Tag Archives: Tortuga

Figurados! Apocalypse, Oliva, Columbia and Tortuga Cigars and a Preview

NewestCigarsCaptureI’ve been on a little bit of a figurado kick lately, but before we get to the cigars, I want to share some breaking news.  I had the privilege of previewing a new cigar website that I think is going to be very useful.  You may recall NewestCigars.com sponsored Day 9 of my last 12 Days of Spectacular Cigar Giveaways.  They are looking to launch the site in June of this year.  From the preview I saw, I think it will be interesting to follow, as they will present new cigars, and, if the manufacturers provide the information, there will even be links to stores that carry the new cigars.  So often I get to smoke something new that many of you can’t find in stores, and to be honest, I rarely see them in stores myself.  NewestCigars.com should provide I user friendly outlet for keeping up with what’s new in the cigar world.  I wish Mike and Yoffy the best of luck and can’t wait for the site to go live.

 

TatuajeAnarchy_ApocolypseSunday afternoon was a beautiful late winter day, the kind that really makes one look forward to spring.  It afforded me the opportunity to sit out on the patio for a while with a really nice cigar.  I decided to smoke the Tatuaje Anarchy Apocalypse sample that I received a couple months ago from Smoke Inn that I wanted to sit down and really pay some attention to.  This is a 5¼” x 54 perfecto with a cool pigtail “bun” on the cap.  It had a very dark Ecuador Habano wrapper that could have been mistaken for broadleaf.  It was a fun cigar, the smoke was lush and dense and delicious, with dark, savory flavors that really make my day. This, along with the Tatuaje Reserva petite cazadore I had a couple weeks ago, are really making me want to try more Tatuajes.  The trouble is they are in a higher price range than I’m comfortable with, and there’s so many darned line extensions it’s hard for me to keep straight what’s what.  I suppose I’ll pick one up from time to time and make sure I remember what it is when I smoke it.  The Apocalypse was pretty amazing.  Later in the evening I smoked a little Oliva Serie G “Special G” perfecto while sitting in the Cigar Bar at the Wells Fargo Center after a Flyers win.  That’s a tasty little Cameroon cigar that was perfect for letting the traffic dissipate from the parking lot. As always, I got a chance to say hello to , he’s always there after the game having a cigar.

 

Columbia TorpedoMonday I decided to go experimental and selected a cigar that my wife picked up on here recent trip to Clearwater Beach, Florida.  She brought me back a couple cigars from the Columbia Restaurant there, a robusto and a torpedo.  Of course, I picked the torp.  This was the strangest looking cigar. The cello was very tight, almost as if the cigar expanded inside of it.  I had to cut the cello off, and the wrapper was really wrinkly and ugly.  Aesthetics aside, the cigar drew effortlessly and was very tasty.  It was a maduro, and had the cocoa/expresso flavors that I like and associate with the dark wrappers.  I didn’t ask the price, it being a gift and all, but it was a very nice smoke.  I enjoyed it and hope the robusto is just as enjoyable.

 

tortuga_EL2011Tuesday I went with a Tortuga 215 Edición Limitada 2011 Torpedo.  You can tell the weather has been a little warmer and the evenings a little lighter because I’ve been smoking larger cigars!  I’ve smoked this cigar before and like it a good bit.  This is made by Legacy Brands Cigar Company and blended by Victor Vitale.  The 6″x54 torpedo has a beautiful Nicaraguan wrapper over a blend of Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers.  It’s solidly medium bodied and very well made.  I took only about an eight of an inch off the very pointy head of the cigar and  had a perfect draw, which may be why about half way through I cave it another cut after getting a bit of the very bitter tasting tarry build up on my lips.  That was an eye opener!  It was about dusk and I really couldn’t see it.  Lovely smoke, Victor has been making some very good cigars lately, I think it’s safe to say that I like many of Vitales vitolas!

 

stogieboysStPatscontestThat’s it for now! Don’t forget to visit Sunday’s post (the post just prior to this one) and enter the StogieBoys.com contest that is running through this coming Sunday!  Enter to win some cigars and cool swag!! (does everyone know that “swag” is an acronym for “stuff we all get”?).

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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A Heraderos de Robaina, a Prototype, and a Tatuaje at the Wooden Indian Cigar Shop

This is an odd time of year.  I’m kind of running out of different cigars to smoke and report on and the ones I do have are too big for the time and conditions available to me.  Many times it’s a robusto or smaller on my evening walk.  Sometimes a cigar doesn’t fit in at all, I don’t like it, but it’s OK.  I can’t tell you how much I look forward to warmer weather!  More daylight and not having to wear gloves and bundling up greatly enhance the cigar experience for me.  It’s not far off, so you’ll only have to put up with my whining for a little longer!

 

HerederosDeRobaina_RobustoThursday evening I took a look into the cigars that Gary Griffith had sent me a while ago to see what I hadn’t smoked yet. I picked out a Herederos de Robaina robusto that had somehow escaped my notice up until now.  I can’t find a lot of information about this cigar, and I was too lazy to ask Gary.  I may have skipped it because it kind of looked generic.  The band isn’t fancy, the cigar has a fairly nondescript colored Habano looking wrapper.  Fortunately, the cigar smoked very well. It was quite well made, and the flavor was smooth and very nice.  I came across an MSRP of $7.90 someplace, which is too rich for my blood, I would be dissapointed with this smoke at this price.  If it were a $5 cigar I would consider it a good value, at closer to $8, I need to be wow’d, and I was satisfied, but now blown away.   Most of the cigars that Gary Griffith and Emilio Cigars has taken on to distribute have wow’d me, but, like everything, there’s something for everyone, and this is a fine smoke that certainly may blow someone else away.

 

VictorVitale_MaduroPrototypeFriday evening I decided to smoke a larger cigar since it wasn’t that freezing cold out.  I had received a couple of samples of prototypes a while ago from Legacy Brands by Victor Vitale.  This cigar was 6½” x 54 or maybe 56, with a jet black and oily wrapper.  This cigar had the most amazing and unique tobacco aroma off the foot.  I actually haven’t done this in about 30 years, but the smell reminded me of sticking your nose in a pouch of RedMan chewing tobacco.  There’s a really sweet smell like that that this cigar had.  It continued as I lit it up, syrupy sweet with a little bit of the black licorice finish along the way.  I don’t think I could smoke this every day, but it sure was a very different and delicious cigar that I I would enjoy from time to time as a change of pace.  I can’t wait to find out more about this.  My first thought was that it contained a large portion of the “jungle” tobacco that Victor used in his Tortuga 1950 Natural Aged Maduro that I enjoyed so much last year. Maybe that’s the unique flavor?  I certainly can’t speculate on where this might fit into Victor’s portfolio, only Victor can tell me that (maybe he’ll read this and leave a comment, hint hint!)! Thanks to Victor for letting me experience that cigar, it really made my day.

 

Saturday turned out to a bit if a father/daughter day in my family.  My wife has been busy driving with her father down to Florida so he can spend a few weeks at the Phillies spring training camp, my son-in-law got to spend the afternoon with my grand-daughter and I got to take my daughter to the Flyers game.  There’s nothing quite like taking in an afternoon of gratuitous violence and ice hockey with ones little girl (she’s 29 and expecting her 2nd child and I don’t think she likes it when I refer to her as my little girl!).  It was a great game, lots of action and the Flyers came out on top.  I would normally stop at the Cigar Bar in the Wells Fargo Center for a smoke while traffic cleared out, but that wasn’t appropriate in this instance, TatuajeReserva_PetiteCazadoresso instead I stopped in at the Wooden Indian in Havertown, PA, for a smoke on the way home.  I picked up a couple of favorites along with a pair of Tatuaje Petite Cazadores, I guess this is the Reserva line (or “Reserver” for my New England friends <snicker>).  I am way behind on sampling the Tatuaje line. I think I’ve smoked the La Casita Criolla, one of the mixed filler cigars a long time ago, and maybe an El Triunfador.  I’ll admit that the price point puts me off of the majority of the line, so I figured this little 4″ x 40 at $4 was a place to start.  I sat in the shop talking to George, the sales associate and Dave, the local Xikar rep and really enjoyed this little smoke.  It was spicy, rich, dark and full of flavor.  I can’t imagine how much I’d enjoy this if I hadn’t been working on a pretty nasty migraine.  I’m glad I picked up a couple, because I really look forward to enjoying this cigar again and it compels me to experiment a little more in the line in the future.  It was the end to a pretty great day.

 

That pretty much wraps up things for today.  Please remember to support Cigar Rights of America and to write to your elected officials!

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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Cuban Bullets, A Tortuga Cigar and Some Random News Items

In the past few weeks I’ve been approached by a few retailers asking me to “review” products for them. This is something fairly new to me, but of course retailers are as much a part of the cigar industry as manufacturers, one couldn’t exist long without the other! I figure I’ll do a quick series of posts highlighting these retailers and the products they shared with me. Unless otherwise noted, all I receive from these companies are a couple sample cigars. I’ll only accept these kind of offers from companies who I have patronized myself, and feel comfortable recommending. My hope is that fostering relationships such as this leads to possible contests so that I can get goodies into the hands of my faithful readers. Enough of the disclaimers and altruistic mumbo-jumbo!

 

I received an e-mail from Sheryl at Stogieboys.com offering to send me some samples for review. I became familiar with Stogieboys.com a few years agoe when they offered a Groupon which I purchased and subsequently turned into a box of Hoyo de Monterrey Sabroso Maduro, a really nice short smoke that I enjoy quite a bit. I talked to Paul, one of the owners on the phone and via e-mail and even featured a discount code here for a while. Anyway, they sent me a couple Cuban Bullet toro maduro cigars to smoke. I can remember the Perdomo releasing the original version of this in the late ‘90s or early ‘00s in torpedo shapes and the cigars were mixed filler and very well priced. These cigars have “Version 2.0” on the bands. The first thing I noticed and questioned was that the two cigars they sent had noticeably different wrapper colors. One of the ways that manufacturers can offer a good cigar at a low price is to cut out costly steps in the manufacturing process, like color sorting. I haven’t had one of these in 10 years or so, and I found this to be a very nice smoke. The smoke was reasonably heavy and it burned and drew perfectly. I have had plenty of cigars that cost twice as much or more that didn’t burn as well as this one. It was a really enjoyable smoke all the way to the end, when I put it down with under an inch left. There was a little bit of a burnt taste off the light, but it smoothed out quickly. That may have been a result of a hasty light.

 

With the second, lighter colored sample I took a little more care in lighting. This cigar had a little bit tighter draw than the first, resulting in a bit less of the full flavor and strength of the first. It was still very nice and was a pleasant and relaxing experience. I suppose this is another concession made to keep prices down, less consistency.  If I hadn’t enjoyed the first one so much I wouldn’t have had high expectations for the second, but I was looking for a repeat performance and I got a bit of a different cigar, which I kind of anticipated given the color difference of the wrapper.  I took my usual pictures of each cigar, but inadvertently deleted them and had to settle for stock photos.  Pissed me off, but nothing I can do about it!  Anyway, this is a nice smoke that is very well priced. I honestly couldn’t tell if it was mixed filler or long filler. A nice, inexpensive smoke from Perdomo that I’ll pick up from time to time.

 

Yesterday afternoon I sat down on the patio in the nice, warm October sunshine and enjoyed a Tortuga 215 Edición Limitada 2011 Torpedo.  This is a really nice Nicaraguan and Dominican blend made by Victor Vitale in the Dominican Republic.  It’s a super smooth yet full flavored cigar with outstanding construction. I smoked this while catching up with the audio portion of Stogie411 and soaking up some fall sunshine.  The Tortuga line consists of this Habano (I think) wrapped cigar, a Connecticut 1948 and a Maduro 1950, all of which are outstanding examples of the roller and blenders arts, with the Maduro being my absolute favorite.  Delicious cigars that are, unfortunately, not widely available.  Thank you to Victor for sharing these with me and congrats on your recent nuptials!

 

News

The November issue of National Geographic arrived yesterday featuring a map of Cuba on the cover with the caption “On the Edge Of Change”.  I’ll be interested to read this article to see what it’s about.  Also in the news, there are rumors once again that Castro has had a stroke and is on death’s door (article here). Certainly rumors of Castro’s death have popped up many times, and how long will Fidel be dead before the Cuban government admits it?  In some real news, StogieReview reports the impending opening of another Cigars International Super Store in Hamburg, PA (an hour north of my location), right next to Cabellas, which could mean a testosterone filled field trip for many of us.

 

That’s enough for now, it’s another beautiful day in SE PA, I may have to smoke a cigar sometime today!!

 

CigarCraig

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IPCPR 2012 – A La Sirena Merlion and Someone Wins Some Cigars!

Friday evening, the start of a holiday weekend, the (sigh) end of summer, all good reasons to spark up a good cigar.  One of the cigars I’ve really been looking forward to smoking from the IPCPR show is the Merlion from La Sirena and Miami Cigar and Co.  The sample I smoked was the Toro size, measuring 5½” x 54, which is a nice size for a late summer evening.  The cigars are made at the La Aurora factory with Ecuadoran Corojo wrapper, a Brazilian Sumatra binder and Dominican Corojo, Dominican Criollo, Nicaraguan ligero and Brazilian Mata Fina fillers.  It’s a very nice cigar.  I could certainly taste the influence of the La Aurora factory in the blend, there’s a signature flavor that I’m familiar with that stands out.  It performed perfectly and was a nice, satisfying smoke. Another winner from Arielle Ditkowich and the folks at Miami Cigar and Co.  Arielle took a few moments to talk to me at the show, here’s the video.

 

 

Thank you, Arielle, for being one of my first few interviews at the show. Keep making tasty smokes!

 

Contest

 

I know, nobody is interested in video of me talking to a lovely lady about cigars, you just want to know who won this weeks contest!  I was pretty amazed by the response, especially considering I was pretty vague about what the prize was (and I’m sorry, there will not be a Taboada in the prize pack! I had one and that was it).  What is in the package is a pair of Tortuga LE 2011 torpedoes from Victor Vitale, along with a selection of General Cigar Co. goodies, including some new releases and special cigars that are only available at special events. I also threw in a few favorites from my humidors.  As usual, I’ve consulted with the Random Number Generator at Random.org which has produced the number 15, which corresponds to Christian Logay by my figuring.  Congrats Christian!  Please send me your contact info so I can get this in the mail to you!   Again, thanks to everyone for reading along and making the last 3 years very special for me.

 

That’s it for now!  Have a great Labor Day weekend.

 

CigarCraig

 

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Wednesday Cigar Post: a Pre-Release Sample, a Custom Cuban? and a Contest!

For my usual Tuesday night walk last night I selected a re-release sample that Victor Vitale had sent me a few weeks ago, labeled Pre-release L.E. 2012. I must assume that this cigar fits into the Tortuga line, which is cool because I’ve really enjoyed the other cigars I’ve smoked in the line, especially the 1950 Maduro. This particular robusto was very tasty and had a perfect draw. Victor is producing very nice cigars lately. I know I didn’t quite “get” the ORTSAC line (the San Andreas is tasty), but the Tortugas really hit the spot for me, and the L.E. 2012 will be one to keep an eye out for!

 

Today officially marks the 3rd anniversary of CigarCraig.com. My wife gave me the domain for my 46th birthday, so do the math and draw your own conclusions! What began as an idea for a website with a blog has morphed into a blog with far more readers than I ever anticipated. Thanks to everyone who chooses to waste their valuable time reading along! I’m truly humbled. Anyway, in honor of this auspicious occasion, I selected a special cigar from the humidor, a Taboada custom rolled cigar that was a recent gift from my friend George who I had the pleasure of hanging out with in Orlando. I really wanted to smoke this when he gave it to me, and I know he did too, but I had such a bad cold I knew it wouldn’t taste right. This cigar was rolled by retired Cuban roller Rodolfo Taboada Campa, and is a 6½” x 52ish toro with a shaggy, unfinished foot. The cigar lit easily and burned perfectly.  I understand that Taboada uses the entubado method of rolling, hence the perfect draw from start to finish.  I found myself a little perplexed by the flavor.  It was exceptional, don’t get me wrong, I was just expecting a more Cuban experience.  I didn’t perceive any of what I normally expect in Cuban tobacco, it lacked that “twang”, but it was smooth and loaded with flavor. Maybe it was a blend, I don’t know. (*Note – a very reliable source tells me that these are 100% finest Cuban tobacco rolled in Havana by the master.  My only conclusion is that the tobacco must be processed much better than regular production to produce such smooth and wonderful flavor!)     It was the ideal cigar to celebrate the anniversary of my birth, as well as that of CigarCraig.com. Thank you George! I am sorry I didn’t smoke this with you, but I appreciate the special gift.

 

In honor of the occasion, why not give away a handful of cigars to some lucky reader? I can scrounge up a Tortuga L.E. 2011, maybe a couple of La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros, and perhaps some goodies that haven’t even hit the shelves yet. It’s hard to say what might fall into the baggie, but there will be at least six outstanding smokes. Leave a comment to enter and I’ll pick a winner on Sunday.  Usual rules apply.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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