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March 22, 2026 · 9:37 am

Drew Estate Early Access Fire and Water Cigars

Drew Estate was kind enough to share their Early Access cigar pack with me, so I smoked them over the last couple days. I have thoughts. First, the Early Access replaces the Freestyle Live, they will still be doing a video reveal event on April 14. They’ve streamlined the offering to a pack of 2 cigars for $12 (plus applicable taxes, I guess), and eliminated the cool swag that used to come with the Freestyle Live packs. This is probably a good thing since the swag prices have probably gone way up recently, and the last few Freestyle packs have been less impressive than when they first started. For a low cost, this is a fun way to launch a new product. This first iteration of the Early Access had two cigars, one labeled Fire, and one labeled Water. They tell me that Fire represents the volcanic soil where the tobacco is grown, and Water represents the element that brings it all to life. they are also saying there is one origin story, and, after smoking the two cigars, I’m really interested to hear what they have to say about this! The two cigars could not be more different.

I smoked the Fire first, it just seemed to make sense in my head. Both cigars are 6″ x 50, which I personally approve of! The Fire is box pressed, and has either a dark Ecuador Connecticut Shade or a light Habano wrapper. What struck me about it was how smooth it was, it had minimal veins, it was very pretty. Burn and draw were perfect, it smoked very nicely. I’m going to get hate mail for what comes next. This reminded me of the original Herrera Esteli, which I don’t particularly care for. People rave about it, and it’s OK in the Caja China format, but it’s just not a cigar that agrees with my palate. I found the Fire to have a combination of sourness and bitterness. It really wasn’t my jam. I thought maybe Fire would have some spice, but no, it was sour. I smoked it for science sake, and to confirm what I was feeling, I had a Herrera Esteli Lonsdale Deluxe last night and it struck me in a similar way. If you like the Herrera Esteli, and I know a lot of people who do, you’ll likely enjoy this.

The Water was a completely different experience. This was a round cigar with a fairly rustic looking wrapper. It could be a broadleaf or San Andrés on the lighter side of maduro, hard to say. When I say it was a different cigar, I don’t mean that it was a polar opposite and it was in my wheelhouse. This cigar made me wonder about the “one origin story” line in the literature. I suppose Liga Privada and Acid share one origin story, so maybe that’s what they mean. The Water had a sweet cap. It was so heavily sweetened that it’s all I could taste throughout the cigar. I didn’t taste tobacco, spice, coffee, or anything but the saccharine sweet flavor from the wrapper. It was better to me than the Fire, but not at all interesting to me, just sweet. Maybe there was an infusion? It’s hard to say because the sweetness covered everything. Unless the infusion is sweetener! Maybe this is a sugar infused cigar? Again, I look forward to seeing what this is on April 14 at 7 EDT. Do yourself a favor, drop $12 on this pack and see what you think. It’s highly possible that I’m full of shit, and just had two cigars I didn’t like, and they are cigars you’ll like. Guaranteed the Water cigar will be a big seller.

I’m pondering whether I want to share this post with the folks at Drew Estate…it may not come off as terribly flattering. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, drew estate, Early Access, Fire, Fire and Water, Freestyle LIve, Water

March 15, 2026 · 10:00 am

Sarzedas, Liga Privada Savage Feast and La Sirena LT Cigars

Due to some unfortunate technical glitch with WordPress at some point in the last year or so, a lot of my sites older posts have disappeared. I am upset about it, I had a lot of historical data there that I relied upon, but on the bright side it gives me the freedom to revisit some cigars I may have written about years ago. Everything is still available on the Wayback Machine and I may be re-creating some of my favorite posts from years back for posterity. I was very proud that I had 16 years of posts, searchable, now it only goes back to 2017. I’m trying to remain positive. I’ve gotten that off my chest now, on to the cigars.

J.C. Newman shared their newest cigar with me, the Sarzedas. This is an old trademark of theirs, going back to 1900, at which time it was known as “the aromatic cigar”. The 2025 version is well timed to compete in a very how market fueled largely by Drew Estate’s Deadwood line, which is competing with their Acid line in sales, I think. We’ve also seen Miami Cigar and Co. enter this space with the Outcast line, and to a way lesser extent, Dunbarton’s Stillwell Star line (I’ll probably get some greif about lumping the Stillwells in with these, but i said what I said!). The thing these all have in common is using pipe tobacco in the blend. These are a nice change of pace cigar for me. The Sarzedas is made in four sizes (6” x 50 toro, 4¾” x 52 robusto, 7” x 48 Churchill, and a 5½” x 43 corona) at J.C.Newman’s PENSA factory in Esteli, with an Ecuador shade wrapper that’s not terribly light, and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. I smoked a couple of toros this week, and enjoyed them. They have a sweet cap, but not annoyingly sweet, the sweetness dissipates rather quickly. I got some milk chocolate notes along with some natural tobacco sweetness. I’m hoping to share a few of these with some friends who enjoy the previously mentioned “aromatic” cigars and see what they think. I wasn’t expecting to like these as much as I do!

I was shifting some cigars around in one of the humidors and came across a couple of the Drew Estate Liga Privada 10 Year Aniversario A Savage Feast boxes (of 2, don’t get excited!). These are available at events where Jonathan Drew is present, usually placed in your hand by him. This replaces the Liga Privada Serie Unico “A” as his event only cigar. Too bad, because I like the “A” and might still have a few of those around. I actually smoked both of the Savage Feast cigar in the box this week, which I don’t generally do, but I failed to take sufficient notes on the first go around. The cigar is in the Feral Flying Pig vitola, with is a 5 3/8″ x 60 perfecto. It uses a Connecticut-grown criollo wrapper, San Andrés Otapan Negro Último Corte binder, and fillers from Nicaragua and Pennsylvania Green River One Sucker ligero. I’m glad I smoked the second one, because I really enjoyed these. There’s what I noted as a sweet bread with a tingle. It got sweeter as it went, which is, again, a natural tobacco sweetness, not anything that’s added. Burn was decent, draw was just right, and these were very enjoyable. Generally, the Drew Estate Event cigars are winners, I especially like the Undercrown 10 Tuani and Willie’s Herrera Esteli Caja China is fun.

Finally, I got some new sizes of my favorite La Sirena cigars recently. La Sirena has been a supporter of CigarCraig.com since 2014, and I have been a fan of theirs since ’11 or ’12. The La Sirena LT is their Ecuador Connecticut offering, made in Plasencia’s El Paraiso factory in Honduras. This evolved from the Jaxx LT, which was under the Old School Cigars brand, which was Danny Ditkowich’s brand before merging it with his daughter’s La Sirena brand. This has long been one of my favorite shade style cigars, I’ve smoked a bunch of the toros, and the 7½” x 52 Double Corona was new to me (I may have smoked one years ago…who can remember?). This was a good two hour smoke. What I like about the LT is that it has some flavor and body, it has what you’d expect from a shade cigar, creamy, not overpowering, slight spice, and the Double Corona is maybe a little dialed back from the toro, which isn’t unexpected. La Sirena remains one of my favorite lines overall, between the Original, the Mexican and the LT, I can always find a cigar I want to smoke, it’s the perfect trilogy!

I bought another Frontier Airlines Go Pass, so if anyone knows of any events within a two or three hour flight from Philly, or just wants to have a cigar at your favorite lounge, let me know, I’ll see if I can make it happen! That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, drew estate, J.C.Newman, Jaxx, JC Newman, La Sirena, La Sirena LT, Liga Privada. Serie Unico, LT, Old School Cigars, Sarzedas, Savage Feaast

September 21, 2025 · 9:50 am

Morphine, Rocky Patel and Wooden Indian Cigar’s Annual Pig Roast

I didn’t plan well this week, as I made a last minute decision to go to the Wooden Indian’s annual pig roast yesterday. Not sure why it was a late call, I try to make an appearance every year. But first, a couple of new-to-me cigars. A few weeks back when I stopped in the The Cigar Authority of Chester in Cochranville, PA , I picked up a Black Label Trading Co. Limited Edition Morphine 10 Year Anniversary Perfecto. It looked neat and I like sampling BLTC’s stuff, I generally like what they make. This is a 5″ x 50 perfecto, which is much smaller than a robusto because of the severe tapers on either end. This cigar needs to be smoked slowly, lest it overheat and get bitter. The flavors are heavy with black coffee that’s been on the burner for a while. Generally I like this kind of cigar, but the format is tricky. It burned well and was enjoyable, but required concentration. This will be a theme this week! BLTC has stood the test of time, ten years is an overnight success in the cigar industry. I’d love to visit their factory some day.

I got a couple Rocky Patel Vintage 2003 Cameroon toros in one of those Smoke Inn’s “too good a deal not to buy” samplers a few weeks back. It’s impossible to pass up 5 cigars for $20 delivered when they are good cigars that I either want to try or have enjoyed in the past. If I’ve smoked the RP Cameroon it’s been a long time ago, which is possible because this cigar has been around a long time. I like that Rocky adds a bonus half inch to a lot of his toros, 6½” x 52, with a Cameroon wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. While I don’t tend to smoke a lot of RP cigars, I rarely have one that’s distasteful to me, and I think I can smoke most of the Vintage line and be happy. This is no exception, although, like I alluded to above, this one needed to be smoked slowly to avoid it becoming foul. The Camerooniness came on right off the start. Sweet nuttiness with well aged tobacco. This is a nice cigar and worth at least twice what I paid for it!

While it was distressing to see that Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust’s Golden Megasquatch doll (action figure?) was stolen from their Intertabak booth, at least we can confirm that booth theft isn’t a strictly American thing. Steve is probably relieved that he doesn’t have to ship it home.

Yesterday I went to the Wooden Indian‘s annual charity pig roast, which I’ve attended most years in one way or another. Last year (or the year before, who can keep track, they celebrated their 60th anniversary, this year it’s the 20th anniversary of Dave Mayer’s ownership. Dave is one of my favorite people in the cigar biz. More on what they have going on for the 20th next week if all goes to plan. The weather could not have been better for this event, in previous years we’ve sweated, froze and been rained on, one year it was postponed because of a hurricane. Drew Estate sponsors the event, and Pedro Gomez and Calvin Zimmerman were on hand. The event was raising money for Operation: Cigars for Warriors, and had auction items donated by the family of Brandon Jones, who was a huge Drew Estate ambassador and passed away tragically last year. I knew Brandon, he was a great dude and loved all things Drew Estate. I smoked a couple of the new Nica Rustica Shade cigars, in the 5″ x 66 Gordo and the toro, and ate and fraternized with the folks at the event. The Nica Rustica Shade is a really good shade cigar for under $10. It was the last Freestyle live cigar. As always, it was a great time and I would have stuck around longer if I didn’t have other stuff to do. If you find yourself in the Philadelphia area, a visit to the Wooden Indian is a must.

When I got home I sat down with a Blackened M81 Lancero, which is a new line extension this year apparently. I saw them in the humidor and picked up a couple to try. I seem to have misplaced one, which is really weird for me, I’m usually really good about keeping track of my cigars! Anyway, I am less concerned about it after having smoked one. This is a 7″ x 40 lancero, a little fatter like the Liga L40. I was intrigued, then I smoked it. I like the M81 line when I want a heavy maduro cigar, which this is. The Lancero format didn’t seem to lend itself to this heavy blend. Yes, once again, this needs to be smoked slowly, but even “sipping” the smoke was a little overwhelming. Too much burnt cocoa, espresso for me. I rarely speak ill of a cigar, but I think this is one that didn’t need to be made. Also uncharacteristic of me to say, but this would probably be OK in the S84 blend. I’m not going to go crazy looking for that missing cigar.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Anniversary, Black Label Trading Co., Blackened, Cameroon, Charity Pigroast, cigar, cigars, drew estate, M81, Morphine, Nica Rustica, rocky patel, Vintage 2003, wooden indian

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

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

March 30, 2025 · 9:34 am

Drew Estate Freestyle Live Cigars, a 20 Acre Farm and an Undercrown Shade

I watched the last Drew Estate Freestyle Live show a few weeks back and was a little intrigued. I was curious about how exactly a Dominican cigar with a sweet cap could be a game changer, but I was interested in finding out. Low and behold, a package shows up with the Freestyle Live pack inside from Drew Estate. The gear included is nice. A Cigar Caddy 10 count Tackle Box travel humidor which was just announced in January by Quality Importers (and doesn’t appear on the site yet), a Palio Pistola dual jet lighter, and a dog tag. These are still available around for $40ish, depending on where you live or where you buy. There’s four cigars, a Gordo, Toro, Robusto and a pigtailed petit corona. I smoked the Gordo and the Toro over two evenings and had similar notes. First thing is I can’t say that shade wrapped cigars are my favorite, nor can I say Dominican cigars are something I lean toward, but I really like a Diamond Crown, or any other number of cigars from the DR, so that really doesn’t mean anything. I don’t mind a sweet cap on the right cigar either, although a little bit goes a long way. We should find out next month what Drew Estate is going to brand these, and what the price point will be, but I hesitate to say that this cigar isn’t aimed toward the same smoker who likes an Undercrown or Liga Privada. In the case of both cigars, the sweetener on the cap was overwhelming, and stuck around through the entire cigar, to my palate covering the taste of the Ecuador shade (one would assume) wrapper. Buth cigar burned OK, and they weren’t completely off putting, but they wouldn’t be what I would consider a premium offering. I hope that these target more of a budget smoker, more of a broad appeal sort of thing. Unlike some of the past Free Style launches, this probably isn’t going to be on my to-buy list.

I figured as long as I was smoking shade cigars, I’d smoke more of Drew Estate’s offerings in that category. I selected a 20 Acre Farm cigar that I received at the Florida Barn Smoker last year. This was one of several, the Barn Smoker is held at the literal 20 Acre Farm, so it makes sense that the brand would be featured. This was a previous Free Style Live release, by the way. I had some hockey to watch, so I chose the massive 20 Acre Farm Corona 25th Anniversary Belicoso, which is exclusive to Corona Cigar Co., and measures 7″ x 54. This cigar has a Connecticut Shade wrapper, Honduran Sun Grown ‘99 binder and fillers from Nicaraguan (Jalapa & Esteli) & FSG (Florida Sun Grown Corojo). The FSG twang is present, and it’s a very nice, medium plus shade cigar. There’s some nutty sweetness along with the twang. While I’m not particularly enamoured with FSG tobacco, it ads a little something different to whatever blend it’s in. Nice smoke, got me through two periods of Hockey.

I had some options for Drew Estate shade cigars, I could have smoked a very old Chateau Real, I could have chosen a Blackened S84, I even might have smoked a unicorn, a shade wrapped Liga Privada No. 9, but I went with an Undercrown Shade Churchill instead. This has been in the humidor for quite a long time, I don’t recall where it came from. This cigar is 7″ x 48, and I don’t think it’s still in production. It has the Ecuador Shade Wrapper, a binder from Ecuador, and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. I like the Undercrown Shade, it’s definitely in my top ten of shade cigars, and I like a Churchill. This was a really enjoyable cigar, my favorite of the cigars mentioned in this post. It’s toasty, nutty and loaded with flavor. The burn and draw were perfect, and it made for a very enjoyable two hours. I wish I had more of this vitola.