Category Archives: Review

by | June 9, 2013 · 9:43 am

A La Musa, a Wicked Indie, a Chinnock Cellars and a Prototype

LaMusa_RobustoThursday turned into a rainy evening, and I would have liked to have gotten to a fairly local shop for an event, but I couldn’t manage the energy to get out the door. I took the dog for a quick walk and then settled into my chair in the garage and fired up a La Musa Robusto from Emilio Cigars. This is the first of the re-named version of this cigar I’ve sampled, and it’s every bit as good as the numerous Grimalkin cigars I’ve enjoyed. You may recall that this was re-branded last year, but it remains a terrific smoke.  There’s a complexity

and subtlety in this cigar that I appreciate, bright flavors dance around the palate. This was a very enjoyable, finger-burner that really hit the spot.

Gurkha_Wicked Indie_ToroEast India Trading Company is the oldest trademark in the world.  It was purchased a a few years ago by Gurkha Cigars, under which they’ve released some wallet friendly marques, the first of which being the Wicked Indie.  This has been out for a few years and I just got around to picking a few up on my recent visit to Señor Juan‘s in Belmar, NJ.  This was a very enjoyable cigar for me, it was right up the middle as far as strength goes and had nice flavor.  I enjoyed this one while sitting in the garage watching it pour rain.  Sorry, it’s just too much work walking the dog with an umbrella and a cigar.  The dog got a brief walk then I sat down for my smoke.

ChinnockCellars_Terroire_torpSaturday afternoon the rain had stopped and I hit the pavement with a Chinnock Cellars Terroir torpedo which was a gift from @MattSRoss81 when I met him a few months ago.  This is a nice looking cigar from a California wine company of the same name.  It has a neat pewter looking metal band that slid off with a little effort so as not to damage the wrapper. These were blended by Willie Herrera and manufactured at El Titan de Bronze in Miami.  The cigar is nicely built with a light Ecuador wrapper and burned dead even and drew perfectly with only a small snip off the torpedo head.  This is a buttery smooth cigar, and it was a very nice companion for a nice, although overcast afternoon. Thanks again Matt!

WH_Cuadrado_PrototypeAfter a nice dinner of some big ol’ barbecue ribs and corn on the cob, I flossed and decided one Willie Herrera blended cigar wasn’t enough for one day, so I dug out a cigar that I received on my recent Cigar Safari trip.  This was a prototype of a box pressed cigar Willie’s working on, and I have to say it’s a winner. I hope this one makes it into production because as good as the Herrera Esteli is, and it’s very good, I think I liked this better.  The cuadrado press on this 6″ x 50 cigar was very comfortable to smoke as it was rectangular as opposed to square, but not quite tongue depressor thin. The V-cut I gave it was about perfect for the available real estate on the cap and I got a great draw down until I burned my fingers.  It was buttery smooth and loaded with flavor.  Considering my penchant for stronger cigars, thi

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s, along with the Chinnock Cellars, were medium bodied, smooth cigars that I really, really enjoyed!

Humidor Update

AdoriniHumidor3I filled it.  I probably could have given it another week, but it looked and felt right so I loaded it up with a selection of La Gloria Cubanas, some Foundrys, a few Macanudo 1968s and a handful of OpusX (just to mix it up a little). I got at least 40 large cigars in there and it appears to be holding steady humidity.  So far, I’ve taken the hygrometer at face value, I may drop a digital unit in just to check it.  I will leave it alone for a couple of weeks and smoke something out of it and really get an idea how its w

orking.  I re

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main impressed with the Adorini humidor. I like everything about it so far.  One interesting features of this humidor is that it came with plastic label holders that snap on the dividers so one can identify ones inventory. I suppose this would be handy if you had various unbanded cigars, but the dividers, in my opinion, are too short. I have cigars stacked three deep, and the dividers only come up to the second layer.  The system is clever with the slotted interior that not only allows for flexible placement of the dividers, but also increases the airflow by providing channels around the cigars. More to come.

That’s it for today, time to get out there and enjoy this nice Sunday.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | June 5, 2013 · 5:46 pm

Señor Juan Cigars in Belmar, NJ, a Flor de las Antillas, an EzraZion and a CAO Brazilia

Sunday my wife and I attended a benefit in Neptune, New Jersey for a friend who recently had surgery. The bands were pretty good, and the venue, The Headliner, was a neat place. I could easily have gone in the outdoor area and enjoyed a cigar, but I wanted to see the bands, and mid way through the afternoon it rained torrentially. It was a nice time, and on the way out we stopped in a cigar shop SenorJuansin Belmar, NJ called Señor Juan Cigars. We were greeted by one of the owners, Nick, who had just purchased the shop from Señor Juan’s widow who had been running the shop for the previous 5 years since the original owner’s passing. It was a nice little shop with cabinet humidors lining the walls, a nice seating area and a selection that is in the process of being refreshed by the new owners. I was impressed with the shop and hope to get back there one of these days. I picked up a couple cigars I either hadn’t tried and should have, or have had one and owed it a revisit. I spent more than I should have, but felt good about helping out a small business, especially in an area that was beat up pretty good last November when tropical storm Sandy had her way with it. Check this place out if you get to the Joisey shore!

 

As long as I’m on the topic of charity events, I’m going to put this out there once and shut up about it since the only reason it has any cigar tie-in is because it benefits a cause that is very personal to me. I will be helping out at the Ticked Off Music Fest on Saturday, June 15 in Wilmington, Delaware. This is a benefit for Lyme disease research and awareness. I was diagnosed and treated for Lyme a few years back and can tell you that it sucks, and I still have residual effects from time to time. If you are in the area and can make it, there are a bunch of great bands playing and it will be a good time. If you can’t make it and have a couple extra dollars you can throw at the cause, it would be especially appreciated. There is a site set up to raise money to help defray some of the upfront costs here. The thing about this is that if $5000 isn’t raised in the next week or so, all of the donors money will be refunded and the festival won’t get a dime and the operating costs will have to come out of the ticket sales, which will mean fewer dollars going to help the cause. If everyone who reads this would make as little as a $5 donation it would go a long way toward helping cover some of the costs. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t something important to me and many friends and family members. If you come to the event, hit me up for a cigar, even though it’s a non-smoking venue, I’ll, no doubt, have a cigar or three in my pocket! Any help you can give would be appreciated. Don’t worry, I’m not going to mention it again until after the event.

 

FlorDeLasAntillas_RobustoWhere were we? Oh, so Sunday evening when I got home I fired up a Flor de Las Antillas robusto that I had picked up back in January on a foray into Philadelphia. Cigar Aficionado had just named the toro in this line as the cigar of the year and I wanted to see what the hubbub was all about. This is a cigar from My Father Cigars, and while I can’t say I’ve sampled a ton of cigars from this factory, I can say that the ones I have smoked I pretty much liked, and I’ve had the privilege of walking in Don Pepin’s fields with Don Pepin and Jaime. For whatever reason, not a lot of My Father products seem to make it into my humidors. Anyway, this was a nice cigar. It was solidly medium bodied. It started out kind of funny. I rarely experience a cigar that causes me to salivate in what I can only characterize as a heaviness. Without getting gross, it wasn’t like I was drooling or anything, just a thickness, I guess. It didn’t last so it’s OK. I know this wasn’t the Toro that received all the accolades, but while this was a nice smoke, it wasn’t exceptional to me. I’ve had a whole bunch of cigars I liked better. Still a nice smoke and I’ll try the toro one of these days and see how it stacks up.

 

Ezra_Zion_InceptionMonday evening had me looking for a sure thing, so I picked an Ezra Zion Inception robusto that I picked up a few weeks ago at the Wooden Indian when we stopped in for their event and hung with the guys for a while. What more can be said about this cigar? Well aged, top quality materials expertly assembled. THIS is an exceptional cigar. I’ve found myself springing for far more expensive cigars than I used to lately, and I really need to dial it back a little, but this was a worthwhile purchase. They are re-naming this from Inception to Jamais Vu, for reasons that they aren’t elaborating upon except that there were some possible trademark issues that were better avoided than pursued. I liked the name Inception, and the cigars I purchased were still banded with the Inception foot band, so I still call them by that name. Jamais Vu is a term I feel like I’ve never heard before, but I’m sure I have…as long as they don’t change the blend, they can call it whatever they want. Highly recommended.

 

CAOBrazilia_CarnivaleTuesday I went for something new to me, the CAO Brazilia Carnivale, which I picked up in a local shop a few weeks ago. This is a manageable 6 x 60 box pressed cigar with what was the Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper on the regular Brazilia line used as the binder and a dark and oily Habano Grueso as the wrapper. They also goosed up the ligero in this iteration, making it a bit stronger than the core Brazilia line. I’ve managed to miss out on the CAO Left and Right Coast releases, and I missed catching up with Ricky Rodriguez on his La Traviata tour, so when I saw these in the shop I grabbed a couple (again, priced higher than I would be normally comfortable with…am I becoming reckless in my advanced years?) I have to say, I really enjoyed the cigar. It was rich and satisfying without being too strong, perhaps the 60 ring gauge (box pressed) smoothes it out a bit. Very nice job on this one!

 

Humidor Progress

I’ve taken the bowl of water out and am monitoring the humidity, I think it’s almost time to move some cigars in to the Adorini Cedro Deluxe Humidor. I wonder if I have enough to fill it up…my other two desktop humidors are themed, the one my wife had made for me for our 10th anniversary (16 years ago!) houses my political refugee population, and the Griffins humidor is loaded with my Cigar Safari blends and various Liga Privadas and interesting Drew Estate cigars. Perhaps I’ll round up all the various La Gloria Cubanas I have and fill it with those. I really hate wrestling with these hard decisions. So far I continue to be impressed with the humidor.

 

That about covers things for the first part of the week, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | June 2, 2013 · 10:36 am

Studio Tobac Event at Philadelphia Cigar and Tobacco Co.

StudioTabacEvent_06012013Spring is definitely in full swing here in south-east PA, the grass is growing, the pool is opening and the weather has been gorgeous. So wh

at do we do after a morning of chores? Go to a cigar store for a Studio Tobac/Oliva event, what else? The store in question is the Philadelphia Cigar and Tobacco Co. In Northeast Philadelphia, about an hour away (assuming traffic ir reasonable, which it was not). I consider Mike Staiber, our local Oliva rep, to be one of my better friends in the cigar industry, and. Byran Scholle is a super nice dude too, so going to hang out with them was a no braine

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r. I selected a handful of Padilla and Cain cigars and immediately lit up a Padilla PadillaReservaMaduro_DoubleToroReserva Maduro Double Toro (5.5×60), a damned yummy cigar. Bryan sets up a small rolling table at his events and demonstrates how a cigar is wrapped to event goers. Its great for people to see how this is done and to be able to ask questions. One very astute question I heard involved nicotine absorption through the hands and whether it affects the roller. Bryans response was that it initially does when he starts, but he quickly adjusts. I’ve heard the question asked in the factories, but never in a shop setting. Here’s a two minute video of Bryan doing his thing:

 

 

The Philadelphia Cigar and Tobacco Co. is a very nice store located in a strip mall on Welsh Road in Northeast Philadelphia. The front of the store has a spacious lounge with a bunch of guys watching the game on a large TV, a poker table full of guys playing cards (and it didn’t look like they were playing “Go Fish”), and another small seating area. The huge walk in humidor was genero

usly stocked with all the goodies you’d expect to find. The shop is very clean and well run, and he owner, Michael, is a gracious host. They are planning on opening a second location in Yardley, PA in the not too distant future. Drop in to visit if you find yourself in the area.

 

CainFU_toro_freshWhen I got home I had to smoke the cigar that Bryan rolled in the video. He described it as an amped up Cain F blend, with additional Esteli ligero in the blend. They playfully refer to this blend as the Cain FU. He mentioned that they are best smoked fresh, so I figured it wasn’t going to get any fresher. Smoking a fresh rolled cigar is a little different than one that’s sat in an aging room for months and made its way to your local shop. It’s a little wetter and mushier, but, astoundingly, it burned pretty well after I torched the hell out of it to get it lit. I guess I’m more manly than I gave myself credit for, because I was expecting this to kick me hard. I love most Cains with some age, but this one was quite good as well. It was strong and spicy, but not harsh and the flavor wasn’t overpowered. Well done. In counterpoint, the Padilla Reserva Maduro was smooth and chocolaty and delicious, nearly worth the $10 price tag (by the way, what is up with Padillas website? How about an update? I had to get size information elsewhere). I got a couple of the Short Robusto (4×60) size as well, along with some Cain Daytonas and Fs. It was a great day hanging out with some really nice folks and enjoying fine smokes.

 

The Adorini Humidor

AdoriniHumidor2This will be a recurring segment, basically a long term review of the Adorini Cedro Deluxe Humidor from Humidordiscount.com. I’ve started by charging the humidifier with the included solution and some distilled water, and adding a bowl of distilled water as well.  So far the hygrometer is reading about 74% RH.  I’m just going to let it sit until the water evaporates from the bowl.  I’ve always gone by the theory that the wood in the humidor is truly the medium which holds the moisture, and if it’s too dry it will be constantly battling the humidification element and will take forever to reach equilibrium and function properly.  I’m convinced that this unit will be a solid performer based on how solid it looks and feels and the nice, air-cushioned “woosh” I get when I drop the lid.  More to come.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | May 29, 2013 · 6:25 pm

Memorial Day Weekend Cigars: a JD Hightower, an American Eagles and a Humidor Review

JD Hightower_3

Shown with a 5×44 corona

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day, warmer than Saturday, but still breezy. I decided that the time had come to finally smoke a cigar that was given to me last year at the IPCPR show by Victor Vitale. The cigar in question was the JD Hightower 6″ x 70 box pressed cigar. I’ve been waiting for the right time given the size of this monstrous cigar. Its roughly the size of a king size Milky Way candy bar. I also have had bad experiences with Victor Sinclair cigars (made by Jose Dominguez, the JD in the name of the cigar) to the extent that I’ve sworn I’d never smoke another one, but since Victor Vitale made this for Jose, I figured it deserved a shot. The first challenge is finding a cutter that would handle this. Normally a large ring cigar is

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do-able in most cutters, but I knew the Xikar XV wasn’t going to do the trick. I picked the Drew Estate Bulletproof perfect cutter and it worked fairly well, although I had to trim a little bit of binder off with a pair of scissors. The draw was perfect, and it burned relatively well over the course of the two hours it took me to smoke. I very much enjoyed the blend, it was a tasty smoke. It had nice, savory flavors that w

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ere enjoyable throughout the cigar. I can’t say that it was a very comfortable cigar to smoke or hold. While the box press minimizes the 70 ring gauge a little, it’s still huge and unwieldy. While I’ve grown accustomed to the 60 ring cigars, 70 is just too big. I’m not sorry I smoked it, I had a beautiful 2+ hours enjoying it on a lazy and beautiful Sunday afternoon. This was yet another nice smoke from Victor Vitale.

 

 

IMG_0515[1]Monday was Memorial Day, and I decided to take the dog for a walk at nearby Valley Forge National Historic Park. I selected my last American Eagles Robusto to smoke for a couple reasons. First, the American Eagles is a nice cigar, well made and tasty. They support the military by donating part of their profits to Semper Fi, and it’s got a patriotic theme. The final reason was because I always feel conspicuous smoking in a public place, and I figured if the cigar was camouflaged it would stand out less. IMG_0513[1]I always figure someone might say something about me smoking a cigar, and I can respond with something like “a cigar? I don’t see a cigar, what are you talking about?”, but perhaps this is yet another one of those things that’s only funny in my head. Anyway, we started at the Memorial Arch, and probably walked a good 5 or 6 miles around the outside of the park on the multi-use trail. It was a stunning day, the cigar was great, smooth, mild and full of flavor, and nobody looked askance at the fact that I was smoking a cigar. Puccio and I were plenty tired out after that walk and went home for lunch (we had gotten an early start).

 

CC_CigarSafariBlend2013After lunch I decided it was time to try out one of the cigars I blended on my recent Cigar Safari trip. As I said before, I went into the blending session there determined to recreate the blend I had made two years prior, but all the tobacco, like the proverbial shiny object, distracted me and I decided to get creative. I went into specifics in my post about the blending session a few weeks ago.  All in all I really enjoyed the cigar. There was a lot of flavors dancing around between the San Andreas Negro wrapper, the Cameroon binder and the Mata Fina, all pretty sweet tobaccos in my book. I will certainly be interested in seeing how these age, and I’ll compare them at some point to my blending attempt from two years ago. These were rolled by the Liga Privada pairs, so the construction was without flaw, it burned perfect, had a nice, flat coal and an even burn and draw. I hated to put it down.

 

 

Humidor Review

 

AdoriniHumidor2This will be an ongoing project over the next several months. The folks at HumidorDiscount.com sent me their Adorini Cedro Deluxe Humidor to evaluate and report upon. Initially I’m very impressed. This shipped from Germany, and only took a few days. It was packaged very well, it was boxed, bubble wrapped, then had a retail box that was lined with 1/8” styrofoam. The humidor was in it’s own cloth bag inside the box, and contained some dividers, Write-on tabs which attach to the dividers to label your stock, a bottle of humidor solution, and brass humidifier with a polymer media, and a small dial hygrometer. The humidor itself while reasonably plain (I think there is an elegance in it’s simplicity), is solidly built with walls that are a full inch thick, and the lid closes on a nice cushion of air telling me that it seals well and AdoriniHumidor1should be made right. Heck, my The Griffins humidor HAS to be locked or the lid doesn’t close all the way, and doesn’t close with a woosh. It also features “Unique ventilation ribs (“RibTech”) for improved air circulation within humidor”, and I like the hidden magnetic plate in the lid that allows the hygrometer and humidifier to be positioned wherever you want it on the lid without screws or glue or anything. So far I’ve added some of the enclosed solution along with some distilled water to the humidifier and will start seasoning it. When I think it’s ready I’ll fill it up and see how it does. I’ll be keeping track of it’s progress and posting that here on a weekly basis. My personal modus operandi when it comes to humidors is to let them do their thing and not get too worked up about daily monitoring (read: I’m lazy), so that will be a feature I look for, holding temp and humidity and not having to fiddle with it much. Thanks to Silvia at HumidorDiscount.com for allowing me the oportunity to evaluate one of your humidors.

 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | May 26, 2013 · 10:58 am

A Room 101 Event and a Few Cigars on a Saturday Afternoon and Local News

Room101MNamakubiEcuadorFriday after work I shot down to Old Havana Cigars in West Chester, PA. They were having a Room 101 event and Matt Booth was there, along with the Davidoff rep who prefers to retain his anonymity so we’ll call him “Tom Smith”. I was disappointed that they only had the Serie SA in the 6×60 size, as I had wanted to get some more of those, but Matt talked me into the new Namakubi Ecuador in the Ranfla size, which is a 6.5 x 50 perfecto. Now, it’s no easy feat getting this cheap SOB to spring $10 for a cigar. I find that every time I come back from a cigar factory visit, my price threshold seems to go up a little as my education and appreciation for the work that goes into making these things. It turns out that this cigar was well worth the investment, and I’m glad I got two (and a pair of Ecuador Papi Chulos and a SA). The cigar MattBooth_CVburned perfectly, drew perfectly and had spectacular flavor. I enjoyed the heck out of the cigar while hanging out in the front of the store watching the antics of some of the regulars and talking with “Tom”. The lounge in the back of the store was packed, so I didn’t even venture back there. I also had the good fortune of meeting Evan, of TheSmokinGreek.com, another blogger who I recently discovered lived in my area. I had a great time, the events at Old Havana are always a hoot. If you ever find yourself in south-east PA, stop in, and as Tony the owner says: “just buy your cigars and get the f*** out!”. It’s always a pleasure hanging with Matt, he’s a character and a hell of a good guy.

 

Gurkha_BeautyXOSaturday I spent the afternoon hanging around my patio with my childhood friend, Jeff, smoking cigars and shooting the bull. I started with a Gurkha Beauty XO (6” x 60) that was a hand out at the grand opening of the Cigars International store in Hamburg, PA last November.  Jeff enjoys the occasional cigar, and prefers milder ones when he smokes, so I set him up with one of my favorites, the Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta. I enjoy the heck out of that cigar, and I think it’s educational as well.  The two inches of Nicaraguan leaf on the head of the cigar gives a totally different mouth feel than the Ecuador Connecticut leaf and is a great way to illustrate how the wrapper changes the entire cigar.  I enjoyed the Gurkha, it was a mild and smooth cigar, and had a nice flavor.  For the first cigar of the day this one wasn’t bad.  After we finished with these, round two featured a CAO Concert Roadie for me, and a Rocky Patel Edge Candela for him.  I figured (correctly) that he had never had a green cigar, and thought it would be a good continuation of his education.  I chose the CAO_ConcertConcert because we were talking and I wanted a solid, flavorful and familiar cigar that I didn’t really have to pay attention to.  I have had occasions in the past when a particularly good cigar distracts me from personal interaction.  Not to say that the Concert isn’t particularly good, it is, but I’ve smoked enough of them that I know what to expect.  Despite the breezy day (it was only in the 60s, which is disappointing  for Memorial Day weekend) my cigars burned straight and well.  Jeff had some problems with the candela, but that probably wasn’t the wind’s fault, I’ve had crooked burns with candela cigars plenty in the past.  It was nice to spend an afternoon catching up with an old friend and smoking some nice cigars.  For those who care, I enjoyed a Vernors Ginger Soda with the Gurkha, and an IBC Rootbeer with the CAO.

 

News Update (addded 05/27)

Of local interest, and perhaps only of interest to me,  The West Chester PA shop, G & G Cigars was recently sold to the Cigar Cigars chain of stores in SouthEastern PA.  This will increase the CigarCigars chain to seven stores, including a store in Freehold, NJ (which used to be the brick and mortar side of Firehouse Cigars, which was an early online cigar seller). According the Doug Gianforte, who owned the shop along with his wife, Jan, they will be closing the deal tomorrow and all of the employees are staying on, except for he and his wife, obviously.  I will miss running into Doug and Jan at the IPCPR show (where I seem to see them more than I do at the shop). I will be interested to see what changes, if anything, at the shop.

 

That’s all I got for now, it’s another beautiful day out, and tomorrow is Memorial Day, so spare a moment to smoke a fine cigar in remembrance of all those who gave their lives so that we can sit around smoking cigars!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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