Category Archives: Review

September 7, 2025 · 10:25 am

Some Saint Luis Rey Cigars, a La Riqueza, a DBL and a Shop Visit

Yesterday I did one of my most favorite things to do, as relates to this blog.  Usually when I have giveaways, the winner is in some far flung place, this time he was in the same county as I am!  Of course, I save $20 in shipping, and spend triple that at a cigar shop, but it’s so much more satisfying!  I get to meet a friend I hadn’t met yet, and visit a new shop!  More on all that later, first I want to talk about a sampler I picked up from Best Cigar Prices last week.  I had some birthday points or something, can’t really remember why I ended up shopping there, but does it matter?  I have been trying to expand my experiences with Altadis products, so I settled on the Saint Luis Rey “Battle of the Titans” sampler.  This had three each of the Natural and Maduro SLR Titan size, which is 5½” x 60, and was right around $40 delivered.  Six cigars for $40 isn’t bad. Back around 2017 I was smoking one of these and took an unfortunate stumble and fellow my face, smashing the cigar.  To be honest, I couldn’t tell you if it was a natural or maduro, so I figured a side by side comparison was worth doing.  I also like the folks at BCP, and it wouldn’t hurt me if you used the links on my site to buy some stuff from them, this sampler seems to be available in limited qualities.  These are good smokes.  They both started off with what I consider to be a bitter wood, or maybe like peanut skins, if that makes sense.  They both sweeten over time, with the maduro hitting that sweeties sooner than the natural.  Both had a good burn and draw, I smoked a couple of each to compare.  This is one of the few cigars in the Altadis portfolio that isn’t made by A.J. Fernandez thatI like!  These are made in Honduras, quite possibly by Plasencia, so maybe it’s just stuff from Casa de Garcia in the DR that doesn’t trip my trigger?  Obviously, more research is necessary. 

 

Last week I grabbed some Tatuaje cigars that were in the “new-to-me” category, turns out a couple are pretty recent, this one goes back to last November. This was the first time I’ve seen the La Riqueza  Tuxtla LE 2024, so I bought one. Back in 2010 I made a brief visit to the New Orleans IPCPR show, and Pete Johnson was the first guy I ran into, and he gave me a La Riquza Lancero.  I haven’t smoked enough of this line for some reason!  I guess I don’t see them on shelves that often.  This is a 6 3/8″ x 44 Lonsdale or Cazadores size, which is a very cool size that doesn’t get enough love.  This guy starts out strong, and it’s immediately apparent that I need to take my time with this (the case with any small ring cigar, smoke them slow or they overheat!).  It was earthy, with some dark dried fruit and espresso notes.  I’ll be putting a few more of these in the humidor, or it might just be a go-to when I stop in Cigar Mojo – The Grove for a smoke!  

 

Yesterday I took a drive to the western side of my county, to a shop that I’ve been hearing about for a year os so, but hadn’t gotten out there to visit.  When I found out that last week’s giveaway winner lived out that way, it seemed like a greet way to combine some of my favorite things, visiting a new shop, meeting a reader, and saving shipping!  I hesitate to mention the name of this shop.  I can imagine a very prominent retailer causing this new, and very nice, cigar shop a load of trouble, as the guy I’m thinking of, rightly so, is very protective of his trademarks.  The last thing I want to do is cause the proprietor any problems.  The shop is located in Cochranville, PA at the intersection of Rts 41 and 10, most folks would say it’s in the middle of nowhere. This is fairly accurate because I used to live not far from this location, and it is, indeed, in the middle nowhere.  All that said, the shop seems to be doing well, the humidor is well stocked with a great variety at great prices, and the lounge is clean and has really good ventilation.  As I expected, Jeff W. was a great guy and I enjoyed spending a cigar getting to know him!  He was very kind and gifted me a cigar on the way out, a DBL 12th Anniversary Toro. He had seen this rated a 99 on Stogie Press and smoked one there and was impressed.  I gave it a smoke when I got home and was equally impressed.  This is a 5 7/8″ x 56 toro, I guess, with a Mexican Habano wrapper, Organic Corojo ’99 Cuban seed grown on the DBL Tobacco Farm binder, and Organic Criollo ’98 Cuban seed, Organic Carbonell, and DBL T-13 fillers.  That’s a lot of words I copied and pasted!  It’s box pressed and has a cedar sleeve.  Nice looking presentation.  This cigar smoked well, I got some citrus tang that I originally thought was an exotic spice, but then  it mellowed out.  It was a very nice smoke, even after giving Jeff a pretty large box of goodies, I felt like I owe him another cigar!  I enjoyed the day, good cigars, nice lounge, good company.  

 

I’m just noticing that some of my older content is disappearing, something I need to ask my web host about, I guess. It’s possible I only have so much database space, and older stuff scrolls off.  I’m going to try to put some stuff back, but it’s not going to be easy! That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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August 31, 2025 · 10:12 am

Stolen Throne 919, Tatuaje Cohete Corojo, Howard G Cigars and the Giveaway Winner!

Photo credit Micky Pegg

Here we are, 16 years of writing CigarCraig.com!  After all this time I still have to talk myself into going to a cigar shop after work!  It’s nothing personal, and I always regret it when I pass up an opportunity, but it’s a struggle for me to leave the comfort and safety of my home smoking lounge!  Weird, right?  I’m actually an introvert, but I do my best to hide it.  Anyway, Thursday evening I visited the Wooden Indian where Lee Marsh from Stolen Throne Cigars was doing an event. I consider Lee to be a friend, and it wouldn’t have been right for him to be in the neighborhood and miss seeing him.  I love some of his cigars, add the Castle 919 to that list.  I picked up a couple of the new Castle 919 cigars, a Robusto and a Belicoso, the only two sizes offered.  Castle 919 has an Habano Claro wrapper, over Nicaraguan binder and fillers, made at the Rojas factory. I smoked the Belicoso, which is 5″ x 54 (the Robusto is 5″ x 50), and was delighted.  This has the sugar cane sweetness I enjoy and was really good to the last drop!  This may rise to the top of my Stolen Throne list of favorites, although the Crook of the Crown and Three Kingdoms will always rank highly.  It was a treat to see Micky Pegg there as well and learn that All Saints Cigars is healthy!  It is disappointing that they dropped my favorite size from their lines (Churchill), but glad they are still around!  Lee and I stopped by Cigar Mojo – The Grove afterwards where I smoked a Yorktown Fleet Robusto, which is still not my favorite, but growing on me. Lee is deeply hurt that I don’t care for this blend (or the Call to arms). 

 

Friday was my birthday, my whole family (8 of us) went out to a nice dinner.  It makes me happy having all of us together.  We got home a little late, so it was the perfect time to smoke a 4″ x 50 Tatuaje Cohetes Corojo that I had picked up when I visited Cigar Mojo – The Grove.  I should get over there more often, it’s literally a mile from my house, refer back to the first couple sentences of this post. This is the first Cohetes I’ve smoked in the Tatuaje line, it’s curious to me that it exists along with the 4 3/8″ x 52 T110, they are different blends, but similar sizes.  This was a really good little smoke. It started out with spice, but an interestingly different spice.  Starting with spice is expected, but this was a different flavor.  It sweetened slightly as it smoked, and was a really delicious little smoke, that lasted at least an hour for me.  Looking forward to the T110 Corojo I picked up as well to see how they compare. 

 

Once again, a Smoke Inn special sucked me in, who can pass up $20 for five cigars delivered to your door in a couple days?  This one was two Rocky Patel Cameroons and three Howard G Cameroons.  It’s a no-brainer. While I was interested in trying both, the Howard G cigars were my first priority. I think I met Howard at a trade show, it would have been outside the bar in the Venetian,  but I don’t recall formal introductions.  I’ve been hearing good things, so I wanted to sample the brand, and I like Cameroon, always have.  It looks like this is in the Magic Stick line, which also has a Habano and Connecticut. I notice that they also have a Golf themed line which has a Front Nine and Back Nine. I hope Ryan Gallimore (check out the new Cigar Circus site!) is OK with that, as he had a Front Nine and Back Nine in his Swinger Cigars line many years ago.  I will be on the lookout for the Magic Stick Habano, but this Cameroon wasn’t bad!  It has a raw nuts sort of nuttiness, and I seem to get some kind of nuts flavor from Cameroon.  It was a fairly bold flavor, the cigar smoked very nicely. 

 

OK, now to announce a winner in last Sunday’s big giveaway.  Apparently I guessed right on what the mystery Freestyle Live cigar was. which surprises me more than anyone.  It’s a really good smoke, and I look forward to getting my hands on them when they hit stores.  I consulted Google’s random number generator, and 4 was the number, and the number of the counting was 4.  This corresponds to Jeff W., who needs to email me his contact information so I can get this out. I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with some more stuff for future giveaways!  Thank you all for reading over these last 16 years!  

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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August 24, 2025 · 9:28 am

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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August 17, 2025 · 9:32 am

Cohiba Spectre, Rocky Patel Dark Star and Artista Falu Cigars

This week we made settlement on my parents house, the house I grew up in for the most part.  It was the end of three and a half months of clean-out, and there’s still a ton of stuff we have to find homes for. But the stresses of having to run back and forth to the house are over. I needed a celebratory cigar, and General Cigars was very generous in sending samples of the ’24 Cohiba Spectre, which was just recently released.  They have this cigar priced at $149.95, which is absurd, or course, but it makes this the second most expensive cigar I’ve ever smoked (Davidoff Dom Perignon from the ’70s was the most expensive).  These are packaged in a ten count articulated cylinder that has the cigars in individual humidified tubes, with a travel humidor in the middle.  My cigars came in cellophane.  Clearly a lot of the pricetag is in the packaging, it’s probably a better value dropping the $1500 on the box!  Not that the cigar isn’t great, I hate that I loved it.  It’s a 6″ x 52 toro, with a 7-Year-Aged Havana Connecticut 2017 wrapper, Mexican San Andrés binder and Criollo 98 from Mao Dominican Republic, San Andrés, Vuelta Abajo fillers.  It starts spicy, and progresses to a neat array of exotic spices throughout.  It’s quite interesting and delicious.  The only other Spectre I’ve smoked was the first one in 2018, and it doesn’t hold a candle to this one.  I was very impressed.

 

Coming back to reality, last week I had mentioned picking up some new-to-me cigars, and one of them was the Rocky Patel Dark Star, of course in the 6″ x 52 toro.  I thought Rocky liked making toros 6½”?  This is and interesting blend, it has a Honduran Corojo wrapper and Nicaraguan, Honduran & Paraguayan fillers.  I always appreciate a good burn and draw, this had it, and it had what I consider to be bright, woody flavors.  Around the band I got a sensation of cinnamon, which I found interesting. I probably don’t smoke as many Rocky Patel cigars as I should, I usually find something I like about them.

 

Another cigar I picked up was the Artista Falu in, you guessed it, toro size.  I believe this is the third in their newest series, with the Harvest and Midnight being the others.  This one has a Broadleaf wrapper, Indonesian binder and a proprietary blend of Dominican tobaccos.  It’s a box pressed 6″ x 50 toro.  I really like this series, they are fairly priced in the $12 range, and smoke really well.  This cigar had a lot of dark dried fruit and espresso characteristics, and was squarely in my wheelhouse. I’ve had a good relationship with Artista for a long time, nice folks who make a good product.  

 

Last night I smoked a Wise Man Claro, so I decided to smoke an old El Güegüense this morning to see how they compared.  No similarity, they are very different cigars.  Both excellent, grab up any El Güegüense you see!  That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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August 10, 2025 · 7:00 am

Black Label Trading Co. Eletto, Enclave by Eladio Diaz and Timeless Supreme Cigars

One of the shops local to me recently changed ownership, and I’ve been able to find some new-to-me cigars there.  the first one that caught my eye was the Elatto from Black Label Trading Co.. This it Black Label’s tenth anniversary cigar, Eletto is Italian for “chosen one”.   I’m pretty happy I chose this one.  This was the 6″ x 50 toro, and has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Ecuadorian Habano binder, and Nicaraguan fillers, made at their Oveja Negra factory in Esteli.  This didn’t taste like a typical Connecticut Broadleaf cigar, not that it was a disappointment, there are plenty of cigars I can chose if I want that flavor.  This was very interesting. It started with some dry cocoa powder, a little on the bitter side, and sweetened gradually, but not very much.  I really like a lot of the cigars BLTC makes, and I grab one as often as I can.  It was nice to see something this new (only a week or two on the market) in this local shop.  It’s not the closest shop to me, it’s two miles away, but it’s pretty convenient.  

 

Another cigar I picked up was the A.J. Fernandez Enclave by Eladio Diaz in the 6″ x 54 toro size.  Eladio Diaz spent 40 years at Davidoff, and was most recently Head of Production and Quality Control.  He’s quite a prolific blender, then partnered with William Ventura to start Freud Cigars.  The blend is a Corojo ’99 wrapper from Ecuador, an Ecuadoran binder and all-Dominican filler. It’s made at Tabacalera Diaz Cabrera in the DR.  This is all a little odd, since the cigar doesn’t seem to have anything to do with A.J. Fernandez except for the name. The Enclave line celebrates camaraderie in the cigar industry, so I guess there’s that.  I’ll be honest, this was not a cigar that really fit my preference.  It had a nutty, creaminess, but a little bite as well. I actually thought it was a shade wrapped cigar, and was surprised that it was Ecuador Corojo.  While it’s not for me, if you like the older Davidoffs, or Ventura cigars, this would be a good cigar to try, especially for just under $10.  

 

I’ve been negligent in sampling the offerings of Ferio Tego, so I was pleased when I saw the Timeless Supreme on the shelf.  I haven’t been able to pull the trigger on the Elegancia and Generoso, too rich for my blood.  I picked up the box pressed 660, which feels more like a toro.  I used my CigarMedics The Baller on this one, I’ve been using the Il Maestro and Guillotina De Saka most of the time. Both cut exactly the same, by the way. This is a Nicaraguan puro, made by Plasencia. Of course, Timeless was a brand developed by Michael Herklots when he took the Nat Sherman brand from a catalog brand back into the premium space. When Altria divested itself of the Nat Sherman cigar brands, Ferio Tego acquired the trademarks to continue the brands. Timeless Supreme is probably the strongest of the four varieties offered, at least I found it to be quite strong.  This is a leathery cigar, burn and draw were perfect, and I put it down sooner than I normally do.  I still enjoyed it, and look forward to sampling, or resampling I guess, the rest of the Timeless line. 

 

We’ve been super busy cleaning out my parent’s house, but the end is in sight. We have settlement this week and that chapter will be behind us. We still have a lot of stuff to liquidate, but at least we won’t have to worry about the house.  Wednesday’s cigar will be a good one!  That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig 

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