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October 26, 2025 · 10:16 am

Crowned Heads Broadway, Tatuaje Corojo T110 and AJ Fernandez Decenio Cigars

I had occasion on Wednesday to hang out at the Wooden Indian in Havertown, so, of course, I bought some more cigars to smoke.  I don’t smoke a lot of Crowned Heads cigars, I like Miguel there a lot, and do actually like a lot of their cigars.  Jon has always been cordial to me, but one time he blew me off at a trade show left a bad taste in my mouth.  I don’t think I ever made that public.  Anyway, the Broadway line intrigued me, so I picked one up and smoked it there in the Wooden Indian’s Liga Privada Lounge.  Of course, I smoked the toro, which is 6½” x 54.  This cigar has a beautiful, oily broadleaf wrapper, over  a Jalapa binder and fillers from Estelí, Jalapa and Ometepe, Nicaragua.  It’s made at NACSA, which is where Saka makes Mi Querida, Umbagog, and the Red Meat Lovers Club cigars.  This factory has a steady supply of Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper.  My expectations were exceeded, as this cigar was absolutely delicious. I may like this more that the Mi Querida Blue, which I like a great deal.  Construction was perfect, the flavors were smooth, rich cocoa and coffee, right up my alley. my only regret is that I only bought one, and I considered picking up a few more before the shop closed. I want to thank Dave at the Wooden Indian for letting me hang out in the members lounge after the shop closed, I very much appreciate it!  By the way, the Crowned Heads website is in dire need of updating.  

 

The Tatuaje T110 Corojo is a 4 3/8″ x 52 short robusto with a Corojo wrapper.  I smoked the Cohete (4″ x 50) back in August and really liked it, so I was very much looking forward to this one. I have smoked the T110 in the Broadleaf and Tuxtla wrappers and enjoyed them.  This one I didn’t care for, and there aren’t many Tatuaje cigars I don’t like.  It started out with a sourness, and skirted the line between sweet and sour through out the whole smoke. It was disappointing, but I always look at situations like this as a learning experience, what do I like in a cigar and what don’t I like, and how can I avoid it in the future?  It’s money well spent,  as long as I remember what I don’t like and don’t spend money on it again?  This one had been in the humidor for a a couple months. 

 

Another cigar I selected from the vast humidor of the Wooden Indian was the A.J. Fernandez New World Decenio in the toro size. This cigar commemorates a decade of the New World line, and made in the San Lotano factory in Ocotal, Nicaragua.  I was hoping to pick one of these up a week or so ago when I saw Laurel at another nearby shop, but I either didn’t see them, or they didn’t have them. They had a really expensive 20th anniversary cigar, which may have distracted me (I didn’t bite). I adore the New World Dorado, and the rest of the New World line are really very good.  This cigar is 6½” x 54 with a box press that makes it seem thinner.  It has a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos from Honduras and Nicaragua. I expected a good smoke, and I got a good smoke.  This started out spicy, no surprise there, really.  It moved to sweet, dark coffee, which is a combination I really like. I also really like that bonus half inch on a toro, more of a good thing.  This was a really good smoke, and, dare I say, worth the $14 I paid.  This is another anniversary cigar for a budget brand that is higher in price, like the Rocky Patel Edge and the Foundation Charter Oak. 

 

My name was mentioned on yesterday’s Cigar Authority show which was about the cigar inventors.  I’ve been on the show a couple times and I’ve known these guys for a long time.  It’s humbling to be mentioned, and it gives me some credibility, I guess, to be recognized by them, but I want to set a couple things straight.  I, in no way, created anything or was the first of anything.  When I started this there were a lot of cigar blogs,  I just happened to have outlasted a lot of them. Certainly Stogie Review (which is making a comeback with the Smoke & Steel podcast) was one of the first, and Casas Fumando has stood the test of time.  I take some pride in being mentioned by my peers (I got a nice mention by Kevin on a recent El Oso Fumar show too, TY).  I’m still just a guy who writes stuff about cigars.  

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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September 28, 2025 · 9:45 am

A Couple Wooden Indian Exclusives and a Stolen Throne Cigar

This week I’m featuring some exclusive cigars that aren’t widely available.  The first two are available via Wooden Indian‘s website, or in the store, and this post is only sponsored by the store in so much as they provided me with samples. I have a history with the Wooden Indian going back to my first visit in 2009 in their old location, where I met Marvin Samel at an event and smoked my first Liga Privada No.9. This is interesting, because the store would become the first  (of only 2) Liga Privada lounge and has a long standing history with Drew Estate. They have their own Serie Unico cigar, the Pancetta, which I wrote about here. Anyway, this year marks the 20th anniversary of Dave Mayer owning the store, which celebrated 60 years in business last year.  Dave is one of my favorite people in the cigar industry. I’ll start with the Perdomo Dave’s 20th Anniversary cigar.  Not a lot of folks get a Perdomo exclusive, so this is really special.  They made 200 boxes of ten of this 6″ x 54 belicoso, which has an Ecuador shade wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and is said to be a never before available blend.  I’ve heard that this is Arthur Kemper’s personal blend, and apparently the bands were in the same shipment with the Perdomo Lagacy bands, so this has been in the pipeline for a while.  I’ve never been enamored with Perdomo’s shade offerings, but this one was something different.  It’s not a mild cigar, which is consistent with Perdomo’s shade cigars, but it has some sweet, nutty tobacco flavors that I enjoyed.  This is a very good cigar, If you’re a Perdomo fan, or a Dave Mayer fan, you have to try this one!

 

Last year the Wooden Indian celebrated 60 years in business, and they had the Aganorsa Leaf Supreme leaf WIT 60, a 5″ x 56 Gran Robusto.  This year, for Dave’s 20th, they have the Aganorsa Leaf Supreme Leaf Gran Robusto, a vitola that’s exclusive to the Wooden Indian.  I honestly don’t know if this is the same as the WIT 60, the vitola is the same, but I don’t recall the previous iteration being as strong as this one.  It’s a Nicaraguan puro, with a Nicaraguan Corojo ’99 wrapper.  The first draw was pure twang, I noted that this must have a high nicotine level.  It settled a little,  but not much, over the course of it’s five inches, but maintained it’s power.  This is a strong cigar with a heavy citrus spice.  It was satisfying, but I rather prefer the smoothness of the La Validación Series.  Supreme Leaf is seasonally released, always in a different size, but this 5″ x 56 is only available at the Wooden Indian.  I’ll very likely revisit this after some humidor time. 

 

At some point yesterday I thought it would be a good idea to smoke a Pancetta to complete the Wooden Indian trifecta, but after spending the afternoon with family, then going to a pre-season Flyers game, by the time I got home I had forgotten.  I had been looking forward to smoking a cigar that Lee Marsh of Stolen Throne Cigars had given me, ironically at the Wooden Indian, and that one was the one I grabbed when I got home.  Lee made this cigar in honor of his late canine companion, Brody.  Brody was a Cane Corso who was very special to Lee and his family.  It’s my assumption that this is the Argos blend, which was a Winston’s Humidor (in Virginia) exclusive.  Of course, the handsome dog on the band barked “smoke me” last night. This is a 5″ x 54 belicoso, made at the Rojas factory in Nicaragua, with a Sumatra wrapper and Nicaraguan fillers.  Stolen Throne has two other cigars in the portfolio with Sumatra wrappers, neither of which I’m fond of, and he never lets me forget that.  This one was somehow different, I very much enjoyed it.  It had an interesting slightly fruity, slightly spicy aspect to the rich tobacco flavor.  I was concerned, based on my experiences with the Yorktown and Call to Arms, but I throughly enjoyed this cigar.  

 

I broke down and upgraded some equipment this week. I’ve been using a 2014 Macbook Air for the last several (7 or 8) years, and bit the bullet and picked up a 2020 Macbook Air.  I think the 2009 iMac may need to be retired. Both of the old Macs were “rescues”, from the short time I worked for an Apple reseller, I got my money’s worth out of them. I can’t see any advantage a 2025 Macbook would give me over this one for what I do for the $400 price difference, but this is still way more than I’ve ever paid for a computer! I suspect this will last me quite a long time.  That’s all I have for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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September 21, 2025 · 9:50 am

Morphine, Rocky Patel and Wooden Indian Cigar’s Annual Pig Roast

I didn’t plan well this week, as I made a last minute decision to go to the Wooden Indian’s annual pig roast yesterday.  Not sure why it was a late call, I try to make an appearance every year.  But first, a couple of new-to-me cigars.  A few weeks back when I stopped in the The Cigar Authority of Chester in Cochranville, PA , I picked up a Black Label Trading Co. Limited Edition Morphine 10 Year Anniversary Perfecto.  It looked neat and I like sampling BLTC’s stuff, I generally like what they make.  This is a 5″ x 50 perfecto, which is much smaller than a robusto because of the severe tapers on either end. This cigar needs to be smoked slowly, lest it overheat and get bitter.  The flavors are heavy with black coffee that’s been on the burner for a while. Generally I like this kind of cigar, but the format is tricky. It burned well and was enjoyable, but required concentration.  This will be a theme this week!  BLTC has stood the test of time, ten years is an overnight success in the cigar industry.  I’d love to visit their factory some day.  

 

I got a couple Rocky Patel Vintage 2003 Cameroon toros in one of those Smoke Inn’s “too good a deal not to buy” samplers a few weeks back.  It’s impossible to pass up 5 cigars for $20 delivered when they are good cigars that I either want to try or have enjoyed in the past.  If I’ve smoked the RP Cameroon it’s been a long time ago, which is possible because this cigar has been around a long time. I like that Rocky adds a bonus half inch to a lot of his toros, 6½” x 52, with a Cameroon wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. While I don’t tend to smoke a lot of RP cigars, I rarely have one that’s distasteful to me, and I think I can smoke most of the Vintage line and be happy.  This is no exception, although, like I alluded to above, this one needed to be smoked slowly to avoid it becoming foul.  The Camerooniness came on right off the start. Sweet nuttiness with well aged tobacco.  This is a nice cigar and worth at least twice what I paid for it! 

 

While it was distressing to see that Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust’s Golden Megasquatch doll (action figure?) was stolen from their Intertabak booth, at least we can confirm that booth theft isn’t a strictly American thing. Steve is probably relieved that he doesn’t have to ship it home.  

 

Yesterday I went to the Wooden Indian‘s annual charity pig roast, which I’ve attended most years in one way or another.  Last year (or the year before, who can keep track, they celebrated their 60th anniversary, this year it’s the 20th anniversary of Dave Mayer’s ownership.  Dave is one of my favorite people in the cigar biz.   More on what they have going on for the 20th next week if all goes to plan.  The weather could not have been better for this event, in previous years we’ve sweated, froze and been rained on, one year it was postponed because of a hurricane.  Drew Estate sponsors the event, and Pedro Gomez and Calvin Zimmerman were on hand.  The event was raising money for Operation: Cigars for Warriors, and had auction items donated by the family of Brandon Jones, who was a huge Drew Estate ambassador and passed away tragically last year.  I knew Brandon, he was a great dude and loved all things Drew Estate. I smoked a couple of the new Nica Rustica Shade cigars, in the 5″ x 66 Gordo and the toro, and ate and fraternized with the folks at the event.  The Nica Rustica Shade is a really good shade cigar for under $10. It was the last Freestyle live cigar.  As always, it was a great time and I would have stuck around longer if I didn’t have other stuff to do.  If you find yourself in the Philadelphia area, a visit to the Wooden Indian is a must.  

 

When I got home I sat down with a Blackened M81 Lancero, which is a new line extension this year apparently.  I saw them in the humidor and picked up a couple to try. I seem to have misplaced one, which is really weird for me, I’m usually really good about keeping track of my cigars!  Anyway, I am less concerned about it after having smoked one. This is a 7″ x 40 lancero, a little fatter like the Liga L40.  I was intrigued, then I smoked it. I like the M81 line when I want a heavy maduro cigar, which this is. The Lancero format didn’t seem to lend itself to this heavy blend.  Yes, once again, this needs to be smoked slowly, but even “sipping” the smoke was a little overwhelming. Too much burnt cocoa, espresso for me.  I rarely speak ill of a cigar, but I think this is one that didn’t need to be made. Also uncharacteristic of me to say, but this would probably be OK in the S84 blend. I’m not going to go crazy looking for that missing cigar. 

 

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

CigarCraig

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October 6, 2024 · 9:29 am

Jaime Garcia, Kristoff and Stolen Throne Cigars

Once again I picked up some new-to-me cigars at various shops.  I can’t quite remember why, but I stopped in to the Cigar Mojo shop nearest to me and came across the Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial Suceser, which I initially misspelled, my mind saw the english version, which is “successor”.  From what I can devine, this comes in two sizes with two different wrapper, which is interesting.  I got the 6″ x 56 Toro with a Sumatra seed wrapper and there’s also a 6 1/8″ x 52 Torpedo which has a Habano seed wrapper.  I have to hunt down a torpedo, I guess. I was unable to find any more information about the blend than that!  I recently smoked the Jaime

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Garcia Reserva Especial and was really into it,  this was a very different cigar.  I found it to be very spicy, much more so than the Broadleaf counterpart.  The spice held on througho

ut the cigar.

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I liked it well enough, but I think I’ll stick with the Broadleaf, but I still want to try the Suceser Torpedo.

 

I’ve been hearing about the Kristoff Guardrail for quite a while and finally picked one up at a Cigar Cigars shop a couple towns over.  I went there to meet a guy who wanted me to try out some Dominican cigars that he has an idea that he wants to import and give a go at selling.  Young guy, filled with optimism…I

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‘ve got my thoughts on the cigars which I’m going to share with him, but I’m not sure how to tell him it’s probably nore a great idea.  Anyone in the industry want to offer this guy some advice?  Anyway, the Gua

rdrail is an homage to Kristoff’s owner, Glen Case, having a horrific motorcycle accident returning from a charity ride on a rented Harley. He was banged up pretty good, and we’re lucky he’s still with us (he’s genuinely a very nice man). This was the 6 ½” x 56 Matador size, has a Brazilian Maduro wrapper, bindier from the Dominican Republic and fillers from the Dominican Republic & Zimbabwe.  I’ve honestly smoked more Zimbabwe tobacco in the last few weeks than I have in my life (and that could be said if I had only smoked one cigar with that tobacco, and I’ve smoked this and the CAO Thunder Smoke).  This

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has a hint of the mesquite flavor that the CAO had, not as prominent bu there, along with some sweetness from the Brazilian wrapper.  This was very nice, I’d smoke it again.

 

In another recent shop visit, this time the Wooden Indian, I got a couple of the new Stolen Throne Argos, this one is 6″ x 52 with a pigtail cap and a semi-closed foot.  This is an interesting project with started as an exclusive to Winston’s Humidor in Midlothian, VA, with proceeds going toward animal rescue organizations. I don’t know if this is still the case, but knowing Lee Marsh as I do, I wouldn’t doubt that it is. Lee hates that I love the Three Kingdoms and Crook of the Crown, but am not a fan of the Call to Arms and Yorktown Fleet, the latter of which is growing on me.  I think this Argos falls somewhere in between.  It has a sour note that I find in the Yorktown, perhaps that’s the “roasted oranges” that is mentioned on the website (one roasts oranges?). I also got some leather and some dry baking cocoa sort of flavor. I found it enjoyable, and very much appreciate Dave at the Wooden Indian for hooking me up with these.  I just wish these had bands, maybe whip something up on a laser printer or something? 🙂 

 

That’s about all I have for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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March 3, 2024 · 9:55 am

My Father, Metapa, and Perdomo 30th Anniversary Cigars

This week I smoked some cigars I bought on recent forays into some of my local cigar spots.  All were new to me, although not necessarily new to the market. This happens, I don’t always jump right on the new stuff, and sometimes I miss out!  Thursday evening I met up with my fellow Craig, and recent contest winner, at Cigar Mojo – The Grove, to  hand deliver his prize.  Shipping is always less expensive than visiting a cigar shop!  I picked up a few cigars, and lit up a My Father The Judge in the 656 Toro size.  This has been around for a while, I just never got around to it. Since Mojo carries a lot of My Father cigars I see myself catching up on them.  I’ll grab something I haven’t tried whenever I stop in.  This is a 6″ x 56 cigar, oddly they call their 6″ x 52 a Toro Fino, which seems like a toro to me. Maybe the 6″ x 56 should be a Toro Gordo and the 52 should just be the Toro?  Not my circus…anyway, this has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, and Nicaraguan binder and fillers, with a nice box press. This got off to a slow start, good, although fairly mediocre.  It built up some sweetness, which I like, of course, and worked out to be a very enjoyable cigar, one I’ll smoke again.  Naturally, the company was exceptional, I always enjoy time with my fellow Craig. We’ll definitely have another Craig cigar summit soon.

 

Friday evening had us attending a middle school theatrical production that one of the granddaughters was in, so I got a late start. I was going to skip a cigar altogether, but I had picked up a Foundation Metapa Corona Gorda at Mojo and it wasn’t that big, so I figured I’d light it up.  Sometimes having a cigar too late gives me sleep issues, not the case this time, although I did get to bed a lot later than usual!  I wanted to smoke a Metapa because these are being rebranded to Aksum, I guess to keep in line with the Tabernacle/Menelik/Ark of the Covenant theme. I’ve heard mixed reviews on this cigar, and maybe it’s the Maduro vs. Claro?  I only had the maduro to chose rom, so that’s what I got, as if anyone would be surprised at that. This is a nice 5½” x 48 with a coil pigtail cap (I know there’s a name for it, just can’t remember it!).  This was the best cigar I had all week.  It started a bit heavy, cloying like licorice, which worried me.  It settled in to a really nice, dense dark chocolate, not much sweetness, the kind with a high cacao percentage. I found this to be quite enjoyable, whatever the name, and I might have to see if I can find the claro version (although I still need to try the Olmec Claro!).  It’s hard for me not to like Foundation Cigars, there seems to be something for everyone.

 

Last week I stopped in The Wooden Indian looking for some new cigars, and picked up some Perdomo 30th Anniversary Epicures in Sungrown and Maduro.  These come with a lot of hype, and my expectations were high.  I’m a big fan of the 20th Anniversary Maduro, probably my favorite Perdomo.  I thought the 10th Anniversary Sungrown was my favorite of that line, which, oddly, only really came out a couple years ago.  The 30th aren’t priced bad, I could see companies asking a higher price for  their anniversary cigars, but Perdomo does things right in this respect.  I admire them for keeping their cigars pried within reason.  I decided that yesterday was going to be Perdomo day, so I started with the Sungrown.  I chose the 6″ x 54 Epicure size because, well, that’s the size I like.  This has a 15-year-old bourbon barrel-aged Cuban-seed Nicaraguan Sun Grown wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and has a nice box press.  I think this one had a patch near the cap on the underside of the cigar, which I find to be unacceptable on a cigar like this, regardless of price.  This, of course, came off and I had to do some wrapper surgery because I don’t care for the mouth feel of a flappy wrapper.  Other than that, the burn and draw were very good, and the cigar had a sweet spice that was nice.  Not blown away, I’ll stick with the 10th Sungrown.

 

I had high hopes for the Perdomo 30th Anniversary Epicure Maduro.  This has the same 15-year-old bourbon barrel-aged Cuban-seed Nicaraguan wrapper processed to a maduro, not overly dark, but dark enough, with a nice oil.  This is a nice looking cigar, again, lods of hype, best Perdomo cigar ever, yada yada…It was a good cigar. It had rich dark roast coffee and cocoa and was very nice.  For me, I find that the 20th Maduro to have more that I enjoy, to be honest. I suppose I was expecting a more refined experience, and maybe my palate just isn’t acute enough to appreciate the subtleties of these cigars. I’m told that the 30th Connecticut is something special.  Given I was never a fan of the Champagne, I actually disliked it ( a rarity), I always pass on the Perdomo Connecticuts. Perhaps I’ll give this one a try, for science.  

 

The folks at Best Cigar Prices posted a  bunch of pictures of the cigarlebrities that will be at their Smoke-onos event in May, but they didn’t ask for my picture.  If you’re there, hunt me down!  Also, keep an eye out for upcoming details about a multi-vendor event at Goose’s Montecristo Lounge in Limerick, PA which will be in the beginning of May.  That’s more than enough for today, until the next time.  

 

CigarCraig

 

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