Category Archives: Review

April 3, 2022 · 10:41 am

Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua, Aladino Vintage and Punch Rare Corojo Cigars

I had an interesting week, so I smoked some interesting cigars, at least to me. I had a situation which required fasting, so I smoked a Perla Del Mar Connecticut which was really quite good, and after breaking the fast, I had a Diamond Crown, keeping it in the family, and also fairly mild! But let’s start with the Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua in the Vibrato size. This is a 6″ x 54 box pressed toro with a dark Nicaraguan Sumatra wrapper. It’s a puro, all Nicaraguan. This cigar was in a sampler I received at the TPE show from the Altadis USA booth. There were some Upmann and Romeo cigars in there too. I think it’s weird that this size isn’t lists on the Altadis website, so maybe it’s new. As folks who have followed along may recall, my preferences don’t generally favor Altadis products, with some exceptions, notably the cigars made by A.J. Fernandez, and the occasional Montecristo here and there. I’m not entirely sure why this is, it just is. Different strokes, I guess. Anyway, this one was exceptional. It was CA’s cigar of the year in 2019, I guess, and I remember smoking it back then, but this one was much better, darker, more rich and dense. There was a sweetness, which I attribute to the Sumatra. I enjoyed this cigar so much more than I remember liking the cigar of the year when I smoking it in early 2020. The size was to my liking as well.

Friday evening one of the cigars I smoked while working at Son’s was an Aladino Vintage Selection Elegante, which is the 7″ x 38 lancero. For some reason I was in a Lancero mood. It seems that the interruptions, interactions, et cetera, involved in smoking while working retail lend themselves nicely to the pacing required to the enjoyment of a lancero. At least for me. This cigar has a Habano wrapper, and, unlike the next cigar I’m going to talk about, has Corojo binder and fillers. Of course, the Eiroa family is well known for Corojo tobacco. I can’t tell you how many Camacho Corojos I smoked back in the early 2000’s. This was a very good smoke, again with a hint of sweetness, but overall just good, clean tobacco goodness. Even after having smoked a very good Oliva Masterblend 3, not nearly as good as they used to be, by the way, the Aladino Lancero was excellent. I think it smoked for nearly 2 hours.

Yesterday I smoked the new Punch Rare Corojo Aristocrat. The funny thing about this cigar has always been, despite the name, it has never had any Corojo tobacco in the blend. It has an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, Connecticut Broadleaf binder and Nicaraguan, Honduran and Dominican fillers. I never could figure out why they called it Rare Corojo, obviously the Corojo is so rare in this cigar that it’s non-existent! Let’s talk about the size of this cigar for a minute. It’s a 6 1/8” x 40/54 figurado. The press release says “This special size was originally made at the Villazon factory, commissioned by Frank Llaneza who founded Punch in Honduras. Frank made what he referred to as a baseball bat-size cigar for Red Auerbach and Art Rooney, two sports legends.” It reminds me of the Cuban Partagas Presidente, but I looked it up and that’s only a 47 ring gauge, and an eighth of an inch longer. I love the size and shape. I also love the flavor, and always have enjoyed the Rare Corojos, despite the name thing. That hint of sweetness from the Sumatra that I love, and it builds in strength. I dig it.

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

CigarCraig

1 Comment

Filed under Review

Tagged as Aging Room, Aladino, cigar, cigars, Corojo, JRE, punch, Punch Rare Corojo, Quattro

March 27, 2022 · 10:31 am

Divinus and Born To Be Wild Cigars from DAHOT, a Dias de Gloria and a Hawk

When I was at the TPE show and visited with Susana at Danli Honduras Tobacco (DAHOT), she gave me samples of two of their new offerings, the Divinus and the Born To Be Wild. I finally got around to smoking them this week. Unfortunately, I have no blend details on either cigar yet, when I get them I’ll edit them in, but until such a time I’ll fake my way through. I’ll start with the Divinus. This is a perfecto shaped cigar, 6″ long, like all of DAHOTs cigars, and maybe hitting 54 ging in the middle. I probably should have taken a measurement. I’m going to guess that the wrapper was some sort of Connecticut varietal grown in Honduras under shade, or a darker Ecuador Connecticut. It had that look and flavor. It was a nice smoke, medium bodied, quite well behaved for a large perfecto, but I rarely have issues with Danli Honduras Tobacco products. This cigar has “Tabacalera San Jeronimo” on the band, which answers a question I’ve had for a long time about the factory making this brands cigars. This is a factory which was associated with Kafie cigars, with which he’s no longer associated. I’ve never had any of Kafie’s cigars. He once blocked me on social media because I called him out for having his kids at a cigar rally. He justified it, but I pointed out, like I did in a recent rant, that it doesn’t matter what rational justific

buy topamax online https://bondchc.com/media/jan/html/topamax.html no prescription pharmacy

ation he might have, people against tobacco will use it against us. Remember, when it comes to the government and tobacco, rational thought goes out the window, tobacco is bad, nothing else matters. Anyway, This Divinus was a good cigar, maybe the first cigar from them that I didn’t really fall in love with.

I did, however, really like the Born To Be Wild cigar from DAHOT. I wish I had taken pictures of the box for this, it looks like a motorcycle piston. You can kind of see it in the video I did at the TPE show (HERE) where Susana talks about the cigar a little. Again, I don’t have blend info, but it’s a dark maduro, maybe San Andrés, maybe another Honduran varietal fermented to a maduro. It had a dark, meaty flavor, very savory, as opposed to sweet. It was really interesting and unusual, and I liked it very much. I’d love to have to make room for a box of these in my humidor! The company has several maduros in the portfolio, the Don Juan Calavera, the Marchetti, the Flor Maya, Caterina, even the Clown has a Maduro barber pole, all oare on the sweet s

buy prednisolone online https://bondchc.com/media/jan/html/prednisolone.html no prescription pharmacy

ide, but this one is so different. I desire more. I admit that I prefer more traditional branding, but the cigar is really good.

I walked in to Son’s Friday evening and encountered John Ciabocchi, our area’s A.J. Fernandez rep, who stopped in to do an impromptu Cut and Light event. This threw off what I had planned on smoking for the evening, but I’m adaptable, so I started off with a Dias de Gloria in the box pressed toro vitola. This is a Nicaraguan puro made with tobaccos from four of the company’s Esteli farms. I don’t believe I had smoked this cigar before, a mistake I don’t intend to repeat. This is a damned good smoke. The marketing on this says something about this representing the pre-castro days of cuban tobacco. Maybe? I don’t have a frame of reference, and I have a hard time with Abdel Fernandez, who might be 40?, having any notion what that tasted like then. It’s nice to dream about, but hardly verifiable. Can we agree that it’s a great tasting cigar? If you like a cigar with a good balance of rich tobacco and some sugarcane sweetness, give this a shot. It was a nice way to spend two hours, and it’s always nice seeing John again.

Last cigar: The Hawk from Blackbird Cigars. I hadn’t smoked this one before and figured I’d give it a try, even though I’m not a big fan of hawks. We’ve lost a couple of really nice chickens to hawks, right in front of our eyes, and it wasn’t pretty. We do our best to keep them out of our yard. They are neat and all, just not around our place! Hawk isn’t a regular production Blackbird line, but a special release with Adrian Acosta’s Cigar Culture. This cigar was a Gran Toro, 6″ x 56, box pressed, with a Brazilian Cubra wrapper, a San Andrés binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. This cigar falls into the woody/nutty spectrum for me, with some hints of sweetness and cocoa here and there. The two I smoked had some mendering burns, nothing that caused problems and couldn’t be easily corrected. Overall, enjoyable cigars, and I believe Son’s has some of these limide release cigars left. I like what Jonas does at Blackbird, and I do enjoy a lot of the cigars he makes.

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

CigarCraig

Comments Off on Divinus and Born To Be Wild Cigars from DAHOT, a Dias de Gloria and a Hawk

Filed under Review

Tagged as aj fernandez, Blackbird, Blackbird Cigar Co., Born to be Wild, cigar, cigars, DAHOT, Danli Honduras Tabacco, Dias de Gloria, Divinus, Hawk

March 20, 2022 · 10:25 am

Smoking Some Black Label Trading Co. Gordos

Friday evening I picked up a selection of Black Label Trading Company cigars in the 6″ x 60 size. I actually don’t mind the 6″ x 60 format, it’s not my go-to, but I don’t shy away from it. I think if it’s done right, buy the right maker, it works, and if it fits into the time I have, it’s perfect. This five-pack of cigars had been sitting in a display of samplers on the counter at Son’s for quite a while, and it intrigued me, so I sprung for it. I smoked four out of the five, the Lawless will have to wait for another time. I started with the Emilio Cavatina on a fresh palate. I never smoked the original Cavatina, although I smoked a lot of the other original Emilios, and still have a couple AF1 and 2, Grimalkin, etc. in the humidor that are going on ten years old. This Cavatina was a delicious cigar. It has an Ecuador Maduro wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano wrapper, and Nicaraguan fillers. It had some nice cocoa and sweetness with a little spice. Thoroughly enjoyable. I’m certainly going to try other sizes.

Later in the evening I lit up the Last Rites. I’m not sure if I’ve smoked this line in the past or not, I know I’ve smoked the Viaticum, but that’s different, and this was the first time I’ve smoked anything from BLTC in 6 ring gauge. The Last Rites seems to have a similar wrapper to the Emilio, Ecuador Maduro, with a Honduran binder and a blend of Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers. As this was my second cigar of the evening, and I was doing some other things, it was hard to put too fine a point on tasting notes, but I never do anyway. It was a great cigar. Very full flavored and earthy, along with the coffee/cocoa flavors I like. Right up my alley. I could have squeezed three gordos into my 6 hour shift, but I really didn’t want to. I like to rest a little in between cigars.

Saturday afternoon I went with the Royalty. This one has an Ecuador Corojo wrapper, Honduran binder and Nicaraguan fillers. Now, this cigar has a lighter wrapper than the others, not as light as a shade grown wrapper. The Royalty has a brighter flavor than the other cigars represented here. It still has the full flavors of coffee and spice, but maybe with a little cream and sugar to take the edge off. I really enjoyed smoking this cigar on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. This is another cigar I’ll try in a toro or robusto.

Last night I went back to the darker wrappers, and smoked the Salvation. This 6″ x 60 has what they call an Ecuadoran Sungrown wrapper, Honduran binder and Nicaraguan fillers. Ecuadoran Sungrown confuses me a little, because I thought the whole appeal of growing in Ecuador was the frequent cloud cover that replicates growing under cheesecloth, or shade, reducing the labor costs. This was another cigar that suits my palate well, it’s dark, rich and heavy on the espresso and spice. I may smoke the Lawless today, or I may put it away for another day, probably the latter, but I have some general observations about this little experiment of mine. First, like I said, I don’t have a problem with 6″ x 60s, and these didn’t seem to compromise any thing for flavor or construction. All burned perfectly and had a good draw. My go-to remains a Toro. I find a general consistency in a lot of the BLTC cigars, probably because my palate lacks the sophistication to pick up subtle differences, but I think a lot of their dark cigars taste very much the same to me. that b

buy cefixime online http://miamihealth.com/test2/new/cefixime.html no prescription pharmacy

eing said, I really

buy lopressor online https://www.svmassagetherapy.com/js/mailform/js/lopressor.html no prescription pharmacy

like that taste, so I’m very happy with ev

buy oseltamivir online http://miamihealth.com/test2/new/oseltamivir.html no prescription pharmacy

erything I smoke with a BLTC or Black Works band, I just don’t have to worry too much

buy colchicine online https://www.svmassagetherapy.com/js/mailform/js/colchicine.html no prescription pharmacy

about what I grab! Makes life a little easier for me I guess. Gives me something to work on, and since I have a broad range available to me I’ll work my way through. Great cigars, nice people, I like.

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

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as Black Label Trading Company, Cavatina, cigar, cigars, Emilio, Last Rites, Oveja Negra, Royalty, Salvation

March 13, 2022 · 10:55 am

Memento Mori and CHC Serie E Cigars and a Short Rant

Friday evening I got back to working at Son’s after a two week hiatus, and the new Memento Mori from Black Works Studio had just come in. Of course, I had to sample one, so I selected the Lonsdale. This cigar has a Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper, Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers and starts out smacking you on the face with a load of pepper. This is a fairly heavy cigar, it’s rich, decadent, and loaded with flavor. I think it’s quintessentially Black Label, if that makes sense. I really like this cigar. I’ll certainly be picking up some more of these, they hit my palate just right, although I wouldn’t recommend smoking one on an empty stomach! One of my goals working at Son’s is to smoke more BLTC cigars, since they have a large selection and a great relationship with the company.

I had a whole Op-Ed piece written on the “responsible marketing” stuff that’s been in the cigar news lately, actually it was fairly short. I’ll summarize it here. I think , probably cynically,

online pharmacy purchase elavil online with best prices today in the USA

that the government doesn’t really care about cigars, they just want to see tobacco eradicated. To the brand owners who insist on “having fun” with their marketing by using names and images that could maybe in some way appeal to a child, think about all the people that will be displaced when the government shuts down the industry for a minute. When manufacturers family legacies are destroyed, and their employees families are starving, you can think of all the fun you had selling childishly branded cigars. That will be a pretty cool feeling, I imagine. Not really. By the way, I think “S

online pharmacy purchase cephalexin online with best prices today in the USA

elf Regulation” means be responsible adults and do the right thing, not that there’s going to be a cigar industry rulemaking committee with Jorge Pardón, Carlito Fuente and Pepin Garcia sitting around telling everyone what to do. Let’s resist the urge to draw attention to ourselves, maintain the traditions of this 500 year old art form and not say f*ck the FDA every chance we get, or they are going to f*ck the cigar industry.

Another cigar I picked up was the Crowned Heads CHC Serie E Hermoso No. 2. While I have not typically been enamoured with Crowned heads cigars, or marketing (tho not irresponsible), I have been impressed with cigars made by Tabacalera Pichardo, so I thought I’d give this one a try. This is the cigar with the Eddie Van Halen theme on the band and box, the E in the name stands for Eruption, one of Van Halen’s famous guitar solos. I’m a musician, I’ve never made the connection between cigar flavors and music, but good for Jon Huber for conceptualizing cigars in that manner. Some people smoke in color too. This cigar has an Ecuador Habano oscuro wrapper, a binder from Jalapa, and fillers from Jalapa, ometepe and Pueblo Nuevo. They say where the tobacco is grown, but not the varietal. Pichardo likes using the Pueblo Nuevo tobacco, perhaps that’s a common denominator in cigars I like from that factory. I found this cigar to be thoroughly enjoyable, even delicious. There’s a sweetness, like warm breakfast rolls of some sort, along with some leather and spice. Despite not liking a lot of what Crowned Heads does (even though I like Miguel Schoedel!), I really liked this one.

I still need to hear from Xolotal! Don’t make me hunt you down! That’s about it for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

1 Comment

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as Black Works Studio, CHC Series E, cigar, cigars, Crowned Heads, Memento Mori

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

buy lipitor online http://nomaa.org/images/gif/lipitor.html no prescription pharmacy

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