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by CigarCraig | August 28, 2011 · 8:00 am

End Of The Week Cigars and News: Alec Bradley, J.Fuego, Best Cigar Prices and Irene

After a long day, and getting a late start on my evening smoke, I selected the Alec Bradley Family Blend D3 (4½” x 58) that I purchased on my Father’s Day Cigar ride. It is a beautiful cigar, short and fat, with a fanned little pigtail not unlike a Liga Privada Unicos Dirty Rat. That’s where the similarities end. This cigar had a unique flavor, not one I usually find in a cigar, which really made me happy. Was it a, dare I say, fruity flavor? I was talking about this with my wife and she asked if it was like sex in your mouth, which I didn’t quite understand and decided that no, it was not like that at all! What does that even mean? Whatever it was it was quite refreshing and a cigar I look forward to re-visiting the line.

News

In the news, it looks like another major internet retailer is moving to Pennsylvania. BestCigarPrices.com announced that it was relocating from New York State to North-eastern PA this week. Since PA is friendly toward tobacco products tax-wise, and New York state isn’t, this move doesn’t surprise me. It also gives us another business to fight any future proposed taxes on cigars and other tobacco products (OTP) as they are proposed, and they are pretty regularly. I think this brings us to five of the larger internet cigar retailers that are headquartered in PA. Now, if one would just move to my area…

Saturday evening had us waiting for the arrival of Hurricane Irene. We are about an hour west of Philadelphia, and aren’t expecting a direct hit. Certainly we are in far less danger than many in the path of this large storm, but our town has a creek running through it that is prone to flooding. We are on high ground, but it’s possible that the roads leading to our neighborhood will be impassable at some point. I am hopeful that the trees behind us stay put and everything clears out tomorrow. Obviously, our thoughts are with those directly effected by this storm. Anyway, I took a Jesus Fuego Sangre de Toro Robusto out on the front porch for my evening smoke. This was a sample from the IPCPR show, given to me by Jesus Fuego himself, who may be the most under rated manufacturer in the business. I’ve enjoyed his 777 line quite a bit, in the maduro and corojo wrappers, although I’ve been mixed on the Xikar HC line that he makes as well. This Sangre de Toro was a really nice cigar. It was solidly medium to me, and had some very pleasant flavors. Again, it was a refreshing cigar, rich and a little spicey, and burned perfectly. I finished it just as the wind was beginning to blow the rain on the front porch.

Here is a little video of Jesus Fuego telling me about the Sangre de Toro as well as his other lines:

I should have included this warning when I first started posting videos, but remember to turn your volume down after watching so you don’t blow your speakers the next time you get an e-mail!

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

CigarCraig

1 Comment

Filed under IPCPR, News, Review, Video

Tagged as 777, Alec Bradley, cigar, cigar store, cigar stores, cigars, drew estate, IPCPR, J. Fuego, Jesus Fuego, sangre de toro, xikar

by CigarCraig | January 3, 2011 · 11:09 pm

Cigar Recap: Fuente, 777, Chateau Real – Monday January 3, 2011

First post of 2011! I hope everyone had a safe and festive holiday and that 2011 is better than 2010. Last year was a great year for CigarCraig.com and the coming year should be even better. While I’m thinking about it, if you’re looking for a top ten list or a “best of” you can forget about it! What I think about any of the new cigars this year is of little consequence to anyone, there were very few “new” cigars that I sampled and the few that I did I wasn’t really “wow’d” by. I will say that the Liga Privada Dirty Rat is my favorite new cigar, but I received my first sample of that cigar in 2009, so it hardly counts!

Anyway, last week we had some fairly unseasonably temperate weather, so I grabbed an Arturo Fuente Double Chateau that was a gift from a friend. It’s been years since I smoked one of these, and I was in the mood for a milder cigar for an afternoon walk. Certainly a perfectly constructed and well balanced cigar, I honestly don’t know why I don’t grab Fuente products more often. I have a handful of what I consider “special” Fuentes, various smaller Hemingways, Opus X, the odd Don Carlos, but I save them for some reason…probably because I figure I’ll never have them again if I smoke them! Ridiculous, I know. I promise to smoke some of these when the weather gets warmer or I have an good inside opportunity.

Next up was a re-visit of a cigar I smoked and liked a few months back, the J. Fuego 777 maduro corona. I enjoyed this cigar again, but it didn’t hit me the same as the first one. I blame the colder weather, I seem to prefer stronger flavored cigars in the winter, and I think this fits that, but obviously my palate misses some of the complexities when the mercury drops. The size of this cigar is just about perfect for me at 5½” x 46 and the burn and draw were perfect. I picked up a few more of these last week and I think they are a fairly good cigar for $4.50 each. I look forward to smoking more of these.

Tonight I got lazy, and, considering that the weather has taken a colder turn, I went with a familiar friend, the Chateau Real Small Club Corona Maduro. There’s a couple things I really like about these cigars. The size, 4″ x 44, is great for my walk to the local convenience store and the strength of flavor is perfect for the colder weather. These are wrapped with a dark Mexican leaf that gives the cigar a rich and earthy taste. I think this box purchase was my best of the year at right around $50 for a box of 32.