CigarCraig's Blog

by CigarCraig | July 12, 2015 · 8:33 am

A Visit to SMoKE Manayunk and Various Lanceros and another Fratello Cigar

Last Sunday my wife and I went into Philly for Afternoon Tea at a downtown hotel. While not a particularly manly pursuit, it was very nice, with good little sandwiches, scones and pastries to nibble on and a nice tea selection. Afterwards we stopped at SMoKE Manayunk, one of the newer lounges in the area which I’ve been hearing a lot about. It’s the place everyone goes after the other cigar stores close since they are open late. The building is located right next to the fire station, which is always a good idea, and has a rustic, industrial decor. The ceiling is open to the rafters with the galvanized spiral pipe ventilation system. There’s seating in the front of the store, a large bar (it’s BYO, but they have soft drinks) and the walk in humidor in the middle, and more lounge area in the back. It’s a spacious place, and we found it very comfortable. Kosta is the owner, and is a very gracious host, who is a lancero fan, and has a nice selection. Of course, I had to pick up a couple of his store exclusive cigars, the Zeus, named after the mascot of the place, a large, simian/yeti sort of painting in the front of the space. Of course, I got the lancero, and was impressed with the way it smoked, and I would go so far as to say that if you find yourself in the Philadelphia area, put SMoKE on your list of destinations and try this cigar. It was my favorite kind of cigar, dark flavors, rich espresso and cocao, and it burned smooth and perfectly. The cigar is 7″ x 38 with a nice pigtail cap, and I seem to remember Kosta saying it was made at

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Placencia, but he mentioned a Perdomo tour in the same conversation. I’m afraid I didn’t take very good notes on the blend either, I’ll try to update when I get the details, unless they show up in the comments. It was the outcome of a blending seminar on a factory tour. Great smoke!

Besides lanceros, I managed to fit another Fratello Bianco in early in the week, this time the 5″ x 56 Bianco III. I can’t wait to have easy access to this cigar, it’s got a little of everything I like in a cigar, the San Andrés maduro wrapper and fillers from Peru and Pennsylvania. Still an early favorite for one of my favorite new cigars this year. Omar is one of many people I’m really looking forward to seeing at the IPCPR show next week, he’s got a personality that goes along with his physical stature. For what it’s worth, I would smoke the crap out of the Bianco blend in the lancero format…just a little food for thought for Omar!

Back to the lanceros! I had enjoyed the Fratello Lancero that is one of Stogies World Class Cigars H-Town series, and decided to explore some other or the lanceros in the line. I love the Alec Bradley Nica Puro line in general, so I was excited about the lancero. Obviously, it’s a Nicaraguan puro, and the sweet and savory flavors I get have always satisfied my palate. It’s one of those go-to cigars you always keep around and default to when you can’t decide what to smoke. You can always count on them to deliver good flavor and a great over-all experience. The H-Town is no different, although the flavor is a little more sharply focused due to the small ring gauge. Smooth, full of flavor, and certainly a compliment to the already great line. I’ve been wanting to try the Diamond Rough-Cut in this line, but haven’t picked any up, is it much different from the regular lin

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e? I’ll have to keep an eye out for one. The H-Town lancero is recommended if you enjoy this line.

Thursday I went with another from the H-Town series, the Quesada España Lancero. This is the first I’ve smoked of the España line, and it was a very tasty smoke. It used to be that lanceros were prone to having a plugged draw, or other construction problems, but I can’t recall when I’ve had a poorly made lancero in the past few years. It takes a pretty specific hand shape to bunch these, long, thin fingers seem to be key. Anyway, this España was pretty terrific, loads of tasty smoke and perfect performance, I smoked this to a very small nub. It may be the only member of the H-town family with three bands. So far the H-Town series of lanceros are all winners for me. I smoked the Room 101 Namakubi Ecuador in the lancero format a few weeks ago and it was equally as enjoyable as it’s larger brethren, but with the little extra punch from the smaller ring. I’ll have to get to Houston one of these days to visit the store, it seems like quite the place!

Friday I sat down with a Rocky Patel Super Ligero in the Lancero size. I had picked this up when I visited SMoKE as I had been eager to try the lancero size in this blend. I’ve been enjoying the toro shape, and really like the lancero. Once again, it’s got a little more punch in the flavor department, sharper, more direct. As with the others I smoked this week, the burn and draw were spot on, and I nubbed the sucker. Great dark roast coffee flavors which are right in my wheelhouse. SO far I’ve smoked this blend in both the Toro and Lancero formats and really enjoyed the experience. I’ll pick up a some more in the Robusto and Sixty sizes when I see them. This isn’t a ridiculously strong cigar, the “Super” in Super Ligero is actually the name of the leaf, not a characterization of the power or even the priming, as I understand it. It’s generally a bit odd to have Ligero in a lancero as it doesn’t burn great and lanceros need to burn right. There’s a lot of Rocky Patel cigars (I could end the sentence right here) that I can take or leave, but this one is a winner for me.

Yesterday we rented a truck one last time and finished moving all the big stuff out of my wife’s parents house and into our garage. I was exhausted last night, so after a shower I sat down with a nice Inca Imperio and caught up on some podcast listening. Great smoke to unwind after a long day of sweating and swearing (I don’t think I swore as much as other times…). Now to start preparing for our trip to New Orleans this week for the IPCPR show, I’ve made some appointments, I have a list of folks I want to see and have been plotting my course on the floor plan. I’m sure once I get on the floor that will go out the window due to the overwhelming nature of the event! So, the next time you hear from me should be from the show, whether it’s short video updates or something else, we’ll see what happens. Have a great week, until the next time,

CigarCraig

7 Comments

Filed under Review, Stores

Tagged as Alec Bradley, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Fratello, lancero, Quesada, rocky patel, SMoKE Manayunk

by CigarCraig | July 5, 2015 · 10:02 am

Psyko 7 Maduro, Fuente, CroMagnon, Gran Habano and Punch Cigars

Here we are on July 5th already. It seems like the summer is flying by and it’s barely started. In two weeks I’ll be in New Orleans at the IPCPR show, doing my best to collect information about the newest an

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d greatest products. I don’t think I’ll do too many of the video interviews this time around, but I do have a little something special planned. We’ll see how that all turns out. I managed to smoke a few cigars this week, let’s have a look.

I received some Ventura Cigar Co. Psyko 7 Maduro Robusto samples a couple of weeks ago, and was really looking forward to trying them out. I had first smoked the natural wrapper Psyko 7 back when I was a guest on The Cigar Authority show back in November of 2013 and was really quite impressed. This is another impressive cigar, right up my alley. It’s got a San Andrés wrapper, an Ecuador binder, and an interesting blend of fillers including ligero from Nicaragua and Pennsylvania, some Honduran and Dominican and Pelo de Oro from Peru! How can I not like this cigar! The samples I smoked burned perfectly and had great, complex flavors of espresso, cacao with a nice sweetness. I appreciate the extra half-inch on this 5½” x 50 robusto. This is right up there with the Fratello Bianco as one of my newbies of the year so far. Very nice smoke.

After I had some more dental work done Monday I celebrated after with an Arturo Fuente Double Chateau Sungrown. Boy, is this a tasty cigar! It’s 6¾” x 50 with a cedar sleeve (which I removed before lighting, of course) and a black foot band. The standard Cheateau series is more common in the Connecticut Shade wrapper, and I’ve enjoyed my share of those over the years, but this Ecuado

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r Sungrown wrapper is quite special. It was solidly medium, but it had loads of great savor flavors. I would definitely say that in the Fuente line, save for the Hemingway, Don Carlos, Opus, etc, the sungrown wrapper is my choice.

When I visited Holt’s a couple weeks ago I picked up some of the CroMagnon Mode 5 perfectos from RoMaCraft as I’d yet to smoke that shape and have heard so many great things about it. It’s not a huge cigar, 5″ x 50 in a perfecto format, tapering at either end, your old school, 40’s Warner Brothers cartoon shape. It was quite the fun cigar to smoke, and it was loaded with great, meaty flavors that really made me smile. Burn was perfect, it was well-balanced and not the powerhouse one expects from the name. I look forward to seeing Skip and Mike at the show this year, it’s been too long and they are really making great smokes.

The folks at Gran Habano send a few samples a couple of weeks back, and the Gran Habano Corojo No.5 Maduro 2011 Gran Robusto caught my eye. This is a 6″ x 54 toro with a dark Nicaraguan Maduro wrapper, Costa Rican grown Habano binder and fillers from Jalapa and Costa Rica. This was a great spicy cigar with some bitter dark chocolate that was really to my liking. It burned well, the draw was good, and it was a cigar I’ll smoke again. I find the banding to be a little too close to Cuban Limitada bands, that’s probably what they were going for but I think a little originality from a company that definitely has some original products

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would be better. I’m not going to mistake that beautiful dark wrapper for any Habanos cigars, and I would probably choose this flavor profile over most Havanas as well.

Yesterday was the 4th of July. My wife and I celebrate our wedding anniversary that day, as the US celebrates another birthday. I always choose a special cigar to mark the event, and there’s generally an element of civil disobedience involved that I’d like to think the founding fathers would approve of. Yesterday I selected a Havana Punch Churchill that was a gift from a friend a few years ago who serves our country and will remain nameless to protect the guilty! This particular cigar had the distinction of bearing a “Vintage 1999” secondary band which denotes that it was selected by Hunters and Frankau (the UK importer of Habanos cigars) as an exceptional cigar. I agree with their assessment, it was an exceptional cigar

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. While the draw was a bit more snug than I like, it smoked very well, needing no corrections, and the smoke had a delicate flavor that was quite delicious. It had a bit of the unique Cuban spice, and was a milder, but very special cigar. It was the perfect way to celebrate a special day. I wish I could be as complimentary about the Rocky Patel Freedom I smoked later in the evening, there was a sour component to the savory flavor that didn’t do it for me, and I wished I had chosen better, but the red white and blue band seemed appropriate for the occasion. The Punch Churchill was sublime though, and I’m fortunate to have had the chance to experience it.

That’s about it for today. We’re heading in to Philly again today for tea, then maybe a visit to Smoke in Manyunk after. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, CroMagnon, fuente, Gran Habano, habana, Psyko, punch, RoMaCraft, Ventura

by CigarCraig | July 1, 2015 · 9:00 pm

NewAir CC-100 Thermoelectric Cigar Humidor

A few weeks ago the folks at NewAir contacted me about test driving one of their new humidors. I told them I didn’t need another humidor, and my wife would likely kill me if I brought another one into the house. Their website has pictures of a nicely stocked unit sitting on a kitchen counter, that has about as much of a chance of happening in my house as me running my dishwasher safe AshStay cigar ashtray through the dishwasher! As much as I didn’t need another humidor in the house, this one looked like something my readers would be interested in. It’s available from retailers we all know, it seems like a good value, and the “wine fridge” humidors seem to be all the rage these days. So I took on the burden of introducing yet another humidor to the house, at great peril.

Here are the deets on the NewAir CC-100:

Key Features

Comes with Hygrometer & Moisture Container
Real Spanish Cedar Wood Shelves & Drawer
Stores up to 250 of your favorite cigars
The interior temperature can be adjusted in increments of 1° between 54°F & 74°F.
To properly maintain RH, you need to include a method of adding humidity. For your convenience, a moisture container is included.

Let’s take a quick look at this list first, bullet point by bullet point.

The Hygrometer is analog and is inset into the Spanish cedar drawer which is in the top of the unit. It seems to be quite accurate, agreeing with several digital units I put in as a control. The “Moisture Container” is a plastic tray, and I’m not sure why they include this. I suppose one could put polymer beads in it as a humidity source. If a novice to cigar storage were to just fill this with water and leave it in there it would mold very quickly.

The shelves and drawer are nice and fit well. I tried re-arranging the placement but they seem best suited to be left alone, the drawer in the top position and the shelves underneath. Good quality, perhaps not enough wood to truly buffer the humidity swings of frequent opening and closing, but an acceptable start. Storing boxes on the shelves gives it plenty of wood to buffer humidity.

It’s well known that humidor capacity is based upon the number of petite coronas (typically Montecristo no.4) cigars that can be crammed into the box. this will easily hold 250 petite coronas, although probably not in boxes. I have about 75 cigars in there now with room to spare. Since this is a retrofitted wine fridge, it’s deeper than it is wide, so it’s possible that smaller boxes could be stored two deep.

The temperature adjustment is where this differs from a traditional humidor. I set mine at 70, and it seems to be right on. This will be handy in the summer months, and after I have had this for a while and feel comfortable with the stability I am storing some of my best cigars in there, as well as keeping my “on deck” review samples in the drawer.

Finally, adding a humidifier. I happened to have a Cigar Oasis Excel siting idle, and decided to give that a try. It’s just about the right size and really doesn’t take up much space on the bottom of the unit. The ribbon cable has to come out the front door (on the side), once I decide that’s going to be the humidifier of choice, I’ll stick the wire to the side and hide it real good. This unit is so tightly sealed that I figure Boveda packs or polymer beads of some sort, could work just fine. I actually haven’t heard the Cigar Oasis running much, which is a good sign. Please don’t just fill the included container from point number one with water and let it go, you will end up with a large petri dish.

One of the challenges I still have is finding a place to put this. Right now it’s sitting on the floor next to my cabinet. It plugs in, as does the Cigar Oasis, so it needs to be near an outlet. I would love to find a shelf unit to put it, as well as the other desktop humidors, on, as long as it receives spousal support, creating a sort of “tower of humidors” next to the tower humidor. As if it’s not bad enough (or great, depending on perspective) that the focal point of the living room/dining room is already a humidor. This is where the depth works against the unit, but it’s very close to the same depth as the cabinet (a few inches deeper). I really need to get it off the floor. If I didn’t have so many cigars, this would be a perfect humidor to have as my only unit, it holds humidity well, maintains temperature well and looks nice. I am so confident in it that I put some of my higher end cigars in it. It gets the CigarCraig seal of approval, I think it’s a very good value.

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

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Accessories, Review

Tagged as Boveda, CC-100, cigar, Cigar Oasis, cigars, humidor, New Air, Thermoelectric

by CigarCraig | June 28, 2015 · 9:03 am

Cigar Brothers, Wooden Indian, Cigar Mojo and the Fratello Bianco Toro

I had a pretty busy week this week, visiting cigar store and hanging out with some great folks, smoking great cigars! I was actually planning to stop in to Smoke Cigar Lounge in Manyunk, PA, just outside Philadelphia, but traffic was backed up, and it sounded like they were having a street festival on the main street there, so we gave up on that idea and stopped at a new shop only a few miles from home called Cigar Brothers in Berwyn, PA. This shop is an old house, and the downstairs part is the store, all humidified with the cigars out on shelves. The selection was very good,lots of boutiques as well as old standards.

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I grabbed a few CAO Flathead Sparkplugs and some Rocky Patel Super Ligeros and chatted with the properly named co-owner, Craig. The lounge is upstairs, basically two rooms and a hall with a bathroom. It’s not a great space for an event, as there’s no one large gathering area, but it’s nice for just hanging out with a few people. It’s bright and comfortable and well ventilated. I smoked the CAO Sparkplug there, as we had spent the afternoon in traffic and Craig was closing in an hour. I love the Flathead line, and really like this little cigar. It’s rich, full-bodied and burns right. We had a great afternoon talking to Craig and hanging out in this

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new shop that I think will do well.

This weekend was Famous Smoke Shop’s Cigarnival event, which I’ve attended in the past, so there have been a bunch of “cigarlebrities” in the general vicinity. Wednesday my oldest son and I went down to the Wooden Indian in Havertown, PA where they were having a Drew Estate event with Chris Stone and Pedro Gomez. Pedro runs the Cigar Safari and tours the US doing events in the off-season. My son hadn’t seen him since we were in Nicaragua in 2011, so it was a nice reunion and it was nice to go out and have a cigar with the kid for a change. I went with another favorite, the Nica Rustica. It looks like it’s a Maduro week! Great cigar, great friends, and a great shop. I even won an Acid Fat Tips t-shirt, who remembers those? I never smoked one, but it was supposed to be a mass market Acid with a plastic tip, but it never really caught on. Anyway, if you haven’t met Pedro, don’t miss the chance, and if you ha

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ve, well, you know why I’m recommending you meet him! I didn’t take one darned picture the whole evening dammit.

Thursday found me at Cigar Mojo for a packed house. Earlier in the day they had visits from Nick Perdomo and Jesus Fuego, but the evening event featured Aging Room Cigars and Rafael Nodal, along with his sons Carlos and Rafael Jr. I continued the maduro theme with an Aging Room Maduro that was the free cigar with purchase, Rafael said the bundle came from his personal humidor and they were from the initial release. Once again, this was a nice smoke, very rich with a nice sweet mocha vibe, fortunately I picked up a few more, as well as some Havao. I generally run into someone I know there and caught up with some old acquaintances from another shop I’ve been to. I had a nice time conversing with Rafael and his sons, Rafael is one of the nicest guys around.

Friday evening I was back in my routine of taking Macha for a walk and enjoying a cigar, and I selected a Fratello Bianco II Toro to celebrate the end of another week. Omar made this cigar with me specifically in mind! (I have an e-mail from him saying that, but I don’t really buy it…). The San Andreas wrapper is a beautiful dark brown with a sheen of oil, it’s dark, even though the cigar is named “White”. It has a Dominican binder and fillers from Nicaragua, Peru and Pennsylvania, my home state (maybe Omar wasn’t blowing smoke up my skirt after all! **now there’s a mental image for you!**). If I knew nothing more than the composition of this cigar I’d figure it was a really good chance I’d love it, but I also know where it’s made and the guy behind it, there would have to be something monumentally wrong for me not to like this cigar. As it turns out, all my preconceptions did not lead to disappointment. The Fratello Bianco is a brilliant cigar. It has the similarity to strong, bitter black coffee that I like, as well as a solid core of savory flavor and perhaps a hint of

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sweetness. This is an after dinner espresso (double, it was a 6″x 50 toro after all). I dig it, I can’t wait to smoke the 5″ x 56 III and the corona that Omar so generously sent to me, and buy some of these when they hit the stores. I may even put the mooch on Omar at the trade show in a few weeks (naw, I’ll leave the samples for the retailers…). This is a winner, hands down. Molto buon sigaro!

So ends another week. It did nothing but rain yesterday, so I got nothing done save for smoking a nice Inca Secret Blend Imperio after dinner on the back porch, breaking my maduro binge. If you happen to find yourself in Easton, PA today (Sunday June 28), Rafael Nodal is going to be playing piano at Leaf, the great restaurant at Famous Smokeshop. Going to events at shops is a great way to increase your appreciation for cigars, as well as add some new stock to your humidors. Support your local retailers, and Cigar Rights of America while you’re at it!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Aging Room, cigar, Cigar Brothers, Cigar Mojo, Cigar Safari, cigar store, Cigarnival, cigars, drew estate, Fratello, Nica Rustica, wooden indian

by CigarCraig | June 21, 2015 · 9:58 am

Larceny by Ortega and El Primer Mundo Cigars

Eddie Ortega and Sean Williams teamed up recently and produced Larceny in two blends, with each blending the cigar to what they considered the other’s taste. The cigars were made at Eric Espinoza’s La Zona factory in Esteli, a factory that has been cranking out some consistently great cigars in my opinion. These are really limited, they only made three hundred boxes, with each box containing ten of each blend. The Ortega Larceny by Sean Williams has a beautiful San Andrés maduro wrapper with filler and binder from Nicaragua, and the EPM Larceny by Eddie Ortega has an Ecuador Oscuro wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. Both cigars are 6½ x 52, a bit of a toro extra, and a v

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harmacy

ery nice size for warm summer (almost) evenings. Will Cooper was kind enough to send me a pair of these, I haven’t seen them in my neck of the woods.

By the “oscuro” in the EPM Larceny by Eddie Ortega wrapper name you’d think it was darker than the maduro, but it is actually a milk chocolate brown. I thought it looked reminiscent of Ortega’s Cubao line in appearance, maybe that’s just the power of suggestion and if I didn’t know who was behind this I probably would make that association. I really enjoyed the cigar, it was well made and gave me no trouble while smoking it even though I managed to get caught in a brief rain shower while walking with this cigar. The flavors were what I consider earthy, and to my palate that generally includes leather and wood, with a bit of sweetness. It started out medium, but ended up pretty darned strong. I like Eddie’s work, so I figured I’d like this. I don’t have enough experience with the El Primer Mundo line to be able to draw a comparison, but I’ve liked what I’ve smoked of Sean’s lines, especially his La Hermandad.

The Ortega Larceny by Sean Williams had a dark, San Andrés wrapper not unlike the Murcialago from years ago. While I was continually confused about who blended which for who, I totally get where Sean was going with this, having enjoyed Ortega’s cigars for many years. This cigar is a powerhouse, loaded with the bitter coffee and chocolate flavors that I like a lot. Once again, great construction which I’ve found to be very consistent with the output of La Zona. I see where Smoke Lounge in Manyunk, PA was on the list of shops to have these, I’ve been meaning to check that place out anyway, I’ll have to see if they have any of these and get some more. While this cigar was more in my personal wheel house, I really enjoyed both blend

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s on their own. Unfortunately the packaging and marketing of these almost forces comparison and competition, and I’m not sure that’s fair as they are both quite excellent cigars on their ow

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n. Thanks again to Coop for hooking me up with these!

It’s a short one today. It’s Father’s Day, and I have planned my traditional Father’s Day cigar at some point, one I’ve smoked every Father’s Day for the last 16 years, a vintage Esperanza para los Niños torpedo, made by Christian Eiroa in the late 90’s to benefit the children orphaned by Hurricane Mitch in Honduras. I was almost out of these until my good friend Mike Perry sent me a handful so I can continue the tradition for a few more years! It’s always interesting to see how another year has treated this blend, which was pretty heavy to begin with and had mellowed over the years. Other than that, I have no plans as of yet beyond celebrating the first day of summer and longest day of the year.

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

CigarCraig