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Siglo II TPO MAY 2018

Sorry...not sorry.

Just received this box of TUA MAR 20 Partagas Shorts not even a week ago. I decided to smoke one on Sunday night to get a baseline. Blown away by how good it was. Not a fluke - I just had another one - again it was amazing. Tastes like it’s been rested for at least a few months. Rich chewy smoke full of the flavor we love. Can’t explain it but I don’t know how long this box will last this winter. Could be my nightly cigar.

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Taking advantage of a Spring day in January by working on the front porch with a Romeo y Julieta Churchill. Prize from our host so no clue on box code and date but assume late 2019 or early 2020 stock. This one kicked my ass. Way stronger than I expected. Full bodied for sure.

Haven’t been around here much, work and hunting season have me pretty distracted fall and winter. Now that hunting is wrapped up I’m back to cigars, and I finally put in a garage heater, total game changer! HU Coronas minor after shoveling snow today.

Getting some sunlit vitamin D after a 32F morning. The Reyes is brilliant. A beautiful wrapper on these RG Perlas. Another NC. Man O War. An enjoyable smoke with excellent construction.

JL1 UTL ABR 19

2009 Especial # 2. Very, very nice.

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A few from the week. RAT-FEB-20 PP A/T BRE-OCT-19 Conn 1

SLR Pacifico. Took a punt a few years ago on a box after an email advice from Rob and bloody glad I did. Not had one for a while but it’s superb. Some SLR tones about it for sure but mixed with a juicy almost sour note that makes your mouth water. Not the apple I get from the regios more of a starburst chew flavour. These are ready! Brilliant

Tat Black Cazadores: Excellent. Cinnamon, licorice and molasses UMR-MAY-20 EE: Young but firing strong. Butter, sponge cake dry roasted coconut shavings. EOS-MAY-19 Non-Plus: Salty, vegetal and fungi

Monte 5. Back in the snow...

This stand is their best.

I suspect the Cubans have been doing it for years. It would explain some of the suspect quality and packaging errors

This beast arrived today. And all I’ve got are these pictures, won’t be home for a few more month. Therefore the cigars will stay sealed, sorry, unfortunately no pictures of the sticks...

Trying out the slanted cut as recommended by Sigmund since I remembered today. Working well so far but can't decide which way I should point the opening in my mouth

I know someone who has an extra one for....:...

If you cover a turd with gold leaf and diamonds it just becomes an expensive gold and diamond covered turd. ?

Another box with just over 2 months of rest I was saving for warmer weather but cracking open for this review week. Cigar is a bit overweight but bunching looked good. I still went with a larger 12mm punch. A bit of a judgment call, but it worked out ok. Prelight aroma and draw of barnyard. First third: Rosewater and then cherry. No hints of charcoal as happens at times with RyJ cherry sometimes. Some anise. A pungent cayenne/paprika during this third, especially on the retrohale. Second third: Sour cherry (granny smith at times), pungency is gone. Some turkish delight, sweeter rosewater towards the end. Final third: The common cough syrup, cough drop cherry flavour. 60 minutes smoke time, as I smoked a little fast, but no harshness. Weather was just below freezing to just over freezing -0.5C to +0.5C, 31F to 33F. Light wind. Low 60s% RH. One or two touch ups. Another solid 4/5. Will give this a smoke now rating as it is smoking better than my BEL ENE 20 RyJ Churchill box. Will probably start working through this and waiting on that box.

My maiden voyage on this vitola. Picked up a 10er in November so ready enough to try although I was going to try and wait at least a year. Oh well. Competition demands I sacrifice. And I’m curious. v cut was uneventful. Measured 64 rh on my gadget. Cigar is well rolled and floral Pre light. Draw is very easy. first draw was a bit mongrel but it passes quickly, as did the first third. The dominant flavor in the first third was boiled peanuts. Like @rcarlson finds at the roadside stands in Georgia. Fresh ones. Don’t know why but I was expecting salted roasted peanuts. oh well, I guess it won’t pair as well with beer as I had imagined. cigar went out at first third as I took a short call. Relighting revealed an uneven edge. Flavor was constant throughout the second third. A medium level of strength and the edge evened out w a minor touch up. some hints of espresso I was not expecting emerged. final third starts w my wife knocking on the window to the porch. I walk over and she tells me “don’t come in the house w that thing ?”. No worries. The final third is always my favorite as it is here as well. Cigar remained well shaped and with an easy draw. What a pleasure it is to smoke a well rolled cigar to the nub. Subtle flavor developments. Some hints of black licorice with the boiled peanuts. all in all a nice cigar, but I think it’s 9 siblings will take a long nap to see what develops. A solid 88, if I have to give a random number. Quick smoke though. A short 55 minutes with a call.

Bolivar PC MSU JUL 19 from a PSP 12er last year. These just consistently set a high bar. The Basil Hayden Rye is turning out to be a perfect cold weather pairing at 40% served neat.

May I present: The Gurkha Ex-First Lady Packed with fine Fijian tobacco, watered only with snow melt from Mt Everest (from the Hillary expedition). Each is wrapped in palladium, which is more expensive than gold. The band is a whole, perfect diamond, hollowed and carved into a cylinder. At 58 rg, you can wear it as a ring (anywhere you like) after the smoke. Each cigar is infused with the spirit from one bottle of Macallan Fine & Rare 1926. Once the cigar is infused, the rest of the $1.2 million whisky is destroyed, so that the cigar can never be replicated. The artisans who roll this masterpiece ritually put out their own eyes, and are placed in sensory deprivation tanks with only their hands free to do the blessed work. It is delivered to you by registered post.

Hands down one of my biggest life influences. I was in jr high in 1987 when my 19yr old cousin I was close to, was killed in a car crash. Guy was crazy smart and gifted. He was in school working with lasers and developed, buiit and sold a couple to Pink Floyd's laser lgiht show. I had never listened to Pink Floyd until his passing and I was in his basement with his brothers preparing for the funeral. Day of the funeral was standing room only inside the church with more people gathered outside than inside. To me i found out how loved and important he was to others. They played "Shine on you Crazy Diamond" and there was not a dry eye inside or outside. That's when I got into listening to Pink Floyd and opened up my desire to experience more and not always follow the herd so to speak.

MMC (2018) from our host. Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

RyJ Ex 4 for review.

.... and I thought it were this one Honey, see, the pricing was just too good to pass up....

This is the only way I accept pizza delivery.

Raman Allones Grande's at the Garden Leederville.Very good at this stage

it depends on what is on special at "Office Works" I got a great deal on Green Dots in November.

RASS

The Zapata Peninsula is one of my favourite places in Cuba. If you ever get the chance, get out of Havana and spend a few days exploring this beautiful region. This vid captures it well.

My letter to my MP. Dear Minister: I am writing to you not only as the Minister of Health, but also as my elected representative for the riding of Thunder Bay-Superior North. I have recently come to see first-hand the effect of the Federal Government’s “plain packaging” requirement for the sale of tobacco products in Canada. I understand that this requirement, among other measures, is to further the goal of reducing tobacco use among Canadians to less than 5% by 2035. Although I support this as a laudatory goal with respect to cigarette smoking & vaping among young Canadians (i.e. <15-18), I can only see this as another example of governmental overreach with respect to the sale and use of premium cigars. As you may be aware, the FDA in the United States recently codified the definition of premium cigars to make clear that these products are unlike the majority of tobacco products; products that should be the real focus of the Government of Canada’s attempts to curtail smoking. I am unaware of any actual research that suggests that the smoking of premium cigars carries with it any appreciable health risks. Premium cigars are not inhaled, and by their very definition contain only tobacco, water, and vegetable gum with no other ingredients or additives, and no characterizing flavors other than tobacco. As such, the smoking of premium cigars does not come with the same risks of developing pulmonary disease that the smoking of cigarettes, for example, carries. As to the issue of the relative risk of oral/esophageal cancers is concerned, the FDA’s own study suggests that any increased risk of cancer for those smoking 1-2 premium cigars per day (more than what is likely typical of your average consumer of premium cigars) is negligible (https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-015-1617-5). When the data from that study are broken down further, the results paint a different story than what is represented in the original article (https://www.rstreet.org/2016/08/24/fda-study-cancer-risks-nearly-nil-for-1-2-cigars-per-day/). Other activities also carry with them an increased risks of developing oral/oropharyngeal cancers (i.e. drinking alcohol, participating in oral sex), but I don’t see the Government of Canada stepping in to regulate these activities beyond the punitively high taxes and ineffectual warning labels on alcohol. I would estimate that consumers of premium cigars in Canada make up less than 2% of the population. These consumers are overwhelmingly older adults. Given that the retail cost of one Cuban Montecristo No. 4 (one of the most popular premium cigars sold worldwide) is $27.95 CAD, I hardly think that 16-year-olds are lining up to purchase these. So, if the Government of Canada is not actually protecting the health of premium cigar smokers (and particularly young smokers), what is the actual point of including these products in the legislation??? It would seem that the legislation as it applies to premium cigars is of no actual benefit to anyone, while severely harming the small business owners who make a living selling premium cigars. It is a sad fact that there are no longer any La Casa del Habano (LCDH) locations in Canada. These flagship boutiques dedicated to the sale of Cuban premium cigars are staples in major cities all across the world. I would expect that our elected leaders are enacting legislation based on the best available evidence and with a clear goal in mind. I would hope that they are doing this in a targeted manner which facilitates meaningful change where it is desired, without imposing restrictions and hardships where the legislation will accomplish nothing. With that said, I would like to know the specifics of the Government of Canada’s plan (that tax dollars are paying for) with respect to premium cigars. Please tell me that not all tobacco products are being characterized/classified the same way, as that would show a failure of critical thinking and an inability to approach a complex situation in a nuanced and even-handed way. I am aware that the anti-smoking lobby is an extremely powerful force, but I remain hopeful that the Government of Canada will not be swayed by the pressure tactics of such groups. Lastly, I would just like to point out the extraordinary hypocrisy of the decision to implement plain packaging for tobacco-related products. Alcohol is by far the most common drug used by Canadians. Its use has increased significantly among females since 2013. Approximately 15% of Canadians who drink alcohol consume above Canada’s Low-risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines. The risky use of alcohol is still the most prevalent among young adults (age 18-24). The use and risky use of alcohol by underage youth and young adults (whom you claim to most care about) has remained steady in recent years. In 2017, the rate of hospitalizations entirely caused by alcohol (249 per 100,000) was comparable to the rate of hospitalizations for heart attacks (243 per 100,000) and the rate was thirteen times higher than for opioids. In 2014, alcohol contributed to 14,826 deaths in Canada, representing 22% of all substance use attributable deaths (from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Canadian Drug Summary, Summer 2019). Until such time that you can demonstrate that the smoking of premium cigars is anywhere near as destructive as the use of alcohol in society, I would hope that you treat the sale and consumption of premium cigars with the same latitude that you treat the sale and consumption of alcohol. So, perhaps it would be best to implement plain packaging for all alcohol products (including mouthwash and hand sanitizer), or dispense with the hypocrisy and exempt premium cigars from this odious requirement. I look forward to hearing from you with the hope that the points raised here will be addressed. The last time I wrote, I received a form letter talking about the perils of vaping.

I used to smoke these by the ton... I recall getting them for $30~$40 a box depending on exchange rates. I just looked for a box, I know I have more but I don't know where they are. What are they like, '91s are in your face. Straight tobacco, maybe straight top leaves, dense smoke, easy draw even when packed hard. Plenty of tobacco 'scraps' to fit between the gaps in your teeth!!! No real nuance, a real barn burner through and through. You can taste it though just about anything. Been up 24 hours and on your 10th cigar, you will still taste this cigar! It is an all night at the 'strip club' cigar! I used to really like them, but that was when I was smoking several cigars a day. Find one a little off, well at less than $2 a stick chuck it and unzip another. No metallic taste like the NC 'steampunks.' I would have to say it is like smoking 5 or 6 Partagas Chicos at the same time... but stronger! Chicos actually taste better! MHO... It has the highest constitution of any Cuban cigar in my memory. Cheers! -Piggy

Wow . . . the old, "Rolled on the thighs of virgins" didn't even make the list! ?

When you've left that No 2 out of the humi a little too long

SCdLH La Fuerzas RAT MAY20 trade with @sho671 arrived today! Thanks for the trade man, sucks my portion has taken a little detour. I included a couple bodyguards to keep em safe ?

RAT ENE 20 PdSP. Look at that perfect construction! that’s my 95 year old grandfather in the background. Just awesome to still have him around.

Same happened to me! Not sure how Canadian Customs got mine, since I’m in the USA

Our boulevard tree in the summer. Our boulevard tree yesterday morning. Our boulevard in the afternoon. There taking down all the Ash trees. They guy did say we had the biggest one on the street [emoji23]. In the spring they’ll replace it with some shit_y small tree. Would rather just put in my own. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

well Prez, I didn't want to msg you asking where my free cigar stand was....sounds kinda...well...lame, lol. you know, it being free and all

Can't imagine what Gurkhas made by white gloved rollers and delivered by blindfolded messengers will bring.

Pretty deep on the #1, recommend giving them a shot. Great flavor and aromas. Love the vitola!

*If you want truly bad movies then you need to become a member of the MST3K's (Mystery Science Theatre 3000 ). With their opening them song: "We'll send him cheesy movies - the worst we can find" - they MEAN it. Some of those movies are SO bad - and I mean I'll be enjoying their dialog to death; but some of those movies are SOOOO bad until I just can't sit through them any more. They've got movies that make "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look like "Citizen Kane". They've got movies that make "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians" look like "Gone With The Wind."

ARS AGO18 Fundy. Great construction and flavors.