Letting My Mind Wander With A: Pre Embargo Henry Clay

[polarbear]

A New Review for the Month guys

Somthing special for ya this month

Let me know what you think

Merry Christmas

PB

If I’m honest, these last 18 months have been pretty awesome for me. I’ve spent a total of 8 weeks outside of Australia on various holidays, visiting Europe, the US and New Zealand. I was best man at 2 of my good friend’s weddings. I met and fell in love with my current girlfriend who, for reasons I can’t seem to fathom, is exceptionally fond of me. My cigar collection has improved by leaps and bounds and my understanding of tobacco has followed with it. I’ve smoked some truly amazing aged cigars as well. Thanks to the generosity of many of the cigar enthusiasts I call friends, I have been able to lay my hands on cigars that were rolled in the 60’s, the 90’s and early 2000’s. The most exciting and important thing that has happened during these last 18 months is a more recent development. I’ve entered the world of property ownership. Buying my first house and living in it all by myself. Tonight is the first night I will be spending in my new place. I’ve spent the last 3 days packing up my life and transporting it here. There is crap everywhere.

As I sit on MY couch, in the living room of MY house I feel a celebratory cigar is in order. I have just the one picked out. I open the humi and remove a Henry Clay Half Corona from 1950. That’s right boys and girls. A pre embargo Cuban Cigar. If there was ever an occasion to smoke something of this nature, it’s tonight. A friend of mine who is really into his well-aged cigars and has connections I can only dream of, hooked me up with a pair of these cigars late last year. They sat in my humi until I could think of an occasion worthy of such a cigar; settlement went through on this place and I knew that was reason enough to celebrate. I take the cigar from the humi and return to my couch. Before I cut the cap I shout “does anyone mind if I smoke this in here?” The silence of an empty house answers my question. “well, that’s that then” I say with a smile.

This Cigar is old. Even if you didn’t know what it was, you’d know it had some serious age on it. The cello it was wrapped in is a dark yellow, a by-product of the oils of the cigar contacting and soaking into the cellophane for 6 decades. The cigar has a perfect box press, again, from being wedged in a box with 24 of its brothers, waiting for the day when it met its maker. The wrapper is fragile and rough but smells of nothing but mellow, aged tobacco. The head cigar tapers ever so slightly, forming a bullet type cap. If find my sharpest cutter, for fear that anything other than a razor sharp blade would tear this fragile, aged wrapper and carefully cut the cap. A dry draw shows me a perfect amount of resistance and flavours of aged tobacco with a slight floral note. I light a cedar spill, again, using a soft flame, wanting to ease the heat into the foot for fear of damaging it. The foot welcomes the flame, almost like it was ready to be burned after waiting so long. I take a draw and am hit with a big blast of white pepper with a touch of the floral note from the dry draw on the finish. I get comfortable on my couch, shielded from the storm that is raging outside and through the sound of the rain on my roof and the frogs croaking happily in my garden, allow my mind to wander.

Holy crap! I bought a goddamned house. I still have trouble coming to terms with it. This is my house. All mine (well, mostly the Banks, but you get the idea). I gotta admit, a year ago I never thought I’d be in this position. I was earning a decent wage and was very happy spending it on holidays and lots and lots of cigars. I had some savings in the bank, but when they got to a level where I figured I could take care of anything that could go wrong I stopped saving. Then the fun began. For the first time in my life I was earning good money and had very few overheads. I was sharing a house with someone but the rent was low and I never really believed in saving for the sake of saving, so after a period of time I found myself with quite a bit of disposable income. That was pretty awesome. It was a good feeling to be able to drop big cash on a box of HTF cigars, or take the missus out to a fancy restaurant once a month, being able to fly to Melbourne 3 or 4 times a year to check up on the baby sister. It was liberating. The closest thing to a life without compromise that I will ever see. Eventually though, I started to realise that I wasn’t doing anything with my life. Don’t get me wrong, I had a good job, a great missus, great friends and an outstanding social life, but I thought back and realised that the only difference between what I had in my early 20’s and what I have now (in my late 20’s) was more cigars. I decided it was time to grow up and be an adult.

The opening act of a cigar that has waited so long to show itself does not disappoint and yet, is a strange thing. There is a serious white pepper note on the pallet combined with rich toasted tobacco but there is no pepper through the nose, a sweet floral note wafts from my nostrils, no spice at all through the nose. I have never encountered this before. The finish is long and rich with a lingering spice and more of the toasted tobacco. The ash is a start white and even when burned, the ash helps to show this cigars age, appearing flaky but solid, not dropping from the foot until I command it too.

The decision sorta happened overnight. I decided I didn’t want to be in my 30’s and still sharing a house with someone who was happy to do all the grown up stuff like paying bills and sorting out insurance. Here I was, a 27 year old that had never physically paid a power bill in his life. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I didn’t even know how to grocery shop. Every month I handed over a wad of cash to my housemate and that covered my rent, power and food for the week. I’d never had to budget before because when my money ran out I just stopped spending it and lived on 2min noodles until payday. When I sat down and thought about all the things I needed to know in order to run a household, I was pretty daunted. Sure, I was 27, but I had the responsibilities of a 17 year old. Was I ready to jump into a deep end that was this deep? My father had agreed to help me out with the finance anyway he could and even though I had a little bit stashed away I figured I’d need his help talking to the banks. He was happy to oblige and before I knew it I was sitting in an office with his bank manager and we were going over my finances. Then the fun began. I had with me a pile of documents. The bank manager looked over everything and asked the question I’d been dreading since I sat down. She put the statements down and said “where has all your money gone?” I asked “what do you mean?” “Well, you’ve got a good income and decent savings but there is still a fair bit of money that has come in and I can’t see where it’s gone”. “Ah, yes, that. Well, I spent 8 weeks overseas last year on holidays to the tune of about 25 grand”. Her eyebrows shot up. “What?” “Yeah, well, I sorta lived it up for a little while before deciding to take the plunge, I didn’t think I’d be here talking about house buying for a while so I decided to cross some things off my bucket list before I took the plunge into adulthood”. “I see… well, that does sound nice”. “Yeah” I replied, “It’s been a pretty awesome 12 months”.

The cigar finds its feet, and what an interesting cigar it is. The white pepper notes from the first third have all but vanished, overpowered by that rich toasted tobacco and a touch of bread. Through the nose, however, the pepper is coming through. Spicy but smooth. The cigars foot barely gives me any smoke to enjoy between puffs but when I draw on the cigar I am rewarded with thick, chewy smoke. This is indeed a strange beast.

Despite the interesting questions the bank decided that my credit was good and before I knew it I was hunting for a place to call my own. I had a pretty tight budget and housing prices in Darwin are going up daily. I found a nice little place that had enough room for what little stuff I had and eventually a deal was reached for a price the owner and I we were happy with and carton of beer thrown in to sweeten the deal (this was Darwin after all). Money changed hands, so to speak, and before I knew it I had keys to my very own piece of property. I remember the day after it settled, I walked into my empty house and stood there, soaking up the silence and thinking to myself “now the fun part starts, anyone can buy a house, keeping it is the hard part”. I walked through the place, keys in hand, just as I had done a couple of times before. This time it felt different. This time it was mine. All mine. I can paint the walls pink and set fire to the backyard if I want, and no one say a thing about it. It was an unusual feeling, walking through my house, planning all the changes that would need to be made to make it my own. It was a little bit daunting. The house was by no means a run-down piece of crap, but there were little aspects of it that shat me. I could live with them for a while, but if I was going to be here for a couple of years they would have to go eventually. I locked my front door and went home for a celebratory dinner with the missus. The real word had just started for me.

The final act. And what an act it is. The toasted tobacco has intensified, the pepper is back on the pallet and the floral has returned through the nose. The finish? A combination of rich tobacco and dark chocolate. The strength of this cigar has moved itself up from a touch below medium to a touch over medium. The ash holds on as long as I care it to. Not getting its revenge on me by falling before I command it. There is no tar, no harshness of any kind. Just rich flavours and long finishes draw after draw. Is this the reward someone might get for choosing to age a cigar for almost a lifetime? Never have I thought such patience justified until now.

So, after all the packing and what not I find myself here, in my house. Wow, all the things that could go wrong are countless. For the first time in my life I am operating without a safety net. Any expenses that come in will need to be budgeted for. I’ll have to foresee things that could go wrong and save accordingly. I’ll need some form of emergency savings for all the things that go wrong that I didn’t see coming. What am I going to do for dinners? How often should I water the garden? Will it cost me a fortune to leave the ceiling fans running all day when I’m not here? What am I going to do for a TV? A Couch? A Toaster? While I admit they are far from world ending concerns, when I sat down and thought about them, it became obvious that I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m sure I’ll figure it out, and if I don’t, I’ve got 20 packet of 2min noodles in the cupboard to get me by until I do. All childish concerns aside, It feels good, sitting here in my home. The start of something. The beginning of the next stage of my life. People always said to me “enjoy your youth, you won’t know what you had until It’s gone”. That is true, and I did enjoy the hell out of my younger years, but for the first time in my life, as I sit here and smoke my cigar it feels pretty damn good to be a home owner. Will I still feel this way in 4 weeks once the novelty wears off? Or in 6 months when the Rates go up? I guess only time will tell, but right now, it feels pretty damn good to be me.

I feel the cigar burning my fingers, I’ve lost track of time and now this short smoke is pretty much finished. It is not harsh at all but I’ve not unpacked my nubber yet and I don’t fancy starting out my first night as a home owner with seriously burnt lips. I put the cigar down in a makeshift ashtray I made out of an old beer can and smile to myself. A 63 year old cigar smouldering in an empty beer can. It doesn’t seem right. I grab the nub and open my front door, throwing what remains of my cigar into the flower bed next to the house. That’s better, a more fitting end to such a great cigar. I sit back on my couch and think about what’s to come. Things will have to get tighter. No more spending half my wage on cigars and alcohol anymore. No more “see, want, buy” type of living. No more living the high life 6 nights a week. It’s a discouraging thought. There are still times I sit and ask myself “are you sure this was such a good idea?” But then I look around and my home. Filled only with my possessions and the question seems less important. A lot of my friends have ventured into the unknown only to return defeated, I’ve always said to them “at least you had a go, that’s more than 90% of people ever manage”. If this all turns to crap and falls down around my ears at least I can say I had a go. It might not happen, in fact I don’t think it will, but until then I may as well figure out what I’m going to do about dinner… I think I’ll order a pizza.

[paulF]

Brilliant review as usual

Congrats on the house and i believe you did the right thing buying your own place.

Best of luck with it all and thanks for a great review

[Ianbock]

Great review PB, really enjoyable reading , congrats on the house

[Larsy]

Enjoy reading these. Very nice!

[LordAnubis]

Responsibilities... bahhahahah.... excellent read as always mate. Great stuff!

[laficion]

Great stuff mate, Congratulation on the house, I've had some of the ,"HENRY CLAY" pre-Embargo cigars and ,I must say,

They are very good indeed. Thank you for the great review .

[Cohiba Stevie]

Ladies and gentlemen...

That is cigar tasting....

Bravo. A tremendous read.

Merry Christmas mate.

[finecigar]

Great read and review as usual! Thanks for sharing and congrats on the house!

[Cohiba Stevie]

And if I could add...

I have also spent the last year in the process of a house purchase.

It's a new build and it's just been completed.

It's a 3 story semi detached with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a great garden.

I move in on the 30th of jan. I can't effin wait.

I also have a special cigar to smoke for the occasion that was gifted to me by one of the moderators of this great forum andy Ryan.

It's a monsdale rolled by Enrique mons and I hear they are exquisite.

I will report back lol.

[GernBlansten]

Great review and a really fun read. Well done!

[ramon_cojones]

PB, can you include a tl;dr version also for those of us who don't have the luxury of reading at work?

[PapaDisco]

Can't shop for groceries + 60 year old Cubans = perfect! lol! Very well written story and review. Good luck in your home ownership adventure!

[polarbear]

PB, can you include a tl;dr version also for those of us who don't have the luxury of reading at work?

Sure... whats that?

[KoreanCowboy]

Excellent review! Not sure how I missed this until now. Quite amazing that a 63 year old cigar can still hold it's own. Very nice in deed. And congrats on the house sir!

[Hoshneer]

Yeah, I would of never imagined. Good review.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[Pedro2486]

Great review. Better story.

I guess the tale you tell really resonates with me as I sit out the front of my half built home feeling pretty damned pleased with my self for also taking the plunge into home ownership.

Thanks for the review mate

[Habana Mike]

So how's the home ownership going mate?

More Ramen or Henry Clay?

Very enjoyable read - thanks for backposting!

[polarbear]

So how's the home ownership going mate?

More Ramen or Henry Clay?

Very enjoyable read - thanks for backposting!

It's been good.

A little stressful at times, and there are no where near as many cigars coming through my door as there used to be, but all in all I'm really digging it

[mikek]

Congratulations on your new house! Excellent review on the Henery Clay,from what I have read they were the full bodied Cubans of the day! Thats what I remember from Cubans of the 70's,especialy in lanceros,and panatelas,the morphing pepper,and for lack of A better word A kind of floral.

Thanx For Shareing This!!!!