You may recall that last Wednesday I had typed a brilliant post and lost it.  I posted an abbreviated, yet almost as brilliant post, but I wanted to try to recap two of the cigars that I had written about.  The first of which was the new CAO Flathead Camshaft V19, the 5½” x 50 line extension to the Flathead line. The Flathead line is one of my favorites in the CAO range. I enjoy all of them, although

the largest of them is the least smoked just because the 70 ring gauge is  just too large, but the square press does make it a little more manageable. The flat cap gives me a chance to use my favorite Adorini punch, which has two sides, one of which is 13mm, which makes a nice, large opening in the cap of the 50 ring V19. The V19 has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, a Connecticut Habano binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers, making for a full-bodied, delicious cigar. They are only making a limited number of these, but they sure are tasty, bolder than the regular line. Like I said, I’m a fan of the whole line, and they all are a little different, but the V19 might be my favorite so far. 

The ACID 20 started hitting stores this week, so I figured I better smoke the sample that Alex, my local Drew Estate rep, gave me a few weeks ago before it wasn’t special any more! I’ve noted before that my ACID experiences have been limited, to the point where I could list the occasions I smoked ACID cigars off the top of my head. After really enjoying the new ACID Kuba Arte, I was less skeptical about smoking this one. I’m told that the infusion is the same as the ACID 5, which was the 5th anniversary cigar. Of course, this meant nothing to me, having never smoked the ACID 5. The ACID 20 has a San Andrès wrapper, Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan fillers, and is box pressed with a flat cap, which is sweetened.  I used the 9mm side of the Adorini punch on this one, even though it’s 5″ x 52. I’m not sure why I used the smaller punch, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Fun fact, ACID is an acronym for (of?) Arielle Chester Industrial Design, artist Scott Chester’s company’s name. He’s the guy on the motorcycle on the ACID logo, and a super-cool dude. Anyway, I didn’t taste any infusion, much like the Kuba Arte, it was a darned good tasting San Andrès wrapped cigar, with dark espresso flavors and rich cocoa.  A throughly enjoyable cigar. I’m starting to worry about myself, enjoying ACID cigars, I’m going to have to smoke a regular Kuba Kuba again one of these days to see if I find it as repulsive as I did the first time I tried one long ago and needed to scrape my tongue afterwards…

Thursday was my 56th birthday, and that means it was the 10th anniv

ersary of CigarCraig.com! It was on August 29th, 2009 that my wife gave me the domain name for my birthday and started me down this road. Perhaps this calls for a celebratory contest, I’ll have to think about it over the next few days, any objections can be noted in the comments!  I did manage to smoke a few cigars Thursday to celebrate, I started with a Southern Draw Rose of Sharon Lancero, spent some family time, then enjoyed a Serie Unico UF-13 that was from a box I received for me 50th birthday, then wrapped up the day with a Cornelius and Anthony Señor Esugars. It was a good day. 

Last night I smoked a cigar that was sent to me to be my “white” cigar for Diner en Blanc, however, the US Mail didn’t cooperate, and I didn’t receive the cigar until the Monday following the event. I spoke to Juan Nuñez briefly on the phone a week before the event, and he told me a little bit about his Coyaba White Label, or Natural cigar, although I should have gotten more information. From what I can gather, the cigar he sent was the Toro Gordo, a 6½” x 60 with an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper. I went back to my ScrewPop Magpulse cutter for this one. I really like this cutter. I also have gone back to the Colibri Daytona lighter, which had given me some trouble until I threatened to send it back, and decided to give it a good blowing out with compressed air which got it right as rain again. It’s back to being one of my favorites again. Anyway, this Coyaba cigar was a tasty smoke, it was on the mild side, with some nice flavors. It was creamy and nutty with a little floral note, and was a pleasant smoke. I hope I run across these when I visit Miami in a few weeks, maybe I can even meet up with Juan. The Coyaba Band is beautiful, a great improvement over what I remember the old band (which was nice). 

That’s plenty for today. It’s Labor Day weekend, and I’m working again. It beats not working, been there, done, that.  Enjoy yourselves, have some great cigars, and until the next time, 

CigarCraig