Category Archives: Contest

January 4, 2026 · 9:14 am

Davidoff, Rojas and San Lotano Cigars and the Giveaway Winner

Happy New Year! Another year of writing stuff about cigars! I’m a few years away from the twentieth anniversary of CigarCraig.com, I’ll have to come up with something big to celebrate. Speaking of celebrations, last Wednesday was New Years Eve, and I celebrated like I celebrate just about every evening, with a cigar on the porch! Davidoff was kind enough to send a couple of the Year of the Horse cigars, their 2026 Limited Edition. I know, the Chinese New Year isn’t until February, but I couldn’t wait to try this. This is the first “Year of the” Davidoff I’ve ever smoked, they are way out of my price range. Kudos and thanks to Law Ream and Jack Heyer for getting these out to those of us who choose to write stuff about cigars! The Davidoff ornament looked great on our tree. Anyway, I decided to close out what was not the greatest year for me with a great cigar (I hoped). I have previously stated that I have a very limited range of experience with the Davidoff line overall, so I was hoping for the best. I believe this is the best Davidoff I’ve smoked to date. There wasn’t a hint of horse at all in this cigar. This is a 6½” x 55 cigar with wrapper and binder from Ecuador and Dominican fillers. I have to assume the wrapper is a Habano varietal, it’s too dark to be a Connecticut Shade, and doesn’t taste like it either. It had an interesting sweetness, with some nuttiness and what I think of as a lemon zing. It was delicious, burned perfectly and was a great way to spend New Years Eve. After that I watched hockey until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. Great cigar, as it should be for $65.

Getting back to reality, I smoked a Rojas Street Tacos Al Pastor Gordo Friday, after treating myself to a Padron Damaso (not as good as I remember, but still tasty), and a Diamond Crown Black Diamond, one of my favorites. I chose the 6″ x 60 gordo, as Noel Rojas is the self proclaimed king of the small ring gauges, and it seems funny to me that he even makes a 60. The Al Pastor has an Ecuador Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan fillers. Like the Davidoff, which is in excess of six times the price, this burned perfectly. I looked at a few other reviews, as Rojas doesn’t seem to have a working webpage, and one reviewer listed flavors of “earth and cedar”, “espresso, and white pepper” and “dark brown sugar and cream”. I don’t get any of that. I got some leather and baking spices. I liked it, it was a good cigar, and well worth the price. I’ve enjoyed a lot of cigars from this factory, especially some of the Stolen Throne lines, and this was a good one. I’m sure I’ve smoked the Carnitas and Barbacoas before, I needed to give this one a shot and I think it’s my favorite of the bunch.

Yesterday I dropped a few things off at Goodwill and stopped into JM’s Cigars in Exton PA. Unlike Rojas they have a website, however it hasn’t been updated in 12 years. It’s fine to have a static landing page, but delete the event from 2013 please! This was the first shop I sent to in the mid-90s (apparently when the website was created) and it’s been a while since I stopped in. It really hasn’t changed much over the years (like the website). I picked up a couple cigars that I hadn’t had before, one of which was the A.J. Fernandez San Lotano Requiem Habano in the “Churchill” size. It’s probably closer to a Double Corona, as a Churchill is 7″ x 47, and this is 7″ x 54. Actually, I don’t even think a Double Corona is 50 ring, but times change. It’s a big cigar. I think the last San Lotano I smoked was an Oval, and it’s been well over a decade. This has a Brazilian Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers. It started out spicy, and had some nice coffee flavors. I liked this and I think it was around $10 so I call it a very good value. I may be overly concerned about the shops website.

It’s time to pick a winner for last week’s giveaway! I haven’t even selected cigars yet, but I don’t think the winner will be disappointed. The random number generator spit out the number 4, which corresponds to Ron Hunt! To answer Ron’s question, While I purchase most of the cigars in the northeast, most should be available all over. There are some brands that just seem to be regional, All Saints comes to mind, but that’s a function of the brand being small and maybe one or two people involved and they can’t get all over the country to support the sales. Different shops in the same area will have a different mix too. I’ll try to include some cigars that may not be widely available in your package. Ron is the host of the All About Wine podcast. I had the good fortune of meeting him a few years back at the Tampa Heritage Festival, and I talk to him regularly. Send me your address Ron!

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

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as A.J. Fernandez, aj fernandez, Al Pastor, All About Wine, davidoff, Davidoff of Geneva, Rojas, san lotano, Street Tacos, Year of the Horse

December 28, 2025 · 10:19 am

Trinidad and Las Calaveras Cigars and a Giveaway!

It’s a busy time of the year and Christmas on a Thursday really threw off my week. I had to go out yesterday and buy some new-to-me cigars for today’s post. I also decided at the last minute to half-ass a giveaway! More on the giveaway after I talk about a couple cigars.I ran into Cigar Mojo – The Grove, and found a few cigars that I haven’t smoked yet. This is an interesting problem to have, but I’m having trouble finding the combination of cigars I haven’t smoked, and cigars I want to smoke. It’s come to me going through the humidor with my phone searching my own website to make sure I’m not repeating. And then there’s some cigars I just don’t have any interest in smoking. I’m also price sensitive, and they have quite a few pricey cigars in the humidor. It’s easy when I want to stop in for a smoke, but less so when I’m looking for something new to write about. Anyway, I grabbed a Trinidad Espiritu Miami since I hadn’t had that one yet. This is the fourth cigar in the Espiritu line, I rather enjoy the No. 2 the most, but they have all been good. I want to get a hold of the Tommy Bahama edition. This is a 6 1/8″ x 52 Belicoso, and is a Nicaraguan puro made at the A.J. Fernandez factory. While this is inspired by Miami, it contains no Miami tobacco! This is probably a good thing. The bright colors and art deco look of the bands was very appealing to me and seemed to go along with this festive time of year. I quite enjoyed the hour and a half I spent with this cigar. It burned and drew well, and had some sweet, bready sensations. I didn’t think the wrapper would fall into the beautiful category, it was on the ugly side, with some mottling and an odd color. Smoking with your eyes isn’t limited to packaging. I liked this cigar, it was medium bodied and quite enjoyable. Once again, most times if I enjoy an Altadis cigar, it’s made by A.J. Fernandez.

Another cigar I picked up was the Las Calaveras LE 2025 from Crowned Heads. I selected the LC54 size which is 6″ x 54. This cigar has a mid-priming San Andrés wrapper that’s not your usual maduro wrapper, but Colorado in color. I haven’t smoked too many of the Las Calaveras line in the past, but the ones I have I’ve enjoyed. This one was also enjoyable. I almost grabbed the 2024 (they have 2’23, ’24 and ’25 on the shelf) because the band has red and green in it and I’m still feeling Christmassy, but I went for the newest one instead. Mojo is a mile away, I can always grab more. These are made at the My Father factory. There is an earthy cocoa flavor with a little bit of spice. Interestingly, the first half of this cigar burned really fast, I was maybe 20 minutes in when I started wondering if it was going to make it to thirty minutes. At the halfway point it slowed down, and I got to somewhere around an hour and a quarter. It finished off well, nice cigar. I’m thinking I may have to go grab a ’23 and ’24 next time I’m there.

It’s a bit of a tradition around here to give stuff away around the holidays. I have some goodies lying around, so here’s what going to happen! I have a neat Don Doroteo leather case, with a cutter and lighter. This is a really nice item, it’s just not something I’ll use. There’s a. J.C.Newman Bricktoberfest stein. There’s a nice Villiger lighter. I’ve had this silver plate Gurkha ashtray in my closet for a few years, it can use a little shining up, but it’s a nice ashtray. Ironically, I’ve heard that mixing some cigar ash with water makes a good silver polish.

Top that off with some miscellaneous goodies, along with at least a dozen cigars from my humidor which I’ll and pick, and you’ve got a pretty nice bunch of stuff. So leave a comment here on this blog post. Facebook comments, IG, Threads, X comments don’t count. I look forward to reading your comments! I’ll select a winner randomly next Sunday. Good luck!

That’s all I have for today! Happy New Year to all. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

12 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as altadis, Contest, Crowned Heads, giveaway, Las Calaveras, Miami Espiritu, trinidad

August 31, 2025 · 10:12 am

Stolen Throne 919, Tatuaje Cohete Corojo, Howard G Cigars and the Giveaway Winner!

Photo credit Micky Pegg

Here we are, 16 years of writing CigarCraig.com! After all this time I still have to talk myself into going to a cigar shop after work! It’s nothing personal, and I always regret it when I pass up an opportunity, but it’s a struggle for me to leave the comfort and safety of my home smoking lounge! Weird, right? I’m actually an introvert, but I do my best to hide it. Anyway, Thursday evening I visited the Wooden Indian where Lee Marsh from Stolen Throne Cigars was doing an event. I consider Lee to be a friend, and it wouldn’t have been right for him to be in the neighborhood and miss seeing him. I love some of his cigars, add the Castle 919 to that list. I picked up a couple of the new Castle 919 cigars, a Robusto and a Belicoso, the only two sizes offered. Castle 919 has an Habano Claro wrapper, over Nicaraguan binder and fillers, made at the Rojas factory. I smoked the Belicoso, which is 5″ x 54 (the Robusto is 5″ x 50), and was delighted. This has the sugar cane sweetness I enjoy and was really good to the last drop! This may rise to the top of my Stolen Throne list of favorites, although the Crook of the Crown and Three Kingdoms will always rank highly. It was a treat to see Micky Pegg there as well and learn that All Saints Cigars is healthy! It is disappointing that they dropped my favorite size from their lines (Churchill), but glad they are still around! Lee and I stopped by Cigar Mojo – The Grove afterwards where I smoked a Yorktown Fleet Robusto, which is still not my favorite, but growing on me. Lee is deeply hurt that I don’t care for this blend (or the Call to arms).

Friday was my birthday, my whole family (8 of us) went out to a nice dinner. It makes me happy having all of us together. We got home a little late, so it was the perfect time to smoke a 4″ x 50 Tatuaje Cohetes Corojo that I had picked up when I visited Cigar Mojo – The Grove. I should get over there more often, it’s literally a mile from my house, refer back to the first couple sentences of this post. This is the first Cohetes I’ve smoked in the Tatuaje line, it’s curious to me that it exists along with the 4 3/8″ x 52 T110, they are different blends, but similar sizes. This was a really good little smoke. It started out with spice, but an interestingly different spice. Starting with spice is expected, but this was a different flavor. It sweetened slightly as it smoked, and was a really delicious little smoke, that lasted at least an hour for me. Looking forward to the T110 Corojo I picked up as well to see how they compare.

Once again, a Smoke Inn special sucked me in, who can pass up $20 for five cigars delivered to your door in a couple days? This one was two Rocky Patel Cameroons and three Howard G Cameroons. It’s a no-brainer. While I was interested in trying both, the Howard G cigars were my first priority. I think I met Howard at a trade show, it would have been outside the bar in the Venetian, but I don’t recall formal introductions. I’ve been hearing good things, so I wanted to sample the brand, and I like Cameroon, always have. It looks like this is in the Magic Stick line, which also has a Habano and Connecticut. I notice that they also have a Golf themed line which has a Front Nine and Back Nine. I hope Ryan Gallimore (check out the new Cigar Circus site!) is OK with that, as he had a Front Nine and Back Nine in his Swinger Cigars line many years ago. I will be on the lookout for the Magic Stick Habano, but this Cameroon wasn’t bad! It has a raw nuts sort of nuttiness, and I seem to get some kind of nuts flavor from Cameroon. It was a fairly bold flavor, the cigar smoked very nicely.

OK, now to announce a winner in last Sunday’s big giveaway. Apparently I guessed right on what the mystery Freestyle Live cigar was. which surprises me more than anyone. It’s a really good smoke, and I look forward to getting my hands on them when they hit stores. I consulted Google’s random number generator, and 4 was the number, and the number of the counting was 4. This corresponds to Jeff W., who needs to email me his contact information so I can get this out. I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with some more stuff for future giveaways! Thank you all for reading over these last 16 years!

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

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under Contest, Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Cameroon, Castle 919, cigar, cigars, Cohetes, Corojo, Howard G, Stolen Throne, tatuaje

August 24, 2025 · 9:28 am

Saint Luis Rey and Drew Estate Free Style Live Cigars and a Giveaway!

I didn’t have a lot of new stuff to write about this week, so I figures a classic CigarCraig giveaway was long overdue. Stuff has been piling up and it needs to find a new home! More on that after I talk about a couple cigars! First up is the Saint Luis Rey Natural Broadleaf Rothschild. I’ve always liked the Saint Luis Rey brand, and really need to check out some of their newer offerings. I remember when they were made for Altadis by the Eiroas, boy were they good back then! This is a 5″ x 54 with a severe box press, not really a Rothschild at all. Obviously, I would have gotten a toro had it been available, but this is what the shop had. I thought this was quite a nice cigar. It had a rich, spicy sweetness, burned well and was very nice. These should be around $7 each, so are a really good cigar at a great price.

Drew Estate will be having a Freestyle Live event this Tuesday, 8/26/25, at 7 Eastern on YouTube and Facebook to reveal what the cigar in their most recent Freestyle Live pack will become. The pack consisted of three cigars (all Toros), and a 40 ounce Tumbler. I’ll be honest, previous FSL packs had a little more substance. The tumbler is nice, I should probably use it myself, but it will be included in the giveaway below, along with some stuff from a previous FSL event. The cigar is obviously a mystery for now. I can tell you a few things about it, though. It has a lighter wrapper, and may be a shade wrapper, based on what I perceived as a breaddy sweetness. My money is on Nica Rustica Shade, but I’m never right about these things. It’s a really good smoke, I’ll be delighted if it’s in the Nica Rustica price range. The pack comes with three cigars, and is probably still available in retail, so it’s a good deal if you need a tumbler. Tune in to Drew Estate’s broadcast Tuesday to find out what it is.

OK, giveaway time! I hope you read the paragraphs above and didn’t just scroll down to the free stuff section! OK, you know how this works. Leave a comment on this blog post to enter. Not on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Threads or anywhere else, just here. I’ll select a winner at random and announce it in next Sunday’s post. Here’s what I’m including, other stuff might fall in the box when I pack it up, and I’m not listing cigars, but the humidor will be full of selections from my humidor. First, from Drew Estate, there’s the Freestyle Live Tumbler (and a cigar), the ten count travel humidor from the last FSL event (which I will fill with cigars!), which includes a lighter. Then there’s some various swag from last year’s Barnsmoker, a hat, spray can lighter (hard to believe I got that through TSA!) and cutter. From J.C. Newman there’s a pair of Brick House Bricktoberfest pint glasses (stock photo since they are already nicely wrapped for shipping). I’m also including a melamine Romeo y Julieta ashtray, and, like I said, whatever I might find laying around in the meantime.

Any cigars I include will have been featured on my site at some point, and or are personal favorites. They won’t suck. So hit the comments, let me know what you think! I just remembered, next week will be the 16th anniversary of CigarCraig.com, so there’s a good reason to celebrate with a giveaway!

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

CigarCraig

12 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as altadis, cigar, cigars, Contest, drew estate, Free Shit, Free Style Live, giveaway, Natural Broadleaf, Saint Luis Rey

January 5, 2025 · 10:26 am

A Pair of Single Barrel Cigar Co. Cigars and the Big Giveaway Winner!

Before I get into the giveaway winner business, I’d like to talk about a a couple cigars that were given to me when I visited Single Barrel Cigar Co.‘s Clearwater, Florida aging facility with Kevin last November. My first disclaimer, most of you know already, is that I don’t drink, haven’t since about 1990. I’m not a “friend of Bill’s”, but I know who he is. Therefore, I have no frame of reference for booze related flavors. Second disclaimer is that I don’t regularly partake in flavored cigars. There are a couple of infused/flavored cigars I enjoy, but on a semi-annual basis. I might pick up a Tabak, Deadwood, or an Acid Kuba Arte once or twice a year. There are more traditional cigars that I enjoy that the altered cigars take a back seat. I have to kinda talk myself into smoking something like this, and the booze thing is a double whammy. I’m going to give my thoughts, and those of you in the know can comment. Anyway, We talked to Nick there, and he gave me two cigars to try. These aren’t necessarily flavored, the cigars are placed in bourbon barrels, the barrels are “mixed” every so often so the cigars get equal access to the wood. I don’t know how cigars aren’t damaged in this process. The first one was a Blanton’s Gold Maduro Robusto. The aroma once the tube was opened was pungent, had me worried for a bit. I admit, I really enjoyed this cigar. It had a honey sweetness, very satisfying. I was concerned that the cigar was wet, it wasn’t, the burn and draw were perfect. I definitely could taste what I assume was the bourbon, and it was pleasant. Thumbs up on this one.

One of the trademarks of Single Barrel Cigar Co. is that they put a pinch of the barrel char in the bottom of each glass tube. I asked if they scraped the barrels themselves, which seemed like a lot of work, but they get it from the distillery. This might have been the reason that this second one I smoked put off some interesting colors when I toasted the foot. The second one was the Weller 107 Maduro Robusto. I’m to understand that Weller and Blanton’s come from the same parent company. This one was noticeably different from the Blanton’s version. It seemed more savory than sweet. It burned great, draw was good, but this one didn’t appeal to me. If I had smoke this one first, I may not have been keen to try the Blanton’s, which, again, I really enjoyed. Like everything, taste is subjective, but this Weller didn’t do it for me. It’s not that it tasted bad, but I think it failed in comparison to the first one. That’s on me, not the cigars. Kevin is working on something with Single Barrel for his Trash Panda store, although I’m not at liberty to say any more. Not that I signed an NDA or anything, just going to let Kevin talk about that. I thought I’d taken more pictures, but the only ones I took are of Kevin’s barrel and that would be a giveaway, although if you know Kevin, you’ll probab;y be able to figure it out. I’ll say that if you find yourself in the Tampa area, and come across these cigars, give them a try.

Some of you may have scrolled down to this point already, please go back and read the rest! I’ll wait… OK, it’s time to announce the winner of the huge batch of goodies. To recap, there’s the better part of the DE25 Barnsmoker backpack full of goodies. Some neat stuff from Miami Cigar and Co. Villiger, and Dunbarton, as well as a selection of cigar from my humidor, which will be a surprise. Basically I’m going to fill the travel humidor and cigar case, but who knows what falls into the box when I pack it. Shipping is going to cost me a fortune on this one! Anyway, there were 32 entries, and I used Google’s random number generator to pick a number, and numbered the submissions from first to last. The winner is a long-time reader and supporter, Tim McCabe! Please email me your details so I can get this package shipped! Thank you all for your comments! I’ve been doing this blog thing for 15 years, and it’s nice to know people appreciate it!