by | July 28, 2019 · 10:21 am

ScrewPop’s MagPulse Cutter and the Acid Kuba Arte Cigar

For a year I’ve been looking forward to ScrewPop‘s guillotine cutter, the Magpulse. They teased it in July of 2018, then announced it this July, and it intrigued me from he get-go. I have no idea why. ScrewPop has some really nice keychain tools, and they have some good quality cigar devices in their line-up, obviously they like cigars over there. They’ve missed on a few things, but made up for it in re-designs. I like to think my suggestions led to the punch cutter design being what it is today. They have a cigar scissors sort of device, the Chopo, which works quite well. All of their tools have traditionally included a bottle opener, with the exception of the ashtray, and the Magpulse cutter. The Magpulse is a premium accessory, certainly not a keychain accessory. it’s priced at $149, with an introductory price of $99, so it has a premium price tag too. So far as I can tell, there’s one little spring in this thing, and that’s in the button which releases the blade. There are two strong magnets on either side which are mounted in opposition to one another which force the blades apart, and give resistance when applying the cut. The company say these magnets power will degrade one percent over 100 years, so don’t expect this to work well thousands of years from now. It might still be sharp, though, because the blades on this cut . cigars like a hot knife through butter. I’ve been using it non-stop and never gotten a bad cut. Granted, I have a lot of other cutters I can say the same thing about that I’ve used for years, so time will tell but the 440C Stainless Steel blades should hold an edge for a good long time. Honestly, for a hundred bucks, I expect it to last a lifetime. It is enormous, as cutter go, and something makes me want to find a case for it. As far as the magnets go, if you are in the habit of carrying paperclips in your pocket with your cutter, you might find them hanging on to the cutter, but otherwise it shouldn’t really cause any issues. It’s not like your pants are going to stick to file cabinets or anything. I kinda can’t stop playing with it, and I’ll keep using it all the time just be cause it’s so much fun to open.  Thanks to my friends at ScrewPop for keeping me in the loop. 

 

Thursday I stopped in to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA to visit with Alex and Pedro of Drew Estate again, and hear about Mojo’s upcoming move down the street to a new bigger and better location. They are moving to a former bank building and will have a bigger and better space that they will not be sharing, with be easier to get in and out of, and should server their growing clientele better! Anyway, Pedro handed me an Undercrown Manifesto, the 11″ x 40 panatela which is his event only cigar. I have a coffin of two from an event a long time ago, and I’ve never smoked one, so it was pretty cool to get to smoke one with my buddy Pedro. Obviously, a cigar this long, and this thin needs to be smoked slowly so it doesn’t overheat and get nasty. It was a packed house, and I saw some fol

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ks I hadn’t seen in…ok, I hadn’t seen them in 5 days…but I hadn’t been to Mojo in a long time, so I caught up with the guys there and heard about the move. It was a bit of a Drew Estate centered week, with the Barnsmoker and the event Thursday, then Friday I come home to a package containing an Acid Kuba Arte Water Tower, many thanks to my friends at Drew Estate! Last night I felt compelled to smoke an Acid Kuba Arte. 

 

I can count the Acids I’ve smoked pretty much on one hand. I took a puff off a Kuba Kuba my wife was smoking in the mid 2000s. I smoked a Kuba Maduro on the second day of Cigar Safari in 2011 after about 7 cigars, it was a the last one of the day and I just wanted something to smoke and I couldn’t taste anything. I smoked an Acid Toast sometime in 2013 or 14. I smoked an Acid Kuba Candela in 2017, which I enjoyed quite a bit. That’s the sum total of my Acid smoking experience. I guess it can be said that they were all memorable cigars. First off, the Kuba Arte packaging is way cool. It’s a metal water tower, with a Boveda pack in it and it’s going to sit on top of my cabinet humidor for now because it isn’t fitting inside, that’s for sure. The cigars are 5 13/16″ x 54 torpedos with a Broadleaf wrapper, and they have a sweet cap, and the weird patchouli aroma off the wrapper and foot that one gets from a Kuba Kuba. I’ll be honest, I have no idea if these had the room note that I can identify a mile away. I will say that I enjoyed the crap out of this cigar! I was a little scared, but I really liked it. The infusion was subtle, not off-putting at all. I remember that first Kuba Kuba experience years ago and having to gargle and brush my teeth, I didn’t care for the pungent flavor at all. This was nothing like that. The Broadleaf wrapper was fairly dominant, and the sweet cap was actually OK, in the way that I like it on the Sweet Jane that I smoked this week too. Maybe I’m becoming more open minded in my old age, or dementia is setting in, or something…I really, really enjoyed the Acid Kuba Arte, and I am looking forward to the Acid 20, one of which is in my possession, thanks to A

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lex of DE.  Who’da thunk it, me smoking Acids….I’m going to have to start counting on the other hand soon!

 

That’s all for today. Don’t forget to go back to Wednesday’s post and leave a comment for a chance to win the “Welcome Fox Cigars” contest! Enjoy your Sunday, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

 

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by | July 24, 2019 · 9:18 am

Contest: Welcome Fox Cigars Episode One!

We’re getting back to the old days for a while, the good old days of CigarCraig giveaways! For those of you who may not recall, search back through the archives at the months of December from about 2011 through 2015 and you’ll see where I used to do ridiculous giveaways for 12, 13 sometimes 14 days straight! It was a hoot! It got difficult for several reasons, some personal and some logistical, so I scaled it back. It’s time to relive some of th

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e glory days! We have something to celebrate, and that is welcoming a new member to the CigarCraig family, Fox Ci gars. I’ve been following these guys for a while, I’ve seen friends talk about their events in Arizona, and followed them on social media. I don’t put links on my site that I don’t believe in and patronize, and I never solicit at all, so an ad or link you can trust, and these guys are top notch. So let’s extend a laurel, and hearty handshake, to Fox Cigars!

 

Here’s the contest part! Fox Cigars has provided some goodies for giveaways! First up is some great stuff from Perdomo! There’s a Lot 23 cap, a really nice quad jet Vertigo lighter, and a Connecticut four-pack,  which  includes  a 20th  Anniversary,  a Habano  Connecticut  a Champagne,  and  a Lot  23 (which I didn’t realize was Connecticut, I learned something today!). I just smoked the 20th Anniversary Connecticut a few weeks ago and loved it, and that lighter is super cool. 

So, leave a comment to enter! I’m going to post this on Instagram, and I’m going to include comments on that post as well, just to make my life more difficult, so you can get two chances. I slipped an obscure movie reference in above, so amuse me by pointing that out for extra credit.  As usual, you must be of legal smoking age in your jurisdiction to win (and even that’s getting to be a PITA these days!), one entry per person  (per site). I’ll select a winner next Wednesday, July 31, 2019. Thanks to Rob at Fox Cigars! 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | July 21, 2019 · 10:54 am

Drew Estate Pennsylvania Barnsmoker 2019 Recap

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending my second Drew Estate Pennsylvania Barnsmoker, and I think it was my favorite Barnsmoker so far. For those unfamiliar, the Drew Estate Barnsmoker events are educational parties that Drew estate has in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Florida and Louisiana, all highlighting tobacco processing unique to those areas, on the farms that are actually doing those processes. In Pennsylvania it was held on a farm in Strasburg, Lancaster County, which grows some broadleaf tobacco which they sell to Lancaster Leaf, which sells to Drew Estate, as well as other cigar companies,  AJ Fernandez comes to mind. It’s my personal belief that Connecticut Broadleaf grown in Pennsylvania will gain popularity in the near future as the farms in the Connecticut river valley shrink and sell out to development. This is only my own speculation, but I’m pretty sure the Amish and Mennonite farmers in Lancaster County aren’t selling their family farms any time soon. I digress. The Barnsmoker is a great way to learn about all of the work that goes into the making of premium cigars in one day. It’s the Cliff Notes version of Cigar Safari, which is a crash course into the process in itself. 

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After an opening ceremony, for want of a better word, where  Jonathan Drew introduces the Drew Estate staff  talks about the company and the events of the day, the several hundred attendees are broken up into three groups, and m

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oved through three stations. My group’s first station was the field. This farm has about 8 acres of black tobacco planted, and it’s about two weeks away from harvest. They were kind enough to demonstrate how they moved through the rows, by hand, with angled loppers, stalk cutting each plant the base, whale another worker laid out four foot sticks, which they would then come along and skewer the plants on to hang on trailers to take to the barn. Pedro Gomez and Don Welk, who owns the farm, were heading up this station. Our next stop was inside a barn, where Willie Herrera and Henry Pineda and a gentleman from Yuengling brewery (Jinling to Pedro!), like last year, talked about cigar blending and the comparison to beer making. I zoned out on this a little, and enjoyed the relative cool of the barn, and had the great pleasure of meeting some fellow attendees whom I had previously only known through Facebook, notably Angelo, who has the Jersey Cigar Lounge Facebook Group. The final stop was the curing barn, where Jonathan and Mrs. Welk talked about hanging the tobacco, then we ventured to the basement where Jonathan and Fritz Bossert, from Universal Leaf (whom JD referred to often as his mentor, and has a long history in the industry with General Cigar, etc.) talked about the unique way they finish curing the leaf in PA before shipping it off for further processing. The basement was musty and crowded and stretched the limits of my claustrophobia and I admit to spending as much time making sure I had a good escape route, and clinging to a block pillar as listening to the presentation. It was one of the few instances in a cigar rel

ated presentation when I was pleased when it concluded. 

 

This Barnsmoker differed from the past two I attended in the way the cigars were distributed. The way it works overall is that you buy your admission ticket for $100, and when you check in, you “buy” your cigars for $10. This gets around the FDA no free cigars business, so you’re buying your cigars. Past events I’ve gotten 10 cigars that were easily worth $110 retail, so you’re really getting the event for free. This time was a little different. At check in we received a backpack with a cutter, lighter, stickers, cap, su

nglasses, five or six cigars including a Liga A, Feral Flying Pig, FSG, Undercrown Sungrown, and two vitolas of the BOTL cigars, and a tin of Undercrown Sungrown Coronettes (I should have paid better attention, but I think that’s right). There was also a coupon book to visit various stations throughout the day to get a Herrera Esteli Brazil, an Undercrown Maduro, an Acid Kuba Maduro (I was rather hoping for an Acid 20),  Tabak Especial, and a Ventura Axis Mundi. To my great delight, my dear friend Michal Giannini was there, and hosted a cigar rolling event, where were able to do our best at passing wrappers on cigars, which was great fun. 

The Farm
Photo by Kevin S.
Photo by Kevin S.
Photo by Kevin S.
Photo by Kevin S.
Photo Courtesy Angelo Calabrese
Photo Courtesy Jessica
Post BS Video with Macha directing
Michael Giannini

The highlight of these events is always the people. One of the things that made this one special for me, and most enjoyable, was getting to share the day with Kevin and Jessica from Florida. Of course, we should know them from CigarProp fame. I was hoping to intercept them on their drive in, but I found out their directions were taking them within feet of my house, so I mooched a lift, and we spend some extra time together. Afterwards Kevin and I did a video which I’ll share here when he posts it. Let me warn you, it starts off with him saying a lot of foolish lies, which I lacked the common sense to dispute then and there, but I’ve gotten tired of arguing that point with him! Stay tuned to the CigarProp Youtube channel for video from the Barnsmoker. There were many folks there I knew, of course, several of my local shop managers and owners were there, and I defiantly made some new friends.

 

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, it was a hot day, maybe the hottest so far this summer. To me that didn’t take away from the enjoyment. I think that beats rain, and it certainly is better than cold. Ah!  I shouldn’t forget the food!  The food was great!  Perhaps the heat lessened my appetite, but they had plenty of water on hand, of which I partook freely, and there was libations option for those who wanted it. The barbecue was excellent, the coleslaw was refreshing, the mac and cheese was delicious and they had a roast pig that I understand was really tasty. I saw Willie Herrera elbows deep in some, so it must have been good. As I said at the beginning, this was the most enjoyable Barnsmoker I’ve attended, and it may be the best large event I’ve been to. It certainly ran on DE time, but the DE clocks are getting a little closer to being on real time. If you get a chance to go to a Barnsmoker, I recommend it highly.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | July 18, 2019 · 9:25 am

News: Largest Premium Cigar Manufacturers Join Together to Challenge Improper FDA Regulation

This news came to me by way of Drew Estate, but involves them, General Cigar, Davidoff, Perdomo, C.L.E. and Tabacalera U.S.A. This is a big deal getting these six companies putting up a united front. I love that they use the FDA’s own studies against them. Check it out. 

Largest Premium Cigar Manufacturers Join Together to Challenge Improper FDA Regulation

The largest manufacturers in the premium cigar industry today filed a joint comment with the Food & Drug Administration (“FDA”) opposing the agency’s Proposed Substantial Equivalence (“SE”) Rule, which would require manufacturers to submit to an extensive application and testing regime to keep any “non-grandfathered” cigars on the market.

 

In this joint comment, premium cigar manufacturers Davidoff of Geneva USA, Drew Estate, General Cigar Company, Tabacalera USA, Perdomo Cigars, and C.L.E. Cigar Company call for full exemption of premium cigars from FDA regulation and specifically object to the application to the Proposed SE Rule to premium cigars.  According to Dylan Austin, President of Davidoff of Geneva USA, “Our joint comment filed today shows FDA’s Proposed SE Rules to be an overly broad and unjustifiably costly set of regulations that are so lacking in scientific substantiation as to be nothing more than an illegal economic ban on handmade premium cigars that will cripple the manufacturers and retailers in this important industry.” 

This joint comment marks the first time these premium cigar manufacturers, who are all also members of Cigar Association of America (“CAA”), have joined together to file their own set of comments specifically regarding premium cigars.   Javier Estades, President and CEO of Tabacalera USA, stated, “We are all proud members of CAA, which as the cigar industry’s oldest and most well recognized trade association, continues to robustly represent the interests of the entire cigar industry at the federal, state, and local levels.  We fully support CAA’s incredible work in challenging current FDA regulations, which are wrong for all cigars, and recognize that certain aspects of FDA’s regulations uniquely and disproportionately impact premium cigars.  We therefore decided to come together to address these issues head on.”

 

Added Glenn Wolfson, CEO of Drew Estate, “Our joint comment to FDA is very powerful because it is based on data.  The FDA has undertaken extensive research about the usage patterns of premium cigars and their impact on public health.  The resulting data from this scientific research is clear and unambiguous as to two critical facts.  First, premium cigars are not used by youth.  Second, based

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on the usage patterns of adult premium cigar smokers, there is no statistically significant difference in mortality rates or disease rates between the overwhelming majority (over 95%) of premium cigar smokers and non-smokers.  Said differently, the FDA’s own data makes clear that FDA regulation of premium cigars will neither impact what is virtually non-existent youth usage or materially benefit the public health.  On the other hand, due to the unique nature of this artisanal, handmade industry, the costs of FDA regulation of premium cigars will be devastating, particularly to small businesses.”

 

“The Premium Cigar Manufacturers have in our joint comment called upon FDA to look at their own research and reach the only conclusion their own data can support,” stated, Nick Perdomo, CEO of Perdomo Cigars, “that the Proposed SE Rules are simply inappropriate as applied to premium cigars and that premium cigars should be exempt from FDA regulation.”

 

Regis Broersma, President of General Cigar Company concluded, “As the leading manufacturers in the premium cigar industry, all of us proudly stand together today to protect all premium cigar manufacturers regardless of size, retailers and consumers from what can only be described as unduly burdensome, grossly over-reaching, and wholly improper regulation.  We invite all industry members to review our joint comment and to speak to your local representatives about the devastating impacts of FDA’s proposed regulations on your businesses.  Together we can make a difference.”

ABOUT DREW ESTATE

Founded in New York City in 1996, Drew E

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state 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.

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by | July 17, 2019 · 9:24 am

PDR Cigars 1878 Capa Madura and 1878 Roast Cafe Dark Roast

Last Wednesday I brought you the Capa Oscuro and the Natural Roast Cafe cigars f

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rom PDR, this week I’m writing about the 1878 Capa Madura and the 1878 Cafe Dark Roast. I find it a bit difficult when I receive a half dozen different cigars from a given company, I don’t really want to smoke them back to back and spend a week writing about the same brand, or one long post. I’m also at a point where I just need more variety and after a long day there are times I just want to smoke what I want to smoke!  Selfish of me, I know!  Anyway, this is another Wednesday PDR post. Last night I grabbed the PDR 1878 Capa Madura toro for my evening walk. Like I said about the Capa Oscuro, I’m sure I’ve smoked this before, but it’s been a while, and was probably in New Orleans. This Capa Madura is a Brazilian Arapiraca Maduro, with a Dominican Criollo 98 binder and Dominican Criollo 98 and Nicaraguan Criollo 98 fillers. We are in the beginnings of a summer heat wave, it’s mid-July, so we shouldn’t be surprised by hot and humid conditions. As far as I was concerned it was a reasonably comfortable evening for a walk after a hectic day at work. I rather enjoy the closed foot and pigtail cap treatment on the PDR cigars, it’s fun, and one gets a blast of wrapper flavor on the initial lighting. the downside is one must be wary of errant bits of flaming wrapper flying around, I’ve burned a hole in a shirt that way! It also makes it hard to tell of one will have draw problems. One didn’t this time, although the cigar did seem to absorb ambient humidity through the hour and a half I spent smoking it so that by the end it was burning a little wetter than I would like. I think this was a function of the moisture in the air, a thunderstorm was coming, than anything else. It had a nice flavor, less of the typical maduro flavors I’m drawn and more woody, earthy notes.  All-in-all and enjoyable smoke, though.

 

Once again, I have a late shift on a Wednesday, so while I write this I’ve smoking the cigar I’m writing about (about which I’m writing?  I know that’s grammatically correct, but it’s not the way I talk!). I’ve got a cup of coffee, comfortably ensconced in my screened in porch, typing away while enjoying a PDR 1878 Dark Roast Cafe Toro. After last week’s post, PJ in Florida has an image in his head of me, I’ll just leave it at that. This cigar has very much the same blend as the Capa Madura, Brazilian Maduro wrapper, with a Dominican Criollo 98 binder and Dominican Criollo 98 and Nicaraguan Criollo 98 fillers. The wrapper isn’t specifically identified as Arapiraca, so maybe it’s a less expensive wrapper, I don’t know, but the big difference is the coffee infusion. There’s really no information on the website about that, I don’t know the process, or what kind of coffee they use. I have to trust that it’s a natural process. The unlit aroma is a little bit musty, but that’s the only downside for me. I actually really like this cigar. It’s not cloyingly sweet or overwhelmingly infused. The coffee flavor is subtle, much like the coffee notes I get in many maduro cigars. The burn is perfect, a flat ember, good, but, like the Natural roast, slightly flaky ash, and just r

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ight draw. I suppose it could be a mixed filler cigar, as it’s priced around $6 a cigar, but it’s hard to say.  Of course, it’s great with my black coffee, but few cigars aren’t.  I’m pretty choosy lately, but this is actually a cigar I’d smoke on the regular. I dig it.

 

That’s all for today, let’s see if next week brings another PDR Wednesday. I’ll be attending the Drew Estate PA Barnsmoker on Saturday, so if you happen to be there, please say hello. I hope to be doing some joint media work with Kevin of CigarProp.com if possible. I know he’ll be doing a lot of videos for his Youtube channel.  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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