Tag Archives: Crowned Heads

by Craig Vanderslice | September 9, 2020 · 9:35 pm

Labor Day Cigars and a Macanudo Inspirado Green

Labor Day was my first paid holiday since January 1st of 2018! A combination of two streaks of unemployment and a year of working in retail for a company that didn’t believe in paid holidays (something I had trouble wrapping my head around!), I was quite excited about this small luxury! My wife wanted to get away and do something, anything, so we took a drive to Lewes, Delaware, Parked the car at the ferry terminal, and rode the ferry over to Cape May and walked on the beach for a while. I took the opportunity to smoke one of the cigars in the Cigar Prop sampler in the Smoke Inn Battle of the Bands promo that’s going on. I selected the Alec Bradley Black Market Esteli Punk, a little 4¼” x 42 petite corona. This cigar has a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan and Honduran binders amd Nicaraguan fillers. I chose this due to time constraints and the fact that I wasn’t supposed to be actually smoking on the beach really, but the stretch of beach we were on was fairly empty and nobody said anything anyway. I don’t usually favor such small cigars, and it was before lunch, so I took it slow, which was a good thing, because this was a pretty potent little smoke! I really enjoyed it! It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, with a gentle breeze off the bay, and this cigar was just delicious. These are probably about $5 if you find them singley, and well worth it. A great choice by Kevin for his sampler.

On the drive home I lit up another cigar from the “shorties of forty” sampler, as Kevin refers to it, the Papas Fritas from Drew Estate. Obviously, this wasn’t my first go around with this cigar, and I normally wouldn’t opt for a mixed filler cigar while driving a stick shift car in traffic, but I had confidence in this one. The Papas Fritas was made using the sorted bench cuts from the Liga Privadas. It certainly doesn’t smoke like a mixed fill cigar, no mess in the car! Of course, traffic sucked coming home, to be expected, so having a cigar was quite helpful. It occurs to me, I still haven’t smoked any of the Nasty Fritas, the newer shape. Anyway, the two hour drive took nearly three, but the little Papas Fritas took the edge off. I could have smoked and A sized cigar, but that might have hit the windshield. I gotta say, I’ve smoked three of the five cigars in the Cigar Prop sampler and they have all been winners. Great selection so far.

When I got home I felt compelled to smoke another from the samper, and went with one I hadn’t tried before, the Crowned Heads Juarez OBS, the largest cigar in the sampler. This one is 4¾” x 54, seems longer compared to the rest, but it’s the same length as the Sobremesa Short Churchill, the fifth cigar in the sampler (the first one was the Padron 26th No. 35 Maduro). Kevin said that this is the cigar that people raved about in the sampler. I have to say, it was in my top five, but certainly not my favorite. This line is made at Tabacalera Pichardo in Estelí,, it has a natural San Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan fillers. I don’t know if it’s because it was my third cigar of the day, with the first two being fairly strong, or if it’s because it started off a little snug in the draw and took a while to open up, but it was just OK. I’ll certainly give this one a second chance, but it was reasonably blah to me. With the wrapper/binder combination it should have been interesting. I also admit to not taking a shine to a lot of the Crowned Heads portfolio, for some reason, there hasn’t been a lot that trips my trigger. I suppose I’m in the minority.

Tonight I smoked a Macanudo Inspirado Green Toro, my second one. I’ve been looking forward to trying this cigar since I’ve heard about it. I’ve been hot and cold on the Inspirado line, oddly, I really like the Red and White, the Black and Orange are just OK. The Green has a Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper, Indonesian binder, and fillers from Columbia and the DR. The Brazilian wrapper caught my attention, as well as the Columbian filler. The first one I smoked was nice, but I smoked it following a rather strong maduro (Southern Draw Jacobs Ladder), and I felt like I may not have given it a fair shake. I thought it was pretty mild. So I smoked on tonight on a fresh palate and it was quite a bit more flavorful! I enjoyed this cigar, more than the Inspirado Black, which, for me, is odd. It’s odd that I am not that fond of the Black actually, but the Green has some interesting and different flavors. There’s some spice and unique flavors I can’t put a finger on, except to say that I like them and it’s a cigar I’m happy that I bought a handful of. I actually bought these after shopping for something else and not finding what I was looking for. Next to the Inspirado Red, this is my second favorite Inspirado. The green band looks really nice on that dark wrapper too.

One of my pet peeves: The Black Market Esteli Punk size isn’t listed on the Alec Bradley webpage, nor is the Juarez line listed on the Crowned Heads site. I just think it’s weird. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Alec Bradley, Battle of the Bands, Black Market Esteli, cigar, Cigar Prop, cigars, Crowned Heads, drew estate, Green, Inspirado, Juarez, macanudo, Papas Fritas, Smoke Inn

by Craig Vanderslice | January 26, 2020 · 10:39 am

A Diesel Whiskey Row Sherry Cask and a Montecristo Ciudad de Musica Cigar

I feel like a put out a load of posts this week leading up to the TPE. There was plenty of other news, but I’ve made a pledge to myself to keep things positive, and not report anything negative or divisive! I’m going to advocate unity from here on out and try to keep my cynical, sarcastic (I had a superior call me that once, then he gave me an award!) comments to myself. Sure, I have my opinions on things, and I have recently voiced my opinions on things and stand by them, but from here on out I’m taking the “can’t we all just get along” stance. I have to back-burner some other website ideas I had, but I’d have register them anonymously anyway 😁. Anyway, I smoked a few other cigars this week, I want to write an in-depth post about one, but I’m waiting for more information. I revisited the Diesel Whiskey Row Cherry Cask, this time in the Toro size. I’m not sure if I’ve written about this in this size, I know I’ve really enjoyed the robusto, and, being a bit of a Toro fan, I wanted to try it in that size. I bought a few last week, and didn’t get around to smoking them, but found myself meeting a friend in the cigar shop again and felt like that’s what I wanted to smoke, so I grabbed a couple more. I’m not sure why I can’t just buy one cigar. Anyway, I seem to think I smoked the Toro a while ago and liked the Robusto better, but this time I really did enjoy the Toro. In this cigar, and I don’t know whether it has to do with the color of the band, or the cask aging, but it’s like smoking a raspberry chocolate cake to me. I love the sweet, dessert flavor I get from the cigar. I suppose I’ll have to give the 6″ x 60 a try, but I wonder if that might dilute the flavors I like. I won’t know until I try, I suppose. These are priced well in the $7-9 range, and have a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Brazilian binder and Nicaraguan fillers. Without the cask aging, there’s a lot to like in this blend.

The other cigar I want to talk about was a gift from my Secret Santa Adam. This is a cigar I probably wouldn’t have chosen to sample on my own, as it only really has one thing appealing to me. Honestly, there aren’t a great many Montecristos that I really like, there’s the White Vintage Connecticut, and the Espada, and Probably the AJ Fernandez. The Montecristo Ciudad de Musica is a collaboration between Crowned Heads and Montecristo, made at E.P. Carrillo‘s Tabacalera Allianza in the Dominican Republic. I’ve always approached Crowned Heads with some ambivalence, bordering on apathy. They always had a “we’re the little guy, we are anti-corporate” thing going on, then they go and make a cigar with the biggest company out there. I get that it’s a huge deal to have your company name on the biggest name in the biz, it’s really cool. Hang on, let me go back and read my first few sentences…OK…I’m back on track. This cigar pays homage to Nashville, the City of Music, or Ciudad de Musica, and has a Habano wrapper grown in Ecuador, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers and comes in four sizes. Initially, this was only available in Casa de Montecisto stores (CdM, see a pattern?, like Crowned Heads and Condor and Huber?, The Angels Anvil and TAA? Jon Huber loves that stuff apparently), then sold in TAA stores, and I did see these in my local shop which is a TAA store. I’m not sure if these are available to a wider range than that at this point or not. So I would like to thank Adam fo sharing this delicious cigar with me, because it was probably one of the most delicious cigars with the either the Montecristo, or Crowned Heads name on it. It was medium bodied, and had a very nice sweetness that I found very appealing. It wasn’t too heavy, or too light, it was just right, and the construction was perfect. I am a fan of much of EPC’s products, and have been for an awful long time, and this one is among the better I’ve enjoyed. I was stunned. I had mixed expectations. I expected a great smoke because of the person who shared it with me, but I had reservations because of my past experience with Montecristo. This is definitely a case of keeping an open mind, it was a delicious cigar, I may try other sizes.

That’s all for today. I need to spend the day packing for my trip to the TPE show. Please let me know if there’s anything you want to know from the show! I have a few appointments, but will be free-ranging otherwise. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Ciudad de Musica, Crowned Heads, diesel, EP Carillo, Montecristo, Sherry Cask, Whiskey Row

by Craig Vanderslice | December 29, 2019 · 10:52 am

A Four Kicks, an Island LifeStyle and a Gran Habano, and Some Other Cigars

It’s been a busy holiday week. When Christmas falls on a Wednesday, it seems to make things a little nutty. I imagine if I had a job it would be even worse. I continue to pound the pavement, but it’s a tricky time to try to get an interview! I have confidence that things will open up after next week. I managed to have a cigar or two since my last post, and I did skip a midweek post due to the holiday. I took part in a Secret Santa on one of the Facebook Groups, so I smoked a gifted cigar from Adam just before Christmas, a Four Kicks Maduro Lancero LE 2018. While I don’t have a great deal of experience with the Crowned Heads line, I am a big fan of the EP Carrillo cigars, and this cigar is made at Tabacalera La Alianza, S.A. factory, in the DR, and I like Maduros and I like Lanceros. I felt like this cigar would be a treat. My friends, I was not wrong, this cigar was, indeed, a treat. It’s a true Laguito No. 1 Vitola, 7 ½” x 38, with a fantail cap. The burn and draw were perfect, and I took care, as I usually do, to smoke it slowly so as not to overheat it and get a hot, bitter taste. It was delicious maduro espresso and dark chocolate and I dug it. I met Adam at the PA Barn Smoker and am looking forward to the next time we can hang out and have a cigar together, he and his wife are super-cool folks. Thanks for the experience!

I don’t recall if I mentioned it or not, but a few weeks ago I popped over to Goose’s Montecristo Lounge in Limerick, PA for a bit and hung out with Ryan and Rick from Island Lifestyle Importers. I’ve hung out with them at the IPCPR show, and been a big fan of their Tommy Bahama cigar accessories and, of course, their Island Lifestyle Aged Reserve line of premium cigars. While I was there I smoked their Aged Reserve Maduro in the Churchill size, and revisited it this week. They have changed their production from Perdomo to Oliva, oddly enough due to FDA regulation on box counts. Is that screwy or what? By the way, their factory was a tightly held secret, I tried for a long time to get them to spill, to no avail. This Maduro is a Nicaraguan wrapper, and is a beautiful oily maduro wrapper. The examples I’ve smoked have been absolute perfection, burn and draw were spot on, well balanced and right up my alley flavor-wise. Rich black coffee with some cocoa sweetness and some earthines, and good to the nub. Completely enjoyable. I also dig the Sungrown too, but this Maduro is great. The “Churchill” is large, 7″ x 54, I called it a Double Corona, but it’s a great smoke. I love the lighters, cutters and other cool stuff in the Tommy Bahama line too, it’s cool and works great. It was great seeing them and I hope to see them at the TPE show.

One of the other great cigars I smoked this week was a Gran Habano Gran Reserva No.5 2012 Corona Gorda. I love a Corona Gorda, much more than a Corona or Robusto. It’s like a scaled down Toro. For whatever reason, I’ve just always been a fan of the 5 1/8 x 46 shape, although there have been a few lines that I’ve preferred other sizes. In this case, they use the top 10% of the Corojo No.5 leaf and give the finished cigars additional aging. The wrapper and binder is Nicaraguan and the filler is Nicaraguan and Costa Rican and it’s a darned tasty blend. It’s smooth and rich. I always enjoy the Corojo No. 5, and this is a more refined version. I’m not entirely sure what they cost, or where to find them, but they are good, and I’d buy them in a heartbeat! Good stuff!

What else did I smoke? I had a RoMaCraft Baka, a Diamond Crown Black Diamond, a Davidoff Escurio, a Joya Cinco Decadas, and, of course, one of my favorites this year, a Don Juan Calavera Connecticut. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Crowned Heads, Four Kicks, Goose's, Gran Habano, Gran Reserva 2012, Island Lifestyle, Tommy Bahama

by CigarCraig | December 10, 2017 · 9:44 am

Smoking Contenders and the Contest Winner

It snowed in some unusual places in the US over the last few days, but it’s not that unusual here. Yesterday it snowed a few inches in PA, so I painted a room, and managed to smoke a cigar in between coats. Unfortunately, I also smoked an entire cigar while on the phone with a major retailer trying to work out a delivery issue. I suppose the cigar prevented me from losing my mind…anyway, I spent this week smoking though 2 Guy’s Smokeshop‘s Cigar of the year contenders pack that I bought while I was there a couple of weeks ago. Included in the pack were: Aladino, Eiroa First 20 Years Colorado, Luminosa by Crowned Heads, The Oscar Habano, Perla Del Mar Maduro, Vegas Cubanas, Wayfarer by Serino Cigars, and The Wiseman Maduro. These are all in robusto format, except for the Wideman Maduro which is in a corona size, and is on the schedule to smoke today. Being slightly CDO (which, as we know, is OCD in alphabetical order like it should be), I smoked them in the order they were listed on the insert in the box.

Aladino: this is from JRE Cigars, Julio and Justo Eiroa, father and brother of Chrsitian Eiroa. The cigar is authentic Corojo grown on the Eiroa’s farm in Honduras. This was a 5″x50 robusto and I was really quite happy smoking this cigar. It was a great start to the pack, and was my favorite so far 😀.

Eiroa First 20 Years Colorado: CLE cigars is the company Christian Eiroa formed after selling Camacho to Davidoff. This cigar celebrates his twenty year anniversary in the cigar industry. This was a 5″x50 with a severe box press, and was a beautiful cigar. Christian worked with his father on this cigar, a Honduran puro. Vastly different from the Aladino, didn’t do it for me, which is consistent with my feelings on most of Christian’s cigars now. Funny, I loved the Camachos when he made them, CLE and Eiroa don’t seem to fit my tastes.

Luminosa by Crowned Heads: I’m not normally a fan of Crowned Heads, but I am a fan of Ernesto Carillo, so this one was little confusing. I enjoyed the cigar, it had an interesting flavor, but the look of the cigar was “bundle-ish”. The orange band made me think of the Don Jose bundles from the 90s. Preconceived notions aside, it was a pretty good smoke, but to me it was just another Ecuador Connecticut cigar. I’m absolutely mystified that this cigar doesn’t appear on the Crowned Heads website, but the guys at 2 Guys felt is was in the running for their cigar of the year.

The Oscar Habano: Another cigar from Honduras, this typically has a candela leaf outer sleeve, along the lines of the Leaf by Oscar. The candela leaf was absent on the Contenders samplers, I’d be very suspicious if Dave Garofalo came out with a new Candela cigar in the near future. I know he’s a fan of the green leaf (…that’s a joke, son). The Oscar has jumped to the front of the line for me. This was a solid cigar with great flavor and just a darned pleasure to smoke. I have a toro floating around the humidor I think, and have smoked the 6×60 and really enjoyed them, but, like I mentioned to Oscar Valladares when I met him in an Elevator in Vegas, I’m a fan of his work.

Perla Del Mar Maduro: this is a budget line from J.C.Newman, and it a nice smoke. I like a maduro, and this is a good one, although maybe I’m becoming a snob, but it just didn’t have anything special enough to warrant COTY consideration. I wouldn’t pass one up, it’s a solid choice for someone who can’t or won’t spend a lot on a cigar. That said, I wasn’t left disappointed or unsatisfied.

Yesterday I smoked the Vegas Cubanas and Wayfarer Cigars. The Vegas Cubanas is an old brand from Don Pepin Garcia that was re-issued last year. It’s got a Corojo Rosado wrapper and Nicaraguan fillers. This is the cigar that prevented me from losing my cool on the phone with customer service. This was another enjoyable cigar, the presentation is beautiful, and the cigar smoked well. The Wayfarer is the latest from Serino Cigars. It’s blended to be similar in profile to the cigars out of Havana. I can see that to some extent. It was a 5″x52 robusto with an Ecuador Corojo wrapper. This is an interesting line in that they use some construction details that are reminiscent of the Cuban cigars. I enjoyed the cigar, although I like the cigars in the Serino Royale line better.

So that leaves us with The Wise Man maduro, which is the maduro version of the El Güegüense from Nick Mellilo’s Foundation Cigar Co. I smoked the Toro Huaco a couple of weeks ago and it was fantastic. I think, for me, it’s going to come down to this or the Oscar for my vote, not that my vote carries much weight. 2 Guys COTY is based in part by votes, but also in part by sales in their three stores and on-line. I’ll be interested in hearing about the winner, which will be announced on The Cigar Authority. Will they get it right?

Contest!

It’s time to pick a winner of the Western Humidor Calibur 4 R digital hygrometer, courtesy of my friends at Cigar Oasis. I’m a little annoyed with myself, Chaim of Cigar Oasis gifted me a really nifty lighter in celebration of their anniversary, and it, along with my Xikar MTX scissors, were put someplace that I can’t remember! I rarely lose things, I know I packed it someplace for a trip and can’t figure where. Anyway, the winner of the hygrometer is Christopher Brose. Please send me your address so I can ship this out! I need to get my Secret Santa packed up and shipped too! Thanks again to Cigar Oasis for the cool prize!

That’s enough for today. Just so you know, the stuff about 2 Guys and their COTY and Cigar Authority are unsolicited. I bought their contenders pack with my own money and the opinions expressed are my own. Heck, none of the contenders are even advertisers. I’ve got no skin in the game, just thought it would be fun to see how my thoughts match up with theirs and throw them a bone! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Aladino, cigar, cigars, Contest, Crowned Heads, Eiroa, Luminosa, Oscar, Perla del Mar, Serino, Vegas Cubanas, Wayfarer

by CigarCraig | September 28, 2012 · 6:18 pm

IPCPR 2012 – Headley Grange Estupendo by Crowned Heads

The Headley Grange Estupendo was the cigar that Jon Huber wanted to make that tasted like the first few seconds of Led Zeppelin’s “When The Levee Breaks”, which was recorded at the former poorhouse in Headley, UK called Headley Grange. On my way out of the IPCPR show on my second and last day, I stopped by to say hello to Jon Huber of Crowned Heads and he laid a couple of Headley Grange samples on me. I decided to smoke one Thursday night to see how it was. In the interest of full disclosure, I have yet to try the Crowned Heads initial release, Four Kicks, but after sampling the Headley Grange, I may have to. The 5½ x 52 size of this cigar is just about perfect for me. It’s a little longer than the robusto that can be a little too short when one is really enjoying a great cigar. Obviously the quality is outstanding given that it’s made by Ernesto Carillo in his factory in the Dominican Republic. The cigar lit and burned very nicely, and smoked for around 1½ hours. I find that I’m smoking slower in the past couple years, which I view as a good thing. The cigar was loaded with deep, rich flavor, which makes me understand the comparison to the drums at the beginning of “When the Levee Breaks”, but I found myself thinking it tasted more like “Hot Dog” from the “In Through the Out Door” album, it made my taste buds dance a little! This was a really good smoke, which wasn’t awfully surprising. I should have added a Four Kicks to my purchase last week at Total Tobacco but I didn’t. I guess I’ll have to go back! Bottom line: delicious cigar, a must try.

Here’s a quick interview with Jon Huber at the IPCPR show, I appreciate him hanging around a bit after the show closed to record my last video of the event.