Tag Archives: Sanj Patel

Casa 1910, SP1014 and Alec Bradley Thirtieth Cigars

I somehow chose three cigars with numbers in the names this week.  Purely unintentional, but maybe I should buy a lottery ticket?  Lets see, 19, two 10s, a 14 and a 30….how can we make that work?  It would be a stretch…nevermind, I’ll save my money.  I started out with the Casa 1910 Chuchillo Parado in a 5″ x 50 Robusto.  This came from Freshbox Cigars, by the way, I’ll be announcing two winners at the end of this post who will get a Freshbox starter kit (and there’s some space in the humidors, extra cigars may fall in while I’m packing it!  Anyway, I smoked a Casa 1910 Chuchillo Parado, which is a 5″ x 50 robusto and seems to be only available in this size. I was sure I selected the Toro, which is the Tierra Blanco, but either I goofed or they made a substitution. It seems I smoked one of the Chucillo Parado after the 2021 PCA show sometime, because it shows up in a blog post from January of ’22.  I apologize, I try not to repeat cigars.  I will make an exception because it was a worthy cigar, and it promotes the folks at Freshbox, who we have to thank for sponsoring this giveaway. I am plagiarizing myself a little in the next couple sentences.  It’s a Mexican puro, with San Andrés Negro tobaccos wrapped in a Mexican Sumatra wrapper.  It was a very nice looking cigar, not at all like the Mexican puros I started out smoking in the 90’s.  Nor did it taste like those cigars, which were almost a dirty flavor.  This had a unique spice component, which stuck to the palate, almost, like licorice, but not licorice, if that makes sense.  This cigar smoked really well, and was quite satisfying.  Maybe I remembered from a few years ago (not likely), but I nailed that the wrapper was a Sumatra variant, it has that odd sweetness.  It was good, I stand by my previous comment that I’d buy tese again because I did (accidentally).  

 

Next up was another cigar generously gifted to me by Phil at CigarsComedyMusic.com, an SP1014 Red from Sanj Patel and Chico Rivas.  This is supposed to be a Dominican Corojo Puro, which is certainly interesting.  It’s also supposed to priced at 1992 pricing, which I don’t quite get because a $9 cigar in 1992 was a very expensive smoke.  Opus weren’t $9 because they didn’t exist, but when they came out a few years later they were not far off. Unfortunately, $9 is reasonable now. This is another interesting cigar that I would try again given the chance.  It starts with a sensation like warm, spicy bread, then the spice builds.  It’s an engaging smoke, different enough to be interesting and enjoyable.  One of these days I’ll venture to Sanj’s shop in new Jersey.  

 

Finally I decided to give the new Alec Bradley Thirtieth a try yesterday afternoon.   This celebrates Alec Bradley Cigars Thirtieth anniversary, “Thirtieth” would be kind of a silly name otherwise.  Since Scandinavian Tobacco purchased Alec Bradley, their release have been hit or miss, I have to say that none of their three iteration of the Chunk have been to my liking, which may be why you haven’t seen them appear here.  I keep trying, and when one hits me right, I’ll let you know.  Others have been OK, but this Thirtieth is really good.  It should be good to celebrate a milestone, considering Alan Ruben started the company selling cigars to golf courses and ended up selling it fro $73m twenty five years later. This cigar is made at Raices Cubanas, where a lot of AB cigars were made from the beginning.  It’s a blend of Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos, and it somehow has a delightful citrus tang, refreshing almost.  It’s medium and eminently smokeable.  I want another one right now!  Maybe later.  This is probably the best Alec Bradley cigar since the aquisition, and it should be.  Nice work. 

 

It’s time to select a couple lucky people from the comments for me to ship some humidors and cigars to!   I have consulted Google’s random number generator ( I think I’m going to look into a wheel next time, that looks fun), and was given the numbers 16 and 5, which correlated with DCT and Mike McCain!   Please send me your contact information so I can ship these out to you.  Thank you to Freshbox Cigars for providing these goodies!  That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

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SP1014 Black, Box Pressed Rebellion and American Bully Cigars

You know how you have some friends that don’t listen?   A few weeks back I send a few cigars to my friend Phil who  publishes the very creative ComedyCigarsMusic.com.  I wanted to get some of the Bariay 1492 cigars into some reviewer’s hands, and Phil came to mind.  He posted a review of the Red here.  I’ve been really impressed with these cigars and want to get the word out.  Anyway, the package I sent came with the instruction that no reciprocity was required, or desired!  I’m blessed with an abundance.  Phil didn’t listen and sent me some cigars, three of which I’ll discuss today.  First up is the SP1014 Black from Sanj Patel.  Sanj has a cigar shop in New Jersey, which I need to get around to visiting.  Quick warning, links to the cigars posted here may be going to e-commerce sites, which just means that’s where I found the information, shilling is unintended.  The SP1014 Black toro is 6″ x 54, blended by Eladio Diaz in the DR.  It has a Dominican wrapper, Mexican barrel aged binder, and a “5 blend Dominican” filler, whatever that means. I assume it has tobacco from 5 areas in the DR?  Anyway, Eladio Diaz’ blending isn’t always my bag, so I went into this wondering how I’d feel about it. I thought back to last week when I had that feeling about the Davidoff, which proved me wrong.  This one started out with a sour umami flavor, and the damp earth sort of continued.  It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t up my alley either.  Burn and draw were perfect and it was and interesting smoke.  

 

The next cigar up was another 6″ x 54 toro which, Phil is undoubtedly aware, is my size of choice.  This one was from American Viking Cigars, which is owned by Tim Swanson of Cigars Daily.  Like the SP1014, this is another brand owned by a cigars store owner.  The Box Pressed Rebellion has Nicaraguan Habano Maduro wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and filler and where it’s made I couldn’t tell you.  I would tell you if I knew, but that info wasn’t readily available and I lacked the ambition to research further.  As the name would imply, it’s box pressed. It’s got sharp corners, not a soft press.  This is a savory cigar again, plenty of leather with some nuts and wood.  Once again, the burn and draw were excellent.  Nice cigar.

 

Finally, there was a cigar with a dog on it, which I immediately find appealing.  I hadn’t heard of the American Bully cigar before, so I did the bear minimum of research and it appears to be made by A.J. Fernandez for Privada/LCA.  This explains why I hadn’t heard of it because I kind of block out Privada stuff.  Apparently this is also available at Cigars Daily, I don’t know if other LCA shops cary this, I have to ask my friends at The Wooden Indian if they have it.  Of course, I love the big headed dog breeds, and miss my Macha every day.  This band has a Handsome American Bully head on it, it’s quite amazing how different an American Bulldog is from and English Bulldog.  This cigar is also 6″ x 54, with a Mexican San Andres Maduro wrapper with binder and filler tobaccos from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. It’s made at AJ’s Tabacalera Annex Factory in Esteli, Nicaragua, an area set aside for limited runs.  Like the American Bulldog, this is a big, bold cigar. This cigar has some dark molasses, earth and a hint of sweetness.  It had a great burn and draw and was pleasurable enough that I might pick a couple up if I saw them locally. I’m still not a big fan of the Privada organization, but this was a really good cigar.  

 

Thanks again to Phil at ComedyCigarsMusic.com for the goodies, totally unnecessary but much appreciated. It’s always fun trying new cigars!  In other news, I’m trying to get back into my Instagram account, which came under attack last weekend.  I still can’t access my original IG account, it’s been 5 years, and this is proving to be a different challenge.  There may be a @CigarCraig2 on IG in the near future. That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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