Your best cigar experience of November 2019 ?

[El Presidente]

Your best cigar experience of November 2019 ?

It was a big month for many with Havana, Partagas Festival, Big Smoke, Thanks Giving!

Your best cigar of November 2019? 

[MigsG]

A very memorable Montecristo No. 1 JUL '17, from the recent US summer box pass, courtesy of @FatherOfPugs.  Without a doubt the best cigar I had in November, besting out a '16 Diplo2, an '18 P2, an '18 Libertador, and an '18 Connie A.  

[FatPete]

My first Hoyo de Monterrey Le Hoyo De Rio Seco (RUM NOV 18). I loved the spices, bold flavours and complexity. Ordered another box today.

 

[lovethehaze]

Easy Partagas P2. Was 2014 don’t have code b/c was a gift by the fine gentleman who intruded me to FOH some time back. 
Best of  the year. 97 pointer ... and this is in a car on the highway first ash about 50 minutes in and I had dropped it too many times to count pre smoke, it was clearly a fighter !

[Meklown]

Not exactly the best cigar per se, but best in terms of having a good time (that's what cigars are meant to be right?) - Partagas Culebras with 2 others. It was a funny effort where we each tried to smoke all 3 in the bundle at once. Failed horribly as expected but just pure good fun. The smoke itself (after we split the sticks) was actually quite decent as well, coming in above my expectations.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Meklown
Added a pic of my Dad having a go

[SigmundChurchill]

The Novedosos I smoked at the factory was the best cigar I smoked all year.  

@ElJavi76 made an interesting comment to me the other day.  He said “I dont know what happens to the cigars between the time they come off the rolling table, and the time they are boxed and shipped to us, because those cigars from the factory taste so much better.”  (Or something to that effect.). And that comment resonated with me, because I was thinking the exact same thing when I was smoking them.  The three that I smoked were all extremely flavorful.

In fact, I am wondering if I should smoke the other two ASAP, or save them long term.

[ElJavi76]

What he said! ( @SigmundChurchill )

I got two Talisman and two CoRo's from the tables. The first CoRo was like smoking a piece of sugar cane dipped in honey. By far the best CoRo I've ever smoked. Period! I had 0 intentions of buying any CoRo in Cuba. That cigar made me buy a box. The first Talisman I smoked along with Nino, Cory, and the gang at Marea. Stunning. Second one at El Nacional and that was magic.

It could very well be that smoking anything in Cuba is just better. I smoked my second floor CoRo last Friday at a local cigar bar. Very good but not like the one I had in Cuba. It's like it knew it had left the island. If they all tasted like they did in Havana... I could chain smoke CoRo's all day long. 

[Habana Mike]

For me smoking one of Hector Prieto’s personal daily smokes with him in the cigar salon of his Vedado casa. 

We were staying at the casa and he and his wife Mylebies were in Havana that evening also spending the night there. 

His nephew Marco lives there as he is a student at the University of Havana and helped us communicate as he speaks better English than his uncle and better Spanish than me. 

Lovely couple, great cigar and an amazing experience and memory. 

[Bri Fi]

Ok so I have to ask... based on a couple comments here, do the master blenders wait a period (say 1 year) before they approve the blend? Or do they approve  them fresh? My understanding is the so called sick period is from 90 days past the box date to one year of the box date (I don’t put a ton of weight on the sick period). With that in mind, are we missing out on cigars at their best when fresh? Usually “fresh” is a dirty word in the cigar world. 

[westg]

Easy. A Monte 2 with Clive Tony and Steve at Cigar Social , Perth Western Australia. Nick. Owner Nick Russell joined us . Terrific night.

 

[Bri Fi]

And to answer the question, Hoyo Epicure No.2 OBM APR 17. All cream. So good I bought another box to sit on. 

[Mikeltee]

Funny how a lot of these posts have cigars fresh off the rollers table besting cigars that are aged for a subjectively perfect amount of time. I wonder if a lack of freezing has anything to do with it? My uneducated guess says yes, that is exactly why these sticks are so glorious. I am jealous for sure. 

[SigmundChurchill]

10 minutes ago, Bri Fi said:

Ok so I have to ask... based on a couple comments here, do the master blenders wait a period (say 1 year) before they approve the blend? Or do they approve  them fresh? My understanding is the so called sick period is from 90 days past the box date to one year of the box date (I don’t put a ton of weight on the sick period). With that in mind, are we missing out on cigars at their best when fresh? Usually “fresh” is a dirty word in the cigar world. 

I dont know that I know the technical answer to your question about a waiting period.  But in my experience, the farm and custom rolled cigars I have smoked, have always been best, smoked “fresh” from the Island.  The ones I hold onto for a little while don't have nearly the flavor intensity.  In my mind, that is a correlation I made with the freshly rolled cigars from the factory.  I was thinking perhaps if I held onto them for several years, the flavor would then, again, improve with age.  It may be related to the “sick period”, but who knows.

[Guest Nekhyludov]

2016 SigVI was the best cigar of the month for me. It made for a fitting Thanksgiving smoke.

IMG_0006.HEIC

[Meklown]

26 minutes ago, Mikeltee said:

Funny how a lot of these posts have cigars fresh off the rollers table besting cigars that are aged for a subjectively perfect amount of time. I wonder if a lack of freezing has anything to do with it? My uneducated guess says yes, that is exactly why these sticks are so glorious. I am jealous for sure. 

That was precisely what I was thinking while reading those comments. However, on another thread recently there was pretty strong insistence that freezing did not affect taste, so I'm not too sure now!

 

[Habana Mike]

39 minutes ago, Mikeltee said:

Funny how a lot of these posts have cigars fresh off the rollers table besting cigars that are aged for a subjectively perfect amount of time. I wonder if a lack of freezing has anything to do with it? My uneducated guess says yes, that is exactly why these sticks are so glorious. I am jealous for sure. 

I do not believe anything related to freezing has anything to do with taste. 

I have had many recent and older “custom” cigars, some frozen and many not. 

It is more likely that cigars straight off the table are much more pungent than a cigar that’s been aged to any degree at all. 

[MrGlass]

That Ramon Allones Silver Jubilee I had on the deck Friday had to take the cake.  The company wasn't so bad either.

[Islandboy]

I had my first ever Party 898 in November- LMB Feb 18. The final third was mongrel to da max, but everything before that was Cuban twang of the finest kind. 

[SigmundChurchill]

42 minutes ago, Habana Mike said:

I do not believe anything related to freezing has anything to do with taste. 

I have had many recent and older “custom” cigars, some frozen and many not. 

It is more likely that cigars straight off the table are much more pungent than a cigar that’s been aged to any degree at all. 

This was my thought as well.

[garnett]

A little embarrassed to say it was a Trini Short in Cuba last cigar of the day with a coffee out on the deck great Cuban band playing warm breeze perfect.

[earthson]

02 PLPC I actually had today.  It was a dried fruit juggernaut with plenty of finesse.  It definitely appeared to be at it's peak.

[Derboesekoenig]

1 hour ago, earthson said:

02 PLPC I actually had today.  It was a dried fruit juggernaut with plenty of finesse.  It definitely appeared to be at it's peak.

That's always good to know. Don't go above 17-18 yrs on PLPC. Thanks!