CigarCraig's Blog

February 15, 2026 · 8:58 am

Trinidad x Tommy Bahama, CAO Speed Shop and Recluse Draconian Cigars

The snow is very slowly melting off, VERY slowly! It’s been three weeks since we’ve seen the lawn. I definitely need to be on a warm beach smoking cigars this time of year. Since that isn’t in the books, we decided to go have lunch last Sunday at the Tommy Bahama Marlin Bar in the King of Prussia (PA) Mall. I have been itching to get my paws on the Trinidad x Tommy Bahama Island Collection cigars that came out late last year. I did some asking around and found out that Black Cat Cigar Co, down the road from the mall had these in stock, so I stopped in there and picked some up. I got the toro, which they call the Breeze, which is 6″ x 54. It was pricier than I prefer, but I was (or should be) committed at this point. I went home and promptly lit one up. This is a really nice cigar. It’s a Nicaraguan Puro that starts out with some wood, then the citrus kicks in. I classify this as a bright flavor profile, it’s got a lot of flavor, is fairly light and refreshing, and was really enjoyable. While I would have prefered being on a tropical beach while smoking this, it made my day a little bit better. Like most of the Altadis cigars I like, this one is a collaboration with not only Tommy Bahama, but A.J. Fernandez.

Another cigar I picked up at Black Cat was the new CAO Flathead Speed Shop in the 6″ x 60 Carb size. I grabbed a couple of these because I wanted to try it, of course. General Cigars usually sends me new stuff, and, of course, a five pack of them showed up this week. I was impatient, but I spent some money with a local small business, so I ain’t complaining. I’m also glad it a really good cigar. This has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, San Andrés binder, and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. Like the rest of the Flathead line, it’s severely box pressed with a flat head, which is tricky to cut if you don’t have the right tools. I have an Adorini punch that has two sizes, 9mm and 13mm, the later is perfect for these. This reminds me of what I remember the Apehanger being. This was the round version of the Flathead with a Habano wrapper. I liked that cigar too. This one has a bit of a citrus twang also, along with some nutty earthiness. I dig it. It’s been a while since they put out anything new in the Flathead line, this one is a nice addition.

Somewhere along the line I got a sampler of cigars that included a Recluse Draconian toro. I’ve known Scott Weekes from Iconic Leaf for a long time. If you’ve had any interactions with Scott, you’ll know he’s the king of the simile. He can turn a phase quicker than a fat kid on a snickers bar. Anyway, I’ve always enjoyed the Recluse line, glad to see it’s still in the mix. I actually have a few floating around. This one looked delicious, so I lit it up. The Draconian has an Ecuador Maduro wrapper, a proprietary binder of some sort, and Brazilian Braziado, Piloto Cubano and two Dominican ligeros, one of which is called Iconic Ligero, another proprietary leaf. Maybe it’s just me with the citrus thing lately, but this had it. I rather expected a darker, heavier flavor, but I was pleased. This also has a flat head, fortunately I had failed to put my punch away, although the 6½” x 50 shape would easily have fit in a cutter. Another good cigar this week, breaking my two out of three streak!

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Altadis USA, CAO, cigar, cigars, Draconian, Iconic Leaf, Island Collection, Recluse, Tommy Bahama, trinidad

February 8, 2026 · 10:06 am

Avo, Adventura and Montecristo Cigars

I seem to be going two for three in my luck with cigars over the last few weeks. I like to try new things, whether I personally like them or not isn’t the issue. Poor construction or materials is a problem. More on that later. I grabbed some Avo Syncro Caribe Special Toros at one of the local shops recently in my effort to smoke more of the Davidoff family of brands. The Syncro line is mostly, if not all, box pressed, and the Caribe has a Dominican wrapper, Ecuadoran binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. This Special Toro is 6″ x 60. It’s made in the DR at Davidoff’s OK Cigars factory, which seems to be a pretty modest name. I have a feeling it’s a shortened form of Occidental Kelner, but that’s just a guess. I think the factory is more than just OK, it’s pretty darned good. I digress. Smoking this Avo Syncro Caribe was perfection. It starts with a heavy citrus tang, which continued throughout. It’s very different from what I usually go to, and was really refreshing. I found myself thinking that I’d like to share this with a friend who I generally share dark, heavy cigars with to show how different cigars can be. It was very good and I plan to pick up some more.

I’ve heard a lot about this ADVentura Blue Eyed Jack’s Revenge over the last year or so, and saw it in a local shop a week or so ago and picked one up. This has a loose connection with Davidoff, I guess. ADVentura is made by Henderson Ventura, and I think his father, William, worked for Davidoff. Between the William Ventura cigars, and what I’ve smoked from Tabacalera Mina del Rey, Henderson’s factory, nothing has really hit my palate right. It’s a me thing, not a them thing. This was a 6″x 54 toro, with a San Andrés wrapper and Dominican binder and fillers. It had a bit of a floral profile, until it didn’t. This example perplexed me. It smoked very poorly, there seemed to be components in the blend that burned differently than the surrounding tobaccos, leaving almost a charcoal like ash, very dark grey and dense. Obviously, this negatively affected the flavor. I may grab another to see what’s up, I may cut my losses. I have heard great things about this one, but there haven’t been a great many ADVentura cigars that have appealed to me. This is the miss I alluded to in the first sentence, in case that wasn’t obvious!

A while back I wrote a post about this next cigar in the Robusto size. I was surprised to see that it was a year and a half ago. The Montecristo Crafted by A.J. Fernandez is a JR Cigars (and their partners, Cas de Montecristo and Cigars.com) exclusive. I recently came by a great deal on the Gordos and followed through on my promise to try these in other sizes. I should have gotten more. This has a Ecuadorian Sumatra Oscuro wrapper, Mexican San Andrés binder, and aged long filler tobaccos from Nicaragua, and Honduras. The wrapper is dark and oily, really too nice to cover with the oversized sleeve. Like the Avo, this is box pressed, and 6″, but with a 58 ring, not 60. That’s where the comparison ends. This is my kind of smoke, rich, dark coffee and dried dark fruits, perfect burn and draw and the box press makes it seem slimmer than the 58 ring would be. I’m a big fan of this one, it remains my favorite Montecristo. The link above is an affiliate link, if you feel compelled to use it, I might get a few pennies.

That’s all for today. The high here today is supposed to crack double digits, it was 4 this morning. Brrr. Propane is my friend, but I may venture to a shop one of these days. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Adventura, Avo, Blue Eyed Jack's Revenge, Caribe, cigar, cigars, Crafted by AJ Fernandez, Montecristo, Syncro

February 1, 2026 · 9:33 am

Colonel E.H. Taylor, Camacho and Maestranza Cigars

We are saddened here this week by the passing of our beloved dog, Macha. Many have met Macha over the years, she even made an appearance on the Cigar Authority once, and she was a large part of our household. We suspect she was 14 or 15 years old, so she lived a long life, especially since the last 12 were with three legs. We adored here and she leaves a hole on our hearts. I appreciate everyone’s condolences. I smoked a Padron 1964 Anniversary that I got in 2014, the year we adopted Macha, in her honor.

A few weeks back I walked into a local shop that I haven’t been to in a while, and asked the owner what was new and exciting. He said that they just got the Colonel E.H. Taylor San Andrés and it was selling well. I don’t know anything about this brand, I suspect it’s a Meier and Dutch (CI) creation. It, obviously, has a San Andrés wrapper, Criollo binder and Nicaraguan fillers and is made in the Dominican Republic (La Isla, I generally like their stuff). It isn’t really budget priced, I think it was around $12. I smoked it, and my first thought was that I should have asked Jeff what was good, not what was new. It was OK. I would think it would be better at half the price. I know E.H. Taylor is a bourbon brand, and I didn’t get any boozy flavors, but I really wouldn’t know one if I tripped over one. It was a typical dry cocoa, San Andrés cigar. Nothing special. My notes say that the E.H. is for eh…

For obvious reasons (welcome Davidoff to the CigarCraig family! thanks for the support!), I feel the need to get back into some of their lines, such as Camacho and Avo. This week I revisited the Camacho Triple Maduro in the gordo size. This 6″ x 60 has a Honduran wrapper, Mexican binder, with a filler blend from Brazil, Honduras and the DR. The website is a little out of date, it says it’s the only all maduro cigar, a category which now includes the Drew Estate Blackened. Fun fact: Abe Dababneh, owner of Smoke Inn, coined the term Triple Maduro and licensed it to Christian Eiroa when he owned Camacho. Davidoff bought the brand and I want to say they paid Abe off. (Edit: Abe tells the whole story on the latest Prime Time show with Cigar-Coop, which I listed to a whole 24 hours after writing this post.) I remember smoking this a long time ago. This was a really good cigar. It’s heavy and rich, with a load of cocoa and some sweet earth. I enjoyed this and will pick up some more.

Finally, I was in yet another store nearby and picked up a couple of the RomaCraft Maestranzas Caballería Valencia (6 x 52). These were very reasonably priced, around $10 I think. This is a core line cigar that’s been out for a year or two and this is the first I’ve come across them in the wild (granted, I don’t get out much). This is another San Andrés wrapper cigar, with a Brazilian binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua. It’s made at the Nica Sueńo factory. I’ve been a fan of the Nica Sueno output going back to 2011 or thereabouts. Fortunately the new ownership of the local CigarCigars stores brought in RomaCraft stuff, so I have a local source now. I enjoyed this 6″ x 52 cigar quite a bit, although it didn’t have the intensity that I find in most of their stuff. Again I got a dry cocoa predominantly. I’ll be grabbing more of these, as well as the Cromagnons, next visit.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Camacho, cigar, cigars, Colonel E.H. Taylor, davidoff, Macha, Maestranza, RoMaCraft, Triple Maduro

January 25, 2026 · 2:54 pm

Another Knuckle Sandwich, La Aroma de Cuba and Diesel Cigars

It’s snowing here, I think I’ll be doing some shovelling later, followed by cigars on the porch. I’m pretty sure I have enough propane to keep my heather going for a few days! It would have been smart to get a back up tank filled yesterday. I think we’ve had more snow this winter than in the past 4 winters combined. Like I always say, I need to get the driveway cleared so the ambulance can get in to get me when I hurt myself shovelling. Enough of my snow whining, on to some cigars. In one recent visit to a local shop, I picked up a Knuckle Sandwich Puro Nicaragua Toro. This is made by Espinosa at the San Lotano factory, with a Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. It’s a nice box press and a pretty good looking cigar. This example had a loose draw, which I had to manage carefully. It has a lot of sharp pepper, and I know it’s going to go bad really fast if I over do it. I think it’s a strong cigar, not as strong as last week’s TAA cigar, but still formidable. I think I like the plain old Knuckle Sandwich Maduro best out of the line, but I’ll certainly try any Knuckle Sandwich (or Espinosa for that matter) that comes along.

In another local shop I grabbed a La Aroma de Cuba El Jefe in the 7″ x 58 vitola. I don’t see this on the La Aroma de Cuba website. This is a “value” priced cigar, it was under $10, and it’s made at the My Father factory. It seems like this is the only vitola this comes in. It has a rather ugly Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, with Nicaraguan binder and fillers. I bought two of these, from different retailers because the first one that I bought didn’t work right. Let me tell you, when you have a 7″ cigar that isn’t producing smoke, even though the draw seems open, it’s frustrating. I spent an hour and a half waiting for something to happen. That prompted me to stop at a completely different shop and get another one, which smoked perfectly. OK, there was a little burn meandering, but it was within tolerance. It was an OK cigar, some dry cocoa, but hardly worth giving it a second chance. If a cigar doesn’t work right, but I feel like it should taste good, I like to give second chances.

Last night I smoked a Diesel Worthy Fool that I had picked up earlier in the day. This is one I hadn’t seen before. This is the third in the Fools Errand line, it’s a limited edition. It’s a neat little perfecto. It has an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper and Nicaraguan habano tobaccos for both the binder and filler. It’s made by Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A. I got a late start, and while 5″ x 58 isn’t really a small cigar, it worked for the time I had. It was spicy, no surprise there, and it had a nice meatiness. Like most Diesel cigars, I liked this one. I think this has been around for a year and a half or so, not sure why I missed it.

Stay safe if you are having bad weather this week. I know this was a major storm. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as diesel, El Jefe, Espinosa, Fool's Errand, Guy Fieri, Knuckle Sandwich, La Aroma de Cuba, Worthy Fool

January 18, 2026 · 9:59 am

Romeo y Julieta, Knuckle Sandwich and The Lost Angel Cigars

I see myself diving into some, perhaps, older cigars that I haven’t posted on here over the coming weeks. It’s a slow time of the year, so I’m picking up stuff I’ve overlooked in the past here and there. I’ve also found myself smoking a lot of the Bariay 1492 Red and Black recently, which has moved other stuff to the back of the queue. I may just smoke cigars that are called Red and Black this week, that leaves me with a few options. Anyway, I’ve had this Romeo y Julieta 1875 Connecticut Nicaragua Toro in the humidor for a long time and I realized I hadn’t had one yet. This cigar is made in Nicaragua, with a Nicaraguan shade grown Connecticut wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers. The tobaccos are grown by the Plasencias, one would assume it’s rolled in their factory also. This wasn’t a mild shade cigar. It started with an odd combination of cream and spice, which eventually turned into a bright citrus. I regret passing this over for who knows how long it was in the humidor. It came out in 2018. It was a good smoke, I enjoyed it.

I stopped in one of the local CigarCigars shops on the way home one day and picked up a few of the TAA releases that I hadn’t seen there before. Since the ownership of the chain changed last year, I’m not sure how the TA membership works, so I’m just going to keep picking them up there when I see them. I know some people who write about cigars ignore the TAA releases, but I do what I do, it’s new to me I’m going to write about it! as the kids said 20 years ago, whatev. One of the ones I grabbed was the Knuckle Sandwich Off Menu, the 2025 offering. This is made by Espinosa in AJ Fernandez’ San Lotano factory, part of Guy Fieri’s Knuckle Sandwich cigar line. It’s a butt kicker. It has a Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper, with Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and is a 6″ x 54 toro. $16 is at the high end of my range, but it looked good and I wanted to smoke it. This has a spicy, dark coffee and cocoa flavor profile, and it was powerful. It was exhausting to smoke, but quite satisfying! Definitely have a meal before smoking this one. Recommended.

Another TAA cigar I grabbed was the 2023 from The Crowned Heads. Obviously I have overlooked this cigar since it came out in 2023, but there are a lot of Crowned Heads cigars I’ve overlooked so that’s not really unusual I guess. This cigar is made by Ernesto Carrillo in the DR. It has a Ecuador Sumatra hybrid wrapper, Ecuador Sumatra binder and fillers from the DR, Mexico and Nicaragua. It’s 6″ x 54, which seems to be the size I smoked most often, doesn’t it? I wish there were more Churchills out there. Anyway, this is a dark, oily wrapper, which started with some bitter cocoa and sourness, which wasn’t off putting and smoothed out over time. There are probably other Crowned Heads Cigars I like better, and there are probably other TAA cigars I like better, but this was was an interesting cigar. If you like them and can’t find them, I know a place.