Procigar Festival 2012 - <Day1> - La Romana, Casa De Campo in Dominican Republic on February 19, 2012.
Video for Trip and 1st Day at Procigar Festival 2012.

This video was shot by Sony HDR-CX580V & Nikon D7000, Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 Super Wide Lens.

URL:

Procigar.org
cigarexplorer.com

It is finally here! Early this Sunday, Mario and I will head south from Columbus to the Dominican Republic for the 2012 ProCigar Festival. Combined, this will be our third trip to the island, but a first for both of us in attending this fest. From all I've seen and read online, this looks like it's going to be a whirlwind of a trip with lots of dinners/parties/factory tours, and cigar smoking of course. I'm not sure how much access we will have to a strong internet connection, but I hope to update this post with news and photos while I am down there. I know Mario plans to make one of his signature videos of the entire experience, but that will probably be posted a few weeks after the trip. For the quickest updates from the festival, make sure you follow me (Dan) on twitter @reeve11 and Mario on twitter @cigarexplorer . Both of us use twitter a lot and I hope to grab a international data plan to be able to tweet from the festival.

Wish us luck and see you guys from the Dominican.

Dan & Mario

Today's review is on the first release from Eddie Ortega's new company, Ortega Cigars. At the end of January, Eddie publicly announced that he was leaving his partnership and previously successful company EO Brands to venture out on his own.

A quote from the official press release: “I’ve wanted to do this for quite some time and now is the right time,” said Eddie, who also said “Ortega will focus on developing long lasting brands at affordable prices. I have no interest in the so called limited release market, plenty of those are around. I’d much rather build solid brands that consumers enjoy and will be around for years to come,”

I am very happy for Eddie as a businessman and as a friend, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with in his new venture. I'm also very happy to hear that he will continue to work with the My Father factory to have his cigars made.  It's kind of sad to see that the O of EO brands will no longer be promoting the 601 line (a cigar I've smoked a ton of throughout the years), but I am sure they will continue on to make great cigars, also.

(Due to the size of this cigar, this review is only in two parts instead of the traditional thirds.)

Vitola: Corona-ish
Length:  4.5
Ring Gauge: 48
Wrapper: Mexican San Andreas Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $5.99
Smoking Location: New Havana Cigars
Beverage: Water

Tonight's review is a cigar that traveled a long distance to get to me. The J. Fuego 777 Corojo “Paka” is a special size of the 777 blend produced specifically for Tamura's Fine Wine and Liquors B&M in Hawaii. 

A quote from Tamura's Fine Wine and Liquors website: At our last smoker event with Jesus Fuego back in April, Jesus decided to create an "Exclusive" smoke for us at Tamura's. The "Paka" is based off the 777 Corojo blend, but was kicked up a little to add some more spice. It has a pig tail cap and a "closed" foot. The purpose of the closed foot is so the smoker can get a little more taste from the wrapper leaf when they first light the cigar. A limited batch was made to test it out, so if you're curious, get your stick today!

A regular patron of Tamura's confirmed that there were only 200 boxes of these made. My friend Jon (Fia on the BOLT message board) sent me this stick and I want to give him a very grateful thanks because I don't think I would have managed to get my hands on one any other way. On to the review.

Vitola: Robusto
Length:  4.5
Ring Gauge: 52
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo
Binder: Nicaraguan Corojo
Filler: Nicaraguan Corojo
Price: $5.99
Smoking Location: New Havana Cigars
Beverage: Water

Last Friday, Governors Smoke Shop (@GovernorsSmokes on twitter), a relatively new shop in the Columbus area, hosted a large Drew Estate event. Our local sales rep Sam Smerkol was there holding down the fort, as well as special guest David Lafferty Regional Manager East Coast for Drew Estate. If you have met David before, you will know that fun and craziness follows this guy around.

Here is a video we shot of the event:
Video - Event: Drew Estate Mega Event - Governor Smoke Shop, Westerville Ohio - Cigar Explorer from Cigar Explorer on Vimeo.

Sometime during the event, David handed me a new size of the Undercrown by Drew Estate called the "Corona ¡Viva!" to be released this spring.

A quick Google search found this quote from Steve Saka President of Drew Estate regarding this new size: Corona ¡Viva! - 5 5/8 x 46 - slightly tweaked blend to increase the octane just a wee bit... did this figuring the guys most likely to desire this format are those with more experience and would desire a slightly stronger cigar (ME... lol) Keep in mind though the tweak keeps the UC blend intact, we didn't want to overshadow the natural sweetness or the creaminess of the core UC, so this is minor adjustment that I suspect many may not even notice. We probably won't even tell people... at least formally. (Source BOTL Website)

Undercrown has done very well and received much praise from the cigar blog world (if you want the whole story on how this cigar came about visit Tony's site here. It's got all the info you need and I won't need to repost it.) I've smoked well over a handful of Undercrowns, from samples at the tradeshow, to sticks from my B&M. Some I have liked, others I have not. Let's see how this new size held up.

Vitola: Corona ¡Viva!
Length: 5 5/8
Ring Gauge: 46
Wrapper: Mexican San Andrés Negro
Binder: Connecticut Habano
Filler: Nicaraguan & Brazilian
Price: $?
Smoking Location: New Havana Cigars
Beverage: Water