Weekend Cigars: Camacho, Punch, JdN, Ashton and Wooden Indian Grand Opening – July 11, 2010

Thursday evening I grabbed the Camacho SLR Maduro Rothschild I mentioned had been teasing me in my last post.  What a nice cigar, rich maduro flavor and and even burn.  I’ve been a fan of Camacho cigars since way before the Corojo hit the market. My only complaint was that it was too short, but that’s not the cigar’s fault.  Very enjoyable cigar for a walk around the block followed by sitting on the front porch.

Friday I went with a Punch Magnum.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy the regular Punch line.  This had been included with the Punch Smoker Box along with 3 other cigars.  I was in the mood for something that I wouldn’t have to think too hard about.  With all of the boutique cigars on the market, most of which are very good, but on the pricey side, it’s nice to know the old school standards still deliver on taste and construction.

Saturday I took a ride toward Philadelphia to Havertown, PA where The Wooden Indian Tobacco Shop was having their grand opening.  They moved from a fairly small shop tucked in the corner of a large shopping center to a much larger store just down the street.   The Drew Estate crew (consisting of David Lafferty, Mike Staiber and Kevin McCormack) were on hand to celebrate the opening of one of two Liga Privada lounges (the other being at Leaning House Cigars out near Pittsburgh). The store also has a very roomy walk-in humidor whch was reasonably well stocked, although there were a lot of empty boxes on the shelves, a trend I’ve noticed in most shops I’ve visited in the last year or so.  It was a rainy day, which may have accounted for the huge crowd in the store.  I picked up a couple of Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta Serie as they are priced reasonably and are nice cigars.  I smoked a Toro while I was there and noted the same thing as when I previously smoked this:  the maduro wrapper is just a mouthpiece, looks terrific, but doesn’t burn worth a damn.  The cigar just stops burning when it gets to this point.  Back to the event.  I spent some time with my butt parked in one of about 6 leather couches in the lounge, talking with an old friend of mine, Eric, whom I knew from the old cigar newsgroup days.  We enjoyed our cigars in the lounge while he told me about his “humanitarian” trip to Cuba.  It was nice seeing some acquaintances I hadn’t seen in a while, and meeting David and Kevin face to face.  They had the grill going with dogs and sausages outside under a tent, the hot dog I had was delicious. Our local Cigar Rights of America ambassador, Alan Price, was on hand pitching the CRA and signing up new members. I unfortunately forgot my camera, so I didn’t get any photos of the place.

Later in the evening we went to our next door neighbors who were having a graduation party for their daughter.  Several of the neighbor guys were in a corner of the deck smoking cigars so I, naturally, went to say hello.  Robert, our former next door neighbor, had actually been to the Wooden Indian after I had left and had distributed some Ashton Cabinets to the other guys.  I joined in with an Ashton VSG Belicoso from my humidor.  The odd thing about Robert and I crossing paths at the Wooden Indian is that Havertown is about 40 minutes from my home, and Robert and his family moved about 30 minutes in the opposite direction, and it has been several years since we saw one another.  Small world.  I enjoyed the heck out of the aged VSG and since I was a little late to the party I handed out a couple cigars to keep things going. I finished off the evening with a little Montecristo Purito.

All in all it was a pretty good cigar weekend.  Lots of cigar related fraternizing.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig