Tag Archives: Smoke Inn

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

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

CC_Logo_xmas_sOK, 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 ERHacross 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!

 

Perdomo20thThursday 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 Perdomo20thHumidorout 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.

 

Padron64AFHemingwayAs 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 RoMa_Neanderthal_HNsmoked 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.

 

Cigartist1You 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!

 

That’s plenty from me, until the next time,

 

Cigar Craig

 

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by | December 19, 2015 · 6:37 am

CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways 2015 Day 9: Smoke Inn Microblends

Several years ago Abe at Smoke Inn, a chain of ten (or eleven?) stores in Florida, launched his Microblend series. He’s had some of the greatest cigar manufacturers on the planet making small batch, store exclusive cigars for him, including Fuente, Padron, Tatuaje, et cetera. This year Abe has provided two ten count packages of his most current Microblend releases,  the Illusione Pactum and the Pope of Greenwich Village from Drew Estate.  The Pactum is a 5½” x 56 San Andrés wrapped robusto with high priming Nicaraguan filler, a Box of 15. The Pope of Greenwich Village is 6″ x 40, and has the San Andrés wrapper also, with a Connecticut Stalk-Cut Habano binder and fillers of Brazilian Mata Fina and Nicaraguan tobaccos and comes in a bundle of 10.  They both sound delicious, don’t they?  Thanks to Abe and his Smoke Inn staff for sending these along.  Abe also has a weekly radio show and podcast, Kiss My Ash Radio, which broadcasts every Saturday at 10am Eastern, check it out. Steve Saka is the special guest on today’s show.

 

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This is going to cause some confusion….Yesterday’s winner of the Punch Signature Robustos from General Cigar Co. is Eric.  I know there were at least two Eric’s who entered, so it’s the one who didn’t use his full name (sorry Eric W! Try again today). So the Eric who posted around 11:46 AM EST yesterday needs to send me his info. I smoked one of these last night (not from your box!) and it’s a really nice smoke, sweet tobacco goodness and great construction. Thanks to Victoria and all the folks at General Cigar Co.!

 

 

You know what to do now, leave a comment here, check back tomorrow to see if you won!

 

RULES

 

All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment on the post of the day, if you can, try to post what you know or how you feel about today’s present, the folks donating the gift should get some feedback for their troubles! It’s not a condition to win, but it’s nice to have something to read. We did this last year and it benefits everyone. Once you’ve won, you’re out, let everyone else have a chance. Must be over 18 to win. Also, be sure to visit the links for each item. Comments on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else will not count, but feel free to spread the word!

Until tomorrow,

CigarCraig

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by | September 27, 2015 · 3:20 pm

Big Delicious, Villiger San’Doro and Southern Draw Kudzu Cigars

Room101_BigDeliciousFollowing on the heels of the Johnny Tobacconaut, I came across a lonely Room 101  Big Delicious that is a Smoke Inn exclusive and was released with much fanfare a year or so ago. This is a cool 6¼” x 52 figurado with a dark Habano 2000 wrapper.  You don’t see “Habano 2000” used that much any more, it got such a bad rap for not burning when it came around in the early part of the century (that makes me feel old…, it was around 2000).  The wrapper hangs over the foot so one really gets a nice taste of it off the light. When I see a wrapper folded over the foot, or some variation of that, I tend to just stick the cigar in my mouth and light it up, I figure toasting will burn off that extra wrapper leaf before I get to enjoy it!  Anyway, this cigar was sitting in the humidor, all alone and needed to be smoked, so I smoked it.  It was still big, and still delicious.  It burned well, had loads of deep, rich flavor and was quite satisfying.  These are still available from Smoke Inn and aren’t too expensive compared to a lot of other cigars. I don’t know that age has really improved this cigar, so if you get some, smoke them, I don’t believe they are regular production so they are what they are, still Big, still Delicious! The Website calls it the “The bastard child of Matt Booth and Abe Dababneh!”, I prefer to think of it as their “love child”.

 

Villiger_San'Doro_ToroWhile looking through the IPCPR samples, my eyes landed on a Villiger San’Doro Maduro in a toro size.  This year they released the San’Doro line in three wrapper, the Maduro, the Colorado and the Claro. While the Colorado and Claro are made at Tabacalera Oliva in Esteli, the Maduro I smoked is a Brazilian puro made in Viliger’s factory in Bahia, Brazil.  I’ve smoked Brazilian puros before, and when I smoked this one I didn’t know it was a puro. This was a nice, sweet maduro with  lot of great flavor.  I have samples of the claro (Ecuador Connecticut) and Colorodo (Habano from Nicaragua) in the humidor and I’m looking forward to smoking them, although I expect them to be completely different.  I’m not entirely sure when or if these are going to be offered in the U.S., there seems to be a lot of information pointing towards a European release this month.  I suppose someone will let me know!

 

SouthernDraw_KudzuI smoked a really nice Sindicato Hex Perfecto, and another Leccia Luchador Frogsplash this week, but i’ve discussed those before and there’s nothing really interesting to report. I did receive some goodies from Southern Draw Cigars and couldn’t wait to dig into the Kudzu after having a good experience with the Firethorn a week or so ago.  The Kudzo Toro is 6″ x 52 and has the covered foot again.  Both the Kudzu and Firethorn come in four sizes, a Pigtail capped Petite Corona, a 5½” x 52 Robusto, the Toro and a 6½” x 60 Gordo. The Kudzo has a dark Habano Oscuro wrapper and Binder and fillers from Nicaragua.  It starts off with a punch, and I began to question the wisdom of lighting this up before I had dinner. While it was a stronger cigar, my poor dining judgement didn’t come into play, as it smoothed out and was a solid medium to full cigar which I found to be quite enjoyable. It had some wood and chocolate flavors and smoked evenly until I put it down with under an inch left. I’m quite impressed with this line in my limited experience with them, although they are made at the A.J. Fernandez factory so I shouldn’t be surprised. Thanks to Robert Holt for sending some samples along, very good smokes.

 

That’s it for today, I don’t usually do two posts in one day, so don’t get used to it! While I’m thinking of it, next Saturday, October 3rd, from Noon to six is The Smokin’ Goose festival in Limerick, PA.  This was a great time last year, and this year they are having it right at the store instead of off site.  I plan to be there and am looking forward to it.  Check out The Smokin’ Goose website for tickets and information. A portion of the proceeds go to Cigars For Warriors. Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

CigarCraig

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