Tag Archives: Todos Las Dias

by Craig Vanderslice | May 16, 2021 · 10:37 am

Black Lion Luxuries Cigar of the Month Club for March

First off, I noticed that my e-mail notifications suddenly started working again, something that’s been screwed up since I updated my site to SSL. I still have some work to do with my host, I think, I just need to get on the phone with them and fight, the people I’ve talked to don’t seem to know what an RSS feed is, and it’s a little important in the blogging business. I will need to find a new e-mail service in the near future anyway and I need to have the RSS stuff working right. Enough of the technical details that you don’t care about, let’s talk about some cigars. I’ve recently been re-introduced to the Cigar of the Month Club business model, and the folks at Black Lion Luxuries shared theirs with me and I wanted to tell you all about my experience. First, I’m a little behind, so I opened the March pack, which included five cigars. I’m led to believe that the reasonable expectation is four cigars, and for $30 ($about $38 delivered, depending on where you live), that’s a pretty darned good value for the cigars I’m seeing in these packs. I went through the pack this week, and let me tell a little about them.

I’m not going to do a paragraph on each cigar, I smoked them at my leisure, for my own enjoyment, concentrating on the overall experience of the cigars as delivered by the vendor if that makes sense. I do have to some comments though. Regarding the Eiroa cigars: I’ve actually known Christian Eiroa for a long time, we go back to the Usenet days like Saka, and I know him personally, but he’s never, in 20 years, handed me a cigar. I’ve bought a bunch of his cigars, I used to love Camachos, but I haven’t loved the CLEs I’ve bought for some reason. These two Eiroa First 20 Years are a different story, with a nod going to the 646, which was truly exceptional. I haven’t had a cigar this good from Christian Eiroa ever. I believe Will Cooper gave the 550 a number one cigar of the year a few years ago, and I can’t find fault with that assessment. There have been times I’ve spent $30 on 2 cigars and not enjoyed them as much as these two, and there were three more really good cigars left in the pack!

OK, one more paragraph. I happened to work out that Mel Shah of MBombay cigars had a birthday this week, so I smoked the MBombay Classic Torpedo in his honor. I’ve lost touch with Mel, and I’m not sure what’s going on with the brand, but they are really good cigars. This is another cigar which which I have some history, first, the factory that makes these makes Vegas de Santiago in Costa Rica, and that name probably doesn’t mean much to most people, but it’s a brand that I’ve smoked a bunch of years ago. It’s also the same factory that makes the Byron and Atabey cigars. It’s a delicious Connecticut Shade cigar that deserves a try, it’s one I’ll gravitate towards if I crave a shade. If the Eiroa 646 wasn’t the best cigar in the bunch, the Todos Las Dias was. I’ll admit it took me a few cigars to warm up to this blend, but it’s delicious, and my favorite size, the 6″ x 52 toro too. Finally, the Punch Rare Corojo Pita, another Toro, which is the only sub-$10 cigar in the pack, and a really tasty smoke in my opinion. I’ve always liked the Rare Corojo, despite it not being Corojo, and hardly being rare.

I have to say, pick any three cigars in the Black Lion Luxuries Cigar of the Month pack, and you’ve got your money’s worth, the other two are gravy. All of the cigars smoked perfectly, and arrived in pristine condition. I realize they are only making a short trip from Harrisburg, PA to my home in suburban Philadelphia, but with today’s USPS, that potentially could be a long trip! These five cigars made for a great week of smoking for me, first impressions are extremely good for Black Lion Luxuries Cigars, and they seem to have other good deals on the website as well! I look forward to getting into the April selection! By the way, Check out RonRealTV, Ron helps in the selection of the Cigar of the Month Club cigars, and has a popular YouTube Channel! Thank you to Black Lion Luxuries Cigars for sharing their CIgar of the Month Club with me.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Black Lion Luxuries, cigar, cigars, Eiroa, First 20 Years, MBombay, Punch Rare Corojo, Todos Las Dias

by Craig Vanderslice | April 2, 2019 · 9:46 am

Podcast: Episode 13: Sunday Funday with Steve Saka

Sunday, March 31, I attended an event at Famous Smokeshop‘s Easton PA. location, where they have their retail store and the Leaf Cigar Bar. They were hosting the Sunday Funday with Steve Saka, which featured an afternoon of Jameson Irish Whiskey, three Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust cigars, and three gourmet donuts. I managed to get Steve out of his shell for a few minutes, you know how shy he is…so I hope you enjoy listening to this episode.

This might be the first place you’re hearing about the Polpette, Steve’s mixed filler creation! I smoked it, and it was awesome at 10 days old, and will end up being one of those cigars that people trip over themselves to get ahold of, whether Steve believes it or not! I know it’s been a while between shows, hopefully now that it’s spring, I’ll have more opportunities to record. Until the the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Dunbarton, Famous, Leaf, Mi Querida, Muestra De Saka, Saka, Sin Compromiso, Sobremesa, Todos Las Dias, Umbagog

by CigarCraig | December 30, 2018 · 9:07 am

Happy New Year From CigarCraig and E.P.Carrillo Contest Winner Announcement!

Tomorrow is New Years Eve, and I hope everyone has safe and fun plans, and great cigars picked out. I have to work today and tomorrow, so tomorrow night will be a quite night at home. I’m going to select a nice cigar to relax with on the porch, much like any other evening. It might be something from the rare and unusual part of the humidor, this year has been a weird one for me on a personal level. I’m not quite sure how I want to celebrate it yet! Anyway, as I generally do around this time if year, I’ve spent the last week or so smoking cigars I’ve wanted to smoke with little regard for presenting synopsis’s here (is that the right word? plural of synopsis?), but last night I smoked my last Todos Las Dias from Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust, and felt the need to mention it. Of all the cigars Steve Saka has brought to market, this one is one that it took me the longest to “get”. I suppose the first few I had didn’t seem to draw as well as I’d like, or, more accurately, burned on the wet side, as in over-humidified. This was ironic since Steve was hand picking his IPCPR samples for the exact reason that the samples were still on the wet side from the factory, but the ones I had were in my humidor for some time, so I can only guess that it was my fault, and maybe this liga just needed to be kept as a lower RH. There was an earthy, mushroomy flavor I didn’t care for, and it’s a flavor I typically don’t like in cigars, I think it goes back to a bad mushroom experience I had in the ’80s, but that’s another story. I bought some of the Double Wide Belicosos and put them down for a while in a lower RH humidor. I love the size, Joya de Nicaragua uses the same molds for a couple other cigars in their portfolio and I really dig it. It’s 4¾” x 60 with a blunt, tapered head. With a dryer, open draw, I finally “get” this cigar, and, like the other cigars in the DTT portfolio, I can finally say that there isn’t a cigar in the lineup that I don’t like. It may not be my favorite in the bunch, but it’s certainly one I’d choose over many, many other cigars on the market. It’s still earthy, but it didn’t have that off-putting (to me), mushroomyness, but more of a hearty Nicaraguan peppery flavor. I still need to try the Thick Lonsdale “Mas Fuerte” (Steve’s alleged mistake), and need to put some more Double Wide Belicosos in the humidor. Perhaps tomorrow night’s smoke will be a pre-release Sin Compromiso…or a Nacatamale, or something of that ilk. Or maybe not.

Thursday I posted a video review of the Herics Cigar Measuring Tape. Please let me know if that’s a format you’d like to see more of, or if a little of me on video is enough! If there’s positive feedback, I might do more, if nobody cares, I might do more, if there vehement opposition, I’ll scrap the idea! and, as I alluded to in the last post, I’ll have another contest in the coming weeks which will include one of the tapes along with some other goodies. Speaking of contests, I have to announce the winner of the E.P. Carrillo Prize Package! I added a few cigars to the package, including an Encore Majestic, which was CA’s No. 1 Cigar of the year. These cigars are out of my humidor, it’s completely legal for me to give cigars to my friends! (that should hold off the black helicopters!). So there’s the EPC Hat, the pair of tumblers and steel whisky cubes, lighter and cutter, the CigarProp Lighter Bleed Tool (Thanks Kevin!) and now a five pack of cigars (the La Gloria Cubana isn’t technically an EPC cigar, but it’s made at his factory and was blended with his help, along with Yuri Guillen of General Cigar Co. I’m counting it, it’s my contest. I don’t think the winner is going to complain, it’s a fantastic cigar! So, as per normal, I consulted the random number generator, and Andy Klueber‘s number finally came up. Andy has been lamenting the fact that he never wins for as long as I can remember, so now he can give it a rest! Please send your address so I can send this out to you! Thanks to E.P. Carrillo and Cigar Prop for the goodies, and than you all for your support and participation over the years!

Happy New Year! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as CigarProp, cigars, Contest, Dunbarton, E.P. Carrillo, La Gloria Cubana, Todos Las Dias

by CigarCraig | June 21, 2018 · 4:43 pm

News: Todos Las Dias Thick Lonsdale “Mas Fuerte” at 2018 IPCPR Tradeshow

Big news day, here’s the second of today. It seems Steve’s screw up is a bonus for fans of the Todos las Dias, bringing a “more strong” version to the market in the lonsdale vitola!

Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust® (DTT) will be showcasing a single vitola line extension to it’s fullbodied
Todos Las Dias (TLD) brand that is even bolder. It will be made available at the International Premium
Cigar and Pipe Retailers 86th Annual Convention in Las Vegas, NV, on July 13th, 2018.

The TLD Thick Lonsdale “Mas Fuerte” is a 6.00 x 46 parejo with a pig tail finished head and packed in 10ct boxes
with a red “Mas Fuerte” label applied. The MSRP is $11.95 per cigar and $119.50 per box.

Steve Saka, the founder and master ligador of DTT, shared, “The Thick Lonsdale “Mas Fuerte” is the result of
some confusion between myself and the factory. When originally blending the TLD liga there were two finished
core blends comprised of the same tobaccos, but with different proportions. Ultimately, I selected the one I felt
worked best in the original formats to be released and relegated the other to my blending diary. When it came
time to add the Thick Lonsdale to the line, I inadvertently gave them the recipe for the stronger iteration. In their
defense, the factory asked me to verify the blend twice, but I managed to still muck it up and authorized them to
produce 200 boxes as instructed. I didn’t actually realize my mistake until I was smoking the post production
cigars for quality control purposes. Right away I knew something was askew.”

“My initial reaction was to destroy the cigars, but as I continued to smoked them I came to realize that this
variation of the liga was perfect for this unique 6×46 format. So in the end, I decided my mistake was a blessing
and have opted to add this tweaked vitola to the lineup for our connoisseur customers to enjoy.”

The anticipated ship date to those Select Purveyors who order at this year’s tradeshow is August 2017.

About Steve Saka
Regarded as a cigar expert throughout the industry, he is credited as being an experienced cigar blender and
maker, a prolific author regarding cigars and black tobaccos, a forefather within the online media segment and a
dynamic tobacco industry executive. In 2000, he worked directly for Lew Rothman, the former owner of JR Cigar,
as an executive consultant for four years and he subsequently served as the President, then CEO of Drew Estate
from 2005 through 2013. In 2015, he established the family held Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust to craft and
distribute traditional handmade puros. For more information, please visit: www.dunbartoncigars.com.

®Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust and Todos Las Dias are registered trademarks of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust
and/or affiliated companies.

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by CigarCraig | June 17, 2018 · 9:44 am

Todos Las Dias, Farce and Truth and La Aurora at the Track

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there, I know later today I’ll be digging out my traditional father’s day cigar for the 19th or 20th year (I’ve lost track…the cigars came out in 1998, but I think it was 1999 by the time I bought a box, can’t remember). I refer, of course, to the obscure Esperanza Para los Niños, which was made by Christian Eiroa when he owned Camacho as a charity project to help children orphaned by hurricane Mitch. The cigars have held up extremely well, and it’s through the kindness of several friends that I’ve been able to continue the tradition of smoking one on Father’s Day every year this long, and I might be good until 2020 when the last toro from the box I bought will go down. Until cigar time rolls around, I got some typing to do, so lets recap some notable smokes I had this week! I smoked another Todos las Dias from Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust this week. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the brand, everything Steve has produced has been a win for my palate, but this liga has been a slow starter for me. Maybe it’s because the first three examples I smoked didn’t draw well enough (moisture…ironic given Steve was checking internal humidity of each sample at the trade show, video here, and they came from multiple sources, they just have to be kept dryer, I guess). To recap, the Todos las Dias Double Wide Belicoso is a 4.75″x 60 figurado identical in size to the Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Gran Consul and the Rosalones 460, using the same molds and made in the same factory. It’s a Nicaraguan puro, with a sungrown Nicaraguan wrapper, and fillers from Esteli and Jalapa. This blend is growing on e finally, I’m starting to get the cocoa and a hint of the chili spice reported, and the cigar was great to the last drop. This is a cool shape, I still think I’m reaching for the TlD fourth in line in the regular DTT production, but it’s good, I like it.

Friday was a special day in the small village of Frazer, PA. The CigarCigars store, just 1.7 miles from my home, was host to a cigar event featuring Matt Booth of Room 101 Cigars, and, as is their custom at this shop, the event was from noon to 3. Normally this would cause me problems, life has not been normal in recent months. So I was able to be present for this auspicious event and hang out with Mr. Booth, although, culturally, Frazer, PA is pretty much polar opposite of what Mr Booth is used to…it’s not Amish country, but it’s not the Sunset Strip either…anyway, I had occasion to smoke the new Farce. This is important, and I can’t stress this enough, it’s Farce, not THE Farce…just Farce. Very important to note. Farce is made in the Ventura factory in the DR, it’s a full flavored, complex and sophisticated blend and was very nice. I liked it, I picked up a couple and will smoke another very soon in a non-event environment. I also smoked The T, not Mr. T, it the Toro size. I had previously smoked an IPCPR sample of this collaboration between Booth, Caldwell and AJ Fernandez made in Nicaragua and really liked it, and this one was no different. It’s dark and rich and heavy and right up my alley. My biggest regret was setting it in an ashtray with a couple of inches left and Steve, the manager cleaning up after the event thinking I was done with it, which I was not…my bad. Watch for the next CigarCraig podcast in the next few days, by the way. I highly recommend attending an event featuring Mr. Booth if you have the opportunity, he’s a gentleman and a scholar, and one who’s earned every one of his eccentricities.

Another annual family tradition which may seem odd to some is celebrating our granddaughters birthdays at the horse races. There is a track that’s reasonably convenient to both sides of the family free to park and get in, had a family friendly picnic grove with tables and bounce houses and slides and playgrounds for the kids, of course, horse races, and is cigar friendly! We try to get there early to get a good spot and have a cigar before everyone gets there. I lit up a La Aurora Preferidos Emerald Ecuador Corona, and there’s a reason I usually light up something from La Aurora at family events. My daughter’s name is Aurora, and I figure she’s not going to get upset at me for smoking a cigar if it’s got her name on it. Clever, eh? She’s a great kid, got me cigar related coffee for Father’s day! Anyway, I really was enjoying the crap out of that corona, what flavor and balance! Nice tobacco sweetness I didn’t want to put down, and I felt bad standing off to the side after people started showing up. I wanted to join the party, eat lunch, but I wanted to enjoy the cigar too, it was one of the few times I wished I had chosen an even smaller cigar! We stuck it out until the Ninth (last) race, because Smoke En Fire was running, and we put $5 on it to win, which it did, and paid $9.50! It was a beautiful day with family at a great horse park. I don’t know if Delaware Cigars still has their cigar festival there in the fall or not, but the coupe times I attended that event it was a good time!