The Joys of Abstinence

[Rehman]

I smoke cigars so sparingly these days. From three or four a day a year ago, I'm down to one or two a month. This has been partly to do with my retirement lifestyle changing to include a lot of bicycle-riding during those hours of the day I used to reserve for cigars. It also has something to do with my not having had any income for the past year-and-a-half and managing my savings so as to anticipate at least another ten years before perhaps needing to do some work again.

There was also the matter of my cigars not smoking very well a year ago, causing me to abandon them in frustration. So all this time, my cigars have sat in their humidors undisturbed save for the occasional hygrometer check.

Which has meant that, this morning, a Juan Lopez Seleccion No.2 from a box marked LOT MAY 10 greeted me like a long-lost friend. A glowing rosado wrapper, a subtle musk from the foot, a quick and even light-up, an overture of cream, honey and mint. The pepper, leather and spice billowed out in the middle third, and now as I take this down to the nub after a near-perfect burn, the flavours have mingled into a fulsome finale, leaving my lips tingling and my faith restored.

This may be partly due to my palate being cleared and rested after a time stuffed and deadened by over-indulgence. Or perhaps to my having had more consistent aerobic and cardio-vascular exercise this past year than ever before in my life. But mostly it's because this is what good cigars do: they get better.

[ramon_cojones]

Excellent post, I too find that they are more enjoyable after a hiatus dependent on those very factors you mention. Nothing matches that satisfaction.

[headstand]

Rehman,

You had me there with the title of your post

Monday through Thursday I abstain, so my favorite cigar of the week is usually the highly anticipated Friday night smoke.

Thanks for sharing.

A.

[winelover]

Pleased to hear that your cigars are improving. Hope you are enjoying te cycling and retirement. G

[TexAg]

Rehman,

You had me there with the title of your post

Monday through Thursday I abstain, so my favorite cigar of the week is usually the highly anticipated Friday night smoke.

Thanks for sharing.

A.

I too abstain during the week. It makes for an amazing Friday night cigar!

[Habanos2000]

I too am a Friday night cigar smoker and have always found that back to back cigars find me liking them much less than when I pace myself.

Great post as usual Rehman and I'm glad to hear a cigar can still earn your interest.

[LeafLover]

I don't abstain because:

1) I'm too weak

2) I can always find the time

3) Thankfully I can still afford cigars

But, I totally understand the power of giving your palate a break as a day or two in between smokes for whatever reason has yielded me a good experience when I did break that dry spell.

[Rehman]

You had me there with the title of your post

Ah yes, perhaps it should have been, "Abstinence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder". Chastity's something else, and celibacy is, well, transcendent, I presume.

The travel writer and broadcaster Michael Palin, ex-Monty Python, once took his camera crew to meet "the loneliest man in the world" - a trapper in the frozen Arctic fastnesses of Spitsbergen in Norway. During their interview with this gentle, soft-spoken man in his tiny shack, Palin asked him, "Come on, surely there's something you miss up here?" The gentleman smiled and said, "Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a woman here... but then I think... no."

[mbrody]

Great post. Makes me want to kick the habit for a few days. I am too weak...