My last visit to the cigar shop had me procuring some new cigars, the last of which was the E.P. Carrillo Pledge. They had both sizes, the 5″ x 50 Pequel and the 6″ x 52 Sojourn, of course I selected the Sojourn. It’s funny, there was a time when I opted for the robusto every time, and I’m not sure it wasn’t cost over preference. I think as I’ve gotten older (I’m hesitant to say “matured”), I’ve valued the experience over the cost, and I prefer the experience I get with a toro. Sure there are times when a Robusto fits my schedule better, I might smoke a couple today, but it’s because I have so damned many of them in my humidors and I usually find myself unfulfilled when I finish one. Anyway, back to the Pledge Sojourn. This cigar has a Connecticut Havana seed wrapper which may or may not be grown in Massachusetts, depending on the source of information. I’ve seen tobacco farms in Massachusetts, so it’s totally possible. It’s a dark wrapper, and it’s beautiful. The binder is from Ecuador and the filers are from Nicaragua. Of course it’s made in La Alianza, Ernesto’s factory in the DR. I forgot to check my band to see if it’s signed, Ernie signed six of each size and if someone finds one they win a humidor. Hang on, be right back. Nope, no golden ticket for me! It was a 1 in 1250 shot. I bet Kameron at the shop checked them all, the band came off awfully easy 😁. I kid. This is a delicious cigar with a beautiful burn and draw. It’s full bodied and full flavored. It has some cocoa and pepper, and I might have initially mistaken it for broadleaf, but it wasn’t as sweet. As a longtime fan of EPC’s work, I am once again impressed, this is another winner. Considering how rarely I spend $12 on a cigar, this one is worth every penny. Yum.
Here’s some news from the folks at Drew Estate that I was too lazy to post separately a few days ago:
Drew Estate announces today that it will donate $50,000 to Operation: Cigars for Warriors (CFW) during its virtual Barn Smoker Live event, which will broadcast direct
ly from the Florida Sun Grown farm in Clermont, Fla., on Drew Estate’s Facebook page (facebook.com/drewestatecigar) on Nov. 14, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Due to COVID-19, Drew Estate cancelled the five Barn Smoker events that had been planned for 2020 in Connecticut, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Florida. Instead, Drew Estate decided to Bring the Barn to the People, announcing its Barn Smoker Good Will Act, through which Drew Estate fully refunded all Barn Smoker ticketholders, sent each of these ticketholders all the incredible swag they would have otherwise received at the in-person events, and decided to showcase a virtual Barn Smoker open to all adults free of charge.In 2014, Drew Estate hosted its first Barn Smoker at Hopkinsville, Ky. The event brought premium cigar consumers onto a real American tobacco farm and educated them on how the dark fire-cured tobacco used in the company’s Kentucky Fire-Cured cigars is grown, processed and finished. The event, which included local cuisine and spirits samplings proved so popular that the company has expanded its Barn Smoker program to a total of five annual events.Jonathan Drew, founder and president of Drew Estate, notes, “I kinda view life as a great big mosaic of stories. As a tobacco man, I love the deep, raw, emotional and authentic stories of real American tobacco farmers and families. One of our goals at Barn Smoker is to immerse our DE family into farm life and premium leaf culture. This year, we have a virtual spin on things, but the team is hard at work loading in super duper surprises and cool shit. I have to say that most of all, I’m just lookin’ forward to chillin’ with you guys. Much love!”
A hallmark of each Barn Smoker has been assisting CFW, a 501(c)(3) charity that has shipped approximately 1.2 million cigars to deployed troops and has also provided them with boutique coffee, cigar accessories and other items. Drew Estate’s association with CFW dates to before the charity’s establishment in 2012 when Drew met CFW’s CEO, Storm Boen, and provided legal advice on how to set up a charity.
“Drew Estate has been our biggest supporter and J.D. [Jonathan Drew] has always been a big proponent of ours,” Boen says. “His legal background provided the foundation for Operation: Cigars for Warriors. Since then, he’s ensured that we are at all of Drew Estate’s Barn Smokers, which has helped us a
lot, especially after 2016 when the FDA declared that manufacturers couldn’t donate cigars to troops anymore.”
Prior to 2016, Drew Estate had donated more than 150,000 cigars and has also donated approximately $250,000 to the charity to date. While the FDA now prohibits cigar companies from donating cigars to charitable causes, it still allows cigar companies to donate money to charities. A portion of each Barn Smoker ticket sold supports CFW, and Drew Estate also donates raffle items to raise additional money for the CFW at every Barn Smoker event. Despite not holding in-person Barn Smokers in 2020, Drew Estate will add another $50,000 to its charitable contributions to CFW on November 14th.
“While Covid-19 has seriously impacted all of us, it has had a tremendous effect on charitable contributions worldwide, but the missions these charities serve have not diminished,” says Drew Estate CEO, Glenn Wolfson. “In the face of tremendous challenges brought on by the pandemic, Cigars for Warriors continues to successfully fulfill its mission of sending deployed soldiers and sailors cigars and other much needed items they request. With gratitude to these brave men and women serving overseas, Drew Estate is proud to support Cigars for Warriors and we encourage everyone to consider donating their cigars, time or money to this worthwhile charity.”
Financial donations to Cigars for Warriors may be made via PayPal. Cigar donations may be made at an authorized Cigars for Warriors donation center or sent to Attention: Cigars for Warriors at 8585 SW Hwy 200 Unit # 16, Ocala, FL 34481. For more information, visitcigarsforwarriors.org.
Barn Smoker Live Promo Video
ABOUT DREW ESTATE
Founded in New York City in 1996, Drew Estate has become one of the fastest growing tobacco companies in the world. Under their mantra “The Rebirth of Cigars”, Drew Estate has led the “Boutique Cigar” movement by innovating new elements to the tobacco industry with their unique tobaccos and blending styles that attract new and traditional cigar enthusiasts. In their Gran Fabrica Drew Estate, the Nicaraguan headquarters, Drew Estate produces a variety of brands such as ACID, Herrera Estelí, Herrera Estelí Norteño, Isla del Sol, Kentucky Fired Cured, Liga Privada, MUWAT, Larutan by Drew Estate, Nica Rustica, Pappy Van Winkle Barrel Fermented Cigars, Tabak Especial, Undercrown, Florida Sun Grown, and Java by Drew Estate.
Contest
It’s time to announce the winner of the cool AshStay ashtray, Western Digital Hygrometer and DAHOT Sampler from my humidor! Thanks to Chaim at Cigar Oasis for the Ashtray and Hygrometer! Cigar Oasis has been a great supporter of CigarCraig.com for decades! OK, you’ve told me a million times not to exaggerate, it’s been a long time, and I use Cigar Oasis products in my humidors, as well as an Ashstay on a daily basis! So, I put the entries into a spreadsheet, randomized the list, then used a random number generator, and came up with Patrick Hart as the winner! KingOHarts, please send your address, and you really don’t need to prove your age, because I remember you from the Usenet days, so you MUST be of legal age! Let me scrounge around and see what I can come up with for a future giveaway, the holidays will soon be upon us! It’s getting harder and harder!
One of the cigars I picked up when I visited CigarCigars in Berwyn, PA last weekend was a CAO Expedición, the latest TAA exclusive. This is a 6 1/8 x 52 Toro, which is one of the reasons I was drawn to it. One of the other reasons was that it was a CAO with
ke the Bones, this also has a Connecticut shade binder, which is very interesting. The wrapper and binder are around fillers from Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. Now that I think about it, the Bones also has fillers from Honduras, Nicaragua and the DR. I’m sure they use different fillers, as they are very specific about the varieties used in the Bones, and they make the Expedición in Honduras and the Bones is made in Nicaragua. There’s also the fact that the Expedición seemed much smoother to me than the Bones. I really enjoy both, but I’ll stop comparing the two now and concentrate on the Expedición. It was very good. It had the nice, rich espresso with some sweetness and a little underlying nuttiness from the binder.
It wasn’t the typical bold Broadleaf cigar, the shade binder adds a uniqueness that’s really interesting. I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable cigar.
Monday evening I was a guest on the I’d Tap That Cigar Show‘s Impromptu Night Live show along with Dave Mayer and the staff of the Wooden Indian Cigar Shop, one of my favorite local cigar stores. I’ve included the video here, but I’m let to believe that I won’t be allowed to embed videos at some point. This is a drag, because I have over 100 videos of my own on YouTube and I only ever really used that as a place to store videos and embed them on my site. I don’
t want to have to send my readers off of my site to watch the occasional video content I may decide to present. Anyway, watch it here while you can, and check you Kevin’s channel, he always has some great guests.
Don’t forget to go back to Sunday’s post and enter the contest
I know, you’re saying to yourself: “didn’t Craig just have a great contest a few weeks ago? Is he going back to his old ways?” Well, it just works out that a cool item came across my doorstep that I wanted to share with you guys, and why wait, but more on that in a bit. First, I made another visit to one of my local CigarCigars shops, this time the one in Berwyn, PA. Kameron is the manager there, and curates the Instagram account for the shop. I have been seeing his proclivity for pics of vanity license plates, so I figured there was one glaring omission from his collection and it was my responsibility to fill that void! Give him a follow (CigarsBerwyn), and make sure you follow CigarCraig1 (CigarCraig has gone dormant as I can no longer log in!). While there I picked up a few new-to-me cigars, as I do, and smoked the Island Jim San Andrés No.2 last night. I smoked the regular issue No. 2 several years ago on a birthday visit to Cigar Mojo. Holy crap, I just checked and it was 2014, can you believe the Island Jim No. 2 has been around for over 6 years? Damn! That’s just stupid. I guess it’s no more stupid than me eating an Island Jim BBQ Pineapple Pork stick well over two years past its sell-by date (I did this recently, BTW, it was good!). The San Andrés No. 2 has the same 6″ x 52 Torpedo shape as the Original, which has a Jalapa wrapper, and I assume this also has Honduran binder and fillers with, obviously, a San Andrés wrapper. It also has the stripped head and shaggy foot. I really enjoyed this cigar! It reminded me of the old Leccia Luchadors with the spicy cocoa flavors, and I don’t think that has anything to do with both Jim and Sam being from Pittsburgh. This was a really good smoke and I recommend it!
Contest!
Hopefully you didn’t just skip through the Island Jim part, because I really spent some time on it. Anyway, let me tell you about this contest! One of my favorite things to do is to share things that I really enjoy, hoping that others will enjoy them too. My friends at Cigar Oasis are the exclusive distributor of a product that I’ve been using long before they became involved, so when they sent me one, I decided this would be a great time to share one with one of my readers! About 6 years ago I discovered the AshStay ashtray, and I’ve been using mine daily on my porch ever since. This thing is great. It keeps the smell and mess contained, and doesn’t look unsightly. When my grandkids come over I don’t even have to clean up and put it away! It’s super cool! Mine is white, and if I clean it (big if!), it looks brand new. The one they sent is Gunmetal, normally I’m a big fan of Gunmetal, but I have a perfectly good white one, and have plenty of ashtrays, so I’m willing to part with this one! Also, from Cigar Oasis, is a Caliber IV Digital Hygrometer. I have been using one of these for years as well and it’s a great hygrometer! Of course, it wouldn’t be a CigarCraig contest without some cigars. I put together a seven cigar sampler of one of my favorite unknown cigar brands, Danli Honduras Tobacco (DAHOT) from my humidor. These are cigars that I really love, and love to share. There’s Don Juan Calavera in Connecticut, Maduro and Sumatra, Flor Maya in Connecticut and Habano, The Clown Corojo and Marchetti box pressed Maduro. These are some of my go-to cigars, I love them all. The Don Juan Calavera Connecticut is one of my favorite Connecticut cigars, and the Sumatra was my favorite cigar of 2018. The usual rules apply. Leave a comment on this blog post, and this blog post only, to enter. You need to be of legal age in your jurisdiction to win cigars. I’ll select a winner next Sunday, October 25, 2020. It would be great if the winner read the blog post and emailed me their shipping info instead of me having to track them down 😉 ! Good luck!
I’m kind of running low on new cigars to write about, and this isn’t a plea for new cigars or anything, just a bit of explanation of why things seem to have slowed down here a little. I haven’t been getting out to get new things to smoke enough. Some of it’s laziness, some of it’s just enjoying some of the cigars I have on hand. For instance, I smoked a CAO Flathead Sparkplug 450 that had been in the humidor for a few years that was really good, and smoked the new Perdomo 10th Anniversary Sungrown Toro again and decided that I really do enjoy it more than the Maduro, which is strange for me. This concludes the “odds and ends” portion of tonight’s post.
Tonight I smoked this year’s Herrera Esteli Habano Edicion Limitada Lancero. This cigar was announced last March, and was part of Drew Estate’s Summer Takeover. In the Herrera Esteli lineup, I tend to prefer the Maduro varieties, the Norteño and the Brazilian Maduro, and I tolerate the regular Habano line. In the case of this Lancero, it’s a different story. This is a special cigar. I need to dig around, because I think I still have one of last years in the humidor, but this years is really good. It’s a 7″ x 38 with a cap, no pigtail, which is just fine, I generally cut them anyway, no manhandling the pigtails for me. There’s a candy sweetness about halfway through that really was delightful, and the whole cigar was a pleasure to smoke, assuming one smokes it slowly, so as not to overheat it. As with all thin cigars, if they are smoked too fast they burn hot and taste bitter. This can be confused with being stronger, or the tired wrapper to filler ratio argument. Smoke a lancero slow, and it’s a nice, cool smoke.
If you et a minute, check out MyCigarShirts.com, they have some neat cigar t-shirts and sweatshi
Let’s just get past the fact that I slacked off on my Wednesday post and substituted two news pieces instead. Pure laziness on my part. I did smoke a few new to me cigars this week, so let’s focus on those here! First off was a cigar that was generously shared with my by my amigo Adam a while ago. This was a Los Caidos, which is made at Aganorsa and a dollar from each cigar goes to a charity to help the families of fallen police and firefighters. There are red and blue bands so the consumer can choose which department they wish to support, but both cigars are the same. It’s a tasty smoke, with some pepper spice, wood and earthiness. It burned well and provided a great smoking experience. If you bought these only to support the cause it would be OK, but you’d be getting a great cigar too. I think there’s a good message of unity on the band design as well. As always, thank you to Adam for sharing this with me!
A while ago Kevin at Cigar Prop (TY!) had shared some cigars with me and one of those was a large torpedo that had a cedar sleeve stamped “ The Duke Cigars First Edition”. This looked a lot like the presentation of the Green Grass Gringo by Kerr Viajante’s Stogie Road Cigars, so I jumped to the incorrect conclusion that it had something to do with him, but the correct conclusion that it originated from the house of Dr. Gabby Kafie. Dr. Kafie was kind enough to point me in the right direction, with was to Duke Cigars, which I should have figured out, I guess. Other than the cigar was a large torpedo, probably 6.5” x 52ish (I failed to measure), wrapped in a cedar sleeve, I know nothing about it. There’s no information anywhere I can find. One can assume it has some Honduran tobacco, and it had a really nice looking milk chocolate brown wrapper.
Unsurprisingly, the predominant flavor note was cedar, but it was a nice, sweet cedar and I enjoyed it. It was a very nice cigar and I’d love to know more about it. From what Dr. Kafie indicated in his comments, it seemed to be an ongoing concern, but who knows in 2020. If you come across it and like cedar medium bodied cigars, grab one and give it a try!
I had heard about Foundation Cigar Co. releasing the Charter Oak Habano, and saw that they had been landing in some of my local CigarCigars shops, so I stopped in to the closest one to my house yesterday and grabbed a few. I don’t generally speak ill of these shops, but, having worked retail myself, and been a customer for even longer, I have a bit of a pet peeve about providing customer service, and I wasn’t really happy with what transpired (Steve, Art, Scott, Tom even, if you’re reading, pay attention!) I know that I’m not the typical consumer, but I’m not certain that the gentleman working the shop knows me, and when I walked in he was in one of the comfy chairs with the TV on with another patron (who was familiar to me and greeted me). I asked if they had the new cigar I was s looking for, and his response, without getting up, was something along the lines of “beats me”. I don’t think this response is ever OK. Now, I’m familiar enough to go look myself. If it were me working and anyone walked in I would be out of the chair asking “can I help you”, walking into the humidor if I was asked a question, especially if I didn’t know the answer. As a consumer, and former retailer, it pissed me off, frankly, and I hope someone from CigarCigars reads this, because I heard about a similar situation at one of the other stores (in Bucks County? Can’t remember, a co-worker mentioned it). In the challenging environment we live in, customer service is what’s keeping the doors open for you. Another customer would have walked out faced with that sort of reception. There are too many options. Enough of my rant, I bought Toros and Grandes (6″ x 60) and smoked the Grande last night. For a $7 cigar it’s fantastic, heck, it’s fantastic regardless of price. The Habano wrapper is sweet, reminiscent of a Sumatra, and maybe it’s a varietal and I’m forgetting. It’s good, real good. I would have gotten the torpedo, which is exclusive to this wrapper, but they only had the two sizes I got. I may have to smoke a Toro today. Honestly, you could have a box of these, the maduro and Connecticut in your humidor and have something for everyone and every situation, for a small investment. So the takeaway here is customer service is key and Charter Oak cigars are awesome.
couple today, but it’s because I have so damned many of them in my humidors and I usually find myself unfulfilled when I finish one. Anyway, back to the Pledge Sojourn. This cigar has a Connecticut Havana seed wrapper which may or may not be grown in Massachusetts, depending on the source of information. I’ve seen tobacco farms in Massachusetts, so it’s totally possible. It’s a dark wrapper, and it’s beautiful. The binder is from Ecuador and the filers are from Nicaragua. Of course it’s made in La Alianza, Ernesto’s factory in the DR. I forgot to check my band to see if it’s signed, Ernie signed six of each size and if someone finds one they win a humidor. Hang on, be right back. Nope, no golden ticket for me! It was a 1 in 1250 shot. I bet Kameron at the shop checked them all, the band came off awfully easy 😁. I kid. This is a delicious cigar with a beautiful burn and draw. It’s full bodied and full flavored. It has some cocoa and pepper, and I might have initially mistaken it for broadleaf, but it wasn’t as sweet. As a longtime fan of EPC’s work, I am once again impressed, this is another winner. Considering how rarely I spend $12 on a cigar, this one is worth every penny. Yum.It’s time to announce the winner of the cool AshStay ashtray, Western Digital Hygrometer and DAHOT Sampler from my humidor! Thanks to Chaim at Cigar Oasis for the Ashtray and Hygrometer! Cigar Oasis has been a great supporter of CigarCraig.com for decades! OK, you’ve told me a million times not to exaggerate, it’s been a long time, and I use Cigar Oasis products in my humidors, as well as an Ashstay on a daily basis!
So, I put the entries into a spreadsheet, randomized the list, then used a random number generator, and came up with Patrick Hart as the winner! KingOHarts, please send your address, and you really don’t need to prove your age, because I remember you from the Usenet days, so you MUST be of legal age! Let me scrounge around and see what I can come up with for a future giveaway, the holidays will soon be upon us! It’s getting harder and harder!
