Tag Archives: Henry Clay

by CigarCraig | December 6, 2015 · 10:24 am

EP Carillo, MBombay, Henry Clay, and Señorial Cigars

After today’s post, the next time you’ll hear from me will be Friday’s kickoff of the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways! I don’t want to hype it too much, because the last couple years have set the bar pretty high, but I don’t think there will be too much disappointment. As usual, I stress out about things, getting photos and presents and having posts written and ready to go, but as my wife always reminds me, usually the only way people know there were problems is if I tell them, otherwise it looks like everything goes off without a hitch. There are always things that make me crazy, but it’s too much fun to give up on. The upside for me is I get a bit of break from having to pay attention to the cigars I smoke over the two-week period, and I try, whenever possible to smoke what’s being given away. Anyway, I know you all are looking forward to the chance to get some great cigar goodies for the holidays, and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you.

I managed to smoke a few interesting cigars this week, and one of them was an EP Carillo Robolo, which is an exclusive size for Best Cigar Prices, who shared some samples with me. The Robolo size is 4½” x 60, and I have to admit, I really enjoy the size. It’s a happy medium ass far as I’m concerned. It’s a little longer than the Nub sizes from Oliva, it’s not the time commitment of a 6″ x 60, and most of the examples I’ve smoked in this series have smoked very well. Best Cigar Prices has just about every major brand you can think of made just for them in this size, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, Alec Bradley, Boutique Blends, the works. Anyway, I found the EPC Robolo to be quite delicious, it had some woody notes, and sweet creamy coffee. I liked it a lot. I’ve been pretty much un-Wowed by the EPC offerings, which is odd considering I am/was such a big La Gloria Cubana fan, but this one does it for me. Don’t forget you can use the code CRAIG1099 at BestCigarPrices.com for a discount and cheap shipping!

I also received some MBombay KeSara Vintage Reserve Nikka samples last week, and after a rest in the humidor I decided to give one a spin this week. This cigar is a very col size, 6½” x 46, with a pigtail cap. The tobacco in this Vintage Reserve line is aged three years longer than that in the regular KeSara line, and the Ecuador Connecticut wrapper is aged in hybrid Spanish Cedar and Sandlewood boxes for up to none months. I can’t pick out Sandlewood in the flavor, but I will say that the cigar is quite tasty and burns perfectly. I love the size, it’s a very elegant and refined cigar, and of the highest quality. I’ve enjoyed many cigars from this company, I think their regular old Connecticut Churchill is one of the best in the category of Connecticut wrapped cigars. It may be an obscure brand right now, but they make some great smokes. By the way, these come from the same factory in Costa Rica that makes the Selected Tobacco cigars (Atabey, Byron, Bandolero) and Vegas de Santiago. Very high quality cigars come out of that facility.

I had a cousin of mine comment that I should get a hand tattoo since I post pictures on Facebook and Instagram with a cigar in my hand, so the only tattoos I am likely to get on my hand are going to be in my hand in the form of a cigar, in this case, the Henry Clay Tattoo. Not that I’m anti-tattoo, it’s just not my thing, I’m a live and let live kinda guy. I bought a couple of these cigars a few months ago at The Humidour in Maryland, and the one I smoked there was great, it just burned a little wet, not much, but a little. After a few months in the humidor, this cigar was perfect. Unlike the original Henry Clay cigars that Pete Johnson modeled this after in his collaboration with Altadis, it’s aesthetically beautiful. The Henry Clays I remember from the 90s came tied in a wheel of 50, and were packed wet, so they came in all kinds of gnarly shapes. The Broadleaf wrapper on this was dark and oily and had a nice sweetness, while it still had a heavy, savory meatiness that is quite satisfying. These were a limited edition that sold out at the trade show, so I’m not entirely sure how many of these you’ll find in the wild, but it’s a great smoke, try one if you find them.

Yesterday we stopped in at The Wooden Indian in Havertown, PA where Jose Blanco and his wife, Emma Viktorsson were having a Las Cumbres Tabaco event. Little did I know, there was also a four store cigar crawl going on where four stores in the area had a van load of customers travelling to one another’s stores. While we were there the bus from Sir Stogies in Gilbertsville, PA showed up with about 15 guys. I ran into Walt White from Stogie Review who is a regular up at that shop, who I hadn’t seen in a long time. We got the heck out of there before the buses from Cigar Mojo and Top Shelf Cigars got there. I kinda would have liked to have known about this event in advance, it seems like a fun day, although we already had plans later on. Maybe the next time. Anyway, I bought some Señorial maduros in the lonsdale size (and I have a mental block with the name, I always spell it Señoreal, which is incorrect. It’s right there on the band, I don’t know what my deal is with that) and some Freyja “Sessrúmnir” Corona Largas, and lit up the Señorial maduro. What a great medium bodied smoke with loads of flavor, although what would you expect from Jose Blanco? Dave always puts on great events at The Wooden Indian, and Jose and Emma are great folks. We left there and went to a great Beatles symposium in New Jersey (“Ticket to Rider” review here) to cap off a great Saturday.

That’s all I feel like writing about now! I need to do some more prep work for the contests and get to spending a relaxing Sunday at home! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, Cigar Crawl, cigars, EP Carillo, Freyja, Henry Clay, MBombay, Senorial, Tattoo, wooden indian

by CigarCraig | September 20, 2015 · 10:34 am

The Humidour and Davidus, Henry Clay, Tatuaje, Senoral and Lord Baltimore Cigars

We took one last little trip of the summer this past week, down to the Baltimore Maryland area so my wife could sell some books at the North Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, which is a “Con” like many others, complete with quite a collection of odd people, on both sides of the tables (my wife being an obvious exception to this, there were some “normal” people there). There were some celebrities there, Lee Majors and Lindsey Wagner from the 70s TV “bionic” franchise, as well as some slightly less famous people. I saw some unique things, a guy walking around with an autographed toaster, for instance, and a few different Dr. Who’s. These things aren’t generally my cup of tea, but I suppose some people would argue that going to cigar events isn’t particularly normal either. I do like getting away with my wife for a few days though. I managed to visit a couple cigar shops while I was in the area though, and smoked some great cigars.

The Humidour in Cockeysville, MD was within walking distance for me, and I had a great parking place at the hotel I didn’t want to give up. A mile and three quarters on a beautiful day isn’t too bad. The store is in an older house sitting on a hill, and has a retail area with all the usual stuff, humidors, pipes and pipe tobacco, as well as a large walk in humidor which is generously stocked. There are also a couple rooms which comprise the public lounge, and several rooms both upstairs and downstairs that make up the private club space. There are several fireplaces, and I can’t say if they ever get used or not as I didn’t ask, and it has a very homey feel. there are a couple outdoor patio areas too. I picked up a couple of the new Henry Clay Tattoo cigars as well as the new Tatuaje TAA 2015 cigars and settled into a leather chair and proceeded to watch golf. I have fond memories of the Henry Clay cigars that Pete Johnson had in mind when he blended this cigar. They were tied in bundles within the box, and it was apparent that they were bundled wet, because they came in all kinds of crazy shapes. These weren’t box pressed like the Henry Clay Tattoo, some were trapezoidal, triangular, not necessarily straight, they were a rugged man’s cigar, very rustic and laden with testosterone. I heard reports that they burned underwater. The Tattoo does a good job of capturing the spirit of the HC of old, although it’s far prettier, more symmetrical, and better behaved. Of course, it’s triple the cost of the old HC Brevas I remember too. It had that great sweet broadleaf flavor, loads of dark roast coffee flavor and, unlike it’s predecessors, burned really well.

I lit up the Tatuaje TAA 2015 next, and I love the Tatuaje cigars, but I don’t have a great deal of experience with them. I bought a couple because I never see any TAA stores in my area, and I figured what the heck, I probably wouldn’t have a chance to smoke these again. I enjoyed the heck out of the cigar, it is another Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper, with a closed foot so oine really gets a blast of the wrapper flavor on the light. I find myself skipping the toasting part of the lighting ritual with the closed foot cigars so I don’t miss that wrapper blast. Anyway, much like the previous cigar, the TAA is loaded with dark cocoa and espresso flavor and the 5 5/8″ x 54 box press size is quite comfortable and satisfying. I really should smoke more Tatuaje cigars, but there’s so many limited editions and special stuff that I won’t chase after them, and they are usually priced outside my comfort zone. The “Tats” I’ve smoked have always been to my liking, and I’m glad I picked up two so I can revisit this in a few months. My visit to The Humidour was a good one, and I’m glad it was so close, it’s quite a nice place.

My Saturday stop was at a Davidus shop in Ellicott City, MD. This was chosen as a half way point to meet up with a long time reader and friend, Mark and his friend David. There’s few things more enjoyable than meeting face to face with someone you’ve interacted with digitally over the last five years or so, and doing it in a nice lounge over some fine cigars is the best way to spend an afternoon. I got there early and perused the large humidor, which separates the front of the shop from the lounge area with Sam, the gentleman working there. I picked up a couple of new releases, the Enclave from AJ Fernandez which I have smoked and enjoyed, and the Señorial from Las Cumbres tobacco, which I have a sample in my humidor, but I saw it there and wanted to smoke it, so I got a few more. I also picked up a couple of the Lord Baltimore and Sea Knight, which are brands owned by the Castro brothers who own the 11 store Davidus chain. I promptly lit up the Señoreal Maduro and promptly enjoyed the heck out of it with a cup of black coffee. I found it to be a great, refined and sophisticated maduro cigar with loads of flavor, and who would expect anything else from Jose Blanco.

I followed the Señoreal with a Lord Baltimore The Ark, a 6 ¾” x 38 short lancero which probably would have been better going first. It’s a Connecticut Shade wrapped cigar made by Altadis, I was told. Lord Baltimore is a very old brand that the Castro Brothers recently resurrected. It took a few minutes for my palate to adjust to the milder cigar, but I really enjoyed the smooth rich flavor and perfect burn that this cigar had. The presentation was quite nice too, with a paper sleeve from the band to the foot, and a second band under the first, so when you slid the outer paper off, it was still banded (so I don’ forget what I am smoking!). I picked up one of these in the corona size too, I’m sure it will be a tasty an experience as the lancero was. It was another great afternoon, meeting old friends for the first time, and relaxing in a comfortable lounge with a nice selection and an attentive staff. Thanks to Mark and David for spending the afternoon with me! We covered a hundred topics from cigars to family to careers. It wrapped up a pretty nice couple of days.

That’s it for today, off to get some things done after being away and having to go to work tomorrow. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Review, Stores

Tagged as Davidus, Henry Clay, Humidour, Lord Baltimore, Senoreal, Tattoo, tatuaje

by CigarCraig | July 26, 2015 · 10:11 am

IPCPR Thoughts and Highlights – Part 2

Sunday at the IPCPR started out with my wife and I going to the French Market to meet some new friends for coffee before heading to the show. John Taylor recently published the book “Wings Over New Orleans“, which contains John’s personal photos and counts of Paul McCartney’s stay in New Orleans while recording Wings’ Venus and Mars. You can read Jenn’s review of it on Be atles-Freak.com. He was a fascinating guy yo talk to, very humble and down to earth, and fortunate to have had the chance to hang out with Paul and Linda on a daily basis. It was certainly a nice break from the show floor, and the coffee was great (no beignets, the line for Cafe du Monde was insane and it was 100 degrees and humid!).

It was probably 1 PM by the time we made our way back to the IPCPR show. We wanted to catch some of the music going on at Rocky Patel‘s booth. I’ve mentioned the custom humidor they have that is the top of a cajon, which is a wooden hand drum, and Jerry Goldenson, the VP of Sales for Pearl Drums was present in the booth. Jerry is a cigar lover, and worked with Rocky on this, as well as some special items for the Burn cigar club in Florida. Jerry and I have a mutual friend who made the introduction remotely. The band was great, wonderful Cuban rhythms. Fortunately, the Cigar Oasis booth was right next to Rocky’s booth, so I got the visit with Chaim Kohn and get the low down on the re-designed Magna (sure, right after I bought one!) and their new WiFi app upgrades, which I have yet to try out (oddly, I’ve been too busy to worry about checking the humidity in my humidor from my phone). I’m a fan of the Cigar Oasis units, I currently use the Magna in my cabinet (and I stopped in the Prestige Import Group booth, maker of the cabinet I have, and they endorse the Cigar Oasis line as well), and the Excel in the NewAir CC-100 Humidor.

We stopped in the Gurkha booth to see what was new there, and among other things, they were displaying the new Maharaja, at least the beautiful packaging was on display. Pardon my cynicism, and I like quite a few cigars from Gurkha, but I would like to see a $2000 cigar before I bought it. Bianca assured me that they were in there, but there’s absolutely no information about it other than it’s got a maduro wrapper and Dominican binder and filler. Very exclusive, apparently sold out in Europe, but a little steep for my budget (no samples being given out unfortunately). They did provide me with samples of the new Heritage, Cellar Reserve Platinum and the Cask Blend, all made in Nicaragua. More on those as the get smoked, and maybe a future contest, who knows :-). I hit Colin Ganley up for a taste of his Twin Engine Coffee (iced with cream and sugar, the cigar blend is delicious this way!) and he introduced me to a newcomer to the US market, but an established brand in Nicaragua, Santiago de los Caballeros, who make some beautiful looking cigars that I’m quite anxious to smoke. After that I finally managed to introduce my self to George Rico, of Gran Habano, I’m not sure how it took me five or six IPCPR shows to meet him, I guess he’s been busy when I’ve stopped before. He was talking to Ernesto Padilla, whom I also just formally met at the show. On the way out I got one of the very few instances of being approached in the aisle by a gentleman from Lighthouse Cigars, who make a line of cigars targeted toward golfers. Again, more information on that one later. One of the highlights of the day was visiting with the guys at King’s Cigars, who we met at the 2013 show when they debuted the brand. They are still wild and crazy guys and were having a great time in their booth. I finally got the smoke the King of Kings Broadleaf, a PA Broadleaf wrapped 6″ x 64 box press that is pretty darned tasty.

After dinner I stopped at the hotel’s designated smoking area, where they had a cash bar open, but only a couple of people were there. I have a feeling that the IPCPR will find that these hospitality areas in each hotel were under-utilized. There were places in the area to sit in an air-conditioned and comfortable lounge and have a cigar, not outside in a tent with fans and way overpriced drinks. We had a cigar there and moved on to Don Leoncio’s cigar bar on Canal Street, where I bought a couple of PDR 1878 in Capa Maduro and Capa Oscuro and settled into the comfy leather sofa. We met a couple of guys from Texas who are in the process of organizing Cigar Palooza (September 26 at the Ball Park as Grand Prairie), then later the guys from the Cigar City Club in Atlanta joined me. Once again proof that a fine cigar is a catalyst for making friends and good conversation. Another long day in the books. Need to rest up for day three.

Monday was day three, and our final day, at the show. I made a list of all the booths I wanted to get to that we had missed or were busy on the previous two days. Unfortunately it was a long list. We started out on the far end of the hall, with Perdomo Cigars, moved to Miami Cigar and Co. , finally met Mel and the folks at MBombay cigars and enjoyed a Mbombay Kesara, which was exceptional. there were some beautiful handcrafted ashtrays across from Mel’s booth that were quite unique, check out BramWarren.com, neat stuff. I had a noon appointment at Altadis to get acquainted with their new releases, and they, of course, have an expansive booth. They are doing some interesting things with joint ventures recently. I mentioned Rafael Nodal/RoMEo collaboration in my last post, and they sold out of the Henry Clay/Pete Johnson Tattoo, which I look forward to trying when it gets to retailers shelves. Keep in mind whenever I say something sold out at the show that just means that retailers bought it all up, it will be available on those retailers shelves sometime in the future. There are a bunch of special edition Montecristo’s coming out, line extensions to the Espada and White lines commemorating the 80th anniversary of the brand. We grabbed some lunch at the opposite end of the floor, then started on the list again. We met with Dave Garofalo of Two Guys Smoke Shop who walked us through the Selected Tobacco booth where he was displaying the Atabey, Byron and Bandolero lines which he distributes. These are all exceptional quality cigars which carry a big price. I’ve smoked a Byron and Bandolero and can say that they are top notch, and, ironically, are made in the same factory in Costa Rica that makes the MBombay line. Roberto Duran Cigars was next with the Big Jack addition to the Neya line, a 7×70 named for Jack Toraño, who we had a chance to visit with along with his wife as well as Miguel Schoedel. We visited with Jose Blanco of La Cumbres, Nick Mellilo’s new Foundation Cigar Co., Dion Giolito, Yadi Gonzales of Flor de Gonzales, Dean Parsons of Epic, the boys at Evil Genius, and many more. We saw most of the people we wanted to see, but time always seems to run out. RoMaCraft was busy the whole show, as was the House of Emilio booth, as several others. I’d say we managed to cover a lot of ground in basically two and a half days. Like I said before, more info will com out as I smoke new stuff over the coming months.

Monday night was the big social event of the show, the Cigar Bash, sponsored by La Palina and featuring the classic band “America”. It was held at the Mardi Gras World facility, and there were buses to shuttle us back and forth, otherwise it would have been a very hot and sweaty walk! To get to the venue we walked though the warehouse where all the floats are stored, very neat. It was a rare treat to be able to sit inside, smoke cigars, and watch a band, all the while being able to actually talk to people without screaming. The band was great, the La Palina Red Label I started out with was pretty good (although I look forward to revisiting it after some humidor time) and we, of course, found a bunch of friends to hang out with. Apparently there was another party going on which we failed to hear about, but the Cigar Bash was a good time (food, open bar, music, cigars, friends, what more could you ask for?) Well worth the extra $20 each.

So, a couple of observations about the show. As far as trends go, I think Ecuador Connecticut is coming back again, and I’m seeing more and more Pennsylvania leaf used in blends and as wrappers. Barrel aging in one form or another is a hot trend, and we noticed the use of the word “pilon” more than once. Also, maybe to go along with the use of spirits barrels is the trend toward cigars made to pair with specific libations. For the first show, I felt like the media was accepted as a valuable member as opposed to being a nuisance, which was pretty refreshing. I did see quite a few media members there, and there were many there I didn’t meet, which is a shame. It was great back in 2011 when Drew Estate hosted a media party, but one can’t expect that kind of generosity all the time. Since they had all of the hookah and vape vendors pretty well isolated at one end of the hall, there wasn’t any hard sells while walking by like there has been in the past. As you might guess, my focus is on premium cigars, and I have little to no interest in other products, however legitimate they might be. And lastly, one of the very first “What The Heck” moments came while finally approaching the IPCPR area in the convention center were about 5 of these huge papier-mache sculptures. While nice, my thought, as well as others I talked to, was that the money it cost to make these could probably have been put to better use. No doubt these aren’t going to the Mardi Gras World warehouse, they have probably already been destroyed as I doubt the show will be in New Orleans again soon. They probably could have saved some money by not putting IPCPR banners on all the light poles down Convention Center Boulevard too, it’s not like this was an event open to the public that needs advertising, right? At least there weren’t guys on the street corner spinning signs. I have to trust that the new CEO, Mark Purcell, knows what he’s doing, and I don’t so these are just the random musings of a casual observer. Hopefully the FDA doesn’t screw everything up and there are trade shows and events to attend in the future!

Anyway, that is a brief overview of the trip. I did bring home some contestable goodies which will happen when I feel that the cigars have recovered from their travels and are ready to smoke, so stay tuned for a midweek contest announcement one of these weeks soon. Of the handful of cigars I smoked during the event, all of them were pretty darned great, and it’s not like I had a cigar going every minute of the day, I definitely paced myself. it’s really no fun to burn out your palate on the first day. Thanks once again to my wife and partner in crime, Jenn, who I tried really hard not to drag around this time.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as altadis, America, Atabey, cigar, cigars, Duran, Gurkha, Henry Clay, IPCPR, La Palina, Montecristo, New Orleans