Category Archives: Contest

by Craig Vanderslice | December 21, 2022 · 8:55 pm

Contest! Year End Goodies Giveaway!

As we come to the end of another year, I realized that I should do a bit of a giveaway. I miss the days of doing the CigarCraig’s 12 Days of Giveaways, so here’s a huge prize pack of goodies I’ve collected. There are a couple caps, a Gran Habano t-shirt, lighter and cutter, a pair of J.C.Newman Bricktoberfest boot glasses, a Villiger ashtray, travel humidor and Xikar cutter, and assorted Drew Estate goodies! Of course, I’ll curate a selection of my favorite cigars from my humidor too, I can’t send out a package full of cigar goodies without including some cigars! You never know what other stuff I’ll find to include.

The usual rules apply! You must be of legal age in your jurisdiction to win. Please leave a comment on this blog post for an entry to win, and I’ll select a winner on January 1, 2023. Thank you all for reading over the past year, my 13th year of sharing my cigar experiences!

Happy Holidays to all! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by Craig Vanderslice | November 15, 2022 · 7:03 am

Big Fundraiser Giveaway Winner Announcement Part Two!

As promised, here is the announcement of the other three winners of the contest. I got in touch with Marvin Roberts, and, it should surprise nobody, he chose the box of Pequeńos. I’m working on getting them to him. The rest of the winners will be given their choice in order of selection. The lucky winners are: Randy Bee, John Harr and Stace Burkland! I’ll b reaching out to Randy for his choice, then John, and Stace will be stuck with what’s left over, which will still be pretty fantastic. The prizes are at https://www.cigarcraig.com/contest-win-some-drew-estate-goodies-with-a-twist/ .

Entries were determined by the list of donations on the Facebook Fundraiser page, if your name wasn’t listed, you weren’t entered. I’ll let you know who got what! Until the next time,

**Update**

Randy chose the humidor, which didn’t surprise me since I actually met Randy at the Barnsmoker and he had all of that stuff already! John chose the Pre-Party package, leaving Stace with the Barnsmoker package. I don’t think anyone will be disappointed!

CigarCraig

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by Craig Vanderslice | November 13, 2022 · 12:33 pm

Big Fundraiser Giveaway Winner Announcement!

I usually recap a few cigars I smoked during the week on Sundays, but I only really smoked one new cigar this week, the Mi Querida Black “SakaKahn”, and it was pretty good. I had smoked one at the PCA show with Steve, and have been looking forward to smoking more. So far, it’s really good, but doesn’t hit me like the Triqui Traca and the “Blue”. It comes across as milder to me. Obviously more research is in order. In the spirit of this particular giveaway, I had a Liga Privada T52 last night that was pretty good.

Speaking of Saka, I have to give him a big thank you for kickstarting the K9s for Warriors fundraiser with his donation of a über-rare box of Liga Privada Pequeńos. This is believed to be the only box (first of four ever made) in existence. Steve scribbled on the bottom, but otherwise it’s pristine! When he provided this and announced it, I decided that I was going to offer the first name drawn their choice of prizes: The Pequeńos, the Drew Estate Barnsmoker pre-party pack, the Barnsmoker pack, and the NewAir Humidor generously provided by Kevin Shahan, the addition of which definitely pushed us over the $5000 mark! Many thanks to Kevin for this and his promotion of the event! Wouldn’t it be funny if he won the humidor? Thank you to everyone who donated to this worthy cause.

Here’s the way this is going to work: I’m drawing the first winner and asking him what prize he wants. When I get a response, I’ll draw the second, third and fourth winners and, starting with the second, give them their choice of the remaining prizes. My wife and I spent the morning reviewing the entries, double and triple checking, and I have a spreadsheet with everyone’s info. I am happy to share that upon request. SO, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO!

The first winner is Marvin Roberts! I’ll be contacting you to get your prize preference! Watch for the next post tomorrow or Tuesday with the next winners!

Thanks again for everyone’s generous donations! I’m especially thankful to whoever it was that made the donation to round the total to the nearest $5, my CDO thanks you! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by Craig Vanderslice | October 28, 2022 · 9:32 pm

Contest! Win Some Drew Estate Goodies with a Twist! – Updated –

Back in August we attended the Drew Estate Connecticut Barnsmoker, and came home with a boatload of cool goodies! Normally I would have a simple contest, but with this amount of great Drew Estate gear and cigars, I wanted to try to do some good. It’s tricky, but I’ve decided to put a fundraiser on Facebook, and ask people to donate to what I consider a worthy charity. We’ll compile a list of entries and pick winners of two prize packages from the entrants. In an effort to avoid any problems, I’ll just add an entry for every five dollars donated and chose winners at random. Since I don’t think Facebook is keen on tobacco products, the description in the fundraiser will be limited. It won’t be easy on my end, but two people will win these two prize packages.

Package number 1, the pre-party package:

There’s a backpack, sunglasses case, lighter, cigar stand, travel humidor, lighter, battery pack, wallet and toiletries case. There’s also some cigars (from my personal humidor, for legal reasons), including the DE 25 collection of nine cigars, and event only two packs of Liga 10, Undercrown Tuani, and Herrera Esteli Caja China. This is a very nice collection.

Package number two, the Barnsmoker package:

Included in this package is a Barnsmoker sling bag, cutter, lighter, cigar stand, cap, travel humidor, pocket knife, bandana, banner and challenge coin. The cigars are the ten cigars we got at the door, and nine cigars collected at the event. I’m not sure which collection is better, they are both pretty great!

UPDATE!

Pack number three, the Liga Privada Pequeńos:

Steve Saka is providing a rare box of Liga Privada cigars from 2012. The box has some writing on the bottom, but is the first of four boxes ever created. These Pequeńos are about the same size as the Dirty Rat, if memory serves. Steve has posted a video about the box here. Since it seems like this has become the premier item in this giveaway, so here’s how I’m going to do it. I’ll pick one winner, and ask what prize they prefer. I’ll do that with the second also, and the third, well, that person will get what’s left (which will still be spectacular!). Here’s Will Cooper’s take on this great cigar, one of which he shared with me and it was exceptional. https://cigar-coop.com/2012/09/cigar-pre-review-liga-privada-no-9.html This is a real unicorn, I doubt there are any in the wild. I can’t thank Steve enough for helping out!

UPDATE #2!

Pack number four, a NewAir Humidor:

Kevin at CigarProp/I’d Tap That/TrashPanda is providing this Newair® Smoker’s Club Electric Cigar Humidor 250 Count Electric Humidor. From NewAir: This Electric Cigar Humidor comes with Opti-Temp™: a heating and cooling system designed to preserve the full flavor of your cigar collection. Inside the stylish stainless-steel design, you’ll find removable Spanish cedar shelves, a cedar drawer, and an easy-touch digital thermostat that gives you full temperature control from 52-74F degrees Fahrenheit. I have a larger NewAir that works wonderfully. This is a $675 value! We are down to the last few days, so get in for a chance to win one of these four packages! Thanks Kevin!

I’ve chosen K9s for Warriors as my charity. This covers two areas of interest for me, dogs and veterans. From their website:

Determined to end veteran suicide, K9s For Warriors provides highly-trained Service Dogs to military veterans suffering from PTSD, traumatic brain injury and/or military sexual trauma. With the majority of dogs coming from high-kill rescue shelters, this innovative program allows the K9/Warrior team to build an unwavering bond that facilitates their collective healing and recovery.

Please visit this link:https://www.facebook.com/donate/676320833848466/6876379542374088/ and make a donation. Facebook handles the money, and gives it all to K9s for Warriors. I’ll track the donations and keep a spreadsheet, assigning numbers to each donation. The donation period will end on November 11th (Veterans Day) and I’ll post the winners on November 13th.

Thank you to Drew Estate for having us at the Barnsmoker and for providing amazing products!! If you haven’t been to one of these, go! Thanks also to Steve Saka and Kevin Shahan for their contributionsThat’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by Craig Vanderslice | March 6, 2022 · 10:54 am

Perla Del Mar Connecticut, Bolivar Cofraida and Aganorsa Leaf Cigars and the Contest Winner

As I mentioned in my Friday news post, the last half of my week was disrupted with some unexpected drama. This has thrown me off my game a little, I missed my Friday night shift at Son’s Cigars just because I was exhausted from the previous evenings ordeal with the pain and the morphine and all, I was passed out at home well before the shop closed. I came home to some Chinese take-out, smoked a Punch Fu Manchu (which isn’t a bad inexpensive cigar, by the way! I ‘m not sure I get the marketing of Punch line with the Chinese food, but they are good smokes at a great price) and crashed. Hard. For the sake of my CDO though, I’m going to rewind a bit to Tuesday when I smoked the Perla Del Mar Connecticut Toro. This is a relatively new rebranded Perla Del Mar Connecticut from J.C. Newman, made in Nicaragua. I really like this line, although I can’t say I’m a fan of the PDM on the band. I liked the old bands better, this new one could have been better. I get it, it’s a budget brand, it could easily be presented in a bundle insead of a box, so I’ll take it as it is. These are fantastic cigars. Even for someone who’s first choice isn’t a Connecticut shade, this is a solid cigar. It’s creamy, with a lot of flavor. There are a few shade cigars that make my “rotation”, this might sneak in there. It has a richness without being grassy. I like it. I like the Corojo and Maduro better, but this Connecticut is very good, I’d reach for it over a lot of other shade cigars.

Yesterday I got around to the Bolivar Cofraida Lost and Found EMS Toro that I had on deck for Thursday evening. I had picked this up, along with the Punch, when I stopped in to the CigarCigars store in Downingtown, PA to drop off a bag of cigars for OP:Cigar For Warriors, as they are a collection point. I’m not sure why I didn’t get the Oscuro, seems out of character for me, perhaps they only had the EMS, I really don’t remember. This line is a collaboration between Justin Andrews of Forged/Scandinavian Tobacco and Robert Caldwell, where the marketing materials say they blended the cigars from bales of tobacco that they came across in the HATSA factory in Honduras. So these aren’t “found” cigars, but “found” tobacco, in this case. This is another reasonably priced cigar, in the $7-7.50 range, I think. Ten years ago I’d find that to be a fairly pricey cigar. Now it’s cheap. Anyway, I remember the Bolivar Cofraida cigars that JR Cigars used to sell were on the strong side, this one not so much. It was well balanced, medium bodied, with some pleasant, fruit notes. Nice afternoon smoke while I refilled the hot tub and sat around waiting to see if my kidney stone was going to cause me trouble.

Last night I took a look in the tray of cigars I put the cigars that I got at the TPE show that I hadn’t smoked yet, the “new to me” tray. I settled on the Aganorsa Leaf Aniversario Robusto that Terence Reilly gave me at the show. This is the 5″ x 52 box pressed Nicaraguan puro with a Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper. The paper sleeve isn’t there to hide anything, the wrapper is really pretty. This was another really tasty cigar. I was in one of my rare moods for a shorter smoke. I was tired, a hockey game was on during nap time! This cigar falls into the leather and nuts flavor category for me. It’s not a sweet coffee, cocoa cigar. It burned perfectly, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Smoking more of the Aganorsa cigars is on my todo list, oddly it’s one of the brands that I don’t get around to as much as I should. I’ll fix that. Good smoke, less of what I personally look for, but good nonetheless.

Contest

OK, it’s time to select a contest winner! To recap, the giveaway this time was for a cool Drew Estate 20 Acre Farm case with five (5) 20 Acre Farm toro cigars. It’s possible some other goodies could fall into the box before it leaves the CigarCraig.com offices! It’s been known to happen! The winner is Xolotal! Send me your coordinates so I can get this out to you. As always, thanks to the folks at Drew Estate for their support!