Category Archives: Review

September 26, 2021 · 10:26 am

J.C. Newman’s Yagua and Oscar Valladares 2012 Maduro Cigars

My least favorite time of the year arrived this week, Autumn.  Summer flew by, I feel like I didn’t get to do many of the things I would have like to have done, for one reason or another, and now it’s another long, cold winter ahead to look forward too. One can only hope that these months pass as quickly as the summer did. Here I am, wishing my life away! Time really needs to slow the heck down. On the one hand, I have a humidor full of cigars and not enough time to smoke them, on the other hand, I have a humidor full of cigars! On another subject, does anyone know how many consecutive Sundays I’ve managed to publish a blog post?  It’s gotta be some kind of record.  Anyway, I smoked a bunch of cigars this week, a couple were new. The Yagua, while not necessarily new, is the 2021 version. J.C. Newman makes this at the PENSA factory in Nicaragua, using what they call and under fermented US Broadleaf wrapper. I suppose the idea is for it to finish fermenting while aging in the bundles wrapped in the royal palm leaves. The one I smoked came from the center of the bundle so it had a hexagonal shape, these definitely are reminiscent of the Henry Clay cigars of the 90s in shape, and they had Broadleaf wrappers as well. They too were bundled wet and you never knew what shape you were going to get. I really enjoyed the flavor of this cigar, it’s got something a little different than other broadleaf cigars. Maybe there’s a meatier flavor, it’s not as much the expresso or cocoa that I usually get. It’s very different than, say, a Triqui Traca, which Saka confused this for on a Facebook group (I admonished him to wear his glasses!). I think there’s a lot of reasons to try this cigar, I might try another one today! 

 

Yesterday afternoon I was looking for a shorter cigar and remembered I had an Oscar Valladares 2012 Maduro Short Robusto which I had picked up a few months ago as I was walking out of the humidor at the Wooden Indian. I certainly had enough cigars in my hands already, but these caught my eye, and I hadn’t yet sampled anything from this line. This is a 4″ x 50 box press cigar, good for and hour or so. It has a San Andrés wrapper, Honduran binder and nicaraguan fillers. These looked really good when I walked by them, like little chocolate bars, which is what made me pick them up. Smaller cigars tend to age in my humidors as I tend toward toro and larger cigars. I need to make a concerted effort to smoke the robustos on the weekends when I smoke more than one cigar, I guess. If I smoke a larger cigar I don’t have time for a nap! This was a delicious cigar, it was heavy on the black licorice, which I don’t taste much in a cigar. I found it intriguing. I guess it’s time to check out some more of the Oscar Valladares line. I think I know the broker in my area. 

 

Please join me in extending Happy Birthday wishes to my friend, and long time reader and friend of CigarCraig.com: Kevin Shahan!  You might know Kevin better as Mr. CigarProp, from his cigar accessories, and wildly popular YouTube and other social media properties.  I’m not sure how Jessica puts up with him, but he’s all right in my book!  Happy Birthday Buddy!  (pictured here with myself and Sandy Cobas at El Titan de Bronze a couple years ago in a photo taken by Jessica).

 

Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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September 19, 2021 · 11:41 am

Araposa and Providencia Speakeasy Cigars and Some Random Thoughts

Friday I posted the press release from Black Label Trading Company about the exclusive cigar that they were doing for Fox Cigars in Arizona. What should appear at my door on Saturday but a surprise box from Fox with a bundle of these cigars! I’ll be honest, I was planning to order some from them as soon as they became available anyway! Of course, Fox Cigars is an advertising partner here, but I still buy cigars from them, they are on my preferred vender list, they do a great job. I usually let cigars rest, but these came in a sealed bag

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with a Boveda, and I checked one with my trusty Humidimeter and it was 62% at the foot, right where I like to see a cigar, so I figured what the heck, I’m itching to smoke one of these! This is a 5½” x 54 box pressed barber pole cigar, with San Andrés and Ecuador Corojo wrappers, Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers. For a “right off the truck” experience, this cigar burned perfectly, like a cigar that had been in my humidor for years. What a great cigar! The press release mentions “flavors of black cherry, anise and bitter cocoa”, I’ll give you the dark chocolate, and maybe a dark fruit, but I missed the anise, I’ll keep an eye out for that the next time.  If you’re a fan of Black Label Trading Co., keep an eye on Fox Cigars and snag some of these. James Brown is going to be at Son’s Cigars in my neighborhood on October 6th, I plan to get up there that night. By the way, “raposa” is Spanish for fox, Araposa must be a dialectal variation or something? 

 

A few weeks ago I smoked through a sampler of Providencia cigars, and had an issue with the Speakeasy, so I ordered another one from Underground Cigars, which is their main ecommerce partner. I was ordering some of the Essential, which I took a liking to, and added one on. Knowing that the first experience I had was an anomaly, as I had never had a Providencia cigar that wasn’t perfect in every way in construction, I needed to give it a second shot. Stuff happens. Of course, this one was perfect. This cigar is a long corona, I didn’t measure it, nor is there any information listed on the website, but it’s 6″ x probably 44 ring? it’s a nice size cigar. Close to a lonsdale, really. Again, I don’t know what the makeup of the cigar is, but it has a dark, oily wrapper, I do know it’s made at the Flor de San Luis factory in Esteli. It’s a fairly full bodied cigar, with rech, espresso flavors.  I had a sense with the fist sample I smoked that it was a good tasting cigar, which is what made me spend the money to smoke it again, and I was right, it was well worth it. I dug it. I may fire up one of the Essentials later if I can rebound from the Flu and Shingles vaccines I had yesterday that have left me feeling like crap today. 

 

I wanted to talk about something I read a

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bout yesterday that touched a nerve. Ministry of Cigars, which was a news/blog site based in Singapore was shut down. The site focused more on the International cigar scene, didn’t sell cigars, was a blog site like my own, or Halfwheel or Cigar-Coop, or a bunch of other sites. Apparently the owner actually had the Singapore authorities actually at his door, taking him in to whatever official offices deal with such things, and he could face fines for advertising cigars. He had to take down his site, of course. Naturally, in the US of A we say, “oh, that can’t happen to us, freedom of the press and all”, but watch it…we let things like this new oppressive tax go through, and this same sort of thing might be next. It may well be illegal for us to have ads on our sites, our content may be considered advertising, plain packaging, etc. Call your representatives, tell them you vote and you oppose this and it will put people out of business. At the very least go HERE and send an email. 

 

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

 

CigarCraig 

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September 12, 2021 · 10:45 am

CAO Flathead V21 Carb and Some Other Cigars

I received samples of the newest offering in the CAO Flathead line, the V21 Carb 6″ x 60, several weeks ago, and was anxious to try them out. Too anxious, it seems, because they needed some rest. I struggled with the first two, they just didn’t perform well, and I certainly didn’t want to rush to judgement. These aren’t cheap dates! The Carb has a $14 MSRP, similar to the V19, it’s predecessor. The V21 has a San Andrés wrapper over a Broadleaf binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican Ligero fillers. I expected to have my ass kicked with this cigar. Despite the first two having humidity related draw issues (I hate that), I did get a sense of the great flavors that the cigar had in store, so I was annoyed with myself for jumping the gun. I smoked one this week that burned perfectly though, and was surprised that it wasn’t more powerful! It had a brightness to the flavor that I didn’t expect, some light spices, not at all heavy.  Shocked, I was! This should have been much different that it was, judging by the tobaccos used, but perhaps the way the tobaccos were fermented, and there’s a sentence in the press release about this: “They then gave each of the filler leaves an abbreviated fermentation to lock in the tobacco’s native characteristics and added a secondary aging process to the filler to bring everything together.”  How much of this is a spin on “someone screwed up a pilone and we had to find a way to turn chicken shit into chicken salad” or whether there’s some real

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science behind it, who knows, but it was a really good cigar. If you are looking for a Flathead CArb on steroids, this may not be it, but if you want a more refined Flathead, this is a good way to go. I used the 13mm side of my Adorini punch on this and it made a perfect opening in the head. By the way, it’s a 6″ x 60. but the Box Press makes it feel more like a toro.

 

Speaking of Pilons, I came across a few CAO Pilons in the humidor and seemed to recall not being overly fond of them when they came out and figured I’d revisit them. This was a project where, if I remember correctly, they fermented some component of the cigar in smaller pilons than normal. Usu

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ally pilons are about six by ten feet and four feet high and weigh maybe a thousand pounds, and all of the leaves on the carefully stacked pile are rotated several times over the months it takes to properly ferment the tobacco depending on the internal temperature. it’s a whole controlled composting process, basically. Anyway, the CAO Pilon does this on a smaller scale, with a round pilon, maybe about 40 inches in diameter and as many inches high, going off of memory. It might be one tobacco, or all of the fillers, not sure. Anyway, I like that they put the blend info on the band, that’s helpful! It has an Ecuador Honduran wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers.  I found it to be a tasty smoke, on the leathery side, with some spice and earth, maybe a hint of sweetness. I find that I like this cigar now, perhaps a year or two in the humidor has been kind to it.  

 

Last night I smoked a cigar I have traditionally enjoyed, the CAO Session. This is a Broadleaf wrapped cigar with a Dominican binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. I bought a bunch of these in the Garage format, which is 5½” x 54, and kind of forgot about them. I honestly don’t remember these being so strong, and, given the name, I don’t think they should be! The one I had last night left me queasy. I love the flavor, dark, rich espresso and tobacco. I seem to have a lot of CAO cigars, and as I was looking through some cigar related stuff, I seem to have more CAO hats than I should too (a few pre-date General Cigar’s involvement, which makes sense, I suppose). Anyway, I will have to clear some time to revisit the Session, although I don’t want to feel crappy again! it’s kind of like that Cornelius and Anthony Mistress I have that made me ill, I’m curious to see if it would do it again, but am I that curious? 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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September 5, 2021 · 10:14 am

Providencia Bank Shot, The Essential and Straight Fire Cigars

Providencia Cigars seems to make a lot of Limited edition, small batch releases, in addition to their excellent core line. Ray Zinar keeps me up to date on them, by the way, he has roots in the South Jersey, Philly area, it’s on my bucket list to meet up with him. Most of these cigars are made in the Flor e San Luis Factory in Esteli, while the core line is (or at least was) made in Honduras. I’ve smoked a bunch of cigars from Providencia, and all except for one in the latest round was perfect. I am omitting that one from mention as I’ve included more in a recent order for future consideration. Stuff happens. Providencia Cigars are available at Underground Cigars in the event folks are compelled to sample them, and I would encourage it. Let’s look at the Bank Shot first.  This is a Torpedo shaped cigar with a dark wrapper. It has a San Andrés maduro wrapper with Nicaraguan and Peruvian fillers. I initially thought it was broadleaf wrapped, and Ray agrees with me that it has that look and feel, I had initially guessed PA Broadleaf, what do I know? What I do know is that I liked it. It was a perfectly constructed torpedo and was full bodied and really quite good. They are fond of using interesting Nicaraguan tobaccos in the filler blend. Thumbs up on this one. although I wasn’t comprelled to shoot pool. 

 

The Essential is a toro, it felt like a 6″ x 50, could have been 52, I didn’t measu

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re it. I have to take a moment to be a little critical of Underground’s website, it could use a little more information about the cigars. a picture and a price isn’t enough in my opinion. In their defence, maybe these don’t hang around long enough to put in the effort, and it’s really not their job to be an informational resource for me personally, but don’t consumers want more information? it is just me? Doesn’t size matter, at least?  I digress. The Essential pays homage to essential workers, with the symbols for fire, police and EMS on the band. Providencia has a history of social conscience, and

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it wouldn’t surprise me if the make some sort of donation to a charity along one of these lines. I bought more of these cigars. I immediately got the sense that there was some Sumatra going on with this cigar, and although I was told it uses a Habano wrapper, the image of the box lid says Sumatra Nicaragua, so I’m going to say I’m partially right on this one. It had the sweetne

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ss I find in my favorite Sumatra cigars, and I loved it. Another perfect burn, and a great cigar experience. As I said, I voted with my wallet, and can’t wait to have to find room in my humidor for more of these. Medium plus in strength, super good. 

 

Last night I smoked the Straight Fire. This is Connecticut wrapped toro, 6″ x 54 fr

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om the looks of it. I really should be measuring these when there’s no data available. It’ a holiday weekend after all. By the way, for the folks posting the memes about cancelling Labor Day because people aren’t working, speak for yourselves. Lots of people are working, go piss up a rope. Sorry.  Anyway, Straight Fire seems an odd name for a Connecticut cigar, it implies strength, power, not a mild, creamy cigar. Well, while it’s not a powerhouse, it’s not a mild cigar either. This is a full flavored cigar. It actually started off with some pepper, not a lot, but enough to know it was there. There was a lot of flavor, it was creamy, but definitely heavy cream, no 2% milk here. The slight bitterness of the shade wrapper was there, but after a while I forgot I was smoking a Connecticut cigar. I tolerate Connecticuts, there’s a few I really like, but this one was pretty darned good.  

 

There’s a lot of talk about companies that make limited and small batch cigars, and I’ve been critical of some of them myself. I believe that Provdencia is actually doing this the right way, using a small factory and limited resources, and selling them through a limited channel with very little hype. They seems to have a fun balance between the core line and the limiteds. That’s all I have for today, enjoy the long weekend!

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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September 1, 2021 · 10:13 pm

Four of the Six Cigars from the CigarProp Sampler from Cigar Bundles of Miami

A couple months ago I placed an order with Cigar Bundles of Miami and one of the items I picked up was the CigarProp Sampler. Of

course, one of the reasons I got this was to support Kevin of CigarProp, who has supported me for so many years. He’s a gr

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eat friend and I get behind whatever ventures he’s involved in. I’ve had some great experiences with cigars from Cigar Bundles of Miami too. There were six cigars in the sampler, and it was on sale for $19.99, which made it ridiculous not to buy it. I think cigars are made in the US, although at the price, I find that hard to believe. The first cigar I smoked was the Green Moon (or Green Yin, depending on where on the website one looks). Like many of the cigars in this sampler, this is a piece of art. It has a maduro wrapper with stripes of Connecticut shade, with a candela crescent in the middle of the cigar. It’s also box pressed. It’s a beautiful cigar. It’s listed as a Nicaraguan puro. This had a ver

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y interesting flavor, You’d think that it would be predominantly maduro, but it had the brightness of candela in the mix, which was very interesting. Very unique and interesting. 

 

Next I smoked what would appear to be the opposite of this cigar, they call it the Inner Peace, it’s a Candela wrapper with what look to be habano accents and a Maduro and Connecticut Shade Yin and Yang symbol in the middle, also box pressed, and also a Nicaraguan Puro. This is another beautiful piece of cigar art. These cigars are almost too cool looking to smoke, but at the price, it’s easy to justify lighting them up and enjoying them. Interestingly, this cigar didn’t taste a whole lot different than the Green Moon! I would have thought it would have been all Candela, but it wa

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sn’t. Sure, there was that bright candela flavor there, but it wasn’t dominant. I can say that if you hate Candela, you aren’t going to hate these cigars! I thought it was interesting that this cigar had a “tan line” where it looked like it was in a bundle that one side might have been exposed to light. 

 

Next up was a Nicaraguan/Honduran b

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lend that they call “La Bala. These are interesting shaped torpedos, with a bit of a stepped taper.  Like the other two, this is 6” long, and is probably 56 ring gauge (the others are toros).  I can’t find any specific blend information, but I’d put my money on a Habano wrapper with shade accents. It was a nice tasting cigar, on the milder side, although it took a few cuts to get the draw right. The sampler comes with two of these that have different designs. I think I have smoked this before and might have more of these somepace. I continue to be amazed by the amount of handwork involved in these and how they can let them go for such a reasonable price. 

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Tonight I smoked the straight candela toro. They list this as the Tampa Candela, and it’s a Nicaraguan Puro. Does this mean it’s rolled in Tampa? I’m not sure. I’ve smoked a great many candela cigars, and this is actually one of the better tasting candela cigars I’ve had. It was surprisingly good. It was Cro Magnon Fomorian good. Again, this is the kind of candela that if you don’t like candela, you just might like. It had the refreshing, bright flavor you’d expect, but it wasn’t grassy. It was sweet, and smoked very nice, although it

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took a few minutes to get it burning. It was raining like crazy so it was very humid. Once I got it burning it smoked well. Again, hard to believe these are as inexpensive as they are

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. I can’t wait to smoke the box pressed maduro. I have a whole bunch of neat looking and great tasting

cigars in my humidor from Cigar Bundles of Miami. I’d smoked them all the time if I didn’t have so many other cigars to smoke! 

 

Full disclosure: I purchased the cigars discussed in this post and receive no compe

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nsation or consideration from Cigar Bundles of Miami. 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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