Kirby in Cuba


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Sorry this popped up. Only fair to add here! 🤭

To my mind, anyone who produces content for our hobby should be celebrated. Well....if that content is accurate. Now the content may not be to our personal taste but it doesn't really matter. God

Well...I only watched the episode where he had good guests. In his last video with the Sahakians in Cuba, he is showing them a BGM, a Bolivar DC and a Behike. Needless to say he smoked the Behike and

The way I look at who Kirby is in reality is based upon those who repeatedly enjoy his company. The Sarhakians seem like class acts, the Foulkes have a tremendous amount of cigar knowledge, Jenna Freeman spending time to be interviewed by a man who cannot market her goods in his home country, etc.    

The clothes and everything else does nothing for me but through his cannoli have seen some spectacular interviews and conversations with those heavily into Cuban cigars. He is an American who is fascinated by many things British and a certain “dandy” style. Again, not my thing but I believe he is ineluctable, trying to learn and is enthusiastic, sometimes maybe too much in interviews. He has gotten more polished but I believe, like most Americans, he is used to a faster pace where people interrupt each other as a norm in conversation versus say, Eddie Sarhakian, who has a more relaxed, paced conversation style.  

Either way, I agree him giving exposure is not a bad thing. Especially considering the cigars are part of a “civilized” style and not something that is considered “dirty” like many here in the US consider it as linked to cigarettes and convenience store cigars. 

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3 hours ago, ha_banos said:

Oh ma gahd. If your not wearing over the calf silk dress socks....

Guess who's back? From Cuba.

Life changing.

Never before in the history of man have the words "over the calf" been repeated so many times in such a short (much shorter than the socks) period of time.

 

 

 

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On 1/9/2024 at 2:54 PM, VeguerosMAN said:

How do they blend and know which scraps to work with to get that particular profile in a mini cigar or cig if all the scraps are mixed from different brands? Or are they all taste the same?

Bingo. They are not blending minis to a particular profile. I'd argue, the same stands for the premium sticks. With a galera full of rollers working with the same tobacco delivery, on different brands, I'd propose  "Marca profile" is indeed a myth. 

In none of the gallery videos do you see them sorting leaves by brand. They are sorted by type and colour. Granted, I've never been and seen it first hand, but blind tasting results generally corroborate my theory. 

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On 1/25/2024 at 4:54 AM, ha_banos said:

Oh ma gahd. If your not wearing over the calf silk dress socks....

Guess who's back? From Cuba.

Life changing.

Pretty sure Kirby has gained a few hundred followers just from this diss track thread. Laughin' his way to the bank

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3 hours ago, El Presidente said:

There is the master blender. 

Simplifying, the rollers are given the blend leaves and instructions on how to bunch the filler/blend. 

Rollers don't need to know if it is a CORO an EPI2, D4. 

And Bingo! again. It’s funny at times to see how folks imagine they would penetrate the system because they’d done a factory tour...

The fact that most people aren’t able to differentiate the particular species and age classes within a flock of seagulls doesn’t mean they weren’t existing.

That much for the explanatory power of blind tastings... 😄

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On 1/25/2024 at 10:21 PM, El Presidente said:

There is the master blender. 

Simplifying, the rollers are given the blend leaves and instructions on how to bunch the filler/blend. 

Rollers don't need to know if it is a CORO an EPI2, D4. 

Is it fair to say they are blending for strength/body Rob, rather than flavour? It's normally the ratio of volado to seco to ligero that gets talked about by the master blenders. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm enamoured with the Cuban flavours, but it's not like one particular finca goes into brand A, and another into brand B. There is no "single estate terroir" as far as I know, it's all from over the Vuelta Abajo, and getting distinct (and consistently so) flavours, from the individual leaves that may end up in any particular brand, seems improbable. 

It's more likely that the tobacco is largely the same for all brands, from all over the region, not selected farms per brand, and the blenders are aiming for strength & body profile (which they can control via ratios), rather than flavour profile (which they can't control). 

Happy to be talked-down from here, but I think it's a pretty reasonable and robust assumption. 

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This is the perfect conversation and question time with Hamlet. He's been in HSA and then some. He knows the blenders. He's told us stories being round table with the old guys and winning 😄

When's the next FOH Zoom session?

While we're here, in Kirby's thread lol, how do the NW get consistency?

So many questions...

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I have a lot of respect for his work and what he has accomplished. It’s just doesn’t seem genuine at times and that he is trying really hard. Sometimes I just want to put on a pair of sweat pants, kick back with a beer and light my cigar with a bic lighter. 

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9 hours ago, MrBirdman said:

One mystery greater than Habanos’s blends/profiles is how in the hell this thread has reached six pages 😵‍💫

Because you boneheads keep posting.....

Dammit my bad

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Kirby has come a long way from less than 10k subscribers to now more than 700k subscribers. In no time he will reach 1 million subs. Way to go Kirby. Hard work and a little bit of luck goes a long way!!

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  • 3 weeks later...
3 hours ago, ha_banos said:

It just doesn't come across quite right.....

"Gentlemen, I would really appreciate if you took your time to do whatever you do, I would hate to see a good cigar go to waste."

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3 hours ago, ha_banos said:

It just doesn't come across quite right.....

That pic also illustrates the state of the website he has taken over. Just remove the two people working on the problem(s).

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3 hours ago, Li Bai said:

"Gentlemen, I would really appreciate if you took your time to do whatever you do, I would hate to see a good cigar go to waste."

We smoked in the van rides we took in Havana. No cigars wasted. If anything, it was better than breathing in that legendary Havana roadway exhaust.

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