Tag Archives: ScrewPop

by CigarCraig | September 4, 2016 · 9:31 am

Davidoff, Gonzo Santeria, Flor de Gonzalez and Epic Cigars

I’ll start out with a cigar I smoked last Sunday evening after a really great day which included my daughter and her family coming over and making me a birthday cake. We got a lot accomplished throughout the day and Â I decided to celebrate with a Davidoff Nicaragua Box Pressed, having never smoked the Davidoff Nicaragua before. I received a very nice care package from Davidoff after the show, it was Â huge box, and the presentation was amazing. The Davidoff Nicaragua came in a leather-bound box, with a box of cigar matches, a brochure, and some sort of metal box that I haven’t quite figured out yet. It seems to have a bottle opener on the end, and a compass and a flashlight inside. I’d be grateful if someone would shed some light on the purpose for this item! It’s still really cool, and I was anxious to fire up one of the Box Pressed Toros. I don’t have a lot of experience with the Davidoff line, but I expect a high quality smoke based on reputation and price, and I wasn’t disappointed. The cigar burned about as perfect as you’d want, and tasted fantastic, solidly medium and some spice and a bit of cocoa. I’m sure “yummy” isn’t as classy a description as Davidoff might like, but that’s what I’m calling it. Â Note the cool Screwpop Ashtray in the photo. I love the Screwpop Punch, I have the original and the 2.0, and while I prefer the design of the 2.0 and the larger diameter punch, the original is great for very small ring cigars. These guys have a vast selection of key chain tools, the only thing missing from the lineup is a large keychain to hold them all! Anyway, this ashtray is a pretty nicely designed little item. This isn’t the ashtray you are putting out when you have a bunch of people over, but it’s perfect for a single cigar, it’s designed with a post in the tray to knock off your ash (particularly handy if your cigar goes out and you want to get as much ash off before re-lighting), and two different sized rests, one for a large cigar and one for a cigarillo. It’s made of melamine, so it cleans up easily and won’t break of dropped, and it looks nice too. I haven’t been able to figure out how to open a bottle with it, or put it on my key ring, but other than that it’s a nice little item! The coolest part is that a mainstream company embraces cigars and makes useful tools for them, along with their other tools. Cool designs from cool company! The Davidoff Nicaragua Box Pressed was great too!

Thursday I picked out an IPCPR sample, although not necessarily a new cigar really. Recently Steve Ysidron joined Kuuts Cigars as their president, and brought a couple of his lines with him, the Carnavale and the Gonzo Santeria. The Gonzo Santeria features a cool dia de los Muertos skull band and a pigtail cap of sorts. Â The 6″ x 52 Toro has aÂ San AndrÃ©s wrapper, a dual binder withÂ San AndrÃ©s and JalapaÂ leaf and Nicaraguan fillers. I smoked the Santeria a coupleÂ years ago and really enjoyed it, as I really enjoyed this one. It’s got that kinda sweet, kinda dirty flavor that the Mexican tobacco brings. Right up my alley and a really nice cigar. Steve Ysidron is a really cool dude, and I wish him the best with Kuuts!

Friday I got off to a late start so I went with a robusto sized Flor de Gonzalez 90 Miles Unidos on the back porch. There’s not a lot of information out there about this cigar. I can tell you that it’s a dos capa, barber pole style cigar with what appears to me to be Habano and Connecticut shade wrappers. beautifully applied. If I had to guess on the filler, I’d go with Nicaraguan. It was a really tasty cigar, although, like many cigars wrapped in this style, did not have the straightest burn line. Â I don’t really think the barber pole wrap brings anything Â too much to the table flavor wise, no more than a double binder would, but it looks cool and I admit to smoking with my eyes. I appreciate the artistry of a well done dos capa (or tres, more on that next week), as it takes some talent and patience to pull off, especially with the consistency needed to line a bunch of them up in a box and have them all look exactly the same. Â I’ve long been a fan of Yadi Gonzalez’s 90 miles line, and the new line extensions are off to a good start with the Unidos (there is also a Habano and Connecticut).

Finally, I wrapped up another busy Saturday with another IPCPR sample. This is another much-anticipated cigar for me, as I enjoy the other cigars in the line a lot. Epic Cigars had their Limited Edition Project E San AndrÃ©s at the IPCPR show, although they had temporary bands on the samples. The regular release will have a tobacco “band” applied to the cigar, a cut-out “E” which has to piss off the poor people who have to cut out and apply it to the cigar, but it’s a cool touch. The cigar comes on one size, the Gran Ola, a 6Â½” x 54, and has Â little pigtail cap. Once again, you know my tastes, this should be a cigar I love, right? Â Well, it was. This cigar burned my fingers, and had the prettiest burn and ash I’ve seen on a cigar in some time. It was a joy to smoke and tasted great. Â It was loaded with espresso and earthy flavors with some sweetness. Once again Dean Parsons gets his shot on net with this one.

That’s it for today, I’m off to do some holiday weekend demolition which will include moving some of the humidors, followed by a couple of great cigars this afternoon! There’s apparently a reason they call it Labor Day weekend!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under IPCPR, Review

Tagged as 90 Miles, cigar, cigars, davidoff, Epic, Flor de Gonzalez, Gonzo, Kuuts, Project E, Santeria, ScrewPop

by CigarCraig | May 30, 2015 · 8:05 am

Toscano Modigliani Cheroot Cigar Report and Contest

As a long time fan of “interesting” cigars, I have been quite happy to have developed a relationship with the folks at ItalianSmokes.com. Since my wife brought me back some Antico Toscano cigars from Italy 15 years ago, and since Kentucky fire cured, or dark fire, tobacco was all the rage last year, I thought I’d give the newest offering from ItalianSmokes.com a try. I’ll be honest, the Toscano 1492 was a little too smokey for me, so I hesitated a little before deciding to commit my precious cigar time to something new. But I did, and I was quite happy. A little back story on what is a fairly expensive cigar for this genre. The Toscano Modigliani is named for Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani (12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920), an Italian painter and sculptor, known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by elongation of faces and figures. Modigliani spent his youth in Italy, where he studied the art of antiquity and the Renaissance, until he moved to Paris in 1906. There he came into contact with prominent artists such as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuşi. Amedeo Modigliani had little success in his short lifetime, but after his death he achieved greater popularity. He died at age 35 in Paris of tubercular meningitis. He was an avid smoker of Toscano style cheroots.

This cigar is a typical Toscano shaped cigar, a hair over 6″ long, with a ring gauge at its largest point in the 30 range. It tapers at both ends, and can either be cut in half to make two cigars, or smoked as one. I have done both in the past, but chose to smoke this whole, as it was Friday night and I just felt like it. Any trepidation I had about smoking this cigar went away when I lit it up. It had a bit of the smokey flavor one gets from the Kentucky tobacco, although perhaps the fact that this was grown and processed in Italy as opposed to the US maybe tempered the smokeyness. This turned out to be a rich, flavorful smoke, not very complex, but loaded with good, sweet and savory flavor. It’s got some strength to it, I wouldn’t smoke this on an empty stomach, but that’s not uncommon for this type of cigar. It burned perfectly and who among us can say it isn’t fun hanging a cigar like this from your teeth Clint Eastwood style. It’s elegant in its ugliness, if that makes any sense, and was a fun, satisfying cigar to smoke. As I said, these approach $5 a stick MSRP, which seems a bit steep, but it’s worth it as far as I’m concerned.

I was going to have a contest, to give a pack of these away, but I like them so much I might have to smoke them all! You all know me better than that! This contest will run through next Saturday, June 6, and I’ll announce a winner in my Sunday post. I’ll include a five pack of the Toscano Modigliani, as well as a 1492 and an Antico so you can get an idea what some other Toscano style cigars are like if you haven’t tried them. Also I will include a Screwpop Cigar Cutter, which is perfect for cutting these cigars in half if you so desire (they do make great short smokes that way!), and is a useful tool for cutting the cap on your premium cigars. The rules are simple, leave a comment for a chance to win, and I’ll draw a winner at random next Sunday. Usual rules apply. Thank you to ItalianSmokes.com and Screwpop Tools for providing the goodies.

That’s it for today, enjoy the weekend and tune in tomorrow for the regular Sunday recap of the week’s events.

CigarCraig

45 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Contest, ItalianSmokes.com, Modigliani, ScrewPop, Toscano

by CigarCraig | November 16, 2014 · 9:26 am

A Hand Rolled Cigar, a Chillin Moose, and a La Antigudad

First a couple housekeeping items! I sent Tim his prize from the ScrewPop contest yesterday, but I haven’t heard from Jeff Ketcham yet! Jeff was a prize winner in the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways in 2011 and 2012, so I probably have an address someplace, but I hate to ship without verifying addresses. I suppose I’ll drop him a note if I don’t hear from him soon. I sure hate having to chase people :-). Speaking of the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways, it’s on pace to commence on December 12, and if I had to start today I could pull off a 8 Crazy Days of Cigar Giveaways (don’t think it hasn’t crossed my mind, 12 days is a long stretch at an already busy time of year!) thanks to the generosity and expedience of several of this year’s sponsors! The prize coolerdor is filling up and it’s likely to be another exciting couple of weeks! If you aren’t already, subscribe to the e-mail list (on the left sidebar) so you get a reminder when I update, which in the case of the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways will be daily! So get ready to join in the fun, I already have some great cigars lined up.

Thursday evening called for a short smoke. Last year when we went up to New Hampshire for a weekend we paid a visit to 2 Guys Smokeshop in Nashua to spend some time with David and Mr. Jonathan and I picked up a couple of David’s Hand Rolled Cigars that he had for Halloween. As you can see in the picture, this is about a 4″ x 50ish cigar wrapped in a paper wrapper similar to a Tootsie Roll candy wrapper made at the Camacho factory. I cant find any information on this cigar as it was a limited release, but remember them coming in jars. I think it’s a risky play packaging cigars to look like candy in this day and age, but I understand that it’s Dave’s bit of a middle finger to the nannies. Anyway, the cigar was pretty good, nothing really memorable or outstanding, just a nice, solid half hour smoke that behaved itself and was satisfying. I’m still stuck on using the Screwpop punch, which worked very well on this cigar (and the rest of the cigars I smoked this week, so I don’t have to repeat myself!) I have one left from last year, but I kinda wished I had bought more, as I can see that it would be fun to have a pocket full of these to share, perhaps on Halloween night while the dad’s are walking around with their kids. I’m sure that’s politically incorrect, but the heck with it!

Friday evening I wanted another shorter smoke, so I went with a Chillin’ Moose Corona from Foundry Tobacco. This is a budget cigar, comes in under $3.00 here in PA and is from the mind of Michael Giannini. I like the size of this corona, 5 ½” x 45, and features a blend of Nicaraguan, Dominican, US Broadleaf, and Mexican San Andres tobacco with an Ecuador Sumatra binder and a Connecticut Habano Rosado wrapper. That’s an impressive list of tobacco for a very inexpensive cigar. It is a very good cigar for the money, but, once again, it’s not particularly interesting, but it served its propose in being a good companion on my evening walk and giving me some entertainment. I’m a moose fan from way back so the packaging appeals to me, it’s a Chillin’ Moose! I also am a fan of the Foundry line in general, I enjoy the innovation and know I’m in for something unique and different when I light up a Foundry cigar.

Saturday after a nice steak dinner out with my wife, I came home to a La Antiqudad from My Father Cigars. This one was the Toro size, which is 5.6″ x 55, which is very close to the size of the Robusto in that line, which is 5.2″ x 52. This is a box pressed cigar with an Ecuador Habano Rosado wrapper surrounding a double binder of Nicaraguan Criollo and Corojo and Nicaraguan fillers from Esteli, Condega and Jalapa. I really enjoyed the rich, thick flavors that this cigar started out with. It had the “Pepin” spice to start out that seems to be a hallmark, and mellowed out about half way though. The burn was perfect, with one exception. At one point I noticed it flattened out in the flavor department, and the wrapper had stopped burning. I relit it and the flavor came right back, which tell you how much the wrapper contributes to the flavor. Good cigar, I’m glad I have a robusto in the humidor for another time. One other thing about this cigar is the band, which is absolutely beautiful and classic.

That’s it for today. Off to the new house to cut down some more shrubbery to make way for a fence that’s going in on Wednesday. Good fences make good neighbors and Macha need a safe place to run around when we aren’t taking our walks! So until the next time,

CigarCraig

5 Comments

Filed under Contest, Editorial, Review

Tagged as 2 Guys, Chillin' Moose, cigar, cigars, Contest, Foundry, La Antiguidad, My Father Cigars, ScrewPop

by CigarCraig | November 12, 2014 · 9:36 pm

Gurkha, Rocky Patel, Blanco’s Primos, Straight Jacket and Contest Winners!

First a little rant, then we;ll get on to some cigars and contest winners. This week it was reported that the city of Philadelphia proposed a tax on cigars and “other tobacco products” to help fund the schools. They apparently already levied a tax on cigarettes recently for the same reason and now they are going after the rest. What they don’t understand is that this tax will either close, or drive out many cigar shops (Holts has a large presence in Philadelphia), taking business and payroll taxes out of the city, and even if there are cigar stores left, people will make a short trip to the surrounding suburbs to shop. The city will not only fail to collect the taxes they want for the schools, but they will lose the other taxes. Once again, short sighted government actions hurt many and benefit nobody. This was reported on The Cigar Authority where you can read the full text of the proposal.

Sunday, after breaking my back once again doing yard work at the new house, I took a nice, long walk with a Gurkha Xtreme XO, the 6″ x 60 size. Obviously this is a new cigar in Gurkha’s core line, as there is no blend information on their website. I saw Bianca, Gurkha’s Marketing Manager, three times over the last few months, and she gave me this cigar on one of those occasions. I actually can’t recall which. It had been in my humidor for a few months so I figured it was time to dig it out. As with all the cigars I smoked this week, I used the Screwpop punch which gave me an acceptable draw. I expected a powerhouse cigar, based on the name. The cold draw and aroma off the wrapper was like freshly tanned leather. It wasn’t anywhere near as strong as I expected, it was solidly medium and had a consistent leathery flavor all the way through. It was a really nice cigar, but I had hoped it was a bit stronger.

Monday I grabbed a Rocky Patel Platinum which I got back at Cigar Mojo‘s Anniversary/Halloween event. This box pressed robusto was a very nice cigar. This had a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper with a San Andrés binder and fillers from Esteli and Condega. I knew there was some reason I liked this cigar! The combination of Broadleaf and San Andrés gave it a nice, sweet and earthy flavor. I was quite happy with this cigar, and it burned very nice. I have to keep an eye out for more of these, it was the free cigar with a purchase of four RP cigars, so I have no concept of what the Platimum costs. I will say that it was well worth what I paid for it!

Tuesday evening I had my mind set on smoking something strong, dark and familiar, but at the last minute I came across a cigar that David Blanco gave me when I saw him at The Smokin’ Goose festival in September. The Primos Estate Selection Habano Criollo Rosado in the toro size, 6″ x 52, has a ruddy Habano Rosado wrapper grown in Nicaragua, with fillers from Nicaragua, Honduras and Peru. I tend to enjoy cigar with Peruvian tobacco in the blend, and I enjoyed this cigar. It’s getting to be the time of year where I gravitate toward bolder cigars, and this one had some more delicate, subtle flavors that were nearly lost on me, but they were there and I enjoyed the sweetness and medium bodied tobacco flavor. I think this would be a great morning or early afternoon smoke.

Tonight I finally broke into the Asylum Straight Jacket box that I won in the silent auction benefiting Operation: Cigars for Warriors at the Smokin’ Goose fest. I took a run out to Goose’s Tobacco a couple weeks ago and settled up, between the new house and the car/deer mergence a few weeks back, it was hard to get out there. These are a limited edition cigar made in Honduras at the Fabrica Unidas’ El Aladino factory with Nicaraguan tobacco. These are supposed to be the strongest Asylum cigar yet, and I’d tend to agree. This is exactly what I’ve been craving. It’s smoke is dense and full of heavy, creamy flavor. I have enjoyed everything I’ve smoked from Tom Lazuka’s crazy Asylum line, but this one is the pick of the litter for sure! Even the burn was perfect with that nice, flat burn that I love.

Contest!

We had a pretty good turnout for the two Screwpop 2.0 Cigar Punches (and whatever cigars fall into the box…you’ll have to trust me). This will be the last contest for a month, at which time I’ll launch into the forth annual 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways. I’ve already gotten some spectacular prizes in the pipeline, soon I’ll have to put the temporary prize coolerdor into service again as the goodies roll in. Get ready, it’s going to be pretty darned cool. Anyway, we had 37 entries and Random.org chose number 12 and 35, so the winners are Jeff Ketcham and Tim! Please e-mail me your addresses so I can get these cool new tools out to you. Thanks to everyone and stay tuned for the big show in a few weeks!

That’s it for now! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

5 Comments

Filed under Contest, Editorial, Review

Tagged as Asylum, Blanco, cigar, cigars, Contest, Gurkha, Primos, rocky patel, ScrewPop

by CigarCraig | November 9, 2014 · 9:32 am

An Arandoza, a CAO Flathead and a new Sindicato Cigar, and a CONTEST!

OK, lots going on today, so let’s get some cigars out of the way! My palate’s a little flat still, I blame the change in weather. It’s gotten cold all the sudden, and I tend to gravitate to heavier maduros this time of year anyway, and I’ve been slow in following my own advice. One reason is it’ll be boring writing about the same couple cigars twice a week, and it’ll be equally boring smoking the same couple cigars! I’ll adjust, it’s like that first day it drops in the 40s and you bundle up with gloves, and by January you’re in a t-shirt when it gets that warm. So I smoked some cigars, came across a neat cigar related item or two, and there’s a contest too!

Thursday I decided to dig in to the box of Arandoza White Label Robustos that I apparently won in the most recent Cigar Federation Project Mañana Raffle. I really like the cigars from Arandoza, which are made at Erik Espinosa’s La Zona Factory. This is a nice, refined Nicaraguan cigar with good balance and flavor. I really look forward to smoking more of these, there is just about nothing I don’t enjoy about this cigar, from the smoking to the presentation, it’s first class all the way. I suppose it’s possible one of these falls into the contest box when it mails out. Stranger things have happened. Thank you to Arandoza Cigars and Cigar Federation for supporting a worthy cause.

To give my palate a proper test, I decided my Friday evening smoke should be a favorite cigar that I’ve smoked a bunch of over the past year or so. I really like the CAO Flathead line, with the only possible gripe I have being that the only real neat and tidy way to cut these is with a punch, which actually works out nicely for today’s post. I used the first edition of the Screwpop Punch on the Flathead (if you don’t know, the head is flat, so it’s really hard to use anything but a punch on these). I smoked the 556 Camshaft size of the Flathead, with is basically a toro, but I can recommend any size (including the 770) to anyone who enjoys bold, heavy bodied maduro cigars. These are about the perfect autumn cigar for me. Another benefit is that they don’t roll off the table when you set them down! Good stuff from Ricky Rodriguez and his team at CAO.

Yesterday, after spending time at the new house clearing brush and ancient overgrown hedges for a fence to contain Macha (and keep the 16 year old Cocker Spaniel from wandering off), I came home to a cool package in the mail. This package contained the redesigned Screwpop 2.0 Cigar Punch. When I tried the original punch almost two years ago, I made some suggestions to Brett at the company on some ways I thought it could be improved. One suggestion was to reverse the design so that the punch came off of the clip/opener end so that it could remain clipped to something, and the other was to make it self clearing, as the original version tended to keep the cap cuts in the body of the unit. It seems my suggestions were taken to heart, and here we have the new version of the punch. Of course, I had to try it out. I received some samples of the new Sindicato maduro last week, and these looked really good. The samples were all of a larger size, so I went up the middle with the 6×60 Magnum size. This wasn’t the best test for the Screwpop 2.0 becuase the folks at Casa Fernandez, who make this cigar, use a bit of a pigtail cap. Not to be deterred, I gave it a punch. The 2.0 is a slightly larger bore than the 1.0, which is good, since it doesn’t render my old trusty punch obsolete. The cigar has my favorite San Andres Morrón wrapper, and has a nice, rich cocoa flavor. The 60 ring gauge was very comfortable given the box press, so it felt a bit smaller. It burned very well and I can’t wait to smoke the Churchill and Toro sizes. It smoked very well and was a fine way to wrap up a tiring, but productive day.

And now for something completely different

I received a note from one of my readers, Josh, in Salt Lake City, pointing me to his Etsy store. He’s been making some really cool lamps from cigar boxes. These have a really nice kind of steampunk feel to them and are very high end. Take a look at his site when you get a chance! https://www.etsy.com/shop/saltcitylampworks

Contest

Since Brett at Screwpop Tool, LLC was kind enough to send me more than one Cigar Punch 2.0, I figured it only made sense to have a contest and give one away! Strike that, I’ll give TWO away! Be aware, I can’t just send out a punch without including something to try it out on, so, invariably, some cigars will fall into the shipping boxes when they go out. I can’t help it, it just always seems to happen. So to recap, the Screwpop 2.0 Cigar Punch no only bores a nice hole in your cigar and cleans itself out, but you can also use it to take the cap off your favorite bottled beverage. It’s got a handy and fashionable gated clip so you can wear it with pride or clip it to your key ring. These are black anodized aluminum and look really sharp. Leave a comment to enter and I’ll select two winners at random on Wednesday. If you’ve won in the last six months you aren’t eligible, sorry.