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All those in attendance this year know that we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jose Candia. So many things in the planning would have gone off the rails if it were not for him. Opening night?....Jose sorted it. Santy?....Jose sorted it. 5th and 16th tasting?....Jose sorted it? Drivers?....jose sorted it.....and the list goes on and on and on. I have known Jose for about 13 years. ken introduced us and that is a whole other story This year i invited Jose to stay in our house for the nine days. I really wanted the rest of the house guests in the two adjoining houses to get to know him. Jose is ex Habanos S.A marketing, a cigar traditionalist and historian, a lover of Cuba, an intellectual, a pacifist, a lover of all music, a great friend and simply one of the finest human beings that I know. I love this photo.....it sums up his easy going nature so well HSA can't afford to lose people like Jose but people like Jose can't live with the direction of HSA. Such is life and many of you have found yourselves in similar circumstances during your career. Jose these days does a little cigar tourism as well as writing for some international cigar magazines. We hope to have him in Oz come October 17 for Havanathon and then travel back with him (Di and I ) for Christmas and New Years in Havana. So Jose....when you read this, thank you from all of us. You take us under your wing and show us the layers of Cuba that so few people have an opportunity to discover. Love you hermano. ......and thank you for the coconut! If you have photos of Jose during the week...put them up here as he will love to see them

There will be plenty if daily smokes today. This is only the first....

Started a little cooking last night and picked it up at 5am this morning... now I'm taking a mini cigar break (monte 5 from our host). Lots of work but well worth it. (Everything is from scratch so "work" is the key term...only three more dishes to make) Happy Thanksgiving all and share your pics! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do what you normally do when you have to decide what to wear....call your mum On a serious note....happy to help you out with a date. I know it has been sometime.

What Goo said! We all carry some form of predetermined attitude about cigars. Lets just call it prejudice for the sake of argument. It focuses us on what we buy and don't buy, try and don't try etcetera. I really have no desire to add to these but there is one factor that I believe affects more cigars in more ways than fanciful collector theories about aging cigars. That is water content. Cuban cigars smoke better when dryer. This is a taste opinion, no better or worse than other opinions. Give them a fair chance and allow them to firm up and 'gas-off,' so to speak, so that you are not tasting wet cigars. I think, your smoking experience should be better that way. Why get your first cigars and tie yourself down to unprovable theories about the age of any cigar? Of course there a people here and other places who believe in such theories, I have my own certainly, and am not innocent of empirical and anecdotal taste assumptions and prejudice. I was going to suggest that you smoke the cigars, the duplicates back to back so that you can get an idea maybe about cigar consistency. But how are you going to learn what a seasoned cigar smoke knows in 10 or 20 cigars? You won't! You must experience for yourself, shape your own opinions and then share those with the community. I will leave you with this. With thousands of cigars smoked over 30 years of smoking, when it comes to taste, your taste, there is no expert above you. There is no opinion worth more or less on this forum. Try as many in the catalog as you can. Try them at different levels of water content and even age. Don't get stuck in the rut of fatter is better, cheaper is worse and age means everything. You will cheat yourself living the prejudices of others. Enjoy your cigars in good health and welcome to FoH. -Piggy

guilty. and i have apologised to jose many times for that. a wonderful friend and a very generous guy (i'm speaking of jose, of course).

I was able to get in a Thanksgiving Day ride this morning. It was a little breezy and cold, around 45°F (7.2 °Canadian), but I had a blast and ran into lots of wildlife. I saw at least three different deer herds. How appropriate that I saw a couple of wild turkeys (they don't like to have their picture taken). Our turkey dinner will be ready in a few hours. I've got plenty of time to relax in the sun on the back deck with a PL Picador and a tall G&T. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

... plug with mashed potatoes, a pea, covered with yams!

I just had to post these up. This box had double PSP stickers on them and when I pulled them out of the box it was apparent why! Stunning. Awe inspiring really.

From recent 24:24

Love having a day off, especially when the postman delivers MAY13 PLPC, ABR14 HUPC, and DEC15 RACA. Special thanks to the crew at FOH!

"The new era and yesteryear.." Taken from our Apartment Deck at Calle N y 21 behind the Hotel Caribe. The young ladies on the deck spent hours staring into their phone. WiFi was accessible from the deck so I'm assuming they were using it. Such a stark contrast with Mom inside and the youngsters outside..

So the Fam tells me late last night, they have a change in plans and I'm cooking for Thanksgiving! So after rushing around picking out a fresh organic and recently plucked bird from a turkey farm, brined, seasoned a chilling for the Big Green Egg, I needed a reward for the spur of the moment sweat! What better way to reap the rewards. It's all in the hologram that separates fact from fiction and that famous 2010 54 ash!

LGCMDO4 smoke for me whilst the turkey is enjoying applewood smoke.

Getting started with a #1. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

This was the first item I ever received from our host and all I can say is WOW, you made a believer outta me Rob. This PSP box of 08 Monte's are phenomenal and this after sitting outside the Humidor since yesterday as await one more day of conditioning of my new Aristocrat cabinet humidor. I have many more boxes inbound of some aged stuff from our host I've been collecting. Scrumptious!! All this as the bird just got stuffed and placed in the Big Green Egg BBQ!!

Fantastic little Reyes from 2014 possible the best cigar I've smoked over the last few months (save the 2012 BTO Sig 6) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Taken home from Cuba a week ago, Left to right: Custom robustos by Yolanda, 5pack Partagas E2, Custom Robusto and corona extra from Miguel at the LCDH Pueblo La Estrella, Custom Salamones from Reynaldo at the Conde De Villanueva, Custom piramides by Yolanda, Noella glass jar, Diplo ER cuba, and lastly some farm rolls

Alphabetical order... Now, seriously, you say these are your first CCs, I suspect you don't want to really wait and "age" them before smoking. You will want to know "now" what you got there. Try those singles after a little rest and acclimatization. Sequence pretty much irrelevant for this your purpose and time scale, if you ask me.

Punch Punch to start the evening. and wrapping up with a 4+ yo Jamie Garcia. A veritable cornucopia of sweetness.

I know this is 2 pics but these are 3 gents I've been waiting to meet for a long time. I wasn't disappointed. As good of people as I expected.I guess maybe I could tell that and that's why I was looking forward to meeting them.

Rob, Jose and Armondo fishing behind the beach. Watching the gents as I was setting up the shots, it appeared that there was nothing more in the world they could have wanted. A fishing pole, water, setting sun, soft breeze, top mates and a cigar... Good on ya gents!

Nate being "tea bagged" by Glen. Did we mention Glen had a big week?

Packed like Sardines on to the next thing! (We were leaving Club Habana) In the back, from left to right, @Ethernut, (My Dad) @jacketfan and @Corylax18 In the front left to right, Cuban Driver, Lynda and Jason (our new Aussie friends)

I've been super busy and have forgotten to post. Some recent highlights: these things are great. 1999 bcg cabinet. Bolivar bliss Sir Winston my favorite robusto Alex bhk 52 robaina lancero OR mde I love these. Very rich platino 95+ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks to JK

Nice Ibis, the last few storms kind of finished mountain biking around Tahoe for the year.

Alex custom Diadema while sunning on back deck and cooking

... This tests the whole principle of the EL market theory and is redolent of my long standing opinion of the 'temporary' cigar market. The EL is designed to move (some of) the secondary collector market speculation money to the primary market, capturing the initial profit, plus speculator profit for the producer. Where the collector/speculator generally earned his money by holding cigars, creating a market (even a false one) based on age, bolstered by Tabacubas poor inventory control practices and their penchant for destroying great tasting traditional cigars, supported by the real, uncontrived history of a cigars performance; the producer in this case, has taken it upon themselves to create 'contrived' market value by adding an extra band and shiny box to an untested cigar. This is cigar speculation pure and simple and the cost and risk is high, compared to traditional regular production cigars. The potential for gain or loss is also high, based on what will eventually be the ultimate market outlook for the cigar and that fact that it becomes instantly obsolete. In one selling season it comes full circle, all that took years or decades in the past. When the commodity is viewed as simply a cigar, you just pay two or three times the amount of any other cigar, who's chance at greatness is no better or no worse. If better, you regret not buying more and potentially make money on your investment. If worse you lose, you lose money, room in your humidor and great smoking time. The whole design is to turn smokers into speculators, and I will have none of it! I am, and will remain a smoker, not collector nor speculator beyond what has always be the risk of buying a Cuban cigar. Taking the same leaves and reformatting them makes them very much the same as other cigars. However it does not create a history for them, which it obviously cannot except when judged against other 'temporary' cigars. The rationale to buy them comes in many different forms; a question for others to answer! I simply think that it is nothing more then grown men recapturing the essence of the bygone Easter egg hunt! In my day, in order to hunt Easter eggs, you were invited to a party, or were a member of a church or other group. Today, you open your wallet, stand in line at Black Friday events, wait for a new iPhone, or surf the net to find EL cigars! MHO, to each his own, no offense intended to those that enjoy the hunt. -the Pig

Pre bird Mag 50 USE ABR08. F@#king magnificent! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

10:30 MST Now it's mimosa time!!

BBF today at my work Christmas party. And happy thanksgiving to all my American friends

A Thanksgiving infused cigar? I'd be surprised if Drew Estate isn't planning on releasing one!

Sure you do! This could have been your briefest post ever. Either "0" or "zero".

... I don't know how to answer this! -the Pig

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For me it varies. I went nuts on the La Escecpion Selectos Finos. Bought over 10 boxes, probably smoked ~ 75 of them since release. Went deep on Monte Grand Edmundos. Maybe 6 boxes. Love the new Club Allones. Trying to grab them when I can. Went deep on the first two Cuban RE's. Otherwise, when it comes to EL's/RE's, I either trade for, or buy some with friends to split now and then. I'm trying to back off on the "double banders" unless I really like the smoke. Otherwise, I'm trying to go deep on the regular production cigars I want to enjoy over the years. With the exception of the LASF's, I sample RE/LE's from a particular box 1 to 2x a year.

Happy Thanksgiving! HdM du Prince (SOM February 16):

Who'd buy a stressful horse anyway?

Love the Connie 1's. That being said, I am six boxes deep in the Connie A's just based upon all of the feedback and have yet to smoke the first. I will revisit this post in a month after all the boxes have had a rest.

2 today. That didn't happen often.

Funny, after doing my shopping, including driving to downtown to get the pumpkin maringue pie and king crab legs, I took a moment for a 2012 Behike 52

You know being 50 something and single...naturally people are going to have some uncomfortable questions. I think this ensemble will put many of those questions to rest...

"Minions" Armondo and Jose volunteered to "help" me apply the specialty bands to 100 cigars for beach party. I wasn't looking forward to it.....but it went better than I expected

Trinidad Vigia. Delicious and not underfilled. Gesendet von meinem D6603 mit Tapatalk

A few recent smokes

PSD4 to start the day. Happy Wednesday!

By the way, I quit smoking cigarettes when I was 30 after smoking them for 15 years. I tried several times and failed and the only way I was able to succeed when I was 30 was by going cold turkey. No patches, every once in a while relapse, nothing. The key to that was fighting through the urges. It gets easier as time goes by but isn't easy. It will take a year or two to not think about it, but it will happen. I haven't relapsed once since that day in April almost 8 years ago. I'd had cigars here and there but not before a couple of years of quitting. To me the key was that no matter what, I have never relapsed. You will never think that cigarettes are gross since your brain has programed that odor with pleasure, but it definitely doesn't drive me crazy or make me want one at this stage. Be careful with treating a cigar as a way to cut back. Although you don't take in the amount you do with cigarettes just due to you not inhaling the smoke, there is nicotine in all tobaccos and you will absorb it through your skin, mouth and nose. So you will take in some nicotine. Sometimes a considerable amount. The difference is between cigars and cigarettes aside from chemical additives, etc is that the purpose of them are different. It's kind of like when a fine wine connoisseur drinks their fine wine because they're enjoying the flavors and maybe the slight buzz but doesn't usually go beyond a glass or two. On the other hand the recovering alcoholic that is trying to substitute large amounts of cheap vodka with fine wine? Either way, an alcoholic will drink way too much fine wine and may go bankrupt in the process. I don't mean to sound self-righteous here but I only say this as having any nicotine intake either from patches, gum, vaping, cigars, although safer alternatives, will slow down your brains recovery from it's nicotine addiction. I've been there myself. In my opinion, you need to address the nicotine addiction first. Just make sure you aren't trying to substitute one for the other and end up in the same boat afterwards. I know there will be many that disagree with me and who's to say I'm not completely wrong or off base. I just say all of this because it worked for me when I struggled with my cigarette(nicotine) addiction. You know yourself and what will work best for you and I wish you all the luck in the world dealing with this. It's definitely one of the toughest things I'd had to deal with in my life. Well, that and divorce... I've quit both by the way...