Alec Bradley Crescendo

A while back, I was given the task of purchasing cigars for my friend’s wedding. Being incredibly short on time, I quickly found some good deals and placed an order with Holt’s Cigar Company in Philly. As part of a promotional offer they were running at the time, the good people at Holt’s threw in a free 10-pack with my purchase. When the package arrived, I discovered that these free cigars included several of the Alec Bradley Crescendo, a …

Merlion by La Sirena – Arielle’s Personal Vitola

During the 2012 IPCPR Convention, in Orlando, Brian and I made our way over to the Miami Cigar booth to speak with friend and former blogger Barry Stein. After a complimentary cigar and an ice-cold Presidente, we waited patiently for Arielle, brand manager of La Sirena Cigars, to finish with a customer.

Before long we were conducting an interview for our IPCPR Coverage and were introduced to Arielle’s personal vitola in the Merlion line. A single cigar was …

Dona Flor Puro Mata Fina (first impressions)

I have to apologize for dropping the ball again last week, loyal Stogie Review readers. I’ve just be overwhelmed with work and everything lately, but alas, here I am back this week with a video that I think you’ll all enjoy, and rest assured that I have a few more in the pipeline for the coming weeks.

A while back, the folks at Dona Flor USA contacted me to see if I’d be interested in checking out a few samples …

An Afternoon with Cynthia Fuente

Cynthia Fuente of Arturo Fuente Cigars joined the crew of W.Curtis Draper in releasing the third of four cigar releases celebrating the 125th Anniversary of W.Curtis Draper. During the release party on Saturday at the Bethesda MD location Cynthia was generous enough to sit down with George Brightman and participate in one of George’s coffee table discussions. Cynthia and George discuss the 125th cigar created by the Fuentes Family for Drapers as well as many past, present and future items …

1502 Ruby (first impressions)

Sorry for dropping the ball last week, guys. I had a lot of stuff come up at work and I just couldn’t find the time to put anything together for my weekly post. This past week was another busy one, but I found a few spare moments to record a quick first impressions video for you all.

This cigar was gifted to me by it’s maker, Enrique Sánchez, at the 2012 Delaware Cigar Festival last month. 1502 is a …

Pinolero by AJ Fernandez (IPCPR Sample)

Back in August, Jerry, Brian, Charlie, and I had the pleasure of attending the annual IPCPR Trade Show in Orlando. One of our earlier stops was the AJ Fernandez booth. We got to talking with one of the reps when he began handing out Pinolero samples. The cigar came with a warning “This is the most powerful cigar that AJ makes.” At the time I thought, yeah right, this is probably just like the warning label on …

2012 Delaware Cigar Festival

Last Saturday, I had the distinct pleasure of attending the 2012 Delaware Cigar Festival at Delaware Park in Wilmington, DE. This is a terrific event put on each year by the Delaware Cigars chain of brick & mortar retail shops, managed by Gary Griffith from Emilio Cigars. The $125 admission fee included a large assortment of premium cigars, a great buffet lunch, an open beer & wine bar, tons of raffle prizes, and the opportunity to purchase additional cigars …

Herederos de Robaina

Last month, during our extended video interview, Gary Griffith of Emilio Cigars discussed a relatively unheard of cigar brand for which he had just signed a nationwide distribution deal. Herederos de Robaina is manufactured in Esteli, Nicaragua by American Caribbean Tobacco, and will be distributed in the United States by the Emilio Cigars sales team. The initial offering comes in four sizes (robusto, torpedo, toro, and churchill), and will be packed in both 10 and 20-count boxes.

As …

CAO Concert pre-release (plus giveaway)

First of all, a disclaimer: this review is based on samples received at the IPCPR trade show earlier this month. We typically don’t like to use show samples for cigar reviews, since they often see a lot of unusual travel to & from the show floor and aren’t always a perfect reflection of what eventually winds up on retailer shelves. However, as these cigars were provided to us as review samples and since every indication suggests that these samples are …

The Blogger Question – In Their Own Words

I’m sure many of you noticed in our IPCPR Coverage we asked some manufacturers for their thoughts on bloggers. We didn’t set out to ask this question. It kind of just happened after our first video with Ernesto Perez Carillo where he took the time (unprompted) to give us some love. We then thought it would be a good idea to find out what other manufacturers thought about us (the collective us – bloggers) and so “the blogger question” was …