dageshi

To be honest whenever I was travelling around Asia I always appreciated a good starbucks. It was never about the coffee particularly, that was just the rent for sitting down in a comfortable chair and reading a book for x many hours before getting on a bus/train or plane.

Had a Du Depute (2015) last week as it happens. Bloody hell it was good, alternated cream and honey, smoked the entire thing till it was singing my fingers.

I think the issue El Pres is the rules around writing. I read somewhere that if you come in and work on an existing draft of a script you get significantly less money than if you work on the first draft. The worry is that studios use AI to draft some absolute crap and then hire writers on to essentially completely re-write it, but under the existing rules they'd be paid far less even though they really wrote the entire thing from scratch.

Moved on. I have a substantial collection that I bought at really good prices. I bought low, I've no plans on selling high but I can't bring myself to buy high either.

I run a UK cigar subreddit and the majority of our users are relatively new smokers. I've seen a trend from Cubans to NCs since the subreddit started. Gradual at first but has certainly accelerated recently. The overwhelming majority post about NCs now, in the earlier days it was a much more even split with Cubans edging out NCs. Still as has been explained in this thread, Habanos obviously has no choice, they don't have the supply. What I wonder is, if they lose much of their market share to NCs on the lower end, which seems inevitable to me at this point? How much of their offering no longer makes sense? Do we see a mass culling vitolas that simply make no sense in this new world?

Standard Tory party MO for a decade now is once a leader is too unpopular or basically lame duck they resign, someone new comes in ready for the next election. Cameron did it, May did it, Boris should've done it but he was too much of an arrogant twit to do it so the party forced him out. So far it works, general public considers the party cleaned up somewhat when this happens, all their ire is directed at the leader not the party itself. Dunno if it'll work again this time, but the next election wouldn't normally be till late 2024 so they've got some time.

Don't try to catch a falling knife as the old investment proverb goes, wait for it to stick into something solid and stop vibrating. The knife is still falling right now in my opinion because everyone's concern is inflation and it's not certain when or if it will be brought under control. In the US assets of all types had a big run up during covid and there's plenty of space left to fall. When and if it looks like inflation is back under control and starting to recede that's probably the time to get back in.

I'm not from the US so I really don't have any skin in the game regarding this. But yeah, that packaging is like poking a Grizzly Bear, I have to assume the people making it are too juvenile to understand what the consequences could be.

Got into the habit of taking 1/3rd of everything I bought and putting them aside. So I've got at least 3 of everything I've ever bought at this point, starting from around 2014.

Ahh well, the issue is knowing what has added sugar and what doesn't. The EU just passed regs that limit how much sugar you can add to rum and still call it "Rum". About 58 of the rums on the list el pres linked too will not longer be legally be Rum at their current dosing levels in the EU. The hipsters cometh, it's already too late.

I think the trend is moving against added sugar in higher end sippers, beyond even that where casks are matured (Caribbean vs Europe) is becoming an issue. https://specialitybrands.com/our-range/habitation-velier/habitation-velier/habitation-hampden-2010-lrok/ Rum afficianado's have always hated the added sugar, but the Whiskey & Bourbon crowds are moving into Rum and they don't want additives in their Spirits. Think El Dorado recently cut their dosing in their 15, it certainly tastes different to previous bottles I've had. I would say this trend will become more prevalent as the Whiskey/Bourbon crowds increase their buying.

What was the podcast el pres?

Only one cigar ever reached that level for me, it was a connie A I bought as a single. Just extraordinarily better than any other cigar I've ever had. I bought an entire box hoping to replicate it but sadly it was just a one off. I can't even describe the flavours, the closest I can come to describe it, was as if I was tasting what pearl looks like. Weird I know and frustrating because I'd pay gran reserva prices for another one!

Magnificent, almost art!

Walking and listening to podcasts + audiobooks for me. I avoid all news like the plague.

My observation is that much of online social media regarding cigars is heavily US based and so new smokers outside the US end up being drawn to NC's since that's what they're seeing others smoke online. There are also probably cheaper options in terms of NC's than there are for cubans in terms of like for like size. And of course there are people who just prefer the flavour profile of specific NC blends over Cuban. I mod r/ukcigars on reddit which I would say skews younger in terms of smoker age and NC's are probably the majority at this point although cubans are still popular and the people buying by the box are almost always buying cuban, those buying singles are mostly going NC

Structurally different markets. Tea and especially the kind of tea you're talking about won't really last that long and still be good? Cigars last for decades and fetch a premium for age and rarity. So cigars are both for smoking and for investment if you're holding long, there's no benefit to rolling super secret best of the best and selling them on the quiet because they can't then easily be resold for the premium they should fetch. But put them in a reserva or grand reserva and they sure as hell can.

Yangshuo, China - I've never seen scenery as magical as the Karsts in and around Yangshuo, I've visited twice and would go back in a heartbeat Kanchanaburi, Thailand - Home of the bridge of the river kwai, it's nothing special but there's a guesthouse there I love. It has this wooden platform that extends out over the river (and floating rooms!), I love spending a day or two lounging on the platform drinking Singha and reading. The Himalayas - I desperately want to go do the Annapurna trek, that might well be the first trip I make post covid Chile - I live in one of the most light polluted places in the world, I really want to see the milky way in all its glory and I heard Chile is one of the best places Bangkok - To see friends and that city is just incredible fun

Good advice. One thing I'll mention is, when I get a new box I like to take one third out and put them into a separate tupperdore for long term aging. I then smoke the rest of the box as others have suggested, if they're good smoke em, if they're not let them rest. But I've always got that 1/3 of every box to try in 5-10 years.

A really impressive 12min video on the explosion that hit Beirut some months back and how the warehouse was basically laid out as a giant bomb https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/beirut-port-explosion

Yes, probably about 8 years ago, I decided there's too much of it and most of it is misery and anxiety inducing for no real beneficial effect on myself. I also noticed especially in politics once you've seen a couple of election cycles worth it basically just becomes the same set of stories repeated ad infinitum but with different people involved.

Generally ssl protocol versions are not mandatory until the big browsers (chrome basically) decides they won't support anything lower. But even then it'll depend on what your cny based users are using for browsers. You can probably support 1.2 and 1.3 and the browser will use the relevant one. That being said at one point you might consider making a subdomain on foh like cnyonly.friendsofhabanos.com which only supports 1.2, and pass through everything from the main site to that for chinese users. There are potential SEO issues with that but it rather depends on how much you care about search rankings and the traffic that comes from them.

I got heavily into cigars about 5 years ago and for a few years went on a bit of a buying spree (nearly all cubans), I established a collection probably in the 300-400 range, small by the standards of some here but I'm not a frequent smoker, maybe one or two a week during the summer (weather permitting... UK....), nowadays I tend to buy a few boxes per year as top ups. I got an email today for some specials from a popular website many of us have probably used and thought to myself, damn their specials look like their regular pricing used too. I know china will hoover up everything cuba produces so I have no expectation prices are ever going to come down (or even stop increasing) but for me I'm starting to think nc's may have to be the way to go for my regular smokes and cubans will be treats. Has anyone else been having similar thoughts?

Smoked my first of these from a pack I picked up in Dubai duty free. Like the Cohiba shorts they are very one note, but given their size that's to be expected. Cohiba shorts are always a big punch of lemon grass for me, these were a big punch of leather. Certainly think they're worthwhile for size/price point.

I have used Teamwork with a small team and can say it worked pretty well. But we're a distributed team so everything is done online. If you actually stick to centralising on a platform then I think it can work.