always surprises me. It was a fairly quiet event, well attended as there were no open chairs in Old Havana’s rather large lounge. I hung out in the front for a while and talked with Robyn, Tony, the owner, Glen, and another customer. I had a migraine coming on, so I wasn’t at my best, and the Pisstoff, was pissing me off a little as it wasn’t really working right (something I could have mentioned to Glen, but I had another one, and some at home and it wasn’t that bad, just didn’t get a ton of smoke from it). I was into the flavor though, it has a natural fermented San Andrés wrapper (where most are fermented to a maduro), and had a nuts and caramel kind of flavor. I rarely smoke the same cigar twice in a row, but I lit up a Corona Gorda last night while watching the Flyers game on the porch (being able to sit in the screened in porch in October and smoke and watch hockey is a great thing…in shorts, at 10:00pm!). The Corona Gorda is 5½ x 48 and has the Natural San Andrés wrapper, Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan fillers, the 6×60 is…6″ x 60. I’ve been lead to believe that this was a really powerful smoke, but I found it to be on the high side of medium. If it was “deceivingly strong” like the marketing materials state, it deceived me, although I’ll go along with the Full Flavored line, as it was (on the example that burned right…). I also got a Kristoff Cameroon and a couple of Kristoff San Andrés to try. I like the closed foot and pigtail cap that are trademark features across the line.

My wife has been following this auction site called Invaluable, and watches for cigar related items. She pointed out some interesting items to me this week, some from JFK’s humidor. I tend to be skeptical about auctions of cigars claiming to be from JFK, although I’m sure it’s possible, and I guess reputable auction houses would verify such things. My wife got me a really cool little cast iron cigar mold that she won in an auction here, and if you search “cigar” there are all kinds of neat items that come up. A few weeks ago there was a cool 7-20-4 sign on auction that happened to be not far from here. I tipped off Kurt Kendall, who owns the name now, but he missed the auction. I watched it live, but was afraid to bid in case I was bidding against Kurt! Anyway, if you are into auctions and collectibles, this is a site to check out.