Category Archives: IPCPR

New Cigars I’m Anticipating, a Fonseca, a Diesel and a Tatuaje

I mentioned in my last post that as I’ve been seeing news come from the IPCPR one of the things I miss is getting my hands on some of the new products that come out, lots of times months in advance of them hitting the stores. As I get on in years (I think using the phrase “get on in years” is, in it’s self, proof that I am), I find my interest waning in obscure, new, little, unheard of, never again to be seen brands which always seem to find their way into the IPCPR samples, and I don’t miss having to wade through those, heck, I probably still have some from years past that I can’t figure out what they are and Google isn’t even a help. That might be a fun blog post, I guess I need to work on that. Anyway, several things I’ve either posted about in the lead up to the show through news items, or read about elsewhere, piqued my interest. From Drew Estate, really the notable cigar to grab my attention is the Liga Privada H99. The bundles the announced really don’t excite me, I think La Viaja Habana comes very close to playing in this space and I don’t understand the need, just expand that brand into the bundle space, but JD is the master of marketing, not me, he has a job and I don’t so who am I to say? The Liga 10th anniversary is cool but I’ve smoked it, been there, done that. But a Corojo wrapper grown in the Connecticut River Valley intrigues the crap out of me and I’m in. Same with Willy’s new Brazilian wrapped Herrera Esteli, and I’ll give the Ligas a shot in the Corona Viva sizes if the opportunity arises (or opportunities arise) and the Undercrown Dogma is a proven winner in my book. From the Joya side, of course I’m interested in the Cinco Dècadas, the Quatro Cinco was exceptional, and I’ve been a big fan of the brand for a long time. The Joya Silver is also on my radar, although the Red and Black in that series have not been in my wheelhouse for some reason (the Cabinetta having been added to that new age kinda series is still a little weird for me, it came out in 2010, still a favorite in the shade wrapped genré).

 

Fonseca NicaraguaFriday evening I went back to a cigar that came out at the 2016 IPCPR show, the Fonseca Nicaragua Toro, a classic 6″ x 50 Nicaraguan Puro, with a Criollo ’98 wrapper from Jalapa, Jalapa binder and fillers from Esteli and Ometepe made at Placencia for Quesada Cigars. I smoked this at the show back in ’16 and was quite impressed and bought a bunch at a local shop when I got home. These are reasonably priced, I think the Toro being the largest and most expensive in the line in the $6 range online or in reasonable cigar tax states. This cigar continues to impress me every time I remember to smoke it, the flavors are kinda woody with some sweetness and a little coffee and maybe a hint of spice here and there.  Cigar Aficionado had this on their Best Buys of 2017 and I tend to agree, this is a good deal, and aged very well.

 

Of course, there were plenty of other cigars I look forward to trying from the show, and General Cigars has a bunch. The Hoya Black is one for sure, along with the new Punch Diablo, which I posted the news about back on July 6, both made by A.J. Fernandez. I don’t think there is one cigar media outlet that will tell you otherwise, General Cigar Co. rolls out the red carpet for media, and gives a structured, on time, tour of the booth, with supporting media, samples, whatever you need, and they are simply the gold standard when it comes to booth tours for media. I’ve been through their booths at seven of the eight trade shows I’ve attended (one was pre-blog) and have always gotten first class treatment. I missed seeing all my friends there too!  I look forward to the new La Gloria Cubana Esteli (different from the Serie R Esteli), the new Partagas Legend, CAO Nicaragua, and I’d happily sit down with my old buddy Sean Williams and smoke the new Cohiba Spectre, but at $90 a cigar, I’m not holding my breath!

 

Yesterday I was assembling and IKEA piece on the porch and I find that the best way to reduce the profanity during one of those projects is to have a cigar while doing it. It worked, and everything went together like it should have. The cigar I chose, the Diesel Whiskey Row, I chose while writing this piece in my head, because it’s the one new release from General Cigar Co. that had been released in advance of the show. Justin Andrews, who’s the brand manager and ambassador for the Diesel line is very proud of this cigar, he told me that it took him several trips to Nicaragua and well over a year to convince AJ to put his tobacco in bourbon barrels. I’ve since heard that AJ is now begging for more barrels, he’s so fond of the results. In the official press release, I found this one passage interesting:

AJ Fernandez says, “A lot of passion went into this process and I am very pleased with the results. Aging the binder leaf in the bourbon barrels added an unexpected layer of flavor and aroma right beneath the wrapper. When you smoke Whiskey Row, you get a unique and complex experience that engages the senses unlike any other cigar I’ve smoked.”

I imagine he said something more like this:

“Pasé un montón de pasión en este proceso y estoy muy satisfecho con los resultados. Envejecer la hoja de encuadernación en los barriles de bourbon agregó una capa inesperada de sabor y aroma justo debajo del envoltorio. Cuando fumas Whiskey Row, obtienes una experiencia única y compleja que atrapa los sentidos a diferencia de cualquier otro cigarro que he fumado “.

Diesel Whiskey RowOK, so that’s just my own twisted sense of humor, unless AJ’s English has gotten a LOT better since the last time I “talked” to him…anyway, the Whiskey Row is an interesting cigar. Of course, the burn is excellent, the draw is perfect, the ash is nice, but that’s the way cigars are supposed to be. As always, any spirits references are lost on me, but the base flavor to my palate is an umami I guess, I want to say, mushroomy, kinda savoryness, that is one of the few flavors that doesn’t really resonate with me in a cigar. There are obviously some people who are going to love the heck out of this cigar, and it’s not that it was offensive to me or made me want to throw up (that’s a mushroom story from the ’80s for another time), it’s just not my go to favorite flavor. Based on the blend, which is Nicaraguan Ometepe, Condega and Jalapa, each aged 5 to 8 years, bourbon-barrel-aged Mexican binder, wrapped in Ecuadoran Habano which is aged for five years, I don’t think I should be tasting what I’m tasting, and maybe I’m way off, maybe it’s just earthey and woody, but a, earth and wood I don’t care for. I like most nuts, but I can’t stand walnuts. It’s a solid cigar, it got me through my project with minimal swearing, and I did get to about the 1″ mark before I put it down, so how objectionable could it have been? I’ll have to get a series of bourbon barrel aged cigars together and see how they compare one of these days, is there any non-alcoholic bourbon so I can get an idea what the flavor of bourbon is? 🙂

 

Some other cigars I heard about at the show and look forward to trying are Foundation Cigar Co.s new The Tabernacle Havana Seed CT #142, another new strain to the Connecticut River Valley. Another I’m looking for is the Inch Ringmaster from EP Carillo, just because anything from EPC interests me, and I’m still exploring his line up. I’d say what everyone else is saying and put Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust’s Sin Compromiso on the list, but I’ve smoked it, and it’s fantastic (Oh yeah, the pre-release samples I smoked I was asked not to write about…they were really really good, the torpedo had pre-light nose of the wood fire curing that Saka talked about in an interview I heard with him recently, might have been on one of Cigar-Coop’s podcasts…an absolutely stellar cigar, I look forward to the regular production, although the price will up there!). Crux cigars is a line I need to familiarize myself with with the addition of my old friend Roy McLaren to the team. Except for the few Ninfa darks some time ago, I’m relatively ignorant of the brand. I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head, although I’m sure someone will remind me of a glaring omission.  Like I said, I’m on a rapid spiral to curmudgeondom, I could probably be happy smoking about twenty brands in rotation these days.

 

Tatuaje_ReservaBroadleaf_J21Last night I decided to treat myself with another cigar from the 2016 IPCPR show. I have vivid memories of stopping in the Tatuaje booth first think on the third day of the show and finding it empty, to my delight. For once, I had a chance to sit down with Pete Johnson uninterrupted, virtually unheard of. My first show as a blogger, Pete was the first person I met, and he gave me a La Riqueza Lancero, and, due to a scheduling snafu, I was only on the show floor for about 3 hours, so that was my only cigar of the show, and I didn’t meet too many people. So I was ready to get some great video and have a good conversation with Pete for a change. Dontcha know, Laura, who handles social media for the IPCPR, and should know better (yeah, I’m throwing you under the bus, Laura!), excuses herself to interrupt to introduce some middle-eastern journalist to Pete, who ends up monopolizing the discussion for about 20 minutes, introducing another guy, and it all went to hell. Pete had an appointment, I had an appointment, we were both (Pete and I) too polite to tell this guy to F-off), and I didn’t get my great one on one video (again). On the positive side, Pete did give me a couple of the Tatuaje Reserva Broadleaf J21s, as they were launching that huge $1200 100 count box collection of the Broadleaf wrapped Reservas at the show, and I smoked my last one last night. Boy was that a great cigar, and I’m envious of the folks who had the coin to drop on those cigars. I would have bought singles here and there, but the smallest quantity I was presented with to purchase was ten (one of each size) and I didn’t have the hundo in the budget at the time,  and I only wanted specific sizes.  This J21 with  two years of age was smooth, sweet, rich with everything I love in broadleaf, in Tatuaje cigars in general. Two years after release, are people selling singles now?

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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Gurkha, La Palina, Avo and a Quick Draw Cigar

 

I took the easy way out on Wednesday with the La Sirena video, so I have a bunch of cigars to talk about this week. Not unexpectedly, the video is now in the number three spot in views on my YouTube channel, behind a La Sirena interview from the 2012 IPCPR. That shows something, I have to figure out what that is…Anyway, I started the week with a teeth cleaning followed by a Gurkha Founders Reserve in the Rothschild 6×58 size.  That’s what the box (of 10) that they gave me at the IPCPR show says, Gurkha_FoundersReserve_RothschildI initially thought it was the XO size, 6″ x 60, like there’s a huge difference between 58 and 60…and usually reliable sources list the sizes as   Robusto (5 x 50), Rothschild (6 x 55) and XO (6 x 60), yet it says 6 x 58 right there on the box, and I measured one and it was close enough to the 60 hole to make me think it was a 60 (my ring gauge checker is old, it jumps from 56 to 60 and doesn’t go any larger). Gurkha fails to list the sizes on the website too, which is frustrating. I’ve bitched about it before, but the manufacturer’s website should be the last word in specifics on a cigar, not blogs of retailers. I’m worked up now, maybe I need to smoke another of the Gurkha Founders Reserve  whatever size it is, because it was a really tasty Connecticut shade wrapped cigar. I really enjoyed the crap pout of the cigar, it was a really tasty medium bodied cigar with a great burn and draw. I suspect this is a brick and mortar exclusive, like the cellar reserve line, and is in the $10 price range, but it very enjoyable. Here’s a few pictures I took a the Gurkha booth at the show.

 

 

LaPalina_Nicaragua_OscuroMy eye was drawn to the La Palina Nicaragua Oscuro robusto next. La Palina’s website gives the sizes and nothing else. This is a 5″ x 52 Robusto, made at the AJ Fernandez factory in Nicaragua, and wrapped with a Ecuador Oscuro wrapper with Nicaraguan fillers. I’m not sure what “Ecuador Oscuro” exactly means, and the rest of the make-up is vague. Again, it hardly matters as it’s a tasty smoke. It’s up my alley with the rich, coffee/cocoa flavors I like, with a hint of spice. It burned well, had a good draw and was a very nice experience. I smoked a prototype of this a few years ago I think. On a side note, I’ve been obsessed with the Adorini Double Punch cutter, and have been using it all the time. It features two punches, 9mm and a huge 13mm. I find myself using the 13mm (which is about a half an inch, or 32 ring gauge) almost all the time, it opens up the cigar almost as much as when I use a guillotine cutter. It’s sharp and has a strong magnet that keeps the three pieces together. It’s a quality piece and I’m using it a lot. The La Palina Nicaragua Oscuro is a good smoke, I look forward to smoking the Nicaragua Connecticut.

 

Avo_SouthAmericaRitmo_SpecialToroNext up was a new offering from Davidoff’s Avo line, the Ritmo in the Syncro line. I’ve smoked a few Avo cigars, most aren’t in my wheelhouse, frankly, I don’t “get” a lot of them. Some people love them, everyone has different tastes, most of the Avos don’t do it for me. This one, on the other hand, was delicious. This cigar boasts a seven country blend, Ecuador wrapper, Mexican binder and fillers from Peru, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Brazil and Honduras. Yep, that’s seven, I counted. I really enjoyed this cigar, it was very good. Did I mention the size? It was the 6″ x 60 Special Toro, and the box press was very comfortable. It was creamy, with some wood and citrus notes, as well as some spice and bitter chocolate. This was definitely my favorite Avo ever. It’s sad that Avo isn’t with us any longer, and I hope Davidoff continues to pay homage to him by creating great cigars in his name.

 

SouthernDraw_QuckDrawPennsylvaniaFinally, I got home late last night and took a quick dog-walk with a Quick Draw Pennsylvania Petite Corona from Southern Draw. This is a 4½” x 44 cigar with a pigtail cap and a covered foot. This was perfect for my late walk. The Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper really has some oomph! It’s grown about 20 miles from where I live, so I’m drawn to cigars with Pennsylvania tobacco in the blend. Since this one had the pigtail cap, I skipped the punch and lopped off the cap with a Palio, and took torch to foot without toasting to get that blast of the PA Broadleaf that the covered foot offers. This was an hour of bliss, it had a nice kick, certainly satisfying and really quite a cigar. This is another cigar from Tabacalera AJ Fernandez. I don’t think I’ve had a Southern Draw Cigar that I didn’t like a lot. I’m sad that I missed Robert Holt on his recent swing through PA, I need to hurry up and become independently wealthy so I’m not stuck at work when all the fun stuff is happening!  This little cigar has a big flavor and had an impressive burn time, I think I spent about an hour with it!

 

That’s all for now. Thoughts continue to be with our friends in the Houston area, as well as the many friends we have in Florida,  which is being pummeled by mother nature as I write this. I hope everyone get through safely and with minimal destruction. Give what you can for the relief efforts, people need help.

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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IPCPR 2017: La Sirena Cigars

This is my last video from the IPCPR show, I had the opportunity to sit down for a few minutes with Mariah Ditkowich, the new face of La Sirena Cigars. What has been announced since the show is that Mariah’s sister, Arielle, who founded  the brand in 2008 with Nestor Miranda and Miami Cigar and Company, along with her husband, Max, is expecting their first child later in the year. I’ve been a fan of the whole portfolio for a lot of years, from the original La Sirena made by Don Pepin Garcia, then by La Zona, the Merlion made by La Aurora, and the Oceano made by the Quesadas. While they didn’t have anything new at the show this year, Mariah, along with her mother and father were manning the booth. Give the video a watch, it’s already my most watched video from the 2017 show, and number six on the all time list on my YouTube Channel. Of course, best wishes to Arielle and Max, and continued good luck to the folks at La Sirena, a great family run cigar company!

 




 

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

 

CigarCraig

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A Partagas, an Alec Bradley and a Big Papi Cigar Contest Winner!

It was a rough week for me, as the last week of August always is. Not to complain or anything, but growing up having an end of summer birthday sucks almost as much as a Christmas birthday, at least for me. It signals the end of summer, and as the years progress time passes faster and faster, so summer went by in the blink of an eye. I guess if you don’t like summer, it’s not a big deal, but I love summer. On top of all that, I was plagued by migraines for some reason. So it wasn’t a great week, no reason to dwell any further on that, it’s time to move on. I managed to smoke a couple great cigars this week, and I need to pick a couple Partagas_SeriePNo2winners of the Big Papi by David Ortiz cigar prizes.  So, for my birthday I was conflicted, should I smoke a known favorite cigar or smoke a “special” cigar and risk disappointment? I took the risk and went with a Partagas Serie P No. 2 Havana that probably came home with me from a wedding we attended in London in 2006 (this very weekend, actually, (Happy Anniversary Karyn and Mitchell!). The Hunters and Frankau rep was  handing these out, and the grooms father stuffed a few in my jacket pocket. So this Havana cigar had been in my humidor for 11 years, should have been plenty of time to recover from its journeys! I was quite surprised by the floral qualities this cigar had, it was really delicious and entertaining to smoke as it was never boring with the interesting flavors that it presented. It burned perfectly too, with a great draw, which is a plus. It turned out to be a great choice and a very good smoke, quite different from my regular fare as well as being different from what I remembered and expected.

 

 

AlecBradley_BlackMarketEsteli_RobustoYesterday I was migraine free for the first time all week, so I dug into the IPCPR samples and found the new Alec Bradley Black Market Esteli, their newest edition to the Black Market line. This cigar comes in  Churchill, Gordo, Robusto, Toro, Torpedo sizes, of which I smoked the 5″ x 52 Robusto. It has a Nicaraguan wrapper, a double binder of Nicaraguan and Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers. I need to further explore this line, but this just might replace the Nica Puro as my favorite Alec AlecBradley_BlackMarketEsteliBradley cigar. It was very rich and satisfying, the burn and ash were simply beautiful, and it had unique and interesting flavors that appealed to me. There was a sweet spice that I rarely taste in a cigar and it makes me smile when I do. I smoked a few other cigars this week, a little CLE corojo from 2014 that wasn’t appealing, and a Mombacho Liga Maestro that was very leathery, too much so for my taste, I’m afraid. These are both lines that I feel like I should explore further, on the CLE side, even though I’ve known Christian for 20 years, the cigars I’ve smoked from CLE haven’t tripped my trigger, the Asylum line I like, but I guess I just haven’t smoked enough of the CLEs. I’m late to the party with Mombacho and need to smoke more of their cigars. As far as the Alec Bradley Black Market Esteli, that’s a winner for me! See below for some pictures from IPCPR of their latest offerings.

 

Alec Bradley has added some nice accessories this year too, as well as some small format cigars. I’m looking forward to checking out the new Prensado Lost Art as well.

 

Contest!

Big PapiOK, it’s time to wrap up the series of contests featuring cigars from El Artista Cigars, we had a huge Exactus Super Colosus, the Pulita 60 Aniversario and finally, the Big Papi by David Ortiz, which I’ am about to announce the winners! Thanks to Carolyn and Keith for making all this possible! We will have two winners, one gets a five-pack of Big Papi cigars and a lighter, and the grand prize is a box of 20 Big Papi cigars! The runner-up is Matt Hopper! The grand prize winner is (drumroll please)… Randall Simon! I’ll need both of you to send me your addresses so we can get these out to you!  Thanks to all who followed and congrats to the winners! Stay tuned for more contests coming up! 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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IPCPR 2017 – Fratello Cigars

Fratello_Bianco_TheBoxerI’m down to my last couple videos to post from the IPCPR show, and realized that I hadn’t posted the video with one of my biggest best friends from the cigar industry, Fratello Cigar‘s Omar de Frias. So tonight I grabbed a Fratello Bianco the Boxer for my evening walk. You may recall this cigar was one of my favorite cigar from 2016,  and it remains so, it’s a great smoke, it has a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, Dominican binder and fillers from the USA, Nicaragua and Peru made at the Joya de Nicaragua factory. It’s rich and chocolaty with some spice and I really like it. The rest of the line is great, as are all of the Fratello cigars. I especially look forward to trying the Oro in The Boxer shape, as well as the new cigar Omar showed at the IPCPR show, the Navetta, which he tells us about in the video. Navetta is “shuttle” in Italian, and it pays homage to Omar’s career with NASA and all the shuttle missions of which he was a part. If you ever have a chance to meet Omar at an event near you, run, don’t walk, to the event and spend a few minutes talking to this super-cool dude.

 




Navetta

this was the display, not the retail packaging….sadly…

 

Speaking of Big….don’t forget to go back to Friday’s contest post and leave a comment for a chance to win some Big Papi cigars from the folks at El Artista! Contest ends Friday!

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

 

CigarCraig

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