Category Archives: Review

by CigarCraig | August 7, 2013 · 8:50 pm

IPCPR 2013 – Flor de Gonzalez Cigars with Yadi Gonzalez

I’ve been sampling through the range of cigars by Flor de Gonzalez over the last few days. I have smoked a few of their mixed filler line and enjoyed them, they make a tasty Churchill and large torpedo in the $2 range. I won a 5-pack of the 90 Miles robustos a few years ago and enjoyed them quite a bit. I was introduced to Yadi Gonzalez at the IPCPR show by Antonio Lam of Reinado Cigars and got to sit down with her for a few minutes and hear about what’s new.

I was interested to try the 1980. When Yadi said it had a San Andreas wrapper AND an Ecuador Broadleaf binder I was very interested. It was a darned good smoke, although maybe I jumped the gun smoking it so soon after bringing it back from Vegas. It will be an awesome smoke all the way through in another month or two. The one I smoked was incredible up until the last third, which had a hint of ammonia, which is

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why I think another few months in the humidor will benefit the cigar. I’m looking forward to smoking more of these.

The Reserva Selecta in the No. 4 size (5 3/4 x 48) has a neat pigtail cap and is a very smooth, subtle and refined smoke. This one gave me a lot of enjoyment sitting on the back patio on a sunny Saturday afternoon. It burned perfectly and I easily could have lit another one right away. I thought this cigar was very different from the others in it’s delicacy and complexity. This is the cigar you smoke in a tuxedo, although I thought it was darned good in the shorts and t-shirt I was wearing. Very good!

The 90 Miles Churchill was a longer version of the robustos I’d enjoyed in the past. One thing that struck me while I smoked this was how I’ve come to feel like a 7” x 47 cigar isn’t a really big cigar any more. The 60+ ring gauge cigars obviously dwarf what used to be considered a large cigar, and I guess I’ve become desensitized. Funny that a corona doesn’t seem like a toothpick or anything, but the 47-52 rings seem smaller. That’s neither here nor there, the 90 Miles Churchill is a nice, solid smoke for any time of day.

The Q-ban Fuerte is a full bodied Nicaraguan cigar. The foot of this cigar had a dark core, likely the ligero, that comprised about half of the cigar. I really enjoyed the flavor, but again some humidor time is going to do wonders for this cigar. If I had to line these up in order of preference, this would come in in the middle, with the 1980 being first, the regular l

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ine being fourth, and the Q-ban and Reserva Selecta exchanging places depending on my mood. All four lines were very enjoyable and cigars I’d reach for again and again, and would be happy sharing with friends.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 90 Miles, cigar, cigars, Flor de Gonzalez, IPCPR, Q-ban Fuerte

by CigarCraig | August 4, 2013 · 12:58 pm

IPCPR 2013 – Acid Shorty, Natural Shorty, San Bajito Robusto and Shorty Rossi

The IPCPR show always seems to have it’s share of celebrities, Arnold Schwarzenegger was spotted at the show on the first day (not by me!) as well as Mike Ditka, and previous years have seen the likes of Ron White and Dennis Rodman walking the floor. Shorty Rossi, the star of Animal Planet’s Pit Boss, has also been a fixture at the show for a few years. I met up with him this time and he took a few minutes to tell me about some of his new cigar offerings being distributed through Meier and Dutch, which is the wholesale arm of Cigars International. I had the opportunity to smoke a couple of them this week, here’s what I thought:

The Acid line isn’t one I gravitate to, I can usually smell them a mile away, and except for a late night Kuba Kuba Maduro in Nicaragua a few years ago, I haven’t really had too much to say about the line. I’ve been to the factory, I’m confident that they use the finest materials, and I know they are rolled very well. So I was a little hesitant to choose the Acid Shorty Friday evening for my walk, after a long week I usually select a “sure thing” from the humidor. This is a 4″x 60 cigar with a very sweet cap, candy sweet, diabetic coma inducing sweet. It also had an herbal aroma off the foot. It turned out that this was a very nice cigar. It didn’t have the cloying incense, aroma-therapy kind of flavor I expected. It was medium bodied with a nice, sweet tobacco flavor. I enjoyed this cigar once the sweet cap was gone. I’d smoke this again.

Also from the Drew Estate factory is the Natural Shorty. This is a 4″x 50, a little more manageable than the 60 ring, and the perfect size for a rainy Saturday afternoon walk. Again, the sweet gum on the head was overwhelming. This is “short and sweet” taken to the extreme. I’ve smoke a few of the Naturals, but none recently, and I remember them using some fairly unique tobaccos, Turkish, maybe some Perique or something from Louisiana or something. This is one that I wished was longer, because it was a nice smoke, again, once the sweet cap was gone. Unique, for certain. Again, I’d smoke this again, but I’d probably try to wipe some of the sugar off first…it’s just too much for me.

Shorty Rossi made his first entry into the cigar world with Cigar International‘s Diesel Shorty. I didn’t have any of those, although I like the Diesel line in general. He does have a line called San Bajito, and Niko of Meier and Dutch (and also a regular on the Over a Cigar show on Blogtalk Radio) was kind enough to provide me with a 4½” x 60 robusto. I enjoyed this cigar after dinner on the patio. This cigar is made in Nicaragua, and was a really nice, smooth, flavorful smoke. I got a nice sweet tobacco flavor at one point, no sweet cap on this one, just nice, sweet tobacco. I want to smoke more of these, especially after a few months time-out in the humidor. Shorty did a nice job blending this cigar.

Have a look at the video, Shorty give us some insight into how he ended up in the cigar industry as well how he got into the dog rescue business.

One of the things I appreciate about all Shorty’s cigars is that a portion of the proceeds go toward his Pit Bull rescue. The dog pictured above, the one I walk every night, is actually my youngest son’s dog. She is a Pit Bull/LAb mix that we got from our local SPCA. She’s a sweet dog whose enthusiasm can be mis-interpreted as aggression, but she really just loves everyone. We think she may have been given up because, we were to find out, she has seizures, and is now on medication to control them. So I believe in Shorty’s Pit Bull mission, and wish him continued success. His dog, Hercules, was there throughout the show and provided some comic relief at one point when he cleared the booth with a gaseous emission. I wish I had the video recording for that!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Celebrity Cigar Chat, IPCPR, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk, Video

Tagged as chateau real, cigar, cigars, drew estate, IPCPR, Pit Boss, San Bajito, Shorty Rossi

by CigarCraig | August 1, 2013 · 6:48 pm

IPCPR 2013 – Sindicato Cigars with Abe Dababneh

When I got back from Las Vegas I had a package waiting for me from Sindicato Cigars, the company made up of a group of retailers and headed by Jim Colucci, formerly of Altadis. Of the three cigars debuting at the show, I have to say that the Hex intrigued me, so I had to light one of those up first. Vitola-wise it looked just like the Smoke Inn Micro-blend Tatuaje Anarchy Apocalypse, a 5¼” x 52 perfecto with a curly pigtail cap. It very much looked like a cigar I’d love, and I wasn’t wrong. This cigar burned perfectly and was delicious! It was dark and loaded with all the flavors I like, the espresso/cocoa/dark dried fruit types of flavors. It will be hard not to smoke the other sample and dig through the trade show samples in search of more. Seek out the Hex and give it a try.

Next up was the Affinity. This is a Ecuador Connecticut wrapped cigar that I believe Abe described as a Connecticut Shade with some strength to it. Now, I try not to be cynical (I don’t try too hard…) but this has been the theme for the last couple years, the Connecticut shade wrapped cigar that’s not the typical mild shade wrapped cigar. Nish Patel’s Zen, E.P.Carrillo’s New Wave Connecticut, everyone seems to have the Connecticut Shade wrapped cigar that is not your typical mild cigar. Anyway, the Affinity is a really nice cigar, nothing really surprising, but an enjoyable smoke that was quite satisfying and the biggest problem I had with it was the Robusto size was too short! This may not be too different from other cigars out there, but it’s very good. Well made and tasty.

Last night I tried the economy offering, the. Casa Bella. This was a corona sized cigar, which fit well into my schedule. This is a bundle cigar, hand made in the Dominican Republic, with an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper. This has a really low price point, I think Abe says the 6″x60 is under $3.00! It’s mixed filler, but it was a tasty smoke, although I had a little problem keeping it burning in the middle of the cigar. Maybe it was a construction issue, but more likely it was my impatience in lighting it up a couple short weeks off the truck. For a two dollarish cigar it was pretty darned tasty.

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the group of retailers known as Sindicato know what they are doing and have produced three nice lines. The Hex blew me away, and I enjoyed both the premium and budget Ecuador Connecticut offerings. If you see them in your local shop give them a shot. I don’t recall, but I don’t think these will be available on line at all, just in brick and mortar tobacconists. Here’s the video of

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Abe Dababneh telling us about the company and the three lines:

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Abe Dababneh, Affinity, Casa Bella, cigar, cigars, Hex, IPCPR, Sindicato

by CigarCraig | July 28, 2013 · 10:14 am

IPCPR 2013 – Room 101 Cigars with Matt Booth

Today’s IPCPR video features our visit with none other than Room 101‘s own Matt Booth. I still find it to be quite a contrast that Matt is in the Davidoff booth, but Davidoff has done a wonderful job diversifying their portfolio with the addition of the newly re-branded Camacho, Room 101 and Cusano. They seem to have all the bases covered as far as tastes and price ranges go. Room 101 falls in the middle of the pack in both price and flavor profile. I smoked a Room 101 San Andreas 808, the 6″x60 size, the other night and enjoyed the heck out of it, although I prefer the 305 (robusto) or the Papi Chulo sizes myself. When I bought this it was the only size the shop has in the San Andreas, which was disappointing. Of course, I like just about anything with the words San and Andreas together anyway, so this is a no brainer for me. It’s a rich, satisfying smoke that just about kicked my butt a little! Matt makes a lot of very enjoyable smokes, including the Namakubi Ecuador that was released over the last year, and Smoke Inn‘s Microblend Series Big Delicious (which was!). Enough of my nonsense, check out the video and see what Matt has to say.

Anytime I talk to Matt it’s an adventure, and always entertaining and informative. Many thanks to Matt for letting me drag him out of the Davidoff party bus they had parked in the

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booth to get this video.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Camacho, cigar, cigars, davidoff, IPCPR, Matt Booth, Room 101

by CigarCraig | July 21, 2013 · 3:54 pm

IPCPR 2013 – Kings Cigars

A day or two before leaving for the show I received a curious package in the mail. In it were a couple of cigars, a t-shirt and a cutter with the name “Kings Cigars” all over them. I had never heard of these guys, why are they sending me stuff? So one of my first missions at the IPCPR show was to seek them out and see what they were all about. It turns out Anwar and Pete are a couple entrepreneurs with a passion for cigars and quality who decided to try their hands in the cigar business. They have been working for the better part of 3 years to make a product that is ready to bring to market, and now was the time. I spent a few hours today in the pool with the Conde Churchill, a San Andreas wrapped beauty. This is one that came in the mail last week, so it had a little bit of humidor time while I was away in Vegas. The other two that were included were the box pressed, 6″x60 “King of Kings”, which we were told at the show to give them some humidor time before smoking, a month or two. It’s a shame to see some reviews popping up already for cigars that aren’t quite ready yet. It may be a few weeks until I dig into the show samples as I like to give them time to adjust from their journeys. The Conde Churchill was an outstanding smoke. I smoked it in the pool, which was very relaxing on a hot summer day. It only needed a minor correction and the draw was perfect with a V cut. I don’t know if I could have enjoyed this cigar more, and I think I saw a couple of robustos floating around which I look forward to. If the rest of the line is as good as this, I think the Kings guys really have something, and I’m not just saying this because we had such a great time visiting with Anwar, Pete and their crew at the show. Their booth was an oasis for us, and they were always quite friendly and accommodating (the Cuban coffee wasn’t bad either!).

Here’s the video telling us about Kings Cigars:

Thanks to Anwar and the guys for everything, and we wish you the best. It’s hard to get a new boutique going, but having a solid cigar is a step in the right direction.

In other news:

Saturday my lovely wife and I went to Cape May, NJ to go on a four hour fishing trip off the coast on the Cape May Lady. Now, you can take my man card away if you want, but I’m not very interested in fishing. I was afraid of getting my line tangle with s

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omeone else, or, worse, actually catching something! I had made certain that cigars were allowed, of course, so the only stick I was interested in holding w

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as a 7½” x 56 Box Pressed Recluse Excepcionales. This had a year of age on it as the folks at Iconic Leaf had given it to me last year at the trade show. This, like every cigar I’ve tried in the line, was exceptional! We had planned on getting to Cape May early, having lunch, and getting on the one o’clock trip. Traffic foiled that plan, so we had lunch and wandered around the outdoor mall there for a few hours (where I enjoyed a CAO Concert while Jenn shopped) while we waited for the 7pm night fishing trip. We got on the boat and I lit up my cigar, which was stellar, and we got under way. Seas were choppy, and the cigar kept my mind off of the fact that I was queasy. We stopped near the Cape May lighthouse and dropped lines (I was waiting for the boat to stop pitching!). A couple guys caught little sand sharks, but about 40 minutes in the deck hand came around to tell us that we had to go in because the generator failed and we didn’t have lights. They get a hefty fine from the Coast Guard if they are caught without lights! It was dark by the time we were getting in, an it was a bit eerie. They gave us tickets to use in the future with their apologies, so we may go try again, although we seem to have a track record with missing boats! We had a great day, though, it was certainly something to talk about!