Tag Archives: Cigar Journal

Some New Cigars: Gurkha, Nomad and Spectral from Flor de Gonzalez

In the IPCPR show spirit, I smoked some more newbies this week!  I’ve been seeing a few cigars from the show that I’m looking forward to getting my hands on, but from what I’ve seen on other media outlets, it’s a lot of the same. I’m amused when I see comment on the IPCPR show and their policies by either new sites (they are supposed to see if you’ve had your site up for more than a month or two) or bloggers who have never been there, or have no knowledge apart from what they’ve read elsewhere.  I’ve seen my fair share of consumers at the show on social media, something which was strictly prohibited, I have also heard several stories of thefts from booths at the show, All I can say is I know who can’t be blamed this time! I’ve also seen some great coverage from the likes of The Cigar Authority, Cigar-Coop, Halfwheel and Cigar Federation. Glad to see some of my media brethren doing it right! I’ll see if I go next year, it’s fun but it’s a ton of work! On with the cigars!

 

Sunday I smoked a Gurkha 125th Anniversary in what they call the XO, which is 6” x 60, a nice sized cigar for a Sunday evening walk. This cigar features a Cubra Habano wrapper, accompanied by an Ecuadorian Habano binder and a complex combination of Nicaraguan, Brazilian and Dominican fillers. Bianca gave me this cigar at Cigarnival last month. I’ve smoked a few of the newer cigars in the Gurkha range, and really enjoyed most of them, particularly the Seduction, Ghost and Cellar Reserve Maduro.  This was a tasty treat!  It burned really well, had a perfect draw, and basically didn’t give me any trouble!  Not sure where these are priced, or how available they are, but it’s a worthy smoke from the folks at Gurkha.

 

Nomad_C-276_RobustoMonday I went with the new C-276 robusto from Nomad Cigars.  Fred was kind enough to send me a couple of these, knowing I wouldn’t be at the trade show.  This new release has a Ecuador Habano Oscuro wrapper which is dark and oily and Nicaraguan binder and fillers and is box pressed. Fred blended this cigar, as he’s been known to do lately, and it’s made in the AJ Fernandez factory. I’m impressed with the fact that Fred admits that he didn’t blend his original Dominican line, the factory gave him several blends to choose from. I think he’s getting the hang of it, as his last three, now four releases have been quite tasty! This C-276 is a powerhouse. Passing the smoke through the nose is a little painful, there’s loads of ligero in this cigar, and you can taste the distinct Ometepe influence. This is a great smoke, too bad it was only a robusto as it was finished too soon!

 

FdG_Spectral_ToroTuesday evening my hand gravitated to a cigar the Yadi Gonzalez from Flor de Gonzolez handed me at Cigarnival.  This is a cedar wrapped tor called Spectral, and has a dark, mottled wrapper. I seem to recall Yadi mentioning that it was five-plus years old, and made with tobaccos aged five years, and there might be plume under the cedar sleeve. I didn’t notice any, but this had a dark wrapper, and a really neat cold draw flavor which I tend to associate with tobacco from Peru. It was a Toro size, 6″ x 52 and was very nicely constructed. This was a solid medium cigar, with nice, rich, dark flavors and a perfect burn. This is another cigar I enjoyed thoroughly, right up to the point where I burned my fingers. This is another terrific cigar from Flor de Gonzalez, they are building quite a nice portfolio.

 

News

 

Cigar Journal Magazine had their annual awards event in Las Vegas this week, and here are the winners:

I went to the awards back in 2011 and it was a good time. I was just telling Glynn Loope a few weeks ago about how he stood in front of me while I was trying to video the whole thing and wouldn’t stand still!  It’s OK, the quality wasn’t very good anyway so I never used the video. As long as I brought  up Glynn, support Cigar Rights of America if you don’t already. We are in the home stretch with the comment period on this FDA nonsense and need every comment. Make sure you tell them what you think so that one day you don’t have any cigars to enjoy!

 

On another note, I will be finding myself in Chicago around August 15th to 17th, so if any of you Chigagoans want to get together for a smoke or two, I’ll be looking for places to visit. I’m sure there are several places I need to see.

 

That’s all I got, until the next time,
CigarCraig

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CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways – Final Day Winner and Thanks!

We’ve come to the end of a historic two weeks on CigarCraig.com!  A marathon of daily posts, untold thousands of dollars worth of merchandise (and postage!).  We gave away 167 cigars, 4 cutters, 2 lighters, 2 caps, 2 cigar tubes, a cigar case, a magazine subscription, a gift certificate and a humidor! That’s a bunch of stuff!  Also significant was the all time high numbers of unique visits, as well as comments!  Until last week I didn’t even know if you got to 50 comments it went to a second page.  Pretty crazy!  In addition to everyone who came back day after day religiously for a chance to win fabulous prizes, I want to give my sincere thanks to the cigar companies who made this madness possible!  They are, in no particular order:

La Gloria Cubana

Villiger Stokkebye

Brothers of the Leaf, LLC

Miami Cigar and Co.

Oliva

CAO

Cigar Journal

Pipes and Cigars

C-Gars Ltd. 

Tabacos Mata Fina USA

Oja Cigars

AJ Fernandez 

Emilio Cigars

 

This was an ambitious project.  What started out with the idea of giving away a cutter here and a cap there morphed into something huge.  The generosity of the companies listed above was amazing, as was their willingness to put up with my neurotic and obsessive compulsive tendencies!  The one other person I absolutely could not have done this without is my lovely wife, Jennifer.  You may have noticed her mentioned in the comments here and there, seen her tweets and re-tweets, as well as handling moderating all of the comments while I was at work every day.  Thanks for everything you’ve done for me!

 

Editorial

Now, before I announce the winner of the humidor from Pipes and Cigars, please take a moment to write a nasty letter to the NCAA and The Orange Bowl pointing out their hypocrisy.  David Savona sums it up perfectly in his blog on CigarAfficianado (here).  Head on over to FaxZero.com and send a fax to the OrangeBowl at 305-341-4750.  I saved Mr. Savona’s article as a PDF and faxed it to the attention of the CEO of the Orange Bowl committee.  You can fax twice a day for free using FaxZero.  You can also send them a tweet using @orangebowl or find them on Facebook and voice your displeasure.  You can also e-mail Larry Wahl, VP of Communications and Community Outreach at lwahl@orangebowl.org .

 

Time to announce the winner!  I have been presented with the number 41 by the Random Number Generator, which means that MarcB is the winner! Please send me your contact information!   This concludes this year’s contests! Please visit the sponsoring companies sites and thank them for their generosity.  Also, take a look at my advertisers sites, and join me in welcoming La Palina Cigars to the CigarCraig.com family.  These friends help me to defray costs of doing things to write about and I deeply appreciate their support!

 

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, to everyone. I’ll leave you with this Christmas video from Alan Bernhoft, who you may have seen in the comments over the last few days.  Let’s give him a little Christmas present and help make his song a new Christmas classic!

httpv://youtu.be/AioTRzrMlBw

 

Until the next time,

CraigCraig

 

 

 

 

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CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways Day 10: AJ Fernandez/Emilio

We’re getting close to the end, I sure wish I could run contests every day, but I think 12 days in a row is enough for just about anyone.  We’ll go back to monthly (or as the spirit moves me) after the first of the year.  I can always find something to give away!  Now, once again we consult Random.org for a number, and that number is 3.  So would Brian please e-mail me so I can send you your gift certificate! (I save postage on this one!)

 

Today on CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways we have a selection of cigar from AJ Fernandez!   We have two San Lotano Oval Toros and two San Lotano Habano Robustos.   Cigar Journal just named the San Lotano Oval as #2 best cigar of 2011, and it is a really nice cigar!      Co-sponsoring today is Emilio Cigars.  The AF series are made and named after AJ Fernandez and are exceptional cigars!  Gary Grifith has provided 3 each of the AF1 and AF2s.

 

Thank you to Clay Roberts at AJ Fernandez  and Gary Griffith of Emilio Cigars for their generous contributions, and to AJ for making exceptional cigars!

 

You know what to do! Leave a comment to enter and good luck!

 

Until tomorrow,

 

CigarCraig

 

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CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways Day 3 : Cigar Journal

Thanks to everyone for making yesterday the busiest day on CigarCraig.com ever, AGAIN!  The winner of the  Villiger Stokkebye International sampler and lighter is Tad Smith , as selected by the Random Number Generator at Random.org.  Congrats!  Please send your address.  Now on to another generous offering:

 

Today on CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways we have a one year subscription to Cigar Journal Magazine. It used to be European Cigar Cult Journal, then it was Cigar Cult Journal, now it just Cigar Journal, and it’s, no doubt, the best bi-ligual cigar magazine around…heck, it’s the best in any language!

Thank you to Colin Ganley and Bob McDuffee of Cigar Journal for contributing this gift that keeps giving all year long!

You know what to do!  Leave a comment to enter and good luck!

Until tomorrow,

CigarCraig

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12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways Countdown! A Monte Pascoal, a My Uzi and a Cain

It’s been a busy week, I’ve been gearing up for the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways and the weather was mild and rainy for the fist part of the week, and cold at the end.  This didn’t stop me from getting in a few interesting cigars though!

 

Mid way through the week I took a walk with a Monte Pascoal Minuto.  This Brazilian puro is a tasty little firecracker of a smoke.  The cigar is 4 3/8″ x 42, with Brazilian Mata Fina wrapper and binder and Mata Fina and Mata Norte fillers.  The word on the street is that the smaller sizes are stronger than the larger sizes, based on the higher wrapper to filler ratio, but I find this difficult to comprehend given that the blend is so heavily weighted toward the same tobacco variety. Perhaps I’ll ask Wes at Tabacos Mata Fina USA about this the next time I see him.

 

Last night it was cold.  I needed to get some cash, and the nearest ATM is probably a mile and a half away, so I grabbed the 7″x 60 My Uzi Weighs A Ton pre-release sample Jonathan Drew sent me quite a few months ago. This cigar is a joint venture between Joya de Nicaragua and Drew Estate/Subculture Studio, and was released at this years IPCPR show. Certainly this monstrous cigar would last me the entire walk, and then some.  There’s nothing more frustrating that finishing the cigar before the walk.  Anyway, this cigar had a nice flavor, and as has been said many times by others, it’s not a killer strong cigar as the name may imply.  It’s just a really nice, balanced, medium bodied cigar that was an excellent companion for the 3 mile walk!

 

Yesterday I felt inspired to smoke a Cain Daytona Corona after a big Olive Garden meal with my wife.  I really needed a couple laps around the block to burn off the pasta!  I love the Cain line, but most of them are just too strong for me.  Not the Daytona!  It’s another medium bodied cigar that’s packed with delicious flavors.  What led me to this cigar was a meeting earlier in the day with my areas Oliva rep, Mike Staiber, who provided a terrific prize for the upcoming contest.  Always nice to see Mike, and I wish we’d have had the time to sit and smoke one together.

 

Speaking of the contest, it starts TOMORROW!  Keep any eye here bright and early each morning for the next two weeks for a fantastic parade of prizes!  Leave a comment to win and check back every day for the winner and the next prize!  This is a contest that is unprecedented in the history of CigarCraig.com!  Many thanks to the following companies who have made this contest possible:

La Gloria Cubana

Villiger Stokkebye

Brothers of the Leaf, LLC

Miami Cigar and Co.

Oliva

CAO

Cigar Journal

Pipes and Cigars

C-Gars Ltd. 

Tabacos Mata Fina USA

Oja Cigars

and more to come!

 

My deepest gratitude for everyone for helping to make this a terrific 12 days of contests!

That’s it for now, more tomorrow!

CigarCraig

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