Tag Archives: Cigar Safari

Memorial Day Weekend Cigars: a JD Hightower, an American Eagles and a Humidor Review

JD Hightower_3

Shown with a 5×44 corona

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day, warmer than Saturday, but still breezy. I decided that the time had come to finally smoke a cigar that was given to me last year at the IPCPR show by Victor Vitale. The cigar in question was the JD Hightower 6″ x 70 box pressed cigar. I’ve been waiting for the right time given the size of this monstrous cigar. Its roughly the size of a king size Milky Way candy bar. I also have had bad experiences with Victor Sinclair cigars (made by Jose Dominguez, the JD in the name of the cigar) to the extent that I’ve sworn I’d never smoke another one, but since Victor Vitale made this for Jose, I figured it deserved a shot. The first challenge is finding a cutter that would handle this. Normally a large ring cigar is do-able in most cutters, but I knew the Xikar XV wasn’t going to do the trick. I picked the Drew Estate Bulletproof perfect cutter and it worked fairly well, although I had to trim a little bit of binder off with a pair of scissors. The draw was perfect, and it burned relatively well over the course of the two hours it took me to smoke. I very much enjoyed the blend, it was a tasty smoke. It had nice, savory flavors that were enjoyable throughout the cigar. I can’t say that it was a very comfortable cigar to smoke or hold. While the box press minimizes the 70 ring gauge a little, it’s still huge and unwieldy. While I’ve grown accustomed to the 60 ring cigars, 70 is just too big. I’m not sorry I smoked it, I had a beautiful 2+ hours enjoying it on a lazy and beautiful Sunday afternoon. This was yet another nice smoke from Victor Vitale.

 

 

IMG_0515[1]Monday was Memorial Day, and I decided to take the dog for a walk at nearby Valley Forge National Historic Park. I selected my last American Eagles Robusto to smoke for a couple reasons. First, the American Eagles is a nice cigar, well made and tasty. They support the military by donating part of their profits to Semper Fi, and it’s got a patriotic theme. The final reason was because I always feel conspicuous smoking in a public place, and I figured if the cigar was camouflaged it would stand out less. IMG_0513[1]I always figure someone might say something about me smoking a cigar, and I can respond with something like “a cigar? I don’t see a cigar, what are you talking about?”, but perhaps this is yet another one of those things that’s only funny in my head. Anyway, we started at the Memorial Arch, and probably walked a good 5 or 6 miles around the outside of the park on the multi-use trail. It was a stunning day, the cigar was great, smooth, mild and full of flavor, and nobody looked askance at the fact that I was smoking a cigar. Puccio and I were plenty tired out after that walk and went home for lunch (we had gotten an early start).

 

CC_CigarSafariBlend2013After lunch I decided it was time to try out one of the cigars I blended on my recent Cigar Safari trip. As I said before, I went into the blending session there determined to recreate the blend I had made two years prior, but all the tobacco, like the proverbial shiny object, distracted me and I decided to get creative. I went into specifics in my post about the blending session a few weeks ago.  All in all I really enjoyed the cigar. There was a lot of flavors dancing around between the San Andreas Negro wrapper, the Cameroon binder and the Mata Fina, all pretty sweet tobaccos in my book. I will certainly be interested in seeing how these age, and I’ll compare them at some point to my blending attempt from two years ago. These were rolled by the Liga Privada pairs, so the construction was without flaw, it burned perfect, had a nice, flat coal and an even burn and draw. I hated to put it down.

 

 

Humidor Review

 

AdoriniHumidor2This will be an ongoing project over the next several months. The folks at HumidorDiscount.com sent me their Adorini Cedro Deluxe Humidor to evaluate and report upon. Initially I’m very impressed. This shipped from Germany, and only took a few days. It was packaged very well, it was boxed, bubble wrapped, then had a retail box that was lined with 1/8” styrofoam. The humidor was in it’s own cloth bag inside the box, and contained some dividers, Write-on tabs which attach to the dividers to label your stock, a bottle of humidor solution, and brass humidifier with a polymer media, and a small dial hygrometer. The humidor itself while reasonably plain (I think there is an elegance in it’s simplicity), is solidly built with walls that are a full inch thick, and the lid closes on a nice cushion of air telling me that it seals well and AdoriniHumidor1should be made right. Heck, my The Griffins humidor HAS to be locked or the lid doesn’t close all the way, and doesn’t close with a woosh. It also features “Unique ventilation ribs (“RibTech”) for improved air circulation within humidor”, and I like the hidden magnetic plate in the lid that allows the hygrometer and humidifier to be positioned wherever you want it on the lid without screws or glue or anything. So far I’ve added some of the enclosed solution along with some distilled water to the humidifier and will start seasoning it. When I think it’s ready I’ll fill it up and see how it does. I’ll be keeping track of it’s progress and posting that here on a weekly basis. My personal modus operandi when it comes to humidors is to let them do their thing and not get too worked up about daily monitoring (read: I’m lazy), so that will be a feature I look for, holding temp and humidity and not having to fiddle with it much. Thanks to Silvia at HumidorDiscount.com for allowing me the oportunity to evaluate one of your humidors.

 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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Undercrown, La Palina, CyB and Tortuga Cigars

undercrownI’m still basking in the afterglow of my recent trip to Nicaragua, so Sunday I grabbed an Undercrown Corona Viva for my afternoon smoke. I think I picked this up on a visit to Cigars International’s store in Hamburg, PA.  It wasn’t a very nice spring weekend, but the rains stopped long enough for me to enjoy the heck out of this cigar.  I think this is my favorite size in the Undercrown line, although I have trouble finding fault with any of the sizes I’ve smoked.  Saying that these are the poor man’s Liga Privada would be incorrect, as I still think they are a little pricey.  But they are worth the splurge.  I actually have (as do all of us blogger/media types who were on the trips, a Corona Viva along with four “grado puros” of the Ligero, Viso and Seco which I will smoke all at once some day and attempt to report upon my findings.  I’ve   done this before and it’s a sure way to burn out the palate. Maybe it will be a good subject for a rare video.  Great smokes, the Undercrown, and they will always bring back fond memories.

 

LaPalina_Maduro_ToroMonday I selected my last La Palina Maduro in the toro size.  It’s hard for me not to like a cigar wrapped in San Andreas maduro leaf.  These are nice smokes, heavy on the coffee and dark flavors I relish in a cigar.  It was a humid evening, and this one wasn’t burning as nicely as I’d like. I actually let it go out after the dog took us on a bit of a romp through the neighborhood. She got loose and took a route toward home that we were unable to follow due to the briars and underbrush.  We walked home hoping she’d be there and when she wasn’t I took a walk down the yard and toward the woods and eventually spotted here wandering through a neighbors yard.  I came back with her (leash still attached) and sat down and finished my smoke. Having to frequently re-light and touch up was well worth it for the flavors.  This was a sample graciously provided by La Palina, but I will purchase these to have on hand as they are a darned satisfying smoke. Perhaps in the future I’ll keep these in a slightly drier humidor.

 

CyB_LanceroTuesday evening I was in a lancero mood.  This mood strikes me every now and again and I have a handful to choose from. I decided another refugee from Cigar Safari would hit the spot, and selected a CyB Lancero from Joya de Nicaragua.  This is a cigar that’s probably not on store shelves yet, but when it is, get some.  The CyBs (nee Cuenca y Blanco) I’ve had have underwhelmed me a bit, but to be fair, I’ve only had the toro size from the IPCPR show.  I need to pick up some of the other sizes. A couple of important (to me) factors of this cigar which stood out were the aesthetics.  This is a beautiful cigar, and it burned dead even, and when I tipped the ash it left a perfectly flat coal. This tells me that incredible care was taken to make sure all of the components were arranged in that thin ring gauge so that all of the different tobaccos burned at exactly the same rate. I also really enjoyed the flavor of this lancero.  It was smooth and perfectly balanced. I smoked one on the trip, but it was after several cigars and the nuances were largely lost on me (they usually are anyway, who am I kidding?) I smoked this down to about a half inch, it was so good.  A V-cut was perfect, the cigar was perfect, and I would have been happy if it had been about a foot longer!  It adds to my enjoyment when I’m personally acquainted with the people who blended this, and I had the good fortune to have spent time with both Dr. Cuenca and José Blanco on my trip.  True gentlemen who know what they are doing.  Many thanks to José for making sure I had one of these lanceros to smoke on a fresh palate and truly enjoy!

 

The consolation prize from last week’s contest will be going out tomorrow to Lloyd, but I still haven’t heard from smoke770. I’ll have to go and e-mail him now since he’s slacking on me.  I sure hate having to track down guys to give them goodies!

 

As I write this evening,outside on the deck in lovely spring weather, I’m enjoying a Tortuga 215 Edicion Limitada from Victor Vitale’s Legacy Brands Cigar Company. This is a cigar that is growing on me quite a bit, I’m afraid.  It’s a solid cigar that is loaded with flavor.  These are made in the Domincan Republic, with a Nicaraguan wrapper and binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers.  This one got an X-cut, that is crossed V-cuts because the single V wasn’t doing it for me and I didn’t have a straight cutter on me.  Do I have to carry two cutters now?  Nice smoke, but I still like the incredibly elusive Tortuga 1950 Natural Aged Maduro better.  Keep an eye on Legacy Brands.

 

That’s enough rambling for one evening, I’m going to try to get to a cigar event Friday, then pick out some good cigars for the holiday weekend.  Be careful out there and enjoy your smokes!

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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Some New Cigars: Cuban Grande from Perseo and Michael Lington Cigars

First order of business: I have yet to hear from the two (2) winners of my last contest.  I’m itchin to put together the prize packs, but I need smoke770 and PapaLloyd L. to send me their current addresses! You’d think it would be easier to give stuff away!  I may have to add a rule stating that any prizes unclaimed after thirty days will be donated to Cigars For Warriors ! So let’s go guys, e-mail me so I can ship this stuff out! I need the humidor space. 🙂

 

After wrapping up a couple weeks worth of Cigar Safari reporting  it’s  time to get back to boring you to tears with the cigars I’ve smoked this week.  I decided to dive into some of the new and unusual stuff I’ve been generously gifted recently.  As far as cigars I smoked on Cigar Safari, they were all pretty darned good!  Keep an eye out for the new Kentucky Fire Cured which will be released under the My Uzi brand.  It’s unique, and if you like a smoky, barbecue flavor it’s a must try.  This thing has the powerful aroma of campfire off the foot, and has a smokey taste that’s not overpowering.  It wasn’t up my particular alley personally, but I look forward to trying it when the production starts.  Jonathan Drew is VERY excited about it and it will be worth a try, for sure.

 

Cuban Grande_6x60A few weeks ago on my New Jersey adventure, I met up with Matt R. (@MattSRoss81) and he handed me a bunch of cigars on the flawed premise that I had sent him cigars and he “owed” me.  Nothing could have been further from the truth, but all were cigars I hadn’t tried yet, and of particular interest were a pair of 6″ x 60 cigars called Cuban Grande, from Perseo Cigars (Roxor).  I can’t find any information about these on their website, or elsewhere, so I’m going to stick my neck out a bit and hope I don’t hurt any feelings!  This is a well made cigar with a fairly common looking, dry, medium brown wrapper, probably habano, which has a very nice aroma.  The burn was very nice, it had a pleasing flavor, but wasn’t especially unique or special. I would put this in the “budget” category and say it’s a nice everyday smoke and hope it isn’t too expensive.  I’ve fallen into this trap before and had the same thoughts about a $12 “super premium” cigar, on the other hand I’ve had cheap bundle cigars that smoked like premiums, so who am I to judge.  I appreciate Matt sharing these with me, I always enjoy trying new things, and this was a nice smoke.

 

MichaelLington_ConnoisseurYesterday I dug into some cigars that another loyal reader and friend, DB (@USAF_test) sent along.  When I met DB in California a few weeks back he told me about this friend of his who is a Jazz musician and cigar lover who has his own line, Michael Lington Cigars. He sent me a Classic Robusto and a couple Connoisseur Toros.   I selected the Toro first, since I was taking a long walk and needed a larger cigar.  As an aside, I like a regular old 6″x 50 toro, in these days of chubby cigars, this almost feels like a corona.  Anyway I used the V-cutter and got a really open draw. Looking  into the cut, one could see that the cigar was loosely packed (it seems like a lot of cigars I’ve smoked lately have been very tightly packed, so this was a welcome change).  One of the striking details of this cigar was the dark grey ash.  It burned well, it tasted good and was a good smoke that lasted well over an hour, which was a concern initially based on the draw and fill). These are available through Butthead’s Tobacco Emporium‘s online presence, Fumée, and are fairly priced.

 

MichaelLington_ClassicMy evening walk featured the Michael L ington Classic robusto, which is wrapped in what I assume to be Ecuador Connecticut.  this is a very pretty cigar, the V-cut showed a more dense fill than the Connoisseur, and the draw was perfect. I’ve given up on having expectations based upon wrapper color, so I wasn’t surprised when I got loads of medium bodied, flavorful smoke.  Oddly the dark grey ash was very similar in appearance to the Connoisseur, strange given the vastly different wrappers.  I enjoyed this cigar, although, like it’s sibling, it was a nice, everyday kind of cigar that isn’t priced badly.  Too many celebrities decide to put their name on a cigar and price it in the stratosphere, kudos to Mr. Lington for putting his name on a solid smoke at a good price.  I hadn’t heard of Michael before DB brought him to my attention, but he’s a gifted alto sax player (my dad teaches alto sax so I’ve grown up hearing it played!).  I hope he doesn’t mind, but here’s a video from his site of him playing God Bless America at a Dodgers Game (being a Flyers fan, this one jumped out at me. He’s no Kate Smith, but he’s pretty good!) 

 

httpv://youtu.be/e_rDU26nV2I

There you go, three cigars that are new and interesting.  Over the last few weeks I smoked some old favorites that I’ve posted about before.  Having a few weeks worth of trip report posts allowed me to catch up a little and smoke some cigars without having to pay attention to them and document them.  It’s nice to just grab a cigar and smoke it once in awhile!    Also, please join me in welcoming Best Cigar Prices to the CigarCraig.com family.  These guys have been around for a long time and have terrific customer service. I looked to them way back when I interviewed George Hamilton as they carried a Hamilton House cigar that was dirt cheap and not too bad.  They were very helpful on the phone on a Saturday and I ended up ordering a box as well. Fine folks, check them out.  Thanks to them for the support, and thanks to  Matt and DB for sharing these cigars with me!

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

CigarCraig

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Trip Report: Drew Estate Cigar Safari – Part 4

In the saga of my latest trip to Nicaragua and Cigar Safari, we are up to Tuesday afternoon.  First, I want to take care of the current contest business. It seems that I don’t read my own posts and inadvertently changed the rules in the middle of the contest.  As I commented on the last post when this error was pointed out, I’ve decided to attempt to make this right by awarding two prizes, the initial prize of two 5-packs of My Uzi Weighs a Ton Baitfish, a cap and cutter and assorted goodies to the person who guessed the exact number of banded cigars I smoked (the first to guess that number), and a 5-pack of Baitfish, a cap and cutter and assorted goodies to the person who came closest as of Sunday, May 11 prior to the last post. I apologize for the misstep on my part and it won’t happen again. The winning number was 14.  Lloyd L. had guessed 13 in the first round and should have been the winner, all I can say is that he should be happy with the consolation prize. smoke770 was the first to guess 14, so he is the winner of the original prize. These gentlemen need to send (or re-send to verify) their addresses so I can mail this stuff out. Thanks to all who participated and to Brian for pointing out my blunder in a gentlemanly way.

 

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When we got back from our tour of the tobacco bodegas and the new construction at Drew Estate, we had a nice lunch and I enjoyed a Liga Privada No.9.  We then started our tour of the Drew Estate factory.  Much of this I missed, along with the pre-industry portion of the tour, two years prior.  The rolling galleries are expansive. Every wall has tremendous artwork on the walls and on various items throughout   It’s a very clean and pleasant place to work. I do admit it was a little surreal hearing a Barry Manilow  song piped into the main gallery.  Hundreds of pairs are rolling thousands of DSCN3245cigars.  We were all given the opportunity to apply wrappers to bunches under the tutelage of experienced rollers and I can do OK up until it’s time to finish the cap, which I can’t get the hang of cutting the flag and finishing it off, and I might as well have hooves when it comes to cutting out the cap and applying it.  It’s very humbling and gives one a renewed appreciation for the art. In another area we each had to remove the center vein from a leaf.  The women working there do hundreds of leaves a day without even blinking.  I managed to do it cleanly on my first try, but chalk that up to beginners luck and a cooperative leaf.

 

DSCN3251

We wandered through packaging areas, cold storage rooms and more tobacco storage on our way to the blending session.  Last time my son and I worked off of a menu in the Esteli emergency room and my cigars turned out to be very good in my estimation.  I was going for a certain taste and strength and I was very happy with the results. I went into this thinking of recreating my blend in a larger size, but there DSC00487were many more varieties of tobacco to choose from, and I had the benefit of seeing, feeling and smelling the leaves.  I ended up with a similar, but different blend that  I hope will be just as good. In a few weeks I’ll let you know. Of course, I used my favorite San Andreas wrapper again, but with a Cameroon binder.  I used a similar proportion of Brazilian Mata Fina in the filler, some Ometepe and Jalapa Ligero that smelled really good.  Instead of the 5″ x44 corona I made last time, I went with a 6″ x 54 toro for reasons I’m not completely sure of, it just seemed right at the time.  It was great fun and will be really interesting to compare the two.

 

DSCN3260

After we finished there we took a short tour of Jessi Flores’ Subculture Studios.  This is where all of the art happens.  The were secretive about the current project, which was the booth for the upcoming trade show, but they silk screen all of the boxes there, as well as t-shirts, stickers and other goodies. Again, the walls are painted with various scenes and designs.  It’s quite a unique and amazing department that is very different from other factories.

 

DSCN3267

The evening was spent dining and enjoying fine cigars with Jonathan, Steve, José, Nicholas, Johnny Brooke and Pedro, who had been generous and gracious hosts to us on the trip.  I constantly marvel at the great friendships I’ve made in the cigar industry, just because I decided to talk about cigars on the internet.  The group of bloggers and media folks I consider friends and look forward to seeing them all again.  You will find some great posts about this trip at CasasFumando.com, Cigar-Coop.com, and StogieGuys.com and I imagine several other outlets, many more detailed and informative than mine.  Thanks to everyone at Drew Estate for including me in this adventure, I learned many things and will always treasure the memories and friendships.

Here’s the slideshow from the factory tour and the final evening:

httpv://youtu.be/erYXGmuco1I

That concludes my recap of the trip for the most part.   I will, no doubt, throw in pictures and videos and commentary where I think it may be relevant to the content of the day.  Now I have to go back to paying attention to the cigars I smoke so I can get back to my normal routine (for instance, tonight I smoked a Gurkha Seduction Toro that was outstanding, I really love that cigar!)!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Trip Report: Drew Estate Cigar Safari – Part 3 (And a Contest, AGAIN!)

In the last installment (http://www.cigarcraig.com/?p=5594) I offered two five-packs of My Uzi Weighs a Ton Baitfish and some other gooddies (including surprises!) to whomever could guess how many banded cigars I smoked and noone got the right number!  So, go back an look at all the numbers and try again!  Rules are simple: guess a number (your best path to success is to NOT guess a number that was previously guessed, as we know that they are all wrong!)  I understand that this makes it a little harder, but that’s the deal, so there!  I’ll attempt to select a winner on Wednesday! Remember, the wrong answers are here. Good luck!

 

We left off on Monday, April 29, having visited both the Oliva Tobacco operations and the Joya de Nicaragua factories, having had a ton of knowledge dropped on us at every turn.  Tuesday evening was spent hanging out after dinner and socializing and smoking cigars.  It had been a good day.  Tuesday morning we awoke bright and early in anticipation of touring Drew Estate’s pre-industry IMG_0340operations, their new construction, as well as the factory and Subculture Studio (which I’ll cover on Wednesday).  I was looking for a “start the day” smoke, a rare treat for me, as I hung around with Will Cooper and Stace Berkland waiting for breakfast.  When one has to choose a cigar from the likes of Liga Privada T52, No.9 and Dirty Rats, Joya de Nicaragua Antaño 1970, MUWAT 7×60 and Undercrown first thing in the morning it’s tough, you know?  Fortunately there was also a box of Hererra Esteli there which would server quite well as a morning smoke (sure, I could have been cliché and smoked a Tabak Especiale, not that there’s anything wrong with that).  Anyway, the Hererra Esteli is a terrific smoke, Willy was with us the whole trip, and DSC00457I am sorry I couldn’t manage to see him last week when he visited a shop about 20 miles away.  We boarded the bus and headed to one of the Drew Estate tobacco bodegas in town, of which they have several.  Here they were storing tobacco in pilons, carefully monitoring them and turning them as needed.  They also had storage in bales and more sorting operations. Steve and Nicholas walked us through the entire operation. They use different colored string to tie the hands of tobacco DSC00470together when they sort it to identify the priming and are very conscientious about what goes where.  Once again, I’m in awe of the detail that goes into these things we burn up in an hour or so.  After this we returned to the Drew Estate factory and donned hardhats and took a tour of the new construction going on across the street of the building that will consolidate all of these little bodegas around town into one building.  This is a 70,000 square foot warehouse which will be state of the art, have storage and sorting operations and they anticipate it will be at capacity within 18 months!  In the slideshow below you will see some pictures.  After walking through the new construction (which includes a new cafeteria and healthcare clinic as well) we returned for lunch.

Here’s the slideshow:

httpv://youtu.be/QvyJm03UOmU

 

I’m going to cut it short here because it’s Mother’s Day and it’s beautiful out.  Don’t forget, leave some more comments here with your gueses of how many banded cigars I smoked on the trip, and have a great day!  Also, please join me in welcoming Tobacco Specialists to the CigarCraig.com family.  They carry a wide range of tobacco products and accessories.

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

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