Tag Archives: Cigar Mojo

by | 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. I grabbed a few CAO Flathead Sparkplugs CAOFlatheadSparkplugand 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 new shop that I think will do well.

 

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

 

Mojo1Thursday 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 Mojo2Room 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 Mojo3Havao. 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.

 

Fratello_Bianco_IIFriday 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 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

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by | April 29, 2015 · 7:38 pm

In the Cigar Mojo Humidor with Fred Rewey of Nomad Cigars and a Contest Winner!

imageSunday we spent the afternoon at Cigar Mojo In King of Prussia, PA with Fred Rewey of Nomad Cigar Co. and Alex Mayer, our local House of Emilio rep hanging out, shooting the bull and smoking cigars. I was lucky enough to smoke Fred’s newest offering, the Nomad Lot 8613 in a robusto size, thanks to Alex. I would have bought some of these, but they weren’t in the shop yet, so I bought some S-307s, one of which I enjoyed this evening.  The Lot 8613, as Fred explains in the video below, is the sustainable version of his limited edition Lot 1386 (I have one of those in one of the humidors someplace), and was a very good smoke. It was just right for the early afternoon, after breakfast, but before lunch time that we were there. It’s always fun visiting with Fred, he told us about the “Hacking the Blend” seminars he’s doing breaking imagedown a cigar with puros of each component.  While I haven’t caught Fred’s rendition of this sort of event, I have done it before and it’s a great way to appreciate how a cigar is put together by tasting each individual leaf that goes into a blend. It’s no easy task finding tobaccos that work well together, that’s for sure. Anyway, check out the Nomad line when you get a chance, there’s something in the line for everyone.

 

Here’s my latest installment of “In the Cigar Mojo Humidor” for your entertainment.

 

Contest!

Last week  I posted a giveaway for a nice prize pack of cigars courtesy of La Sirena Cigars. Arielle and her team have been great friends of the site, and many thanks to them for providing this weeks gifts!  Some lucky reader will receive a sampler of delicious La Sirena, Oceano, Merlion Jaxx and Stixx cigars, a cutter and matches, everything you need to smoke these beauties!  The winner, as chosen by the random number generator at Random.org is lonniemarci1991!  I’ll chase you down if I don’t hear from you in a couple days with your mailing address.  Thanks again to La Sirena Cigars, and to everyone for playing along!

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

CigarCraig

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by | January 4, 2015 · 10:36 am

Tops of The Year, Roberto P. Duran Winner and General Nonsense

Serie Unico_FeralFlyingPigToday’s post is going to be a little of everything. It’s my last day of a 14 day vacation, and I really want to get something accomplished today, so I want to get this done!  I’ve got some top “x” lists,  Some cigars I smoked, and a contest winner!  I’ll start with some cigars I smoked that I found interesting. I generally spend the end of December smoking either cigars that are featured in the giveaways, or cigars I’ve featured in the past and want to revisit, or special occasion cigars.  I smoked a bunch of each this year.  Around Christmas I smoked a Padron 1964 Exclusivo and a Drew Estate Serie Unico Feral Flying Pig.  The Pig was a bit of a surprise, it was the first of this size I’ve smoked. It was super smooth and full of rich flavor and I swear I got some cinnamon at the halfway point. This example came back with me from Nicaragua a year and a half ago, and I would have picked up a couple more when I saw them locally except for the $19 price tag.  The Feral Flying Pig was a “wow” cigar for me, perhaps the best cigar I smoked all year. My wife got me this cool cast iron pig holding what looks like a tobacco leaf for me for Christmas. The Exclusivo was pretty darned good too!

 

RockyPatel_ProhibitionNew Years Eve we stopped in to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA for a smoke and I picked up some of the Rocky Patel Prohibition cigars that I’ve been wanting to try. These come in glass jars, and one has a San Andrés wrapper and one has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, and both are a 6½” x 52 toro.  It seems that most of the Rocky Patel cigars I have, or have had, are a toro size, is it just me?  Anyway, I smoked the San Andreas on New Years Eve and it was a good Mexican maduro smoke.  It was a little smoother than the typical “dirty” sensation you get from Mexican tobacco, and was an enjoyable smoke. I smoked the Broadleaf version New Years Day, after a fun afternoon with my family in our annual tradition of watching the Winter Classic hockey game on TV, while eating and playing with the granddaughters.  I think I liked the Broadleaf version better, it had a nice sweetness that I really liked.  I will smoke a few more of each, as I tend to like both San Andrés and Broadleaf about the same.  Good smokes, interesting packaging as they come packed in glass jars within wooden crates, an homage to bootlegging practices during prohibition. Of course, the parallel being drawn is cigars to liquor prohibition in the ’20s, which it what “they” are trying to do to tobacco, and we know how well prohibition worked out! It gave us organized crime and NASCAR! 🙂

 

Tops

I’m far too lazy to compile my own list of great cigars I smoked over the year. There are a lot of exceptional cigars out there, it’s really hard to go wrong. Quite a few of my colleagues in the blogosphere like to make them, so here’s a short list of some that I came across in no particular order of preference.

http://tobacconistuniversityblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/top-10-dumbest-of-2014.html

http://archive.aweber.com/nomadcigar/GIVxr/h/My_Top_Cigars_of_2014.htm

http://www.stogiereview.com/2014/12/15/top-10-cigars-tgt-edition-2014/

http://www.casasfumando.com/top-10-cigars-2014-tony-casas-edition/

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/travel/top-10-cigars.html

http://top25.cigaraficionado.com/

http://www.thecigarnut.com/the-cigar-nuts-countdown-2014-number-1/

http://www.leafenthusiast.com/cigar-review/

http://www.leafenthusiast.com/daves-choice-cigar-of-the-year_2014/

http://www.cigar-coop.com/p/the-cigar-countdown-began-saturday.html

 

Keep an eye on Halfwheel.com, they usually go through all the sites and put together a consensus, which goes through a bunch of the various top whatever lists.  Keep an eye open for that in the coming weeks.  I think my favs of the year were the Arandoza Red Label (with the White Label right up there), and anything Tortuga.  There are far too many great cigars out there!

 

My list, once again, is a tribute to you, the reader.  Here is this year’s top commentors of 2014! Thank you all for reading along and participating! Without you all I’d be talking to myself!

 

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Contest

 

winnerOf course we start off 2015 with another great giveaway!  Thanks to Roberto Duran Cigars for providing a box of the very tasty Doberto P. Duran Premium Rio Toa. I smoked the Cacique Guama 6 x 60 last night and really enjoyed the smooth,  well balanced and complexity of this cigar. It’s sophisticated.  The winner of these is really going to enjoy them, I think.  Also thanks to the other generous sponsors who over did it and left me with more than I could give away in the 12SDoCG, even in 14 days, as well as the odds and ends I had laying around! Smoke Inn, Drew Estate, 2 Guys Smokeshop primarily.  This time I let RaffleCopter do the heavy lifting for me. It makes things easy for me, but I want to know how you all felt about it. I thought the turnout was rather low, and I don’t know if RaffleCopter is off-putting or what.  Either way, we have a winner. Here’s the screenshot of RaffleCopter’s selection. Congrats to Mark!

 

That’s more than enough for today!  Time to get on with the last day of vacation!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | November 2, 2014 · 9:34 am

A Cigar-Mojo/Rocky Patel Event, a Perdomo and a New A.J. Fernandez Cigar

Thursday evening was the first anniversary party at Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA and they combined it with a Rocky Patel event with a Halloween costume contest. Mark Weisenburger (pictured, from his Facebook page) was present pimping the Rocky Patel line so I picked up a couple of the Vintage 2003 Cameroon robustos and lit one up.   They were also featuring Alan Price’s cigar that he blended at Rocky Patel’s factory. Alan works part time at Mojo and is our area Cigar Rights of America Ambassador.  I picked up a couple of these as well, it’ll be interesting to see how he did blending this cigar. Interestingly, it’s about the same size as the last cigar I blended at Drew Estate last year, a chunky toro in the 6″ x 54 range.  Anyway, there was a big crowd for a Thursday evening, and regulars Bruce and Arline won the costume contest.  I’m sure the party went into the night, but I excused myself when I was done with my cigar to go home and watch the Flyers losing effort. Congrats to Wade and Trae at Mojo for an excellent first year. They are doing a great job in selection and service. It’s a great place to hang out.

 

Perdomo_20thAnnivMaduro_CoronaGrandeFriday was Halloween, and we don’t have any kids come to our house trick or treating. It’s a matter of where we currently live, not any commentary on who we are or anything.  There is a neighborhood around the corner where I always take Macha for a walk and there are a handful of kids who mostly have met Macha and love seeing her. I grabbed a Perdomo 20th Anniversary Maduro Corona Grande for the evening walk, and Macha had fun seeing the kids (she loves kids, they taste good!). The Corona Grande is a 6½” x 48 that was the creation of Nick Perdomo III. For me it’s the best size of the bunch, for both the representation of the blend and the comfort of smoking it. It’s a smooth, rich maduro with a hint of espresso bitterness, which I like.  I know, I should have smoked a Tatuaje Monster, or a Gurkha Ghost, or even an Asylum Ogre or something cliche, but I was in the mood for the Perdomo, so that’s what I smoked!

 

AJFernandez_NewWorldSaturday we spent the morning gutting the family room in the new house. We had taken out the carpet and padding to have the asbestos tile removed, so what better time to take the paneling off!  Of course, it was just paneling over a thin vapor barrier and cinder block and brick, so we have some insulating and dry-walling to do. Best to get it done before having carpet installed!  It’ll be a great space once it’s done, and directly adjacent to the screened in cigar porch! After getting that done I took a quick spin over to Goose’s Tobacco in Limerick, PA to pick up and pay for the box of Asylum Straight Jacket Robustos I won in the Operation: Cigars for Warriors silent auction at the Smokin Goose festival last month.  Always happy to support OP:CFW, thank you to Goose’s and Asylum Cigars for their contribution to that fine organization.  When I got home I took a walk with A.J. Fernandez’s newest offering, the New World in a box pressed belicoso size called the Almirante.  The New World is the first cigar that A.J. made  together with his father, Ismeal, and is a Nicaragua Puro, with tobaccos from all over the country, including Ometepe.  This medium bodied cigar burned perfectly and had really nice sweet spicy flavor.  Considering I paid somewhere under $6 each for these at JM Cigars in Exton, PA, this is an absolute must try.

 

That’s all for now. We’ve got to visit Home Depot or Lowe’s and look into some room finishing options and come up with a plan.  Then I’ll be digging into the humidor once again looking for something fun to smoke. Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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by | September 28, 2014 · 12:44 pm

Busy Cigar Weekend: Lunch with Herrera and The Smokin Goose Festival

I took a much needed vacation day on Friday to go hang out with Willie Herrera and Chris Stone of Drew Estate Cigars.  Cigar Mojo was the scene of the event, as Chris and Willie were making stops throughout the area. In True Mojo style, Trae provided pizza, and offered a Buy 5 and one is free special on Drew Estate and Joya de Nicaragua cigars. Sadly, they had sold out of the new Norteño, which was the whole reason I took the day off!  Trae was kind enough to find a Norteño in the Coronita size, which is a nice little pressed 4″ x 46. This is right up my alley with the San Andrès wrapper.  It was full of dark, rich flavors, this is a winner and I can’t wait to get some more of these and sample the range of sizes.  Hopefully Cigar Mojo gets them back in again soon! It’s always fun hanging out at Mojo especially with Willie and Chris.  There’s a reason this new shop placed highly in the recent “Philly Hot List” poll.

 

 

The Smokin Goose is a multi-vendor event put on by Goose’s Tobacco Outlet and Cafe in Limerick, PA.  This was their first event of this kind and was held at the historic Sunnybrook Ballroom in Pottstown, PA.  The event featured twenty or so premium cigar brands, including a couple reasonably local small brands.  It was held in a pavilion outside of the ballroom building, which, of course, is smoke free and the weather was a beautiful 80 degree day. Late September can be hit or miss in this part of the world, it can be cold and windy, or a great day like yesterday was.  Attendees received a goodie bag with a bunch of cigars, a Xikar travel humidor and assorted swag. There was food available all day in the pavilion, and the admission price included a meal at the restaurant too. I didn’t see people leaving the event to eat at the restaurant, which was across the parking lot, but as we were leaving it occurred to me that people were waiting until the event wrapped up (with the raffle prize announcements, as usual) and went to eat after.  Makes sense so people didn’t miss any of the festivities.  For an inaugural event, it seemed to go well. The 75 or so attendees seemed to have smiles on their faces.  Operation: Cigars for Warriors was there and was the beneficiary of the proceeds of the raffles.  I am going to have to pay a visit to Goose’s shop sometime in the near future, because I think I won one of the silent auctions.  It was a good event, John and Joanne Giese and their team did a nice job putting all together, I’m sure it was worth all the stress and anxiety that goes into putting something like this together. All the vendors and manufacturers who were there are to be commended as well. I’ll be interested to see next year’s version of The Smokin Goose!  I enjoyed making some new friends and catching up with some old ones. I appreciate being included.

 

The event space
Arielle from La Sirena Cigars
The goodie bag (thanks Jay)
It was Bianca from Gurkha’s birthday!
Jon “The Player” from Alec Bradley
The silent auction table
The Goosemobile
Alex of Evil Genius Cigars
Cigar Art by Eric Whitfield

 

Some of the brands represented there were La Sirena, Villiger, My Father, Altadis, Alec Bradley, Blanco Cigars, Gurkha, CLE/Asylum, Dominican Big Leager, Jenneff and Evil Genius Cigars from the Lehigh Vallley area in PA, Jason Alexander, John Hay, and Al Capone, as well as The Cigartist, Eric Whitfield. Also, thanks to Joe K for introducing himself!  Once again, it was a great way to spend an afternoon, and I’m certain all the attendees got more than their money’s worth.

 

That’s it for now, I’ve got some catching up to do after goofing off for the last couple days!  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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