Tag Archives: Smoke Inn

by Craig Vanderslice | September 20, 2020 · 11:09 am

Diesel Esteli Puro Micallef A Cigars Contest Winners!

Sadly (for me, I seem to be in the minority for some reason), it’s the last Sunday of summer. I am not a fan of Autumn, or Winter, and I only tolerate Spring because it means it’s almost Summer. As I age I am far less tolerant of cold, and I just find the trees losing their leaves and everything turning brown really depressing. Lots of people love it, and that’s good for them, but I’m not a fan. The only leaves I enjoy burning are properly fermented black tobacco leaves, lovingly rolled into beautiful cigars! So kindly STFU about how great Fall is and LMTHA (to use some partial Saka acronyms).

I received some of the new Diesel Esteli Puro Samples a week or so ago from General Cigar Co., for which I’m grateful, and smoked a few this week. I posted the full press release about this here. Here are a few important points:

The wrapper was harvested from La Lilia, the binder from San José and the fillers from several plots including AJ’s celebrated San Lotano farm.

Blended by AJ Fernandez, handcrafted at Tabacalera AJ Fernandez in Estelí, Nicaragua and developed by General Cigar’s Justin Andrews.

I smoked the Robusto, as it’s General’s MO to send samples in that format. In this case, the Robusto is a generous 5¼ x 54 and comes wrapped in a cedar sleeve from the band to the foot. Warning to those with a sensitive constitution, this cigar starts off very strong! The first inch or so is a pepper blast with a load of nicotine. I’d almost call it hot. I was taken aback, honestly, and I like stronger cigars for the most part. It settled down after a while, but remained full bodied, and I really rather enjoyed the two samples I smoked. I have a couple more, I think I’ll take the cedar sleeve off of one, and revisit them in several months, smoking one that has been stored with, and one without the sleeve and see what differences I find. I often regret storing cigars long term with the cedar sleeves, and I leave them as they are out of sheer eyes laziness mostly. If you like strong cigars, this would be a good one to try! Lots of rich tobacco flavor under the pepper!

I visited a couple of my area CigarCigars shops yesterday, and I wish I had hit one more to complete the trifecta, it slipped my mind to do it. I had hoped to visit with my friend Kevin, who is retiring as manager of the Downingtown store in a week or so, but he wasn’t working, so bought some cigars, and stopped at the Frazer store on my way home and bought a few more cigars. Both stores had a mask policy, and social distance practices arranged in their lounges and were open for business. The Frazer store even had a sign on the door saying if you’re sick, stay home. Happy to see that they are taking proper pandemic precautions. The Downingtown store had good foot traffic while I was there, the register was ringing. One of the cigars I bought there was the Micallef A. I’ve even hearing a lot about this cigar recently, it was apparently a cigar that was named through a contest held among the ambassadors, of which I’m one (but I didn’t vote). You’d think they’d be able to come up with something better than “A”, but they actually settled on “Ambassador”, which makes more sense. There was a little bit of a copyright issue with that (I’m guessing Joya with L’ambassadeur?), so they just went with “A”. Now, when I think of a cigar called “A”, I expect a 9¼ x 48 cigar, but this is a 6¾ x 54 cigar with a Nicaraguan Sumatra wrapper that’s fermented to a dark Maduro. It also has a Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers and is made in their factory in Esteli by the Gomez Sanchez Family. Lotsa Sumatra there, and I like Sumatra, and the price is right at around $7.50 here in PA. I lit one up and it was good. Lots of sweet, dark coffee and cocoa notes that I like, but I couldn’t help but think there was some youth, or at least that some age could certainly be of benefit. I liked it well enough, there was just something a little bit out of balance that some humidor time will address. I’ll have no problem experimenting with this one though, the construction was perfect, and at that price, it’s a no brainer.

Contest

I almost wrapped this up without selecting winners for the CigarProp Smoke In Battle of the Bands Samplers. If you aren’t a lucky winner, or even if you are, I’d recommend going and buying one or three of these samplers, you really can’t go wrong. The only way you can justify not buying one is if you are opposed to lining Abe Dababneh’s pockets, and if that’s the case, well, I guess I can’t help. I met Abe before I ever even though about launching this site, so we go back a ways. Anyway, We need two winners. The random number generator tells me that the winners of CigarProp Smoke In Battle of the Bands Samplers are: Xolatol and Gregg Hearl! Please send me your contact info and proof that you’re of age so we can get these samplers to you!

I had to take a break from writing this to take a call from Jose Blanco, among other topics discussed, I confirmed with him that plume is, in fact, real, and will have some other theories I have related to that whole controversy verified (or disproved) in the future. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as A, Battle of the Bands, cigar, cigar store, CigarProp, cigars, Contest, diesel, Esteli Puro, Micallef, Smoke Inn

by Craig Vanderslice | September 16, 2020 · 8:55 pm

Contest: Win a CigarProp Smoke Inn Battle of the Bands Five Pack!

It’s been way too long since I’ve had a contest! Kevin at CigarProp is involved in Smoke Inn’s Battle of the Band‘s promotion, which involves six of my fellow cigar media friends who put together samplers which are for sale on Smoke Inn’s website. The object is for people to buy the samplers, and at the end of the promotion, which is Midnight Sunday, October 4th, 2020, the one who has sold the most, and I’m assuming it’s the number of samplers and not gross sales, although I’m not clear on that point, wins a championship belt. Of course, the big winner is Smoke Inn, but there’s braggin rights on the line here, and that’s what’s important to the competitors! Like I said, I know all of the competitors, and they all have great samplers, but as a self proclaimed cheap bastard, and Kevin is a close personal friend, I’ve found myself drawn to his five pack over the rest. The other draw was the inclusion of the Padron 1926 No. 35, and I’d never smoked the 1926 until I bought the “shorties for forty”, as he refers to it. The Cigar Prop Pack has been in the lead since the beginning, and as the newest cigar media member in the bunch, that’s a pretty big deal! The other guys in the competition have some large and well established followings!

Kevin and I got together and decided to do a little giveaway. Of course, the idea is to bring awareness to the sale, but two readers each win one of the Cigar Prop Battle of the Bands five packs! The packs include the following cigars: (1) Alec Bradley Black Market Esteli Punk Petit Corona, (1) Crowned Heads Juarez OBS, (1) DT&T Sobremesa Short Churchill, (1) Padron Anniversary 1926 Maduro No. 35, and (1) Drew Estate Papas Fritas. I think we can all agree that these are all great cigars, and I’ve smoked them all recently and can personally vouch for their quality. Additionally, anybody that buys a sampler from Smoke Inn and posts it anywhere online tagging Cigar Prop or Kevin Shahan in the post so he sees it, will get one of his Cigar Prop Minions dog tags for free. Anybody that buys or has bought two samplers, will get a dog tag and the Cigar Prop Travel XC 2.0 (both pictured above). By the way, Kevin claims that the “C” in the XC is for CigarCraig! So leave a comment here to enter, not on Facebook or anywhere else, only comments on this blog post will count. I’ll pick two winners on Sunday, September 20, 2020, and the winners will need to send me their contact information and proof that they are of legal age.

Check out one of Kevin’s promotional videos:

https://youtu.be/RqN8BBKFv_I

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Battle of the Bands, cigar, CigarProp, cigars, Smoke Inn

by Craig Vanderslice | September 9, 2020 · 9:35 pm

Labor Day Cigars and a Macanudo Inspirado Green

Labor Day was my first paid holiday since January 1st of 2018! A combination of two streaks of unemployment and a year of working in retail for a company that didn’t believe in paid holidays (something I had trouble wrapping my head around!), I was quite excited about this small luxury! My wife wanted to get away and do something, anything, so we took a drive to Lewes, Delaware, Parked the car at the ferry terminal, and rode the ferry over to Cape May and walked on the beach for a while. I took the opportunity to smoke one of the cigars in the Cigar Prop sampler in the Smoke Inn Battle of the Bands promo that’s going on. I selected the Alec Bradley Black Market Esteli Punk, a little 4¼” x 42 petite corona. This cigar has a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan and Honduran binders amd Nicaraguan fillers. I chose this due to time constraints and the fact that I wasn’t supposed to be actually smoking on the beach really, but the stretch of beach we were on was fairly empty and nobody said anything anyway. I don’t usually favor such small cigars, and it was before lunch, so I took it slow, which was a good thing, because this was a pretty potent little smoke! I really enjoyed it! It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, with a gentle breeze off the bay, and this cigar was just delicious. These are probably about $5 if you find them singley, and well worth it. A great choice by Kevin for his sampler.

On the drive home I lit up another cigar from the “shorties of forty” sampler, as Kevin refers to it, the Papas Fritas from Drew Estate. Obviously, this wasn’t my first go around with this cigar, and I normally wouldn’t opt for a mixed filler cigar while driving a stick shift car in traffic, but I had confidence in this one. The Papas Fritas was made using the sorted bench cuts from the Liga Privadas. It certainly doesn’t smoke like a mixed fill cigar, no mess in the car! Of course, traffic sucked coming home, to be expected, so having a cigar was quite helpful. It occurs to me, I still haven’t smoked any of the Nasty Fritas, the newer shape. Anyway, the two hour drive took nearly three, but the little Papas Fritas took the edge off. I could have smoked and A sized cigar, but that might have hit the windshield. I gotta say, I’ve smoked three of the five cigars in the Cigar Prop sampler and they have all been winners. Great selection so far.

When I got home I felt compelled to smoke another from the samper, and went with one I hadn’t tried before, the Crowned Heads Juarez OBS, the largest cigar in the sampler. This one is 4¾” x 54, seems longer compared to the rest, but it’s the same length as the Sobremesa Short Churchill, the fifth cigar in the sampler (the first one was the Padron 26th No. 35 Maduro). Kevin said that this is the cigar that people raved about in the sampler. I have to say, it was in my top five, but certainly not my favorite. This line is made at Tabacalera Pichardo in Estelí,, it has a natural San Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan fillers. I don’t know if it’s because it was my third cigar of the day, with the first two being fairly strong, or if it’s because it started off a little snug in the draw and took a while to open up, but it was just OK. I’ll certainly give this one a second chance, but it was reasonably blah to me. With the wrapper/binder combination it should have been interesting. I also admit to not taking a shine to a lot of the Crowned Heads portfolio, for some reason, there hasn’t been a lot that trips my trigger. I suppose I’m in the minority.

Tonight I smoked a Macanudo Inspirado Green Toro, my second one. I’ve been looking forward to trying this cigar since I’ve heard about it. I’ve been hot and cold on the Inspirado line, oddly, I really like the Red and White, the Black and Orange are just OK. The Green has a Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper, Indonesian binder, and fillers from Columbia and the DR. The Brazilian wrapper caught my attention, as well as the Columbian filler. The first one I smoked was nice, but I smoked it following a rather strong maduro (Southern Draw Jacobs Ladder), and I felt like I may not have given it a fair shake. I thought it was pretty mild. So I smoked on tonight on a fresh palate and it was quite a bit more flavorful! I enjoyed this cigar, more than the Inspirado Black, which, for me, is odd. It’s odd that I am not that fond of the Black actually, but the Green has some interesting and different flavors. There’s some spice and unique flavors I can’t put a finger on, except to say that I like them and it’s a cigar I’m happy that I bought a handful of. I actually bought these after shopping for something else and not finding what I was looking for. Next to the Inspirado Red, this is my second favorite Inspirado. The green band looks really nice on that dark wrapper too.

One of my pet peeves: The Black Market Esteli Punk size isn’t listed on the Alec Bradley webpage, nor is the Juarez line listed on the Crowned Heads site. I just think it’s weird. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Alec Bradley, Battle of the Bands, Black Market Esteli, cigar, Cigar Prop, cigars, Crowned Heads, drew estate, Green, Inspirado, Juarez, macanudo, Papas Fritas, Smoke Inn

by Craig Vanderslice | April 12, 2020 · 10:05 am

Vicarias Negotiator and Cain F Lancero Cigars and a V-Herf

I finally dipped my toe in the V-Herf pool last night briefly. I was smoking a fairly old Cain F Lancero Tubo (having removed it from the tube, of course), and checked out the Smoke Inn Room on the Whereby app. It was fairly early, and there were only a few people there, but it was pretty cool, and I enjoyed it and will return for more virtual herfing. Perhaps I’ll try to pop in at various times of the day to see who might be in there. In all the years I’ve been interacting digitally with people, I haven’t just video chatted with people, so this was neat, and I’ll keep doing it. I usually just sit around listening to podcasts keeping to myself, but I’ll try to be more social. Suggest some other popular video herfs besides Smoke Inn. I’ve been trying to get in on the Jersey Cigar Lounge’s herfs on Discord, but they always seem to be too late for me! Oddly, by 8:30 I’m done with my cigar and on to other things!

On to cigars. The Cain F Lancero I smoked last night was spectacular. I had a ten count box I bought several years ago, and still have a few tubos left. It’s been a while since I smoked one, I tend to save tubos for some time that never seems to come because they are nice and portable and I can throw one in my pocket. I either forget to do that, or end up packing a travel humidor or case, rarely just taking one cigar. I end up with a load of tubos, I have a few that are pretty old. I won a box of Don Tomas Classico Tubos well over ten years ago and have two left, I should smoke them and see who they are. I really liked them. I think I still have a Montecristo Tubo from one time when I had lunch at JRs in Whippany, and that was 10 years ago. I suppose that one is ready to smoke! Like I said, I save them for a time that never comes. Maybe that’s this week’s project for Wednesday’s post. Anyway, the Cain F had the Studio Tobac footband, and was generally the stronger of the Can line, but the lancero was not strong at this point, but a wonderful smoke, with a hint of sweetness and earthiness. It burned perfectly and I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I have every one over the years. I had sen several friends post pics of this cigar on social media recently, which inspired me to grab one. So glad I did. I need to rummage through my lanceros, I know there’s at least one Can Daytona in there, might be more! Oliva doesn’t list Cain or Nub on their website, are they even still a thing? I still see them around. We have Sam Leccia to thank for both of those great lines!

My new cigar of the week was the Vicarias Negotiator. I met Jay Clark at the TPE and he gave me his Negotiator cigar and told me the story behind it. He used to be a buyer in the metals industry, and I used to buy metal powders and steel, among many other things when I was a buyer, so we had some common ground. He would go into negotiations and had out this cigar, which is a box pressed, 5″ x 48 robusto (Hermoso?) with a San Andrés wrapper, DR binder and fillers from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The negotiations would last the duration of the cigar, and if a deal wasn’t done when his ciga was finished, he would walk away. As a former buyer myself, I could relate to this story and wish I had used this tool in some negotiations myself! The only trouble I might have would have been that the cigar was so good that I might have been distracted from the task at hand! It was just the kind of cigar I like, dark, espresso flavors, good amount of strength, and a perfect burn and draw. The only thing I didn’t care for was that it wasn’t a toro, but that would defeat the purpose, right? No need for negotiations to go on for an hour and a half or so, right? I really enjoyed The Negotiator, Might not be easy to find, but really a great cigar.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate. A few months ago I removed a cigar from a tube I had put it in several years ago to see how long it would last in the tube before it would dry out. When I started the experiment I really had no way to tell how dry it would get. Through the miracle of technology, I have cince gotten a way to find these things out, the CigarMedics Humidimeter! I removed the cigar from the glass tube with the corks stopper, and the foot of the cigar read 35%, not good. Not 0, but certainly not optimal for smoking. So I labeled it and put it in the humidor. After about a month I checked it again and it was up to 54%. Getting there. I tend to think it might take longer than two months for a dried out cigar to rehydrate, but maybe not! It’s nice to have a tool to actually check without guessing. I do have a control cigar, one from the same box that’s been properly stored (for the last 8 years), when the time comes to smoke the cigar, I’ll see what effect the drying/restoring process had on the flavor. I should have started this project much earlier, it would have been appropriate to post the findings today. ( I think I’ve made that joke before…probably every year). Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Cain F, cigar, CigarMedics, cigars, Humidimeter, Negitiator, oliva, Smoke Inn, V-herf, Vicarias

by CigarCraig | December 27, 2015 · 9:51 am

Contest Wrap-up, a Meet-up at JM Cigars, an Event at Mojo and a RoMaCraft Neanderthal

OK, a regular, non-contest post. How do I do this again? It’s been a crazy couple weeks, hasn’t it? Besides the 234 cigars, three ashtrays, two cutters, a lighter, and various other items, including one of a kind art and jewelry, there were some major holidays in there too. Time spent with family is the best part of the holiday for me, but doing this 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways is a load of fun too. My unending thanks to the following companies and individuals who made all this possible, in no particular order: Eric Whitfield, Broc Jackson, Jack at Duran Premium Cigars, David and his crew at 2 Guys Smokeshop, Victoria at General Cigar Co., Fred at Nomad Cigar Co., Victor at Tortuga Cigars, Jason at Best Cigar Prices, Abe and his gang at Smoke Inn, Mel and Ron at MBombay Cigars, Bianca at Gurkha and the folks at Joya de Nicaragua and Drew Estate! As I say every year, I could do this on my own, but it would cost me a fortune! Thanks to all of them and all of you for coming back every day and entering! Next year I have some different plans, but it should still be fun, that is, unless the FDA ruins everything! We’ll remain positive, keep calling your elected officials and letting them know that premium cigars should be exempt from regulation, and keep up your CRA memberships!

One of the things I did last week in, an effort to save on shipping and meet some new friends, was to hand deliver winnings from Days five and six. It turned out that Mike and Andrew were reasonably close by so we met up at JM Cigar in Exton, PA for a smoke. Of course, I spent easily twice what I would have spent on shipping on cigars, but that’s way more productive. While shopping I came across a lone El Rico Habano Maduro Gran Habanaro (double corona) in a box and it look so lonely I had to add it to my cart, so to speak. I haven’t smoked an El Rico in ages, I can remember back in the ’90s when this was one of the strongest cigars on the market, a real powerhouse. It was Ernesto Perez Carillo’s brand that took a back seat to La Gloria Cubana, and I smoked a bunch of them. It’s a minor brand now with General Cigar Co., only available in three sizes and maduro, where the original version was a natural wrapper. I thought the 7½ x 54 size would be a good size for sitting in the lounge, getting to know new friends, kinda cigar. It was good, but not as good as I remember my last one being, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I didn’t want a cigar that would distract me from conversation. As it always seems to be, meeting up to deliver a prize beats USPS every time, I felt like I have a few more friends now, and look forward to meeting up with Mike and Andrew again soon. Thank you to them for adding to the spirit of the season!

Thursday I ran down to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA as they were having a Perdomo event and raffling off a tremendous Perdomo 20th Anniversary humidor. I like the Perdomo 20th a lot, especially in maduro, so I bought a hand full (as if I needed more cigars!) and got one chance in the drawing. The winner was a guy who bought a bunch of boxes of the 20th Anniversarys, so it’s hard to begrudge him the win. It was a beautiful box, but I don’t know where I would have put it, so it worked out in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed a 20th Maduro Churchill while hanging out and talking to our local Perdomo rep, Joe Winder (who is probably the very first cigar company rep I ever met many years ago at a cigar event in Pittsburgh), CRA Ambassador and all-around good guy, Alan Price, who was working at the shop, owners Wade and Trae and various other customers. I didn’t win the humidor, but I did put some great cigars in my humidor and had a relaxing afternoon.

As it was a special occasion, I selected some other great cigars that are worth mentioning. For the second year in a row, I took my Christmas Eve walk with a Padron 1964 Anniversary Maduro Exclusivo, obviously a classic Nicaraguan maduro that’s like desert in cigar form. Absolutely delicious. Christmas day, after the kids and grandkids left, I sparked up a Fuente Hemingway Signature Maduro, again, a spectacular cigar that’s not unreasonably priced. It was rich, burned perfectly and hit the spot. Yesterday Macha and I took a four mile walk with a favorite Nica Rustica Belly, maybe I’m on a bit of a Maduro kick? I must be, because last night I lit up a cigar that caught my eye and I bought while at Mojo, a RoMa Craft Neanderthal HN, with a San Andrés wrapper. Of all the great cigars I’ve smoked over the last couple weeks, this might have been my favorite. This cigar has a couple of distinctions, first, it has a flat head, and a slight taper at the foot, which I didn’t really notice until I looked at the photo, and it still looks like a robusto, as the size is listed at 5″ x 52/58. Now that I look at it, it may taper from head to foot. It could have been shaped like a pretzel for all I care, it tasted fantastic. Not only does it have a beautiful dark and oily San Andrés wrapper, but it has a Connecticut broadleaf binder, and fillers from Pennsylvania, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. About half way in to the cigar I got a really interesting and delicious spice, which really intrigued me. This was a $12 cigar and honestly, I don’t think I realized the price point when I bought them, I might not have taken the plunge. I’m glad I did. I’ve heard from people That this was a super strong cigar, and it didn’t hit me that way at all, it was full-bodied and loaded with flavor, but I didn’t feel the nicotine at all. Stellar cigar from Skip and Mike at RoMa! I used a punch in the flat head of the cigar if anyone was curious.

You probably want to know who won the final bonus day contest, the great painting “Wind” by Eric “The Cigartist” Whitfield. It looked like only those who really wanted and appreciated this item entered (or everyone is sick to death of my contests), so I consulted Random.org and got the number 37, which corresponds to KRUK, who I know will give this a good home, despite the relative creepiness of his comment :-). Bryan, please send me your address so I can forward it on to Eric. Thank you all, and don’t despair, there could well be a Happy New Year contest!