When the stars and moon align.

[El Presidente]

I was picking stock yesterday (continue today) and had chosen a Cohiba Siglo II Tubo to be my morning companion.

You know when you have a cigar and it is simply perfection achieving a level of flavour diversity and intensity that you could never imagine could physically come from a cigar?

I was there yesterday morning. Cream so sweet it was dessert. Milk coffee so pure I felt I was back at Dean Merlo's coffee factory playing with blends, a class above, an experience, the cigar I still taste and think about now.

I have one remaining from that pack. Could it possibly be as good? I am assuming no. I am telling myself to be disappointed, that it was a fluke, to grow up.

This is what keeps us coming back to Cuban cigars. That perfect cigar...the one in 200/300/400, the cigar version of the perfect shot in golf, the perfect fly cast to structure and the resultant strike (...take my word for it Ken)

I will let you know if my last Siglo II Tubo is as good as the first

[B.HOBS]

I had a Mag 50 like that Rob....just constantly evolving, with flavors so spot on I just wanted it to last forever. I have not had one like that since....

I do enjoy the chase of those rare perfect moments with my favorite Habanos....it really is worthwhile.

[Fuzz AI]

If only we could impart that feeling of euphoria and satisfaction to the non smokers that leer and sneer at us as they walk by waving their hand in front of their faces.

No way! Letting them feel that sensation would lead them to smoking cigars and reduce the chance of me getting that one in a million smoke!

[Nocoins]

That was the feeling I got from my first Siglo III, which I never would have smoked if the store had any Siglo II that day. I thought they'd all be that good. Never had a better one, but several have reminded me of it.

[mbrody]

A mag50 Tubo and a JL2 have both given me that satisfaction. Close with Mag 46 and Boli PC's, CG. Great stuff!

[cumpster]

I agree Rob. When you get that one stick,that is just dead on, where you want to eat it. I think it makes the chase well worth it. Even though sometimes I feel I'm just chasing my tail trying to reproduce those special moments which are hard to catch on a regular basis. It's the price we pay for loving the leaf.

[PigFish]

I had a 99 Choke Supreme like that about 2 mos. ago Rob. The ERdM CS is not a usual cigar for me. I have had this cigar since 2000 and still have a few from the box left. I wish they all were as good as this one was.

I try to continually scale up my smoking experience and while I think I smoke mostly excellent cigars even a favorite can be a let down. I smoked a RG Lonsdale yesterday, one of my favorites, and it was flat, way too mild with no depth of flavor and no robust character. You need A's and F's to make up a Gaussian... I just hope to get the A's and let some bloke who's buying the robustos get the F's!!! -Piggy

[Dbone]

Good stuff, Rob. Your lucky smoke? It's been a while since I've had the stars AND moon align, it's a very rare occurrence. And you're correct in saying those rare moments are what keep me coming back, looking and hoping to find it again. It's kinda neat when you find it in a smoke that you'd not expect it from.

[Fuzz AI]

I had a 99 Choke Supreme like that about 2 mos. ago Rob. The ERdM CS is not a usual cigar for me. I have had this cigar since 2000 and still have a few from the box left. I wish they all were as good as this one was.

A Choke Supreme? Is this the cigar Greg Norman smokes?

[dicko]

I've never smoked a cigar that has left me speachless. some have been close. I have only been smoking for 2 years though and havent had any aged stock or anything.

This was me at Rob's description of that siglo 2:

[davidl]

You're a helpless romantic Rob . Your description reads like poetry.

Yesterday I watched your Monti # 4 video review with my Dad, and then we watched the Monti #2 one from last October - it was incredible to see how you were almost emotional about both (the first a disaster, the second great).

[Kangaroo495]

I know what you mean! I had it once. Smoking a RASS in Barcelona. It was a feeling of physical euphoria (yes - it WAS a cigar.. with tobacco). The brain relaxed, I tuned out of the surrounding world completely.

[Tarks]

God, I love those moments! Only happens a few times a year for me. I'd say 1 in 300 cigars.

[cellinisart]

I was picking stock yesterday (continue today) and had chosen a Cohiba Siglo II Tubo to be my morning companion.

You know when you have a cigar and it is simply perfection achieving a level of flavour diversity and intensity that you could never imagine could physically come from a cigar?

I was there yesterday morning. Cream so sweet it was dessert. Milk coffee so pure I felt I was back at Dean Merlo's coffee factory playing with blends, a class above, an experience, the cigar I still taste and think about now.

I have one remaining from that pack. Could it possibly be as good? I am assuming no. I am telling myself to be disappointed, that it was a fluke, to grow up.

This is what keeps us coming back to Cuban cigars. That perfect cigar...the one in 200/300/400, the cigar version of the perfect shot in golf, the perfect fly cast to structure and the resultant strike (...take my word for it Ken)

I will let you know if my last Siglo II Tubo is as good as the first

I went through two 09 boxes in the last 3 months and both were garbage. I feel like the good siglo 2's are floating away.

Oh well maybe that means the punch punch will float back home. The 09 PP are starting to show a little improvement, I do miss them.

[cellinisart]

I had a 99 Choke Supreme like that about 2 mos. ago Rob. The ERdM CS is not a usual cigar for me. I have had this cigar since 2000 and still have a few from the box left. I wish they all were as good as this one was.

I try to continually scale up my smoking experience and while I think I smoke mostly excellent cigars even a favorite can be a let down. I smoked a RG Lonsdale yesterday, one of my favorites, and it was flat, way too mild with no depth of flavor and no robust character. You need A's and F's to make up a Gaussian... I just hope to get the A's and let some bloke who's buying the robustos get the F's!!! -Piggy

Ray, I find the RG lonsdale to not age very well in that they just drop off the map at one point and never come back. I feel the CE is a much better stick for the 4-6 year run. I have three CE 05 boxes that are drop dead awesome but a box of early 06 lonsdales that have lost everything already.

[ChanceSchmerr]

Ray, I find the RG lonsdale to not age very well in that they just drop off the map at one point and never come back. I feel the CE is a much better stick for the 4-6 year run. I have three CE 05 boxes that are drop dead awesome but a box of early 06 lonsdales that have lost everything already.

I gotta put my 2 cents here with a counterpoint - I have a box of 01 RG Lonnys, and although they are ugly as sin - my goodness they are stellar! Luck of the draw I think.

Sorry to hear that your 06 Lonnys aren't anything great - I looked far and wide for some more recent RG Lonsdales and 01 was all I could find, I guess I got lucky in that respect.

The CE can be better than the Lonny when it's really on - but they are hit or miss for me. Glad I got some before they chopped them off the active list!

As to the perfect stick for me - last one I had like that was a RA 898 a little while back after a terrible week. Just filled every need in my being at that moment - truly incredible! It's so good to have (every once in a while) a reminder of what we're trying to find in cigars.......if it was like that all the time, we wouldn't appreciate it!

[docbp87]

Ah, the elusive, penultimate transcendental cigar experience. In my brief cigar smoking life, this has only happened a very few times, and each of those times, the setting and circumstances were equally important to the quality of the smoking experience (for instance, 70 degrees, nice breeze, no humidity, sitting on the deck at my cousin's beach house on Cape Cod this past summer, while the rest of the family was out for the afternoon shopping, while I smoked a massive Opus X churchill, and sipped a glass of chilled champagne, and read a great book, and just was perfectly relaxed, enjoying a perfectly built and blended cigar.

[El Presidente]

Well the second of the Siglo II on Firday was indeed very good....just nowhere near the brilliance of the Thursday example.

I am not sure anyone can come out with blanket binding statements in this hobby. "These don't age" "This cigar needs 4 years" "the best was....." "This boxcode was sensational or shite"

Almost Everytime I have come to a conclusion on a cigar issue I have been confronted with the exact opposite. Unless you start most statements with "In my opinion, generally....." or "I have found" you will be made to look a fool time and time again.

I don't think there are many hard or fast rules in the Cuban Cigar world. A decade ago I would have held maybe 6-10 firm beliefs but today maybe 1-2.

[PigFish]

Well the second of the Siglo II on Firday was indeed very good....just nowhere near the brilliance of the Thursday example.

I am not sure anyone can come out with blanket binding statements in this hobby. "These don't age" "This cigar needs 4 years" "the best was....." "This boxcode was sensational or shite"

Almost Everytime I have come to a conclusion on a cigar issue I have been confronted with the exact opposite. Unless you start most statements with "In my opinion, generally....." or "I have found" you will be made to look a fool time and time again.

I don't think there are many hard or fast rules in the Cuban Cigar world. A decade ago I would have held maybe 6-10 firm beliefs but today maybe 1-2.

I was thinking the very same thing Rob I just chose not to post it. While I think that the presence of congeners represent the best cigars with aging potential, it is only a theory as I cannot prove it, I think there is no correlation to brand or price of a cigar as to how well it ages. I personally don't think that mild cigars ever get better than mild, but that is just MHO. Good post!

This endeavor is full of wives tales just looking to be dispelled. Alas one can smoke the same cigar only once and proof is as elusive as fact!!! Cheers, -Piggy

[Matt Day]

I do know what u mean I have 7 Psd4s from Sep 08, originally I purchased 8 privately. and what can I say if the other seven are anything like the one i had last week then I shall be very happy but I am going to torture myself and save the other seven for our summer as i am just finding robusto’s to big to smoke outside atm.

also before Christmas has an NC a Luis Martinez Tres Petit corona which can give any Cuban a run for its money in my view.

I also feel it helps when u get a paring between a cigar and drink perfect to can make the stars and moon align even more.

[mm12]

I recently posted a review of a PSD4 that I had this sort of experience with. I had previously smoked 10-12 out of the box, and they were solid 90-91 cigars, but nothing particularly special. Then this one just totally blew me away. I'm not expecting to find another one of these in the box.

I think maybe the thing that bothers me most about the inconsistencies within individual Habanos boxes is that it's basically impossible to get a box with 100% totally amazing cigars, but you'll still see the occasional box that's 100% total garbage.

[PLUSH]

Funny as reading through this I thought about cigar I had once. It just happened to be a PSD4 as the last 2 post. It was a couple of years ago and it had been aged several years before that. As I smoke it, I kept thinking to myself that this was the best cigar I had ever smoked. These are the moments that we all look for.