Tag Archives: general cigar

The CAO Concert Event at G & G Cigars

It snowed! It’s not even December yet and we have a blanket of snow on the ground. Last year the only major snow we had was at the end of October 2011, so maybe we get it out of the way again and have a nice, mild, uneventful winter? I can hope. I like cigars too much to limit myself to coronas and petite coronas all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I think a smaller ring cigar is fine, love a lancero and coronas, but variety is the spice of life! Go away snow!

 

Right before it snowed I had an opportunity to attend an event at G & G Cigars in West Chester PA. This is a nice little shop in the downtown area in what was once the Warner theater and is now the Warner Hotel. The hotel is a new addition and just looking into the lobby from the street (what was once the movie theater lobby, I think I saw the Muppet Movie there! back when you could smoke during the movie and you d didn’t think twice about rats running over your feet…you know, the good old days!) it looks like a very nice place. G & G Cigar Co. has been here for 13 years and is capably run by Doug and Jan, who I run into at the trade shows more than I see in the shop. Admittedly, I don’t get to this shop as much as I’d like, but that’s because I really don’t frequent any one shop over another in my area. I end up going to cigar events wherever they may happen to be and am not one to just go hang out at any one shop. If I were and lived a little closer, this shop would be the place. They work things a little differently here, the lounge and their events are for their members and not open to the public. I was lucky enough to weasel and invite out of Doug because my buddy Rick Rodriquez was bringing his CAO Concert tour to my home town. Rick is the man when it comes to the new blends coming out of CAO and I was fortunate to get to know him a bit when I visited General Cigar Co. in the Dominican Republic last year. He has studied the blending arts with Benji Menendez among others and knows his stuff and is a heck of a cool dude too.  A big thank you to Doug and Jan for extending me their hospitality and Ricky and his crew as well.  As you can see in one of the pictures, they even had a cake for Ricky’s birthday that’s this week, Happy Birthday Bro!

 

I enjoyed a CAO Concert Roadie while enjoying the company of several of the members. I have to say that many shops, membership or not, can be a little intimidating at first. I have been a guest of Doug’s in his lounge on two occasions and was welcomed and treated as a friend both times. This says something for the clientele at this shop and after talking to several members, they all seem to drive past one shop or another to come to this one. I wasn’t a fan of the members only lounge and events model but it’s working quite well here and if I were closer and would spend more time hanging around I would gladly pay the membership. Good group of folks for sure. As far as the CAO Concert goes, it’s a nice smoke. Medium bodied with a nice sweetness here and there that probably comes from the broad-leaf binder.  I enjoyed the heck out of the cigar as well as the time I spent talking to all the folks at the event.  It was a fun time.  If you get a chance to meet Rick on one of his tour stops do it, he’s a great guy and really knows his art.

 

Since it’s cold and there’s still stinkin snow on the ground I grabbed a short smoke for my walk, a CAO OSA Sol Lot T.  This 4 ½” x 50 box pressed torpedo is quite a neat little smoke.  It was loaded with  flavor and burned perfectly.  It’s a different experience from the Concert, it’s got refreshing, bright flavors that will be even better on a 80 degree summer afternoon by the pool than a cold evening with the moon and Venus lighting up the snow.  It was perfect for my walk.  I picked up a few of these at  Cigars International when I was at the new super store and they were in the $5 range, quite reasonable.

 

That’s it for this installment, enjoy the rest of your week and take some time to relax with a fine cigar, whether it’s at home in your favorite smoking spot, or in a nice lounge like G & G Cigars has.

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review, Stores

IPCPR 2012 – A La Sirena Merlion and Someone Wins Some Cigars!

Friday evening, the start of a holiday weekend, the (sigh) end of summer, all good reasons to spark up a good cigar.  One of the cigars I’ve really been looking forward to smoking from the IPCPR show is the Merlion from La Sirena and Miami Cigar and Co.  The sample I smoked was the Toro size, measuring 5½” x 54, which is a nice size for a late summer evening.  The cigars are made at the La Aurora factory with Ecuadoran Corojo wrapper, a Brazilian Sumatra binder and Dominican Corojo, Dominican Criollo, Nicaraguan ligero and Brazilian Mata Fina fillers.  It’s a very nice cigar.  I could certainly taste the influence of the La Aurora factory in the blend, there’s a signature flavor that I’m familiar with that stands out.  It performed perfectly and was a nice, satisfying smoke. Another winner from Arielle Ditkowich and the folks at Miami Cigar and Co.  Arielle took a few moments to talk to me at the show, here’s the video.

 

 

Thank you, Arielle, for being one of my first few interviews at the show. Keep making tasty smokes!

 

Contest

 

I know, nobody is interested in video of me talking to a lovely lady about cigars, you just want to know who won this weeks contest!  I was pretty amazed by the response, especially considering I was pretty vague about what the prize was (and I’m sorry, there will not be a Taboada in the prize pack! I had one and that was it).  What is in the package is a pair of Tortuga LE 2011 torpedoes from Victor Vitale, along with a selection of General Cigar Co. goodies, including some new releases and special cigars that are only available at special events. I also threw in a few favorites from my humidors.  As usual, I’ve consulted with the Random Number Generator at Random.org which has produced the number 15, which corresponds to Christian Logay by my figuring.  Congrats Christian!  Please send me your contact info so I can get this in the mail to you!   Again, thanks to everyone for reading along and making the last 3 years very special for me.

 

That’s it for now!  Have a great Labor Day weekend.

 

CigarCraig

 

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Filed under Contest, IPCPR, Review, Video

CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways Day 1: CAO Cigars

Well, here it is, the day you’ve all been waiting for!  Day one of CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways!  To say that we’re starting out small and building up would be a dirty lie!  We’re starting out huge, and riding the wave for the next 12 days!  Today we have a box of 24 La Traviata Divinos from CAO, as well as a “Rock and Rolled” tour cap.

 

 

Thanks to Victoria McKee at General Cigar for providing this outstanding prize!

Here’s how you enter: leave a comment.  That’s it, plain and simple.  Tweets don’t count, but feel free to spread the word, only comments on this page count as an entry.  Each day there will be a different prize and the winner will be drawn from that day’s comments. The winner will be announced on the next day’s post. All prizes will be mailed the week after Christmas, so don’t make me chase down your address!

That’s it, leave a comment to enter and good luck. Check back tomorrow to see if you won and enter tomorrow’s contest!

Until then,

CigarCraig

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12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways Countdown! A Monte Pascoal, a My Uzi and a Cain

It’s been a busy week, I’ve been gearing up for the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways and the weather was mild and rainy for the fist part of the week, and cold at the end.  This didn’t stop me from getting in a few interesting cigars though!

 

Mid way through the week I took a walk with a Monte Pascoal Minuto.  This Brazilian puro is a tasty little firecracker of a smoke.  The cigar is 4 3/8″ x 42, with Brazilian Mata Fina wrapper and binder and Mata Fina and Mata Norte fillers.  The word on the street is that the smaller sizes are stronger than the larger sizes, based on the higher wrapper to filler ratio, but I find this difficult to comprehend given that the blend is so heavily weighted toward the same tobacco variety. Perhaps I’ll ask Wes at Tabacos Mata Fina USA about this the next time I see him.

 

Last night it was cold.  I needed to get some cash, and the nearest ATM is probably a mile and a half away, so I grabbed the 7″x 60 My Uzi Weighs A Ton pre-release sample Jonathan Drew sent me quite a few months ago. This cigar is a joint venture between Joya de Nicaragua and Drew Estate/Subculture Studio, and was released at this years IPCPR show. Certainly this monstrous cigar would last me the entire walk, and then some.  There’s nothing more frustrating that finishing the cigar before the walk.  Anyway, this cigar had a nice flavor, and as has been said many times by others, it’s not a killer strong cigar as the name may imply.  It’s just a really nice, balanced, medium bodied cigar that was an excellent companion for the 3 mile walk!

 

Yesterday I felt inspired to smoke a Cain Daytona Corona after a big Olive Garden meal with my wife.  I really needed a couple laps around the block to burn off the pasta!  I love the Cain line, but most of them are just too strong for me.  Not the Daytona!  It’s another medium bodied cigar that’s packed with delicious flavors.  What led me to this cigar was a meeting earlier in the day with my areas Oliva rep, Mike Staiber, who provided a terrific prize for the upcoming contest.  Always nice to see Mike, and I wish we’d have had the time to sit and smoke one together.

 

Speaking of the contest, it starts TOMORROW!  Keep any eye here bright and early each morning for the next two weeks for a fantastic parade of prizes!  Leave a comment to win and check back every day for the winner and the next prize!  This is a contest that is unprecedented in the history of CigarCraig.com!  Many thanks to the following companies who have made this contest possible:

La Gloria Cubana

Villiger Stokkebye

Brothers of the Leaf, LLC

Miami Cigar and Co.

Oliva

CAO

Cigar Journal

Pipes and Cigars

C-Gars Ltd. 

Tabacos Mata Fina USA

Oja Cigars

and more to come!

 

My deepest gratitude for everyone for helping to make this a terrific 12 days of contests!

That’s it for now, more tomorrow!

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk