Tag Archives: Contest

December 28, 2025 · 10:19 am

Trinidad and Las Calaveras Cigars and a Giveaway!

It’s a busy time of the year and Christmas on a Thursday really threw off my week. I had to go out yesterday and buy some new-to-me cigars for today’s post. I also decided at the last minute to half-ass a giveaway! More on the giveaway after I talk about a couple cigars.I ran into Cigar Mojo – The Grove, and found a few cigars that I haven’t smoked yet. This is an interesting problem to have, but I’m having trouble finding the combination of cigars I haven’t smoked, and cigars I want to smoke. It’s come to me going through the humidor with my phone searching my own website to make sure I’m not repeating. And then there’s some cigars I just don’t have any interest in smoking. I’m also price sensitive, and they have quite a few pricey cigars in the humidor. It’s easy when I want to stop in for a smoke, but less so when I’m looking for something new to write about. Anyway, I grabbed a Trinidad Espiritu Miami since I hadn’t had that one yet. This is the fourth cigar in the Espiritu line, I rather enjoy the No. 2 the most, but they have all been good. I want to get a hold of the Tommy Bahama edition. This is a 6 1/8″ x 52 Belicoso, and is a Nicaraguan puro made at the A.J. Fernandez factory. While this is inspired by Miami, it contains no Miami tobacco! This is probably a good thing. The bright colors and art deco look of the bands was very appealing to me and seemed to go along with this festive time of year. I quite enjoyed the hour and a half I spent with this cigar. It burned and drew well, and had some sweet, bready sensations. I didn’t think the wrapper would fall into the beautiful category, it was on the ugly side, with some mottling and an odd color. Smoking with your eyes isn’t limited to packaging. I liked this cigar, it was medium bodied and quite enjoyable. Once again, most times if I enjoy an Altadis cigar, it’s made by A.J. Fernandez.

Another cigar I picked up was the Las Calaveras LE 2025 from Crowned Heads. I selected the LC54 size which is 6″ x 54. This cigar has a mid-priming San Andrés wrapper that’s not your usual maduro wrapper, but Colorado in color. I haven’t smoked too many of the Las Calaveras line in the past, but the ones I have I’ve enjoyed. This one was also enjoyable. I almost grabbed the 2024 (they have 2’23, ’24 and ’25 on the shelf) because the band has red and green in it and I’m still feeling Christmassy, but I went for the newest one instead. Mojo is a mile away, I can always grab more. These are made at the My Father factory. There is an earthy cocoa flavor with a little bit of spice. Interestingly, the first half of this cigar burned really fast, I was maybe 20 minutes in when I started wondering if it was going to make it to thirty minutes. At the halfway point it slowed down, and I got to somewhere around an hour and a quarter. It finished off well, nice cigar. I’m thinking I may have to go grab a ’23 and ’24 next time I’m there.

It’s a bit of a tradition around here to give stuff away around the holidays. I have some goodies lying around, so here’s what going to happen! I have a neat Don Doroteo leather case, with a cutter and lighter. This is a really nice item, it’s just not something I’ll use. There’s a. J.C.Newman Bricktoberfest stein. There’s a nice Villiger lighter. I’ve had this silver plate Gurkha ashtray in my closet for a few years, it can use a little shining up, but it’s a nice ashtray. Ironically, I’ve heard that mixing some cigar ash with water makes a good silver polish.

Top that off with some miscellaneous goodies, along with at least a dozen cigars from my humidor which I’ll and pick, and you’ve got a pretty nice bunch of stuff. So leave a comment here on this blog post. Facebook comments, IG, Threads, X comments don’t count. I look forward to reading your comments! I’ll select a winner randomly next Sunday. Good luck!

That’s all I have for today! Happy New Year to all. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

12 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as altadis, Contest, Crowned Heads, giveaway, Las Calaveras, Miami Espiritu, trinidad

August 24, 2025 · 9:28 am

Saint Luis Rey and Drew Estate Free Style Live Cigars and a Giveaway!

I didn’t have a lot of new stuff to write about this week, so I figures a classic CigarCraig giveaway was long overdue. Stuff has been piling up and it needs to find a new home! More on that after I talk about a couple cigars! First up is the Saint Luis Rey Natural Broadleaf Rothschild. I’ve always liked the Saint Luis Rey brand, and really need to check out some of their newer offerings. I remember when they were made for Altadis by the Eiroas, boy were they good back then! This is a 5″ x 54 with a severe box press, not really a Rothschild at all. Obviously, I would have gotten a toro had it been available, but this is what the shop had. I thought this was quite a nice cigar. It had a rich, spicy sweetness, burned well and was very nice. These should be around $7 each, so are a really good cigar at a great price.

Drew Estate will be having a Freestyle Live event this Tuesday, 8/26/25, at 7 Eastern on YouTube and Facebook to reveal what the cigar in their most recent Freestyle Live pack will become. The pack consisted of three cigars (all Toros), and a 40 ounce Tumbler. I’ll be honest, previous FSL packs had a little more substance. The tumbler is nice, I should probably use it myself, but it will be included in the giveaway below, along with some stuff from a previous FSL event. The cigar is obviously a mystery for now. I can tell you a few things about it, though. It has a lighter wrapper, and may be a shade wrapper, based on what I perceived as a breaddy sweetness. My money is on Nica Rustica Shade, but I’m never right about these things. It’s a really good smoke, I’ll be delighted if it’s in the Nica Rustica price range. The pack comes with three cigars, and is probably still available in retail, so it’s a good deal if you need a tumbler. Tune in to Drew Estate’s broadcast Tuesday to find out what it is.

OK, giveaway time! I hope you read the paragraphs above and didn’t just scroll down to the free stuff section! OK, you know how this works. Leave a comment on this blog post to enter. Not on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Threads or anywhere else, just here. I’ll select a winner at random and announce it in next Sunday’s post. Here’s what I’m including, other stuff might fall in the box when I pack it up, and I’m not listing cigars, but the humidor will be full of selections from my humidor. First, from Drew Estate, there’s the Freestyle Live Tumbler (and a cigar), the ten count travel humidor from the last FSL event (which I will fill with cigars!), which includes a lighter. Then there’s some various swag from last year’s Barnsmoker, a hat, spray can lighter (hard to believe I got that through TSA!) and cutter. From J.C. Newman there’s a pair of Brick House Bricktoberfest pint glasses (stock photo since they are already nicely wrapped for shipping). I’m also including a melamine Romeo y Julieta ashtray, and, like I said, whatever I might find laying around in the meantime.

Any cigars I include will have been featured on my site at some point, and or are personal favorites. They won’t suck. So hit the comments, let me know what you think! I just remembered, next week will be the 16th anniversary of CigarCraig.com, so there’s a good reason to celebrate with a giveaway!

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

CigarCraig

12 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as altadis, cigar, cigars, Contest, drew estate, Free Shit, Free Style Live, giveaway, Natural Broadleaf, Saint Luis Rey

January 5, 2025 · 10:26 am

A Pair of Single Barrel Cigar Co. Cigars and the Big Giveaway Winner!

Before I get into the giveaway winner business, I’d like to talk about a a couple cigars that were given to me when I visited Single Barrel Cigar Co.‘s Clearwater, Florida aging facility with Kevin last November. My first disclaimer, most of you know already, is that I don’t drink, haven’t since about 1990. I’m not a “friend of Bill’s”, but I know who he is. Therefore, I have no frame of reference for booze related flavors. Second disclaimer is that I don’t regularly partake in flavored cigars. There are a couple of infused/flavored cigars I enjoy, but on a semi-annual basis. I might pick up a Tabak, Deadwood, or an Acid Kuba Arte once or twice a year. There are more traditional cigars that I enjoy that the altered cigars take a back seat. I have to kinda talk myself into smoking something like this, and the booze thing is a double whammy. I’m going to give my thoughts, and those of you in the know can comment. Anyway, We talked to Nick there, and he gave me two cigars to try. These aren’t necessarily flavored, the cigars are placed in bourbon barrels, the barrels are “mixed” every so often so the cigars get equal access to the wood. I don’t know how cigars aren’t damaged in this process. The first one was a Blanton’s Gold Maduro Robusto. The aroma once the tube was opened was pungent, had me worried for a bit. I admit, I really enjoyed this cigar. It had a honey sweetness, very satisfying. I was concerned that the cigar was wet, it wasn’t, the burn and draw were perfect. I definitely could taste what I assume was the bourbon, and it was pleasant. Thumbs up on this one.

One of the trademarks of Single Barrel Cigar Co. is that they put a pinch of the barrel char in the bottom of each glass tube. I asked if they scraped the barrels themselves, which seemed like a lot of work, but they get it from the distillery. This might have been the reason that this second one I smoked put off some interesting colors when I toasted the foot. The second one was the Weller 107 Maduro Robusto. I’m to understand that Weller and Blanton’s come from the same parent company. This one was noticeably different from the Blanton’s version. It seemed more savory than sweet. It burned great, draw was good, but this one didn’t appeal to me. If I had smoke this one first, I may not have been keen to try the Blanton’s, which, again, I really enjoyed. Like everything, taste is subjective, but this Weller didn’t do it for me. It’s not that it tasted bad, but I think it failed in comparison to the first one. That’s on me, not the cigars. Kevin is working on something with Single Barrel for his Trash Panda store, although I’m not at liberty to say any more. Not that I signed an NDA or anything, just going to let Kevin talk about that. I thought I’d taken more pictures, but the only ones I took are of Kevin’s barrel and that would be a giveaway, although if you know Kevin, you’ll probab;y be able to figure it out. I’ll say that if you find yourself in the Tampa area, and come across these cigars, give them a try.

Some of you may have scrolled down to this point already, please go back and read the rest! I’ll wait… OK, it’s time to announce the winner of the huge batch of goodies. To recap, there’s the better part of the DE25 Barnsmoker backpack full of goodies. Some neat stuff from Miami Cigar and Co. Villiger, and Dunbarton, as well as a selection of cigar from my humidor, which will be a surprise. Basically I’m going to fill the travel humidor and cigar case, but who knows what falls into the box when I pack it. Shipping is going to cost me a fortune on this one! Anyway, there were 32 entries, and I used Google’s random number generator to pick a number, and numbered the submissions from first to last. The winner is a long-time reader and supporter, Tim McCabe! Please email me your details so I can get this package shipped! Thank you all for your comments! I’ve been doing this blog thing for 15 years, and it’s nice to know people appreciate it!

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

CigarCraig

3 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as Blanton's Gold, cigar, cigars, Contest, giveaway, Single Barrel Cigar Co., Weller 107

December 29, 2024 · 9:30 am

CigarCraig’s Holiday Giveaway Extravaganza!

It’s been a busy week and I decided ins

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tead of smoking some newer cigars and writing about them I’d go through some of the goodies I have strewn about the office and put together a mega-prize and do a giveaway. I have been reminiscing about the days of the Twelve Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways I did from 2011 to 2015, it was a lot

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of fun but took up a whole lot of time and resources! So, in homage to those good old days, I try to put together one good giveaway during the holiday season. I’m off to a late start this year, but better late than never, right? This is going to be an epic haul, including some goodies from Drew Estate, Miami Cigar and Co., Villiger and Dunbarton. I’m not going to list cigars, but rest assured any case or humidor is going to be filled! It’s hard to tell what other treats might fall into the box! There’s a couple lighters and cutters, some cigar rests, a mug, a hat, some luggage, a wallet, an ashtray, a notebook, a rocks glass, all sorts of stuff!

All of these items are included, plus cigars to fill the cases, and whatever else happens to fall into the box! The cigars will not suck. Rules are simple, leave a comment on this post to enter. Please leave a new comment and not a reply to another comment. Comments on social media posts will not be counted. You must be of legal age to enjoy cigars in your jurisdiction, and willing to provide proof. United States address only please, it’s going to cost me a small fortune to ship this anyway, shipping abroad would bury me! Those are the rules! One entry per person. Thank you to the companies who provided the SWAG! I love it, but I love sharing it with my readers more! Thanks to those of you who have chosen to waste time reading my nonsense over the last 15 years!

Happy New Year! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

32 Comments

Filed under Contest

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Contest, drew estate, Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust, Miami Cigar and Co, Villiger

December 24, 2023 · 9:16 am

Mule Kick, Metropolitan, Maria Lucia and the Contest Winner!

It only just occurred to me that that the last three cigars I smoked started with M, must be fore Merry Christmas! Of course, today is Christmas Eve, so it’s time to start your Christmas Shopping guys! It’s also the day I’m announcing the winner of the contest sponsored by Cigars.com, but I’ll get to that later! In the spirit of the season, I smoked some gifted cigars this week, the first of which was from Steve from Tampa, who was up visiting on business a few weeks ago. He gifted me a Crowned Heads Four Kicks 2023 Mule Kick LE, a 5 7/8″ x 52. Funny, I thought it was a toro, but I was off by an eighth of an inch. This one has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper over a Dominican binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, and is made in the Tabacalara La Alianza factory by Ernesto Carillo. I think this is the seventh iteration of the Mule Kick, and probably the first I’ve had, the Crowned Heads stuff isn’t ever really on my radar, I don’t see them in the stores near me that often. This was a great smoke, loaded with dark chocolate and spices. Ernesto has been a master of Sumatra for as long as I can remember, which, in this case, is a long time (my memory is suspect, short-term and names is terrible, long term isn’t so bad). Many thanks to Steve for the opportunity to smoke this, I look forward to your next visit, who knows, I may get to your neck of the woods before you get back here!

Next up were a couple of selections from my Secret Santa this year. Quick bit of housekeeping: If you participated in the CigarCraig Secret Santa (The CCSS moving forward), and have not fulfilled your obligation, please do so. I know of one package that’s in transit. Everyone that’s been involved has done it multiple times, so I don’t worry, and I try to be hands off and just a participant. Feel free to let me know if you have comments of concerns. My CCSS was a fellow Craig and in my area, so much so that I ran into him while out shopping Friday! So I selected the Nat Sherman Metropolitan Host Maduro Hampton, a 7″ x 50 cigar. You might be saying, “Craig, Metropolitan is a Ferio Tego brand now” and I’d say you are correct. You also might not know that Nat Sherman closed their doors in 2021 and Michael Herklots bought the rights to the names and kept the brands alive. This particular cigar is one of the older ones, purchased at the Nat Sherman Townhouse in NYC. I believe it has a Broadleaf wrapper, over Honduran fillers, made by the Eiroas if I’m not mistaken. This was mil

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der than I imagined it would be, but it was loaded with sweet cocoa flavor and very tasty. Perhaps any strength it had was tempered by time, but it was very good. I enjoyed the crap out of this and it’s one that I’ll likely never see again. Thanks for the opportunity Craig!

Another

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cigar in Craig’s CCSS pack was the Luciano Cigars Maria Lucia, another Broadleaf wrapped cigar. This is a tribute to Luciano Meirelles’ mother, who passed when he was twelve, and has the artwork of his daughter on the band. The cigar is 5¼” x 54 with the Broadleaf wrapper, double binder of Ecuadorian Sumatra and Ecuadorian Habano 92 tobaccos, and a fillers from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Peru. This is going to sound strange, especially given the source, but the flavor was bready to me, like a dark bread, a pumpernickel or the brown bread that comes in a can. It was on the heavy side, which I liked, even though I smoked it before dinner (after a nap). I have met Luciano a couple times, and have enjoyed his cigars. I would like

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to explore more of his work, I think. Good stuff.

Let’s give some stuff away! You might recall, Cigars.com has provided me with a really nice Montecristo travel humidor, along with a RoMEo cap and a Romeo y Julieta can cozy. I am going to add some cigars to the humidor before I ship it, they will be Cigars.com exclusives from my humidor, more or less. The sponsor doesn’t know I’m doing this, but I can

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‘t send out a package without cigars! Anyway, I’ve consulted the Google Random Number Generator and Tim McCabe is the winner! Please send me your address so that I can get this stuff out to you! Remember if you buy from Cigars.com, or JRCigars.com, please use the affiliate links on the left sidebar, I could use the cash!

That’s all for now, enjoy the Holidays! I guess I need to scrounge up some goodies for a New Years Giveaway! Stay tuned! Until the next time,

CigarCraig