Indy8080

Nino's film clip: bucolic, timeless, illuminating, fascinating. Thank you. I see that my original post ruffled some peacock feathers, but that was not my intention. I've learned a lot from you people, but I don't belong here. It's time to go. I wish you all well. Live your lives. Adiós.

Longjing tea has a shelf life of about 18 months; however, other varieties, much like premium Cubans, gain flavor and mellowness with age and slow fermentation. Puerh tea from Yunnan is usually pressed into 372g cakes that can age 40+ years and command prices of $50,000+ USD. Tea buffs buy younger puerh cakes cheaply and store them for years as do CC aficionados. Tiequanyin oolong begins to mature after 10+ years. As for Hector Prieto’s 15-acre farm, how many of our forum have tasted one of his cigars? It could well be the best. Granted, he has a full-time roller and sells cigars, but what about the tobacco? Does his farm have the capacity to correctly process and age his leaves? Are the filler, binder, and wrapper all from his farm. Would Mr. Prieto desecrate his family tradition and precious, beloved tobacco by selling it to petty tourists who wouldn’t know the difference? Put yourselves in his place and think about it.

Good afternoon and greetings from Indianapolis. I trust all is well with our forum members, and I write this in a friendly, relaxed, and contemplative mood. As a Chinese-tea and Cuban-cigar buff, I submit the following for discussion: Here is the Longjing Rule: Do not go to Hangzhou to buy Longjing: the best has already left town. This basic rule applies to all premium tea from limited sources. The minuscule supply of the best leaves, contracted long beforehand, go very quickly to wherever money and politics beckon. A normal drinker or tourist, regardless of wealth or connections, never gets close to it. They live and taste within their second-level experience, and they never know the difference. Now, you see where I’m going. Have any of us really tasted the best of Cuban cigars, or do we also live and dream in a second-level experience and know not the difference. The Pinar del Río finas produce small, insufficient quantities of the finest tobacco in the world. What happens to it? Given human nature, how much “falls off the truck”? Which people are involved? Is it really blended into the “premium brands” sold to naïve tourists or overseas “gray” outlets? What happens to the massive produce of Vuelta Arriba and Remedios? Does it all go into José L Piedras, or is it blended into sub-standard premium brands for our forum members? Have we been consigned to a sub-level experience and know it not? I daresay few if any of us have ever tasted a first-quality Cuban, and although we live, smoke and converse on this forum, we’ve never had the real thing. Within our sub-stratum, we never get to it, unless we’ve scored by “following the truck” through a long, treacherous, serpentine saga we never would, or could reveal.

Thank you for your creative advice to care and enjoy my inventory. I promised myself that if I ever I had some money that I would savor a cigar each day after lunch and dinner. This is the only resolution of my youth that I have kept, and the only realized ambition which has not brought disillusion. -- Somerset Maugham

Thank you, friends, for your sage advice. I've learned too late in life that there are limits to my knowledge, intelligence, and experience, and that I must seek advice for whatever is beyond those limits.

This is my first submission, and I hope I'm doing it right. I need some ageing advice for the following smokes that I'm tempted to try at once, though I don't wish to smoke them well before or after their prime. Quai d’Orsay No. 50, Box Date 07/2020 Quai d’Orsay No. 54, Box Date 09/2019 Quai d’Orsay Secreto Cubano French Reg., Box Date 12/2016 La Gloria Cubana Serie D No. 5 Spain Reg., 2017, Box Date 12/2017 La Estancia Edicion Exclusiva 52 (Box of 10) Box Date 07/2020