Dara

I don't think it's an offence as in it's not illegal for a US citizen to visit Cuba, but the minute you spend money there you break treasury department laws under the embargo (there's about 5 or 6 laws applying to Cuba including the 1917 "trading with the enemy" law)! So a stamp in your US passport (or any passport where the person lives in the US) would make you a prime target for customs and if they could find proof that you bought anything in Cuba then it would be confiscated and in theory as a US citizen you could be prosecuted for breaking OFAC rules, but more than likely you would be fined. A friend travelled there under a US licensed travel scheme (designed as a "humanitarian" tour) 2 years ago and he politely the perplexed Cuban immigration official to stamp his US passport as he was there legally, and as being there legally they were allowed being back cultural nick nacks (cigars weren't counted as that unfortunately for him)!

To qualify for Irish citizenship you need to have at least a grandparent ( not necessarily living) who was an Irish citizen.....this rules out a huge amount of Irish Americans who are more than 2 generations removed from an Irish citizen. Italy is the same as far as I know (I've a brother and sister who are Italian citizens).

This appears to be the same source Steve that mailed me yesterday with an update that the Club Kings were going to be next years GR. My one concern with Wide Churchill Gran Reserva 2009 Cosecha is that they only launched the Wide Churchill in 2010 and some shops didn't see them until nearly 2011. This would make it the first GR or R where we can't compare it with a regular production cigar from the same year.

Never had a club king but also have never heard anyone rave about how great they used to be. Seems a strange choice to make a discontinued Petit Corona a GR, but then strange thinking is sometimes what they do best. Also the launch of the GR on the Monday night seemed odd to me when I read the email....The GRs and Reservas are always launched at the gala night rather than opening night as those are the big bucks tickets compared to Mondays cheaper prices. Like Lant, I was thinking the reserva would be a Hoyo Epicure this year so it will be interesting to see what Rob and the guys hear in November to confirm if Freds email is correct!

Guantanamera abbreviation perhaps CrAp ? Diplos for Diplomaticos perhaps ? What about particular cigar abbreviations such as CORO (took me about a while at first to realise this was Cohiba Robusto), Lusi, etc Trevor? I know I used to get confused when Rob would talk about how much he would enjoy his party shorts

Ken, if you want to send me the photos of the girls from the nightclub maybe I can help identify the famous one

For some reason when I see white cars I always think of drug dealers.....maybe I watched too many films in the 90s!!!

Belated Happy Birthday Di, hope you had a great day and got those shoes!!!

Congrats to all the winners!

I'll buy you a drink at AmiCigar Stevie....well done! Start hiding your razor blades just in case you annoy her by being a man and everything being your fault

Di, it's not like Rob wants some scantily clad female to replace Ken as his review partner....it's what the populous want and the first rule of good business is give key staff members a pay rise / shoe budget but the second rule is something about giving the customer what they want I think. I may well be wrong, but I'm certain you're right anyway Di!

Ken already wears the minimum necessary clothing when the reviews are on his deck....don't give him ideas!

Send a message to MrJapan and he might be able to give you some tips as he organised AmiCigar in Maoiri on the amalfi coast last year and we had a fantastic time there!! Try the lemons, they're amazing with gin and tonic and ice or in limoncello

NO pressure Rob but it's yours to lose now....just don't slip up in your final game and let Liverpool steal it back!!!

Good stuff, need to get some shaving tips off you...got the merkur vision and been trying a few different blades on it!!!

With a father who is a devout United fan and 2 older brothers who support United, it was obvious that I would support Liverpool really. They've teased so many times with great starts to the season only to fall back and this year when we kept going I dared to dream. After the Crystal Palace result, looks like the title could be yours Rob but then I still remember a night in Istanbul when we were written off at half time against AC Milan in the Champions League and we came back to win on penalties...so to paraphrase the words of Journey I "won't stop believing" until the end of the season!

I'm in for this!

I'm in for this!

I smoke 5 to 6 a month on average and a consultant told me I did not consume enough tobacco to be medically classified as a "smoker", but thats not to say an insurance company would see it that way. My brother gave up smoking cigarettes about 8 years ago and when he remortgaged his house to put an extension on it he ticked the non smoker box and they sent a nurse out with a test to see was there any nicotine in his system (apparently it can be detected for up to a month he was told) and he had to do some lung capacity test before they accepted him as a non smoker for his life insurance for the mortgage....that was all because he'd ticked smoker 10 years ago when he took out the mortgage! The problem comes when you try to insure your cigar collection as all the insurance companies talk to each other.........

7 years, that must be a record for oldest thread brought back to life surely ???

I could be wrong but I thought Jorge took over when Mons retired ?

Stogie, I'd make sure to contact Matteo before using any of his photos as he's using the photos courtesy of Ramon Iglesias (the guy who makes the portages jars). I'm sure it won't be a problem if it's just for your own home, but best to ask as he may have to check with Ramon who owns the photos. Dara

in memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom!

Temporary seal....maybe they're going to use the old 5 CUCs as seals when they eventually change it all back to pesos!

Hypothetically speaking you could book a flight to Canada or Mexico and then pay cash to book a flight to wherever you wanted from there...cash though as a US issued credit card may not work for booking flights to some places