Tag Archives: Sindicato

by Craig Vanderslice | September 11, 2022 · 9:59 am

Nat Cicco Aniversario, Particulares and Casa Cuevas Cigars

I’m taking advantage of every Sunday that it’s warm enough to enjoy a cigar as I write my Sunday post. Soon enough it will be too chilly. So I lit up something special from the PCA show, the new Sangre Nueva from Casa Cuevas, but more on that later. So far it’s amazing. Friday evening I was in the mood for a larger cigar, so I grabbed the Nat Cicco Aniversario 1965 Liga No. 4 Churchill. This is a square pressed, 7″ x 54 cigar with a pigtail cap. I picked up a few of these last month when I met up with Dean Parsons at Cigar Mojo. I like this blend, which has a dark Ecuador wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. I hadn’t ever smoked any Nat Cicco cigars until Dean sold his company, Epic Cigars, to them and joined their team. This cigar performed well and was delicious, with some earthy, sweet flavors. I think I prefer the smaller sizes though, they seem to have more pronounced flavors.

Last night I smoked a Particulares Deliciosos, from Sindicato, distributed by Gurkha. Sindicato and Gurkha share CEOs in Jim Colucci, who had retired from Altadis several years ago. I only include that factoid in case anyone wondered how Sindicato came to be distributed by Gurkha. Particulares is a really old brand name, going back to the late 1800s, and the branding reflects that heritage. The cigar is a Nicaraguan puro, and is 6″ x 52 and is made at TABSA, the Aganorsa Leaf factory. For me, the cigar started off unnecessarily strong, it was really spicy and peppery. I regretted selecting it, to be honest, but I figured it would settle down, and it did, a little. It remained a powerhouse, spicy cigar throughout. It was pretty good, despite the rough start. I might try it again, but it’s not going to be a priority.

Now, the Casa Cuevas Sangre Nueva. I’ve said before what genuinely nice people the Cuevas folks are. Luis, and his son, Alex are instant friends, one feels like one has known them forever. This cigar was blended by Alex, who is 24, I think. I have shoes older than him, heck, all of my children are older than him! I regret not taking time to interview him at the show, but the two days I was there they were pretty busy. This cigar has a Cameroon-seed wrapper grown in Ecuador, a Honduran Corojo binder and Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Pennsylvania fillers. I don’t want to start anything, but I was under the impression that African Cameroon tobacco is a Sumatra seed, but I suppose if they got the seeds from the African Cameroon plants it could be called Cameroon seed. They weren’t handing out samples of this at the show, but I have connections! This is a SPECTACULAR cigar! I want more. I’m smoking this early in the morning (for me), with coffee, and it has been distracting me from writing the whole time. It’s on the fuller side of medium, with some of the nutty Cameroon flavors, and earthy cocoa. Alex, his father and grandfather can be very proud of this cigar, the new blood is on the right track! I have to get my hands on more.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Aniversario 1965, Casa Cuevas, cigar, cigars, Gurkha, Nat Cicco, Particulares, Sangre Nuevo, Sindicato

by CigarCraig | February 15, 2019 · 6:28 pm

News: Jim Colucci Joins Gurkha as President and COO

I know this news is a week or so old, but I just received the press release today.Â I’ve never actually met Mr. Colucci, but I was kind of surprised to hear about him taking on this larger role after hearing interviews with him after he retired and joined Sindicato (a small brand which is owned by a group of retailers), stating that he enjoyed the relaxed pace. obviously, Gurkha is a larger brand, but I can’t imagine the rank and file consumer will see much of a difference in this news, except maybe Sindicato will have a wider distribution.Â Side note:Â I smoked a couple Gurkha cigars this week and there wasn’t a darned thing wrong with the to I smoked, a Cellar Reserve 15 and a Ghost. Both were excellent cigars! I may rant about people bagging on various brands in my Sunday post…

INDUSTRY VETERAN JIM COLUCCI JOINS GURKHA CIGARS ASÂ PRESIDENT AND COO

GURKHA SALES FORCE WILL NOW REPRESENT SINDICATO CIGARS

Jim Colucci of Sindicato Cigars has been named the Chief Operating Officer and President of Gurkha Cigars. Â Colucci is now responsible for the companyâ€™s day-to-day operations bringing his more than 40 years of industry knowledge to the position.

â€œI look forward to working with the Gurkha team and evolving what is already a great cigar company,â€ Colucci said. Â â€œI will remain as President and CEO of Sindicato, which will continue to be a stand alone company, shipping and invoicing its products to all customers.â€

Colucciâ€™s addition to the company was born out of conversations regarding the possibility of Gurkha Cigars becoming the National Sales Team representing Sindicato Cigar Brands.Â Â Those conversations, which began months ago, led to further talks regarding Colucci joining Gurkha Cigars therefore allowing Kaizad to devote more time to his other business ventures.

â€œJim Colucci is a very well respected cigar industry veteran,â€ said Kaizad Hansotia, Gurkhaâ€™s Founder and CEO. â€œFor years he has been both my friend and mentor and now he is the COO and President of Gurkha Cigars. With the addition of Colucciâ€™s industry knowledge and business acumen Gurkha can only continue to grow and excel,â€ he added.

Colucci has been president and CEO of Sindicato for over 6 years. Â Previously, Colucci was with Altadis USA for more than 35 years as Executive Vice President of marketing and sales for their mass market and premium cigars.

Gurkha Cigars are known throughout the world for their premium and luxurious cigars, so itâ€™s no surprise that they are the most sought-after cigars around the globe. Gurkha produces millions of cigars per year that are sold in more than 70 countries worldwide. And while Gurkha is known for its exclusivity, it has an impressive array of 250 brands of flawlessly handcrafted, premium cigars created in a variety of strengths, tasting profiles, and price-points. No matter what your taste, thereâ€™s a Gurkha cigar thatâ€™s perfect for your palate. For additional information visit www.gurkhacigars.com.

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Gurkha, Sindicato

by CigarCraig | May 24, 2015 · 8:53 am

Montecristo, Romeo and H. Upmann, and Goose’s Cigars Anniversary

It’s been a nutty week. I planned on posting something mid-week, but time got away from me. Then, yesterday we went to our local SPCA to donate some old towels and stuff, and ended up adopting another dog. I’m already doubting the wisdom of this, but apart from having to break up a bit of an incident last night, I’m sure it will work out OK. Cherry is a very sweet brindle pitty, and we have a lot to work on. Most of the time, Macha seems to like having a playmate, but they need some apart time now and then. It’s part of the experience I guess. Our SPCA is not a no kill shelter, so seeing this sweet, beautiful dog had been the longest resident got to me and made me do irrational things. No excuses for not taking evening walks now!

Wednesday evening we went to Goose’s Cigars in Limerick, PA to help them celebrate their 5th anniversary. It had been a while since I visited Goose’s, and I was surprised to see the humidor vastly expanded. It used to be a rather small, U shaped arrangement with a door on either end, with the area outside of that having tables and displays of gift sets, specials and samplers. They’ve walled off the whole area and taken the glass out of the old humidor making a huge walk-in humidor that has all of their stock. It was a great improvement. They also have a large Vape and Hookah selection, as well as RYO tobacco at the far end of the store, making it a full service tobacco store. The Montecristo Lounge was the focal point of the anniversary celebration, with the local Altadis rep, Tom there, as well as his boss, Paul. I chose the occasion to purchase some cigars from the Altadis line that I hadn’t smoked yet, and lit up the Montecristo Espada Guard, a 6″ x 50 toro. This is a unique Montecristo as it’s made in Nicaragua by the Placencias from Nicaraguan tobacco, all from 2008, 2009 and 2010, from Jalapa, Ometepe and Condega (it’s a bit confusing, they list a “Habano Jalapa Viso Ometepe Vintage 2008” in the filler on the website, perhaps someone from Groupo de Maestros can clarify that!). I don’t smoke a great many Montecristos, for no other reason than I just am busy smoking so many other great cigars that I forget to get back to the traditional brands. This Espada was really nice, and a special smoke. It was sweet with a bit of spice and quite a good cigar, and, you know me, it should be for the price. I splurged because it was a special occasion, and have no regrets. Happy Anniversary to John, Joanne and the gang at Goose’s Montecristo Lounge, nice to see things constantly improving!

One of the cigars I picked up at Goose’s was the H. Upmann The Banker Annuity, a 6″ x 52 Toro with a very annoying, yet visually attractive paper sleeve. I say it’s annoying because as I was removing the cigar from the cello the paper sleeve and bands stayed with the cello and tore the wrapper near the head. Way too many bands and wrappings for my tastes. The cigar had a very loose, open draw, and burned quicker than i’d like. However, the flavor was very nice, a bit of coffee and old baseball glove. I’m glad I got two of them so I can see if I have the same experience. The website says that the blend is a recreation of the Upmann brothers blend from 1844, which seems like some marketing nonsense to me, but, once again, I invite the Groupo de Maestros to weigh in! A quick website complaint, since I’ve referenced two Altadis brand websites already, is that they don’t have the sizes listed anywhere. I had to use retailers websites to confirm sizes and names, mostly because I was too lazy to make note of them at the time I smoked the cigars. I think a brand’s website should be a one stop shop for all the information about the cigar, blend, sizes, whatever. Things like this get under my skin!

John Giese gifted everyone at the anniversary event one of the Montecristo Casa de Montecristo cigars that only are sold at Montecristo lounges. I’ve had the pleasure of smoking this cigar on one occasion before, and really enjoyed it. It’s not a small cigar, it’s a 6″ x 60, which came out in June of 2014. It’s got a nice, Ecuador Sumatra wrapper and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers and burned really well and was quite tasty. It’s rich and smooth, and not anywhere near as mild as the typical Montecristo. Quite good, and worth a try if you happen to find yourselves in a Montecristo lounge. I’m fortunate to have two within a short drive. Both this cigar, and the following cigar have black and silver bands that are very difficult for an amateur like myself to photograph.

I took both dogs for separate walks yesterday, and on the latter walk I smoked the RoMEo Añejo robusto, which I had purchased a few weeks ago at another local shop. This is billed as an aged version of the RoMEo, with a 2010 Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. This has been sitting on the top shelf of the cabinet for a few weeks, where the humidity is slightly lower, but it still burned like it was a bit damp, needing to be re-lit a couple times. It was very flavorful, and I dig the broadleaf, so I imagine one of these that behaved itself would be pretty darned good. I’ll have to pick a few more up to see, and I don’t think they were priced unreasonably. Good smoke, when it was working right, and lots of potential.

I’m going to wrap this up as we have a day full of dog acclimation. They have taken to rough housing, and we need to break that up quick. I also have some yard work I want to get to, and I’d like to get my annual walk at Valley Forge Park in this Memorial Day weekend, which I find to be inspiring. Of course, I smoked a bunch of other great cigars this week, the Sindicato Maduro Churchill I smoked on one of yesterday’s many walks was quite good, as well as a great Foundry Worm Hole Hell-E-IN and an Alec Bradley Maxx Connecticut. It’s the start of my favorite time of year, and while I’ll miss having a pool this summer, it’s going to be a good year with lots of great cigars!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Alec Bradley, altadis, cigar, cigars, Foundry, H.Upmann, Montecristo, Montecristo Lounge, Romeo, romeo y julieta, Sindicato, SPCA

by CigarCraig | November 30, 2014 · 8:28 am

A La Flor Dominicana after Turkey and a Sindicato after Moving

Thursday we had a great Thanksgiving breakfast with our kids and grandkids, then had a low key, but delicious, Turkey feast with other family members. After the dust settled, I picked out a cigar for my evening walk. I couldn’t get past the top tray in the humidor where a La Flor Dominicana Cameroon Cabinet Chisel. I bought this cigar a few months back at a LFD event and it, along with a Double Ligero Chisel and a few others. The Chisel is 6″ x 54 and the wrapper is a Cameroon Ligero, which I suppose isn’t all that unusual, but you don’t see it specified very often. I tried using a V cut vertically across the Chisel tip, but that proved unsatisfactory so I snipped it with the scissors. The draw was perfect and it burned very nicely, as I walked off the turkey and stuffing. I love the sweetness that the Cameroon wrapper has, and it’s a different sweetness than a Broadleaf or San Andrés wrapper. This was a very nice way to wrap up a nice day of feasting with family. I swear the band said “Cameroon Cabinets” with an “S” at the end, but I haven’t moved my band vase yet either so I can’t double check.

Friday we rented the U-haul and moved a bunch of stuff to the new house. After 8 hours of moving furniture capped by a lengthy phone call with Verizon about the newly installed service which didn’t work properly, I was simply too tired to have a cigar. So Saturday, after a full day of doing things around the house, I took Macha for a walk in the new neighborhood with another lazy selection from the top shelf of the humidor, a Sindicato Maduro Toro. I actually haven’t even gotten all my cigars moved yet, so I’ve been working out of one of the humidors I did bring along. Don’t worry, I have plenty of cigars in the humidors I did bring to last me a while. Anyway, the Sindicato Maduro is a box pressed, pigtailed 6×54 toro with a Mexican San Andrés Morrón wrapper. These are made in the Casa Fernandez factory and blended by Arsenio Ramos with binder from Esteli and fillers from Esteli and Jalapa. The result is a sweet, earthy perfectly constructed cigar that took me away from my sore back for a while. I got to finish the cigar in my screened in porch, where many cigars will be smoked from here on out. I can’t wait to get things squared away in this new house as having things in two places is a nuisance.

I’m going to get a room painted and try to start getting the groundwork laid for the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways now that most of the goodies are here. I’ll feel a little less stress if I get some pictures taken and some posts written in advance. That’s all I have for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, La Flor Dominicana, Sindicato

by CigarCraig | November 9, 2014 · 9:32 am

An Arandoza, a CAO Flathead and a new Sindicato Cigar, and a CONTEST!

OK, lots going on today, so let’s get some cigars out of the way! My palate’s a little flat still, I blame the change in weather. It’s gotten cold all the sudden, and I tend to gravitate to heavier maduros this time of year anyway, and I’ve been slow in following my own advice. One reason is it’ll be boring writing about the same couple cigars twice a week, and it’ll be equally boring smoking the same couple cigars! I’ll adjust, it’s like that first day it drops in the 40s and you bundle up with gloves, and by January you’re in a t-shirt when it gets that warm. So I smoked some cigars, came across a neat cigar related item or two, and there’s a contest too!

Thursday I decided to dig in to the box of Arandoza White Label Robustos that I apparently won in the most recent Cigar Federation Project Mañana Raffle. I really like the cigars from Arandoza, which are made at Erik Espinosa’s La Zona Factory. This is a nice, refined Nicaraguan cigar with good balance and flavor. I really look forward to smoking more of these, there is just about nothing I don’t enjoy about this cigar, from the smoking to the presentation, it’s first class all the way. I suppose it’s possible one of these falls into the contest box when it mails out. Stranger things have happened. Thank you to Arandoza Cigars and Cigar Federation for supporting a worthy cause.

To give my palate a proper test, I decided my Friday evening smoke should be a favorite cigar that I’ve smoked a bunch of over the past year or so. I really like the CAO Flathead line, with the only possible gripe I have being that the only real neat and tidy way to cut these is with a punch, which actually works out nicely for today’s post. I used the first edition of the Screwpop Punch on the Flathead (if you don’t know, the head is flat, so it’s really hard to use anything but a punch on these). I smoked the 556 Camshaft size of the Flathead, with is basically a toro, but I can recommend any size (including the 770) to anyone who enjoys bold, heavy bodied maduro cigars. These are about the perfect autumn cigar for me. Another benefit is that they don’t roll off the table when you set them down! Good stuff from Ricky Rodriguez and his team at CAO.

Yesterday, after spending time at the new house clearing brush and ancient overgrown hedges for a fence to contain Macha (and keep the 16 year old Cocker Spaniel from wandering off), I came home to a cool package in the mail. This package contained the redesigned Screwpop 2.0 Cigar Punch. When I tried the original punch almost two years ago, I made some suggestions to Brett at the company on some ways I thought it could be improved. One suggestion was to reverse the design so that the punch came off of the clip/opener end so that it could remain clipped to something, and the other was to make it self clearing, as the original version tended to keep the cap cuts in the body of the unit. It seems my suggestions were taken to heart, and here we have the new version of the punch. Of course, I had to try it out. I received some samples of the new Sindicato maduro last week, and these looked really good. The samples were all of a larger size, so I went up the middle with the 6×60 Magnum size. This wasn’t the best test for the Screwpop 2.0 becuase the folks at Casa Fernandez, who make this cigar, use a bit of a pigtail cap. Not to be deterred, I gave it a punch. The 2.0 is a slightly larger bore than the 1.0, which is good, since it doesn’t render my old trusty punch obsolete. The cigar has my favorite San Andres Morrón wrapper, and has a nice, rich cocoa flavor. The 60 ring gauge was very comfortable given the box press, so it felt a bit smaller. It burned very well and I can’t wait to smoke the Churchill and Toro sizes. It smoked very well and was a fine way to wrap up a tiring, but productive day.

And now for something completely different

I received a note from one of my readers, Josh, in Salt Lake City, pointing me to his Etsy store. He’s been making some really cool lamps from cigar boxes. These have a really nice kind of steampunk feel to them and are very high end. Take a look at his site when you get a chance! https://www.etsy.com/shop/saltcitylampworks

Contest

Since Brett at Screwpop Tool, LLC was kind enough to send me more than one Cigar Punch 2.0, I figured it only made sense to have a contest and give one away! Strike that, I’ll give TWO away! Be aware, I can’t just send out a punch without including something to try it out on, so, invariably, some cigars will fall into the shipping boxes when they go out. I can’t help it, it just always seems to happen. So to recap, the Screwpop 2.0 Cigar Punch no only bores a nice hole in your cigar and cleans itself out, but you can also use it to take the cap off your favorite bottled beverage. It’s got a handy and fashionable gated clip so you can wear it with pride or clip it to your key ring. These are black anodized aluminum and look really sharp. Leave a comment to enter and I’ll select two winners at random on Wednesday. If you’ve won in the last six months you aren’t eligible, sorry.