Tag Archives: delaware cigars

by CigarCraig | September 25, 2011 · 8:45 am

G.A.R., Liga Privada, Veritas, a Contest Winner and Another Macanudo Contest!

This nice looking G.A.R. Opium STK toro was handed to my by my old friend Frank Seltzer at the Drew Estate blogger party at this years IPCPR show. He gave it to me without any comment at all, and I’m sure he has no affiliation with Gran Habano. I started removing bands (three of them in all, the foot band had to go first!) and lit this puppy up. To start out, it’s a nice looking cigar, 6” x 50, which oddly felt larger than 50, but I measured it and it certainly was a 50 ring gauge. It smoked very well, and while I didn’t taste poppy seeds or any other interesting flavors, it was a nice, solid, tobacco flavored cigar. It’s a good cigar although not one I think I’d go out of my way to find. I need to try more cigars from George Rico and Gran Habano.

Friday I celebrated the end of another week with a Liga Privada No.9 Parejo. I’ve been sitting on this particular one for about 2 years, and, wow, what a wonderful cigar. Perfectly made, perfect balance of flavor and strength. I actually purchased this at an event at the Wooden Indian (the old store) where we first met Marvin Samel. Just a super cigar that I smoked to within a half inch of it’s life. I still have one of the first Liga Privada No.9 cigars with a plain band from 2007. Mike Staiber, formerly of Drew Estate, presently of Oliva, gifted me this cigar at an event a while back. I’ll probably let it get to five years old or so before I fire it up, just to see how well it aged. It’s all I can do to keep my hands off the meager supply I have, they are so good.

Saturday I took a walk with a Veritas MMXI 6” x 60 Maduro, which I got at the Delaware Cigar Festival. This was about the blackest maduro I’ve seen in a long time. I’ll be honest, my first thought is that it was dyed, and the contrast between the fillers and wrapper was quite stunning. Whatever the process involved, I enjoyed the cigar quite a bit, it needed a couple touch-ups but burned nicely. I’m told that these are made by Blue Mountain Cigars in Esteli, and the maduro cigars pictured on their website look just as black. Like I said, I enjoyed the heck out of the cigar. This is the cousin of the Veritas DEA 7¼” x 58 Solomon Connecticut cigar that is accompanying the Rosie Napravnik bobblehead that some lucky reader is going to win.

Contest!

Thank you to everyone who entered. It’s been a little amusing to me to see how many visits I had this week from people searching the phrase “Rosie Napravnik Bobblhead”, or something similar. Thanks go to Delaware Park for unwittingly providing part of the prize, and Veritas Cigars for allowing me the opportunity to purchase the other part of the prize! So, as usual, I assigned each entrant a number based the time of their entry. Swede214, please send me your contact information so I can send you your prize!

Another Contest!

I still have some Macanudo Millionaire 4-packs to give away, and I better do it quick since the deadline for entry is September 30, 2011. So I’ll hold my October contest a little early. Leave a comment on this post to enter, I’ll select a winner next Sunday, October 2. Don’t forget to visit MacanudoMillionaire.com to enter to win the trip to Vegas and a chance at a million bucks!

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Events, IPCPR, Review

Tagged as Blue Mountain Cigars, cigar, cigars, Contest, delaware cigars, Delaware Park, drew estate, esteli, general, general cigars, IPCPR, liga privada, macanudo, Macanudo Millionaire, Veritas

by CigarCraig | September 21, 2011 · 8:38 pm

Cigars So Far: Kristoff and CAO, A Schnorr, and Some 7-20-4s

I forgot to make mention of the cigars I smoked at the Delaware Cigar Festival. As I said, the format was that cigars were for sale at the vendors tables. $3.00 per cigar, with 100% of the proceeds going to charity, which was the family of a local police officer recently killed in the line of duty. I purchased a handful of cigars, some I wanted to try and some favorites I don’t see very often. Obviously, in most cases $3.00 each is an excellent deal for a lot of the cigars that were offered. I started with a Kristoff Corojo and I regret not getting a second one of these. Very nice cigar and a nice way to start the day. I also smoked a CAO OSA Sol Lot 50 that, while not as good as the first one I smoked, was very nice. Buy the time I picked up the OSA it had been out on a table most of the afternoon, not right out of a humidor. No worries as I did get another one of these. When I buy singles I like to buy in pairs for some reason. I also picked up some Murcielagos from Eddie Ortega as well as a bunch of other assorted goodies.

Sunday I closed out the weekend with a Berger & Argenti Mooch Schnorr which was a sample from the IPCPR show. I love the name of this, even though it’s a little redundant. For those who don’t know “Schnorr” is a Yiddish term for a mooch. I know this because I have a good friend who refers to another friend as such, and it cracks me up. So while I was at the show in July, having a Cuban coffee with Kiki Berger in his booth, he made sure I had some samples. In my limited experience at the IPCPR shows, Cuban Crafters has always been very generous with samples, however, a great many over the years have not been to my liking. This led me to avoid Cuban Crafters over the years, and it wasn’t until spending an excellent evening in Esteli with Mr. Berger that I re-thought that position. I’ve since enjoyed several other cigars that carry the Berger name. The Mooch Schnorr was really a very tasty cigar, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I would even go so far as to say it was the best cigar all week. It was smooth and flavorful and perfectly built. The sample I grabbed did have a small crack just below the cap line which gave me a few problems initially, until I patched it with part of the cap, which solved the problem completely. I smoked this down to a finger burning nub, and was sorry to see it end. The Schnorr is a nice size (robusto) and a tasty, well balanced blend. I can’t wait to dig into the rest of the samples from the show. I have some maduros and some more of the Entubar line to try.

By the time I was ready to sit down and enjoy a cigar on Monday it was getting fairly late. I was rooting through the humidor looking for something small and settled on the 7-20-4 Dogwalker that Kurt Kendal gave me when I met him at the 2010 IPCPR show. Don’t know why it took so long to get around to this one, it jsut did, what can I say. The Dog Walker is a handsome little cigar, 4¼” x 40, with the same straight “pigtail” as the rest of the line. It was definitely full flavored and may have been on the verge of being strong, I enjoyed it quite a bit and it lasted close to 45 minutes before I put it down to go in for the night. I don’t have a dog to walk, but my cat, Frank, hung out with my on the porch while I smoked it. Nice little cigar and Kurt is a nice guy.

I visited Kurt at this years show and he gave me his 7-20-4 1874 blend to try. While the regular line is made in Honduras, the 1874 is made in Nicaragua, with a lovely Nicaraguan wrapper. This one had a very open draw, so I smoked it slowly. It was a really nice smoke, I think it was a little bit milder than the Dog Walker, but had a more balanced flavor. There was a taste in there that I really liked, can’t place it, but it was good. The sample I smoked was a robusto and I would happily smoke it again. Nice job on this line extension.

As long as I’m ending on a 7-20-4 thing, here’s a little video Kurt took with me at the show. Standard disclaimer applies: Don’t forget to turn down your PC speakers after watching so you don’t blow your speakers on the next Windows Error chime (or whatever weird sounds Macs make)!

That’s it for now, don’t forget to go to my previous post and enter the current contest! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Events, IPCPR, Review, Video

Tagged as 7-20-4, Berger & Argenti, CAO, cigar, cigars, Contest, delaware cigars, IPCPR, Kiki Berger, Kristoff, Mooch, Murcielago, OSA Sol, schnorr

by CigarCraig | September 18, 2011 · 11:18 am

The Delaware Cigar Festival and Another Contest!

Saturday, September 17 marked the long awaited fifth annual Delaware Cigar Festival, organized and hosted by Gary Griffith, the Premium Cigar Manager of Delaware Cigars and the creator of Emilio and Grimalkin Cigars. The event took place at Delaware Park, which is already one of our favorite places in the area to go and waste some money on the ponies, or drop some pennies in the slots. The event was unique, as it is a big herf disguised as a charity event, although Gary won’t use the charity aspect to promote it. The format is that the manufacturers and reps sell their samples for $3 each, with all of the proceeds going to charity, which this time benefited the family of a slain police officer (news report here), this was just in the last few days and quite tragic.

Photo Courtesy of Charlie Greenbacker

For your entrance price you got a bag with about 20 or 25 cigars (nice stuff too, I looked!) and assorted swag, a nice picnic buffet with burgers, dogs, chicken, ribs and beans, and the opportunity to talk with the assorted cigar makers and reps who were there. Brands represented were: Inked Magazine, Rocky Patel, Arturo Fuente/JC Newman, Emilio Cigars with brand creator Gary Griffith, Drew Estate, Altadis USA, Oliva, Perdomo, La Sirena with Brand Ambassador Arielle Ditkowich, La Flor Dominicana, Cigar Rights of America, EO Brands with Eddie Ortega, Miami Cigar, General Cigar, 262 Cigars, Kristoff Cigars, El Primer Mundo with Sean Williams, Veritas Cigar Co., and The Cigar Agency. Keith Park from Prometheous was also there. All of these companies donated TONS of stuff, either cigars that were sold for $3 each, or stuff to be raffled off (we bought 10 tickets didn’t win a darned thing!). The attendance was capped at 300 people, including staff, press and exhibitors, so it was a nice sized crowd. It was rarely a problem to have a chat with the vendors.

In addition to getting to schmooze with some of my friends on the manufacturers side, I was able to hang out a bit with some fellow blogger types such as Barry from ACigarSmoker.com, Walt from StogieReview.com and Michael from CigarEvents.com. I also had the great pleasure of meeting one of my readers, Charlie, who won big in the raffle give-aways! These events are always about the people, and you just don’t meet nicer folks that those associated with cigars for some reason!

What a wonderful event that I would recommend highly next year if you are within a 3 or 4 hour drive. Gary is a fine gentleman and I appreciate him welcoming myself and my wife for the afternoon. It’s refreshing to see a retailer put on a “not for profit” event, and to have so many people there enjoying cigars and camaraderie. I’d love to see more manufacturers participate in the future as the event is for good causes and shows the cigar business in a positive light. The only downside was that the weather could have been a little nicer, it was overcast and under 70 until we drove off the premises, then the sun came out and it was nice! Hardly anyone’s fault. I managed to win about $4 on the ponies over the course of the day too!

In honor of the event, I’m going to have another quick give-away! I know, I JUST had one that ended this week, but we got a couple Rosie Napravnik Bobbleheads at the park for Racing Fan Appreciation Day and I thought I’d combine it with a beautiful Veritas Connecticut Salamone that I purchased from the Delaware based Veritas Cigar Co. at the event. So leave a comment to enter, and I’ll pick a winner next Sunday, September 25th.

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

CigarCraig

Photo Courtesy of Charlie Greenbacker

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Tagged as 262 Cigars, A Cigar Smoker, Altadis USA, cigar, CIgar Events, cigars, Contest, delaware cigars, Delaware Park, drew estate, El Primer Mundo, Emilio, EO Brands, fuente, general, general cigars, Grimalkin, joya de nicaragua, Kristoff, La Flor Dominicana, La Sirena, macanudo, Miami Cigar and Co, oliva, Partagas, Prometheus, rocky patel, Stogie Review, The Cigar Agency, Veritas

by CigarCraig | August 21, 2011 · 12:27 pm

Delaware Cigar Festival, La Palina, Art Deco and Hammer + Sickle

The fifth annual Delaware Cigar Festival will be taking place on Saturday, September 17 at the Delaware Park Racetrack. I’ll be attending this fine event and will bring you highlights. Delaware Park is a beautiful racetrack, and if you like to play the ponies or slots, it’s the place to be. Many manufacturers and their reps will be in attendance and it looks like it will be a good time. I’m a little embarrassed that I I have managed to miss this event in the past and it’s only about 40 minutes down the road from me. Looking forward to attending, and thank you to Gary Griffith for making this possible (and making damned tasty cigars!).

The the best cigar I had this week was the La Palina El Diario Robusto. The El Diaro line is La Palina’s “lower priced” line, compared to the $20 price tags on the original line that came out a couple years ago an is made in the Graycliff factory in the Bahamas. The El Diaro is rolled at the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras, and carries a $10-11 price tag. It is most definitely an excellent cigar. It’s smooth and perfectly rolled. I’d happily smoke these all the time if they were a little more wallet friendly, but it’s been well established that I’m a cheap bastard. Bill Paley is a super nice guy though and he’s producing some exceptional cigars.

Nestor Miranda Art Deco Robusto Grande – This 5½ x 54 cigar was one that I bought on my Father’s Day cigar run. They come in a nifty tin instead of a box. If this had a handle on it it would make a fine lunchbox! It was a good cigar, no doubt. I don’t have a great deal of experience with Pepin Garcia’s cigars, admittedly, so I don’t readily pick up his signature on this, but it certainly was well made and it either grew on me as I smoked it, or the flavors in the second half were more in line with my preferences than the first half. I started out thinking it was just another DR blend that was “eh”…worth the try though…and not terribly priced. Frustratingly, there is no information about this cigar on the website, and it’s not exactly brand new.

Hammer + Sickle Robusto and Berlin Wall Robusto – These were samples from the IPCPR show. An old friend, Mike, was working at the booth, and I was very happy to catch up with him. We had met at a large herf in Vegas in 1999, known in the alt.smokers.cigars circles as Boondoggle 3, which consisted of about 300 cigar smokers taking over the ballroom at the MGM Grand for 3 days. Stories from that event are legend amongst the on-line cigar community of the era, and are easily Googleable, so I won’t go into that further. Anyway, Mike was kind enough to hook me up with some samples and introduce me to Victor, the owner of The Cigar Agency, who imports and distributes the Hammer + Sickle brand, as well as ORTSAC and others. I smoked both the regular Hammer + Sickle robusto as well as the new Berlin Wall robusto. The former I found to be a fairly typical Dominican cigar, well made, but nothing that really grabbed me. Keep in mind that most Dominican cigars don’t hit me the way I like to be hit, flavor wise, so that’s not as bad as it sounds. The Berlin Wall, on the other hand, was much more to my liking, no doubt due to it being made my Camacho and consisting of a blend of Honduran, Dominican and Nicaraguan leaf. The copper band is a very nice touch. I took the Berlin wall on my evening walk, and the ash, although it wasn’t the prettiest, held on for nearly a mile! Both of these cigars come in unique packaging. The Hammer + Sickle is in a crystal box, and the Berlin wall is packaged in a marble box with a relief of the Brandenburg Gate on the lid. Very innovative.

Here is a video of Victor Vitale from the show, talking about the Ortsac 1962 cigars:

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

CigarCraig

Comments Off on Delaware Cigar Festival, La Palina, Art Deco and Hammer + Sickle

Filed under Events, IPCPR, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk, Video

Tagged as Art Deco, Bill Paley, cigar, cigar shop, cigar shops, cigar store, cigar stores, cigars, delaware cigars, El Diaro, Hammer + Sickle, IPCPR, La Palina, Nestor Miranda, the cigar store

by CigarCraig | May 18, 2011 · 9:53 pm

Grimalkin Toro and Emilio AF-1 Toro Cigars and “Old Wave” by Garry Berman

Over the last two evenings I had decided to couple two cigars with a new book, “Old Wave, a Comic Novel” by Garry Berman, author of several books including “We’re Going to See the Beatles”, “Best of the Britcoms” and “Perfect Fool: The Life and Career of Ed Wynn”. The cigars are two toros, generously provided by Gary Griffith of Delaware Cigars.

The Grimalkin is made at a factory in Nicaragua that we all know of, but I’m not at liberty to divulge. It’s a terrific cigar, layered with subtly and complexity. Similar to “Old Wave”, the story of an ’80s New Wave band who had one and a half hits, and owned the first half of 1983. The book is the story of the bands comeback after a 25 year hiatus, where the main character, Terry, has been managing his family health food store in a small New York town. He’s barely kept in touch with his band mates and is convinced to get them back together for a revival tour of sorts with several other bands of the era. It’s a comedic romp through the trials of re-connecting with the group and is loaded with more similes than a simile writers convention. Much like the Grimalkin, the read is easy and entertaining, with characters as interesting and compelling as the flavors dancing around my palate. Even burn, perfect draw with a signature similarity to other cigars from the same factory, yet with refreshing flavors that keep you thinking. The story bounces back and forth from present day, to stories from the past. Two thumbs up for the cigar, and the book is holding my interest much like the cigar did.

The female singer in the band is a beautiful Russian woman named Svetlana, who is dark and glamorous, much like the Emelio AF-1 Toro. Svetlana loves the Brazilian music of the sixties, and the band, Magenta Nun, mixed the Brazilian rhythms with a New Wave style to create their signature sound. The Emilio AF-1 has a dark, sweet maduro wrapper loaded with delicious and exotic Nicaraguan fillers. It’s sweet and savory, and full of flavors that are lush like the tropical flavors of the music portrayed in the book. In the book, the band goes on a cross country tour with periodic vignettes of their comedic experiences, including injuries and incidents which mirror some of the groups escapades of their brief period of fame in the past. The humor tends to be as arid as the Sahara, and there are little names and phases that just make me chuckle. I like dry. The AF-1, however, is anything but dry, it’s sweet and savory, like a Brazilian Churrasco. Again, the cigar is well made and burns perfectly until the dramatic conclusion of the book.

Hopefully I haven’t lost anyone in my attempt to intertwine cigar review with a book review. In my opinion, all three are well worth your time. The book is an easy and entertaining read, especially since I played in a band in the ’80s, and there has been recent talk of reviving the group in some way. It struck a chord with me (a G Major). The cigars while different, complimented the read perfectly. I never had to worry about the ash falling in the pages, as both cigars had an ash that knocked off in solid chunks and the intricate flavors entertained me. Kudos to Garry and Gary for enhancing my last couple evenings. You can find “Old Wave” for sale at Amazon.com or through the Amazon store on the left side of this page.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig