contender for dud of the year... but what?

[Ken Gargett]

last trip to havana, when rob and i were at el ajibe restaurant, we ducked into the attached habanos store. it is not a bad one and the woman who runs it has always been very helpful and knowledgable. it is also often a good source for hard to find rums. and you are much better off buying a few smokes there than the fakes some of the staff will try and sell you.

anyway, i bought some bolivar gigantes, from memory, and she gave us each a very large trinidad. i had not seen them before but we initially thought that they must have been the double robustos from the trinidad book humidor. believe that they are called torre iznagas and were released 2006. given only 500 'books' released and only 20 cigars in each, they are a bit rare. not sure if these came from one of the books - more likely, 'leftovers'. however, they are listed as 52 x 170, and while the gauge was probably 52, possibly a little more, it was certainly longer than 170. if that is 6.7 inches, this thing was at least 8 inches i would have said (kicking myself for not taking specific measurements).

anyone any thoughts as to wha it might be? and it would be okay for colt and shrink not to make the obvious comments about me mistaking 8 inches for 6 etc.

it had not fared as well as one would hope from the trip home and the wrapper was a touch frayed. still, in reasonable nick and the construction looked good. from memory, rob smoked his in havana and was not overly excited. i chose to smoke mine last night - i figured a nice big cigar would be some compensation if the glorious maroons repeated their spineless effort of the first state of origin. as it turned out, what a magnificent game. but there will be plenty of time for gloating later, and might be wise not to jump in pre the last game.

what a disappointment this cigar turned out to be. bland, insipid, dull, flavourless, no complexity, no interest. the only change in flavour throughout the entire stick was that the last third was a tiny bit more bitter than the rest. if i had given up after 2/3rds, would hardly have even known 'd have smoked anything. what a dud. 2 hours of boredom. thank god for the game. the only reason i kept smoking it was because being superstitious, i wasn't game to stop while queensland were on a roll. if this is representative of the book cigars, good luck to anyone who has wasted their dosh.

as for as core, as they said about the game, new south wales was lucky to get zero. same applies to the cigar.

[Colt45]

KG, according to Trevor's website, there was a "Farm House Humidor" in 2001. Along with ten fundadores,

it contained ten robustos especiales, at 50 x 192 (7.6"). Ring doesn't sound like it matches your cigar

though. Also these cigars had the plain gold trinidad band. Do you recall if yours had the plain band,

or the TTT band?

As an aside, I'm sure you have no problem differentiating between six and eight inches.....

P.S. are you positive it was legit?

[El Presidente]

» P.S. are you positive it was legit?

It wasn't legit at least in my humble opinion.

1. I couldn't reconcile the size.

2. She had plenty of them and was handing them out like Ken hands out lollies at a schoolyard.

3. It tasted like crap.

It is a worrying sign when a store that I had never previously questioned does this. Don't get me wrong, The cigars in the store are genuine but this practice of handing out "rare" cigars as a bonus only raises questions of knowledgeable purchasers. The lovely lady probably had no idea.

[Ken Gargett]

» KG, according to Trevor's website, there was a "Farm House Humidor" in

» 2001. Along with ten fundadores,

» it contained ten robustos especiales, at 50 x 192 (7.6"). Ring doesn't

» sound like it matches your cigar

» though. Also these cigars had the plain gold trinidad band. Do you recall

» if yours had the plain band,

» or the TTT band?

»

» As an aside, I'm sure you have no problem differentiating between six and

» eight inches.....

»

» P.S. are you positive it was legit?

band was TTT. could have been 50 but i'd been inclined to go a touch lager. rob might remember.

could well have been dodgy. certainly no redeeming features, though have had worse fakes.

sad how the mind of one person on this site (no names but initials are rob ayala) alway sems to head along a certain track. and with some of the photos recently posted, it can't be long before he is chains off to the 'special' wing of the local choky. can you leave me the keys to the 4wd before you go and clean out all the dodgy porn as well.

before you respond with some perfidious falsehood defaming my character, do i have to tell the 'who got caught buying little girls' undies' story?

[Ken Gargett]

quite possibly they were fakes but i'd be a little surprised. she knew you worked with habanos (i think that the prisoners in gitmo are the only people in all of cuba you haven't told and even that isn't for the want of trying). she has always been quite knowledgable and helpful. i can't see what she had to gain. she did it at the end after we'd finished buying and she didn't charge us. curious. but it really was an ordinary smoke.

[El Presidente]

» quite possibly they were fakes but i'd be a little surprised. she knew you

» worked with habanos (i think that the prisoners in gitmo are the only

» people in all of cuba you haven't told and even that isn't for the want of

» trying).

I was only trying to get you a discount. Note that after I dropped the fact I was in the game, that she put the cigars you purchased back under the counter and pulled real boxes. Not that you would have known the difference.

As for the purchasing little girls underwear story I should tell it before you embellish.

A good friend from Habanos s.a came out for a visit and I took him shopping as he wanted to purchase basic items for his partner and daughter.

I hate shopping and have no idea as Lisa can attest. We had purchsed dresses and shoes and suitcases and shits and after 20 minutes I was looking for the nearest bar. Yet being the good host I persisted and he mentioned he needed to purchase underwear for his daughter. I found some childrens underwear and he said "no.....she would not wear that. She wears what you call here "G strings" Yes you are amazed but all very Cuban.

I was a little perplexed, I was tired after a week with him on the turps (booze) so I went up to the lovely lady on the counter of the store and asked " Hello...I am looking for G strings for 7 year old girls".

The look she gave me could have frozen hell. I swear she was about to call the police. As soon as I said the words it dawned on me what I had asked.

I called Lisa immediately and said that she is going shopping with my friend from here on in.

Lisa rolls on the floor laughing to this day when the story is retold.

[Ken Gargett]

» I hate shopping and have no idea as Lisa can attest. We had purchsed

» dresses and shoes and suitcases and shits and after 20 minutes I was

» looking for the nearest bar.

you just keep digging that hole deeper.

you were out buying poo?

[Colt45]

The degradation of a thread.....

First post - interesting tale of a more than likely shady cigar (looking past the slight defamation in the

middle of said post).

Three posts later, we're discussing girl's undies, "dodgy" porn, and poo. You two are slipping - it

usually doesn't take so long.....