Tag Archives: wooden indian

by CigarCraig | September 11, 2016 · 9:34 am

Davidoff and Bobalu Cigars and a Wooden Indian Drew Estate Event

Another week is in the books, and I felt the urge to revisit the Davidoff Yamasa toro on Thursday. I smoked this at a launch party that Davidoff had at their lounge in Las Vegas, which, of course, was not nearly large enough to contain the crown there in air-conditioned comfort, so a large part of the event was outside. I kinda like the Las Vegas heat for a while, it’s not totally uncomfortable, but add in some misting fans, loud DJ music, and a crowd, it’s not any kind of environment to get a good handle on a cigar. I had a busy week at my day job, so I figured it was time to give the Yamasa Toro another go. To recap the Yamasa story in a nutshell: 20 years ago Henke Kelner decided to try to grow tobacco in a swampy area in the Yamasa Valley in the Dominican Republic. After many years of trying, apparently they got it right and produced the Davidoff Yamasa into their Black Label series this year. It’s a good smoke. It’s as elegant and well made as one expects from Davidoff, and it’s got a lot of flavors of earth and wood, with some spice. This is another Davidoff cigar I received a sampler of in ridiculous (meant in a good way), over the top packaging. The pentagonal box, containing a five sided star-shaped box which unfolds to reveal the four sizes in the line and a box of cigar matches is amazing, yet highly impractical! I’m told the Pyramid is the best of the bunch, not sure why I didn’t select that one…another time.

Friday I decided to dig into some of the cigars I recently purchased from Bobalu Cigar Co. in Austin, Texas. I featured some of their cigars a few months ago and felt like they had some offerings that intrigued me enough to make a purchase. Remember, there’s a special deal just for my readers where you can get a free triple flame lighter with a purchase (I forgot to take advantage of this when I ordered!). Their Tres Capa caught my eye, I have to admit, the combination of the Candela, Connecticut and Habano wrapper leaves in a barber pole configuration makes for a very attractive cigar. I don’t seek out barber pole style cigars, but I liked the look. This was a really nice, milder cigar, with some great, smooth flavors. They didn’t ask me to say this, but they have a special on their site for a 10 pack for $39.95 with a torch lighter, which is a nice deal for some very good, made in the US of A cigars. I got a box pressed maduro and an Oscuro lined up to try to so stay tuned. I have a few reasons I’d like to visit Houston someday, and now Austin is on my list, not that they are close to one another, are they?

Yesterday I stopped in to the Wooden Indian Cigar shop in Havertown, PA where they were having their annual Drew Estate Charity Event and pigroast. It was a packed house and featured Pedro Gomez from Drew Estate, Broc Jackson, the young man who makes the jewelry that all the Drew guys wear, as well as many others in the cigar industry, and Hollis Thomas, who played for the Philadelphia Eagles and is on the local sports radio station (apparently, I don’t follow football at all, but I sat down next to this guy, not knowing who he was and he seemed like a fun guy. His go-to smoke is a short story, which I found interesting as it showed he was in it for the flavor and not the look, as it’s hard to find that little cigar in his formidable hands…). I bought some cigars, and lit up a Nica Rustica El Brujito and schmoozed for an hour or so. Every year they have this big event with auctions of great Drew Estate cigars and artwork by Jessi Flores at Subculture Studios, and this year they raised over $6000 for Drew Estate Charities, as well as raising $800 in cash and cigars for Cigar For Warriors. In the picture here you can see some of the auction items in the background. Dave and his staff at the Wooden Indian always have great events, it’s probably my favorite shop in the area.

That’s all for today, I smoked another IPCPR show sample last night, but I didn’t really dig it, so I’m not going to mention it…probably not the cigars fault, it just wasn’t for me, an I was disappointed because I though it would be! I hate it when that happens. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Bobalu, cigar, cigars, davidoff, drew estate, Drew Estate Charities, Nica Rustica, Subculture Studios, wooden indian

by CigarCraig | June 26, 2016 · 9:03 am

A Sobremesa Event, Tabequeros by Hamlet and a BG Meyer Cigar

I smoked a bunch of nice cigars this week, starting off with my traditional Father’s Day Esperanza para los NiÃ±os which smoked very well for a 17-year-old cigar, and still had a nice, rich flavor. I followed that with an Aging Room Maduro, another great smoke with a great flavor. Both were up my alley, and hit the spot. Â There was also anotherÂ La Gran Llave torpedo from Michael Argenti’s newest venture, which was also a great smoke. Yet another wonderful cigar out o f the AJ Fernandez Factory. On anpther note, my wife ordered me a box of Sam Leccia‘s new cigar, Desnudo, which I’m excited to try (and she wants the box!). I have mixed feelings about the upcoming trade show. Everyone is going to be releasing new cigars to meet the August 8th FDA deadline. Considering that cigars in the last 10 years have been the best that they’ve ever been, how many of the hundreds of new cigars that are going to be released aren’t going to be ready? Another aspect in my mind is how are retailers going to be expected to buy all these new brands with shelves that are already full? It’s all deeply troubling and depressing. Anyway, on to more positive things…

Thursday night I had the privilege to be invited to a lounge event at The Wooden Indian cigar shop. My old buddy Steve Saka of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust was there to talk for a solid three hours on everything tobacco. He covered 10,000 years of tobacco history, how cigars are made, the economics of cigars and how our government is going to goof if up. Always a great story-teller too. I took my old friend Scott along with me, and his mind was sufficiently blown I think, and I learned a great deal from the talk. I also bought a bunch more Sobremesas, smoked a Torpedo Tiempo and an El Americano over the course of the evening, and even got my hands on the new Short Churchill size (4Â¾”x48). Of course, the cigars were perfect, the Torpedo, despite Steve saying it was his least favorite size, had an interesting sweetness that I haven’t found in the other sizes. I can’t wait to try the newÂ Mi Querida, with a broadleaf wrapper. I could have gotten one if I had bought a box of Sobremesa, andÂ Dave, the proprietor of the Wooden Indian, smoked one and seemed to be quite impressed (judging by the tiny nub he begrudgingly dropped in the ashtray. It’s always a treat to see Steve, and I had a great time hanging out with Scott and smoking some great cigars. Â Just for fun, I scrounged up a picture of Steve from a cigar event in 1997. Pardon the quality, but back then you had to scan printed pictures to get them on to the web, it wasn’t as easy as whipping out your phone.

Friday I wrapped up another week with a cigar I had been anticipating for quite a while. I purchasedÂ a Tabaquro toro at a visit to Jacoub’s Cigar & Tobacco Outlet in Ridley Park, PA a few months ago. I had been wanting to try the cigar, blended by Hamlet Paredes, a rather well-known Cuban cigar maker, who made this cigar with Rocky Patel. I think this is my new favorite cigar from the Rocky Patel stable, following the Super Ligero line. This cigar features a San AndrÃ©s wrapper, a double binder of Brazilian and Mexican leaf, and Nicaraguan fillers. It’s rumored that Hamlet never touched anything but Cuban tobacco before working with Rocky, but he really came up with a great cigar. It’s got a bit of kick to it, a pleasing mix of sweet and savory, and provided a satisfying smoking experience Â from start to finish. All I can say is “yum”. I liked the TabaqueroÂ a lot.

Yesterday after enjoying a Leccia Luchador El Hombre (one of my favorite cigars) at Delaware Park while watching the horses (we came out ahead!), I came home to enjoy a BG Meyer Gigantes 56×6 on the porch. It was a beautiful day, watched the ponies with ourÂ grand-daughters, saw the Budweiser Clydesdales, managed to get some things done around the house, and kicked back with this cigar. I would have sworn this was a 6×60, it had a large feel to it, but maybe just the name “Gigantes” influenced my judgement. This one was 6″ x 56, with a Habano wrapper, Brazilian binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican filers. As seems to be the case with Davidoff’s Honduran brands, it’s hard to find a website with all the info. I did find some info on the Davidoff of Geneva retail page, and was surprised to see typos in the product description. Â I can’t understand why they don’t have BGMeyerCigars.com, or something, and have the same gripe when I go looking for Room 101 info (and probably Cusano if I looked, which I haven’t). Anyway, the cigar is good. It’s got some pepper, some coffee/cocoa and sweetness, very much in my wheelhouse. I dug it.

There’s probably something I’m forgetting, but I’ll wrap this up now. I have an article to write for Prime Living Magazine that I have to smoke some great cigars for, so I better get busy with that! Â Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as BG Meyer, cigar, cigars, Dunbarton, Hamlet, Saka, Sobremesa, Tabaquero, wooden indian

by CigarCraig | May 29, 2016 · 9:51 am

A Couple of Epic Cigars, a Pennsyltucky and a Ratzilla

Last week I alluded to some big personal news, and that is that I am changing day jobs after thirteen years. I was presented with a new opportunity closer to home and have been ready to make a change for some time. I’ve been patiently waiting for the right thing to come along and I think it did. So I’ve been celebrating all week, pretty much smoking for pleasure and not paying too much attention! There were a few standouts though, gives me something to talk about today. Back in January I met up with Dean Parsons of Epic Cigars at an event in Philadelphia, on the eve of the big snowstorm of the year. Dean and his local sales rep and right hand man, Mick, gave me a pre-release sample of the new Connecticut cigar they were releasing. I had been waiting for the right time to smoke this cigar, and now that the La Rubia, which this cigar is now called, is out, I figured I may have missed the time. Like all the cigars in the Epic line, this Connecticut is pretty awesome. It’s got a lot of flavor and is in the medium bodied range. It’s got the signature nutty kind of Connecticut shade twang that one would expect, but there’s some depth there too. This cigar was a toro size and smoked perfectly. I now have a La Rubia from regular production in a 4½ x 60 size, which is an interesting story. From what I understand, Alec Bradley, who distributes Epic in Canada, told Dean this was a size that goes over big in the Great White North. I never imagined this, and if any of our Canadian readers could elaborate, I’d appreciate it. The only think I can think of is that, like in the US, the 60 ring gauge represents a greater value, but in the frozen tundra, a 6″ x 60 takes too long to smoke. Of course, I kid, I know they have at least one reasonably warm month in Canada. I am a fan of the 4½ x 60 size.

I’m going out-of-order today for some reason, but it’s the Memorial Day holiday weekend, so I don’t feel like going back and fixing things. I smoked a Ratzilla from Drew Estate’s Liga Privada Serie Unico line last Sunday Evening. I’m not sure what I was expecting with this cigar. Is it a longer Dirty Rat? Is it a bolder Dirty Rat? Is it a Dirty Rat that was exposed to nuclear bomb testing fallout and mutated to ridiculous proportions and terrorizes Tokyo? It’s different from the Dirty Rat. For one thing, it’s 6¼” x 46, it has the same Connecticut Stalk Cut & Cured Sun Grown Habano Wrapper, a Plantation Grown Brazilian Mata Fina Binder, and Nicaraguan and Honduran Fillers, which is the same as the Dirty Rat. I think is was stronger, and perhaps more one-dimensional. It was a great cigar in its own right, perhaps trying to compare it to the Dirty Rat is the mistake. They recently made these kind of regular release to the Drew Diplomat Retailers, so they might be easier to find than the unicorn Ratzillas of a few years ago. Overall, I liked it, it was full of flavor and a little on the strong side.

Friday evening, we took a ride down to the Wooden Indian where they were having an Epic Event, with Dean and Mick. As I mentioned, I really like the Epic line, the Maduro is one of the cigars that I would grab when I want a great cigar, and there are really no cigars in the line that I don’t enjoy, not a normal occurrence. Dean’s a great guy to talk to. He can talk cigars, of course, but he can also talk hockey (he’s Canadian and played professionally) and motorcycles. I picked up some more Epic cigars while there, including some more of the Maduro Lanceros. Interestingly, The Wooden Indian sells more Epic Lanceros than anyone else. Did I mention that I really like the Epic Maduro? The size doesn’t really matter to me, although the lancero is quite different from the gordo in the ways you’d expect. The gordo has more rounded flavor and the lancero is more sharp and focused. They have a nice cocoa/coffee flavor. Why am I comparing these? I smoked the lancero at the event, and I’ll quite likely, smoke the gordo or a toro today sometime. Obviously, the lancero vs. gordo comparison is a generality and not specific to Epic. In talking to Dean, I found it pretty amazing that his brand is getting traction in Europe, but he has trouble getting into shops in the US. I would suggest that if your local shop doesn’t have then, request them! These are a must try and very high on my list. One more interesting note on the cigar pictured. The secondary band was supposed to be a much smaller size, so these are a bit of a collectors item! I think I have about three different band configurations on the maduro lanceros I have. The Wooden Indian continues to be the best shop in the area and my favorite. Dave and his staff are numero uno in my book and they always have great events.

Yesterday, after pressure washing the smoking porch in preparation for some new paint and carpet, and general running around through the day, I came across a cigar I picked up lat year at a cigar event. I had finally met Paul Bush from Flatbed Cigar Co., which is located right here in south-eastern, PA, and bought some of his cigars. I’ve seen the Panacea brand for years and never got around to smoking any, and the few I smoked that I bought at the event at Goose’s shop last year didn’t really do anything for me, but I still had one left, one interestingly named “Pennsyltucky”. This is a term I’ve used for years, it describes the area in Pennsylvania between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, which is largely rural. I guess it’s not very flattering to Kentucky, but the rural areas in PA are very different from the urban and suburban areas. Back to the cigar. This is a 5″ x 60 with a mottled PA Broadleaf wrapper. It has a Dominican Habano binder and three ligeros in the filler, Piloto Cubano, Olor Dominicano, and Kentucky Fire Cured. In this case, I think the name refers to the inclusion of the Pennsylvania and Kentucky tobaccos used in the blend. The fire cured tobacco is very subtle, it’s not the overwhelming smoking flavor that some cigar using this leaf have. It’s got some strength to it, and good tobacco flavor throughout. I would keep some of these on hand just because of the name, I think, and it’s a good smoke.

Don’t forget to go enter the IPCPR’s contest to win a trip to the show in Vegas. As I was registering for my badges for the show this morning, I noticed that they still have a strong warning on the site about consumers at the show, however they have this contest, and changed the number of attendees per member from two to three. I’d still be happy to meet one of my readers there and hang out. Also, stay tuned for another contest this week from me. I have something a little special in mind that I think people will like, and I am working on a Father’s Day contest soon too. Lots going on with contests, new jobs, holidays (happy Memorial Day, thanks to all who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice so that I can do something as stupid as writing about cigars, isn’t it crazy that a government agency is taking away the very rights that American soldiers died to protect? Think about that for a minute!). That’s all for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

Please, if you haven’t already, go to the following links and sign the petitions.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/do-not-enact-fdas-option-1-final-rule-premium-handmade-cigars

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/prevent-fda-overreach-and-stop-them-their-attempts-regulate-premium-cigar-industry

Join Cigar Rights of America!

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Filed under Review

Tagged as cigar, cigar store, cigars, drew estate, Epic, Panacea, Pennsyltucky, Ratzilla, wooden indian

by CigarCraig | April 10, 2016 · 10:48 am

An Epic, an EP Carillo and a La Palina Cigars Event

After last Sunday’s cigar adventure, I spent the beginning of the weeks going back to some favorites and cigars I’ve posted about recently, then sometime around Thursday I grabbed one of Dean Parson’s Epic Habano Robustos from the humidor and lit it up. I will come right out and say it, the Maduro in the Epic line is one of my favorite cigars, it’s hard for me to not smoke them when I have them in the humidor. However, the Habano is right up there. This is a 5½ x 52 Robusto (I love that extra ½ inch!) with an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Dominican binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. All of Dean’s Epic cigars are rolled in the same Dominican factory where Kristoff cigars are made (and I’m at a loss for the name of the factory, but I’m pretty sure that’s right…). These hit the market in 2014, which makes me wonder why there’s still no mention of them on the website. The Habano for me was sweet with some cedar and spice. I quite enjoy this, not quite as much as the maduro, but it’s a close second. I’ve found little fault with the Epic line in general, Dean is a cool cat, if you get a chance to meet him do it.

Friday I grabbed a E.P. Carillo Generosos Toro, which is an exclusive of Casa de Montecristo in Chicago. This is weird, as much as I am a big La Gloria Cubana fan from way back, I’ve not smoked a great many EPC cigars. It may be because the first couple I smoked didn’t really “wow” me, but there have been a few recently that make me want to dig deeper into the line. I’ve had great success with the Robolo size made for Best Cigar Prices. This toro is 5 7/8″ x 52, with a rosado-ish Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Dominican binder and Nicaraguan fillers. It’s a solid medium in strength, had a lot of woody, nutty flavors and burned quite nicely. These have been around a few years, and I wish I had known about these when I visited the Casa de Montecristo shop in Chicago a couple of years ago, although I’m sure the Chicago pricing would have scared me off. this was a very nice smoke, thanks again to Craig at CDMCigars.com for sharing it with me.

Yesterday it snowed pretty good for the majority of the day. Fortunately, since it’s spring in PA and the ground has been warm, it didn’t really accumulate all that much and the roads were fine. I took a trip over to the Wooden Indian again for a La Palina event. La Palina has been on of this site’s longest and most loyal supporters, of course I wanted to show up and pay my respects (and restock some favorite cigars). I finally got to meet Clay Roberts, the COO and co-president of the company, who has been a notable name in the industry, having worked with Rocky Patel, AJ Fernandez and Alec Bradley prior to making the move to La Palina. I’m surprised we hadn’t met before, but that’s probably due to my own negligence. So, as you would expect, I picked up some La Palina Maduros, which fall under the El Diaro line and are made at Raices Cubanas in Honduras. I lit up the 60 Maduro, which is their 6″ x 60, and was quite happy. This is a great San Andrés wrapped cigar, very dark and oily and delicious. It’s got a Honoduran binder and Nicaraguan Corojo and Criollo fillers. I had a bit of a time getting the wrapper to burn at the start, but that was quite possibly an environmental issue which some time in the humidor will surely fix. Sweet with some spice, like the Epic Maduro mentioned above, I have trouble keeping my hands off these. It seems like many of my favorite cigars are maduros, which has been the case for 20+ years! That doesn’t keep me from trying everything though. Cigar events at the Wooden Indian are always top notch.

I also picked up a couple of the Black Label petite lanceros. Funny, I thought I had some of the Black Label robustos in my humidor, but to my surprise and delight, it turns out they were actually Family Series Miami Babes, which I selected for my evening walk after the snow stopped. Now, if I had to do it again (and fortunately I will be able to), I would have selected a different cigar for this wintery spring evening. The Babe (5¼ x 50) is made in Miami at El Titan de Bronze, wrapped in Ecuador Corojo 98, an Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers. This is a refined and sophisticated smoke, with delicate flavors that would probably have been better represented in more comfortable surroundings. You can bet I’ve learned my lesson, and the other cigars in this line that I am fortunate enough to posses will be smoked in as close to ideal circumstances as possible. I’ve smoked very few of the Family Series, it’s just hard for me to open my wallet that wide, but I think they are worth it for a special occasion cigar, very well made and delicious.

Rant

I’m going to vent, and this isn’t going to go over well with a certain local (to me) cigar store chain, but I can’t hold it in. Said local chain has a show they do on local cable access (and YouTube) that is really terrible. I love the idea of having some cigar programming on mainstream media, don’t get me wrong, but it has to be of a sufficient quality, in both content and video/audio, to promote the cigar culture. Bufoonery, bad information (for instance, pulling a cigar out of a tube and explaining the white fuzzy blotches as plume instead of the mold that it obviously is) and simple things like a patron eating in the lounge outside of the room the show is recorded in don’t present the cigar culture positively. I was suffering through an episode last night and, thankfully, just as one of the presenters was showing one of the store specials and explaining that a particular cigar was not to her liking, the screen went blank and after waiting a few minutes I moved on to something entertaining. It would be one thing if this were only online where the audience would be largely cigar-geek types, but this is going out to the general public, who will either be mis-informed by watching it, or turned off by the off-color, juvenile comments and jokes. I don’t watch it because I can’t take it (and I’ve been invited to be on the show, that probably won’t happen again…). I could hold my tongue no longer.

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under Review, Stores

Tagged as Casa de Montecristo, CDMCigars, cigar, cigar store, cigars, E.P. Carillo, Epic, La Palina, wooden indian

by CigarCraig | March 6, 2016 · 9:06 am

La Aroma de Cuba, Undercrown and a 1502 XO Cigar Launch Event

We have a big day today so I need to get this written. We have tickets to a series of Philly Pops shows in the city (Philly, duh…), so we make a day of it, dropping by the Franklin Institute, grabbing a bite, maybe stopping in Holt’s to make sure it’s still there, that sort of thing. Today they art performing a Billy Joel program, should be good. Anyway, once again, I found myself smoking spectacular cigars in the second half of the week, which started with a La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amour Reserva Maximo which I had picked up at Holt’s back in the fall when we went to the first in the Pops series, which was a Sinatra tribute. This 5½ x 54 Robusto has a dark San Andrés Oscuro wrapper and what I have to assume is Nicaraguan fillers, although the website fails to provide such details. These are made at the My Father Factory which is reasonably evident on the first puff. This cigar is right in my wheelhouse with a nice dose of strong black coffee notes, some earth and that spice right off the bat. I enjoyed the crap out of this cigar, probably just as much as I enjoy the regular Mi Amour line.

Friday I got lazy and selected an Drew Estate Undercrown Toro Grande for my evening walk. It’s no secret that I like to celebrate the end of the work week with a guaranteed winner, I have to be in the right frame of mind to smoke a “new to me” cigar on a Friday, usually I want a tried and true cigar to relax and usher in the weekend. This particular cigar had suffered some wrapper cracking somewhere along the line, I might have dropped it, who knows, but it had some tomes when it wasn’t as visually appealing as it could have been. While I certainly get some joy out of how a cigar looks when its burning, I overlooked it because I enjoy the flavor of the Undercrown line so much. I still like the Corona Viva size the best, but the Toro Grande was a very nice smoke, hearty, savory and sweet, just about everything I was craving. I can’t really decide if I like the Undercrown or the Undercrown Shade better, fortunately I don’t have to choose, they both have their time.
Take a look at the Kickstarter campaign I ran across for a unique cigar accessory, the Fanelli Cigar Rest and Bottle Opener. We’ve all probably seen similar cigar rests, heck, I made on out of a piece of bamboo years ago, but this one has a unique twist (that’s an unfortunate bit of wordplay), it has a bottle cap lifter concealed in the base. It’s aluminum, so it doesn’t seem like it would be too heavy, and because it’s aluminum it can be anodized in different colors, of which there is gold, silver and black proposed. I like the black version personally. I was offered a review sample, but I declined because, really, what’s to review? I can see from the drawings that it will accommodate up to a 64 ring cigar, and I haven’t had a need for a bottle opener in 25 years, but I trust that it works. If this is the sort of item you like to have, and you like supporting entrepreneurs, throw them some cash.

Yesterday was the launch of the 1502 XO, fortunately the release party was held at the Wooden Indian nearby, so I made my way out there to see Enrique and smoke one of his very special cigars. The XO is quite special, as it’s made with tobacco aged 18 years, with the exception of the wrapper which is only about five-year old. Enrique explained that 18-year-old leaf is very hard to use as a wrapper, and I can understand that (although it’s been done in the case of the Partagas 150 from 1995…I have one around someplace and a few months ago I smoked a La Gloria Cubana that was the exact same blend and it was spectacular and the wrapper was 38 years old!). Anyway, I picked up some 1502s, grabbed some of the Lanceros in the Black Gold and Ruby blends, a couple of the 1502 Nicaragua Churchills, and a single XO (listed at 6″ x 50 with a box press, seemed shorter though..I smoked number 004147, nobody else on the planet can say that!), because $17+ a stick is outside of my comfort zone, but I was there with Enrique and it seemed like the right time. I smoked the cigar and it is a very good cigar, it has the signature Flavor Lock™ foot (snicker), it drew perfectly and burned reasonably well. It was indeed well-balanced, very smooth and pleasing to the palate, and there was a spice that came and went here and there that was hard to put a finger on, something from the baking spice category kind of like cinnamon, but not cinnamon, know what I mean? I don’t have a great wealth of experience with exotic spices as I’m not what you’d call an adventurous eater (picky eater is closer to the truth). It was entertaining, and I smoked it comfortably until nearly burning my fingers. I had to re-light a could times, but I was chatting with Dave, the owner, Enrique and several other patrons, so I’ll take responsibility for it going out. Great cigar, Enrique is a terrific guy (he was hiding behind the stores wooden Indian when I came in, waiting to surprise me…) and the Wooden Indian is still the premier cigar shop in the area. When I got home I took a walk with a 1502 Black Gold corona that was a year or so old and it was dynamite! It was full of rich espresso and cocoa and everything I love in a cigar. It’s funny, 1502’s catch phrase is “it’s not a cigar, it’s a 1502”. When I pulled out this corona my wife commented “that’s not a cigar”, and I responded with “it’s a 1502!” She was commenting that it was a smaller cigar than I usually take for a walk, but I found it funny. It was a great end to a great Saturday.