Here’s a few cigars I smoked this week:
Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta Robusto – I just love these cigars. I loved them before I watched them being rolled in the factory, and I love them more every time I smoke one.  Such a good cigar. Well balanced, great tasting and beautifully constructed.  To me they are special because I watched them rolled in Nicaragua, and they are reasonably priced (which is astounding considering the extra steps taken in the rolling process), and suite my taste buds. If you haven’t tried these, you should. I will purchase a box of the lanceros at some point, it’s just a matter of time…
Brick House Mighty Mighty 6¼” x 60  – For some reason I’ve been in the mood for large cigars, and this was a big one. This line has been around a while and received glowing reviews and is another reasonably priced cigar. I picked this one up on my Father’s Day cigar run. Very nicely made with rich flavors. A most enjoyable 90 minute vacation in a cigar.  This line received an award from Cigar Journal magazine for the best value Nicaraguan cigar last month at the IPCPR show, an event which I was fortunate enough to attend. This is made by the folks at J.C.Newman in Nicaragua based on one of the company’s first brands in the US. Again, a very nice cigar for a fair price.
Berger and Argenti Entubar Double Corona (7 5/8†x 54) – Another large cigar, this one carrying a warning band at the foot advising to toast the entire foot, not just the protuberance of ligero, under penalty of death. I was tempted to ignore this sage advise, but having spoken to both Kiki Berger (who gave me this sample) and Al Argenti at the show, I decided not to risk it and did as instructed. There is something to be said for the entubado method of construction as the burn and draw were spectacular on this cigar. It tasted good too, the Ecuadorian ‘Desflorado’ Connecticut wrapper, which seems to be all the rage these days, was very nice (I believe “Desflorado” means “deflowered”, and I was under the impression that all of the tobacco plants except for the absolute healthiest and strongest specimens have the flowers removed, so I’m not sure what this means in the description, but it is a cool sounding word!).
Broadway by La Aurora – I picked this up last March on a family trip to NYC at De La Concha. This is a cigar that La Aurora made specifically to help New York tobacconists survive after the 75% Tax on cigars was put into place. I picked up similar themed cigars from Alec Bradley and Gurkha while I was there. This is a nice cigar that starts out with a little kick. It’s a 5¾ x 54 with a unique double wrapper of Ecuador Sumatra and Nicaraguan, with Dominican Corojo binder and Dominican, Nicaraguan and Peruvian fillers. Mine burned fairly well, although my son, who smoked one with me, had some trouble with the burn on his. We may need to check his humidor, I can imagine with a double wrapper, the right humidity is going to be the key to a good burn with this. I’m trying to figure out how they manage to reduce the manufacturing cost of this cigar for sale in New York, but use two wrappers. It seems counter-intuitive, but I suppose it works, because the cigar is pretty tasty.
Here is a quick video of Kiki Berger from Cuban Crafters at last month’s IPCPR show. I’ll take this opportunity to thank Don Kiki again for taking the time to talk to me, hooking me up with a Cuban coffee and some samples, and giving me this spiffy new Perfect Cut cutter. I’ve been using this a lot in the last few weeks and I like it a lot. Unlike similar cutters that I like a lot, this one has a resin (plastic) body that is very light in the pocket. My other favorite cutter is all stainless steel and quite heavy. This one does a great job, has a cool hole in the back so you can cut a torpedo and doesn’t drag your trousers to the ground!
In the News
Here are a few interesting links I came across this week, the first is about an old brand that was made up the road from me in Reading, PA. The second one isn’t really cigar related, but is a cool article about a Beatles themed bar in Havana.
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=325430#.TkPxXgeipfs.email
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/world/americas/08havana.html?_r=3
Also, many thanks to our local newspaper, the Daily Local News for including this site on their Blogtown page and featuring it on the front page of their site yesterday!
Contest!
I need to select a winner of my General Cigars prize pack. As you can see, the prize pack has doubled since I announced it a week ago, thanks to Victoria at General Cigars for sending along some more goodies. Be sure to get on over to http://www.macanudomillionaire.com and enter to win a trip to Vegas and a chance to win a million bucks. We had 17 entries, with one 
being disqualified since he won in the last 6 months. So I entered 16 into the random number generator and it spit out the number 11 which corresponds to Paul. Please drop me an e-mail with your address so I can get this out to you! I hate to have to work too hard to give stuff away, so get your contact info to me with me having to chase you down! 🙂
That’s all I have for now, and I think we can all agree that it was enough…so until the next time,
CigarCraig
“It’s been a pleasure to harness the Society’s passion for La Gloria and it’s an honor to provide them with a cigar that reflects what the brand represents to them. We look forward to collaborating with this great group of tenured smokers on future releases,” said Steve Abbot, director of marketing for La Gloria Cubana.
