mt1

Cuaba APAC - 2021 (BCCRW)

I was not entirely excited for a Cuaba but it was recommended by a friend, though I would not recommend this to my friends. The cigar started pretty smooth as the narrow tip was lit, it was woody, a bit peppery, a bit spicy, overall the cigar couldn't quite make up its mind; maybe it wanted to be an actor, moved to LA, but ended up waiting tables at the Cheesecake Factory. As the full diameter of the perfecto was lit, the flavors grew stronger and eventually developed into disgusting. It was peppery, spicy, and with a heavy bitterness. Soldiering on, I hoped it would really sort itself out, maybe land a commercial or a small role in a TV show with one or two spoken lines. About halfway, a "floral" flavor (read: burning plastic) emerged to really round out the nastiness. I almost gave up at this point but I'm a masochist. The last third was (fortunately?) uneventful. The flavors were still quite bitter and I gave up after I was a good half through the last third. I give it a 1/10, 1 point because I like the size and shape. This is the first one I've had so maybe it was a dud but I don't plan to find out if it was or not.

Why aren't you wearing any pants again?

Wow amazing de long ash for such a de short cigar!!!

Decided to jump on the trend here but I went for a side-by-side comparison. Here are two Monte No.5 that I had put away for a bit due to really liking the wrappers. I admit I've done a similar comparison before since the FOH video about dipping cigars in water. So here we go. I started with the dry cigar, which gave me the expected chocolate notes from this cigar. In the meantime, I dipped the second stick into the water, let it rest for a bit and then pat it dry gently. The first third of the dry cigar: chocolate, some woodiness but still mostly chocolate. The first third was notably sweet with a dark chocolate aftertaste that was slightly bitter but not unpleasant. I lit up the dipped cigar to find pretty much the same profile, though it was a little softer and lower in intensity. More on that later. Into the second third, still nice coco flavors from the dry stick while the wet stick is also coco but just a touch softer, with more pronounced puffs of some floral tones. At this point it became obvious that the dry stick was looser and perhaps a tad underfilled while the the wetstick was tighter and perhaps a bit plugged--but not enough for the perfecdraw to make an appearance, it was just relatively more packed than the dry stick. I don't think this had anything to do with the dipping in the water, but i may be wrong. My theory on the difference in intensity is that the wrapper contributes more to flavor than the filler (which is partly used to keep the cigar burning well) and thus, the underfilled stick is more flavorful because there is more wrapper relative to filler than the slightly more packed stick. Or...maybe it's the water? I'm not too sure but I know that my theory is based on facts that are entirely unscientific and unverifiable. I choose to think the water does not matter. And if it does, I like the dry stick better anyway. Burning them down together was quite a task but the flavors never let up. I got my constant hit of coco with the sweetness slowly dwindling over time but not in a bad way. It was a nice progression for such small sticks. Overall, I preferred the dry stick but, as explained above, I don't think this was due to the water. Perhaps I will need to revisit the water test with some different cigars later. Now kiss...

Oh I meant smoking in general (I recall you can't smoke outside on the streets in Santa Monica anymore?). There's definitely tons of cigar bars and lounges in CA.

I thought they banned smoking in Santa Monica?

x2...I'd like to pick up a few boxes!

I like dress boxes. The reality for me is half of my SLBs are a total pain to open and that's enough for me to prefer dress boxes.

@El Presidente Rob, here's one of your Nudies N1 at Casa Casco ? Thanks for the recommendation! Excuse the potato quality pic.

1966 and the Grand Reserva Epi 2 are my votes.

My favorite cut of beef is the beef rib--plenty of fat, relatively affordable cut, and tons of beef flavor. The only downside for me is you can't have it too rare and need to make sure the fat is rendered (medium-rare, which is similar to how I like Wagyu). Second to that would be a nice grilled ribeye, tons of flavor, some fat--I firmly believe the beef flavor is all in the fat and you need some amount of fat for the best steak. The key to good steak is fear. You have to make sure the steak knows you're in charge and scare it into submission. You have the cigar and you're master of the grill. Smoke a Monte 4 while grilling for maximum flex.

If this happened in HK, it doesn't surprise me. We've had people sit down next to us (large group with probably 6-8 cigars going on at once), at 11:30pm, at outdoor bar, with blasting music, and they asked us to put out our smokes because they had a baby with them...... Next time, you should start loudly complaining that YOU CANT SMOKE WHEN THERE'S SOMEONE BEING A LITTLE *****

Amazing, thanks guys! Will definitely check out those spots!

Anyone have any recommendations for local Panamanian cigars and/or cool lounges, smoke spots, etc...? I'm headed there soon and was wondering if there are any places not to be missed for cigar people.