Tag Archives: Umbagog

November 30, 2025 · 9:38 am

Alec Bradley Kintsugi, Umbagog and a Visit to the Cigar & Lifestyle Fest

First off, the names have been drawn for the CigarCraig.com Secret Santa, so if you snoozed, you losed!  Don’t miss out next year!  Anyway, my wife came across this event a month or so ago: The Cigar & Lifestyle Fest at the Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA.  Actually the last day is today, Sunday, Nov. 30 (10-5). It kicked off with a “VIP” event Friday evening, and a whole day (9am-9pm) Saturday. The only advertising I saw for this event was on social media, and none of the cigar industry people I know in the area (reps, store owners) knew anything about it. I figured for $10 admission it was something I needed to check out.  I’ll be honest, it wasn’t for me. There were four or five cigar brands, I’d be surprised if anyone’s heard of them. I did have a nice conversation with Christian at Los Gallos Cigars, a “new to me” brand, and they seemed to be doing things right. I’ll smoke a couple of their cigars, which I purchased, this week.  I’m admittedly jaded when it comes to new brands, they often try to tell me that they are somehow different than any other brand, when nine times out of ten they are putting bands on someone’s leftovers. I didn’t get that from these guys. OM cigars was there as well, and I met Osvaldo at a TPE a few years back, but obviously didn’t make an impression on him. Jason from Fog Box was there with their very nice collection of travel humidors and lighters, and I talked to Kevin Stone from the Smoke World Podcast for a bit. I’ll let the pictures here paint the picture. 

There are probably some things the organizers could have done better to make this a better cigar event.  Talking to local shops and reps might be a start, and advertising it to a broader audience. I think a three day event was ambitious, I’m sure one day would have been plenty (I made it about an hour and a half before I got bored). Obviously someplace where one can smoke indoors would be ideal, although challenging. We’ll see if this happens again next year, I’ll check it out. 

 

With Thanksgiving this week, and all that went with it, I didn’t smoke a lot of new cigars.  My wife and I were balloon handlers in the Philadelphia parade (the oldest in the country), which was a whole other story. It’s fairly well documented on our Facebook pages.  I did smoke the new Alec Bradley Kintsugi Wabi Sabi yesterday when I got home from the fest.  I looked at the “smoking lounge” they had set up at the fest and said to myself, “self, you can smoke much more comfortably at home”, which I did.  I should try not to talk to myself in public, but nowadays you can pass it off as being on the phone. Anyway, this Alec Bradley Kintsugi Wabi Sabi is actually made by A.J. Fernandez in Esteli.  It has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Mexican binder and Nicaraguan fillers.  It’s a 6″ x 52 toro.  I really liked this cigar.  It’s different from my usual preference, it has some cream, bread and baking spices and was really quite delicious.  Remember when blue and green bands were a no-no?  This is a nice presentation, a really good tasting cigar, and it’s $12.50, which ain’t bad these days.  It turned a disappointing day around.

 

Last night I decided to smoke the new size in the Umbagog Bronzeback line, the Robusto.  The original Bronzeback, a corona gorda, won the Halfwheel Consensus last year, and a Dunbarton cigar has been in the top two or three on that list for the past decade I think. Expect the Solita Red to top the list this year, it’s head and shoulders above the other new releases. Steve is strategic in sending samples of his excellent cigars near the end of the year so that everyone scrambles to smoke them and put them on their year end lists.  I just don’t think this Bronzeback Robusto has what it takes to top the list. It’s a perfectly good cigar, although I think the spice it has overwhelms the chocolaty goodness that I like about the “classic” Umbagog. I guess it’s the same reason I prefer the Mi Querida over the Triqui Traca, different strokes for different folks! Come to think of it, I smoked a Red Meat Lovers Fritanga Thursday after the feasting, and wished I had chosen the Ribeye instead. Anyway, I don’t mind the Bronzeback, but would chose the OG Umbagog over it.  

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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August 18, 2024 · 9:38 am

VegaFina, Tatuaje, Umbagog and Blackened Cigars

I smoked a selection of cigars this week that I recently picked up on several shop visits that were all new to me.  A few weeks back I stopped in New Tobacco Village in Whitehall, PA and one of the cigars I picked up was the VegaFina Exclusivo USA Patriot.  VegaFina has a very small footprint in the USA, but has a pretty wide range available in Europe.  I’ve smoked a few over the years, and, much like a lot of the Altadis portfolio, wasn’t too enamoured with them.  I figured I’d give this one a shot.  It came out almost a year ago, is a 6″ x 54 toro, has an Ecuadorian wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. It was a nice smoke, rather light bodied with some wood and citrus tang.  Not my favorite profile, but it was a perfectly good cigar.  I try to smoke cigars that aren’t in my wheelhouse, once in a while I find a gem, but it wouldn’t be a cigar I’d buy a box of.

 

I stopped into CigarMojo (the King of Prussia, PA location) last week and smoked a really good Dias de Gloria Brazil and picked up a couple other cigars that I had wanted to try.  The first one I smoked was the Tatuaje LLE Broadleaf Reserva.  I love the Broadleaf Reservas as a rule, and this lonsdale size look really good.  This is a relatively new release, and pretty reasonably priced at $11. The cigar is 6¾” x 42, has a rich Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers, made in the My Father Factory.  I went into this cigar knowing that I had to relax and take it slow, there’s not many things worse than overheating a really good cigar, and this was a really good cigar.  It starts out spice heavy, and then the cocoa/coffee flavors come through.  I might have to get some more of these before they are gone as they only made 1500 boxes.

 

Yesterday was busy, we’ve been re-doing our foyer after putting it off for almost ten years, which involved stripping the painted wallpaper off (which my wife handled) and patching and sanding the bare drywall.  It must have been a thing in 1959 to go straight to wallpaper, because the walls hadn’t been painted.  Walls I can handle, the ceiling is giving me problems!  I  don’t care for working over my head.  I also cut the front lawn and forgot, for the second week in a row, that there was a yellowjacket nest.  Bastards got me three times, maybe I’ll remember next time I mow!  After a while I gave up and sat down with a cigar, and I chose an Umbagog Bronzeback which I had picked up at Harrisburg Beer and Cigar last month.  Of course, I very much love the Umbagogs, so I’d been looking forward to smoking this one.  This Bronzeback is to Umbagog kindof what Triqui Traca is to Mi Querida.  It comes in one vitola, 5″ x 48, and has a lower priming Broadleaf wrapper than the regular Umbagog line (which uses the wrapper leaves Saka deems as not pretty enough

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for Mi Querida).  This has some exotic spices along with some earthy sweetness, not quite as chocolatey as the regular line.  I loved it, it was the right size, and right flavor for

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the time.  It’s a little more of a premium offering than its predecessors, a little fancier band and packaging, and a little higher price tag, but well worth it. 

 

Finally, another cigar I picked up at Mojo that I have been looking forward to trying was the newish Drew Estate Blackened S84 Shade to Black.  I really like the M81 from time to time, so I was interested to see what an Ecuador Connecticut Shade wrapper over Connecticut Broadleaf binder and Pennsylvania and Nicaraguan fillers would be like.  Of course I got the 6″ x 52 toro. The binder and fillers are fermented to a Maduro.  I was hoping to really like this, but it wasn’t really my thing.  It seemed too strong for the wrapper, which while it added some nuttiness to the blend, was easily overpowered.  I understand the idea, and it’s different. but it didn’t really work for me. I’m wired to associate shade wrappers with a more delicate blend, I guess.  I’m glad I gave it a shot, and I might try one again, but my preference leans toward the M81 (which is named after the year I graduated high school).  

 

That’s all for now.  I’m going to try to go on a little cigar adventure this week, I won’t say anything until it gets worked out.  Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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May 24, 2020 · 10:04 am

Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust Muestra de Saka Unstolen Valor and Umbagog Cigars

I did some searching around locally last week for Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust‘s latest release, the Muestra de Saka Unstolen Valor. The closest practically local source was only selling by the box, and as much as I’d treasure having seven of those in the humidor, and as much as I trust Saka’s palate to line up with my own and not get stuck with cigars I don’t like, It’s hard to drop over $100 on seven cigars right now. I just can’t do it. Heck, I’m a cheap bastard (and Saka is well aware of this), it was hard enough for me to shell out the 18 bones each for two of these. I finally ended up buying them from 2 Guys Cigars in New Hampshire, and I have a bone to pick with them! I should have called Barry and ripped him a new one (listeners to The Cigar Authority will appreciate the following). I placed the order on Tuesday and, once again, being cheap, I chose the least expensive shipping option, USPS. This was a 3 day option, which ended up with a Saturday delivery commitment. No problem, I thought. Friday rolls around and what shows up in my mailbox but a parcel from 2 Guys, a fricking DAY EARLY! What the heck? I mean, they promise a guy it’s going to be delivered on Saturday, and it shows up on Friday, doesn’t anyone do what they say they are going to do any more? Do they want my cigars to be delivered in better condition than I expect? Am I supposed to smoke these sooner than I planned? What if I hadn’t made room in my humidor yet? C’mon guys!  Of course, I kid, 2 Guys always provides exceptional service, Dave has always been a great friend and I’m happy to through a little bit of business his way here and there. I did try shopping locally and it didn’t work out, so I shopped Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust’s local. 

 

I normally would have let the cigars rest in the humidor for a while, and one of them will spend a while with some other Muestra de Sakas hanging out, but I checked the cigar with the Humidimeter and it was in great shape, having arrived in a timely manner, and I decided to smoke it yesterday. It rained yesterday so instead of taking a walk I parked my butt on the porch with this beautiful cigar that was blended not by Steve Saka, but by Raul Disla, who oversees the NACSA factory where it is rolled along with the Mi Querida and Umbagogs. I’m sure this is common knowledge among my

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readers,  but Raul Disla is the brother of Esteban Disla, who is a partner in RoMaCraft’s Nica Sueno factory. He also has quite a pedigree, having worked for Cuevas y Torano, Davidoff, AJ Fernandez, and British American Tobacco. Saka had Raul make some blends and they each chose their favorite, and Saka chose his favorite to release under his banner. This is a Nicaraguan puro, from what I can gather. It seems Saka has been too busy fishing and being the guest on podcasts to update his website  😂.  I can say that the burn and draw were what I expected from an expensive cigar, perfect. it had a flat ember that tel

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ls me all the components are burning at the same rate, no small feat. It helps that I smoked it slowly, savoring every pull. It had a fascinating flavor. There was a sweet component that was reminiscent of the Mi Querida, but then there was a savory, barbeque/mesquite almost flavor that was there. I’m almost…almost regretting not putting myself into debt to get the box of seven, although seven wouldn’t be nearly enough. 

 

After dinner the skies cleared and I was able to get my daily walk in so I grabbed an Umbagog Toro Toro and hit the bricks. I love the Umbagogs so much. I look back and am surprised at how many Mi Queridas and Umbagogs I’ve smoked, but I shouldn’t be, because they are just so darned good an

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d hit my palate perfectly. There’s not much more to be said that I haven’t said before, so I’ll let these pictures say it.

 

That’s all for now. It’s Memorial Day Weekend. This seems a little surreal from my standpoint, three day weekends mean nothing to me right now, I’ve had about a 192 day weekend and I’m a little bit tired of it. We are doing a little something for the neighbors today, so

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I need to get to picking out cigars…er…setting things. up for that, and getting that contest together I promised last week. Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig 

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October 27, 2019 · 11:31 am

An Afternoon at Famous Smoke Shop and Their Dunbarton 80th Anniversary Cigar

I’ve bee

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n beset with a head cold all week, adding insult to injury, of course. I did have a productive phone interview with a recruiter which could lead to something hopefully, so it wasn’t a wasted week.  Having a cold like this messes with the taste buds, so after a few days of not even considering having a cigar, I broke th

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e ice with something familiar to see where I stood. I grabbed a Nica Rustica El Brujito, which is a favorite. I know this cigar very well, so if my palate is skewed, I’ll know it smoking this cigar, and it was. It was still good, but tasted different. So I knew not to try anything new for a while, or at least to temper any expectations based on this information. This is important for you to know moving forward. 

 

Yesterday I took a drive up to Easton, PA to Famous Smoke Shop where Steve Saka was hosting the launch of his contribution to their 80th Anniversary, the Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust Famous Smoke Shop 80th Anniversary Edition. Steve had a blending seminar which was attended by 35 or 40 people, who had tobacco ad chavettas and actually rolled and tasted tobaccos with Steve’s instruction. I didn’t attend this event, but those who did raved about it and appeared to have enjoyed it and perhaps were a little overwhelmed! I’ve known Steve long enough to know that he can throw a LOT of information at you quickly, and that the 2 or 3 hour seminar could easily have been 8 if he’d have been allowed. Saka’s a shy guy, but if you can get him out of his shell, you can’t shut him up. I kid. I probably should have gotten a ticket and attended, but I didn’t, so I’

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m going on what I heard from others. To test my questionable palate, I lit up an Umbagog on my drive up, still a little off, but the Umbagog was still delicious.  I got there while the blending session was going on, and hung out with folks in the shop, including familiar faces such as Ali, our local EPC rep. Eventually the event ended and Dave Lafferty emerged and began selling the new Famous Smoke Shop Dunbarton To

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bacco & Trust 80th Anniversary Edition cigars. I did purchase said cigars, and eventually lit one up. This is an interesting cigar in the DT

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T line up. It’s box pressed, made at NACSA with a sun grown Nicaraguan H2000 wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. They only made 250 boxes of these, and there will be some available for sale on Famous’ website tomorrow (or maybe Tuesday, but don’t wait on account of me, look Monday). 

 

 

Full disclaimer (for the third time, in case you haven’t been paying attention), this cold has my palate screwed up, so my tasting notes on the DTT Famous 80th aren’t what they should be, but really, folks, when are they all that detailed?  I talked to Steve about the wrapper, which looked like a dark chocolate maduro in Famous’ press pictures. Good enough to eat, really, like a Godiva chocolate cigar. It turns out it’s not a maduro, but a H2000 wrapper. 20 years ago when this hybrid came out, it was bred to be disease resistant, but it was also flame retardant! Several brands of cigars were hyped up and basically destroyed because when they hit the market they wouldn’t burn. Tasted great, but you had to relight them ten or fifteen times. I think the lighter fuel industry had a stake in the development of the hybrid. After a while, the tobacco processors figured out how to handle this new leaf in the pre-industry processing, and now it burns right, and tastes great too. So Steve used it on this cigar. It started out on the mellow side for me, although some mentioned it was spicy. I did get a distinct cinnamon flavor on one draw about an inch in, but that was a one and done. For the fourth time, I’m working with a compromised palate here! Considering this was a c

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igar fresh from the box, which had been in unknown humidification conditions, it burned well, and drew perfectly. This is made in the same factory as my beloved Umbagog (and Mi Querida), by the way. The later half of the cigar was a build up in body, and strength, although I never found it to be more than medium strength. My second proviso is that I was smoking this very slowly too, as I was socializing. Overall, I really liked the cigar and look forward to smoking it on a healthy palate. I know Steve wouldn’t put his name on a cigar he wasn’t 100% satisfied with, especially if it was for something as important as a company’s 80th anniversary. It’s always great to see Steve, Cindy and Dave when they are around. 

 

That’s all for today. Once it clears up, I guess I’ll get back to trying to see if my palate is still out of whack. I suppose as long as my sinuses are still goofy, my tasters will still be off. Until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

   

 

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June 9, 2019 · 10:44 am

The La Sirena Aniversario Especial and a Few Other Cigars

Once again it was a week with a lot of news stories. I expect the next three will be the same as we come up to the IPCPR show. I will not be going once again this year. As much as I hate to miss two shows in a row, and it’s the first time since 2008 that I have,  it just doesn’t make sense this year. Last year it was the lack of a job, this year it’s the presence of a job and the timing of the show plays into it a little bit. You’ll have to rely on the excellent coverage that many of my great friends in the cigar media present. As much news as there is that comes out, I am selective about what I post here. I think that personnel changes and international releases are less interesting to my readers so I skip over those and try to hand pick the news I think is of interest. There are enough other outlets that post every piece of cigar industry minutia that I don’t feel the need to duplicate. Anyway, I did smoke a few notable cigars this week, so let’s get on to those.

 

The most notable cigar I smoked this week was a special new release from my good friends at La Sirena Cigars. I’ve been a big fan and supporter of La Sirena since first meeting Arielle in 2011 when she was still with Miami Cigar and Company and she just had the La Sirena line being made at My Father Cigars. I’ve followed the brand, and the top shelf of my humidor shows it, as there can be found some La Sirenas from La Zona as well as a few from My Father still (some Tridents and Dubloons), Merlions (a few Sealions, this line is made at La Aurora), Oceanos (Quesada), and some of the yummy La Sirena LTs (I might smoke one this morning yet! these are made at Plasencia). La Sirena has been an a supporter of this site too for several years, I think we enjoy a symbiotic relationship. If you search through the site you’ll find a few interviews with Arielle and Mariah which, it should surprise nobody, are among the most viewed videos on my YouTube channel. All this leads up to the 10th anniversary of the La Sirena brand, and the opportunity Arielle and Mariah’s father, Danny Ditkowich, provided me with to try his creation to celebrate the milestone. In the La Sirena tradition of using different factories to make all their various brands, Danny went to the Turrent family in Mexico for the Aniversario Edicion. When I lit this up, having no information on the blend, I had a flashback to my early days of smoking premium cigars, when I started out with Te Amo Maduros. Not to say it tasted that way, but I could tell there was some Mexican tobacco, and I was pretty confident it had a San Andrés wrapper. I happened to notice that Danny was the guest on the latest CigarSnob podcast, which was quite fortunate, because he talked about this cigar and confirmed my suspicions. It seems the wrapper is a 10 year old San Andrés leaf, with a Mexican Criollo binder, and Brazilian Mata Fina, Mexican, Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. This is made by the Turrents at their factory in Mexico. The flavor of this was unique, although there was a hint of sourdough that I find in the regular La Sirena line that I find amusing. Loads of earth and espresso were the main flavors, and it was quite a good smoke.  I have no idea how these will be distributed, heck, I’m not even sure how widely the La Sirena line is distributed now days. I understand this is a pricey cigar, and it’s 5 ¾” x 54, so it’s not a super-long smoke (although I smoked it for nearly two hours), but it’s really delicious if you’re tolerant of strong flavors and Mexican tobacco.

 

I had to reign myself in there, when there’s a cigar line I’m interested in and excited about I get wordy. I did smoke some other cigars this week, of course. I had an afternoon cigar on my day off Thursday while reading a book called “Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons” by Kris Newby, which sheds an interesting light on Lyme disease (which I have). I chose a mild cigar, which was a Serpentino

by Pendrey Guillen Cigars. This is a Connecticut Shade (ironically, Lyme is named after a town in that state)/Candela barber pole cigar that was a nice, mild to medium smoke with a great burn for a barber pole wrapped cigar. Pendrey Guillen makes some neat patterned cigars in Honduras, many with a camo theme, but they are good cigars beyond the gimmicky aspect, and I don’t know that they are terribly expensive.

 

One last cigar, and nothing new here, actually one of my favorites, one I go to when I just want to enjoy the crap out of a cigar. This category evolves, of course, and there are several cigars in this class. in this humidor, so to speak, as it’s not a physical humidor, although I suppose I could make one humidor just for go-to cigars, are cigars such as Nica Rustica, Cro Magnon (which I don’t stock enough of), Alec Bradley Nica Puro, La Gloria Cubana Serie R Esteli and Coleccion Reserva, to name a few. Of course, the one I’m talking about now is the Umbagog from Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust. This is probably my new favorite. I smoked a Robusto Plus this week and, honestly, is was like smoking dessert.  It was like a rich, raspberry dark chocolate cake, it was so delicio

us. The wrapper on this one was so pretty that Steve Saka commented on Facebook on it, lamenting the fact that Umbagogs were getting much prettier wrappers than they should and they should cost more than they do. Of course, he also announced price increases on Umbagogs recently, so, coupled with shortages of Connecticut Broadleaf, now is the time to stock up on them. Damn good cigars, and Saka always said the ugly ones tasted best. This one was pretty, I can only imagine…

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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