Tag Archives: Island Jim

An Island Jim San Andrés No. 2 and a Contest!

I know, you’re saying to yourself: “didn’t Craig just have a great contest a few weeks ago? Is he going back to his old ways?” Well, it just works out that a cool item came across my doorstep that I wanted to share with you guys, and why wait, but more on that in a bit. First, I made another visit to one of my local CigarCigars shops, this time the one in Berwyn, PA. Kameron is the manager there, and curates the Instagram account for the shop. I have been seeing his proclivity for pics of vanity license plates, so I figured there was one glaring omission from his collection and it was my responsibility to fill that void! Give him a follow (CigarsBerwyn), and make sure you follow CigarCraig1 (CigarCraig has gone dormant as I can no longer log in!). While there I picked up a few new-to-me cigars, as I do, and smoked the Island Jim San Andrés No.2 last night. I smoked the regular issue No. 2 several years ago on a birthday visit to Cigar Mojo. Holy crap, I just checked and it was 2014, can you believe the Island Jim No. 2 has been around for over 6 years? Damn! That’s just stupid. I guess it’s no more stupid than me eating an Island Jim BBQ Pineapple Pork stick well over two years past its sell-by date (I did this recently, BTW, it was good!). The San Andrés No. 2 has the same 6″ x 52 Torpedo shape as the Original, which has a Jalapa wrapper, and I assume this also has Honduran binder and fillers with, obviously, a San Andrés wrapper. It also has the stripped head and shaggy foot.  I really enjoyed this cigar! It reminded me of the old Leccia Luchadors with the spicy cocoa flavors, and I don’t think that has anything to do with both Jim and Sam being from Pittsburgh. This was a really good smoke and I recommend it!

 

Contest! 

 

Hopefully you didn’t just skip through the Island Jim part, because I really spent some time on it.  Anyway, let me tell you about this contest! One of my favorite things to do is to share things that I really enjoy, hoping that others will enjoy them too. My friends at Cigar Oasis are the exclusive distributor of a product that I’ve been using long before they became involved, so when they sent me one, I decided this would be a great time to share one with one of my readers! About 6 years ago I discovered the AshStay ashtray, and I’ve been using mine daily on my porch ever since. This thing is great. It keeps the smell and mess contained, and doesn’t look unsightly. When my grandkids come over I don’t even have to clean up and put it away! It’s super cool! Mine is white, and if I clean it (big if!), it looks brand new. The one they sent is Gunmetal, normally I’m a big fan of Gunmetal, but I have a perfectly good white one, and have plenty of ashtrays, so I’m willing to part with this one! Also, from Cigar Oasis, is a Caliber IV Digital Hygrometer. I have been using one of these for years as well and it’s a great hygrometer! Of course, it wouldn’t be a CigarCraig contest without some cigars. I put together a seven cigar sampler of one of my favorite unknown cigar brands, Danli Honduras Tobacco (DAHOT) from my humidor. These are cigars that I really love, and love to share. There’s Don Juan Calavera in Connecticut, Maduro and Sumatra, Flor Maya in Connecticut and Habano, The Clown Corojo and Marchetti box pressed Maduro. These are some of my go-to cigars, I love them all. The Don Juan Calavera Connecticut is one of my favorite Connecticut cigars, and the Sumatra was my favorite cigar of 2018. The usual rules apply. Leave a comment on this blog post, and this blog post only, to enter. You need to be of legal age in your jurisdiction to win cigars. I’ll select a winner next Sunday, October 25, 2020. It would be great if the winner read the blog post and emailed me their shipping info instead of me having to track them down 😉  ! Good luck! 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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News: Leaf by James Announced by Black Label Trading Co.

Here’s some exciting news from Black Label Trading Co. and Island Jim, I look forward to smoking this one quite a bit!

 

James Brown, owner of Fabrica Oveja Negra and Black Label Trading Co., is pleased to announce a collaboration with Jim “Island Jim” Robinson on the Leaf by James. This cigar is hand crafted in Esteli, Nicaragua at Fabrica Oveja Negra.


A Pre-Launch event will be taking place June 8, 2018 at Jim Robinson’s iconic shop Leaf and Bean, 2200 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA. The national release is scheduled later this summer.

“I’m excited to be working with Jim on this new Leaf project. I think the bold style of Oveja Negra is a great addition to the portfolio,” said James Brown, of Fabrica Oveja Negra.


Leaf by James will be available at Leaf and Bean with a national release scheduled later this summer.
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Pennsylvania Broadleaf
Binder: Ecuador Habano
Filler: Nicaragua
Toro – 6 x 50

Fabrica Oveja Negra is focused on small batch premium cigars with attention to details offering its clients a factory where small batch production is the norm and quality is the priority. For more information contact info@ovejanegracigars.com.

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Room 101 Big Payback and Matt Booth at the RMCF, an Island Jim and a Tatuaje

Room101_BigPayback_ChavalaAs I’m starting to sort out the videos I took at the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival last weekend, I figured I’d start off with Matt Booth of Room 101 Cigars and just get it over with. One never know’s what to expect with Matt, always entertaining and after all is said and done, he’s a class guy.  His table was right next to the Halfwheel table, hence the comment a few moments into the video. Last night I smoked the Room 101 Big Payback Chavala, which is a 5″ x 50 classic robusto.  This is a value line for Room 101, made in Nicaragua, and coming in around the $5 mark.  I see this trend of value cigars, with the Tatuaje Tattoo and Illusione‘s Rothchild and Gigante, and it’s not bad.  The Chavala was a really great smoke, it burned perfectly and had a nice tobacco sweetness that I really enjoyed. I think this is a great smoke and will be picking up some more of these in the future.

 

Here’s the video with Matt.  I really need to better prepare myself for these things….

 

 

 

Friday was my birthday, 51, if you’re counting, so my wife took me out to Cigar Mojo down in King of Prussia, PA and we ordered a couple pizzas and sat around smoking cigars and watching TV!  I selected the new Island Jim by Oscar Valladares Tobacco and Company for my birthday smoke. Island Jim is Jim Robinson who owns the Leaf and Bean shops in the Pittsburgh area. He’s probably a Penguins fan, but I won’t hold that against him. This torpedo with the shaggy foot appealed to me for some reason, and of all the great cigars available in that shop, this one was the one I decided on.  The head of this has a Connecticut band and a Maduro band and is not capped, but does need a cut midway through the Connecticut stripe for a great draw.  I smoked this just about to that Connecticut stripe, it was that good. I don’t have any regrets at all about choosing this for my celebration cigar, it was smooth with a nice sweetness, and a unique flavor I couldn’t pinpoint. I suppose I’ll have to smoke another one eventually to see if I can nail that flavor down. The high point of the evening was having a childhood friend stop in and share a smoke. We’ll call him “Pat Smith”, and we grew up in the same neighborhood and played in our first garage bands together in the ’70s.  I hadn’t seen this guy in over 30 years, and closed the Mojo talking and smoking.  It was a very nice evening, although I wish people in the lounge had taken me up on the pizza offer…we had to bring a whole pie home!

 

Tatuaje_MummySaturday I selected a special cigar that Will Cooper sent me last year for my birthday, a Tatuaje Monster Series Mummy. This is a 7¾” x 47 cigar that had what I thought was a very Cuban smoking experience. It burned like a Havana, that is to say it was a little loosely rolled and burned pretty fast. The flavor also reminded me of a Havana a little, I can’t say specifically, which line, but the overall experience was reminiscent of a fine Cuban cigar. It has a little zing, but was still smooth and rich. I enjoyed the heck out of this cigar. I don’t have a great deal of experience with the Tatuaje brand, but what I have smoked I liked, and this was a really nice Saturday afternoon smoke. Thank you, Mr. Cooper, for this gift.  Sorry it took me a year to get to, but I think I timed it perfectly!

 

That’s it for now. Not sure what’s on the block for today, but it’s a holiday weekend, so I’ll be selecting something good for sure. Enjoy the weekend, and thanks for reading along!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

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