It’s getting into the busy time of year, and I seem to have a bunch of stuff to write about suddenly! Not a complaint, I’m thankful, as s appropriate this time of year. Don’t forget to sign up for the CigarCraig.com Secret Santa. There’s a small, but 
very high quality, group signed up, it’s been a lot of fun in the past. I smoked some new-to-me cigars this week, a couple of which are new to everyone. First off is the Villiger TAA 2024. Villager likes to make their TAA cigars in a different factory every year, 2020 was made by E.P. Carillo, ’21 at La Palma, ’22 at La Zona and 2023 at Aganorsa (the only one of the bunch I haven’t smoked). This one is made in Honduras at the Maya Selva factory. Maya Selva is a relatively unknown brand in the U.S., but is huge in Europe. It’s a shame too, because they are really good cigars! I spoke with Maya at the 2016 IPCPR show and again at the 2020 TPE. This cigar is a Honduran Puro, is a solid medium in strength, and surprised me with a prominent white sugar flavor. I was impressed to the point where I smoked another one yesterday. I will keep an eye out at my local TAA store for these. Very nice.
When I was in Tampa a couple weeks ago I ran into Ricky Rodriguez of West Tampa Tobacco at the Tampa Corona Cigars location where he was doing an event. I actually didn’t run into him, I had texted him about meeting up while I was there and he said he was doing an event at the store. He gave me a couple of his new Circle of Life cigars, which I don’t think are in stores yet. This is a cigar made by Ernesto Carillo at his Casa Carillo factory in the D.R. Ricky and Ernesto have a history, as Rick was on “Team La Gloria” before he took over CAO at General Cigars. The blend on this is undisclosed. The wrapper is dark and oily, and not so pretty. I gor a strong, cloying licoricey flavor, it was pungent, and I liked it. I would have enjoyed it more if it had burned better, some more humidor time might help. This was definitely an interesting cigar, unlike anything else in the WTT portfolio, which is good, I’ll smoke more of these when available.
Another cigar I picked up in Tampa was the La Flor de Dulzura Maduro in a toro size. I took a few minutes to walk up and down 7th Street in Ybor and wandered into King Corona, which is one of the more well known shops there. They had a well appointed humidor, and I picked up one of their house brand cigars. I should have gotten a selection, but I was travelling light, and didn’t have much travel humidor space. If I remember correctly, these are made at Tabacos de Costa Rica, the factory that makes Atabey, Byron, Bandelero, LVH, and I think Vegas de Santiago. This was a really well made cigar, and had some of the sweet cocoa and subtle spice I expect from a maduro cigar. It was very nice, worth the $12. If you find yourself in Tampa take a walk through Ybor City and stop in King Corona, I imagine it’s quite the hopping place in the evenings!
I recently corresponded with the folks at Your Elegant Bar about their products. Initially I thought they were just another company selling Prestige Import Group stuff (which is great stuff, I own a cabinet from them, and their retail arm, First Class Humidors was one of my first advertisers), but I was mistaken. They sell a brand called Lubinsky, and sent me a travel humidor, lighter and punch to have a look at. First, there’s the punch they call the Nutzen M1- Cigar Needle And Punch Tool. This handy tool has a 10mm punch 
which retracts and extends with a twist. It also unscrews to reveal a pair of tines, presumably to skewer your cigar to get the most out of it. I admit to routinely using such a tool, although mine has much shorter tines. These are about 20mm long, which is almost exactly 50 ring gauge, so one must be careful using this on smaller ring cigars. I find that a 10mm punch is large enough for some smaller ring cigars (under 50), but I prefer my 13mm punch for most cigars. Actually, I prefer a V or straight cut, but some cigars need to be punched, and it’s a handy thing to have on the key ring.
The lighter they sent was the Margo 3 flame lighter in copper. This is a nice cylindrical lighter about 4″ long and probably 62 ring gauge. The jets seem to be slightly pointed inwards to make a pointed flame. It has a large fuel window in the back, and an 8mm punch in the bottom. The adjustment wheel is fairly easy to move with a fingernail, although I rather use a Swiss 
Army knife screwdriver. I have had cheap torch lighters for nearly 20 years, and fairly expensive ones that crap out in a year or two, so we’ll see how this holds up. I religiously purge my lighters whenever I refill them, which I believe extends their life. The one thing I have trouble getting used to on this one is that the ignition button slides up (there’s an arrow!), which is counter to every lighter I’ve ever had. It makes it a little awkward for me.
Finally,The Gator-Effect Travel Humidor, also carrying the Lubinsky brand name. This has two spanish cedar trays, with velcro straps to keep your cigars from rolling around. The bottom accommodates longer cigars (there’s a two slot tray that I removed to accomodate a Boveda and a hygrometer for testing), and the top tray will hold up to about a toro. Total capacity is 18 cigars, eight on the bottom and ten on top. I loaded it up and it’s been holding the right humidity perfectly. I wouldn’t much bother with humidification if I’m travelling, unless I’m going to a very dry location.
This is a fancy looking unit in green alligator, I’ll admit I’m more of a Pelican case kind of guy. It does work well, although the “hinge” is a little tight, it doesn’t stay open by itself, which is only problematic if you’re going for a cigar in the bottom tray. Maybe it’ll break in, I’m afraid to force it too much. I have half a dozen travel humidors, and I use them infrequently, although I am going to store some cigars in this one and keep monitoring it. Not sure if it’s something I’d carry with me though. It works, and if it fits your style, go for it.
That’s way more than enough for today. Happy Thanksgiving to the American readers! Until the next time,
CigarCraig
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Last week I was dropping some things off at Goodwill and stopped in the Cigar Cigars store next door. They are still rebuilding inventory after a change of ownership, so there wasn’t a lot new there, so I picked up an E.P.Carrillo 2023 TAA cigar that I hadn’t tried before. This is a box pressed Toro, 6″ x 52, with an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, Connecticut broadleaf binder, and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. I’ll be honest, the Ecuador Connecticut wrapper is a surprise for me, I looked up the blend after I smoked it, and I would have thought it was a Sumatra. I likened it to the old La Gloria Cubanas, I really enjoyed it a lot, and thought to myself that I should go back and get more. I seem to recall it being priced at around $14. I didn’t find it to taste like a shade wrapped cigar, and while I like the occasional shade cigar, I don’t gravitate toward them. Oddly enough, the three closest Goodwill stores to me all have cigar stores within spitting distance.
Speaking of shade wrapped cigars, I am still working through samples of the Exile line, and has an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper. This is named in honor of the second shoe store opened by the Martinez family in Santiago de Cuba.This has the Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, Indonesian Sumatra binder & Dominican fillers. The cigar is medium bodied with notes of cream, nuts & subtle white pepper. I’ve smoked both the 5×50 Robusto & a 6×52 Toro. These have a dry wood kinda flavor to me, oddly I found the Robusto to be more well rounded than the toro, the robusto seems to have more depth. Weird stuff. I think the Toro was dryer throughout if that makes sense. Again, all of these Exile cigar have burned and drawn perfectly. 
