A glaring omission... a genuinely full Bolivar Coronas Gordas? why are they a no go?

[cfc1016]

Save a few odd exceptions, i haven't smoked a vitola since ~2003 that i would call consistently full bodied. In the 90s, the BBF was like Tyson. Now it's a featherweight amateur, by comparison. Party 898UV, Punch Black Prince, BBF (criminy - ANY boli, back then, really - even the demi tasse was a goer), Lusi - those used to take me down a notch. Edit: even the ninfas. If they'd been bigger, i probably couldn't have smoked them.
 

I don't know. I'm sure my palate has a lot to do with it too, though. It's nowhere near as acute as it once was. I really do miss the old 898s...

 

[99call]

On 4/23/2020 at 6:31 PM, PigFish said:

That type of strength is factually not what I smoke cigars for. A brash concentrated flavor, without character and personality is not skilled cigar making. Constitution is great, but it should not be the hallmark of a better cigar.

"that type of strength"....    HHmmm   i actually think we are singing from the same hymn sheet. 

Much a like drunk 20 something from Newcastle going to a curry house.  sometimes there is a weird subsection of customers, that want a vindaloo, that is not only going to be extruciatingly hot,  is almost borderline toxic.....................well,    thats not what I'm talking about.   I'm not talking about a nicotine bomb, or a cigar thats going to make you cough soup.  

As the word body, largely means a multitude of different things to different smokers,  I wont use it.      Lets talk about stereotypical (and I know you don't like to be but in a box Ray)   Morning smokes, and after dinner smokes.   What i'm talking about,  is there being a dearth of after dinner smokes.   Cigars that are rich, full of character, dark in their palate of flavours, with a content of nicotine, that gives them a degree of bite, but by no means will make you green behind the gills. 

BBFs and 898's used to be like current young MAG46's,  JLs,  and R&J Cazadores .   they had a degree of fuse whereby the consumer could opt for a range of rides.   Smoke 5-12months, a schizophrenic ride of vivid strong flavours and power.   Smoke 12months to 10yrs a crap shoot of either building sweetness, or diminishing power.    My major complaint is counter to popular opinion, i.e I don't want my cigars to be in their sweet spot the day a buy them, then fall off a flavour cliff at 3years old.    I would much rather they would be wild and rambunctious, then slowly meld and sweeten up.     It's being widely observed that cigars from 2009 onwards have smoked unusually well a young, but I'm also finding, cigars that I would previously expect to hold on to a bit of grunt, or powder puffs within 4 years.

I value a light bright and airy Fonseca no 1, as a morning change of pace smoke........but Jesus, I want something at the other end of the spectrum!......and well.....it's being badly diluted.      As to the answer why.......I have no idea.  

[avaldes]

I think NSXCIGAR is on to it. Either the plant itself no longer produces the same character of ligero of old....or the post harvest processing has changed and does not produce the same result. I bet it is probably a combination of both.

I hadn’t really considered the larger gage cigars consuming more ligero. I don’t smoke anything fatter than a pyramid, but I would guess they are not heavy on ligero based on most descriptions I’ve read.

As a note, I’m smoking a year old BBF cab tonight. It is wonderfully flavorful and I like it a lot. But it does not compare to 90’s BBF’s.