Tag Archives: Charter Oak

October 19, 2025 · 9:36 am

A Panacea Farmers Blend Habano and Foundation Charter Oak Especiales

Thursday I felt like crap for some reason that I haven’t figured out yet. I came home from work, went to bed until it was time for the Flyers Game, watched the game and went back to bed. I usually start my blog post smoking Thursday evenings, so this put me behind a little. I felt fine Friday, so when I got home I decided to tackle the formidable 6″ x 70 Panacea Farmers Blend from the “6 Shooter Sampler”. I was sure I had smoked this before and liked it, although, looking back through my notes, I smoked a 7″ x 60 version. I’m certain I can tell the difference, and noted in the blog post that the website listed the 6″ x 70 and not the 7″ x 60. Perhaps Paul at Flatbed Cigar Co. can weigh in. Anyway, I’m not a huge 70 ring gauge fan, I think I’ve smoked a handful of them in the 30 years I’ve been smoking premium cigars. The blend is the Sumatra wrapper, Cuban Seed (?) binder, Dominican Ligero x 2, Nicaraguan Ligero, Dominican Seco, and PA in the filler. This is a really good tasting cigar, I enjoy the blend. It has the cane sugar sweetness I like in a Sumatra. Maybe the last one I had was the Habano. It had an open draw, which beats a tight draw any day. You can always draw more gently with a loose roll, you can’t compensate for a tight one. I enjoyed the cigar, although when it got to the end I still felt like there was a lot of tobacco left! Paul always has a great offer on Panacea cigars, there’s links on both of my sidebars, with a special CigarCraig discount code, CCFS25. Please buy some cigar from him so he knows people are reading my site! 🙂

While I was feeling better Friday, but I felt like I was better off staying home Friday evening. I missed the Foundation Cigars event at the Wooden Indian with Nick Melillo. I have mentioned before that I have to talk myself into going out sometimes, this was one of the times I lost. One of the factors is that I know it would be 6:00 by the time I got there with traffic, and they close at 7. So I decided to take a ride out to Havertown Saturday and see what I missed. While I was there I picked up the two Charter Oak Especiales cigars that I’ve put off buying. Mark (right?) at the Wooden Indian recommended the Pegnatero, while my inclination would have been to buy the Pasquale. Naturally, I bought both. These two cigars honor Nick’s grand-fathers. I like grandfathers, I’ve had a couple, and am one myself. So I went home and smoked the Charter Oak Especiales Pegnataro. This has a Connecticut shade wrapper, Jalapa binder and Esteli & Jalapa fillers, rolled at A.J. Fernandez’ factory in Esteli. This is only offered in a box pressed 5½” x 48 vitola with a pigtail cap. This has loads of flavor. It’s buttery with a distinct citrus tang. It was a very nice cigar.

One of the things that made me take so long to get to these two cigars was the fact that they are $13, which seemed like a lot for a cigar in a budget line. I guess it’s akin to the Rocky Patel Edge anniversary cigar, or a Bricktoberfest being considerably more than the regular line. I got past it and realized that these cigars not only honor the grandfathers, but also honors state of Connecticut by using Connecticut wrappers on both cigars. The Pasquale has the Broadleaf wrapper, something that Nick Melillo is rather known for. This one has Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, Jalapa binder and Esteli & Jalapa fillers, also rolled at A.J. Fernandez’ factory in Esteli. This is the same size at the Pegnatero, 5½” x 48. As much as I like a Toro, this sort of corona gorda extra is a nice size. I wasn’t expecting the utter lack of sweetness in this blend. To me it was bakers chocolate and espresso flavors, not a grain of sugar anywhere to be found. Not that I don’t enjoy that sort of thing, I do, it just took me by surprise. I loved it, it had the slight edge on the Pegnatero only because my preference is the darker leaf.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Charter Oak, cigar, cigars, Flatbed Cigar Co., Foundation Cigar Co., Panacea, Pasquale, Pegnatero

October 11, 2020 · 11:02 am

Los Caidos, The Duke Cigars and a Charter Oak Habano and a Rant

Let’s just get past the fact that I slacked off on my Wednesday post and substituted two news pieces instead. Pure laziness on my part. I did smoke a few new to me cigars this week, so let’s focus on those here! First off was a cigar that was generously shared with my by my amigo Adam a while ago. This was a Los Caidos, which is made at Aganorsa and a dollar from each cigar goes to a charity to help the families of fallen police and firefighters. There are red and blue bands so the consumer can choose which department they wish to support, but both cigars are the same. It’s a tasty smoke, with some pepper spice, wood and earthiness. It burned well and provided a great smoking experience. If you bought these only to support the cause it would be OK, but you’d be getting a great cigar too. I think there’s a good message of unity on the band design as well. As always, thank you to Adam for sharing this with me!

A while ago Kevin at Cigar Prop (TY!) had shared some cigars with me and one of those was a large torpedo that had a cedar sleeve stamped “ The Duke Cigars First Edition”. This looked a lot like the presentation of the Green Grass Gringo by Kerr Viajante’s Stogie Road Cigars, so I jumped to the incorrect conclusion that it had something to do with him, but the correct conclusion that it originated from the house of Dr. Gabby Kafie. Dr. Kafie was kind enough to point me in the right direction, with was to Duke Cigars, which I should have figured out, I guess. Other than the cigar was a large torpedo, probably 6.5” x 52ish (I failed to measure), wrapped in a cedar sleeve, I know nothing about it. There’s no information anywhere I can find. One can assume it has some Honduran tobacco, and it had a really nice looking milk chocolate brown wrapper.

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Unsurprisingly, the predominant flavor note was cedar, but it was a nice, sweet cedar and I enjoyed it. It was a very nice cigar and I’d love to know more about it. From what Dr. Kafie indicated in his comments, it seemed to be an ongoing concern, but who knows in 2020. If you come across it and like cedar medium bodied cigars, grab one and give it a try!

I had heard about Foundation Cigar Co. releasing the Charter Oak Habano, and saw that they had been landing in some of my local CigarCigars shops, so I stopped in to the closest one to my house yesterday and grabbed a few. I don’t generally speak ill of these shops, but, having worked retail myself, and been a customer for even longer, I have a bit of a pet peeve about providing customer service, and I wasn’t really happy with what transpired (Steve, Art, Scott, Tom even, if you’re reading, pay attention!) I know that I’m not the typical consumer, but I’m not certain that the gentleman working the shop knows me, and when I walked in he was in one of the comfy chairs with the TV on with another patron (who was familiar to me and greeted me). I asked if they had the new cigar I was s looking for, and his response, without getting up, was something along the lines of “beats me”. I don’t think this response is ever OK. Now, I’m familiar enough to go look myself. If it were me working and anyone walked in I would be out of the chair asking “can I help you”, walking into the humidor if I was asked a question, especially if I didn’t know the answer. As a consumer, and former retailer, it pissed me off, frankly, and I hope someone from CigarCigars reads this, because I heard about a similar situation at one of the other stores (in Bucks County? Can’t remember, a co-worker mentioned it). In the challenging environment we live in, customer service is what’s keeping the doors open for you. Another customer would have walked out faced with that sort of reception. There are too many options. Enough of my rant, I bought Toros and Grandes (6″ x 60) and smoked the Grande last night. For a $7 cigar it’s fantastic, heck, it’s fantastic regardless of price. The Habano wrapper is sweet, reminiscent of a Sumatra, and maybe it’s a varietal and I’m forgetting. It’s good, real good. I would have gotten the torpedo, which is exclusive to this wrapper, but they only had the two sizes I got. I may have to smoke a Toro today. Honestly, you could have a box of these, the maduro and Connecticut in your humidor and have something for everyone and every situation, for a small investment. So the takeaway here is customer service is key and Charter Oak cigars are awesome.

Enough for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Charter Oak, cigar, CigarCigars, cigars, Duke Cigars, Foundation Cigar Co., Los Caidos

March 4, 2020 · 5:20 pm

A Highclere Castle, a Charter Oak and an Alec Bradley Shamrock Cigar

I am late to the game getting around to the Highclere Castle line, Nick Melillo, of Foundation Cigar Co. gave me one of each at the TPE show, and while I still haven’t gotten to the original Connecticut Shade Edwardian blend yet, I did smoke the Victorian this week. We’ve had some nice weather this week, and the Victorian I had

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was the Churchill vitola, and the afternoon seemed right for a Churchill, so I grabbed it and took Macha for a nice walk. This cigar is 7″ x 48, close enough by US standards, and has a dark Ecuador Habano wrapper, although I hesitate to call it maduro. It has the same Mata Fina binder as the Edwardian, but a different blend of Nicaraguan filler. It’s my understanding that this are made in A.J. Fernandez’ Factory. I wouldn’t be surprised considering the construction, which was perfect, nice burn and draw. It was a very nice cigar, it was a medium to full cigar with a nice spice and some leathery flavors. It was well balanced and sophisticated, and was a nice, long smoke. I had no complaints.

Later that evening I had time for another cigar, and I probably should have smoked the Highclere Edwardian, but I had a hankering for some broadleaf, so I opted for a Charter Oak Broadleaf toro that had been in the humidor for a few years. It’s probably not the first time this cigar has appeared on these pages, or maybe it is! Charter Oak is a spectacular line at an even more spectacular price. This toro was $5.50, I think, and worth every penny. This was a 6″ x 52 toro, my favored size, with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano binder and Nicaragua fillers. I don’t know how they make such a great cigar at such a great price. It’s got a great sweetness and espresso flavors. These even come in boxes, not bundles. A bargain at twice the price.

Finally, I broke away from the Foundation Cigar Co. stable and selected a cigar that I had picked up a few weeks ago when I visited Best Cigar Pub. I was going to save this for March 17, but I figured that would be cliché and everyone else would be smoking it or something similar, and it was begging to be smoked. Of course, the cigar was the Alec Bradley Filthy Hooligan Shamrock. I’ve enjoyed the Filthy Hooligan releases over the years, from the plain candelas, to the barber pole versions. The triple wrapper Shamrock looked intriguing and I wanted to smoke it. This one has a tri-colored wrapper: candela, Habano maduro, and Habano seco with undisclosed fillers, although it’s under the Black Market line, so one must assume there’s some relationship. I really enjoyed this cigar. It has a crisp, clean flavor, the balance of the three wrappers really worked for me. My guess is that the candela provided the base, as the refreshing chlorophyl sort of sensation was dominant. I though it was a good smoke, and it burned well, which is sometimes a concern with barber-pole style cigars. I’ll stash the other one away with the couple other Filthy Hooligans I have from years past I suppose, and find another green cigar for St. Patrick’s Day (I have a good idea what that will be).