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by CigarCraig | March 7, 2010 · 12:53 pm

Mahogany, Diesel and the Weekend – March 7, 2010

Friday evening I had the opportunity to visit Mahogany on Walnut in Philadelphia. I had dropped my wife off at the Franklin Institute to see Philadelphia TV news legend Larry Kane give the first of a series of presentations on his time spent with the Beatles. She said after that the lecture was outstanding.

Mahogany is a cigar bar conveniently located over top of Holt’s flagship store. I arrived and found a seat at the corner of the bar with a view of the Flyers /Sabres game on the television. I chose a Don Lino Africa Kifaro, which smoked very nicely. Soon I was joined by my old friend Doc, who I haven’t seen in several years. Doc and I have logged hundreds of herf-miles….we’ve been many places between the Jersey Shore and Las Vegas, from Buffalo to North Carolina, it borders on the insane. I think Doc and I “met” on a cigar IRC chat back in 1996. It was great to get together with him again and share some cigars. Doc had some very well aged goodies with him, one of which was a delicious un-banded petite corona which he didn’t know what exactly it was, and the other he shared with me was a Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure no.2. Both cigars were at least 10 years old and both were outstanding examples of great cigars that you just can’t get around here. Since Doc hasn’t been keeping up with all of the great cigars that have come on the market in the last several years, I gave him a Liga Privada T52, which he enjoyed. I had selected this particular cigar because we are both acquainted with the blender of this line. All in all a great evening except for losing my wife in the Franklin Institute, which worked out for her because she got to talk to Larry Kane one on one in the parking garage.

Last night, after a beautiful day here that made me get the bike out of the shed and take it out for a spin, I smoked a Diesel Unholy Cockt ai l on my evening walk. This is a 5″ x 56 torpedo dressed in a dark, Pennsylvania broadleaf wrapper, made by A.J. Fernandez in Nicaragua. This cigar started out quite spicy, and had an even burn and held the ash for almost half the length of the cigar. The spiceyness eased up and delivered very dense mouthfuls of flavorful smoke. If I had to rate this by my friend Doc’s scale, it gets a “I would smoke this again”, and I will since I have another in the humidor. These are very reasonably priced at $4 for a single and around $100 for a box of 30. A very nice cigar and and proof that great cigars are being produced at a good price,although I think the name is kind of dumb.

Don’t forget to enter our contest by leaving your guess in the comments of my last post! There’s a whole week to go and there are some pretty good guesses.

Until the next cigar,

CigarCraig

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by CigarCraig | February 21, 2010 · 7:21 pm

Sunday Cigar – Liga Privada “Dirty Rat” – Feb 21, 2010

It’s been a while since the weather was decent here, it was sunny and in the 40s today. I was gifted a Liga Privada “Dirty Rat” by Steve Saka in Reno back in November and was hanging on to it until circumstances were appropriate for the proper enjoyment of this limited edition cigar. My wife and I received a package which included some more of these so I figured today was the day to fire one up. The story on these, as I remember Steve telling it, is that they were playing with the Liga Privada blend in a corona size. Because of the blend, the only way to get anywhere close was to include partial leaves, hand cut, of certain tobaccos. This made the possibility of this particular cigar going into production relatively remote due to the considerable labor involved in making these. It’s a shame, because the “Dirty Rat” is an awesome cigar. The wrapper is a beautiful and oily, Connecticut broadleaf with a filler blend of five tobaccos packed into the 5″ x 44 pigtailed corona. Here’s were I come up short in cigar reviewing, describing the flavor. Whatever the flavors are I like them. They are heavy and satisfying, with some spice that progresses to just a delicious and savory tobacco flavor. I love the Liga Privada No.9 and the T52, but this little flavor bomb is a special treat. Thanks to Steve for giving me the rare opportunity to sample this cigar from your private stash.

In my inbox this week I received the following from Cigar Rights of America:

Cigar Rights Club, Pennsylvania Challenge Club Membership Goal: 500!

Cigar Rights of America is growing, and working to become the voice of cigar enthusiasts across this country in the local, state and federal battles that threaten one of life’s great pleasures, and a moment so fundamental to the “pursuit of happiness” – a cigar among friends.

There is a great adage in politics – there is power in numbers. Now, more than ever, we need cigar voters to stand up and be counted. We have issues to confront, votes to monitor, minds to change, and people to thank…all at once. That’s why we need your friends that also have the passion for a great cigar to join the cause.

Pennsylvania is pivotal to the growth of CRA. So we are issuing a special challenge. We want Pennsylvania to have 500 members of CRA going into the next election season. After we reach that benchmark, we’ll issue another…and another, until we know that we have the voting block of cigar enthusiasts necessary to protect your ability to enjoy great cigars, with as little government regulation and taxation as possible. It’s all about that, “pursuit of happiness.”

I’m surprised that there aren’t 500 members in PA, but if you aren’t a member please consider joining, even if you aren’t in Pennsylvania. It’s a worthwhile organization and it’s only $35 per year. They do a lot to preserve our right to enjoy fine cigars.