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by Craig Vanderslice | May 2, 2021 · 10:15 am

Some Blackbird Cigars and a Cigar Auction

I had some other cigars I was going to talk about besides the two or three Blackbird cigars, but I think I’ll save them for another day, as it looks like it’s going to be nice weather and I don’t want to be typing all day! So let’s get right to it! Wednesday evening I went to Cigar Mojo in nearby King Of Prussia, PA to an event featuring Jonas Santana of Blackbird Cigars. I had met Jonas last year at the TPE show and felt like we hit it off, so I wanted to hang out with him again and show my support. I’ve been impressed with the Blackbird line overall, and picked up a few of my favorites, this time in the Gran Toro size. I smoked The Crow in the toro size, as a matter of fact, I bought the last three they had. The Crow is their San Andrés offering, with a habano binder, and Nicaraguan, Pennsylvanian, Corojo and Criollo 98 fillers (before you ask, I’m not clear on where the Corojo and Criollo 98 come from, or what varietals the Nicaraguan and Pennsylvanian are. It’s odd that they mix it up that way in the description but it happens in multilingual scenarios). This is a bold and relatively strong cigar, I like it. The one I smoked had a wrapper split, which was noticed by Wade, one of CigarMojo’s owners, who, despite my protestations, had Mark Weissenberger, who’s the broker for Blackbird Cigars, stick a corona in my pocket to compensate. The wrapper problem turned out to not be an issue at all, it burned right through. I’ll admit that if I were a “normal” consumer I can see where a cracked cigar would be a replaceable event for a retailer, I give more leeway personally. Now, I’m not going to be taken advantage of, if I see a sales clerk drop a cigar I’m going to ask for another one, but I can live with life’s little inconveniences. As I was preparing to leave the event, I went to the table where Jonas and Mark were sitting and they happened to have been live with John Remer of Johnny Smokes Uncut of the Facebook group of the same name. We hadn’t met before, but had been on a Zoom event together recently. He didn’t recognize me, had me on real quick, I left a comment on the live stream which he read eventually, then it dawned on him who I was, and hilarity ensued. It was one of a handful of events I’ve been to over the last year-plus, and it was nice to hang out and meet some people.

I smoked that Blackbird The Crow Corona yesterday. I generally avoid coronas unless I have some specific time constraints, it’s situational. What I like about this “corona” is that it’s more a Lonsdale or Cervantes than corona, at 6″ x 44. This is a great size, in my opinion, two more ring gauge and it would be perfect. Of course, because it burns a little hotter, it seems a little sharper in flavor than the 6″ x 54 Gran Toro, and it occurs to me that I forgot to mention the size of the Gran Toro above, so here it is. I needn’t repeat the wrapper/binder/filler, because it’s the same as above. I had some interruptions and smoke this cigar basically in two sittings and it was as good on the relight after two hours as it was initially, which is something, I guess. I think I almost liked this one better in the Corona, I will have to do more research.

I smoked The Rook later last night in the 6″ x 54 Gran Toro (I wanted to get the size in early before I forgot again, even though it’s the same as the Gran Toro in all the lines). I picked up some Rooks because I’m a Sumatra fan and I had smoked and enjoyed this in the Robusto size before. Like I said, this has a Sumatra Wrapper with a Habano binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. This is a milder cigar than the Crow, which is probably the strongest cigar in their portfolio, but it’s definitely medium bodied. It has a nice sweetness with some creaminess, with a little earthiness too. It’s really very nice. I only bought these in the Gran Toro, and now I’m wondering about the Corona, I’m feeling a little regret. Not too much regret as the Toro is very nice. If you are a Sumatra fan, this is a good one.

Editorial

I’m not generally one to get into cigar auctions, but I recently sold an item (not cigar related) at auction and I thought I’d have a look at Scotty’s Cigars Auctions. Full disclosure: Scotty’s is an advertiser, but this is unsolicited, and I took part in this auction 100% as a consumer without their prior knowledge. I actually did it out of curiosity to see if people were looking at this feature, and, sadly, I don’t think people are! So I’m here (now that I won and got a great deal 😁) to tell you to go there and keep an eye out for their auctions! There were a couple great deal that have been missed out on already, I would have loved to have grabbed a box of H.Upmann AF Fernandez for $99. I got a fiver of Sin Compromiso for $51 with a few dollars shipping, which I’m happy with, heck, I almost feel like a criminal. Like I said, I know they advertise with me, but they didn’t ask me to do this, it was totally a secret shopper kind of thing. I wanted there to be some action on the auction! By the way, I’m told that the website’s inventory is accurate, so if you see it’s in stock, it should be in stock!

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as Blackbird, Blackbird Cigar Co., cigar, Cigar Mojo, cigars, Crow, Rook, Scotty's

by Craig Vanderslice | February 16, 2020 · 10:18 am

A Visit to Best Cigar Pub, Blackbird Cigar Co. Cigars and Video and Contest Winner

Yesterday I found myself wandering much further north in PA than I usually find myself. There was a seminar on Bees and Chickens that my wife and I attended, and I snuck off during the second half to do some of my own research. Twenty minutes away from the venue where the seminar was held happened to be the brand new Best Cigar Pub, and Best Cigar Prices headquarters. I figured this would be a good place to visit. Fortunately, the purchasing manager, Chris O’Neill, managed to arrange a tour for me. Katie (Katy? I forgot to clarify), the Finance/HR director, gave me a tour of the entire facility. Why do small companies always saddle the Finance director with HR responsibilities? Like they don’t have enough to worry about? I digress. I had already given myself a tour of the retail humidor, which has a very nice selection and courteous service. Katie showed me the bar, pointed out many of the little things like custom tables with actual tobacco leaves under acrylic, art on the wall done by a local artist, all of the ashtrays made by a local craftsman. She pointed out the excellent menu as well. She then waled me through the Best Cigar Prices operations, all of the offices, warehouse, shipping and all of the stuff I enjoy seeing as a guy who’s spent his professional career in operations. They run a very clean and efficient pick, pack, and ship operation from what I can see. All of the marketing, customer service, web design is all done there in Pennsylvania. I was quite impressed with the operation. I’ll get back to the Pub, which was even more impressive. Upstairs is a lounge with TVs and comfy chairs, wait-staff is attentive and the air handlers replace all the air in the place every three minutes, so it’s not smokey at all. They even have a coat closet in the entry that has an ozone generator so that your coat doesn’t smell smokey. They’ve really thought of everything to make this not just a place to come have a cigar, but a place that smokers and non-smokers alike can enjoy a meal or a beverage together. I enjoyed a 601 Pennsylvania Edition, which is an Espinosa exclusive for BCP. Chris happened to join me and interrupted me while I was taking in the museum portion of the upstairs lounge, which is an educational feature they’ve added. It has the origin story of cigars with a timeline and facts about cigars, infographics about the tobacco plant, how cigars are made, every conceivable detail. Chris tells me they plan to have monitors with video loops of various processes playing included in the wall as well. Best Cigar Pub is a beautiful place, it’s easy enough to find, although not exactly in the middle of anything. I can see it being amazing in the summer with the outdoor patios and putting green and nobody around to really complain! Certainly worth a visit if you are anywhere near north-east PA.

I had heard of Blackbird Cigar Company, but hadn’t seen the cigars any where. When I walked past the booth and they weren’t busy, it seemed like a great time to stop in and see what it they were all about. Imagine my surprise when the owner and founder of the company, Jonas Santana, looked at me and said “I know who you are”. It seems he used to work for another company, and struck out on his own to start Blackbird. I think it was on CigarProp’s youtube channel that I remember hearing about the brand. Anyway, I asked Jonas to share the story of the brand with me on camera. have a look:

Over the course of the past several days I smoked a few of the Blackbird cigars offerings. I would have lined to have smoked them all, but I just couldn’t get to them. They have six cigars in the portfolio, and I can’t run down my smoking experience for six cigars in one post. They very cleverly make the bands on the cigars easy to remove, which is good because they are large bands and doo need to be removed to fully enjoy the cigar! They have two Sumatra wrapped offerings, and, as I’ve been on a Sumatra kick lately, and I smoked the Sumatra Rook with them at the TPE and really enjoyed it, I smoked the Finch this week. This was another excellent Sumatra wrapped cigar. It had the nice, sweet Sumatra wrapper flavor and a well-balanced core of tobacco goodness withinThis has an Indonesian binder, and Dominican and USA fillers. It was solidly medium bodied and a very nice cigar. Next I went with what you’d expect from me, the San Andrés wrapped Crow. It was Valentines Day, and I figured the red band would be appropriate. This cigar had a closed foot, and a dark, oily wrapper. The flavors were earthy and bakers chocolate, perhaps espresso, without sweetness. The internals on this one include a Habano binder and Nicaraguan, Pennsylvanian, and Corojo and Criollo 98 fillers. Very enjoyable. Finally, last night after a long day trip, I unwound with the Unkind, a Brazilian Cubra wrapped cigar. This was also a maduro cigar, and, like the rest, a 5″ x 50 robusto. The binder on this one is from the DR, with Criollo 09, HBA (not sure what this means), Corojo and Pennsylvania. One thing I can say about all of the Blackbird cigars I smoked was that that all were well made and burned right, an important consideration. It’s possible that the PA tobacco was a common flavor component that I picked up though the few cigar I smoked this week. You’ll see if you watch the video that some thought went into the brand, and the same attention went into the quality of materials and manufacture as well. The Unkind had a unique flavor, also an earthy maduro, not really sweet. It was very good though, I enjoyed it completely. I still have the Connecticut Jackdaw and Criollo Cuco yet to smoke, I kind of like those two wrapper varieties more in warmer weather for some reason. I’ll get to them and let you know.

Contest!

OK, so after a lot of money and aggravation, my site is clean. It’s time to pick a winner of the sampler of some of my favorite cigars, Don Juan Calavera, Flor Maya and Marchetti cigars from Danli Hondura Tabaco, and I had to collect entries from two different places. After collecting all of the names, and putting them into a bowl (OK, I put them into a spreadsheet and randomized the list to mix them up and assign them numbers), the random number generator picked Anthony C as the winner. Please email me your coordinates and proof that you are 21 or older so I can get these goodies to you. I have a KMA Talk Radio hat and shirt and a Stage V Clinger cigar holder to add as well (it’s a big shirt, do with it what you will, I take no responsibility. If it fits, great!).