The Borons Cigar Blog

At JR, we know that Dad is often someone’s favorite cigar connoisseur, but the task of buying him his favorite brand can be a difficult one, especially if you don’t know exactly what brand he smokes or if he likes to mix things up. So, to make life easier for you, while pleasing him at the same time, we have a vast selection of premium Cigar Samplers for him to discover and enjoy. You can assemble your very own sampler with single cigar selections from hundreds of premium brands to choose from, or order one of our many pre-made assortments carefully chosen for their fabulous construction, top-ratings, and great taste.  To get the ball rolling we have assembled some of our bestselling Cigar Samplers for you to select.

The Happy Father’s Day Collection would make the ideal gift for any smokin’ dad at a price that can’t be beat anywhere on the web! Along with 20 best-selling handmade cigars, you’ll get a black 20-count humidor and a Cigar Savor Double-Bladed Guillotine Cutter, all valued at $174.85, for only $49.95! That’s a massive savings of more than 70% off the regular retail price! Each combo includes 5 of each of the following terrific smokes:

La Finca Ammo Toro • 6.12 x 50

Oliva Serie O Churchill • 7.00 x 50

Rocky Patel 15th Anniversary Robusto • 5.00 x 50

Maria Mancini Magic Mountain Maduro • 6.00 x 50

For our Ultimate & La Gloria Collection, we have teamed up two of our most popular cigar brands in one affordable 15-count pack. From la Gloria Cubana, he’ll get 5 of the Serie R Black #58 cigars, a potent Oscuro wrapped Nicaraguan powerhouse loaded with bold, heady flavors of licorice, white pepper, cedar, and espresso. Joining this gem, is our world-famous JR Ultimate # 5 Maduro cigar from Honduras, another dark beauty that’s full flavored and brimming with hearty notes of chocolate, leather, coffee, and spice. If pops enjoys his smokes dark and savory, this Sunday is going to be an extra-special day for him!

To offer him tons of variety, Our Terrific Twenty Collection features a top-rated assortment of full flavored smokes from some of the hottest names in the boutique cigar industry. You get 5 cigars each from Uncharted, Trinidad Santiago, Thunderdome, Boneshaker, and La Gloria Cubana Serie R. Although not for the faint of heart (or palate), If dad likes his cigars, bold, complex, and incredibly delicious, this affordable deal will make him very happy on his big day!

Not sure if dad smokes a mellow, medium or full-bodied cigar? Then why not cover all the bases and buy him the Romeo, Don Pepin and La Gloria Collection. With this assortment he gets the famous Romeo y Julieta 1875 Bully, a premium cigar beloved the world over for its distinct nutty character, lovely aroma, and smooth, easygoing, medium body strength. Bumping up the strength a notch is the medium to full body La Gloria Cubana Wavell, an earthy Cuban-style cigar with hints of coffee, leather, and cream. After his big Father’s Day meal and perhaps a couple of cold ones, the full-bodied Don Pepin Garcia Blue Toro Grande, a 62-ring masterpiece, will really hit the spot with its bold, yet refined flavors of earth, cocoa, sweet spice, cedar, and a zesty pepper finish.

Released just in time for Father’s Day, our Cigar and Humidor Combo 3 is a terrific present for any smokin’ dad, because he gets two special gifts in one— a top-quality humidor, and some awesome cigars!  Inside a stunning, airtight, glass top mahogany wood humidor rests 20 classic premium cigars from Maria Mancini, La Finca, and the world-famous Montecristo brand. All medium to full bodied and loaded with their own unique, hearty Cuban-style flavors, these fine premium cigars and this gorgeous humidor is truly a fantastic combo that he will be delighted to receive!

Still not sure which of these top-notch selections to pick? Then head over to our vast selection of Cigar Samplers on our JR Website, where you will have a staggering 16 pages of great Samplers to choose from! But hurry and order some soon, because the big day is rapidly approaching!

If you are a lover of the aged leaf, then you are well aware that over the past few years that we cigar smokers have simply become the lowlife pariah scum of the earth in the eyes of the anti-smoking zealots of our world. We basically can’t smoke ANYWHERE indoors anymore, they won that battle… and now these haters are trying to get rid of our precious puros for good.

What I find to be so incredibly ironic is that the Smoke Nazi contingent claims that we cigars smokers are rude, when in actuality, they are indeed the rudest, nastiest, and most obnoxious bastids to roam the land. We are basically looked upon as diseased laden lepers who should be banished from all society. They treat us with massive disrespect as if we have absolutely no rights at all and I’m completely sick and tired of it…. aren’t you? Of course you are!

This past weekend, on a gorgeous mid-60’s degree day, I took a little day jaunt into Little Italy in New York City. After a great big authentic Italian meal, I love nothing more than walking the streets with a nice premium hand rolled cigar as I take in the sights, sounds, and the smells. Now, here I am in the middle of the street, walking along when a couple of these zealots decide to give me their ten pounds of grief as they walked past me a good 25 feet away on the side walk. After getting treated so rudely by these self-righteous cretins time and time again, you’d really think I’d be used to it by now. But I guess it’s just the blatant disregard for human decency that really has me bewildered every time. What’s amazing is that every one of these indignant schmucks have the same exact act down pat, as if they attended some class on how to abuse the hell out of anyone they catch smoking. So I have come up with the 5-Step process that the Smoke Nazi’s have developed and shared with their fellow fascists across the globe. (All they need is a uniform, knee high black boots, and a high step kick to complete their attempt at world dominance.)

Okay, after much research and pure unadulterated abuse, I have decided to share this most wretched 5-Step method with my beloved Brothers and Sisters of the Leaf…

STEP 1. The Look – As they walk anywhere in your cigar smoking presence, these acerbic foes will start out with a distasteful look on their face – the kind of look one does when perhaps your load-encrusted septic overflows into your living room. They want you to know that something has gone awry, and this pungent look is what leads directly into…

STEP 2. The Deadpan Glare – Now their head has turned in your direction, as you are the present recipient of the stare of doom. The eyes squint, the brow furrows, and the scowl on that puss is so twisted and vile that you start to wonder if perhaps you called this person’s mother an unsavory epithet in another life.

STEP 3. The Cough – or should I say the BIG FAKE cough that bellows through the street as if the black plague has found its way into the 21^st century. Rottweilers are jealous of this pseudo-bark, and the coughers do not care that one hell of spectacle is being made in public.

STEP 4. The Wave – To accompany the dreaded howling cough, the hands begin to wave in front of their face with such ferocity that one would be convinced that the person was being attacked by a strain of killer bees. The Wave, combined with the cough is an amazing site to see, one riddled with ignorance, guile, and blatant stupidity.

STEP 5. The Confrontation – When all attempts at ruining your cigar smoking experience has failed, the psycho-zealot will have the oversized pair of cajones to get in your face and confront you. They will let you know with a brazen fervor that your cigar stinks and they do not like it. Yes, they will have no regard for manners or human decency at this point in the game, and if it were the Old West, 95% of these rude sons of bitches would be mowed down in broad daylight.

Now it’s the 21^st century and our culture has supposedly evolved into a civilized lot, but me thinks that someone needs to inform these indignant anti-smoking goons that you simply cannot treat fellow human beings in this manner. Agreed? I think so.

Well, that’s my little public service announcement for my cigar loving fans and friends who need to remember that we have the right to live the way we choose and there isn’t an anti-smoking punk who can take that away from us.

Remember, as Always, Stay Smoky My Friends,

JR Cigars Blog with the Zman

Okay, every one of you guys know by now what an incessant whiner I am when it comes to the weather – especially the miserable winter months where smoking outside is a great discomfort and my weekly cigar intake drops dramatically. But this winter here in the north east has definitely been on the milder side with almost no snow to even speak of. And while that pretty much sucks for ski resorts, guys who plow, and the hardware store that is stuck with fifty full pallets of ice melting pellets, it sure as hell is a relief from shoveling that white crap, and worse yet, driving in it. And with a daughter on the roads and a son who gets his license in 10 days, trust me when I say that I don’t miss that stuff for a second.

But as I sit here on my patio perfecting the hunt & peck typing method to a tee, it is 68 degrees here in early March, probably about twenty degrees warmer than the norm, and again, I am not minding it one damned bit! And just who is keeping me company while I write this weekly missive, but a thoroughly delicious Alec Bradley Tempus, a stick that resides on the fuller bodied side, and is enjoying being in the great outdoors every bit as much as I am.

For you BOTL’s in the south and all year warm weather places, you are most envied by us four season dwellers, and please know that it does get a bit tiring hearing you guys tell us, “why don’t you just move” – like hey, why didn’t I think of that – wow, guess I don’t really need this big red Staples EASY button. But right now most of us in the upper US regions are enjoying the hell out of this unusual weather, and enjoying a good cigar outside goes right along with the territory. Normally, right about now I’m going stir crazy, bound inside the house, jonesing like a mutha for a hand rolled happy stick. But thankfully Mother Nature has put the jonesing on hold, and for that I seriously want to take a brief moment to thank the old gal. And I say “brief” moment because anyone who has spent their life in the north knows that three-feet of the frozen white stuff can drop from the sky a couple of days from now, giving us that, “and you thought it was almost springtime” blizzard from hell. Much like the famed Honey Badger, Mother Nature don’t give a shit.

Okay, I think I’ve pretty much got all I can out of this AB Tempus, and good thing I thought ahead and brought along this dark-ass San Cristobal to help me finish out this bloggy. Man, another seriously impressive flavor bomb from the JR collection of finely aged premium tobacco products. I may have never been a boy scout, but when it comes to cigar smoking, this paunchy Polack is ALWAYS prepared! You know, I really do have a rough life writing this cigar love-fest, day in and day out. It’s hard work being a cigar blogger and I want you to know that I give my all for you guys, continually smoking the best stogies all for the purpose of your much needed entertainment. Pretty soon the wife and boy will be home and I’ll toss some charred carcass on the Weber, probably sneaking in a short robusto, all while planning on what cigar to smoke with my single malt night-cap. Damn people, I am friggin exhausted just typing those thoughts!

It’s this unusual warmth that has me in such a good mood while the neighbors drive by and wonder things like, “when is that moron going to get himself a “real” job (much like my loving wife thinks on a daily basis.) But I know that YOU guys appreciate the blood and sweat I’m spilling onto my laptop as this Pepin made Nicaraguan encourages me to keep on giving all that I’ve got. I know my purpose, and I’m proud to serve you all.

Well, I just looked and it’ll be 35 degrees here tomorrow morning. I knew that little tease Momma Nature couldn’t keep this up for more than a couple of days. But right now, I’m gonna get all metaphysical and stay in the present while I thank the Big Guy above for giving me the strength and courage to continue on doing what I do for YOU people.

You know… I think there’s a couple of icy cold bottles of Stout in the fridge. I give and I give…

Stay Smoky My friends,

JR Cigars Blog with the Zman

With Valentine’s Day coming this Tuesday, I started wondering about who actually invented this holiday that fleeces a man’s pocket right down to his furry little lint balls (hey, watch your mouth Zman, this is a family blog.)… You wonder if it was Hallmark… the jewelry industry… the chocolate companies… the restaurant industry? Just how did this whole money pilfering operation all go down, and why is it basically a woman’s holiday that requires us dumb-ass dudes to do all of the work?

According to Wikipedia: Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine. The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni. Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred about AD 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaks of a third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies under date of February 14. But then Wikipedia entry goes and says: No romantic elements are present in the original early medieval biographies of either of these martyrs.

So while this all ties back to a bunch of robe wearing, bald headed bastids, one has to ask, “Yo baby, where’s the love at?” How the hell did this whole deal get started with jewelry, flowers, candy, and cards? Okay, so get this… There is an additional modern embellishment to The Golden Legend, provided by, American Greetings and widely repeated despite having no historical basis whatsoever. On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first “valentine” card himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved, as the jailer’s daughter whom he had befriended and healed. It was a note that read “From your Valentine.”

Ah ha, ah ha, AH HA! So it IS a greeting card company who perpetrated this ruse and is responsible for me having to give up a paycheck’s worth of baubles, bangles, and bullshit this coming week! While this newfound information doesn’t actually make me feel any better, I have come up with an angle of my own, something that finally gives us men their fair share this second week of February.

I am contacting everyone there is in the cigar industry to create cigar cards, cigar flavored chocolate, and print up gift certificates to cigar bars, all in the hopes we men can get treated a little special for once – a day where we lovers of the Latin leaf can make this holiday a smokin’ one!

“Montecristo is Red, Don Pepin is Blue, maduro is sweet, and so is this god damned awesome box of El Rey Del Mundo Flor de Llaneza!” Wow, was I made to be the guy who is the head of this man-movement, or what?!

I think every last one of us guys have spent a collective lifetime fortune on price gouged roses, boxed mixed chocolates (gagging on maple log cocoa crèmes), and rings, bracelets, earrings, and other items of sparkling Jared-type nature. Isn’t it about time that our female partners return the years of favors by showering us with a cornucopia of Nicaraguan, Honduran, and Dominican grown goodness?! Haven’t we provided for our loved ones long enough where we should be shown true love in return, a love for the likes of La Gloria Cubana, EP Carillo, La Aroma de Cuba, and of course, Romeo Y Juliet? Yes I say… hell yes, we dudes deserve it and I will stand up and fight for the rights of CROMAGS everywhere so that we may too experience the leafy tenderness we have always deserved. But unfortunately, I can’t do bupkis this year, cause Valentine’s Day is this Tuesday and we’ll all just have to suck it up and pay for the picked over, triple-priced flowers for just one more year.

So until then, I’ll be working hard for manly men everywhere, making sure that next year, February 14, becomes a day of hand rolled happiness for one and all.

And in the words of the late, great Don Cornelius, I wish you all Love, Peace, and Soul,

JR Cigars Blog with the Zman

Last week we talked about ANY excuse to smoke a cigar, but there’s one HUMUNGOUS excuse I’ll always have, and that’s NFL Playoff football. Cigars and football… damn guys, it’s like mac n’ cheese… Starsky n’ Hutch… mashed taters n’ gravy… beer nuts and… well, um… beer. Now being a lifelong New York Giants fan, you can only imagine how I’ve been enjoying the gridiron action so far. With the reaming of Atlanta and the pummeling of the 15 – 1, heavily favored Green Bay Packers, I have admittedly been a horror for anyone to be around who doesn’t bleed blue.

Now I always break out the premium smokes when there’s hot playoff action on the telly, but when it’s my team winning, I will pass the good stuff around like a proud papa celebrating the birth of a child! And these past two weeks I’ve been like Santa on a month-late run handing out the likes of the Camacho Triple Maduro, Jaime Garcia Reserva Especiale, Montecristo Red, El Rey Del Mundo Real, and some Oliva Cain Daytonas! What am I nuts? No, just a generous BOTL who is enjoying the pigskin madness that only the National Football League can provide.

The unfortunate problem we will forever have up here in northern New Jersey is that it is just frigid outside this time of year, and even heading to the garage for a halftime shortie will undoubtedly freeze some important parts of the anatomical structure. Now come on guys, we’ve been thru this crap for over four years now, and you KNOW that I don’t smoke in the house. Yeah, go on tough guy, call me a wuss, girlie-man, or any kind of insult you’d like, but it’s not gonna change things for me. And I tried getting a really good heater for the garage, but I still freeze my little bag of onions off so I can only really go to a friend’s house where smoking is accepted, or a local cigar shop – and thank God, there are a few by me that I frequent for just these kind of occasions.

So this weekend we have two stellar match-ups: the NFC has My New York Football Giants on the road to take on the defensively tough San Fransisco 49ers, and the AFC has the Baltimore Ravens trying to take down the Patriots Brady Bunch in Foxborough, Massachusetts. If you’re a football hound anything like me, you’ll be glued to the flat screen, tossing epithets at opposing players, coaches, and referees, all while noshing an assorted mix of man-food goodness. (I’ve got a rootbeer pulled pork recipe that’ll knock your taste buds off into another stratosphere. Let me know if you want me to send it.)

Now these match ups are going to call for some special play selections direct from the JR CIGARS humidor. For the AFC game, your friendly neighborhood Polack is taking the New England Patriots along with a the Alec Bradley American Blend Classic with its Connecticut-seed Honduran wrapper intermingled with a flavorful binder and hearty blend of long fillers from the town of Condega, located in the province of Estelí, Nicaragua, to create a mild-to-medium-bodied, smooth, and creamy smoke with great balance and a sweet cedar finish. As for the NFC, well, you KNOW I’m picking the road dog Giants paired up with a Macanudo Cru Royale GIGANTE! Don’t let the Macanudo name fool you because this dark stick is packed with with a long-filler blend of Brazilian, Nicaraguan, and Dominican Mata Fina tobaccos, a smooth La Vega Especial binder, and a deep, dark, oily Ecuador Habano-seed wrapper. Plus the Blue band goes perfect with a Big Blue victory. (Sorry, dude, I told you I was an obnoxious snob.)

So, I guess what I’m saying is that it’s gonna be a rematch of the 2008 Super Bowl, Patriots vs Giants and I’ll be looking for a repeat of that amazing game. (Can anybody see where that David Tyree fella is at?) Hey, don’t let me get ahead of myself, because it’s only Friday and we’ll see on Monday if the Zman is a champ or a chump. But no matter what happens, I’m gonna be smoking up some serious premium goodness, courtesy of our friends at JR CIGARS! Ahhhh… football and cigars… say, it’s just a hunch, but I bet some ice cold beer would work with this whole shindig, whaddya think?

Stay Smoky My Friends,

JR Cigars Blog with the Zman

First off, wish me a happy birthday, ya slugs! Yeah, it’s today, December 30 and I don’t smell a day over 40.

Okay, I seriously ask you guys, how can it possibly be the end of another year? I remember celebrating the new millennium like it was yesterday and now that’s a dozen years ago? This is crazy! And now we’re facing a glitch in the Mayan calendar, hoping and praying that these ancient knuckleheads simply ran out of paper.

A hell of a lot of crap happened during the course of 2011, way too much to talk about in detail, so I might as well just stick with the cigar happenings. First off, the good people here at JR Cigars gave Steve Nathan and I our own YouTube show where we get to entertain and spread the cigar knowledge to the world. The feeling of power is somewhat overwhelming, and gratifying all-the-same. Of course when you mix a ranting, psycho Polack with a chemically imbalanced Debbie Downer of a cigar training manager, you’re going to create a chemistry that is horribly unpleasant, yet for some unexplainable reason, you just can’t stop looking at it. I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you.

As far as cigars go, JR went completely bonkers bringing in a plethora of new brands to the company, the brands you’ve been asking for, ie; Rocky Patel, My Father, Don Pepin, Jaime Garcia, NUB, La Flor Dominicana, Alec Bradley, Oliva, VegaFina, EP Carillo, CAO OSA Sol, Macanudo Cru Royale! Yeah, the list is long and deep and I personally couldn’t be happier. I am definitely gonna celebrate the new year in JR style with more smokes than I could have ever imagined enjoying. Sweet!

Now, while the good stuff was certainly good, the bad stuff was incredibly annoying. The Food and Drug Administration decided they wanted to regulate the cigar industry, treating our precious smokes in the same way that they scrutinize cigarettes. If these politico nightmares get their way, an entire industry that employs some 85,000 people will be in for the fight of their lives – so it’s up to us to fight these clueless numbskulls with every last ounce of smoke that we’ve got! January 19 is now the date that the FDA will stop taking feedback from the public on this matter and it’s up to us to make as much noise as we possibly can until then!

And now you’ve got these stooges on the Orange Bowl committee who have been bamboozled by the ancient and out of touch Frank Louseyburg of NJ and his smoke Nazi cronies. Our good friends at Camacho Cigars had a 3-year deal with the Orange Bowl to be an official sponsor of the game which included outdoor smoking lounges at the event. But three holier than thou senators stirred up a bunch of health organizations and bullied the Orange Bowl Committee and the NCAA, getting Camacho tossed out as a sponsor! Of course the Bowl organizers used the lame and shameless excuse of what a poor message a cigar company would send to kids, but somehow it’s okay for collegiate sports to advertise alcohol, fast food, and the pill that makes you call the doctor after 4 hours. From what I understand, a rum company is an official sponsor of the game, which is a hypocrisy that has us all shaking our heads. What kind of message does consuming alcohol send to our children? The message is simple: when enjoyed responsibly by adults in moderation, all of these grown-up products should be allowed to do business under the name of freedom in these here United States of America.

So what’s up for 2012? Well this FDA thing is looming and we need to educate, get the word out, and fight these fascist legislators with everything we’ve got. And while the crap keeps hitting the proverbial fan with new anti-smoking laws and continual tax hikes on our cigars, new brands will continue to come out this year as our industry will stick together like never before.

So, that’s it from the great state of Jersey, guys. You and I will be talking again next year for sure!

JR Cigars Blog with the Zman