Tag Archives: Eiroa

News: TAA Exclusive Eiroa Dark 11/18 Now Shipping

I haven’t had the opportunity to smoke a ton of CLE cigars, funny because I’ve known Christian for 20+ years.  I smoked a ton of Camacho cigars way back when, and I feel like Christian’s brother’s cigars are closer to what Camacho was than CLE.  This one interests me, I’ll check my local TAA shop next time.  

C.L.E. Cigar Company announces that the TAA exclusive Eiroa Dark 11/18 is now shipping! The Eiroa Dark originally made its debut in 2019. What separates the TAA Exclusive is that it will come in the Eiroa family’s signature 11/18 size. Only five hundred boxes were created.

The unique 11/18 vitola became well known when the Eiroa family-owned Camacho. The 11/18 size continues to be an especially important vitola to Christian Eiroa (President of C.L.E. Cigar Company) because it provides a unique smoking experience while holding sentimental value. The 11/18 name is in dedication to the Matriarch of the Eiroa family.

Christian Eiroa said:” It is a little-known fact that the 11/18 is in dedication to my mother as it represents her birth date (November 18). The Eiroa Dark is one of my favorite blends to come out of the C.L.E. cigar factory, due it being made with only Honduran Corojo tobacco. My hope is that the public enjoys this blend in this long overdue 11/18 size.”

11/18 Vitola: 48 x 52 x 48 x 6

Box count: Twenty count boxes. Limited to only five hundred boxes.

MSRP: $16.70

About C.L.E Cigar Company

C.L.E. Cigar Company, established by Christian Eiroa in 2012 is steeped in tradition, going back to the early 1960’s in Honduras. The Eiroa family is known for farming, blending, and manufacturing premium handmade cigars using innovative and forward-thinking methods. Christian Eiroa continues to honor his family legacy by creating unique award-winning blends using a mix of traditional and ever evolving technological methods. C.L.E. Cigar Company serves as the umbrella company for C.L.E. Cigars, Eiroa Cigars, and Asylum Cigars.

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Black Lion Luxuries Cigar of the Month Club for March

First off, I noticed that my e-mail notifications suddenly started working again, something that’s been screwed up since I updated my site to SSL. I still have some work to do with my host, I think, I just need to get on the phone with them and fight, the people I’ve talked to don’t seem to know what an RSS feed is, and it’s a little important in the blogging business. I will need to find a new e-mail service in the near future anyway and I need to have the RSS stuff working right. Enough of the technical details that you don’t care about, let’s talk about some cigars.  I’ve recently been re-introduced to the Cigar of the Month Club business model, and the folks at Black Lion Luxuries shared theirs with me and I wanted to tell you all about my experience. First, I’m a little behind, so I opened the March pack, which included five cigars. I’m led to believe that the reasonable expectation is four cigars, and for $30 ($about $38 delivered, depending on where you live), that’s a pretty darned good value for the cigars I’m seeing in these packs. I went through the pack this week, and let me tell a little about them.

 

I’m not going to do a paragraph on each cigar, I smoked them at my leisure, for my own enjoyment, concentrating on the overall experience of the cigars as delivered by the vendor if that makes sense. I do have to some comments though. Regarding the Eiroa cigars: I’ve actually known Christian Eiroa for a long time, we go back to the Usenet days like Saka, and I know him personally, but he’s never, in 20 years, handed me a cigar. I’ve bought a bunch of his cigars, I used to love Camachos, but I haven’t loved the CLEs I’ve bought for some reason. These two Eiroa First 20 Years are a different story, with a nod going to the 646, which was truly exceptional. I haven’t had a cigar this good from Christian Eiroa ever. I believe Will Cooper gave the 550 a number one cigar of the year a few years ago, and I can’t find fault with that assessment. There have been times I’ve spent $30 on 2 cigars and not enjoyed them as much as these two, and there were three more really good cigars left in the pack! 

 

OK, one more paragraph. I happened to work out that Mel Shah of MBombay cigars had a birthday this week, so I smoked the MBombay Classic Torpedo in his honor. I’ve lost touch with Mel, and I’m not sure what’s going on with the brand, but they are really good cigars. This is another cigar which which I have some history, first, the factory that makes these makes Vegas de Santiago in Costa Rica, and that name probably doesn’t mean much to most people, but it’s a brand that I’ve smoked a bunch of years ago. It’s also the same factory that makes the Byron and Atabey cigars. It’s a delicious Connecticut Shade cigar that deserves a try, it’s one I’ll gravitate towards if I crave a shade. If the Eiroa 646 wasn’t the best cigar in the bunch, the Todos Las Dias was. I’ll admit it took me a few cigars to warm up to this blend, but it’s delicious, and my favorite size, the 6″ x 52 toro too. Finally, the Punch Rare Corojo Pita, another Toro, which is the only sub-$10 cigar in the pack, and a really tasty smoke in my opinion. I’ve always liked the Rare Corojo, despite it not being Corojo, and hardly being rare. 

 

I have to say, pick any three cigars in the Black Lion Luxuries Cigar of the Month pack, and you’ve got your money’s worth, the other two are gravy. All of the cigars smoked perfectly, and arrived in pristine condition. I realize they are only making a short trip from Harrisburg, PA to my home in suburban Philadelphia, but with today’s USPS, that potentially could be a long trip! These five cigars made for a great week of smoking for me, first impressions are extremely good for Black Lion Luxuries Cigars, and they seem to have other good deals on the website as well! I look forward to getting into the April selection! By the way, Check out RonRealTV, Ron helps in the selection of the Cigar of the Month Club cigars, and has a popular YouTube Channel! Thank you to Black Lion Luxuries Cigars for sharing their CIgar of the Month Club with me.  

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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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. 

 

AladinoAladino: 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 ColoradoEiroa 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.

LuminosaLuminosa 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.

OscarThe 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 MarPerla 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.

Vegas Cubanas_InvictosYesterday 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 Wayfarer by Serino Cigarsenjoyable 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!

Caliber 4RIt’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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A Don Pepin Garcia, Alan Price, Eiroa Maduro and a Matilde Cigar

As we’ve been working on the new house, we figured since we have a great enclosed cigar porch, we should have an annual cigar party.  We just need to figure out when to have this party, so we’ll take suggestions. Whoever comes up with the best date to have this event will get free admission (airfare, lodging not included).  We kind of thought Columbus Day would be a good time. It gives us plenty of time to prepare, and the only really important thing Columbus did was to introduce tobacco to the west.  Getting lost and stumbling upon some islands isn’t really a great accomplishment.  Give us your thoughts!

 

DonPepinGarcia_SeriesJJ_RobustoSunday I pulled out a Don Pepin Garcia Series JJ Robusto from a Five Pack I bought at JR Cigars in Whippany, NJ back in June of 2012.  These have been hit or miss with me, and I only have one left so I must have smoked a couple over the years, or gifted one her or there. This one, like the first one I smoked, was a little tighter on the draw than I’d like.  It had a nice flavor, medium to mild with a little sweetness and maybe a little earthy and woody.  I just wish that it had produced more of that tasty smoke, it’s production was a bit thin. Was this cigar really rolled in Miami? I was actually surprised to find this five pack in JRs, I wouldn’t be surprised now, but I was surprised then. Many who have followed others in the blogosphere will understand why I chose that particular cigar.

 

AlanPrice_ToroMonday I chose a cigar I bought last week at Cigar Mojo. A few months ago Alan Price, part time tobacconist at Mojo, Cigar Rights Ambassador and all around good guy, went to the Rocky Patel factory in Honduras.  He ended up taking delivery (earlier that day) of one hundred cigars that he had blended on that trip.  This cigar had a Sumatra Oscuro wrapper, Viso Honduras binder and fillers of Ligero Jamastran, Viso Jalapa & Ligero Jalapa. I admit that I rushed to smoke this, as it really needed some humidor time after it’s long journey.  The blend certainly has a lot of potential, and I’m glad I bought two so I will have one to smoke in a few weeks or so after it’s had time to acclimate.  It was a beautiful cigar with a rich and oily wrapper.  It’s always fun for me to smoke a cigar that a friend blended, one gets a glimpse into the other person’s tastes.  The cigar was very smooth and tasty, but it’ll really shine in a few weeks I hope.  Alan says there’s only about eight left, so this is a rare cigar, I guess.

 

Eiroa_Maduro_RobustoTuesday I smoked the Eiroa Maduro in the robusto size.  A few weeks ago I was in one of my local shops, JM Cigars, and Jeff, the proprietor had a CLE event earlier in the day (I had stopped in earlier too, before the event, and missed it). He gave me one of the leftover giveaway cigars.  I suppose, for want of a better comparison, this is Christian Eiroa’s incarnation of the Camacho Triple Maduro, as all of the tobacco used is cured maduro.  The cigar was rich and loaded with cocoa/espresso and burned reasonably well.  I  liked it well enough, but the $10 price tag will probably prevent me from smoking too many of these.  I appreciate Jeff giving me the opportunity to try this cigar though, it’s much appreciated.

 

Matilde_Renacer_RobustoTonight I decided to retry a cigar I bought a pair of back in July when I was at the Casa de Montecristo store in the Chicago area. I bought a few Matilde Renacer robustos and smoked one on the drive home from Chicago and it was a big problem, it burned poorly and was really not a great experience while driving. There was a leaf in the blend that wouldn’t burn, and it left a core in the middle. Like I said, not a good driving cigar.  This one burned much better after a few months in the humidor and was a nice, medium bodied smoke. I found it on the mild side, with a nice, yet rather unremarkable flavor.  Maybe I’m still a little off from the cold I had a couple weeks ago, or I’m just making choices that don’t align with my palate.  I’ll keep trying though!

 

News

I received an e-mail today from George Rodriguez of Rodrigo Cigars with a contest I thought I’d pass on. What stood out to me was that I met Eric Whitfield, the CIGARtist, a few weeks ago and his work is amazing. We actually talked about buying one of his pieces for our new house.  Anyway, check out George’s contest and take a shot at winning this unique and functional work of art (and some great cigars)

 

To celebrate the release of the long awaited Corona Project my buddy Eric Whitfield, aka the CIGARtist painted this beautiful one of kind travel humidor.

I’m giving it away to one lucky ”Amigo” and I’m gonna fill it with a selection of savory Rodrigo Cigars, including the new Corona Project! 

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE

And make sure you visit our buddy Eric aka the CIGARtist and check out his beautiful cigar themed art!

Your amigo…-George

PS Just think how cool you’re gonna feel when you roll up to your next herf with this bad boy 😉

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE

 

That reminds me, I need to start working on the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways. It’s not as easy as it looks mooching all the great cigar and stuff for the giveaways!

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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Asylum and CLE Cigars, a Leccia Luchador and News

Asylum_Premium_ToroThis week  I decided to smoke a couple cigars from Fabricas Unidas, Christian Eiroa’s company, mostly because I wanted to slip the video I shot with Christian at the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival, but the cigars are good too. Christian was one of the guys I became acquainted with through the old alt.smokers.cigars Usenet group back in the ’90s.  That being said, I’ve purchased just about every cigar that he’s been associated with that I’ve smoked.  No mooching off this guy! Anyway, I had an Asylum Premium Toro that I purchased the end of last year (literally, it was December 31 of last year when I went to a local shop to meet a friend for a smoke). I’ve really enjoyed the Asylum line, it’s Nicaraguan and hits my palate just right. I’m glad they made the Asylum 13 Ogre line in more reasonable sizes than the 7″ x 70, although that was a tasty smoke too. The Asylum Premium Toro is a tasty, medium bodied smoke with perfect construction.  This is a perfect after dinner cigar that was quite satisfying.  I think there was a short Torpedo in the goodie bag from the Rocky Mountain Festival that I’m looking forward to smoking.  Tom Lazuka and Christian have a hit with the Asylum line.

 

CLE_Corojo_coronaLast night I dug out a CLE Corojo Corona that I had purchased at Corona Cigar‘s Sand Lake location back in 2012 when the IPCPR show was in Orlando. At the time I found both the Corojo and the Cuarenta had a mineral taste that was quite off-putting to me. Apparently two years in the humidor has alleviated that problem. The Corojo is a Honduran puro and their corona is 5¾” x 46, which is just about the perfect size, actually a corona gorda in traditional terms.  I thought this was a smooth, flavorful smoke with a good draw and burn. I used a V-cut which worked very well. I can’t find a thing wrong with this cigar now, and I may have to pick some more up and smoke one “fresh” to see if I get that flinty taste and these just need humidor time.

 

Here’s the short video.  Christian had apparently stepped on some glass somehow the night before and was limping around. I think there were some spirits involved. I believe Rafael Nodal knows the story…

 




 

News

Leccia_Luchador_ElHombreOnce again we have big news, General Cigar Co. has brought Sam Leccia on. Barry Stein broke the news this morning on TheCigarAuthority.com. From the press release: ” General Cigar Company is excited to announce today they have hired Sam Leccia as “Cigar and Blend Specialist.” General Cigar has also acquired the Leccia Tobacco Company cigar brands, as part of the Foundry Tobacco Company, and will market and distribute the Black, White and Luchador lines, effective today.” I’m actually less surprised by this than I was with the Toraño acquisition, but I am a little surprised that Sam relinquished his independence.  In honor of this occasion, I selected a Luchador El Hombre robusto for this evening’s walk. I maintain that the Luchador is one of my favorite new cigars this year. It’s like jalepeño dark chocolate with it’s spice and semi-sweet chocolate flavor. For me, it’s the ideal combination of flavor and performance, and always makes me with it was longer. I smoked this one until my fingers burned. Best wishes and congratulations to Sam in this new chapter in his story, I hope it works out well for everyone involved!

That’s it for now! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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