Tag Archives: CigarProp

May 17, 2026 · 9:33 am

CigarProp 10th Anniversary Cigar and the Smoke-onos Festival

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., the 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

 

 

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February 23, 2025 · 9:52 am

Grace O’Malley, Big Papi HOF and Fratello Bianco Nero Cigars

Info a

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bout this cigar isn’t going to be offic

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ially released until next Saturday, but I’m going to get ahead of things here.  I hope Kevin isn’t pissed at me.  When I was in Tampa last November, I was fortunate enough to accompany Kevin (CigarProp, Trash Panda) to Single Barrel Cigar Company to drop off the cigars that would become Grace O’Malley Pirate Queen Cigars. The Robusto size cigars, which were made by JSK Cigars, are 5″ x 54, and may be a tweaked version of the JSK Red Knight.  

 

Here’s a quote from Kevin on

the barrel selection:

We partnered with the crew at Single Barrel Cigar Company, aligning our pirate theme with the perfect aging vessel: a rum barrel. But not just any rum barrel. We selected a Sazerac Rye barrel that had previously held Myers’s Rum before making its way to Big Storm Distillery, where it finished yet another rum. This multi-layered history of spirits infused our cigars with unparalleled complexity.

The cigars were placed in the barrel on November 7, 2024, and remained there for 94 days, emerging on February 9, 2025.

 

As I’ve said ad nauseum, I haven’t had

a drink in 35 years, so I don’t have much of a palate for spirits, and when I gave it up, the highest quality rum I drank was Bacardi (no offence to Kevin, I know it’s a staple for him, but it’s not a high end sipping rum). After smoking the Single Barrel Blanton’s Gold Maduro and enjoying it, I had some expectations for a cigar aged in a rum barrel. I was expecting sweet, it was a tasty cigar, but more of the barrel char flavor to me than sweetness.  I did make a mistake though, I wish I had mooched a cigar off of Kevin before being put in the barrel, although at the time I had no expectation that I would get to sample the finished product. I smoked a couple of these, and they were consistent, and I enjoyed them for what they are, a quality cigar, with a boozy aroma from the start.  Like I said, I’m not the guy for anything spirits related. However, I was

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able to figure out the proper way to use the cannon carriage cigar rest! 

 

I smoked a couple more cigars I got at the TPE show a few weeks back this week, starting with the Fratello Bianco Nero, which was released last year. Omar gave me this cigar knowing how much I enjoy the Bianco, and this Bianc

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o Nero (Italian for White Black for some reason), is a tweaked version.  It’s a 6″ x 58 box pressed perfecto, with a Maduro San Andrés wrapper, Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan fillers.  They only made 500 ten count boxes of these, and I wouldn’t mind

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having one of those in my humidor. This was a spectacular cigar, possibly richer in flavor than the regular Bianco (big fan of the Boxer), with loads of espresso flavors.  I’ve had some really good cigars so far this year, and this is near the top of the list so far.  Delicious.

 

Another cigar that came home from the TPE show with me was the Big Papi HOF from Artista Cigars.  This was a 6″ x 54 toro, they also have a limited edition figurado that’s reminiscent of a baseball bat, and they only made 541 boxes, which is the number of home runs he hit during his major league career. Artista is a funny brand for me personally. I have a good relationship with Kevin Newman there, but there are only one or two cigars in their portfolio that really work for my palate. There are a couple other brands like that, and I keep trying, because I like the folks and want to support the brand.  It’s kind of weird, I guess.  Anyway, I smoked the Big Papi HOF yesterday and enjoyed it. It has a San Andrés wrapper, although not a dar maduro color, with Indonesian binder, and a proprietary filler blend, which one would assume is largely Dominican given David Ortiz’ roots.  I got a woody profile with some subtle spice, not my favorite profile, and not what I expect from a San Andrés wrapper, but objectively quite a good cigar. I need to revisit the Harvest and  Midnight and try the Falu in their Artista Series.  Buffalo Ten is a really great bargain in any wrapper.

 

That’s all for today, I’m working on another adventure for next week, so stay tuned! 

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Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

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November 13, 2022 · 12:33 pm

Big Fundraiser Giveaway Winner Announcement!

I usually recap a few cigars I smoked during the week on Sundays, but I only really smoked one new cigar this week, the Mi Querida Black “SakaKahn”, and it was pretty good. I had smoked one at the PCA show with Steve, and have been looking forward to smoking more. So far, it’s really good, but doesn’t hit me like the Triqui Traca and the “Blue”. It comes across as milder to me.  Obviously more research is in order.  In the spirit of this particular giveawa

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y, I had a Liga Privada T52 last night that was pretty good.

 

Speaking of Saka, I have to give him a big thank you for kickstarting the K9s for Warriors fundraiser with his donation of a über-rare box of Liga Privada Pequeńos.  This is believed to be the only box (first of four ever made) in existence. Steve scribbled on the bottom, but otherwise it’s pristine! When he provided this and announced it, I decided that I was going to offer the first name drawn their choice of prizes: The Pequeńos, the Drew Estate Barnsmoker pre-party pack, the Barnsmoker pack, and the NewAir Humidor generously provided by Kevin Shahan, the addition of which definitely pushed us over the $5000 mark!  Many thanks to Kevin for this and his promotion of the event!  Wouldn’t it be funny if he won the humidor? Thank you to everyone who donated to this worthy cause.  

 

Here’s the way this is going to work: I’m drawing the first winner and asking him what pri

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ze he wants. When I get a response, I’ll draw the second, third and fourth winners and, starting with the second, give them their choice of the remaining prizes.  My wife and I spent the morn

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ing reviewing the entries, double and triple checking, and I have a spreadsheet with everyone’s info.  I am happy to share that upon request.  SO, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO! 

The first winner is Marvin Roberts!  I’ll be contacting you to get your prize preference!  Watch for the next post tomorrow or Tuesday with the next winners!

 

Thanks again for everyone’s generous donations!  I’m especially thankful to whoever it was that made the donation to round the total to the nearest $5, my CDO thanks you!  Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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May 22, 2022 · 10:20 am

ThermoPro TP393 Hygrometer and Vice-Versa Cigars

Every now and then the folks at Thermopro send me a new gadget to try out. In this case I protested a little, and suggested something else, but they insisted that this was better technology than the older model I asked about, and were rather insistant! I agreed to evaluate the ThermoPro TP393 Hygrometer even though I thought it seemed a little large for most humidors. I set it up in my cabinet humidor for a week or two next to a known accurate hygrometer and left it alone. There are quite a few things I like about this, besides the fact that it appears to be accurate. My old eyes like the large display, in this application, the backlighting, time and date function are

Before you panic about the humidity, the top unit is in my Family Room!

pretty superfluous, but in other applications this are nice to have. It has a rechargeable battery, which should make things easier over time, as saves having to find weird button cell batteries, or keep a stock of AAA batteries around. I’ve noticed no battery power reduction over the two weeks it’s been in use. It interacts wi

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th the App seamlessly via bluetooth, one can set alerts easily, and historical data is tracked. I have three devices now in my app and can see the conditions in three humidors at a glance. It may be a little big for a desktop humidor, it’s good for a large cabinet, and would be ideal for a walk-in. It’s a nice unit for a very reasonable price. I also have been using their TP200B Indoor Outdoor Thermometer to monitor the temperature in my enclosed smoking porch. This is a neat thermometer for indoor and outdoor, but doesn’t really have a good application in the humidor without a hygrometer, and it isn’t Bluetooth. The links included are Amazon affiliate links, I get a few pennies if anyone buys one. I recently received an Amazon payment about enough to buy a cigar, and it’s the first one I’ve gotten in a few years, so I’m not getting rich off of affiliate links! Thank you to Thermopro for the promotional consideration.

 

I had an opportunity to try a new cigar this week, two of them, actually. It’s actually the same cigar, smoked two different ways. This is a cigar that Kevin at CigarProp/Trash Panda Cigars has been working on with Omar of Fratello Cigars for the last two years, it’s not a new concept, just maybe one that hasn’t been perfected yet. They have made a cigar that has a different smoking experience depending on which end you light. It’s capped on both ends, one end has a lighter cap, and is about 7″ x 50. I smoked two cigars,

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one from each end, and did, indeed have a different experience. I know nothing about the blend, but I am guessing it’s got some Dominican tobacco, and strikes me as a cigar rolled in the DR. It appears to have a Habano wrapper. The first one I smoked, lighting the Habano capped end (hint, cut both ends, burning through the cap doesn’t go well!), seemed to start spicier, and built in strength. The second, lighting the shade end, seemed to start smoother. Overall these are on the leather side of the flavor spectrum to my palate. My personal opinion on cigars that are copped on both ends is that they need to be stored at a lower humidity, because once the humidity is inside the cigar there’s nowhere for it to go. I found that both samples needed frequent relights in the last third, although the burn and draw were still pretty good. It’s an interesting concept, there have been a couple cigars in the past that have done similar things, on

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e of which was a blatant SCHIP tax dodge! Check out Kevin and Jess’s video about this cigar. I’ll be interested to see how this project pr

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ogresses! Thanks for including me in the select group of people allowed to know about this! 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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September 26, 2021 · 10:26 am

J.C. Newman’s Yagua and Oscar Valladares 2012 Maduro Cigars

My least favorite time of the year arrived this week, Autumn.  Summer flew by, I feel like I didn’t get to do many of the things I would have like to have done, for one reason or another, and now it’s another long, cold winter ahead to look forward too. One can only hope that these months pass as quickly as the summer did. Here I am, wishing my life away! Time really needs to slow the heck down. On the one hand, I have a humidor full of cigars and not enough time to smoke them, on the other hand, I have a humidor full of cigars! On another subject, does anyone know how many consecutive Sundays I’ve managed to publish a blog post?  It’s gotta be some kind of record.  Anyway, I smoked a bunch of cigars this week, a couple were new. The Yagua, while not necessarily new, is the 2021 version. J.C. Newman makes this at the PENSA factory in Nicaragua, using what they call and under fermented US Broadleaf wrapper. I suppose the idea is for it to finish fermenting while aging in the bundles wrapped in the royal palm leaves. The one I smoked came from the center of the bundle so it had a hexagonal shape, these definitely are reminiscent of the Henry Clay cigars of the 90s in shape, and they had Broadleaf wrappers as well. They too were bundled wet and you never knew what shape you were going to get. I really enjoyed the flavor of this cigar, it’s got something a little different than other broadleaf cigars. Maybe there’s a meatier flavor, it’s not as much the expresso or cocoa that I usually get. It’s very different than, say, a Triqui Traca, which Saka confused this for on a Facebook group (I admonished him to wear his glasses!). I think there’s a lot of reasons to try this cigar, I might try another one today! 

 

Yesterday afternoon I was looking for a shorter cigar and remembered I had an Oscar Valladares 2012 Maduro Short Robusto which I had picked up a few months ago as I was walking out of the humidor at the Wooden Indian. I certainly had enough cigars in my hands already, but these caught my eye, and I hadn’t yet sampled anything from this line. This is a 4″ x 50 box press cigar, good for and hour or so. It has a San Andrés wrapper, Honduran binder and nicaraguan fillers. These looked really good when I walked by them, like little chocolate bars, which is what made me pick them up. Smaller cigars tend to age in my humidors as I tend toward toro and larger cigars. I need to make a concerted effort to smoke the robustos on the weekends when I smoke more than one cigar, I guess. If I smoke a larger cigar I don’t have time for a nap! This was a delicious cigar, it was heavy on the black licorice, which I don’t taste much in a cigar. I found it intriguing. I guess it’s time to check out some more of the Oscar Valladares line. I think I know the broker in my area. 

 

Please join me in extending Happy Birthday wishes to my friend, and long time reader and friend of CigarCraig.com: Kevin Shahan!  You might know Kevin better as Mr. CigarProp, from his cigar accessories, and wildly popular YouTube and other social media properties.  I’m not sure how Jessica puts up with him, but he’s all right in my book!  Happy Birthday Buddy!  (pictured here with myself and Sandy Cobas at El Titan de Bronze a couple years ago in a photo taken by Jessica).

 

Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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