CigarCraig's Blog

by Craig Vanderslice | June 15, 2025 · 9:51 am

Partagas, Macanudo and El Rey Del Mundo Cigars

We have a General Cigar Company centric post today. General Cigar is kind enough to send me samples of their new stuff from time to time, the curious thing about all these new releases is that I rarely see them on retailers shelves for some reason. Now, I don’t get out much, and my sample size is pretty small, but it doesn’t seem like a lot of these get a lot of traction. I can pull out a handful of Macanudos and Partagas cigars from my humidor that most people probably have never heard of or seen. Many of them are really good cigars too, it’s a little bewildering. I should stop biting the hand that feeds me. I’ll have to do a vintage GCC cigars post one of these days. Anyway, the latest batch of new releases included new lines from Partagas, Macanudo and El Rey Del Mundo. We’ll start with the Partagas. Interestingly, the Partagas Y Nada Mas Santiago, isn’t made at General’s factory in Santiago, perhaps that’s what the name alludes to? It’s made by William Ventura. I’ve not liked a great many cigars I’ve smoked made in this factory. This cigar was a pleasant surprise. It has a Habano 2000 wrapper, Sumatra binder and a filler blend of Piloto, Corojo, Ecuadoran something and Broadleaf. I really liked this cigar, it had a toasty spice kind of thing going on. I smoked a few of these and would be interested in trying the toro and gordo sizes, although I think the 5″ x 50 robusto size burned a good long time.

Next up was the Macanudo Gold Label Limited Edition Torpedo. This is a 6½” x 52 torpedo, with a Connecticut Shade (Capa Especial) wrapper, a Mexican binder, and a filler blend of Mexican and Dominican tobaccos. The wrapper and binder are lower priming tobacco, second priming for the wrapper. The first one of these I tried a couple weeks back was a dud, it refused to burn for some reason. The second one I smoked yesterday was perfect, as 99% of the Macanudos I’ve smoked in my life have been. It was a good smoke. It wasn’t overly mild, it had some flavor, it was a little nutty, a little creamy. I guess it’s a Macanudo with the strength bumped up a notch. It was a very pleasant smoke, one that would be good in the morning with coffee. Speaking of that, it’s midway through June and it hasn’t yet been warm enough to have that morning cigar yet, and that annoys me!

El Rey Del Mundo is a brand that was in my rotation back in the 90’s. I smoked a lot of the tissue wrapped Rectangulars, and I had one a few years ago and it was still really good. I think JR Cigars/Santa Clara might be a little peeved that General is taking this brand national and they (JR Cigars/Santa Clara) had an exclusive on this for many years. There was a size that was named after JR Founder Lew Rothman’s wife, the Flor de LaVonda, with was a pyramid size. I think Lew had a lot to do with the brand. The El Rey Del Mundo Appointment is a nw cigar made at the HATSA factory in Honduras. The wrapper is Julio Eiroa’s Cameroon seed grown in Honduras, with a Connecticut Broadleaf binder and Nicaraguan and Ecuadoran fillers. The Partagas also has Ecuadoran filler, with no mention of varietal, which I find odd. Anyway, it would be hard for me to imagine a cigar burning better than this one did! All the tobaccos burned at exactly the same rate, leaving the ember flat and the burn straight. For a cigar under $10, this is a real winner. The flavor was on the savory side, with some wood, spice, and a little sweetness. I really enjoyed it, and the 5″ x 50 robusto smoked for well over an hour. This is another cigar I’ll look for on the larger sizes.

That’s all for today. Happy Father’s Day. I have my traditional Father’s Day cigar lined up, an Esperanza Para Los Niños from 1999, now 26 years old! The Esperanza Para Los Niños project is mentioned in this Cigar Aficianado article (linked). These still smoke well, at least the one I smoked last year did! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Appointment, cigar, cigars, El Rey Del Mundo, macanudo, Macanudo Gold, Partagas, Y Nada Mas Santiago

by Craig Vanderslice | June 8, 2025 · 6:15 am

A Carrillo TAA and More Exile Cigars

Last week I was dropping some things off at Goodwill and stopped in the Cigar Cigars store next door. They are still rebuilding inventory after a change of ownership, so there wasn’t a lot new there, so I picked up an E.P.Carrillo 2023 TAA cigar that I hadn’t tried before. This is a box pressed Toro, 6″ x 52, with an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, Connecticut broadleaf binder, and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. I’ll be honest, the Ecuador Connecticut wrapper is a surprise for me, I looked up the blend after I smoked it, and I would have thought it was a Sumatra. I likened it to the old La Gloria Cubanas, I really enjoyed it a lot, and thought to myself that I should go back and get more. I seem to recall it being priced at around $14. I didn’t find it to taste like a shade wrapped cigar, and while I like the occasional shade cigar, I don’t gravitate toward them. Oddly enough, the three closest Goodwill stores to me all have cigar stores within spitting distance.

Speaking of shade wrapped cigars, I am still working through samples of the Exile line, and has an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper. This is named in honor of the second shoe store opened by the Martinez family in Santiago de Cuba.This has the Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, Indonesian Sumatra binder & Dominican fillers. The cigar is medium bodied with notes of cream, nuts & subtle white pepper. I’ve smoked both the 5×50 Robusto & a 6×52 Toro. These have a dry wood kinda flavor to me, oddly I found the Robusto to be more well rounded than the toro, the robusto seems to have more depth. Weird stuff. I think the Toro was dryer throughout if that makes sense. Again, all of these Exile cigar have burned and drawn perfectly.

I also smoked the Exile La Dalia Edicion Limitada, the 5½” x 46 Corona (corona gorda?). This has the same Mexican San Andrés wrapper, with an Indonesian Sumatra binder and & fillers from the Dominican Republic as the regular line. I’ve always liked this size, although lately I prefer a longer smoke. I found this similar to the toro, with a little more sharpness due to the reduced ring gauge. I have the robusto yet to sample, but the La Dalia is likely my favorite in the Exile portfolio.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 2023, cigar, cigars, E.P. Carrillo, Exile, La Dalia, TAA, Versalle

by Craig Vanderslice | June 1, 2025 · 7:30 am

Sampling Some Exile Cigars

Rewind back to April of 2013, I was in the northern part of New Jersey killing time while my wife was at a Beatles festival, and visited Cigar Emporium in Lyndhurst. I met up with a few people I’d been corresponding with in the cigar blog world at the time, one of which was Alex Martinez, a police officer who had a blog called StogieCop. Later Alex would retire and manage Mane Street Cigars in Woodbridge, NJ. He ended up being the first buyer of the LFD NFT cigars, maybe the second as well, as well as the Tatuaje NFT (or two). Alex launched UnicornSmokes.com to sell NFTs and other hard to find cigars, and has recently started Exile Cigars, a brand celebrating his Cuban roots, and memorializing his father’s shoe stores in Havana. I don’t consider myself a sneakerhead, but I like having a variety of footwear choices, I have maybe a dozen or so pairs of sneakers I rotate through. Nobody cares about my footwear issues, let’s talk cigars!

The first cigar that caught my eye was the La Dalia. La Dalia is named in honor of the first shoe store opened by the Martinez family in Santiago de Cuba. This had a beautiful, oily Mexican San Andrés wrapper, with an Indonesian Sumatra binder and & fillers from the Dominican Republic, where these are rolled at the La Union factory. I can’t find any info on this factory, as familiar as it sounds. Perhaps Alex will weigh in. I smoked the 6″ x 50 toro, of course. I may get into the Limited Edition Corona Gorda later today. I really like this blend. It starts with some pepper, then eases into a spicy espresso, just what I like in a cigar. Kudos to the factory, this is a perfectly made cigar, burn and draw were perfect. This was a really enjoyable smoking experience! These run around $12 each, which is reasonable.

I have a habit of smoking first, and researching later, which can be a good thing I guess. I selected the M67 Habano knowing nothing about it. This one has nothing to do with shoes, it’s named after a grenade for some reason. This is a mixed filler cigar, with a Habano wrapper, Indonesian Sumatra binder with the fillers being the bench cuts from the La Dalia production. I’ve become snobby in recent years and generally avoid mixed fill cigars, although there are certainly some decent ones out there. It’s my understanding that one out of every six cigars that comes out of Nicaragua is a Quorum from the PENSA factory, which is an astounding statistic, but I still favor a long filler cigar. This M67, which also comes in a Connecticut version, was actually really good. Except for a bit of a flaky ash, one wouldn’t guess it’s mixed fill. This had what I perceive as a white sugar sweetness, which appeals to me, along with a subtle spice. This is probably the best $5 cigar I’ve smoked in a long time!

Wrapping up this round of sampling, I went with the Edición Limitada 2025 Exile Alaska. This is named after the third shoe store the Martinez family opened in Cuba. Juno why the called it that, I don’t know, Alaska! That joke doesn’t work well in the written form. The cigar is a 6″ x 46 Corona (I call it a Corona Gorda, which would be 5 5/8″ x 46, close enough). I have always liked this size. This one has an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, Ecuadorian Sumatra binder and the fillers are Dominican. This is another perfectly made cigar, and it was quite delicious. There’s an odd sourness to start, along with some sweetness, which seems contradictory, but it worked. It’s creamy, in a coffee with cream and sugar kind of way. Another winner. I’m looking forward to trying the two Connecticut offerings, the M67 Connecticut and the Versalle. Alex is doing a great job with this line.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Alaska, cigar, cigars, Exile, LaDalia, M67

by Craig Vanderslice | May 25, 2025 · 2:40 pm

Foundation Aksum and Aging Room Cigars

Today’s post is a little later than usual. We’ve been having a garage sale at my mother’s house to try to get rid of some of the accumulated stuff that comes with living in the same house for 54 years and having the “someone might need this someday” attitude. Stuff, just stuff. I’m super-grateful for my family helping out, especially my wife! Anyway I’ve been trying to enjoy some cigars along the way, which is what I usually talk about on Sundays!

I started off smoking both the Foundation Cigar’s Aksum, in both claro and maduro. This used to be the Menelik, but I think there was some sort of trademark issue, or the descendants of Menelik complained, I’m not sure. So now it’s Aksum, which is the name of the place where Menelik I brought the Ark of the Covenant. Apparently it’s still there, not in a warehouse in Nevada. The blend is Sumatra Ecuador wrapper, Connecticut Broadleaf binder and Estelle and Jalapa fillers. Best I can tell the only difference is the wrapper fermentation. I bought Toros, of course, 6” x 52 with a pigtail cap. These are beautiful cigars with a slight box press if I remember right. I started with the Claro, which burned beautifully. It started with a bit of an acidic hit. Skip Martin says that we shouldn’t describe flavors like food, but that’s like 90% of my flavor references. I would say this is on the leathery side, and that’s in my 10% non-food reference sample. It’s good if you like that flavor profile. I moved on to the Maduro the next evening. This had a dry cocoa profile. It’s not a sweet Maduro, more a dark chocolate kinda thing. Again, very good, I do not regret purchasing these, although I think the Olmec line is more my jam.

After a long day of garagesaling, and one very disappointing cigar along the way, I got home, took a nap, and then relaxed with an Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua Concerto Vibrato. This is another toro, 6” x 56 box pressed. Aging Room is still Rafael Nodal’s brand, although it’s marketed by Altadis, which also employs him as a brand ambassador. He’s basically the face of Altadis now, and he’s very good in that roll. I have been hit or miss with Aging Room cigars, this one wasn’t bad, but had a floral flavor, and a weird mouthfeel. It was almost cloying in a diet soda kind of way. I enjoyed it, just not really a cigar I’ll come back to. Even if I am not a big fan of a cigar, I’m rarely disappointed that I bought and smoked a cigar, it’s all part of the learning process. When I cigar doesn’t burn and or draw right is when I get upset, even if I received it gratis. By the way, this picture is what you get when I’m distracted!

That’s all for today, enjoy your Memorial Day celebrations, remember the reason the day exists. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Aging Room, Aksum, cigar, cigars, Concerto, Foundation, Foundation Cigar Co., Nicaragua, Quattro, Vibrato

by Craig Vanderslice | May 18, 2025 · 8:49 am

Villiger and Mil Dias Cigars and the Smoke-Onos Event

Yesterday I attended the Smoke-Onos event at Best Cigar Prices in Drums, PA, but more on that later. First I want to talk about a couple cigars I smoked this week. First up was the Villiger 1888 Gran Reserva. This is a 6″ x 54 with a San Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers. These are made at the Villiger de Nicaragua factory in Esteli (Until I’m told otherwise, I believe this is a sub-factory within Joya de Nicaragua). I was disappointed that René Castañeda wasn’t at the event yesterday! This cigar is $22, is limited to 1000 ten count boxes, and uses tobaccos aged at least two years with a year of post-roll aging. Of course, the size of the cigar is right, I really liked this cigar. It started with some cocoa and spices which kept going all the way through. This was a really enjoyable smoke, if they were half the price I’d be all over them!

To those who don’t know, Smoke-Onos is a portmanteau of Smoke and Poconos. To those who don’t know what a portmanteau is, go ahead and look it up! The Poconos is a sub-range of the Appalachian mountains located in the north-east part of Pennsylvania. It has nothing to do with Yoko Ono. Best Cigar Prices has their operation, with includes the Best Cigar Pub, in Drums, PA, which is kinda between Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton. Despite being in a relatively remote area, it’s a very popular cigar destination. The Smoke-Onos event covers several days, with events Thursday and Friday evenings, and a large multivendor event Saturday, an afterparty, then something on Sunday. I attended the Saturday event on a press pass, which got me in the door. If you are anywhere near this area, go to this event.

Many of the major players were there, the swag looked very impressive, with a duffle/backpack full of swag and cigars. There was a band that was loud (I was impressed when I heard them playing Hocus Pocus by Focus), the Drew Estate booth, which was smack dab in the middle of the event, was loud, and the crowd was large. I bet there were a couple thousand people there. I’ve been to these sorts of events, and for only the second year, this was up there with the best. I saw a great many friends there, both attendees , other media outlets and exhibitors. Many thanks to BCP for including me!

After getting home, I settled into my usual spot on my porch with a Crowned Heads Mil Dias Maduro Edmundo to watch this week’s episode of Curse of Oak Island. After 15 years they still haven’t found any treasure. The Maduro is a completely different blend than the Habano, with a Broadleaf wrapper, Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers. This is apparently made in the factory formerly known as Tabacalera Pichardo, TacaNicsa. I really like the Mil Dias Habano, and I was hoping to like this more. It’s a tasty cigar, starts peppery, and the pepper continues throughout. I think I expected more sweetness, and there was some espresso, but no sugar. This might be one of the rare cases where I prefer the Habano over the Maduro, usually Maduro is my jam. Anyway, it was good, the 5 3/8″ x 52 size fit the time I needed it to fill, and I was not unhappy.

That’s all for today. There was another cigar I smoked this week, but I didn’t care for it, so I’ll leave it for another time when I can smoke one again and form a better opinion! Until the next time,

CigarCraig