Sean62

After five weeks rest in my humidor Spada Gorda greatly improved. I ordered another box today. I am convinced these will be a main cigar for me. I smoked a few with a friend who is a connoisseur with 12 years experience and he was also delightfully surprised. Some of them are almost flawless, others requiring a touch up or two and a relight or two. Lately staying medium through the three thirds., and offering delicate flavours and notes...earth...breadiness...coffee. Delightfully subtle and well-behaved in first third, then some work and attention required in middle third, and much less in last third.

Mine arrived 8 days ago and I smoked the first one today. Because of the many lukewarm comments I was wondering if I should bring another stick out with me in case I was very disappointed. I wasn't disappointed at all. My favorite cigars are this size, i.e. H Upmann Mag46, Partagas Lusitanias, and I suspect this cigar may become a main cigar for me. The construction was flawless, draw perfect, and the burn perfect. I rarely smoke this size of cigar without a few relights and this one needed no attention. Because of its youth there was some slight bitterness. A black coffee and occasional tiny bits of chocolate helped the slight bitterness and actually made the cigar quite a lovely experience. I am optimistic about the benefit of a little humidor down time and I suspect that the quality will be consistent. They seem to be identical...very well rolled! spada.mp4

I tried again, no way. I am traveling in Spain, using an older Samsung... and Spain can be a little third worldish at times. I am trying to ask someone to receive $20 via Paypal and buy a ticket for me... the plan should work

Tried to buy a ticket with debit card and not possible... unless I'm missing something... only credit cards?

Friends of Cubanos - or - Friends of Puros

El Presidente ... Is this the current plan, to make Carlota available this coming Friday on 24:24?

I am fairly new to the cigar world. Thirty six years ago I smoked Royal Jamaica Buccaneeers regularly for a year and really enjoyed them but when I quit cigarettes back then I quit the cigars too. Two years ago I was gifted a Cohiba Siglo 1 and became very interested. Since then I have been sampling many cigars, mostly Cuban. I had doubts about he 'Nudies' but ordered some Maduro Carlotas. I just smoked one, a day after receiving them, and was delightfully surprised. I love the feel of this cigar and the consistent burn. No harshness at all. Mild-Medium strength and a seemingly consistent flavour all the way through (which I don't find with many of my quality favourites with a good reputation). This was a very easy cigar to smoke; not labour intensive like some good Cubans; a very relaxing experience. I suspect this cigar will be a regular for me, an every-day, one of my reliable favourites. The size seems unique, is intriguing and feels very good. I would like to know which other Cubans would be recommended as similar in size and feel and quality. The price seems right for the experience I had this evening. Because of the consistent feedback thus far from others about the quality (construction, burn, flavour) my guess is that a standard has been set that will likely be maintained. Thanks to FOH and Hamlet for the vision and the actual successful development of this new non-Cuban brand

A lovely gift for your son and for Roxy Morena.

Thanks for the delightful presentation of your trip. (and for the delightful Juan LopezSeleccion Superba that you gifted me in Dublin.... I finally smoked it a few days ago) "The luck of the Irish!"

AN INTERESTING UPDATE !!!! TRAVELLING TO TORONTO I left Manchester, UK, (Ryanair) on Sept 21st, spent a few delightful days in Dublin and carried on to Toronto on Sept 24th. I remember boarding the Aer Lingus flight in Dublin and the next thing I remember is waking up in the Toronto airport hotel that I was booked into the following morning at 9am. I was travelling very light, with a tiny backpack to avoid the new high airline charges (at Ryanair) for regular carry on luggage. It now has to fit under the seat or one needs to pay a lot of money for the usual carry-on size. I went with the clothes I was wearing, a small old laptop a container of 20 cigars, and a few toiletries. When I woke up in the hotel I realized that my laptop and cigars were missing. I had taken one sleeping tablet on the plane which is my usual practice when travelling overseas as I always get severe jetlag. I always take them for 3 or 4 days to regulate my sleep, and they have been prescribed for me since 1996 to manage jetlag. I remembered nothing since the Dublin takeoff, and I was mystified. I was picked up by a friend at the hotel the morning of the 25th and I tried to piece together what had happened. I eventually realized that I must have been drugged and mugged. Knowing my usual habits I imagined that after diembarking in Toronto I stopped at the first ‘arrivals’ cafe to have a coke or a coffee and someone dropped a drug into my drink. I began researching on google for the ways travellers are drugged and robbed and the usual method is with Rohypnol, also known as the date rape drug. Apparently it is used 20% of the time for date rape and 80% for robberies. It is extremely common in many cities and usually wealthy businessmen are targeted. I was wearing a very expensive cashmere coat worth £1500, a Pierre Cardin, that I bought on eBay (used) for perhaps £25. I think I misled the robbers into thinking they might find money and expensive technology because of my appearance. I am living on a tiny pension. The laptop was 7 years old and not a Mac. The cigar container had some Boveda Pack envelopes (for humidification) that probably looked unusual, curious or interesting. While sitting beside me in the cafe I imagine that the robbers rifled through my backpack and put these things into another backpack, then went off on their way. I reported my missing items to the Lost and Found office at the airport by telphone the following day and didn’t hear anything back from them. It took me three days for my head to clear completely although I was much more functional the next morning. A week later I received an email: “Hello Sean , I am a employee at Pearson international airport. Yesterday I found a box of cigars and a laptop in the ditch off the side of a road near the viscount parking garage . I turned the laptop on and found this email address signed in to google. If this laptop belongs to you or somebody you know please let me know and we can arrange to get it back to you. Best regards , Sully Sent from my iPhone” I replied to his email, thanking him for getting in touch with me, and asking him to telephone me the following morning. He did call and he told me he was a ‘Falconer’ at the airport and he was looking for a trained hawk (used to clear the runways of problematic birds) and that he was searching the parking levels because they sometimes got lost in there. He said that as he exited the ramp he noticed the laptop and cigars in the grass by the road. He opened my laptop which was still working, entered my gmail account and found my email address (as the sender). I was very suspicious that he might be the robber and could be asking for a ransom for the computer. I thought his story sounded a bit fantastic and maybe was used on many other victims. He wanted to visit the house where I was staying but I asked him to just drop them off at the airport ‘Lost and Found’. He said he would do so and sent me an email the next day saying he had done that, leaving them in my name. I then I went to the airport and sure enough they gave me back my laptop and the cigars. All I really lost was perhaps 24 hours of memory! I imagine that the robbers were very disappointed to find that there was no money, no drugs, and an antique laptop when they expected much more. I always travel with my passport, wallet and phone in my front pants pockets so I think although they could easily search through the backpack without getting much attention, pretending it was theirs, they couldn’t rifle through my front pockets in public without drawing attention. Fortunately I intentionally leave my laptop without a password to save myself thousands of keystrokes. It was easy for him to discover the owner. If I had a password protecting the laptop I doubt that I would have had the items returned to me I never lost my cool through all this and actually had some very wonderful times with family, kind of coming to resolution with people and making significant progress in some important relationships. So all is well ( I was smoking Montecristo 4 cigars in Toronto as they are so expensive, so I was delighted to be reunited with this selection )

Me too! I just googled the issue and many thousands of people around the world are being ripped off / mugged in the same way.

I hear that the Native Reservations here in Canada are free from duties and taxes, and that they legally sell online... today I will need to try to replenish ...of course some of them may be wealthy enough to pay the exorbitant prices in the cigar stores, or elsewhere I hear in places like Bolivia, and India that's what they are after, how horrible! Thanks for the question... Actually if you live in Toronto and have some spare Partagas D4 or Montecristo 1, or Montecristo 2, or Trinidad Fundadores etc. and are feeling particularly generous I would be delighted to meet up I will be trying to replenish as much as I can as soon as I can

I went from the UK to Dublin on Sept 21st, met up with Ryan and a few other FOH characters for an enjoyable evening of cigar smoking and chat. I continued on my way to Canada on Sept 24th, arrived at 5:00 pm, traveling light with mainly my laptop and two weeks supply of my favorite cigars in travelling humidor. I woke up the next day in the airport hotel without remembering anything after the arrival, with my backpack emptied of the cigars and laptop. I eventually figured out what had happened. After arriving I think I stopped in an airport cafe to get my bearings and ordered a coffee. (I didn't drink any alcohol) I figure that someone spiked my drink with Rohypnol, the date rape drug! I have been feeling rough for a few days, missing my cigars much more than the laptop, but it could have been worse. At least I didn't lose my virginity! I didn't lose my passport or wallet because they were in my front pants pockets fortunately. Now I would like to meet up with some Toronto cigar smokers. I heard that there is a regular group that meets up. If anyone knows about that group please pass on the information.

I will be travelling to Canada soon with cigars and wondering whether my cigar lighter will be permitted as carry on luggage?