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BLM JUN 08 ERDM Choix Supreme courtesy of @encephalization This was a delight to smoke and was taken to the nub. Thank you, friend. ??

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SOM SEP 15 Punch Punch from a cab. Yum again. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

'16 Partagas Maduro paired with a Penn Brewery St. Nikolaus Bock Bier. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

16 JLS2. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Finishing a box of Monte #2's - EAR FEB-02 - had saved them for special events; new job, promotion, grandchild, loosing job .... Since starting to order from FOH decide to smoke them away and move on to other CC's. Since it was a post breakfast cigar, tried the OJ with a Monte from the FOH video - pretty good way to start the day!

Diplomáticos Norteños 2018 - Edición Regional Canadá UEB Ago 2018 I must thank @Thirds for gifting me this recent Canadian Regional Edition to review. I had received the same cigar to review from @Chucko8 around six months ago, with the same box code, so I looked forward in anticipation to smoking this today, especially since I very much enjoyed that last one. The Diplomaticos Nortenos was released in the second half of 2018 in six thousand 10-count dress boxes. There have been seven Regional releases in the Diplomaticos marca, three in 2018 alone! This cigar also represents the tenth Canadian Regional Edition since 2007. It is a Robusto vitola, with a 50 ring gauge x 124 mm (or 4⅞ inches) length. I had written in my previous review that when I find the Diplomaticos No.2 on the savoury side, it can have strong notes of capsicum or bell pepper and paprika spice. Other Diplomaticos cigars I've enjoyed over the years have been sweeter...more cinnamon spice and nutmeg. This Nortenos Robusto was again unmistakably on the sweet side. For me, Diplomaticos cigars are all about sourdough and it was evident here from the first few puffs. I experienced a refined combination of sourdough, cream and strawberries mainly throughout the cigar. I've had Diplomaticos No.2 cigars that have been quite toasty and potent in paprika spice, this cigar had a hint of that paprika spice which made it tangy on the palate. This did not detract from its slightly 'sweeter' profile. There was little to no capsicum or bell pepper. In the last third I felt the cigar heat up a little and detected a hint of roasted nut. The construction was excellent. I only ashed three times in total as ash-length was over an inch long, easily. I nubbed this as far as I could go. The mild, sweeter Diplomaticos flavour profile really resonated with me. Smoking time was approximately 70 minutes, which is about average for me in smoking a Robusto-sized cigar. In regards to value, well...these things are relative. Due to higher Canadian taxes this cigar will most likely cost you more than your regular production Diplomaticos No.2 to acquire. However, I'm Australian and expensive tobacco duties are 'par-for-course' for me, so I'm grateful to have sampled this quality Canadian Regional Edition cigar today.

Thanks for the great cigar@torsion! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Keeping it simple on a rainy day at the lounge of the local b&m.

C&C Time. Bolivar Silver Jubilee from our host.. [emoji4] Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

16 fonseca no 1. Had to cut to a minuto to smoke it. Oh well life could be worse

Ahhh, Saint Barths!

2018

EMA MAR 2007 SC El Principle. So good right out of the gate. Coffee/Cocoa, earth hints of coconut and vanilla flavors with an underlying sweetness. No harsh edges whatsoever. What a nice little surprise !!

C&C Time. Regios (2017) from our host. Yummmm Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

I use an OtterBox, Cigar Caddy. It has got to be at least 15 years old. I’m not even sure that they make them anymore, since they have been doing so well with their cell phone cases. There are other brands that make similar ones now though. This one holds about 40 Churchill sized cigars, and obviously, a lot more if they are smaller cigars. The only reason I put my cigars in bags is because the foam inserts start to smell after a while of direct contact with the cigars, It is air tight. You cant even open it after it has been in a pressurized airplane. That is what the black knob is for. You unscrew it out of it’s hole so you can open the case again.

Well...that’s a pretty good day. Yeah, won the lottery. Got to love Cuba being Cuba. Box on the right has cedar liner, one on the left, nada.

Siglo II from UGO SEP 18. Not ready yet. It is just starting to develop some of the grassy Cohiba sweetness, but there’s still too much bitter mongrel to this stick. Leave another year before trying again.

MSU ENE 18 Party Shorts Amazing sweet vanilla corn from first to last. Just got this a month ago, first cigar from the box and it is everything I wanted it to be.

Today is my darling sister's 50th birthday Have a fantastic day little sis and looking forward to your party next week PS you are finally catching up to me

So guys. I ended up winning the auction and got the C230A new for a very good price. I'll make a deeper review after a few months of using it. A few observations from the get go: - well packed and we'll protected. - heavy and robust. - finitions look amazing. - smell is heaven. - easy to install. Feel free to ask me question if needed in the meantime. That's how the beast look like.

Went back to the LCDH today and found a couple of interesting boxes. SMA SEP 17 Cohiba Piramides Extra ETP MAR 16 BRC Tubos ARS SEP 19 Media Luna (3 boxes) ARS SEP 19 Topes (2 singles)

RYJ Short Churchill LAT JUN 17

When top level guys look down, they see only shitheads; When bottom level guys look up, they see only assholes . . .

I will do a warehouse wrap-up later today/early tomorrow. Actually i will morph it into a "What's Hot What's Not" thread. Some fantastic finds yesterday. My top 6 from yesterday. They will be up over the next few weeks. Click on the photos for a higher resolution.

TOS NOV 16 HUPC. My first. Wow. Really great Upman flavors plus add extra strength right up my ally

Lunchtime Nudie. Another set it and forget it burn. Or is it light it and don’t fight it. Cheers This is my 2nd HUPRR from EPM ENE 19 and I thinks they need some time down still. Some muted Upmann flavors right now with @RDBbitters domination. Dip #2 young and extremely smokeable. I am really starting to like this flavor profile. The Whistle Pig Farmstock Rye is nice too Morning C&C Time. MC#4 24:24 REG MAY 18 ?. Smoking the house down. Daughters of the Wind Cremello. Thanks to @Islandboyfor posting on this Marca last year. Not easy to find and I grabbed a few different vitolas for sampling. This one was complex and interesting.

One of my most recent purchases from 24:24. PSP Fonseca no1 UTL MAY 18. Not sure how the wrappers are graded without taking them out of the paper but the aroma and construction are spot on. Smell like a box of Epi 2s.

I bought some singles at the Saint Martin LCDH today. Carol told me she is getting new stock in the morning, so I didn’t buy anything else today. I will go back in the morning. These should hold me over until then.?

Mail call! All from our gracious host and the ladies who keep him in line. When I was in USMC boot camp, my grandmother sent me a canister of her fudge. That was almost exactly 40 years ago. Until today, that was the best mail call evah. FOH knocked this out of 24:24 stadium. Say goodnight boys and girls, you are going down for at least a 60 day nap.

2019 has proved/is proving to be an excellent year! I really can't fault too many cigars at all. The good news is that competition to get into the list of top 10 "What's Hot" is extreme. Construction is solid. There are still too many variations to my liking but when they pay 20 a month.....what do they expect. The big improvement over 17/18 is in the quality of wrapper being used in regular production cigars. With another good season finishing shortly (three in a row), let's hope that the wrapper issue is behind them for a few years to come. The bad news is that supply is still tight across many lines. Many cigars such as the Partagas 898, La Gloria Cubana MO4, QD Corona are not being produced. Others such as the SP Belicoso, Behike, Monte Especiales, Siglo VI, Lancero etal are being produced sporadically and in small numbers. Why? Well they now have the tobacco but not the production resources to deliver their portfolio. Welcome to socialism. In summary, what we are seeing is generally very good. Unfortunately we are rarely seeing the volume that is required to satisfy the market. "What's Hot" Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona Punch 898 (AP Regional) Partagas Lusitania Montecristo Number 2 H. Upmann Number 2 El Rey Del Mundo Tainos (AP Regional) Saint Luis Rey Regio Trinidad Topes Quai D'Orsay 54 Trinidad fundadores "What's Not " This should be reclassified "Don't buy blind" Hoyo De Monterrey Elegantes H. Upmann Mag 54 (10's) Partagas D 6 Cuaba "everything right now Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill Romeo y Julieta Short churchill San Cristobal La Punta.

HdM LHSJ SGA DIC 15 Last one from a 10er. Might be best one from the box. My experience with these is tubos have smoked better than from slb. This has to be top 5 regular production cigars being made in Cuba right now.

I bought the large cigar fridge MON3800A from Raching’s precision line in May 2019. Top of the range and about USD 2,200. Connects to WiFi and controllable from your WeChat account, including a graph of temperature and humidity. Produced in Shenzhen and delivered to me in HK. The sales lady was fairly professional and courteous with good after sales service. The standard colour for the precision line screams Tweeter-in-Cheeto and the other limited colour options are all a bit third world. I went for cherry, which somewhat matches my boring office. The least fuggly of the lot. The colour options and the way it integrates with the control panel are all a bit goofy and could be improved. The glass is sepia tinged which looks more like nicotine staining. Frankly function is more important than form to me in this instance, but clearly there is room for improvement here. Inside the construction is good. Design is good. Quality is good. Performance is excellent. The cedar lining is well done, smells excellent, and air movement is very good. I’ve filled mine with lots of extra sensors and the performance has been excellent. The instructions are clear and user friendly. Easy to set and forget. It was easy to set up and it came up to the right temp and humidity within 24 hours and has stayed there consistently ever since. The door seals very well and easily. The shelves slide well and can be taken out easily. They are a good size; see some of the photos below for examples of what can fit on a shelf. I typically open the fridge, slide out a whole shelf, put it down on my desk, close the fridge door, then take my time to get what I need from the shelf I’ve removed. Humidity and temperature in the device are rock solid. The main problem in HK is high humidity and temperature during the dinner, so it’s important to have a system that reduces high humidity as well as increasing low humidity. This device does so without missing a beat. In comparison, I bought a cigar fridge from a Chinese company called SICAO and the performance of that has been highly disappointing. It took more than 8 months to settle in to a workable range, and after that the humidity bounces around within a 5% range on a regular basis. Totally unworkable in my opinion, so I use the SICAO unit as an overflow unit to store bagged boxes (with Bovedas in the bags). So it was a relief that the Raching unit works so well. There is a mini shelf that can be used to quickly dry box cigars within a couple of hours. It seems to drop the humidity and increase the temp just in that small compartment without change to the main unit. I haven’t bothered testing that much. One point to maker is that there is a lot of air constantly moving around inside the Raching. There are I think 3 high capacity fans always on and a number of inbuilt sensors. I think they’ve decided that the way to keep even humidity is to circulate a lot of air all over the inside of the unit to avoid inconsistent areas. I’ve started to think about whether there’s any downside to that... Are the delicate aromas of my cigars being syphoned off into the air vortex?!? Answering that question is above my pay grade. So, in summary (out of 5*): Function 4.5* Aesthetics 3* Ease of use 4* Service /after sales service 4* Would I recommend? - 4* Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It’s Tacos Wednesday! Love the looks of these.

One of my all-time fave ERs, so happy to find another box ?

Great pairing

Thx FOH Auction..!! 2013 898...

I have a soft spot for 06. As a retailer, after years of despair (from 98), 06 was a turn around year in many ways. Until the recent dip due to large wrapper shortage (17/18), every year was largely a slight improvement on the previous. 06 13/14 (hard to split). The flavour profile on some of my favourite regular rotation sticks was out of the park 19* *What i like about 19 is that i have seen almost zero dark wrapper that is thick/rough/oscuro. Gone are the almost oscuro oily wrappers. Dark now appears to be a Colorado/maduro/rosado. much better smoking outcome.

Those clearance Vegas Robaina Unicos GEM NOV 19 (They haven't ceased production "yet")

First box of RASS after a couple 1/4 buys... Countdown begins

Sixer of hand-picked late ‘18 Unicos off the 24. I’ve always felt VR had the most aesthetically pleasing wrappers of any Habanos, and these beauties fit the bill. Gonna be tough to wait even 30 on these.

HDM 50 cab from a recent 24:24...what a beauty!

ENE17 petit,,,,play ball!!!