Win a Box of Personalized Cigars
This competition is now over and the winner is… commenter #23, Michael W. Congrats Michael! I will be in touch shortly. Thank you all who entered.
CigarCountry.com contacted me recently wanting to give away a box of personalized cigars. Basically, the way they personalize cigars is by printing up to three lines of text with up to 32 characters per line on the cellophane each cigar comes in. You can also put a logo on the cellophane, which is great for promotional purposes for your company or as just another way to show off to your friends.
It’s actually a pretty cool idea and it doesn’t cost much to do the personalization, just $10 for text and a one time $50 setup fee for logos. If you want to impress your friends or clients this is a great option.
Now to the contest. One lucky reader will win a box of personalized cigars (text only) and all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. The comment can be about anything but something about how you would personalize your cigars would be awesome.
Here’s where it gets interesting.
If less than 50 people leave a comment on this post the box of personalized cigars the winner will receive will be the Romeo y Julieta Aniversario Corona, which retails for about $165 on the site (which, I might add, is less than other sites are selling them for).
If 50 or more of you leave a comment on this post the box of personalized cigars the winner will receive will be the Romeo y Julieta Edicion Limitada Churchill, which retails on the site for about $290.
So, if you want a chance at winning the big prize tell all of your friends about this contest and get them to enter by leaving a comment on this post. The contest ends at 11:59pm PST on September 30, 2012 and I will announce the winner, who will be picked randomly by me using the random number generator on random.org, the following day. And if the winner would be kind enough to post a picture of their loot on Twitter or Facebook or anywhere else please notify me so I can share it with all those who weren’t lucky enough to win.
Remember, the success of this contest rests solely on your shoulders so do yourself a favor and share this with everyone so that we can give the eventual winner a box of customized Romeo y Julieta Edicion Limitada Churchills.
Chattanooga Tweetup Tickets on Sale
The guys at Tiki Bar Online in conjunction with Burns Tobacconist in Chattanooga, Tennessee are hosting a Cigar Tweet-Up in late August. Here’s some information from Tiki Bar Online:
When:
Friday, August 24, and Saturday, August 25, 2012
Where:
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Burns Tobacconist, East: 110 Jordan Drive, 423-855-5200
Burns Tobacconist, Downtown: 725 Cherry Street, 423-267-7740
What:
A gathering of the online Cigar Community sponsored by Tiki Bar Online and Stogie Review. Someone asked if “non-Twitter” people could attend the Tweet-Up and the answer is a big “Yes!” While most of us met and are very active on Twitter, plenty of us are also active on Facebook and/or Google+. The main thing here is “the herf” not whether or not you have a Twitter name.
The ticket for the event itself is only $40. What do you get for this ticket? Here’s the info:
Product Information
- A multipack of cigars (quantity to be determined) in a Humidipak bag
- T-shirt (we’ll ask your size when you order tickets, available up to 4XL)
- Liquor Tasting featuring some fine Tennessee Spirits
- 1 Raffle Ticket (additional raffle tickets available with purchases of at least 10 cigars)
- Discount Card (good at either Burns location all weekend for 5% off all single cigars, up to 19; 20% off all box purchases or purchases of 20 cigars)
- Saturday Dinner at CBC/Burns Downtown Location (food only; drinks not included)
- For the FIRST 100 people, this package will be $40
- Remaining Pre-Sale Tickets: $45
- Day of the Event (if available): $50
But wait, there’s more! For $20 you can also go to a ballgame:
BASEBALL GAME
We’ve reserved the right-field pavilion for Friday night’s Lookouts (Minor-League Baseball, affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers) game. The pavilion is shaded and has cooling fans and can seat well over the 30 to 40 that came to last year’s game.$20/ticket (limit of 150 tickets) will get you:
- Admission plus unlimited hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, ice cream and sodas from the buffet.
- $1 Draft Beer through the 7th inning.
- A smoking section adjacent to the seating area…and we’re being told that you can either see the field or that there are TVs set up to watch the game from that area.
There’s also an After Party in the works:
After Party:
Attendees will also be invited to the After Party, currently in the planning stages…more information on that as it becomes available, including what company will be sponsoring it…
Personally, I would love to attend but I don’t know if I’ll be able to get the time off. If you can get some time off this sounds like a great event and I’m sure it’ll be an even bigger success than the one they had last year.
AFGL: 1992 Federal 91st Cervantes, Tobacco Plaza DD & Ultimate
A Few Good Links this week deals with three cigar reviews. Two are reviews of cigars that are specific to certain shops throughout the country and I want to try them. The third review is of a cigar I’m dreading to smoke but have to because it’s in my humidor and I’ll have to do a review of it at some indefinite point in the (hopefully) distant future. Maybe it will age well but I doubt it.
1. My Father Le Bijou 1992 Federal 91st Cervantes: from Peter at A Cigar Smoker’s Journal
After Barry left A Cigar Smoker’s Journal (He actually sold it!) I was a little worried. Barry started his blog around the same time that I started The Perfect Draw and he’s one of the first guys that I really connected with in the cigar blogosphere. During a trip to the La Aurora factory in the Dominican Republic we got to hang out some and I realized that he’s a cool guy in real life too. Now he works for La Aurora and his blog came under new management.
I didn’t check in to the site every day but it seemed like the posts were a never-ending procession of press releases, which is boring. But then more reviews starting popping up and, happily, they’re good reviews. Peter’s review of the My Father Le Bijou 1992 Federal 91st Cervantes (That name is why acronyms were invented but MFLB1992F91stC doesn’t roll of the tongue like FUBAR does) is a great example of the quality posts still being published on that site.
According to Peter, this cigar offers a good mixture of flavors ranging from oak to cocoa. It is a medium bodied cigar and, coming from My Father, definitely has a good pedigree. A box of 23 will set you back a little more than $180.
2. Tatuaje Tobacco Plaza DD: from Brooks at Halfwheel
It’s a Tatuaje and the blend is based off of the Fausto, which is good enough for me. Interestingly enough, I was somehow already following the Twitter handle for the B&M (Or do they have a Twitter handle just for the cigar? I forget.) and one night, out of the blue, I got a message from that account asking me if I was going to try this cigar. I promised to look into it and now I have.
Brooks wasn’t head over heals in love with this cigar saying that it was stronger than the Fausto and reminded him more of a young T110. Basically, according to him, only people who love that nicotine kick should smoke this cigar. He had to put the Double D down for a while because he was about to puke due to the strength. Obviously, this cigar is not for new smokers.
According to Brooks he thinks that this cigar will age well and will be more tame in about six months.
3. Cuban Stock Chubbys Ultimate Swell: from Niko at In the Humidor
Yesterday I panned the Cuban Stock Chubbys Maduro Swell because it tasted like a salty mud puddle. I’m dreading lighting up the “Ultimate” Swell because I just don’t see how it can be that good. Niko is giving me some hope that I might be wrong.
He noticed leather, spice and earth and said that whenever he’s looking for a stronger cigar this is the cigar he will go for. Still, I just don’t think I’m going to like this cigar. It’s going to get plenty of time in my humidor and I have been surprised by cigars in the past. Heck, right now I’m being pleasantly surprised by the cigar I’m smoking, which is a Thunder by Nimish (Rocky Patel is somehow connected, I’m not looking it up).
Punch Cigar Rights of America Cigar Review
This one has been in the humidor a while; just sitting on its tray minding its own business… until now! Being part of a CRA sampler I got a long time ago it’s slightly oily, wonderfully constructed, maybe too tightly packed but it does look like a great cigar. Plus, it is a Punch, so I’m sure it will be, at the minimum, a solid cigar. This is in a toro size.
Spartacus Flame!
Definitely more than a “solid” cigar, this one is. Forthright spice, fleeting cherry and a few woody notes make up the flavors in the beginning of this cigar. I’m going to go ahead a peg it as a full bodied cigar, but just barely.
There is this smoky flavor that creeps its way into every nook and cranny of my taste buds. It is a nice extra dimension of flavor; it complements the other flavors well.
While the flavors are above average what I like the most about this cigar is that there is an edge to it. I like it when a cigar has a little edge to it.
In the beginning it was a full bodied cigar but after the first inch it dialed the strength down to the medium-full bodied range. After the halfway point I noticed a certain amount of earthiness creep its way through. This cigar has a good draw and a good burn.
As is the case with all the other cigars from the Cigar Rights of America sampler I will abstain from giving it a score. It suffices to say that this was a great cigar and well worth the price that I paid for it. If you haven’t already done so I would like to urge you to join CRA and help them stem the tide against those anti-smoking zealots that are becoming ever more brazen.
AFGL: List of Lists, King, Fielder
A Few Good Links this week is going to focus on a list of the lists of top cigars, some news about Stephen King’s Dark Tower series and an update on the (so far) sad tail of a slugging first baseman without a bag.
- The Consensus: 2011 Awards via halfwheel: Ever wanted a Metacritic-esque survey of the cigar world? (Incidentally, I think that would be a good idea. It would need constant updating and there would have to be some kind of resolution as far as scoring goes, should certain sites be weighted more heavily, what about vitola… I digress.) Well, halfwheel has come out with a survey of what the cigar blogging world thought were their favorite cigars of 2011. I will only tell you that Undercrown was the consensus top pick according to them. If you want to see the rest of this amazing post (like top brand, factory, country and some trends) you’re going to have to click on through.
- Stephen King wrote one of my favorite fantasy series of all time in The Dark Tower. In late April there will be a new addition to this series with The Wind Through the Keyhole, which will basically shed some light on the main character’s past. I think it’s kind of like Godfather 2 in that there are some elements that take place during the natural progression of the story and there are some prequel elements as well. This will be mostly prequel though. With the movie/tv-ification of this series in peril the new book is at least something to look forward to.
- While Prince Fielder’s normal pace is slower than most his current pace is maddeningly slow. I’m guessing his agent, Scott Boras, is playing a game of chicken with all of his client’s potential suitors but there comes a time when you have to wonder whether or not this was a bad move. And then I see a little piece of news like this and I’m thinking the AL West is where the real arms race is.
