Tag Archives: Rojas

January 4, 2026 · 9:14 am

Davidoff, Rojas and San Lotano Cigars and the Giveaway Winner

Happy New Year! Another year of writing stuff about cigars! I’m a few years away from the twentieth anniversary of CigarCraig.com, I’ll have to come up with something big to celebrate. Speaking of celebrations, last Wednesday was New Years Eve, and I celebrated like I celebrate just about every evening, with a cigar on the porch! Davidoff was kind enough to send a couple of the Year of the Horse cigars, their 2026 Limited Edition. I know, the Chinese New Year isn’t until February, but I couldn’t wait to try this. This is the first “Year of the” Davidoff I’ve ever smoked, they are way out of my price range. Kudos and thanks to Law Ream and Jack Heyer for getting these out to those of us who choose to write stuff about cigars! The Davidoff ornament looked great on our tree. Anyway, I decided to close out what was not the greatest year for me with a great cigar (I hoped). I have previously stated that I have a very limited range of experience with the Davidoff line overall, so I was hoping for the best. I believe this is the best Davidoff I’ve smoked to date. There wasn’t a hint of horse at all in this cigar. This is a 6½” x 55 cigar with wrapper and binder from Ecuador and Dominican fillers. I have to assume the wrapper is a Habano varietal, it’s too dark to be a Connecticut Shade, and doesn’t taste like it either. It had an interesting sweetness, with some nuttiness and what I think of as a lemon zing. It was delicious, burned perfectly and was a great way to spend New Years Eve. After that I watched hockey until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. Great cigar, as it should be for $65.

Getting back to reality, I smoked a Rojas Street Tacos Al Pastor Gordo Friday, after treating myself to a Padron Damaso (not as good as I remember, but still tasty), and a Diamond Crown Black Diamond, one of my favorites. I chose the 6″ x 60 gordo, as Noel Rojas is the self proclaimed king of the small ring gauges, and it seems funny to me that he even makes a 60. The Al Pastor has an Ecuador Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan fillers. Like the Davidoff, which is in excess of six times the price, this burned perfectly. I looked at a few other reviews, as Rojas doesn’t seem to have a working webpage, and one reviewer listed flavors of “earth and cedar”, “espresso, and white pepper” and “dark brown sugar and cream”. I don’t get any of that. I got some leather and baking spices. I liked it, it was a good cigar, and well worth the price. I’ve enjoyed a lot of cigars from this factory, especially some of the Stolen Throne lines, and this was a good one. I’m sure I’ve smoked the Carnitas and Barbacoas before, I needed to give this one a shot and I think it’s my favorite of the bunch.

Yesterday I dropped a few things off at Goodwill and stopped into JM’s Cigars in Exton PA. Unlike Rojas they have a website, however it hasn’t been updated in 12 years. It’s fine to have a static landing page, but delete the event from 2013 please! This was the first shop I sent to in the mid-90s (apparently when the website was created) and it’s been a while since I stopped in. It really hasn’t changed much over the years (like the website). I picked up a couple cigars that I hadn’t had before, one of which was the A.J. Fernandez San Lotano Requiem Habano in the “Churchill” size. It’s probably closer to a Double Corona, as a Churchill is 7″ x 47, and this is 7″ x 54. Actually, I don’t even think a Double Corona is 50 ring, but times change. It’s a big cigar. I think the last San Lotano I smoked was an Oval, and it’s been well over a decade. This has a Brazilian Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers. It started out spicy, and had some nice coffee flavors. I liked this and I think it was around $10 so I call it a very good value. I may be overly concerned about the shops website.

It’s time to pick a winner for last week’s giveaway! I haven’t even selected cigars yet, but I don’t think the winner will be disappointed. The random number generator spit out the number 4, which corresponds to Ron Hunt! To answer Ron’s question, While I purchase most of the cigars in the northeast, most should be available all over. There are some brands that just seem to be regional, All Saints comes to mind, but that’s a function of the brand being small and maybe one or two people involved and they can’t get all over the country to support the sales. Different shops in the same area will have a different mix too. I’ll try to include some cigars that may not be widely available in your package. Ron is the host of the All About Wine podcast. I had the good fortune of meeting him a few years back at the Tampa Heritage Festival, and I talk to him regularly. Send me your address Ron!

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

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as A.J. Fernandez, aj fernandez, Al Pastor, All About Wine, davidoff, Davidoff of Geneva, Rojas, san lotano, Street Tacos, Year of the Horse

April 23, 2023 · 9:10 am

Some Rojas Cigars, Tacos and More

Thursday I had a choice to make, go to the Rojas event at Cigar Mojo (10 minutes away), or go to the Tim Ozgener event at the Wooden Indian (closer to a half hour with traffic). I chose the easier route, and was not rewarded. I chose poorly. It turns out that Noel Rojas was stuck in Nicaragua, and wasn’t there as advertised. It was disappointing, but at least I got to meet Albert, the VP of sales, and hang out with Mark Weisen

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berger, the local broker who reps the line. Had I known that Noel wasn’t going to be there I would have gone to the Wooden Indian. Anyway, I picked up some Street Tacos and smoked them. I’ve written about the Carnitas before, smoked one last night and it’s a good Connecticut cigar. At the event I smoked the Barbacoa, the 6″ x 50 Toro, whic

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h has a Maduro Ecuador Sumatra wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. It’s earthy with some cocoa and a little pepper, not a bad smoke.

Since I bought a handful of cigars, I got a couple extras, one of which was the Rojas Unfinished Business, also in a 6″ x 50 toro. This one has a dark Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers from Nicaragua and Mexico. It had some dried dark fruit notes and a

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little citrus tang. It seemed to be well constructed, if not slightly underfilled, giving it a shorter smoking time than I would have liked. It was a beautiful cigar, and I like the signature closed foot, which makes lighting easy. I just realized I smoked this last August, sorry about that. It’s getting hard to find new cigars to feature here. This is one of the reasons I only smoke new-to-me cigars at the end of the week. I like to smoke what I know I like the rest of the week.

Finally, yesterday morning I had some time to kill, so it seemed like the perfect time t

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little Breakfast Taco, again, with a Sumatra wrapper. This is a 4″ x 44 perfecto, just a wee thing. Ecuador Sumatra with Nicaraguan binder and fillers. This little cigar was good for about an hour, but, to me, it was pretty potent. If I hadn’t eaten, cut the front lawn, done some other chores first, it may have been too much. It’s a strong little guy with excellent construction and a fun shape. No closed foot on this one, but the “nipple” perfecto end. I feel compelled to search out he maduro in this shape. The cigar had good favors, not unlike the Barbacoa. You know me, I have a fairly simple palate. While the shade version doesn’t interest me, I do want to try the Maduro.

I still like the Stolen Throne line made by Rojas better than the Street Tacos line, and am probably more disappointed that Lee Marsh was in the area last week and didn’t reach out than I was that Noel wasn’t at the event. Noel does make some good cigars, and, if nothing else, I saved some time and money going to this event than if I had gone to the other one! That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

Comments Off on Some Rojas Cigars, Tacos and More

Filed under Events, Review

Tagged as Barbacoa, Breakfast Taco, cigar, cigars, Rojas, Street Taco, Unfinished Business

August 28, 2022 · 9:59 am

A New Rojas and a Couple More PDR Cigars

I smoked a few more new cigars this week, but I’ll revisit them another time because I was less than impressed with them. It’s not that they were bad, it’s just that either they needed more time, or weren’t the ideal size. I’ll get back to them eventually. I was really impressed with the Rojas Unfinished Business. I see where Rojas has been celebrating the grand opening of their factory in Esteli, I know a few people that were there. I’ve really enjoyed the recent Rojas cigars I’ve smoked. The Street Tacos, and the cigars by Stolen Throne have been impressive. There’s a few I need to smoke yet, but, overall, Noel is making great cigars. I night have an old Guayacan cigar in the humidor someplace! Anyway, I smoked the Unfinished Business Toro th

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is week that Noel gave me at the PCA show and it was really to my liking. It has an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, Nicarag

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uan binder and fillers from Nicaragua and Mexico. The blend hits a lot of “likes” for me. It was dark and rich, with all the flavors I like, espresso, a little spice, and some sweetness. I very much enjoyed this cigar. Definitely a future revisit.

I’m catching up on the PDR cigars, I think I only have one more in the queue for now. I actually need to organize the humidor I put these in to make sure I’m not missing any! I started with the A. Flores 1975 Serie Privada Maduro in Robusto. This is a 5″ x 50 robusto, and PDR has done a great job with consistency in branding with the little paper sleeves on each cigar and the name of each cigar on the band. The look is uniform and quite classy. This cigar has an Ecuadorian Habano Maduro wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano binder and Nicaraguan Habano and Dominican Corojo fillers. Oddly, this is not a sweet maduro, but more on the savory side. Burn and draw were acceptable and it was an enjoyable smoke. In the past few years I’ve gotten away from the Robusto size, but on a Saturday when I am going to smoke two cigars, this fit the bill.

I followed the Serie Privada Maduro with the A. Flores 1975 Gran Reserva Maduro, also in a robusto size, after dinner. This cigar has a Mexico San Andres Maduro wrapper, with Olor Dominican Republic binder and Dominican Corojo and Nicaraguan Habano fillers. It seems to go without saying that all of PDR cigars are made in the Dominican Republic. The PDR originally stood for “Pinar del Rio” after that region in Cuba, but they recently changed it to “Puros Dominican Republic” to better reflect the brand and factory. It was still on the savory side for a maduro, but had more spice and a hint of sweetness. It must be the Dominican Corojo that has the savory component. I enjoyed it while listening to Will Cooper guest on The Cigar Authority (I think he’s now one appearance behind me!). He gave me a shout-out and I appreciate that! He referenced my interview with George Hamilton (available here in the archives and still out there on my long defunct podcast, which is one of the few that Coop has never been on!). I always thought Hamilton missed the mark by not having a lighter wrapper under the band, so when you took the band off it looked like a tan line. The A. Flores 1975 Gran Reserva Maduro was good.

That’s all for today. Tomorrow marks the thirteenth anniversary of CigarCraig.com, looking forward to year 14! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

2 Comments

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Tagged as A.Flores 1975, cigar, cigars, Gran Reserva, PDR, Rojas, Serie Privada, Unfinished Business

July 31, 2022 · 9:21 am

West Tampa Tobacco Cigars, a Street Taco Carnitas and a Patina Sumatra

I’ve started smoking some PCA show samples now that I feel fully recovered from the post-Vegas Covid situation. I started out revisiting the West Tampa Tobacco Co. Black and White. Rick went out of his way to give me a 6×60 from a bundle, that had never been in a box! This is significant because I told him about an experience I had initially with the cigars I had sourced locally. This was the first cigar I smoked, and it was very good. If you refer back to the video interview with Rick (HERE), he explains how the Black and White have the same wrapper, it’s just fermented differently. The Black has nice espresso notes and is up my alley. The construction was perfect and everything tasted the way it should.

I had another West Tampa Tobacco Co.White Toro that Ricky also gave me, which was also very good, but I find the Black suits my palate more. The White has more of a woody character, with some citrus tang to me. Rick explained that the White was blended more for the European palate, with the wrapper being highlighted, and the darker wrapper Black highlighting the filler blend. I like them both, but the Black is better for me. I still have to try the robusto. GOod stuff from a very small factory in Esteli.

Thursday evening I had the pleasure of being a guest on the All About Wine Podcast, of all things. We had a panel of folks talking about cigars. I pre-gamed with a Rojas Cigars Street Taco Carnitas, the Connecticut shade version of the Street Taco. This has an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. I had the 5″ x 50 robusto. Oddly, this comes in a Robusto and Toro, with the 5½” x 46 Short Corona being the closest thing to a small ring gauge in the line. I think of a corona being 5″ x 42, so I’m not sure I understand the name. Regardless, the robusto was very good. It was creamy, with some oomph to it. There was some spice and it wasn’t a mild Connecticut. Considering that shade wrappers are fairly low on my preference list, this one was very good.

Finally, when I met with Mo Maali at the show, he gave me a Patina Sumatra. This is his new release, which excited me for a few reasons. First, I’ve enjoyed the Patina line in general, Maduro and Habano, I don’t think I ever had the Connecticut (see above). They are made in the NACSA factory where Mi Querida cigars are made, as well as several others! I want to say that factory mad the majority of JR’s Alternatives bundle brand, which is millions of cigars. NACSA is one of the largest factories in Nicaragua. The other reason I was looking forward to this is because I really love Sumatra wrapped cigars! This one didn’t disappoint. It had the sugar cane sweetness that I really like. It burned perfectly and gave me a great experience. Check out my video with Mo here. Good stuff!