Miami Heat’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks won the Mayor Miami’s staples. Which cigars did Dallas’ Mayor enjoy? Cuban Crafters Medina 1959 Miami Edition Churchills, of course.  Mayor Dwaine Caraway gloated that passers-by at City Hall will find him and city staff outside the building, feasting on stone crabs and later smoking Medina 1959 Miami Edition hand-rolled cigars. Due to city ordinances, the Mayor and his staff enjoyed the cigars 25 feet away from the entrance of City Hall, under a shade tree.

Most Xikar cigar cutters have the iconic tear shape design and carry a lifetime guarantee. While Cuban Crafters’ lifetime guaranteed cigar cutter line is extremely popular and their patented Perfect cutter is the only one that cuts the exact amount of tobacco from a cigar’s head without any guesswork, customers now have an option when shopping for a cigar cutter at Cuban Crafters. As authorized Xikar distributors, Cuban Crafters is offering a special promotion, in addition to their ”lowest price on Xikar cigar cutters” guarantee. Buy any Xikar cutter from Cuban Crafters and in addition to the lowest price, you get a free Medina 1959 Miami Edition cigar. There’s no better deal on the Internet!

Medina 1959 Miami Edition cigars are handmade by highly skilled Cuban cigar rollers in their Miami, Florida factory. The Miami cigar factory is overseen by cigar legend Manuel Medina, the former Master cigar maker at Cuba’s H. Uppman and Davidoff cigar factories. Every roller at the factory was personally trained by Medina, and most in Cuba. That’s how many years they have been rolling fine cigars.

Additional brands and products are expected at Cuban Crafters’ website in the near future. And as always, every product is back by their full satisfaction money-back guarantee.

OneOff Doble Capa cigars start off mild and then build up to medium-bodied. While most super premium cigars have tobacco that goes through two fermentations, OneOff’s tobacco goes through a third fermentation, which gives the cigar extraordinarily smooth character. The taste is complex as only a Nicaraguan long-filler tobacco puro provides. The Ligero is from Esteli, the Viso is from Condega and the Seco is from the Jalapa Valley of Nicaragua. This blend, along with the two different wrappers in the same cigar provide extremely smooth tastes of cedar and woods with nutmeg undertones. Breezes of cocoa, vanilla and cream come in the fold as you get to the Habano tobacco wrapper. Its complex finish brings the pure and natural relaxation that only a super-premium cigar of this caliber can provide.

OneOff is defined as something that only happens once and is not repeated or reproduced. OneOff cigars were first introduced in 2001 to high praise and ratings in Cigar Aficionado and other national and international cigar publications. With Cigar Aficionado ratings of very high 80′s and even a 91, the buzz was on and many Internet review sites gave OneOff cigars 9.5 points out of 10, some of the highest ratings for non-Cuban cigars. They were also very highly priced, upwards of $350 a box, and since they were made in limited production were always sold-out.

While still handmade in limited amounts, Cuban Crafters Cigars decided to make OneOff affordable to all cigar smokers. Everything from the quality, construction and taste was kept the same as the originals. The only change was removing the pig tail cap and lowering the price. The first limited production lot quickly sold out.  Cuban Crafters Cigars is now releasing the Doble Capa, which adds to the complexity of the taste while maintaining the smoothness they are known for. 6 large sizes (Chairman, Churchill, Gran Torpedo, Salomon, Toro & Torpedo) are available in hand crafted cedar boxes of 20 cigars each.

The store’s official grand opening will be scheduled soon and a Cuban cigar roller will be on premises to make special edition Cleveland Airport cigars. The roller will be permanently based out of the store and these very limited edition cigars will only be available from that small cigar factory to those on the premises.

While Miami-based cigar brands like Padron cigars, Acid, Liga Privada, Camacho and others are available, you can also find Arturo Fuente, Cohiba, Montecristo and many other cigars. The store also offers an extensive selection of humidors and cigar accessories, such as cigar cutters, cases, lighters and more. You can even shop for pipes and cigar wear. Just about anything smokers could want is available.

For those who like to travel light, you can make a purchase at the store and have it shipped directly to your home or office without having to carry it on the plane. Purchases are shipped from the Cuban Crafters Cigars Miami warehouse within 24 hours so in some cases the shipment will be at your home or office before you arrive from your trip.

The Fire Chief said the interior of the silver Nissan was in flames when the department arrived. He said the operator of car was an elderly man who told them how he believed the fire began.

…he was smoking a cigar…and the head of his cigar came off in the car and got the interior of the car going…

The fire was extinguished in a few minutes, no one was injured and the cleanup for the incident was minimal. The Chief said the fire was contained to the driver’s compartment and that the car needed to be towed away. He said he was fairly certain the car would need to be totaled.

This would have never happened with a Boutique Premium Cigar from Cuban Crafters.

Election night started with Rick Scott in the lead. As the precincts started reporting the numbers between him and his Democrat opponent narrowed. Towards the end of the night it was a nail biter. Governor Rick Scott’s campaign workers and volunteers waited nervously until all the votes were counted. Finally Rick Scott claimed victory. Almost immediately the Medina 1959 Miami made cigars were lit up by the campaign staff. An emotional moment that will be remembered for years to come.

Those who know Rick Scott well will tell you that he is a brilliant and deliberative leader, who is as humble and nice as they come. He’s an occasional cigar smoker who’s new home will be the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee, Florida. It has a great backyard that’s perfect for cigar smoking.

The tradition started during a time when store signs were pictorial because many customers could not read. By the 1800′s the wooden cigar-store Indian figure was kept on the street to lure customers inside a tobacconist’s store.

Historically, the wooden cigar store Indians were carved from a single log. They were painted by hand and usually held a bundle of tobacco leaves or cigars in their hand. It is estimated that more than 100,000 carved cigar store Indians were in use by 1900.

A carved Indian became less common at cigar stores during the 20th century for many different reasons. Sidewalk-obstruction laws, high manufacturing costs, restrictions on tobacco advertising and increased racial sensitivity by shops caused them to be removed. Most of the original vintage figures were destroyed. As a result a well preserved antique Indian figure sells for thousands of dollars.

Here’s their cigar size recommendations based on your height and weight:

Historically European cigar smokers prefer smaller ring gauge cigars while American cigar smokers tend to go for the larger ring cigar sizes. This may have more to do with tradition than the overall size of the smoker.

Cigar smoking started in Spain after Christopher Columbus brought back tobacco leaves from the Caribbean. It quickly spread throughout Europe. At that time cigar sizes were smaller as they were totally made by hand and it was easier to form the smaller sizes by hand. Common sizes were Corona and the Perfecto, a smaller ring gauge cigar with both sides tapered in. To the left is a 1905 cigar box from our own museum. These Perfectos were hand made in the United States with Cuban tobacco.

This continued throughout the 1940′s, when molds were invented. After the 1940′s cigars were handmade with the use of a mold. This made it easier to make the larger cigar sizes. Little by little American cigar smokers have accepted and demanded larger ring sizes and longer cigars, without regards to the smoker’s height and weight. In fact, sales figures suggest that during cold-weather months shorter cigars sell better, and in hot months the longer cigars sell best. This obviously has to do with the ability to smoke the cigar in the outdoors.

So what cigar size are you? Do you believe that men select cigar sizes based on their own physical features? Let us know what you think.

Lighting up cigars on such a big win is tradition. Other traditions are opening up champagne bottles that have been shaken and spraying them in the face of the team’s owner, coaches and players. Throwing away champagne should be considered more of a crime than smoking and enjoying victory cigars, yet no one complains about that. It’s not easy being a cigar smoker nowadays with all the crazy anti-smoking zealots roaming the streets, and watching television so they can say “gotcha”.

Most of the South Florida based cigar companies participated in one way or another. From El Rey del Habano Don Pepin to Don Kiki and J.L. Salazar, they were there passing out cigars and talking with fellow smokers.

The real star of the show was a good friend of Cuban Crafters Cigars, Berta Bravo. She rounded up community support for the event. Around town she’s known as the Guayabera Lady because of her Coral Gables shop where she hand makes some of the most exquisite Guayaberas this side of Havana. Berta is a hard core cigar smoker. When she’s not in her guayabera store working side by side with her daughter Grace Sotolongo and her son, she’s at cigar stores enjoying Cuban style cigars or working for community organizations that assist those in need.

Berta, we enjoyed sharing the 12 hour event with you and look forward to next years bash!