Tag Archives: Toraño

by CigarCraig | September 8, 2013 · 12:18 pm

Azan White and Burgundy from Roberto Duran and a Drew Estate Event

While at the IPCPR show last month I managed to end up with samples of the Azan line of cigars from Roberto Duran. The booth was busy the times I came across it, but a friend gave me some samples, and I think there was someone around the booth handing them out. These were highly recommended and I was looking forward to smoking them, but I really didn’t know much about them. It turns out that Azan is an old Cuban trademark that has been out of production for so long nobody remembers it! Interestingly, the brand was created in Cuba by Chinese immigrants back in the 1920s. So, after hearing from Gabriel Piñeres of Creativas, the PR firm that handles Azan, as well as Toraño Family cigars, I figured it would be prudent to smoke some of these up.

I started with the White Premium Line Campana. This is a traditional belicoso size at 5½ x 52 with a tapered head. It was a very nice looking cigar, the Corojo wrapper was flawless and was smooth and symmetrical. It’s burn was perfect, just the way I like it with a straight, flat burn. It was a very enjoyable cigar to smoke both in the aesthetics as well as the flavor. The flavor was clean, smooth, with a nice spice and great, rich body. I really enjoyed smoking this cigar and will be on the lookout for more. I have a robusto remaining which may not last long. This was a hidden gem and thanks to my friend Joe and whoever else handed me samples!

I figured the logical thing to do the following evening was to smoke the Azan Burgundy line robusto. This cigar is a little more rustic in appearance than the White line. According to the website they use a lower grade of Corojo wrapper on this, and the appearance is a little lumpier. The flavor was nice. It shared a certain sweetness I came across in it’s classier sibling, and the burn and draw were just as good. This is certainly a nice alternative to the White, which I can assume carries a higher price tag. Laziness on my part leads to this assumption as I haven’t yet had the chance to shop these yet. I can conclude that Roberto Duran is doing things right. He’s reviving a historic brand with quality cigars that are smoking well. I look forward to smoking more of both of these.

Saturday brought yet another trip up to Hamburg, PA to the Cigars International store. My friend Bacon Jams Bruce and I went up for the Drew Estate Event. We smoked some fine cigars, including my favorites, the Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta #13 Lancero and an Undercrown Corona Viva. I used some gift cards I received for my birthday to pick up the Xikar MTX multi tool/cigar scissors. Thanks guys, you know who you are. This tool will requite some practice, but I’ve hear and seen really good things about it. My concern is that it’s too small and I’m worried about losing it. Perhaps I’ll put it on a lanyard and wear it around my neck! Anyway, the Drew Estate event was well attended, but it didn’t look like the silent auction items were getting a lot of bid action. There was another custom carved humidor but Jessi Flores, the director of Subculture Studios that was a work of art. The auction was again supporting TECHO. This isn’t a criticism, but an observation, but I really think a store like CI is a place people go looking for bargains, not necessarily the well heeled clientele that you find at some upscale shops. I hope they raised a lot of money for this worthwhile charity. Also there were the Operation: Cigars for Warriors folks, and the local Drew Estate Rep, Chris Stone, donated 10″ of his hair to Locks Of Love. Well done, once again, to the generous cigar community. I admit, my reason for going in the first place was to see the Drew Estate crew, and say hello to Jonathan Drew, who hobbled in around 6:30. We had a nice little visit on my way out the door. My apologies to the line of guys waiting to meet him. He’s a good friend and a heck of a nice guy. There were also the usual Drew Estate ambassadors and fans present, always nice to see that cast of characters.

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

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Events, IPCPR, Review, Stores

Tagged as Azan, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Cigars International, drew estate, joya de nicaragua, Operation: Cigars For Warriors, Roberto Duran, TECHO, Toraño

by CigarCraig | June 16, 2013 · 10:18 am

Leccia Tobacco, a Black and a White at the Event, and Custom Rolled Cigar

For some reason I’m a sucker for cigar events (go figure!). I happened to notice that Sam Leccia was travelling with Jack Toraño, the marketing director for Toraño Family Cigar Co. who is distributing Leccia Tobacco’s new offerings. So Thursday evening they were doing an event at the CigarCigars stores in Colmar, PA. They couldn’t have the event at the store that’s 10 minutes from home in Phoenixville, noooo…..it had to be 50 minutes away. I normally wouldn’t gripe about driving an hour to have a smoke, I do it all the time, but weeknights are tough. Anyway, I got there about 7 and the OverACigar internet radio show/podcast guys were just starting their show live in the shop. I’ve been listening to their show for a while (I’m a podcast junkie, what can I say) and it was interesting to see the process. Jack and Sam were both featured prominently in the 2 hour show. For those who aren’t aware, the show is live on blogtalkradio.com on Thursdays generally, and available on iTunes and their site. It’s just a bunch of guys talking as if they were in a cigar lounge, with cigar talk and industry guests thrown in here and there. They turned out to be a really nice bunch of guys, despite what you hear on the show :-).

I bought some of Sam’s new cigars, the Black and the White, all in the robusto size. I started with the Black, which features the Kentucky “Darkfire” fire cured tobacco. It’s certainly a unique flavor. When I was in Nicaragua I smoked a prototype of the My Uzi Weighs a Ton Kentucky Fire Cured and the aroma off the foot was unmistakable “campfire”. The Leccia Black is more subtle. The smokiness is there, and the hand of leaves Sam had with him had the same pungent aroma, but it’s not overwhelming in the cigar. At one point Sam added a strip of the darkfire tobacco to the wrapper of the cigar I was smoking. The wet leaf didn’t burn particularly well, but you could taste the additional smokiness. When Sam set out to make a distinctive cigar, he achieved his goal with this one!

Moving on to the White, this is also something a little different. It’s made in an undisclosed factory in Nicaragua, and has some Pennsylvania broadleaf in the filler blend of Nicaraguan fillers and an African Sun Grown Wrapper (I forgot to ask if this was Cameroon, I suspect it is. It had a familiar sweetness I get from Cameroon wrappers). I’m going to have to smoke one on a fresh palate because, let’s face it, firing this up 15 minutes after finishing the Black is no fair way to assess a cigar. I will say that I really enjoyed the cigar and the flavor was, once again, distinctive (and good!). As I said, I’ll give one a try again in the very near future and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.

On my way out the door, Sam insisted on rolling me a custom cigar. This one is the White blend wrapped in Ecuador Connecticut Shade, and accented with some of the Darkfire, actually the foot is totally enclosed in this beautiful, dark leaf. So Friday evening I sparked it up after dinner and a swim. The closed foot was amusing. I’m used to testing the draw after cutting and forgot about the foot and thought it was plugged. Once I remembered what was going on, I hit it with a triple flame torch and was off to the races. The first half inch was loaded with the smokey flavor that that fire cured tobacco brings to the table. It’s subtle, not overpowering, but certainly noticeable. The shade wrapper added a completely different component to the experience. Where the White blend is usually wrapped in African Sungrown, this shade wrapper really mellowed it out a little. It was a shame to burn up soch a beautiful creation, and I still have a couple cigar Sam wrapped for me years ago that are just too pretty to set fire to, but I’m glad I experienced the various flavor changes that the two wrapper modifications make. As Sam was rolling this, I asked him not to get too fancy with it so I wouldn’t feel bad smoking it. He still created a stunning masterpiece, and despite having been wrapped twenty-four hours earlier it burned remarkably well. Thank you to Sam, Jack, Scott of CigarCigars and Bobby Hershman for putting on such a great event which I would have been disappointed to have missed.

That’s it for cigars here, we are recovering from the Ticked Off Music Fest, which went off without a hitch (but nobody came to me to mooch a cigar, I had plenty to share!) It was a busy day, a late night, but satisfying to help spread the word about Lyme Disease. Today is Father’s Day, so at some point I’ll be setting fire to one of my last traditional Father’s Day cigars, the Esperanza para los Niños, which was made by Christian Eiroa back in 1998 to benefit children orphaned by Hurricane Mitch. It’s always interesting to see what yet another year of age has done to these. In two years I’ll have to start a new tradition as I will have exhausted my supply of those maduro beauties. To the father’s out there, have a great day!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under Events, Review

Tagged as cigar, CigarCigars, cigars, leccia, Toraño

by CigarCraig | March 9, 2013 · 3:54 pm

Some Cigar News, a Toraño, a Dunhill, and a StogieBoys Contest!

There has been a great many news items coming out lately, and I won’t bore you with repeating what many of my fellow cigar blogger types have already posted. Punch has a new Rare Corojo and there’s a new cigar coming from a Kentucky based cigar company. If you haven’t seen the press releases for those, they are not hard to find. One item of interest that you won’t find anywhere else is the announcement of the new and improved website featuring the largest collection of cigar store Indians (Native Americans?) on the planet. OldCigarStoreIndians.com features the collection of Mark Goldman, formerly of Mom’s Cigars and House of Oxford, a New York City Cigar Store and distribution company respectively. The site features photos of Mark’s collection as well as a video from the PBS series “Antique Roadshow” featuring several pieces from the collection. This is a nice piece of cigar related Americana. Thanks to Bobby Holstein for sharing this site with me.

In other news, I received an e-mail from my Congressman, Jim Gerlach, in response to my letter asking him to support H.R. 792.

Dear Mr. Vanderslice :

Thank you for contacting me about H.R. 792. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

As you may know, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) in 2009 which provided the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with authority to regulate certain tobacco products. As enacted, the law focuses on under-age access to tobacco and named a few tobacco products subject to regulation: cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco. Because traditional large and premium cigars are not a product often used by youth, they were not included within the Tobacco Control Act’s scope.

Recently, the FDA has indicated it may advance regulations that would go beyond the new law by regulating premium cigars under the Tobacco Control Act. As a result, Rep. Bill Posey of Florida introduced H.R. 792 which would clarify the FDA’s jurisdiction over traditional and premium cigars. This bill has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce for consideration. Should this bill begin moving through the legislative process, I will certainly weigh your views in deciding whether to support this bill. Right now, I am leaning in support of the bill since I don’t believe the FDA has the authority to promulgate these new regulations. But I do want to hear the proponents’ side of the issue too before drawing a final conclusion.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this issue with me. If I can be of any help to you or your family in the future, please do not hesitate to let me know.

With kind regards, I am

Sincerely,
Jim Gerlach
Member of Congress

I’ve e-mailed Congressman Gerlach dozens of times regarding the previous iteration of this bill without anything but a boiler plate response. I appreciate this specific reply and hope that he signs on. Pennsylvania is a very important state to the cigar industry, oddly enough. Since we don’t have a cigar tax, we have many of the larger distributors and mail order houses located here accounting for thousands of jobs, and millions in state tax revenue. I urge everyone to contact their representatives and ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 792. There are links in the left sidebar of my site that will help you write the letter.

Back to the cigars!

Friday evening I decided to try the Toraño Vault A-008 Corona Gorda that was included with the Smoke Inn Special I picked up a few weeks ago. This cigar is a 5 5/8″ x 46 traditional Corona Gorda, and the blend is: Wrapper: Shade Grown Nicaraguan Colorado, Binder: Ometepe, Nicaragua and Jamastran, Honduras, Filler: Esteli and Condega, Nicaragua. First, I love this size, the corona gorda has long been a favorite of mine. This is a nice, dark cigar with a deep, rich flavor. It was packed with tobacco, resulting in a little bit firmer draw than I would have liked, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying the heck out of this cigar. Considering I got this cigar, along with two El Suelos and two My Uzi Weighs a Ton for under $14 delivered, I think it was well worth it. I have another one floating around someplace that I look forward to smoking. One of my readers, Duane, won a box of these in the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways, I’d be interested in hearing what he had to say about them. While I’m thinking about it, if any of the winners of anything from my site wants to submit a review of their winnings, I’d be happy to include it as a guest review. Anyway, great smoke, great size, great overall experience.

Saturday was a stunning day, so my wife and I took the dogs for a walk after a very disappointing Flyers game. As much as I like watching Hockey, I feel a little bit put upon when they play on a weekend afternoon. I kinda feel like I have better things to do than sit in front of the TV, and DVRing games never seems to work out. Anyway, I was looking for something interesting to smoke after the game and I came across a Dunhill Aged Cabraras in a tube. It’s an interesting story about where this came from. Back in 2005/2006 I administered a monthly cigar swap on the alt.smokers.cigars usenet group. Every month I’d ask for participants and pair people up and they’d exchange cigars. One particular time I paired myself with a gentleman from Australia, who sent me two of these cigars after the original shipment of cigars were never received. I was concerned that this mild, Connecticut shade cigar would be way past it’s prime. I have to say that this cigar held up very well over the years. It had the nutty/grassy kind of flavor that Connecticut shade wrapped cigars have, but there was an underlying strength of flavor that hinted at something more. There is Brazilian leaf listed in the filler of this, perhaps that’s what gave it a little extra flavor. Anyway, it was a great cigar, I’m glad I dug this one out of it’s hiding place and smoked it. I really should smoke more Churchill sized cigars, in this day and age 7″ x 48 doesn’t really seem that large!

Contest!

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day next weekend, We have a StogieBoys.com prize pack courtesy of StogieBoys.com of course! Included in the prize pack is a box of Erin Go Bragh cigars, a Dominican cigar infused with Irish whiskey and made in the La Aurora factory. To go along with the cigars, there is a whole mess of cool StogieBoys.com swag, playing cards, can koozies, a lighter and v-cutter, a cap and t-shirt, and whatever other goodies the folks there decide to include! Thanks to Sheryl at StogieBoys.com for putting this fine St. Patrick’s Day Prize Package together! Please leave a comment on this page to enter and I will select a winner next Sunday, March 17th, 2013. Check out StogieBoys.com when you are shopping online, they are quickly becoming one of the major players in the world of online cigar retailers!

That’s it for today, I’ll be digging through the humidors today to find another interesting smoke, as well as picking out a short smoke to enjoy after tonight’s Flyers game at the cigar bar instead of sitting in the parking lot traffic!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

46 Comments

Filed under Editorial, News, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigar rights, Cigar Store Indians, cigars, Contest, Dunhill, E, Erin Go Bragh, H.R. 792, Stogie Boys, Toraño

by CigarCraig | March 3, 2013 · 9:57 am

Slow Cigar Week – A Total Flame, an El Suelo and a Rocky Patel Burn

It was a busy week, lots to do and not a lot of time for cigars. I’m fully ready for spring to arrive, it’s getting very old bundling up to go for my walks and freezing my tuckus off! I felt like I missed a few days worth of evening walks, which as you know, is when I enjoy most of my cigars. I know, excuses, excuses. I did manage to smoke some new-to-me smokes over the last couple days.

Wednesday evening my wife and I went to the Flyers game and stopped at the Cigar Bar in the Wells Fargo Center on the way out to let the traffic clear. I smoked a cigar I had gotten at the IPCPR show last summer, a Total Flame 8 Ball. I didn’t actually get to this booth, but they had someone walking the show floor handing out sample bags (I guess they weren’t getting a lot of traffic in the booth). I seem to recall the booth having a pretty interesting biker theme, which is evident in the naming scheme of their cigars. From the looks of the website, they are a Russian company, and their cigars are made in either the Placencia factory in Nicaragua or the La Aurora Factory in the Dominican Republic. I selected this short perfecto shaped cigar because I wouldn’t have the time to spend with a larger smoke. The cigar was OK, nothing particularly exciting. I’m not entirely sure if this is from the Dominican or Nicaraguan line, but I’m leaning toward the Dominican based upon the flavor profile my own taste perceptions of many of the La Aurora blends. Just my opinion, of course, everyone’s tastes are different, and I have a hard time loving all of the cigars that anyone makes (La Aurora stands out to me because I REALLY want to like everything they make for sentimental reasons, but I find that I only like a select few marques). While at the Cigar Bar I asked when his new cigar shapes were due out, and he indicated that they would be released sometime this month. I’m looking forward to seeing the new band and smoking the box pressed Torpedo and the round Toro that will be added to the short robusto that was originally released (the BSB#1). The Flyers won the game rather convincingly over the Capitals, and it was a good night. Even if the cigar was so-so, it still added to the enjoyment of the evening.

Friday evening my brother-in-law stopped by, so he joined me on my evening walk. I set him up with a cigar, and selected an El Suelo Campo for myself. I recently got a couple of these with a Smoke Inn weekly deal. I’ve been wanting to smoke something from the L’Atelier Imports folks, so when I saw two of these, two My Uzi Weighs a Ton 7x60s and a Toraño Loyal for around $13 delivered I figured it was a no-brainer. Now, I don’t love the MUWAT 7×60, but it will make a very nice afternoon in the pool cigar this summer. The El Suelo is an inexpensive bundle type cigar from L’Atelier Imports, which is a company that Pete Johnson (Tatuaje) started with his brother KC Johnson, and his friend Sean Johnson. I believe the company is based in Rock Ridge, along with Reverend Johnson, Gabby Johnson and Howard Johnson with the orange roofed outhouse. Sorry, it was hard to resist making a Blazing Saddles reference. Anyway, this 6 ¼ x 60 cigar was milder than I expected, but had very nice flavor through the first half. In the second half it showed some signs of youth, a bit of an ammonia bite that was off-putting. I will let the second example rest in the humidor for a few months and see if this little unpleasantness ages out. Still well worth the price of the sampler for the experience and the comedic opportunity.

Saturday afternoon, after watching our grand-daughter while her parents went to the Flyers game (another win – woohoo!!), I was ready for a nap, but decided to take a cigar (and dog) for a walk. I selected a Rocky Patel Burn Toro that was given to me by my area’s rep, Mark, at the IPCPR show. I still have a handful of samples that I’m trying to work in, but most are of larger sizes. This was a pretty 6½x52 Toro with a nice Ecuador Sumatra wrapper. This was another cigar that I expected to be a bit fuller bodied than it was. What it turned out to be was a very nice, milder smoke that burned well and gave me a fair amount of pleasure. It was smooth and flavorful and just a pretty nice smoke all around. It wouldn’t be something I’d choose again, necessarily but it was a nice change of pace. Thanks to Mark at Rocky Patel for throwing this at me while I stopped in their very busy booth.

That’s all I have for today. I may need to dig around for something interesting to smoke today!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, drew estate, El Suelo, IPCPR, L'Atelier, rocky patel, Toraño, Total Flame

by CigarCraig | December 26, 2012 · 9:26 am

Winner of Day 13 of CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways!

We’ve finally reached the end of this amazing journey. It was a wild ride, and I’d go so far as to say that this was one of the best cigar related contests out there. Over the course of two weeks we gave away 265 cigars and a bunch of t-shirts, hats, cutters, ashtrays and even a lighter. I could never have pulled off such an enormous project on my own, so I have to thank some people before I announce the final winner for 2012. First my wife, Jennifer, who puts up with my insanity, moderates the new comments while I’m at work and is my greatest supporter. Thank you for making this year great. Of course the sponsors need thanking for offering all the great stuff we had to give away. They are:

StogieBoys.com

Foundry Cigars/General Cigar Co.

Tobaccos Mata Fina USA

United Cigar Retailers

Villiger Cigars North America

CAO Cigars/General Cigar Co.

Oliva Cigars

Drew Estate

All of these folks provided an unprecedented amount of wonderful stuff. Thank you to all of them for their participation! The next group that I want to thank are you, my readers! Without you I’d just be doing all of this for my own amusement, and I get tired of my same old jokes! Thanks to all who entered the contests. I hope some of you stick around as I wander through my cigar journey.

DE_Undercrown So, once again I’ve been torturing you with minutia, when all you really want to know is if you won the box of Drew Estate Undercrown and all of the associated goodies that come with it! We had 98 entries and Random.org selected 87. By my count that is cigarsonist. Please send me your contact information so I can ship all this stuff off to you!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, etc. I’ll be back on Sunday, maybe I’ll put together a list of my favorites of the past year, or something like that. Hard to say what I may pull out of my sleeve!

Until then,

CigarCraig