Tag Archives: The Cigar Authority

First Wednesday Contest Two Days Late, and a Kilo Cigar

I missed the Wednesday post, it’s been a hellish week at work, so I blew it off. I asked on the Cigarcraig.com Facebook page if anyone minded if I posted it late and the sentiment was positive.  It seems people love the chance to score some freebies!  So I rummaged through the humidor and pulled out about 10 cigars and found some other odds and ends. More on that later, I have a couple of cigars I want to talk about first!

 

 

Kilo_RobustoI signed up for The Cigar Authority Care Package, which is a monthly care package of cigars that they are going to smoke on the show during the course of the month, so I dropped the folks at 2 Guys a note asking to include a couple of the new Kilo cigar (and charge me for them) that is the creation of Barry Stein. Barry created a version of this cigar when he was working for Miami Cigar and Co., and it’s been re-imagined through the United Cigar Group and made by Noel Rojas who makes the Guayacan line.  I received the care package along with the Kilo cigars last week and smoked a robusto this week.  The cigar is made up of an Ecuadorian habano wrapper,  with Nicaraguan Corojo 2006 binder and three ligero fillers from Aganorsa and Rojas’ farms.  This is a strong cigar, with lots of flavor.  It burned perfectly, much like the Guayacan toro I smoked later in the week to compare. Kudos to Barry for realizing a dream and bringing a very nice cigar to market. Good smoke, but not for the feint of heart. The idea behind the care package is to smoke the cigar that corresponds with the show, preferably while watching The Cigar Authority show live on Saturdays. I generally find myself listening to the podcast version during the week, so I try to remember to smoke the cigar while listening. there have been some spectacular cigar included in the packages I’ve received. It’s an entertaining show and is in my regular rotation.

 

Contest

 

contestI pulled some favorites out of the humidor, as well as a sampler of Southern Draw cigars, and a Stage V Cigar Clinger.  The Southern Draw sampler includes a Kudzu, a Firethorn and a Quick Draw Pennsylvania, all tasty smokes from the A.J. Fernandez factory. Also included is a Nica Rustica Belly, an Arandoza White Robusto, a Classic Cigar Habano Blend from East India Trading Co., a Tortuga Reserva Cedro Belicoso, a Buena Vista Short Churchill, a Six-Sixty Robolo and a Black Abyss Toro (the last two from the factory that makes Aging Room and Señoreal).  All cigars I like to smoke.  It’s hard to say what else might fall into the shipping box when it goes out. Usual rules apply, if you’ve won in the past few months you’re out, just leave a comment here to enter. I’ll pick a winner next Wednesday (maybe), November 11, 2015.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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Tops of The Year, Roberto P. Duran Winner and General Nonsense

Serie Unico_FeralFlyingPigToday’s post is going to be a little of everything. It’s my last day of a 14 day vacation, and I really want to get something accomplished today, so I want to get this done!  I’ve got some top “x” lists,  Some cigars I smoked, and a contest winner!  I’ll start with some cigars I smoked that I found interesting. I generally spend the end of December smoking either cigars that are featured in the giveaways, or cigars I’ve featured in the past and want to revisit, or special occasion cigars.  I smoked a bunch of each this year.  Around Christmas I smoked a Padron 1964 Exclusivo and a Drew Estate Serie Unico Feral Flying Pig.  The Pig was a bit of a surprise, it was the first of this size I’ve smoked. It was super smooth and full of rich flavor and I swear I got some cinnamon at the halfway point. This example came back with me from Nicaragua a year and a half ago, and I would have picked up a couple more when I saw them locally except for the $19 price tag.  The Feral Flying Pig was a “wow” cigar for me, perhaps the best cigar I smoked all year. My wife got me this cool cast iron pig holding what looks like a tobacco leaf for me for Christmas. The Exclusivo was pretty darned good too!

 

RockyPatel_ProhibitionNew Years Eve we stopped in to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA for a smoke and I picked up some of the Rocky Patel Prohibition cigars that I’ve been wanting to try. These come in glass jars, and one has a San Andrés wrapper and one has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, and both are a 6½” x 52 toro.  It seems that most of the Rocky Patel cigars I have, or have had, are a toro size, is it just me?  Anyway, I smoked the San Andreas on New Years Eve and it was a good Mexican maduro smoke.  It was a little smoother than the typical “dirty” sensation you get from Mexican tobacco, and was an enjoyable smoke. I smoked the Broadleaf version New Years Day, after a fun afternoon with my family in our annual tradition of watching the Winter Classic hockey game on TV, while eating and playing with the granddaughters.  I think I liked the Broadleaf version better, it had a nice sweetness that I really liked.  I will smoke a few more of each, as I tend to like both San Andrés and Broadleaf about the same.  Good smokes, interesting packaging as they come packed in glass jars within wooden crates, an homage to bootlegging practices during prohibition. Of course, the parallel being drawn is cigars to liquor prohibition in the ’20s, which it what “they” are trying to do to tobacco, and we know how well prohibition worked out! It gave us organized crime and NASCAR! 🙂

 

Tops

I’m far too lazy to compile my own list of great cigars I smoked over the year. There are a lot of exceptional cigars out there, it’s really hard to go wrong. Quite a few of my colleagues in the blogosphere like to make them, so here’s a short list of some that I came across in no particular order of preference.

http://tobacconistuniversityblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/top-10-dumbest-of-2014.html

http://archive.aweber.com/nomadcigar/GIVxr/h/My_Top_Cigars_of_2014.htm

http://www.stogiereview.com/2014/12/15/top-10-cigars-tgt-edition-2014/

http://www.casasfumando.com/top-10-cigars-2014-tony-casas-edition/

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/travel/top-10-cigars.html

http://top25.cigaraficionado.com/

http://www.thecigarnut.com/the-cigar-nuts-countdown-2014-number-1/

http://www.leafenthusiast.com/cigar-review/

http://www.leafenthusiast.com/daves-choice-cigar-of-the-year_2014/

http://www.cigar-coop.com/p/the-cigar-countdown-began-saturday.html

 

Keep an eye on Halfwheel.com, they usually go through all the sites and put together a consensus, which goes through a bunch of the various top whatever lists.  Keep an eye open for that in the coming weeks.  I think my favs of the year were the Arandoza Red Label (with the White Label right up there), and anything Tortuga.  There are far too many great cigars out there!

 

My list, once again, is a tribute to you, the reader.  Here is this year’s top commentors of 2014! Thank you all for reading along and participating! Without you all I’d be talking to myself!

 

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Contest

 

winnerOf course we start off 2015 with another great giveaway!  Thanks to Roberto Duran Cigars for providing a box of the very tasty Doberto P. Duran Premium Rio Toa. I smoked the Cacique Guama 6 x 60 last night and really enjoyed the smooth,  well balanced and complexity of this cigar. It’s sophisticated.  The winner of these is really going to enjoy them, I think.  Also thanks to the other generous sponsors who over did it and left me with more than I could give away in the 12SDoCG, even in 14 days, as well as the odds and ends I had laying around! Smoke Inn, Drew Estate, 2 Guys Smokeshop primarily.  This time I let RaffleCopter do the heavy lifting for me. It makes things easy for me, but I want to know how you all felt about it. I thought the turnout was rather low, and I don’t know if RaffleCopter is off-putting or what.  Either way, we have a winner. Here’s the screenshot of RaffleCopter’s selection. Congrats to Mark!

 

That’s more than enough for today!  Time to get on with the last day of vacation!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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The Happy New Year Roberto P. Duran and Assorted Goodies Contest!

I’m sure you’re all tired of cigar giveaways by now, but Jack Toraño at Roberto P. Duran Cigars wanted to get in on the 12SDoCG, and I was full up! Also, I had some extra goodies around that I wanted to find a good home for, so the winner of this event will receive two  shipments, the cigars from Roberto P. Duran in Florida, and one from me.  I’m also going to try out something new (to me), using RaffleCopter to picke my winner.  I’ve included several ways to enter, the usual “leave a comment here”, which is mandatory, visiting my Facebook page, and a daily Tweet option.  More chances to win at the expense of simply signing up for Rafflecopter, which you may already have done!

 

The Prizes!

From Roberto P. Duran Cigar Company we have a box of the Roberto P. Duran Premium Rio Toa, a beautiful 5″ x 52 Robusto with a Ecuador Habana Criollo wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and a blend of Nicaraguan and Latin American tobaccos in the filler.  I’ve smoked this in the 6″ x 60 size and it’s a very, very good cigar.  In addition to the cigars, I have a Kiss My Ash Radio Ashtray and Cap, a Liga Privada #9 cap from Drew Estate, some hard to find Two Guys Smokeshop and The Cigar Authority caps, The Jet Bag cigar bag, a four pack of Cuba Classic “eau de toilette” men’s cologne, and maybe some cigars and other goodies that might fall into the box while I’m packing it!

 

RPDuran_RioToa5x52

DSCN4225

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

That’s it!  Give the RaffleCopter thing a workout and see how many entries you can get!  I’ll announce the winner on Sunday, so there’s plenty of time to enter and Tweet and all!  Happy New Year to you all!  Let me know in the comments, if you want, what your New Years cigar was or will be.

 

Until Next Year,

 

CigarCraig

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2 Guys Smoke Shop and The Cigar Authority

Editor’s Note: I warned you last time that today’s post might be late!  I was writing this on my tablet on the road, and somehow, I inadvertently posted the first paragraph last night. Sorry for the false start! It’s not quite as easy posting from the tablet. So here’s the real deal, better late than never.

IMG_0933This weekend my wife and I got in the car and drove north to New Hampshire for a weekend getaway.  One of the destinations on our list was the 2 Guys Smoke Shop in Nashua.  I’ve been hearing about this chain of shops for years through various channels, it was about time I paid a visit.  Dave Garofalo just celebrated his 28th year in business.  As well as running the three stores in New Hampshire,  he has a mail order business and sits on the boards of the IPCPR, the TAA, and the CANH (Cigar Association of New Hampshire). The store in Nashua is impressive.  They have 1100 open boxes in display cases surrounding the shop, a huge walk-in humidor filled IMG_0938with boxes, and a Diamond Crown Lounge.  The pricing is excellent considering there is no cigar tax in New Hampshire,  and they do my home state of Pennsylvania one better by not having sales tax.  I bought a handful of cigars and settled in with a Bandolero Traviesos robusto and chatted with Dave.  The Bandolero is an exceptional IMG_0934smoke. It was sweet, smooth and had a curious little twang in the background. This cigar is made by Nelson Alfonso, the guy behind a lot of Habanos S.A.’s packaging like the ceramic jars and such. The packaging for these is equally as cool.  These are offered in tin “jars” each of which has a picture and the story (in Spanish) of the Bandolero, who was someone who kind of black marketed tobacco in the days when Spain had a monopoly on cigar production. The tins even have a humidifying element in the lid. It’s a terrific cigar with great presentation. 

 

IMG_0949One of the things Dave does in his free time is a two hour radio show every Saturday called The Cigar Authority. I’ve been listening to the podcasted version of the show for a couple years and have corresponded with Dave several times about things that have come up. I was excited when Dave invited me on the show, clearly it was a slow week for them. The first cigar we smoked was a Psyko 7 from Ventura Cigars, which was very nice. It was medium bodied and had a nice sweetness. It was quite enjoyable. I’m not going to go into what was discussed, you can listen yourself at TheCigarAuthority.com or find it on iTunes. I ended up sitting in on the rest of the show. In the second half we smoked one of Dave’s own brands, La Gianna Havana, in honor of his daughter’s birthday. He gave me a Maduro which was a IMG_0953really nice, tasty mild cigar. While I was sorry to put the Psyko 7 down, this was a suitable replacement. It was a great time, an I was honored to ba able to participate. My one regret was that I wasn’t able to follow the chat-room or Facebook and failed to give a shout out to my old friends Mike Perry and Mark Williams (and maybe Dan Poe). Sorry guys! Jenn was trying to type it in a large enough font on her tablet for me to see but the show was over by then. Next time, I promise. I also had the pleasure of meeting a Facebook friend,  Charlie Pitarys, who has a cigar lounge in Tennessee.  He was there celebrating his birthday. Many thanks to Dave and Mr. Jonathan for their generosity!  They made us feel like family and that we belonged there. 

 

IMG_0955I’m not sure when I’ll visit New Hampshire again, but you better believe I’ll be visiting one of the three 2 Guys shops while I’m there. In a funny coincidence, we ran into Johnny Brooke, the PR guy for Drew Estate, who just moved to the Boston area from Miami. He was there with Derek Stewart from the reddit.com/r/cigars forum. I had no idea John had moved north and it was a bit of a “what the f*** are you doing here” moment for both of us! Small world. Jenn and I said our goodbyes and headed to Maine for a lobstah dinnah, and passed the 2 Guys Seabrook store on the way. Today we headed to Burlington, Vermont, then home to PA. We had a whirlwind weekend, covering eight states! Lots of fun and lots of great friends and cigars.

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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IPCPR 2013 – Part 2: The Cigar Authority with David Garofalo

I know many of my readers also listen to cigar podcasts, and I’m a big fan.  One of the ones I’ve been listening to for a few years is The Cigar Authority.  It took some time for me to get used to the funny accents 🙂 , but I’m constantly entertained, and have even managed to get mentioned on the show here and there! Usually it’s when I’ve e-mailed to point out some inaccuracy or something that caught me funny, like the time David had eyelid surgery and his graphic description almost made me pull the car over to evacuate my digestive tract.  It’s not always that bad, so I listen religiously every week via the podcast version usually while walking the dog or in the car.

 

In this portion of the video David tells us about the show.  It’s quite a bit shorter than yesterdays!

 

If your into the whole podcast thing, give these guys a listen, you can find them at TheCigarAuthority.com or on iTunes.  You can also listen and/or watch live when they broadcast the show on Saturdays from Noon to 2:00 Eastern Time.  One of these days I’ll catch a live show one way or another.

That’s all for now, watch for tomorrow’s dramatic conclusion of the Garofalo Trilogy!  Until then,

CigarCraig

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