First off, a little administrative bitching business. I mentioned before that I have just changed web hos
ting companies, and with that transition came some minor ch
anges to the URLs associated with older posts. Without getting into the boring details, if anyone out there has a link to a post
of mine, please edit out the “/blog” part and everything will be fine! I have things set up so that any click on one of those old links redirects to the home page, which isn’t ideal, I really want people to be able to find what they are looking for. I’m open to suggestions from those more technically adept at this stuff than I am. Enough of the minutia, on with the cigars!
Thursday evening I was in a maduro kind of mood, so I grabbed a Nub Maduro for my walk. This 464T was from a sampler I purchased from a Thompson’s auction which I wrote about here. There’s just something about these squat little torpedos that appe
als to be, but they are not easy to smoke while wearing gloves. Â Fortunately, it wasn’t that cold out, so I avoided either losing it or burning the gloves! Â It was a tasty smoke. Â Dark, oily, delicious, everything I was looking for. Â I think I have one left from that sampler. Â I actually haven’t touched the Connecticut Nubs yet, and I have a couple of each of the Habano and Cameroon.Â
Friday evening I arrived home to find my brother-in-law
visiting, so after dinner we grabbed some cigars and took the dog for a walk before the hockey game. Â I had recently received some more samples from Robert Arango of his Arandoza Blue Label cigars. Â This is a robusto that’s made at Erik Espinosa’s La Zona factory in Esteli with a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper. Â I enjoyed the tobacco sweetness that this well made cigar gave me. Â To me it was a nice, well balanced smoke that gave me an hour of enjoyment. Â My BiL smoked an Alec Bradley Maxx Brazil which he enjoyed. I knew he liked the Alec Bradley line and knew he hadn’t tried one. Â He is an infrequent cigar smoker, so I knew the Maxx Brazil would be a smooth and flavorful smoke for him.
Saturday was date night, my lovely bride and I went to Atlantic City, NJ to see the legendary Chubby Checker perform at Resorts International.  I had planned to stop at one or two cigar shops in the area, but that didn’t end up happening, and considering New Jersey cigar prices, I’m not really too dissapointed.  I ended up having a pre-show Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta Robusto while winning at a slot machine before the show.  I love this smoke, it’s a perfect all-around, any time of the day smoke to me, and I just enjoy the heck out of them.  Strange, since my first instinct is to gravitate toward the maduros, but this cigar does it for me.  I loved this cigar even before I had the pleasure of watching them rolled in the factory.  Great smoke in any size, but i f you happen to come across the lancero, treat yourself.  Chubby put on a heck of a show, and my wife an I felt quite young in the crowd.  I was sure someone was going to break a hip!  I doubt any of the attendees are reading, so my risk 
of offending anyone is minimal, but some of those blue haired old biddies were really shaking it!  The man really puts on an entertaining show.  After the show I was feeling optimistic when I sat down at a slot machine with my voucher from the previous session and lit up an Undercrown Corona Viva!.  I got about 2 inches into the cigar before the slot machine had gobbled up all of my previous winnings.  Oh well, between Jenn and I we only dropped a couple bucks into the machines, we had some fun. I wasn’t leaving that Corona Viva! behind, so I carefully extinguished it for the walk through the casino, which is largely smoke free, by the way. I finished the cigar on the ride home.  This might be my favorite size in this line, but I’ll be honest, put any Undercrown in front of me and I’ll be happy to smoke it!  Here’s a little video of Chubby from last night:
That’s it for this Sunday edition. Until the n
ext time,
CigarCraig
The winner of the 
