Author Archives: Craig Vanderslice

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

😃+

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

😃+

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

😃+

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

😃+

1 Comment

Filed under Events, Review

Tagged as 1888, Best Cigar Prices, Best Cigar Pub, cigar, cigars, Crowned Heads, Mil Dias, Smoke-onos, smokeonos, Villiger

by Craig Vanderslice | May 11, 2025 · 9:15 am

Some Olmec, Room 101 and La Gloria Cubana Cigars

Thank you again to Craig Gilpin, the Breadman, for pinch-hitting for me last week. It’s been another rough week (parents can accumulate a LOT of crap over the years!), and cigars have been very therapeutic. I thought Craig did a great job, and the door is always open to him. I have posted about the Foundation Cigar Co’s Olmec Claro before, but not the Maduro for some reason, so I recently picked up a couple of each and figured it would be fun to smoke them back to back. I local shop was having a buy two, get one sale o the entire stock for some reason, so I bought some cigars I generally wouldn’t spend the extra scratch on. The Foundation Cigar Co. Olmec were some I picked up. These are in the $15 range, not terrible, but not inexpensive. I picked up the Grande size, the 6″ x 60, because the box press makes it look smaller (and I don’t mind a 6″x60 cigar). I smoked the Claro first. The Claro starts out with a citric twinge, which doesn’t last long, and turns bready with some cafe con Leche flavors. I liked it, good cigar, but the ash is flaky, I needed to dust off after this one! I then (later that day), turned to the Maduro. Both of these cigars have a San Andrés wrapper, difference is very obvious. The website lists binder from Esteli/Jalapa and undisclosed fillers. As I noted the last time I wrote about this cigar, it’s either a dual binder, or a typo on the website. If I liked the Claro, I really liked the Maduro, which should surprise nobody. The Maduro had loads of sweet chocolate with some spices thrown in. It’s a cigar I would love to have in my humidor. If you enjoy many of the cigars I enjoy, this is up your alley.

Next up was the Room 101 15th Anniversary. Room 101 started in 2009, the same year that I started this site. I’ve always wanted to sync up smoking one of their anniversary series, which comes out every year, just never found them around when I was thinking about it. These fell into my lap (TY STG). This is made with A.J. Fernandez, and it’s a Nicaraguan puro, and that’s about all I can find about the blend. This cigar has a lot going on. There’s some fruitiness, some spice, some wood, and cocoa. One of the best Room 101 cigars I’ve smoked. This cigar was almost a year late, but worth the wait, I can’t wait for the 16th! CigarCraig.com turns sixteen at the end of August, by the way!

My appreciation of the La Gloria Cubana brand goes back 30 years, and there have been some winners over the years, but a lot of misses for me along the way. So when I received some of the newest offering, the La Gloria Cubana Los Gloriosos, I was interested immediately. Along the lines of the Colección Reserva (back in 2017), this is blended by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr., who launched the brand in the US in the’70s. La Gloria Cubana in Cuba goes back to the late 1800s. The cigar is a blend of Nicaraguan and Dominican tobaccos, the press information doesn’t give any more information than that. This is the best cigar with the La Gloria name in a long time, at least for me. I really liked the Colección Reserva, and the La Gloria Esteli, and this tops the list for me. There’s a really interesting spice I can’t put my finger on, but is distinctive. I will smoke more, maybe I’ll smoke a Colección Reserva too and see how they compare! I’ll always be a fan of the brand, there’s just some I avoid and some I enjoy!