Monthly Archives: November 2020

by | November 18, 2020 · 10:22 pm

My Father Fonseca Robusto and Some Other Fonseca Cigars

Last week while I was out and about,

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I picked up a couple of the new My Father Fonseca robustos. I’ve been looking forward to trying this cigar for a while. It was a bit of a surprise when Quesada sold the Fonseca brand to My Father, and it took a year of two before My Father came out with their version of this iconic brand.  I’ve personally smoked a bunch of Fonseca cigars over the years. I had a box of Havana Fonseca Cadet KDT many years ago that were really very nice. A few years a

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go I really got into the Fonseca Nicaragua, more on that in a bit. This new My Father Fonseca Robusto is 5½” x 52 and has a shade grown Corojo 99 rosado wrapper, and Garcia grown Nicaraguan fillers. At $9.50, it’s not an inexpensive cigar, but after smoking it, I certainly wasn’t disappointed! This was a really terrific tasting cigar, I think it captured the spirit of Fonseca quite nicely. It’s medium bodied, and has a delicious sweetness. It’s a nice, sophisticated blend, really nice. It’s got that hard candy sweetness I like. The Garcias did a really nice job with the Fonseca brand. 

 

I found a few older Fonseca cigars in the humidor, so I figured I’d see how they compared. I smoked the

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Fonseca Nicaragua toro, which was new a few years ago and was fairly inexpensive. This was Quesada‘s last iteration of the Fonseca I believe.  These were actually made by Placencia for Quesada, and had tobaccos from Jalapa, Esteli and Ometepe. I really liked these and smoked a bunch of them when they came out in 2016. I remember smoking one at the IPCPR show with Terrance Reilly in the Quesada booth and loving it, and seeking more out when they hit the stores. I smoked the 6″ x 50 toro and it had held up well over time. There were similarities to the new version, which is also Nicaraguan. It had that sweetness, it had some earthiness, and was as I remembered, a very good smoke. I enjoyed it and will miss these when I smoke the last of the few I have left! 

 

Finally, I found a Dominican Fonseca, and I  don’t even know how old this one was, where it came from or much about it at all. If I had to guess, I’d say it had a Sumatra wrapper, based on looks and flavor. There was a hint of that same candy sweetness that is in the new version that I love so much. This is another cigar that had aged well. The burn was perfect, it just was a pleasure to smoke. I wish I knew how old this one was, or where it came from! I’m just glad I had the chance to smoke it. I still have one Cuban KDT Cadets from the box that I had maybe in the middle of the 2000s. They were pretty strong little cigars, but I imagine fifteen years might have mellowed it out a bit. 

 

That’s all for today. Remember the CigarCraig.com Readers Poll.  E-mail me at craig@cigarcraig.com with your choice for the 2020 cigar of the year. I’ll c

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ompile the results and post them on December 31. Please be as specific as possible. It’ll be fun! Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | November 15, 2020 · 10:04 am

All Saints Dedicación Cigars

Thursday evening I went to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA where they were having a cigar event revolving around the Masters. There was chipping and putting involved in a tournament with brackets and everything. The winner received a bottle of booze and a box of cigars. This was all sponsored by All Saints Cigars, and Mickey Pegg was there for the event. The cost of the event was $25 which included two cigars and food, but I decided instead to buy a bunch more cigars and pass on the food., I showed up two hours late anyway and had no intention of participating in the event really anyway, apart from smoking the featured cigars and meeting Mickey finally. It’s been months that we’ve been trying to connect. Of course, the several months that I was unemployed and had tons of time on my hands would have been ideal, but but there is this pandemic going on limiting contact and stores being open and all. Now that I am gainfully employed, my time is limited, and we still have the limitations of the pandemic. Fortunately, Cigar Mojo has a large outdoor area, and a large enough lounge and is responsible about occupancy and masks and cleanliness. I felt like it was a good opportunity to venture out. I bought a selection of All Saints Dedicación cigars, along with a couple other new cigars and went and met Mickey.

 

I smoked the 6” x 60 “Huge” while there. The Dedicación has a San Andrés wrapper, which does not appear to be fermented to a Maduro to me, and Nicaraguan binder and filler. I also bought some of the 6 1/2 x 52 Commandant and Mickey hooked me up with a 5 1/2 x 50 Berkey. the later of the two being box pressed. I’m not going to break each one down individually, the Huge was smoked at an event while I was talking and distracted, but it was a really nice smoke. I smoked the Commandant on Friday. It smoked well and had flavors similar to the Huge, which were earthy for the most part. I found the Berkey to be the best of the three. It had a spice and sweetness that the other two didn’t seem to have. I also felt like the larger two burned faster than I would like, I think the smoking time on the smaller Berkey was darned near the same as the larger two. If I recall, Mickey said that the 6” x 60 would be the outlier flavor wise, I suppose I’ll give them all some humidor time and revisit them at a future date. I certainly won’t hesitate to buy more of this brand though, either front mark, the Dedicación of Solamente, both are excellent. Both are made at Rocky Patel’s Nicaraguan factory, but they are blended by Mickey Pegg. I wrote about his backstory in my Solamente post on September 30.

 

Reader’s Poll!

 

Instead of me selecting a cigar of the year this year, I thought I’d do something different. Let’s have a CigarCraig’s 2020 Reader’s Poll! E-mail me at craig@cigarcraig.com with your choice for the 2020 cigar of the year. I’ll compile the results and post them on December 31. Please be as specific as possible. It’ll be fun!

 

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

CigarCraig

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by | November 11, 2020 · 9:28 pm

HVC Black Friday 2020 Cigar

Sunday I took a little ride out to Havertown, PA to visit my favorite daughter, I am allowed to say that because I only have one daughter. She also has my favorite granddaughters, and I like to see them from time to time.  Ironically, they live very close to the Wooden Indian, so I stopped by with the intention of picking up a few new to m

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e cigars to

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smoke. The Wooden Indian is still operating under COVID restrictions, not government mandated, but out of concern for safety of employees and patrons. As Dave Mayer, the owner, will point out, the humidor provides a nice environment for a virus to live, so he doesn’t want people wandering in and out. Their lounge is open to their members, with a separate entrance, but the store is closed to the public. I pulled up and called. I had an idea what I was looking for, but they didn’t have the first couple selections I asked for yet, and I goofed when I asked for the All Saints, I wanted the Dedicación, and asked for the Solamente, which I had already smoked. Not that I was too disappointed, the Solamente is a great smoke, and I didn’t mind having a few more in the humidor. It’s a problem I plan to correct tomorrow night. Anyway, Deanna, who was working in the shop, ran through some of the new arrivals for me and mentioned the HVC Black Friday which was one I had wanted to try, so I picked up a few of those. Deanna took great care of me over the phone. She was very knowledgeable, and delivered my cigars to the door to me quickly. In the future, I’ll go on their website and make my shopping list.

 

I haven’t smoked anything from HVC yet, and I remember seeing HVC at the TPE show, but, for whatever reason, I failed to meet Lorenzo. It seems to me that his area was busy whenever I wandered by. I’ve been hearing a lot about the brand,

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and I’ve been hearing a lot about the Black Friday. To my

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surprise, the HVC Black Friday has been an ongoing limited edition, going back to 2015! I’ve been somehow missing out on this brand. This years cigar is a corona gorda, 5 5/8″ x 46, an excellent size. From what I can tell it has a Habano wrapper, double binder consisting of Corojo and Criollo and Nicaraguan fillers from Jalapa, including Ligero from Aganorsa’s farm. This is a strong cigar! It starts off with a load of pepper, and smoothes out a little but not much. It has some sweetness, be remains a powerhouse throughout. I really enjoyed this cigar! I didn’t really look at the price, but some post sale research shows these in the $7.50 range, which is quite a deal. United Cigar is offering a Black Friday Firecracker, which sounds really interesting, but I don’t know if a stronger version is really necessary! I’ll try to get my hands on some, as I like sampling the Firecrackers, but I can imagine it’ll live up to the Firecracker name. I couldn’t wait until the day after Thanksgiving to smoke the Black Friday, and I’m not sure if the other one I have will make it another couple weeks! Great cigar, and now I need to find some more HVC cigars to sample. 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | November 8, 2020 · 9:35 am

Tabernacle Lancero, La Palina Pasha and El Titan de Bronze Redemption Maduro Cigars

My wife gave me a great idea for the end of the year which involves the cigar of the year and a contest, but I’m going to save that for Wednesday’s post. Today I want to talk about a few cigars that treated me right this week! the first of which was a Tabernacle Lancero from Foundation Cigar Co.. This was an older example, easily a few years old, probably from the initial run. I likely bought this at an event with Nick at the Wooden Indian. I also have an El Güegüense Lancero from the same event. It’s funny that the Tabernacle Lancero is 7” x 40 while the El Güegüense Lancero is 7 ½” x 40. I guess one factory has one mold and one has another. Neither, by the way, are 38 ring gauge, a slight nit to pic. The Tabernacle is Broadleaf wrapped, San Andrès bound, and Esteli Jalapa/Jamastran filled, and is delicious. I think the larger ring cigars in this line are richer, of course, but the Lancero is special. When smoke

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d slowly, as one needs to do with small ring cigars, the combination of sweetness, spice and earth really makes for a great tasting smoke. It may actually have been my last Tabernacle, a situation I soon need to remedy.

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Yesterday was an uncharacteristically warm November day, so I took a walk with a La Palina Family Series Miami Pasha. I don’t think this is even part of their current portfolio, or how old it was. I have two that are in coffins, and this one was in cello, perhaps an IPCPR sample from 2016? This is a 7” x 50 Churchill with a shaggy foot, made at El Titan de Bronze in Miami. I was looking for American made cigars yesterday, and this was one I came up with. Besides being made in the US, the brand has American roots, and I was feeling patriotic. This has a wrapper and binder from Ecuador and fillers from Nicaragua. I have learned to be careful with

shaggy footed cigars, they seem designed to burn shirts. This one did not, and, like many, it was relatively bland until the wrapper and binder started burning. This was a nice tasting cigar. It was subtle, not overpowering with strong flavors, largely woody and leathery with some honey sweetness here and there. It was a very nice cigar, although I wonder now if the coffin variety will be far more cedary after years of storage.

 

In keeping with the theme of the day, I finished my Saturday with an El Titan de Bronze Redemption Maduro Corona (actually a Corona Gorda) from a Sampler I bought there when we visited a year ago last September. Why I haven’t smoked this yet,

I have no clue. Their corona is 5 ½” x 48, which is even bigger than a Corona Gorda actually. It’s a really nice size in my opinion. This came in a five cigar sampler that they sell in the factory on Calle Ocho for $45 and is a really nice way to sample their line. This cigars has a San Andrés wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. It’s a nice tasting, medium bodied Maduro cigar. It has the flavors one expects to get from a cigar of this make-up, Espresso, some pepper spice, with excellent construction. Considering that it’s made in the U.S., it’s not priced out of line for the quality that you get! I can think of a bunch of cigars made at this factory and I can’t think of any that aren’t really good. A definite e destination if you find yourself in Miami.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | November 4, 2020 · 10:03 pm

News: Drew Estate Announces Cancellation of Barn Smoker Live Virtual Event

This is the last of my Wednesday news barrage, and sadly it’s bad news.  I really don’t like posting bad news, and in retrospect, I should have put these in a different order, if only to make myself feel a little better. The silver lining is at the end of the press release, but we have come to expect this sort of generosity from the folks at Drew Estate. I have been to three of the Barnsmokers, and recommend them when life returns to normal. 

 

Today Drew Estate announces the cancellation of the upcoming Barn Smoker Live virtual event, originally scheduled for November 14th, due to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases throughout Florida.

 

 

The virtual Barn Smoker Live event was designed to be broadcast live from the tobacco fields in Clermont, Fla., featuring members of the Drew Estate team including Jonathan Drew, Willy Herrera, Pedro Gomez and more. However, due to the recent significant rise in COVID-19 cases in Florida, Drew Estate has, after much consideration, determined that it is unfortunately necessary to make this difficult decision to ensure the safety of both the staffs of Drew Estate and the i

ncredible Florida Sun Grown Farm with whom Drew Estate partnered for this event.

 

From Sag Harbor, N.Y., Jonathan Drew, President and Founder of Drew Estate, notes, “It is with a heavy heart that we make this decision, but it’s clearly the right thing to do in this precarious mom

ent. Many stakeholders, including DE staff, tobacco farmers, and a multitude of suppliers have contributed a great deal to creating such an amazing experience … all for the love of the leaf, love of our special relations

hip with each of you, and to celebrate our industry and culture. Keep your heads up, stay safe, and support your friends and loved ones during these times. We love you guys and look forward to being together soon under the big tents

at the farms.”

 

Drew Estate had previously announced that as part of the Barn Smoker Goodwill Act, it would be donating $50,000 to Cigars for Warriors. Despite being unable to move forward with Barn Smoker Live under the current conditions, Drew Estate will still be making the full $50,000 donation to Cigars for Warriors, a charitable organization to whom Drew Estate has donated over $250,000 to date.

 

Financial donations to Cigars for Warriors may be made via PayPal. Cigar donations may be made at an authorized Cigars for Warriors donation center or sent to Attention: Cigars for Warriors at 8585 SW Hwy 200 Unit # 16, Ocala, FL 34481. For more information, visit cigarsforwarriors.org.

ABOUT DREW ESTATE

Founded in New York City in 1996, Drew Estate has become one of the fastest growing tobacco companies in the world. Under their mantra “The Rebirth of Cigars”, Drew Estate has led the “Boutique Cigar” movement by innovating new elements to the tobacco industry with their unique tobaccos and blending styles that attract new and traditional cigar enthusiasts. In their Gran Fabrica D

rew Estate, the Nicaraguan headquarters, Drew Estate produces a variety of brands such as ACID, Herrera Estelí, Herrera Estelí Norteño, Isla del Sol, Kentucky Fired Cured, Liga Privada, MUWAT, Larutan by Drew Estate, Nica Rustica, Pappy Van Winkle Barrel Fermented Cigars, Tabak Especial, Undercrown, Florida Sun Grown, and Java by Drew Estate.

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