Tag Archives: RoMa Craft

by CigarCraig | December 27, 2015 · 9:51 am

Contest Wrap-up, a Meet-up at JM Cigars, an Event at Mojo and a RoMaCraft Neanderthal

OK, a regular, non-contest post. How do I do this again? It’s been a crazy couple weeks, hasn’t it? Besides the 234 cigars, three ashtrays, two cutters, a lighter, and various other items, including one of a kind art and jewelry, there were some major holidays in there too. Time spent with family is the best part of the holiday for me, but doing this 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways is a load of fun too. My unending thanks to the following companies and individuals who made all this possible, in no particular order: Eric Whitfield, Broc Jackson, Jack at Duran Premium Cigars, David and his crew at 2 Guys Smokeshop, Victoria at General Cigar Co., Fred at Nomad Cigar Co., Victor at Tortuga Cigars, Jason at Best Cigar Prices, Abe and his gang at Smoke Inn, Mel and Ron at MBombay Cigars, Bianca at Gurkha and the folks at Joya de Nicaragua and Drew Estate! As I say every year, I could do this on my own, but it would cost me a fortune! Thanks to all of them and all of you for coming back every day and entering! Next year I have some different plans, but it should still be fun, that is, unless the FDA ruins everything! We’ll remain positive, keep calling your elected officials and letting them know that premium cigars should be exempt from regulation, and keep up your CRA memberships!

One of the things I did last week in, an effort to save on shipping and meet some new friends, was to hand deliver winnings from Days five and six. It turned out that Mike and Andrew were reasonably close by so we met up at JM Cigar in Exton, PA for a smoke. Of course, I spent easily twice what I would have spent on shipping on cigars, but that’s way more productive. While shopping I came across a lone El Rico Habano Maduro Gran Habanaro (double corona) in a box and it look so lonely I had to add it to my cart, so to speak. I haven’t smoked an El Rico in ages, I can remember back in the ’90s when this was one of the strongest cigars on the market, a real powerhouse. It was Ernesto Perez Carillo’s brand that took a back seat to La Gloria Cubana, and I smoked a bunch of them. It’s a minor brand now with General Cigar Co., only available in three sizes and maduro, where the original version was a natural wrapper. I thought the 7½ x 54 size would be a good size for sitting in the lounge, getting to know new friends, kinda cigar. It was good, but not as good as I remember my last one being, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I didn’t want a cigar that would distract me from conversation. As it always seems to be, meeting up to deliver a prize beats USPS every time, I felt like I have a few more friends now, and look forward to meeting up with Mike and Andrew again soon. Thank you to them for adding to the spirit of the season!

Thursday I ran down to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA as they were having a Perdomo event and raffling off a tremendous Perdomo 20th Anniversary humidor. I like the Perdomo 20th a lot, especially in maduro, so I bought a hand full (as if I needed more cigars!) and got one chance in the drawing. The winner was a guy who bought a bunch of boxes of the 20th Anniversarys, so it’s hard to begrudge him the win. It was a beautiful box, but I don’t know where I would have put it, so it worked out in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed a 20th Maduro Churchill while hanging out and talking to our local Perdomo rep, Joe Winder (who is probably the very first cigar company rep I ever met many years ago at a cigar event in Pittsburgh), CRA Ambassador and all-around good guy, Alan Price, who was working at the shop, owners Wade and Trae and various other customers. I didn’t win the humidor, but I did put some great cigars in my humidor and had a relaxing afternoon.

As it was a special occasion, I selected some other great cigars that are worth mentioning. For the second year in a row, I took my Christmas Eve walk with a Padron 1964 Anniversary Maduro Exclusivo, obviously a classic Nicaraguan maduro that’s like desert in cigar form. Absolutely delicious. Christmas day, after the kids and grandkids left, I sparked up a Fuente Hemingway Signature Maduro, again, a spectacular cigar that’s not unreasonably priced. It was rich, burned perfectly and hit the spot. Yesterday Macha and I took a four mile walk with a favorite Nica Rustica Belly, maybe I’m on a bit of a Maduro kick? I must be, because last night I lit up a cigar that caught my eye and I bought while at Mojo, a RoMa Craft Neanderthal HN, with a San Andrés wrapper. Of all the great cigars I’ve smoked over the last couple weeks, this might have been my favorite. This cigar has a couple of distinctions, first, it has a flat head, and a slight taper at the foot, which I didn’t really notice until I looked at the photo, and it still looks like a robusto, as the size is listed at 5″ x 52/58. Now that I look at it, it may taper from head to foot. It could have been shaped like a pretzel for all I care, it tasted fantastic. Not only does it have a beautiful dark and oily San Andrés wrapper, but it has a Connecticut broadleaf binder, and fillers from Pennsylvania, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. About half way in to the cigar I got a really interesting and delicious spice, which really intrigued me. This was a $12 cigar and honestly, I don’t think I realized the price point when I bought them, I might not have taken the plunge. I’m glad I did. I’ve heard from people That this was a super strong cigar, and it didn’t hit me that way at all, it was full-bodied and loaded with flavor, but I didn’t feel the nicotine at all. Stellar cigar from Skip and Mike at RoMa! I used a punch in the flat head of the cigar if anyone was curious.

You probably want to know who won the final bonus day contest, the great painting “Wind” by Eric “The Cigartist” Whitfield. It looked like only those who really wanted and appreciated this item entered (or everyone is sick to death of my contests), so I consulted Random.org and got the number 37, which corresponds to KRUK, who I know will give this a good home, despite the relative creepiness of his comment :-). Bryan, please send me your address so I can forward it on to Eric. Thank you all, and don’t despair, there could well be a Happy New Year contest!

That’s plenty from me, until the next time,

Cigar Craig

19 Comments

Filed under Contest, Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as 12 days, 2 Guys Smokeshop, Best Cigar Prices, cigar, Cigar Mojo, cigars, CIGARtist, Contest, drew estate, General Cigar Co., Gurkha, JM Cigars, joya de nicaragua, MBombay, Neanderthal, Nomad, RoMa Craft, Smoke Inn, Tortuga

by CigarCraig | April 26, 2015 · 9:22 am

RoMa Craft Intemperance, Inca Secret Blend and Kings Cigars

Sometime around Wednesday I picked out a cigar I had purchased a few weeks ago at Cigar Mojo. Because Skip over at RoMa Craft Cigars is quite in tune with the weasel culture, I feel the need to mention that I bought the cigar, along with bunch of others. This one was the Intemperance BA XXI “The Ambition”, from what I can tell (and I’ll double-check this when I go to Cigar Mojo later today). The Ambition is a belicoso, 5½” x 54, and the reason I’m second guessing myself on this is that I don’t remember this having the shaggy foot (although looking at the picture the wrapper does look like it’s cut a little short, almost like it shrank). It certainly had the Brazilian wrapper (it’s funny to me that a “Brazilian” would be “shaggy”) based upon flavor and appearance, the cigar certainly wasn’t wrapped in Ecuador Connecticut. This was a powerful cigar. I really enjoyed the flavor, but the nicotine content was almost overpowering. I had to sugar up a little after I finished the smoke, and that rarely happens. It had a nice sweet, spicy flavor and was very good. At $7, I may have to grab a couple more to let rest for a year or so and revisit.

You may recall reading here about the Inka Secret Blend cigars available in the UK. These are an exclusive to C.Gars Ltd and are made in Peru from all Peruvian tobacco. Mitchell and his team are releasing the Inca Secret Blend to the US market this year, they should be available at selected retailers already. The first thing you notice is the presentation, the box is incredible. It’s obviously Inca themed, black and gold with a gold medallion on the top. Even the inside rim of the box is painted gold, the attention to detail is crazy.

The cigars are available in two sizes initially, the 6″ x 50 Tambo, and the 6″ x 60 Imperio, which is the cigar I smoked this week. I’ll preface this by saying that I had the great pleasure of sitting in on a tasting of these at Casa Fuente in Vegas back at the 2013 IPCPR show, with Mitchell Orchant and Gennaro Lettieri, the owner of Tabacalera del Oriente in Tarapoto, Peru where these are made. It was comical to watch, and I didn’t get to sample any at that time, but they went through dozens of samples and filled the ashtrays, much to the wonder of the staff at Casa Fuente. There was also some smoldering, my fault, actually, as I dissected one of the samples that had a less than desirable draw. I noted at the time that it had a double binder, and was rolled entubado if memory serves. I also enjoy most cigars that have Peruvian leaf in the blend, and have enjoyed the UK Inka Rojo and Azul that I’ve smoked quite a bit, odds were pretty good that I’d enjoy this cigar. The sample I smoked in the 6″ x 60 size was pretty fricken awesome. There were some similarities to a Havana cigar, it had the same kind of open draw, a similar Colorado colored wrapper, and an underlying spice. Considering the folks behind this cigar are mostly Havana cigar smokers, this isn’t really a surprise. The burn was acceptable for a cigar that had only recently come into my humidor, and I put them in the same day I put the CigarOasis Magna in, so there were some general fluctuations in humidity over a few days. I expect in a months time these will smoke perfectly. This cigar is a winner in my book, and it’s different from all the “New World” cigars out there. Assuming the FDA doesn’t screw everything up this year, this cigar should be a big hit.

Yesterday I was rummaging through my Adorini Carrera humidor, making sure everything was OK and it wasn’t jealous of the new humidor across the room, and I came across a Kings Cigars King of Kings Habano, box pressed 6″ x 64. Also going back to the 2013 IPCPR show, just before the show I received a package from them out of the blue, never heard of them, had never had contact with them, it’s was actually kind of creepy. We searched them out at the show very early on, the curiosity factor worked, I had to figure out what the deal was with these guys. Well, they were a great group of entrepreneurs with a passion for cigars, and some nice, well made smokes and a flashy booth (with Cuban coffee, always a plus!). We got along well with the folks there and hung out with them several times during the week. I actually haven’t heard much from them since, but I have heard their advertising recently on the Cigar Guys Radio Show out of Atlanta. So I made some room in the piano top humidor (it’s on the piano in the living room, and its a beautiful gloss black) by removing this large cigar, and took it out for a walk. It’s been close to two years since I smoked one of these, and it’s a good Nicaraguan cigar, well-balanced with a nice, meaty Habano sweetness. The box press makes the 64 ring gauge a little more manageable, but it’s still a formidable cigar. I really want to try this in the Broadleaf wrapper, and will have to see if I can find someplace that carries these, or hunt them down at the show this year. The cigar business is tough, so it’s no surprise that this brand isn’t as widely recognized as some, but the product is solid and it takes time.

I’m planning to go to New Orleans for this year’s IPCPR show, so I want to ask you who you’d like me to seek out and what interview questions do you want me to ask, besides the usual “what’s new” that everyone asks. I have some folks on my list, but I want to get some fresh ideas. Leave a comment here, and while you’re at it, go back to my last post and leave a comment to enter to win some tasty treats from La Sirena cigars (Arielle is on the IPCPR list already). I’m going to head over to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA today for a smoke, stop by if you are around!

That’s enough outa me, until the next time,

CigarCraig

6 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Imperio, Inca, Intemperance, Kings Cigars, RoMa Craft

by CigarCraig | July 6, 2014 · 10:01 am

Independence Day Cigars, An American Puro, a CroMagnon, and Some Foundrys

It’s a holiday weekend, so, of course, our internet, TV and phones in the house mysteriously stop working and Verizon won’t be able to fix it until Monday. No idea what happened, it just looks like the optical signal isn’t making it to the house. So here I am, writing my Sunday post from Panera Bread (while noshing on a toasted Asiago Bagel with a schmear!). I did manage to smoke some cigars this weekend! I’ll miss watching Finding Bigfoot (best reality show on TV!) to night to end my weekend, but the weather has been spectacular, so I’m getting some things done outside!

Thursday evening there were some storms rolling in, and I mentioned before that the new dog isn’t a fan, so I decided to grab something short, and picked out a RoMa Craft Cro Magnon Knuckle Dragger that I had bought down at Cigar Mojo a few weeks ago. This is a beautiful Broadleaf wrapped 4″ x 50 petite robusto. I’ve only had a few of this line, despite knowing Skip Martin pretty well. I’m just not a very good weasel, I guess. This is a really brilliant cigar if you like strong, rich, dark flavors in a cigar. It burned perfectly, even though I had to turn around from my walk at the first rumble of thunder because the dog immediately turned toward home and started pulling. I finished the cigar in the garage, and it was a really great smoke, clearly Skip, Mike and the gang are doing things right.

Friday was July 4th, a significant date, in the US, as it commemorates our young country’s independence, as well as the day my wife and I tied the knot! Certainly celebratory cigars are in order. I started the day with an Alec Bradley American Classic Gordo in the pool, but the cap split badly when I cut it. It didn’t really effect the burn or flavor, it was a nice smoke while relaxing after doing some yard work. I followed it with a pre-dinner Partagas Petit Coronas Especiale from a box I bought about 4 years ago. I’ve smoked a bunch of these and really enjoy them, sadly I only have a few left. Every Fourth of July I try to smoke a Havana cigar as a form of civil disobedience, I think the founding fathers might take a moment from spinning in their graves and approve. I like the cigars too, I just think that there are many better cigars and Cuban cigars, while different, aren’t necessarily best. After going out to a nice dinner with my wife, I sat on the deck with the American Puro Corona Gorda from George Rico. I know, it’s a bit of a cliché, but I had it staring at me, so why not, and the Corona Gorda size was perfect for the occasion. The first thing you notice about this is that smokey, Kentucky fire cured tobacco, which was fairly dominant to me. Perhaps it was a happy medium between the Leccia Black and the My Uzi Weighs A Ton Kentucky Fire Cured cigars. This sample came from Gran Habano along with the 5 Vegas I talked about last time, and shared a similar lack of straightness, no big deal, just a minor offence to my CDO (OCD in alphabetical order, AS IT SHOULD BE!). I really enjoyed the heck out of this cigar, the Connecticut and Pennsylvania tobaccos complimented the smokey Kentucky leaf, and it was a surprise for me. I would highly recommend trying this cigar as it’s unique in the marketplace, and is pretty darned tasty!

Saturday ended up being a spectacular day, so we cleaned some more stuff up in the yard (this will be a recurring morning activity for the foreseeable future!), and hit the pool with a Foundry Compounds Elements and Musings Uranium: The X-Ray. I bought this at a local shop begrudgingly. I have been trying to smoke all of the cigars in this line, but that just might be impossible, so I had to get it. On the other hand, it’s a 7″x70 which is just way too big. This is listed as containing Honduran, Nicaraguan and “Mysterioso” tobaccos, one can never be sure what’s in any of the Foundry cigars, Michael Gianinni raids General Cigar’s tobacco library and picks out unique tobaccos from unusual places. This cigar was mild, had a nice flavor, which is why I stayed with it for over three hours. I went for a swim, read a book, went for another swim, got dressed and listened to a podcast on the deck, it was still going. Over all, it burned evenly and was a tasty smoke, although it took a while to get from mild to the low side of medium. I’m glad I tried it, but I don’t see this as a box purchase for me, although I dig the artwork, how can you not like a cross-legged skeleton flipping the bird! I have the CAO Flathead 770 in the humidor which is quite intimidating. I wrapped up the evening going out to see a friend play at a local country club, and meeting some other friends there, where we smoked a couple of the Foundry Compounds Elements and Musings Vanadium, which are aging very nicely. I may have to consider getting another of the V shaped boxes before they sell out.

That’s it for now, the Panera people are staring lo look at me like I’m overstaying my welcome! We are looking forward to getting things back to normal at home. Until the next time,

CigarCraig