Category Archives: Contest

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

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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!  

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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CigarCraig’s Holiday Giveaway Extravaganza!

It’s been a busy week and I decided ins

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tead of smoking some newer cigars and writing about them I’d go through some of the goodies I have strewn about the office and put together a mega-prize and do a giveaway.  I have been reminiscing about the days of the Twelve Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways I did from 2011 to 2015, it was a lot

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of fun but took up a whole lot of time and resources! So, in homage to those good old days, I try to put together one good giveaway during the holiday season. I’m off to a late start this year, but better late than never, right?  This is going to be an epic haul, including some goodies from Drew Estate, Miami Cigar and Co., Villiger and Dunbarton. I’m not going to list cigars, but rest assured any case or humidor is going to be filled!  It’s hard to tell what other treats might fall into the box!  There’s a couple lighters and cutters, some cigar rests, a mug, a hat, some luggage, a wallet, an ashtray, a notebook, a rocks glass, all sorts of stuff!

 

All of these items are included, plus cigars to fill the cases, and whatever else happens to fall into the box! The cigars will not suck.  Rules are simple, leave a comment on this post to enter. Please leave a new comment and not a reply to another comment.  Comments on social media posts will not be counted. You must be of legal age to enjoy cigars in your jurisdiction, and willing to provide proof. United States address only please, it’s going to cost me a small fortune to ship this anyway, shipping abroad would bury me!  Those are the rules!  One entry per person.  Thank you to the companies who provided the SWAG!  I love it, but I love sharing it with my readers more!  Thanks to those of you who have chosen to waste time reading my nonsense over the last 15 years! 

 

Happy New Year! Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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A Couple Rocky Patel Cigars and a HVC Seleccion No. 1

I stopped in to my local Cigar Mojo Thursday evening as the Rocky Patel rep, Alex, was stopping in. It was a fairly quiet evening there, people wise, not really sound wise. Between the air system and the music, I struggle with

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being able to hear people talk in there (most places, really), it’s fine if I’m there alone, but it’s hard for me to carry o

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n a conversation. I have some specific hearing loss issues, so that’s my problem, if we are ever together and I ask you to repeat yourself, that’s why.  Anyway, I picked out a couple cigars I hadn’t smoked before, that weren’t the $100 Conviction.  I lit up a, A.L.R. Second Edition in the Toro size.  I always liked the Rocky Patel Toros, 6½” x 52, I like that extra half inch.  The A.L.R. has a San Andrés wrapper, although not maduro to my eye or palate. The binder and filler are Nicaraguan and the “limited” part of the “aged,” “limited” and “rare” is that they only made 120,000 of them. While that seems like a big number, it’s not UNlimited, so there’s that. They are aged 2 years and rare?, not sure about the rare part.  I’ve heard raves about this cigar, and it wasn’t inexpensive (by my

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standards), so I had expectations.  Sadly, those expectations were not exceeded, however it was a fine cigar.  It has some cocoa and woodyness, I liked it enough, but it wasn’t mindblowing. Solid B+.  I left Mojo after the cigar to watch hockey a home, it literally only takes me a TV timeout to get home from there. 

 

Friday evening I smoked another Rocky Patel cigar that I hadn’t smoked before, the Disciple. Why is this Toro only 6″ insead of 6½”?  Seems like it comes from the same factory in Nicaragua.  I was drawn to the color scheme, and the fact that it was the only other one (besides the aforementioned silly $100 cigar), that I hadn’t moked before. The copper and black bands look sharm against the San Andrés maduro wrapper.  With the binder and fillers listed as Nicaraguan, the blend looks identical to the A.L.R., but this is a vastly different cigar!  For one, this is one I really liked, which means it will probably be discontinued soon, as happens with every RP cigar I’ve found that I liked.  I hope this isn’t the case, this one was right up my alley. It had dark chocolate and dark dried fruits, a flavor combo I like a lot.  No complaints about the burn and draw on either of the RP cigars I smoked, I generally have no problems with TAVICUSA output.  They do a nice job in that factory, although I’ve probably moked more All Saints than Rocky Patel.  This is a must try.

 

Also while I was at Mojo I grabbed a HVC Seleccion No. 1 Maduro Podorosos, the toro size.  I’ve really been enjoying the HVC line and have been trying to sample something new whenever I stop in there.  I’ve got some catching up to do.  This is yet another San Andrés wrapped cigar with Nicaraguan binder and fillers, I’ve apparently fallen into a rut.  A delicious rut, as this is another cigar that I really enjoyed.  It would have been totally appropriate for me to have smoked an Upsetters f

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rom Foundation as we saw the Bob Marley: One Love movie yesterday, but I neither had one on hand, nor do I desire to smoke an infused cigar.  Not even the least bit curious.  The HVC Seleccion No. 1 Maduro was really tasty, rich and meaty.  I feel compelled to sample the natural version next time.  I continue to be impressed with the HVC line.  If you’re wondering, “Poderosos” translates to “Powerful”, which I don’t think this cigar necessarily is, but I would call it full bodied.

 

I believe I promised to announce a winner of the giveaway, which includes a five pack of the Crowned Heads Mother Church, along with five other cigars from my humidor.  I have to say, I’m disappointed in the turnout for this one, although it’s better odds for those who entered!  I consulted the random number generator and it selected the third comment, which is Craig Gilpin!  I might be able to save postage on this one as Craig in addition to having an excellent name, is local. Congrats Craig! Let’s plan to meet

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up! 

 

That’s all for today, we’re off to tour the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia today.  I’m going to resist the urge to

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smoke some Al Capone cigars (probably not hard).  Until the next time. 

 

CigarCraig

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Crowned Heads Mother Church a JR Cigars Exclusive and a Contest

Mother Church is a nickname for Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium, the “Mother Church of Country Music”, and it’s the name of an exclusive cigar by Crowned Heads for JR Cigars.  This is a Churchill, I just got it…Church…Churchill?  andyway, I like Churchills a lot. It seems like maybe the wrong time of year for large cigars in the Northeast, but I have the time and a warm enough smoking area, so I’m good with taking an h

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our and a half or so for a smoke.  The Mother Church is 7″ x 48, has an Ecuador Corojo wrapper, Connecticut Broadleaf binder, and Nicaraguan fillers, made in the Pichardo factory in Nicaragua. 

 

 

I found this to

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be a woody and nutty cigar, I didn’t get any real sweetness, but there were some mild spices here and there.  The burn and draw were excellent, it was a very well made cigar.  I’d like to share some of these with someone, so let’s have a giveaway!  I have a five pack of Mother Church, and I’ll add five other cigars to go with them for a total of ten cigars.  Usual CigarCraig rules apply, leave a comment on this post to enter, you must be 21 or older to be eligible, and I’ll select a winner on Sunday, February 18.  The links in this post are affiliate links, any purchases thought those links may put a couple dollars towards my expenses! 

 

That’s all for today, until tomorrow, 

 

CigarCraig

 

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