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For me it is still the most exclusive cigars in the world. The quintessence of the Habana cigar. And so I'm pleased to be able to smoke one of these cigars and share my experiences. But how to describe a cigar that is as exclusive as the Cohiba Behike from 2006? Is it possible to describe such a cigar like an ordinary one? Does she need a special highlighting? On the other hand, a Cohiba Behike is just a cigar. Even a rare one. RG: 52 Length: 192 mm Longfiller, Totalmenta a Mano by Norma Fernandez Sastre Optics: The word "immaculately" describing the visual appearance of the rare cigar with the shiny satin finish, colorado colored wrapper actually quite good. Especially as a picture is worth a thousand words. The photo was taken from my cigar-blog. Coldsmell: Even the cold smell is quite complex. The cigar presents itself quite velvety. She reminds me of pastry and milk chocolate. Nevertheless, it has a spicy component of herbs and dried apples. Compared with a Cohiba from the standard series, the Behike makes a milder and more balanced impression. 1st fifth: The Double Robusto starts quite mild. This impression continues into the 4th fifth. Actually, I would have expected a stronger cigar. The first half is dominated by a subtle, neutral sweetness. As aromatic-spicy component is vanilla and something that I would describe as "sweet grass" detectable. These aromas are joined by soft leather. The photo was taken from my cigar-blog. 2nd fifth: The sweetness of the first section is continued seamlessly. Milk and toffee provide a sweet and aromatic component. Also light roasted notes by toast and roasted hazelnuts were starting. The Cuban Touch is formed by aromas of dry ground and some balsa. At the same cigar has very creamy smoke. 3rd fifth: In addition to the flavors of the second section, tart flavors of black tea were added. The woody notes increase while sweet and nutty flavors slightly fade into the background. 4th fifth: From the middle the sweet aromas are replaced by slightly more powerful flavors. Here dominate moderately strong roasted flavors. Espresso forms with a certain aromatic sweetness a successful transition. Dry ground and spicy-tart wood notes indicates unmistakably to Cuba. The photo was taken from my cigar-blog. 5th fifth: In the last fifth the moderately strong roasted flavors continue. Viewed from the flavors, this section is similar to the last section. However, the earthy and woody flavors are more present. A slight freshness that reminds me of menthol emerges on the lip. Conclusion: In order not to fall into any adulation I keep my personal conclusion deliberately short. The Cohibe Behike of 2006 is an exceptionally good cigar. In my opinion with its surprisingly mild and rather sweet flavor it is not necessarily a typical Cohiba. Whether the cigar, apart from the collector's value, is worth its price, everyone likes to decide for themselves.

Mons blended, Mons rolled, Monsdale. Truly remarkable and as my friend said, it is surely a "celebration of life." Thank you to all those who have helped, guided, and shared with me over the years.

As a rule made in China products have no quality. I avoid them even if I have to pay more.

2002 Grandes de Espana

Memorial Day line up....08 Conn #1, VR Anniv RE, 05 ERDM PC, 98 Sancho Panza

I was going through an old SD card yesterday, pulling off files to keep etc etc when I stumbled across an absolute gem of Photoshop job (I hope... ) which in my mind, most definitely deserves public recognition. No better place to air this than the water hole surely...? I will let Rob try talk himself out of this one. However I do believe this masterpiece to be the work of a Canadian member circa 2011, as the rest of the photos are from Cuba and Toronto (?) in August 2011. If you do know who is responsible, please feel free to credit them for their creative genius and shower them in praise here. Cheers

Todays Shipment: Presidential Asia Pacific LFDC Grandiosos, Monte 2s and 02 MdO 4s... Its good to be back! haha

Thats me, cheers, Alex

In-n-out burger double double animal style protein style with raw onions added does it for me every time

Meat pies are not junk food. They are their own essential food group. Wish I could find a decent steak and kidney pie around my way.

Alastair it was nice working with you.......

If only I had one to smoke, I would

Just the thought of having a Havana Ritual blows my mind.

Thank you for the review! It's so nice to see someone actually smoking those white whale cigars

Thanks everyone for all your wishes....having a glass of wine now to celebrate But still no shoes

agree with those that have suggested the Ideales, I did a bit of a smoking tour of Europe last year, and the ideales was by far the best, closely followed by the PL Short robusto from Italy. I went to this shop, was very helpful. also found an NC regional, didnt think they existed. a Nicaraguan called 'Caruntumi' Germany has some of the best cigar lounges ive been two. best bet would be to throw some money your mates way and say "Get me anything that says Alemania" there were cigars in Prague, but i didnt see any regionals, just your normal ones. good luck with the hunt. i found most LCDH's were pretty good if you dropped em an email, say when you or your friend are coming, what did they have in stock and how much

Some recommendations from friends. Dresden Altmarkt Galerie, Webergasse 1, Shop Name: Barbarino Vienna, Margaretenstraße 42 Shop Name: Hazar Vienna: ask Alex

MPS just killing it today.

Cap, fakes are plentiful throughout Asia. China is a boom market for Habanos but also for the fake trade. I am not singling China out here, you can go anywhere in Asia and spot them easily. The fakes one sees in Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia etc are not of Chinese origin but Central and South American origin. Eastern Europe is also a haven for fakes. Australia has plenty. When you have global fake supply companies bombarding retailers with offers of $190 Cohiba Robusto etal (full inventory of pseudo Habanos), retailers who do not know purchase, and even some who do know purchase regardless. $'s talk. I have detailed it before but when HSA actually spent 3 years and $400,000 taking a Singapore retailer to court for selling fakes, the court process quickly became a case of HSA having to prove that the retailer knew they were selling fakes. The retailer denied any knowledge and stated that he was selling them in good faith. The end result was a fine and 16 weeks jail time from memory. That was a poor return on HSA time and $ investment. And now Plain Packaging in Oz and other countries shortly. What a field day.

2002 Ninfa

PCC have confirmed today that the Hologram in question is indeed found on their current stock and that the Hologram must have changed some time in 2013. This is one of the reasons we do not mention vendors on the forum. Whomever this is would have been tarnished for doing nothing wrong at all.

Now that the heat has gone down time for the shipments again. One is not like the others Presidential TEB 2008 Box of LGC2s bring a tear to my eye Exciting times!

For Memorial Day, my father enlisted me for the rib portion of the barbecue. We had six racks of fresh (never frozen) baby backs to eat, which were prepped and dry rubbed the day before, and foiled overnight. prep is simply trimming excess fat and odd bits, and stripping the membrane from the bone side. Rub is a brown sugar and chili base with cayenne, cumin salt and pepper. I was limited on space, so I used a rib rack to help get all 6 racks on the 22" space, all off the heat. I also used a water pan over the coals to help modulate the temperature for the meat closest to the fire, and turned all racks bone side towards the fire. Despite the crowd you'll see below, I was able to get them all in with space between them, and they cooked surprisingly evenly. I did rotate after 2.5 hrs anyways, just in case. Wood of preference for this cook was cherry. I prefer fruit wood alone for ribs, so as to not overwhelm the pork and spice taste. Total cook was about 5.25hrs, and the ribs were a big hit. Great consistency and flavor, and just enough smoke. We served them dry, but had a nice sticky KC style sauce on the side, which for the one rib I did allow to touch it, was a very nice compliment if that's your thing. Enjoy.

^Weapons online All systems nominal = )

Nice shoes! Must grabbed those from Dee while she wasn't looking...

Weapons Online!

From a recent visit to Varadero LCDH. Punch Punch BAM JUN 12 HU Connie A OPG DIC 13

I still have never had an appalling box of cigars that has ever really become brilliant. I have never had an exceptional box of cigars young go totally bad/bland for no apparent reason. I find bitterness or blandness in young cigars to be mostly a result of poor fermentation, poor blending or too high a moisture content. There are plenty of cigars however that (IMHO) need time to meld (age) to be at their subjective best. This to me is simply because of their blend. The Upmann Number 2 is one of those cigars for me.

Last night in Santa Margherita Italy with a wonderful 2009 CCE...

'van' in the low countries has the same meaning as 'von'... but carries none of the implications of royalties. this is because the only people who bear the last names 'von' nowadays are people who are descendants of the nobility pre-1918 (when the Kaiser still reigned). of course, they are no longer 'noble' because the existence and titles of such vanished with the Kaiser in the revolution This is true... sorry for the forced history lessons, Dan back on topic now:

Thanks for a review of such a rare cigar... the construction and sheen look immaculate! The way you described it it sounds delicious.. I am sure I will not be able to smoke one of this ever though I have seen some in person. I never could justify that kind of purchase. Thanks again for these pics and reading

I believe that is now worth 4x or more - nice investment. but I rather see them smoked!

I have no problems getting into the websites of Lcdh Stuttgart or the Lcdh Nürnberg(Nuremberg).Both have Prizes listed and you can get it in different languages including english.

While that is likely a nice cigar, it has nothing at all to do with the extraordinarily rare and expensive cigar that the OP reviewed...

A promise is a promise, and when I met Rob in Nice (France ) and Lisa with Frank in Havana Dreams in NY, several years ago, I said one day I will smoke on the deck. That day is arrived and last Friday El Prez came to pick me up at Brisbane airport, waiting for me more than 2 hours due to delay . 36 hours, door to door, for enjoying a cigar with good friends. This is the revenge for my hard working-life :-) Did not even go to the hotel, straight to FOH where I had the honor to meet also lovely D. Few minutes and we where already smoking a Bolivar and Smithy arrived few minutes after we lit it, I was tired but not sleepy so an hour later we drop in the hotel for a quick shower and again on the deck meeting the usual friday evening guys that drop in. We enjoyed another few cigars and some drinks before going to have one of my best fried fish ( what was it Rob ? snapper? ). Saturday morning with my driver ( Smithy ) we went around Brisbane seeing the main spots and then headed for Gold Coast where together with Rob , Diana, Lisa and Frank we had a great week end and some "Authentic Cuban Food" friday night at dinner. Isn't it Smithy? Had some nice red wines, a lot of cigars. Few shiraz where really a top. I was forced to sleep together with Smithy. No comment, unless Prez likes to add . The Sunday was very relaxing , drop for a quick spot on the beach, said hello to the Ayala's living in loco and then back to the airport, using the Tambourine mountain road ( 650 meters...they call them mountains in Australia ) and arrived at airport 40 minutes before my flight was leaving. Photo's will say much more that what I have written but I have to again say : Rob, D, Lisa , Frank and Smithy..thank you . Now it's your turn for coming to Avellino, Italy.

Hi, i'm from Vienna too. Besides Hazars shop, i can also recommend the shop at "Westbahnhof" they have a nice selection. I can send you a pricelist of almost all the cigars, that are available here. Also, if you want, i can call the shops and ask to reserve a box of the ideales for your friend.

I take my day off seriously

Punch Punch 2013 BAM codes as of late have been off the charts. My new go to cigar hands down, also the BTO Sig 6's have been great and finding them hard to stay away from.

Some vendors even scratch the microprinting off.

The solution is for Cuba to lower their prices SO MUCH that it is not worth producing fakes. I'm sure this will happen any week now and I am making room in my humidors for the extra stock I will be able to afford.

Scary indeed. I hate even seeing links to these things as it can give some ideas that otherwise wouldn't know where to look. Maybe taking screenshots of the pics instead of paving the road? With news of China asking for Cuban help with producing cigar grade tobacco recently, I fear that sooner than later we will start seeing evidence of complete frauds being passed as genuine and likely through sources that we'd never have suspected.

15 year old Partagas Serie Du Connaisseur No. 1

Strange. The Petit No. 2s I had were absolutely fantastic. Mind you I might have been exhausted, but the Petit no. 2 I had the just the other day was sweet and absolutely delicious. Not to mention that it had quite the kick, and the lithiumy/ammonia taste although noticeable was not anywhere near bad. Shame as I don't remember the box code, but it was an absolutely brilliant stick.

Up here we make fun of people who use the term carpetbagger.

As a born/bred, true, deep south boy/redneck, we NEVER use the term "you guys" and make fun of it when we hear Northerners/Yankees/Carpetbaggers use it down here. We may use the term "girls" to address a group of men in a joking, sometimes derogatory, manner. The term "Y'all" applies equally to men/women/boys/girls and all animals.

I'm hoping that one day I'll again be able to even say that I have a wife or girlfriend

I find your survey fatally flawed in that questions 3-5 never allow for a discrete response to the 'mixed-sex' group. Mixed sex defaults to the masculine. Not saying that's right, not saying its wrong ... Just sayin'. We the Deep South (USA) we use y'all for all three.

Who knew Cohiba Esplendidos came in so many different sizes!

I will be the first to say we are all entitled to our own opinion ,that being said I think some of your comments are short sited and sound like you lack experience with Domestic cigars. I have smoked cigars for 15 years and can tell you this, there was a time when there were no places like this to get Cubans and I had no choice but Domestics. My rotation now is about 50/50. Pete Johnson has been making wonderful cigars at a fair price for more than 10 years. Pardon cigars like most domestics have lots of mediocre cigar.,but there are lots of gems like the 1964 principe Maduro and the 1926 #35 natural for about 10$ that are complex and are always have perfect construction. Fuente has the Hemingway series and though I'm not a fan of the classic and larger sizes I will say this the signature cammoroon and Maduro are exceptional ,the short story ,best seller ,and work of art in camoroon and Maduro are verrrrry good and are reasonable in price at 9$ or less. The Don Carlos is also a great line that age wounderfuly for under 10$. The VSG made by Fuente is also a very good cigar for 10-15$ Now I think that there are many in the states that post on this site and to question why a member wants info on Nc's is kind of rude. That's my .02 cents ymmv.