Category Archives: Trip Report

by CigarCraig | May 28, 2014 · 8:42 pm

On The Water With Compounds, Elements and Musings H2O Cigars

We had a really beautiful Memorial Day weekend here in South-East PA, so we did some fun stuff. Sunday my wife and I took a ride out to Valley Forge National Park and walked around for a few hours, giving me time to enjoy a couple robustos, a Perdomo 10th Anniversary Maduro and an Illusione Rothschild, both really good smokes, and, surprisingly, not a comment or sideways glance from any of the people we passed. I expected someone to make a snide remark, but I was left along to enjoy my walk and smokes. I smoked a nice Rocky Patel Olde World Maduro Lancero after dinner to top off the day. I don’t smoke a lot of Rocky Patel cigars, but I enjoy this one. The burn and draw were good and it had a nice flavor.

Monday we decided to take a family trip to Cape May, NJ for lunch via Lewes, DE. There’s a ferry that runs regularly from Lewes to Cape May, and we thought it would be fun to spend some time out on the water on a beautiful day. Of course, I formulated a cigar plan. Since I had just picked up a set of the Foundry Compounds, Elements and Musings H2O cigars on Saturday, it seemed appropriate that these be smoked on the water. The H, 2 and O are small perfectos, 4″ x 48ish, closely resembling the iconic Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story, or the more obscure El Titan de Bronze Hemingway. They come in a box of thirty-six, with twelve cigars in each blend. Consistent with the rest of the line, which I’ve been doing my best to find and sample, there is little information about the wrapper, binder and fillers. Sadly, these were on a buy one/get one free table, and I’ll have to get back to that shop and pick up some more!

Being that I have borderline CDO (that’s OCD in alphabetical order like it should be), I started with the “H”. The “H” had a chocolate brown, almost rosado wrapper. This was my first cigar of the day, before lunch even, and was very tasty. I quite enjoyed the sweet and leathery flavor. The cigar was perfectly formed, easy to light, and burned well. It had a little bit of a tunnel issue about half way thorough, but re-lit well and wasn’t a problem. Obviously, being out at sea, it was a bit windy, which may have been a contributing factor. We saw a bunch of dolphins frolicking, which was pretty cool. This is a cigar I’d like to have a few more of. It had a very nice, unique flavor.

We drove into the town of Cape May, NJ for lunch, and settled on a little place called Angelo’s Restaurant, which used to be Beach House. It was right on the beach so we sat in the covered outside deck area and had fish and chips (my son had a pizza burger, has to be different!). We did a little shopping and headed back to the ferry terminal. The trip back was a lot windier than the trip over, but I was undeterred. I lit up the “2” cigar for the ride. This one had a dark chocolate colored maduro wrapper. It also had the semi-sweet chocolate flavor to go along with it. This turned out to be my favorite of the trio, with the “H” being a close second. It also had the same burn problem, tunneling about half way through, but, again, I attribute that to the wind. I saw a couple dolphins again, a treat for me as I had never seen them in the wild before. They seemed to be having fun.

Who would have thought there’d be traffic from the shore inland on the last day of a holiday weekend? It took us three hours to get home when it only took two hours to get there with no traffic. By the time we got home I was ready to sit out on the deck with the “O” cigar and relax. This cigar had the lightest wrapper of the bunch, but only slightly lighter than the “H”. It had finer veins and was very nice looking. This cigar burned perfectly and didn’t have the tunneling problem I had with the other two, although the conditions were far more conducive to relaxing with a smoke. I found it to be a dry smoke, not quite as rich in flavor as the previous two. This was my least favorite, although still quite good. As I said, I’ll have to try to get some more of these, at $2.50 a piece they were a bargain. It’s too bad the shop is 50 minutes away or I’d grab some more.

I amused myself (and probably annoyed others) by taking some video documenting this trip and the cigars smoked.

httpv://youtu.be/mW9esQNkEtA

Of the Compounds, Elements and Musings line, this selection is a limited release, so I imagine they will be hard to find. I know they sold out at last years IPCPR show. There’s a few in the line that are regular production, the Carbon and Uranium. I really liked the Carbon, and I haven’t smoked the Uranium yet because it’s 7″ x 70, but I do have one in the humidor. These are fun to try because they aren’t really very expensive, and they use some very unique tobaccos and have flavors that you don’t get in other cigars. Of course, the packaging is over the top and pretty neat. You’ll recall I bought a box of the Vanadium because of the V shaped box, which sits on the top of the bookcase, good thing I enjoy the cigars!

Contest

You may recall we had another contest in the last post, that was two in a row! Far from my record of 13, but not bad having two in a row. We had 55 entries….no, wait, 54, Brian Impson left two, but I only count him as one. It makes things a little harder for me, but I’ll figure it out. I consulted Random.org once again, and it gave me the number 17. Steve McHenry, please send me your address so I can ship this stuff out to you. Stay tuned for more contests coming up!

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Review, Trip Report

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Compounds Elements and Musings, Contest, Foundry, H2O

by CigarCraig | February 12, 2014 · 9:35 am

My Sunday Visit to The Cigar Inn in New York City

Sunday I found myself in New York City with a few hours to kill and made my way to The Cigar Inn on 2nd Avenue around 54th street. This place came highly recommended and I hadn’t been there before, so it seemed like the right choice. I arrived at about 9:30 which was about an hour and a half early, so I wandered to a nearby McDonalds and had breakfast and sat down to fix Sunday’s post that I goofed up! That’s what happens when I deviate from my schedule and pre-write a post. I got it fixed for the most part, apologies to those who had to suffer through the less than optimally formatted post. Anyway, I headed back to The Cigar Inn right on time for their 11:00 opening time. If I have one complaint about this shop it was that it was late opening. It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine, if your sign says you open at a certain time, you should be open! I understand stuff happens, and the weather lately has not been exactly cooperating. I sucked it up and was happy to come in out of the cold when one of the owners arrived to open shop. As I had some time to look at the storefront while I waited, I noted that there was a small cigar store Indian, some shaving equipment, and some hats and shirts, no real evidence of cigars present, except for the name on the awning. Is this how the future may be?

Once inside, the store is really beautiful, lots of dark wood and leather. There’s a generously stocked walk in humidor to the left, and the counter on the right. Just past the humidor there is a fully appointed barbershop with two antique barber chairs and sinks. Just beyond that there’s a shoeshine stand on a raised platform. From there back there is a large bank of humidor lockers with tables and stools in front of them. The Cigar Aficionado branded lounge takes up the back of the store with comfy leather seating and several TVs. The back of the store has an atrium kind of feel with floor to ceiling windows looking out on a garden sort of area. Classical music is quietly playing in the background lending even more class to the place.

I bought my day’s supply of cigar from Bacz (I believe that was his name), who recommended their house brand and offered me the Brooklyn size to try. This is a 6″x60 with Nicaraguan fillers, a Honduran binder and a wrapper from Peru. This is a very nice smoke. It had a unique flavor, not your typical house blend, I think that the Peruvian wrapper really adds a flavor that sets it apart. It reminded me a little of the C-Gars Ltd. Inka Secret Blend from the UK. It was obviously my first cigar of the day and it wasn’t too heavy, but it wasn’t mild either. Loads of pleasant flavors, smokes very well with perfect construction and burn (I gave it a V-cut). I ended up going back and buying another Brooklyn and the 5″ x 60 Bronx. They were out of the smaller ring gauge sizes. At $9 in NYC, you have to try it if you find yourself in a Cigar Inn Shop.

I smoked a La Aroma de Cuba Monarch next, followed by the new Camacho Corojo Maduro toro, both I found to be pretty reasonable by NYC standards at around $8 each. Oddly, and I have to wonder if the first cigar may have had something to do with this, but both cigars had an “ashy” taste to them. I will need to revisit both of these because neither were very enjoyable, and they should have been. It’s a Winston cigarette kind of taste, which certainly may not be something everyone can relate to, but that’s how it struck me. I get the same sensation from Cuban Cuaba and Victor Sinclair cigars. I will say that it didn’t detract from the ambiance of the lounge, and I smoked the Camacho in the company of Matthias Clock, who writes the FineTobaccoNYC site. I had corresponded with him in the past and dropped him a note that I’d be in town. He was gracious enough to take some time to meet up with me and hang out for an hour or so. I always enjoy meeting peers in this endeavor of cigar smoking. Matthias organizes cigar events in New York City, so if you’re in the area check his site for the latest goings on. All in all, I had a nice, relaxing day in the big city, just hanging out and smoking cigars. If it hadn’t been so frigidly cold I might have been tempted to break some laws and have a cigar in Times Square or Central Park!

On a related note, last night I smoked an Inferno Flashpoint, a Famous Smoke Shop exclusive made for them by Oliva. From the website:

Inferno Flashpoint cigars are the sister act to the original Inferno by Oliva. The core blend consists of perfectly fermented, estate-grown Nicaraguan ligero longfillers balanced by a healthy dose of sweeter Jalapa-grown leaves, deftly wrapped in an exquisite Sumatra leaf. Expect a medium start that blooms into a creamy, complex, full-bodied flavor bomb. Order a box now, or test drive a 5-pack and discover this affordably-priced selection that will spread like wildfire among cigar lovers.

This cigar is a winner. The flavor was very clean, that’s what kept coming to mind. I really enjoyed the creamy flavor and smoked it until I could no longer tolerate the juxtaposition of freezing/burning fingers. As it says above, it’s smooth and creamy, but loaded with flavor. The burn was perfect and I never had to touch flame to it after the initial lighting. From the name you might think this would be a knock your head off spice bomb, but it’s not. It’s a rich, satisfying experience. Thanks to Travis at Famous for allowing me to experience these!

That’s plenty for now. Heading out to NYC again tonight to attend “The Official Memorial Tribute To Sid Bernstein – Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of “The Beatles’ Historic First Concerts at Carnegie Hall” Presented by The Bernstein Family and Sid Bernstein Presents…” at The Cutting Room. Won’t be a cigar journey this time, but will be pretty incredible anyway. Hopefully the impending snow storm tomorrow doesn’t get in the way! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Review, Stores, Trip Report

Tagged as Camacho, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Famous Smoke Shop, Flashpoint, Inferno, La Aroma de Cuba, oliva, The Cigar Inn

by CigarCraig | October 7, 2013 · 12:53 am

2 Guys Smoke Shop and The Cigar Authority

Editor’s Note: I warned you last time that today’s post might be late! I was writing this on my tablet on the road, and somehow, I inadvertently posted the first paragraph last night. Sorry for the false start! It’s not quite as easy posting from the tablet. So here’s the real deal, better late than never.

This weekend my wife and I got in the car and drove north to New Hampshire for a weekend getaway. One of the destinations on our list was the 2 Guys Smoke Shop in Nashua. I’ve been hearing about this chain of shops for years through various channels, it was about time I paid a visit. Dave Garofalo just celebrated his 28th year in business. As well as running the three stores in New Hampshire, he has a mail order business and sits on the boards of the IPCPR, the TAA, and the CANH (Cigar Association of New Hampshire). The store in Nashua is impressive. They have 1100 open boxes in display cases surrounding the shop, a huge walk-in humidor filled with boxes, and a Diamond Crown Lounge. The pricing is excellent considering there is no cigar tax in New Hampshire, and they do my home state of Pennsylvania one better by not having sales tax. I bought a handful of cigars and settled in with a Bandolero Traviesos robusto and chatted with Dave. The Bandolero is an exceptional smoke. It was sweet, smooth and had a curious little twang in the background. This cigar is made by Nelson Alfonso, the guy behind a lot of Habanos S.A.’s packaging like the ceramic jars and such. The packaging for these is equally as cool. These are offered in tin “jars” each of which has a picture and the story (in Spanish) of the Bandolero, who was someone who kind of black marketed tobacco in the days when Spain had a monopoly on cigar production. The tins even have a humidifying element in the lid. It’s a terrific cigar with great presentation.

One of the things Dave does in his free time is a two hour radio show every Saturday called The Cigar Authority. I’ve been listening to the podcasted version of the show for a couple years and have corresponded with Dave several times about things that have come up. I was excited when Dave invited me on the show, clearly it was a slow week for them. The first cigar we smoked was a Psyko 7 from Ventura Cigars, which was very nice. It was medium bodied and had a nice sweetness. It was quite enjoyable. I’m not going to go into what was discussed, you can listen yourself at TheCigarAuthority.com or find it on iTunes. I ended up sitting in on the rest of the show. In the second half we smoked one of Dave’s own brands, La Gianna Havana, in honor of his daughter’s birthday. He gave me a Maduro which was a really nice, tasty mild cigar. While I was sorry to put the Psyko 7 down, this was a suitable replacement. It was a great time, an I was honored to ba able to participate. My one regret was that I wasn’t able to follow the chat-room or Facebook and failed to give a shout out to my old friends Mike Perry and Mark Williams (and maybe Dan Poe). Sorry guys! Jenn was trying to type it in a large enough font on her tablet for me to see but the show was over by then. Next time, I promise. I also had the pleasure of meeting a Facebook friend, Charlie Pitarys, who has a cigar lounge in Tennessee. He was there celebrating his birthday. Many thanks to Dave and Mr. Jonathan for their generosity! They made us feel like family and that we belonged there.

I’m not sure when I’ll visit New Hampshire again, but you better believe I’ll be visiting one of the three 2 Guys shops while I’m there. In a funny coincidence, we ran into Johnny Brooke, the PR guy for Drew Estate, who just moved to the Boston area from Miami. He was there with Derek Stewart from the reddit.com/r/cigars forum. I had no idea John had moved north and it was a bit of a “what the f*** are you doing here” moment for both of us! Small world. Jenn and I said our goodbyes and headed to Maine for a lobstah dinnah, and passed the 2 Guys Seabrook store on the way. Today we headed to Burlington, Vermont, then home to PA. We had a whirlwind weekend, covering eight states! Lots of fun and lots of great friends and cigars.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Review, Stores, Trip Report

Tagged as 2 Guys, Bandolero, cigar, cigar store, cigars, La Gianna Havana, Psyko 7, The Cigar Authority

by CigarCraig | July 21, 2013 · 3:54 pm

IPCPR 2013 – Kings Cigars

A day or two before leaving for the show I received a curious package in the mail. In it were a couple of cigars, a t-shirt and a cutter with the name “Kings Cigars” all over them. I had never heard of these guys, why are they sending me stuff? So one of my first missions at the IPCPR show was to seek them out and see what they were all about. It turns out Anwar and Pete are a couple entrepreneurs with a passion for cigars and quality who decided to try their hands in the cigar business. They have been working for the better part of 3 years to make a product that is ready to bring to market, and now was the time. I spent a few hours today in the pool with the Conde Churchill, a San Andreas wrapped beauty. This is one that came in the mail last week, so it had a little bit of humidor time while I was away in Vegas. The other two that were included were the box pressed, 6″x60 “King of Kings”, which we were told at the show to give them some humidor time before smoking, a month or two. It’s a shame to see some reviews popping up already for cigars that aren’t quite ready yet. It may be a few weeks until I dig into the show samples as I like to give them time to adjust from their journeys. The Conde Churchill was an outstanding smoke. I smoked it in the pool, which was very relaxing on a hot summer day. It only needed a minor correction and the draw was perfect with a V cut. I don’t know if I could have enjoyed this cigar more, and I think I saw a couple of robustos floating around which I look forward to. If the rest of the line is as good as this, I think the Kings guys really have something, and I’m not just saying this because we had such a great time visiting with Anwar, Pete and their crew at the show. Their booth was an oasis for us, and they were always quite friendly and accommodating (the Cuban coffee wasn’t bad either!).

Here’s the video telling us about Kings Cigars:

Thanks to Anwar and the guys for everything, and we wish you the best. It’s hard to get a new boutique going, but having a solid cigar is a step in the right direction.

In other news:

Saturday my lovely wife and I went to Cape May, NJ to go on a four hour fishing trip off the coast on the Cape May Lady. Now, you can take my man card away if you want, but I’m not very interested in fishing. I was afraid of getting my line tangle with someone else, or, worse, actually catching something! I had made certain that cigars were allowed, of course, so the only stick I was interested in holding was a 7½” x 56 Box Pressed Recluse Excepcionales. This had a year of age on it as the folks at Iconic Leaf had given it to me last year at the trade show. This, like every cigar I’ve tried in the line, was exceptional! We had planned on getting to Cape May early, having lunch, and getting on the one o’clock trip. Traffic foiled that plan, so we had lunch and wandered around the outdoor mall there for a few hours (where I enjoyed a CAO Concert while Jenn shopped) while we waited for the 7pm night fishing trip. We got on the boat and I lit up my cigar, which was stellar, and we got under way. Seas were choppy, and the cigar kept my mind off of the fact that I was queasy. We stopped near the Cape May lighthouse and dropped lines (I was waiting for the boat to stop pitching!). A couple guys caught little sand sharks, but about 40 minutes in the deck hand came around to tell us that we had to go in because the generator failed and we didn’t have lights. They get a hefty fine from the Coast Guard if they are caught without lights! It was dark by the time we were getting in, an it was a bit eerie. They gave us tickets to use in the future with their apologies, so we may go try again, although we seem to have a track record with missing boats! We had a great day, though, it was certainly something to talk about!

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under IPCPR, Review, Trip Report, Video

Tagged as Cape May Lady, cigar, cigars, IPCPR, Kings Cigars

by CigarCraig | May 15, 2013 · 8:45 pm

Trip Report: Drew Estate Cigar Safari – Part 4

In the saga of my latest trip to Nicaragua and Cigar Safari, we are up to Tuesday afternoon. First, I want to take care of the current contest business. It seems that I don’t read my own posts and inadvertently changed the rules in the middle of the contest. As I commented on the last post when this error was pointed out, I’ve decided to attempt to make this right by awarding two prizes, the initial prize of two 5-packs of My Uzi Weighs a Ton Baitfish, a cap and cutter and assorted goodies to the person who guessed the exact number of banded cigars I smoked (the first to guess that number), and a 5-pack of Baitfish, a cap and cutter and assorted goodies to the person who came closest as of Sunday, May 11 prior to the last post. I apologize for the misstep on my part and it won’t happen again. The winning number was 14. Lloyd L. had guessed 13 in the first round and should have been the winner, all I can say is that he should be happy with the consolation prize. smoke770 was the first to guess 14, so he is the winner of the original prize. These gentlemen need to send (or re-send to verify) their addresses so I can mail this stuff out. Thanks to all who participated and to Brian for pointing out my blunder in a gentlemanly way.

When we got back from our tour of the tobacco bodegas and the new construction at Drew Estate, we had a nice lunch and I enjoyed a Liga Privada No.9. We then started our tour of the Drew Estate factory. Much of this I missed, along with the pre-industry portion of the tour, two years prior. The rolling galleries are expansive. Every wall has tremendous artwork on the walls and on various items throughout It’s a very clean and pleasant place to work. I do admit it was a little surreal hearing a Barry Manilow song piped into the main gallery. Hundreds of pairs are rolling thousands of cigars. We were all given the opportunity to apply wrappers to bunches under the tutelage of experienced rollers and I can do OK up until it’s time to finish the cap, which I can’t get the hang of cutting the flag and finishing it off, and I might as well have hooves when it comes to cutting out the cap and applying it. It’s very humbling and gives one a renewed appreciation for the art. In another area we each had to remove the center vein from a leaf. The women working there do hundreds of leaves a day without even blinking. I managed to do it cleanly on my first try, but chalk that up to beginners luck and a cooperative leaf.

We wandered through packaging areas, cold storage rooms and more tobacco storage on our way to the blending session. Last time my son and I worked off of a menu in the Esteli emergency room and my cigars turned out to be very good in my estimation. I was going for a certain taste and strength and I was very happy with the results. I went into this thinking of recreating my blend in a larger size, but there were many more varieties of tobacco to choose from, and I had the benefit of seeing, feeling and smelling the leaves. I ended up with a similar, but different blend that I hope will be just as good. In a few weeks I’ll let you know. Of course, I used my favorite San Andreas wrapper again, but with a Cameroon binder. I used a similar proportion of Brazilian Mata Fina in the filler, some Ometepe and Jalapa Ligero that smelled really good. Instead of the 5″ x44 corona I made last time, I went with a 6″ x 54 toro for reasons I’m not completely sure of, it just seemed right at the time. It was great fun and will be really interesting to compare the two.

After we finished there we took a short tour of Jessi Flores’ Subculture Studios. This is where all of the art happens. The were secretive about the current project, which was the booth for the upcoming trade show, but they silk screen all of the boxes there, as well as t-shirts, stickers and other goodies. Again, the walls are painted with various scenes and designs. It’s quite a unique and amazing department that is very different from other factories.

DSCN3267

The evening was spent dining and enjoying fine cigars with Jonathan, Steve, José, Nicholas, Johnny Brooke and Pedro, who had been generous and gracious hosts to us on the trip. I constantly marvel at the great friendships I’ve made in the cigar industry, just because I decided to talk about cigars on the internet. The group of bloggers and media folks I consider friends and look forward to seeing them all again. You will find some great posts about this trip at CasasFumando.com, Cigar-Coop.com, and StogieGuys.com and I imagine several other outlets, many more detailed and informative than mine. Thanks to everyone at Drew Estate for including me in this adventure, I learned many things and will always treasure the memories and friendships.

Here’s the slideshow from the factory tour and the final evening:

httpv://youtu.be/erYXGmuco1I

That concludes my recap of the trip for the most part. I will, no doubt, throw in pictures and videos and commentary where I think it may be relevant to the content of the day. Now I have to go back to paying attention to the cigars I smoke so I can get back to my normal routine (for instance, tonight I smoked a Gurkha Seduction Toro that was outstanding, I really love that cigar!)!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Trip Report

Tagged as cigar, Cigar Safari, cigars, Contest, drew estate, joya de nicaragua