CigarCraig's Blog

June 14, 2026 · 10:29 am

Villiger Year of the Horse, HVC and Oscar Valladares Cigars

When I was at the Smoke-Onos a couple weeks back I saw my old friend René Castańeda and he gave me a Villiger Year of the Horse that’s only available in the Asian market. The Year of the Horse is a 6″ x 52 torpedo with an Ecuadorian Habano oscuro wrapper, a Mexican San Andrés binder and fillers from Nicaragua. It is made at the Villiger de Nicaragua factory, which is owned by Villiger but run by Joya de Nicaragua. I’m partial to just about anything out of the JdN factory. Like I said, this will be a pretty worthless “review”, since the cigar is only available overseas, or if you happen to be in good with René! What sucks is I really enjoyed this cigar! It was rich and delicious and burned perfectly, with dark chocolate and dried fruit flavors. The packaging looks incredible, red lacquered box, (there are pictures on Halfwheel, take a look there) but the bands are a little plain, I guess they are beautiful in their simplicity. I’m sure there’s something similar in the readily available Villiger line up, I guess I need to search it out.

I smoked a couple cigars that came in one of Smoke Inn’s crazy deals a few weeks ago, there was a sampler that had a bunch of “new to me” cigars, first up is the HVC Vieja Cosecha No. 2. It seems like this came out in 2015 or 16, so I’m quite behind. This is a 6½” x 56 Perfecto. The barcode label says “doble Figurado”, which in my mind is incorrect, it’s a figurado, a perfecto, but it isn’t doble anything! It’s a perfecto, and the draw was perfect on this one. It has a sweet bready start, with some spice that built up, which I expect from this brand. I’ve been a fan of HVC, a lot of their cigars are very much to my liking. This one was very enjoyable. On a side note, HVC needs to get a website put together, they’ve been around over ten years, it’s about time.

I’ve found that I’ve been smoking a lot of great cigars recently, I haven’t had a dud in a while! Another cigar that was in the same sampler as the HVC was the Oscar Valladares 2012 Sumatra Sixty. This is a 6″ x 60 box press, with an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Honduran binder and Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers, made in Honduras. I find myself liking Sumatra cigars more and more lately. There’s a sour/sweet candy flavor I like, it’s almost a desert cigar, which is good because the majority of the cigars I smoke are after a meal. This was super good, and a good value at around $11. This brand came out in 2012 when we were all worried about the Mayan calendars prediction that the world would end. Spoiler: it didn’t.

I’ve been having some website issues and am working with my host to geet them straightened out. This shouldn’t pose any danger to the reader, but it’s aggravating the hell out of me. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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El Mago, West Tampa and Macanudo Cigars

This week we took a little trip up to the finger lakes region of New York State for a wedding. There are ZERO cigar shops in that area, we were on the middle finger of the lakes, Seneca. I was concerned that the Glamping property we booked was no smoking, but quickly cleared that up with the host, and I was able to enjoy some cigars at the firepit. We liked the glamping thing, although I can imagine it might be less attractive if the weather hadn’t been perfect! Running to the bath house in the middle of the night in the rain would have been less than ideal. We had a good trip. But you come here (I suppose) to read about cigars, and I smoked a few.

First up is the El Mago Mago Vice, which is a Smoke Inn exclusive. One of those links goes to Smoke Inn’s sales page. I don’t get any commissions or anything, not that I haven’t tried! This is a 6″ x 54 toro, with a San Andrés wrapper, Habano binder, and Nicaraguan fillers from Estelí, Condega, and Jalapa. I haven’t had an El Mago cigar that wasn’t really good yet, I was looking forward to this one. I got this in a sampler from Smoke Inn, by the way. I have to point out the band on this, it’s really nice! It has no impact on the cigar really, but it’s quite the piece of art. I’d smoke this one again! I noted flavors of unsweetened dark chocolate. I love dark chocolate, but it triggers migraines so I avoid it, which is why I love finding cigars that remind me of that (the cigars don’t give me migraines). I recently saw that a local shop has El Magos, while they won’t have this one, I hope to grab a Disco or two one of these days. Great cigars.

Next up was the new Macanudo Ecuador Shade Robusto. This is the same blend as the Macanudo Sumatra that I featured last week, only with an Ecuador Shade wrapper: Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers with a U.S. Broadleaf binder. The ones I smoked are 5″ x 50 with a box press. The standard Macanudo has a U.S. Connecticut wrapper and a Mexican binder, and we all know that it’s a very mild cigar. I have a couple in the humidor, but I haven’t smoked one in years. This one has a little bit of a punch. It’s smooth and nutty, it’s not the very mild shade Mac we are accustomed to. My tastes lean toward the Sumatra out of the two, but this Ecuador Shade is a perfectly serviceable smoke. I’d smoke it again.

Finally, after driving home yesterday I hit the porch with a West Tampa Tobacco Chef Rick. When I posted this on Instagram/Facebook I accidentally typed Chef Tick, which Ricky called me out on. It might have been fat fingering on the phone keyboard, or predictive text changing what I typed, or maybe my Lyme Disease kicked in, not sure. I fixed it, that was embarrassing! This is the third cigar, likely last, in the Cook Book series, which included the Boliche Blvd, and the Devil Crab. It has a H2000 wrapper, Ecuadorian Sumatra-seed binder and Nicaraguan fillers from the Condega, Estelí, Jalapa and Ometepe regions. It is made at Tabacalera Pages de Nicaragua S.A. which also makes cigars for Crux and Lure cigars. The cigar has a savory tang, and has some earthiness and maybe a subtle sweetness. I enjoyed it and many thanks to Dan of West Tampa for gifting me this cigar!

That’s all for today. After a long weekend, I have a few chores to do today around the house, and then it’s back to work to catch up tomorrow. I liked having a two day work week last week a little too much! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Chef Rick, cigar, cigars, Ecuador Shade, El Mago, macanudo, Mago Vice, West Tampa Tobacco

May 31, 2026 · 9:42 am

Sobremesa Brulee Tapa Negra and New Partagas and Macanudo Cigars

When I saw Steve Saka a couple weeks ago at the Smoke-Onos he handed me a couple of his new Sobremesa Brûlée Tapa Negra, a shade cigar with a sungrown Nicaraguan Habano leaf covering the last couple inches of the cigar. This is very similar to the Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta, which was based on the old JR Cigars brand, La Escepcion, I think, although I cannot confirm this memory! I remember seeing the Cabinettas rolled at the Joya factory in 2011, and smoking the first lanceros there on that trip. I was just talking about that cigar with Selim Hanono (currently with Carrillo, then with Drew Estate), who asked for the Lancero and they made it originally just for him). Steve handed me two Corona Gordas. I never lose cigars, don’t ya know I lost one of these somewhere. Craig G, was it in your car? If it was, smoke it, I tried to give it to you anyway! I swear I didn’t leave it on purpose. If I dropped it someplace, I hope whoever found it appreciates it! The Corona Gorda is 5 5/8″ x 48, which is a nice size. It’s also going to be available in a toro. I like the Brûlée and Brûlée Blue well enough, they are exceptional shade cigars. This takes it to another level. Besides the Nicaraguan Habano wrapper on the head of the cigar, it has an Ecuadorian Connecticut shade wrapper, Mexican Matacapan negro de temporal binder, and Nicaraguan fillers from Condega, Pueblo Nuevo criollo, La Joya Estelí C-98 and Estelí hybrid ligero. This is a really tasty cigar! It starts out with an unexpected load of pepper! It smoothes out after a bit and continues with a citrus tang, which I’ve been experiencing a lot lately. Not complaining. I smoked this past the band because I wanted to see if burning the “Negra” part made a difference, and it was really hard to tell as the flavor changes down that far anyway. I can’t wait to smoke more of these, I wish I hadn’t lost one, and I’ll buy a couple when they hit stores, even though they will be pricey. Yet another excellent cigar from Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust!

Things got a little busy around here, which gave me an opportunity to smoke some robusto size cigars. General Cigars recently send a bunch of their new releases, most of which were robustos. First up is the Partagas Y Nada Mas Cibao. This is the second in the Nada Mas line, last year featured the Santiago made by William Ventura. This time they went to La Isla, the factory that also make some of my favorite La Sirena cigars. I think it’s interesting that General Cigars, who has an enormous factory in Santiago, is outsourcing so many different brands now days. I suppose it’s keeping things interesting. This Y Nada Mas Cibao has an Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper, a Sumatra binder, and Habano Vuelta Abajo (HVA), Criollo, and Pennsylvania Broadleaf fillers. I assume some of these tobaccos are from the Cibao valley in the DR. I have to say that I found this cigar eerily similar to the new La Gloria Cubana, in that it had, once again, a strong citrus tang. Burn and draw were great, and it was quite satisfying. It was very good, I liked it a lot, and at $8-$10 it’s a great buy.

I expected to sit down with another cigar yesterday afternoon, but I was asked to take a drive, so I changed plans and grabbed a Macanudo Sumatra robusto. It was only an hour drive, so I picked the robusto over a toro, and I only has one of the toros I planned to smoke, so choosing something I have more than one of makes sense to me when I’m outside of my normal smoking area. Too many things can go wrong car smoking! Macanudo has two new lines, an Ecuador Shade and a Sumatra, saying they are getting “back to their roots”. These two lines really couldn’t be further from the mild Macanudos that were made in Jamaica and the DR, which had US Connecticut wrappers and San Andrés binders. These new blends are made in Esteli, Nicaragua, they have Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers and a U.S. Broadleaf binder, the only difference between the two cigar is the wrapper. I selected the Sumatra version, I haven’t tried the Ecuador Shade version yet. This was a nice cigar, although the ash was a little flakey for a car cigar. Listen, when your wife asks you to go somewhere with her, and says you can smoke a cigar on the way, in her car, you know you have a keeper. This cigar tasted like it had a Sumatra wrapper. Some call the flavor “yuck”, I think of it as a hard candy sweetness, something your grandmother always had, but I can’t put a name to it. I like it. I actually might smoke the two side by side, but I’ll need to smoke the Shade alone to establish a base line. The Sumatra isn’t your mild Macanudo, it was really very good!

That’s all for today. I’m not sure what next week’s post will be about, I’m going to a wedding in New York State, and the cigar shop I planned to visit has closed. I’ll attempt to plan ahead. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Brulee, Cibao, cigar, cigars, macanudo, Partagas, Sobremesa, Sumatra, Tapa Negra, Y Nada Mas

May 24, 2026 · 10:17 am

Powstanie Sumatra, West Tampa Barbershop and La Gloria Cubana Intención Cigars

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and it feels more like a rainy Thanksgiving! Last week started with days in the 90s, we’re back in the 50s now. That’s why I’m not enjoying a cigar while I type today! Anyway, tomorrow is the day we remember all those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can do stuff like smoke cigars and live our lives. Thank you to all who’ve paid the price. Anyway, I smoked a few new cigars this week. I am a regular listener to the A Cigar Hustlers podcast, which is hosted by the two Mikes, Palmer and Szczepankiewicz and comes out every weekday. I heard them talk about the new Powstanie Sumatra and that it’s available in a Churchill, which led to an unintentional mooch. All I wanted to know was where I could buy some! Anyway, a couple showed up in my mailbox and I smoked one. This is new core line is pretty much the same blend as the Catastrophic Failure, which was a limited release lin 2024, which I wrote about here. They’ve made this line in four sizes that they haven’t used in their other lines, a petit robusto, gran robusto, gran toro and Churchill. These are all box pressed, have an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Mexican and Pennsylvania binders, and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, made at Nica Sueño in Esteli. I expected a little more of the sweetness I usually get with a sumatra, and got with the Catastrophic Failure, perhaps the larger size tempers this a bit. It was still a delicious cigar that I had to smoke slowly so as to not overheat it, the draw was on the open side. Obviously this has well worked tobaccos, given the factory, and is a cigar I will smoke again. I’ll be sampling other sizes, but I always get excited about 7″ x 48 (or 47) Churchills, it’s becoming a forgotten size, and is one of my favorites.

Last weekend I missed seeing Ricky Rodriguez of West Tampa Tobacco at Smoke-onos, but Dan, who does sales for the company handed me their new offering, the Barbershop. I smoked the “Clipers” size, which is 6″ x 54. This is a new core line cigar, offered in three sizes, with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers from all over Nicaragua. It’s box pressed and I’ve heard comparisons to another broadleaf box pressed cigar that Ricky was involved with, although I did not need to get my large punch cutter out for this one. This one also had an open draw, so I smoked it slow. There’s a savory sweetness, if that makes sense, very tasty. There was some leather and dark chocolate, absolutely no hints of Clubman or talc. I appreciate any cigar with dark chocolate flavors, I love dark chocolate, but lately it’s a migraine trigger for me, so I avoid it. This is another really nice cigar, and I’ll try the other sizes, which include a 6½” x 64 called the Barber Chair, and a 5″ x 52 called the Straight Razor. A lesser brand owner would just have called them toros and robustos, bt Ricky likes clever names.

Lastly, La Gloria Cubana has a new offering called the Intención, made at the STG Esteli factory, and ranging from $6 for the Gran Robusto, which is what I sampled, to $8 for the Gigante (6″ x 60), there’s a toro right in the middle both size and price-wise. I’m reading the info sheet and wondering if I smoked the right cigar, it has the Intención band on it, but it really doesn’t look like a San Andrés wrapper, it looks lighter than I expect. Not all San Andrés wrappers are maduro, so I’ll let that slide. It also has an Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos, with ligeros from both. I found this to be a medium cigar, with some baking spices to start and a heavy citrus tang throughout. The data sheet cites spiced chocolate and leather, neither of which I got at all. The cigar I smoked was excellent, I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it was very different than the literature would suggest, and I think others might agree. Of course, I’ve always been a fan of the La Gloria Cubanas, this one is a winner, I’d gladly add a box to my humidor.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Barbershop, Churchill, cigar, cigars, Powstanie, Sumatra, West Tampa Tobacco Co.

May 17, 2026 · 9:33 am

CigarProp 10th Anniversary Cigar and the Smoke-onos Festival

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of attending my 3rd Smoke-onos event hosted by Best Cigar Prices in Drums, PA. But first, I want to talk about the new cigar from CigarProp celebrating their 10th anniversary. A little history: I first heard from Kevin on February 4, 2014. He was trying to get into the cigar tube business, having made some single cigar tubes on his lathe at home. I recall contributing to his Indiegogo campaign, I have no idea how much he raised from that. I’m kinda glad he moved into the prop space, as I don’t find a lot of use for a single tube, as nice as they were, I rarely travel with one cigar. I have a pretty good collection of Cigar Prop prototypes, including a portable prop that Kevin caled the XC, with the C honoring me, for some reason! I have spent many hours with Kevin (and Jessica), over the last dozen years. We differ greatly in a lot of ways, but we have a kinship somehow. The 10th Anniversary is made at Fabrica Centroamericana de Tabaco S.A., the factory that makes Cavalier Cigars. The cigar is a toro (yay!), and is mostly Honduran with an Oscuro wrapper from Jamastrán, what I assume is a Connecticut broadleaf grown in Honduras for the binder, Visos from Copan in Honduras and Jalapa in Nicaragua, Ligero from Jamastran and a Sumatra seco. I’ve smoked a couple, I’m smoking one as I write this rather early on a Sunday morning, and it’s a delightful cigar. It has some sweet chocolate notes, and works very well with my black coffee (a store brand k-cup, I know, I’m a heathen). It’s silky smooth with no spice, although it will build a little spice, but what cigar doesn’t, really? Kevin is also becoming the go-to guy fro 3D printing, and made the boxes for these, available as an add on, in 5 and ten count versions. I was talking to Coleman of Sinistro cigars yesterday about this since Keven made the boxes for their upcoming No Etiendo line. This is a really nice cigar!

Yesterday was the Smoke-onos cigar festival at Best Cigar Prices/Pub in Drums, PA, which is near Wilkes Barre, PA. It’s about an hour and a half drive from my location. The name is a bit of a misnomer, as it’s technically just outside of the Poconos region, but it’s still quite a picturesque spot. This fest fills the void left by the Cigarfests that CI had, which I never attended , 3000 people each day for two days is more than I care to handle. I want to say there were 1500 at this event, and it’s laid out in such a way that it never felt crowded. I took another Craig, the Breadman, Craig Gilpin, who you may recall helped me out on these pages last year when I was otherwise occupied. I made various “two Craigs are better than one” jokes throughout the day. As I have attended events like this solo many times, it was excellent to have a friend along. I honestly hope that they don’t let these get any bigger, as it’s just better for attendees and vendors alike to keep it relatively intimate. I like to go and visit with my friends in the industry, stay on the radar, and catch up.

I had the good fortune to hang out with Terence Reilly while he ate a cheesesteak, and catch up with a ton of other folks. I think it’s kinda funny that folks like Rocky Patel can walk around, but Jonathan Drew (Sann, now) has a line of people waiting for a word and a picture. I did see JD smoking a cigar in person, and managed a wave. Saka was jovial, Jack Torano was grumpy, and I missed some notable folks who I’m sure would rather have been there than home recuperating from illness. I highly recommend this event next year if you can make it. My only complaint, as with every event, it seems, is that the music was too loud, I hate yelling at people. The band they had, Amish Outlaws, was really quite good, and a bunch of guys dressed like the Amish playing dance music is kinda funny. The weather was perfect and it was a great day of cigars and camaraderie. Best Cigar Prices treated us very well, and I thank them very much!

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

CigarCraig