Tag Archives: Mi Querida

November 29, 2020 · 10:06 am

Sobremesa Brulee Blue, Platinum Nova, HVC Black Friday and Triqui Traca Cigars

We had a really low key Thanksgiving. We didn’t have a big meal, just the immediate family hanging out around the house. We actually ordered sandwiches from Wawa for dinner! It was much more relaxing than the stress of preparing a big meal and cleaning it all up in all honesty! I, like many days, treated myself to some great cigars. I realized that I haven’t written anything about the Sobremesa Brulee Blue yet, so I figured it was about time. This is a 6 ¼” x 46 lonsdale cigar with a pigtail cap. I used a cutter because I’ve evolved to use tools, I’m not an animal. Also, even though Saka sent me this cigar, it’s a $15 cigar and I’m not risking screwing it up by manhandling it. Of course, I’ve smoked a few Brulee’s, including the STFU! set, and I don’t believe this had a sweet cap. It certainly has a natural sweetness to the tobacco, and a creaminess to the smoke that’s really nice. There’s plenty of body and some spice to the smoke too, making it a really interesting and entertaining cigar to smoke. The bands a re really pretty too.

 

I guess I had the blue in the Sobremesa bands in my head when I went to select my after dinner cigar. Full disclosure, while the rest of the family had “Gobblers”, I had an Italian hoagie, as I am not a fan of the turkey sandwich with the thanksgiving meal fixings on it. It’s my holiday, I’ll celebrate it the way I want! So I went to the humidor and selected Limited Edition Platinum Nova Torpedo. This was a cigar that Ari and Leo of Nova Cigars gave me at the TPE show last January, and I’ve probably mentioned it here before. It’s a 5 ½” x 55 torpedo that retails around $30, so it’s no cheap date. It’s got Dominican Binder and Fillers with a Habano 2000 wrapper. Remember when the Habano 2000 wrapper came on the scene and it didn’t burn? Now it’s on $30 cigars! This cigar has a really delicate, floral flavor profile. If you like that sort of thing, this is a cigar for you. It’s an entertaining change of pace for me. Of course, it burned perfectly, I’d have been disappointed for it hadn’t. this company makes some really good cigars. You don’t hear about them a lot, I hear about them on the Smokin Tabacco podcast/show, a show which Matt Tabacco (his real name) and Jon Carney which is entertaining. It’s a good thing that Ari and Leo started Platinum Nova when they did, because they worked for Nat Sherman, and would have been looking for jobs now anyway.

 

Friday I smoked the HVC Black Friday Firecracker. I thought I might have missed out on this, but when I went to 2 Guys website on the Tuesday after they came out, I was still able to get some. From the hype, I thought they would sell out. I got lucky, I guess. So I added some to my stash of various Firecrackers, and smoked one Friday before my granddaughters came over for the afternoon. This is a 3½” x 50 little smoke with a long “fuse” and a closed foot. Initially the spicy “hotness” covers any flavor to me. It was overwhelmingly strong off the bat. The Corona Gorda was strong, but this little bastard was really strong. It eventually settled down, but by the time it settled down, it started ramping back up because it was getting near the end. It’s pretty much pepper and strong, black coffee flavors, which is OK. If you aren’t prepared for the strength, it might me troublesome, and it’s a darned good thing it’s only 3½” long.

 

When I ordered the Firecrackers, I added on a few of the new sizes of the Mi Querida Triqui Tracas that recently came out that weren’t included in Saka’s media pack 😁. Here’s a couple of ethical disclosures: I buy a lot of cigars, and I get samples of cigars from vendors. If there is a problem with a cigar I get from a vendor, I don’t trash it, I talk to the vendor. I try to smoke cigars that I like. There has been an instance recently where I was given an item to review, I found it to be sub-par, I gave the vendor a draft of the review, told them I didn’t want to post the review and offered to return the item to them, which they agreed to do, even though two other items I’ve been given and reviewed in the past have been excellent. I can’t damage someone’s business with my opinions. I don’t have a problem endorsing something I can stand behind, but I’m not going out of my way to tear something down. Anyway, not quite sure why I went on that tangent, but I took Macha out to Valley Forge Park yesterday for a walk and took the huge Triqui Traca 764 along. This is a big cigar, as the name suggests, it’s 7” x 64, clever guy, that Saka. I suppose it’s better than calling it Donkey D*ck, but not quite as good as Gran Buffalo (which is what he called the same size in the Mi Querida). I lit this up and used it to maintain social distance, with both the smoke and physical size of the cigar. We walked for a while, then turned back, drove home, then I spent another few hours on the porch finishing the cigar. There are monuments at Valley Forge smaller than this cigar. It’s larger than some of the canons. They built cabins for the soldiers out of logs smaller than this cigar. It was a lot of good cigar, and I look forward to smoking the 652, because I felt like the 764 was maybe less flavorful, or maybe just a lot of work getting to the flavor. I bought more than one, so perhaps next summer I’ll work on another one.

 

Keep those Reader’s Choice Cigar of the year entries coming! Please e-mail me at craig@cigarcraig.com with your choice for the 2020 cigar of the year. I’ll compile the results and post them on December 31. Please be as specific as possible. That’s more than enough for today, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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November 22, 2020 · 11:04 am

Tabernacle Goliath and a Mi Querida Triqui Traca Cigars

Let me start out by bitching a little about the USPS messing with my plans for this post a little. I had ordered some of the new Triqui Traca sizes because I was unable to find them locally, and they were supposed to have been delivered yesterday and they weren’t. How USPS manages to goof up Priority Mail that ships Tuesday and is scheduled to be delivered Saturday (already a stretch), is beyond me. A few weeks ago I sent a box to Washington state on a Saturday and it was delivered on Monday. Sure, it cost me more than $8, but c’mon. And I recently cashed in some rewards points for an Amazon gift card and they are mailing it….what sense does that make? OK, now I’m just bitching about stuff for for the sake of bitching…forget about that last part. Point is, I

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had to switch up my whole plan for this post at the last minute. Fortunately, it’s not hard for me to convince myself to smoke a great cigar, so I made other plans.

 

Last week when I was at Cigar Mojo, one of the cigars I picked up was the Foundation Cigar Co. Tabernacle Goliath. I probably should have gotten both the David and the Goliath, but I was trying to moderate my spending. In retrospect, it would have made this post easier, and perhaps, more interesting. Apologies. The David and Goliath are perfecto shaped cigars, both have a gorgeous Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, San Andrés binder and Nicarag

uan and Honduran fillers. I would venture a guess that the blend is the same as the regular Tabernacle line. The Goliath is a 5” x 58 perfecto, it’s chubby. The David is 5” x 54 and is more of a pointy perfecto. This is where I regret not buying both and comparing the two, because the shape can make a big difference in the flavor. The Goliath was a wonderful cigar. Despite the fact that once it burns past the first quarter inch its basically a gordo or fat robusto, the burn was perfect. It was loaded with the rich espresso and cocoa that I love, with the spice and earth from the San Andrés and the fillers. This was such a good cigar, and burned nice and cool all the way down to the nub. Again, now I need to go get the David, because I can imagine that the smaller ring and the pointy shape would sharpen the flavors some and cause a different experience. Darn my frugality. So if you like the Foundation, you should love the Goliath!

 

As I alluded to above, I was hoping to receive some of the new sizes of the Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust Mi Querida Triqui Traca, the 652 and the 764. So I followed the Goliath (after dinner, of course, not immediately) with a Triqui Traca 552. I realized that I had never really featured that size on these pages, and I’ve smoked a few

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. I like the 648, it’s close to a Toro, and I’ve been looking forward to trying the 652, and I just figured “Why not” on the 764. It’s a ridiculous size, but people rave about the Mi Querida Gran Buffalo (same size, next on my list to try). The Triqui Traca is another Broadleaf wrapped cigar that is based off of the Mi Querida Firecracker blend (of which a third, and tweaked, release is imminent. Damn, that’s another order I’m going to have to place with 2 Guys…) which is an amped up version of the Mi Querida. I’ll be honest, I love them both. If the Mi Querida is a Hershey’s Special Dark bar, then the Triqui Traca is one of those dark chocolate bars with the hint of cayenne pepper. It’s got some extra kick, but not too much, just enough to keep things interesting. Of course, it burns perfectly, if it didn’t, Saka wouldn’t sell it. Here’s a secret, because I’ve known him as long as I have, and he’d kill me for revealing this: he makes each cigar a half an inch longer than advertised and personally smokes a little bit each one to make sure it’s right before the cap is applied and it’s banded and packaged. That’s how much he cares! :-). (Before someone believes this and Saka comes after me for defamation and slaps me with a cease and desist, it’s a joke. He only does it with about half). If you like the Broadleaf cigars, you can’t go wrong with either cigar mentioned in this post, and of course they share some common ancestry.

 

So far there is a tie for the CigarCraig Readers Poll Cigar of the Year, so get your votes in! Please e-mail me at craig@cigarcraig.com with your choice for the 2020 cigar of the yea

r. I’ll compile the results and post them on December 31. Please be as specific as possible. Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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July 5, 2020 · 9:23 am

Fourth of July Cigars: J.C. Newman American, a Firecracker and a Havana

The Fourth of July seemed like a great time to smoke the J.C. Newman American that was generously gifted to me by a friend of mine and reader Adam Stevens. Check out Adam’s Wife, Jamie’s cigar reviews over at Cigar Talk Radio, she does a nice job. I really need to figure out a way to get together with those two before they more out of PA soon. Anyway, this has been a tough cigar for me to get my hands on, so I was thrilled when Adam included it in a Secret Santa package last year (I think?, right?). This is a cool project that Drew Newman, the fourth generation Newman in the business, spearheaded. Another aside, I first encountered Drew in the 90’s on the alt.smokers.cigars Usenet group when he was a 16 year old and caught all kinds of crap for being a kid posting on a cigar forum. Of course, he started the Cigar Family forum on their own website, which might have been the first major web forum dedicated to cigars shortly after. Anyway, the cigar is all US made components, made in the US. The wrapper is Florida Sungrown, the binder is Connecticut Broadleaf, and the fillers are “Pennsylvania Type 41, grown by Mennonite family farmers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Connecticut Havana, grown John Foster in South Windsor, Connecticut“. I used to live within ten miles from those Mennonite farms in Lancaster county, by the way. All of the packaging is made in the USA too, by the way. The cigar smoked perfectly, I lit it up late in the morning while relaxing on the porch. The wrapper has a dry, mottled appearance, it’s not pretty. It is, however, a tasty cigar. It has some sweetness and earthiness and is very unique. Certainly a cigar that should be tried, and most likely enjoyed, I know I enjoyed it. Thanks again to Adam for sharing this with me!

 

After lunch did something, which must have been an errand that wasn’t memorable because I can’t remember what it was, or I was waiting for something to happen, so I smoked a Mi Querida Firecracker. The Firecracker line of cigars by United Cigar Group, which is Dave Garofalo of  2 Guy’s Cigars distribution company, is a stroke of genius. Of course, this is why it’s so frequently plagiarized, but not only is the format cool, but it’s a sure sale every year, and the social media impact seems to be fairly high. I’m sucked in, I feel like I need to pick up at least few of the cigars to sample every year. It’s a little funny how the sales go through, isn’t it? You get super-cool, niche brands like CroMagnon and Mi Querida that sell out 500 boxes in a day and everyone is amazed, then Perdomo comes along, a seemingly, or at least comparatively, pedestrian, brand sells 1000 boxes in a few hours. I wonder if another brand could touch Perdomo’s numbers? Not that there’s a quality difference, the Perdomo Firecraker is great, I dig it, but I kinda like the Mi Querida more (and the CroMagnon, although my sample size is smaller). The Fratello Firecracker is amazing as well, as is the Kristoff (I’ve only had one LFD and enjoyed it). To my knowledge, the Mi Querida was the only Firecracker to spin off into it’s own sub-brand, the Triqi Traca, which is pretty cool. I love the Mi Querida blend anyway, so the Firecracker was a no-brainer and really quite good, and smoked for an hour, amazing for such

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a little cigar. 

 

It’s been an annual tradition of mine for a long time on the Fourth of July to smoke a Havana cigar. 20+ years ago it was a matter of smoking one of the best in my humidor, along with a bit of civil disobedience, which is kind of what the day represents, right? Anyway, it’s not longer that big a deal, I have lots of better cigars in my humidor, but it’s a tradition, right? It seems to have turned in to an exercise in how to have a bad cigar experience. Last night I decided to liberate a cigar from the depths of the humidor, one that had spent well over a decade resting. I don’t recall where this particular Cuaba Salomón came from, or when, I just know it’s been around a long time. I smoked a bunch of the little Cuaba Divinos (same size and shape as a Short Story basically) years ago and never really cared for them. they had a distinctly Winston cigarette flavor to them, and it wasn’t what I was looking for in a cigar. So I ignored this big cigar for a long time, wouldn’t 7″ of cigar taste worse than 4″? As one might guess, taste wasn’t a problem. Actually, the flavor wasn’t bad, when I could get some smoke through. Have you ever had those cigars that you pull though and get nothing, but blow through and smoke pours out? Infuriating

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, isn’t it? WTF causes this? I have to figure there’s a fold in the filler that acts like some kind of valve. I know, a poker should fix this, it’s never right. Fool that I am, ever the optimist, I thought maybe it would burn past the problem. Nope, messed around with it for an hour or so and got to about two inches left before it started kind of working like a cigar should. What I should have done what put it down and gotten something else, but I’m too stubborn. So I’m sitting here this morning enjoying the crap out of a Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta No. 4 Robusto with my coffee (one of the old ones before it was part of the Joya series). It’s a cigar that’s been a favorite for a decade, and never is a disappointment. 

 

On with the day, I hope nobody lost any fingers yesterday. The fireworks around here were nuts, poor Macha spent the evening under her end table, she’s not a fan. That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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May 24, 2020 · 10:04 am

Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust Muestra de Saka Unstolen Valor and Umbagog Cigars

I did some searching around locally last week for Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust‘s latest release, the Muestra de Saka Unstolen Valor. The closest practically local source was only selling by the box, and as much as I’d treasure having seven of those in the humidor, and as much as I trust Saka’s palate to line up with my own and not get stuck with cigars I don’t like, It’s hard to drop over $100 on seven cigars right now. I just can’t do it. Heck, I’m a cheap bastard (and Saka is well aware of this), it was hard enough for me to shell out the 18 bones each for two of these. I finally ended up buying them from 2 Guys Cigars in New Hampshire, and I have a bone to pick with them! I should have called Barry and ripped him a new one (listeners to The Cigar Authority will appreciate the following). I placed the order on Tuesday and, once again, being cheap, I chose the least expensive shipping option, USPS. This was a 3 day option, which ended up with a Saturday delivery commitment. No problem, I thought. Friday rolls around and what shows up in my mailbox but a parcel from 2 Guys, a fricking DAY EARLY! What the heck? I mean, they promise a guy it’s going to be delivered on Saturday, and it shows up on Friday, doesn’t anyone do what they say they are going to do any more? Do they want my cigars to be delivered in better condition than I expect? Am I supposed to smoke these sooner than I planned? What if I hadn’t made room in my humidor yet? C’mon guys!  Of course, I kid, 2 Guys always provides exceptional service, Dave has always been a great friend and I’m happy to through a little bit of business his way here and there. I did try shopping locally and it didn’t work out, so I shopped Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust’s local. 

 

I normally would have let the cigars rest in the humidor for a while, and one of them will spend a while with some other Muestra de Sakas hanging out, but I checked the cigar with the Humidimeter and it was in great shape, having arrived in a timely manner, and I decided to smoke it yesterday. It rained yesterday so instead of taking a walk I parked my butt on the porch with this beautiful cigar that was blended not by Steve Saka, but by Raul Disla, who oversees the NACSA factory where it is rolled along with the Mi Querida and Umbagogs. I’m sure this is common knowledge among my

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readers,  but Raul Disla is the brother of Esteban Disla, who is a partner in RoMaCraft’s Nica Sueno factory. He also has quite a pedigree, having worked for Cuevas y Torano, Davidoff, AJ Fernandez, and British American Tobacco. Saka had Raul make some blends and they each chose their favorite, and Saka chose his favorite to release under his banner. This is a Nicaraguan puro, from what I can gather. It seems Saka has been too busy fishing and being the guest on podcasts to update his website  😂.  I can say that the burn and draw were what I expected from an expensive cigar, perfect. it had a flat ember that tel

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ls me all the components are burning at the same rate, no small feat. It helps that I smoked it slowly, savoring every pull. It had a fascinating flavor. There was a sweet component that was reminiscent of the Mi Querida, but then there was a savory, barbeque/mesquite almost flavor that was there. I’m almost…almost regretting not putting myself into debt to get the box of seven, although seven wouldn’t be nearly enough. 

 

After dinner the skies cleared and I was able to get my daily walk in so I grabbed an Umbagog Toro Toro and hit the bricks. I love the Umbagogs so much. I look back and am surprised at how many Mi Queridas and Umbagogs I’ve smoked, but I shouldn’t be, because they are just so darned good an

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d hit my palate perfectly. There’s not much more to be said that I haven’t said before, so I’ll let these pictures say it.

 

That’s all for now. It’s Memorial Day Weekend. This seems a little surreal from my standpoint, three day weekends mean nothing to me right now, I’ve had about a 192 day weekend and I’m a little bit tired of it. We are doing a little something for the neighbors today, so

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I need to get to picking out cigars…er…setting things. up for that, and getting that contest together I promised last week. Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig 

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April 19, 2020 · 8:48 am

A Yargüera H. Upmann Toro and Some Other Cigars

I haven’t gotten to anything new in the second half of the week, I went with some standards. I smoked a Mi Querida Ancho Larga, and whenever I smoke one of these I can’t be happier. This cigar is just about as good as it gets. I have a Unicorn in my humidor that I’m kind of saving for when I finally land that next job, but when I smoke a Mi Querida it’s hard for me to imagine how the Unicorn could be that much better! It hits my palate just right. I had the Ancho Larga (might have been my last one), and an Umbagog in my hand and went for the Mi Querida, but the Umbagogs are awesome too. I also went with another favorite, the Don Juan Calavera, this time the Connecticut. This is among my favorite Connecticuts because it has a very rich flavor and doesn’t have any grassy flavors that one finds in some shade wrapped cigars. I had to deliver a new chick to my daughter for my grandaughters to

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raise (6 chickens isn’t enough, we decided to add a few more to the flock, and

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the girls needed something to do while they are home), so I took a La Gloria Cubana Serie R Esteli Maduro Sixty for the ride home. I really enjoy this cigar, and I enjoy the Nicaraguan wrapper version too, but I dig the Broadleaf. I prefer the Toro, but I had a handful of the gordos and it was the first one I grabbed out of the humidor. It was a great cigar. With everything going on in the world, having a couple cigars that were just absolute winners to my palate was quite therapeutic. 

 

Yesterday I decided to take a shot and try a cigar for the third time that I didn’t really care for the first two times I smoked it. It’s been a few years,  so I figured it was time to give my last Yargüera H. Upmann a try. To be honest, Altadis may not even make this anymore, although the yarguera.com website does have a 2020 copyright date. This toro has probably been in the humidor for close to four years, and I haven’t really bee

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n to keen to smoke it since I cared for it so little initially. I have to say, this one wasn’t bad. It performed well, and had a pleasant flavor. I’m not going to bother running out to someplace that’s doing curbside pickup and getting more, because the leathery flavor with very little sweetness or spice isn’t my preferred flavor profile, but it wasn’t bad and I was satisfied with the cigar. I guess it a few years

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of age helped. I can remember smoking H. Upmanns when I first got started 25 years ago, I think they had Cameroon wrappers, but except for the newer AJ Fernandez Upmann I haven’t been too much of a fan. I do like  some of the Cuban H. Upmanns though.    

 

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

 

CigarCraig 

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