Yesterday I had the great pleasure of attending my 3rd Smoke-onos event hosted by Best Cigar Prices in Drums, PA. But first, I want to talk about the new cigar from CigarProp celebrating their 10th anniversary. A little history: I first heard from Kevin on February 4, 2014. He was trying to get into the cigar tube business, having 
made some single cigar tubes on his lathe at home. I recall contributing to his Indiegogo campaign, I have no idea how much he raised from that. I’m kinda glad he moved into the prop space, as I don’t find a lot of use for a single tube, as nice as they were, I rarely travel with one cigar. I have a pretty good collection of Cigar Prop prototypes, including a portable prop that Kevin caled the XC, with the C honoring me, for some reason! I have spent many hours with Kevin (and Jessica), over the last dozen years. We differ greatly in a lot of ways, but we have a kinship somehow. The 10th Anniversary is made at Fabrica Centroamericana de Tabaco S.A., t
he factory that makes Cavalier Cigars. The cigar is a toro (yay!), and is mostly Honduran with an Oscuro wrapper from Jamastrán, what I assume is a Connecticut broadleaf grown in Honduras for the binder, Visos from Copan in Honduras and Jalapa in Nicaragua, Ligero from Jamastran and a Sumatra seco. I’ve smoked a couple, I’m smoking one as I write this rather early on a Sunday morning, and it’s a delightful cigar. It has some sweet chocolate notes, and works very well with my black coffee (a store brand k-cup, I know, I’m a heathen). It’s silky smooth with no spice, although it will build a little spice, but what cigar doesn’t, really? Kevin is also becoming the go-to guy fro 3D printing, and made the boxes for these, available as an add on, in 5 and ten count versions. I was talking to Coleman of Sinistro cigars yesterday about this since Keven made the boxes for their upcoming No Etiendo line. This is a really nice cigar!
Yesterday was the Smoke-onos cigar festival at Best Cigar Prices/Pub in Drums, PA, which is near Wilkes Barre, PA. It’s about an hour and a half drive from my location. The name is a bit of a misnomer, as it’s technically just outside of the Poconos region, but it’s still quite a picturesque spot. This fest fills the void left by the Cigarfests that CI had, which I never attended , 3000 people each day for two days is more than I care to handle. I want to say there were 1500 at this event, and it’s laid out in such a way that it never felt crowded. I took another Craig, the Breadman, Craig Gilpin, who you may recall helped me out on these pages last year when I was otherwise occupied. I made various “two Craigs are better than one” jokes throughout the day. As I have attended events like this solo many times, it was excellent to have a friend along. I honestly hope that they don’t let these get any bigger, as it’s just better for attendees and vendors alike to keep it relatively intimate. I like to go and visit with my friends in the industry, stay on the radar, and catch up.
I had the good fortune to hang out with Terence Reilly while he ate a cheesesteak, and catch up with a ton of other folks. I think it’s kinda funny that folks like Rocky Patel can walk around, but Jonathan Drew (Sann, now) has a line of people waiting for a word and a picture. I did see JD smoking a cigar in person, and managed a wave. Saka was jovial, Jack Torano was grumpy, and I missed some notable folks who I’m sure would rather have been there than home recuperating from illness. I highly recommend this event next year if you can make it. My only complaint, as with every event, it seems, is that the music was too loud, I hate yelling at people. The band they had, Amish Outlaws, was really quite good, and a bunch of guys dressed like the Amish playing dance music is kinda funny. The weather was perfect and it was a great day of cigars and camaraderie. Best Cigar Prices treated us very well, and I thank them very much!
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
