After a long, cold, and mostly smokeless winter, cigar season is BACK! I’ve got a lot of new sticks ready for review, and another year of age on some old favorites in the coolidor. Hope you all had a great winter and are already enjoying the spring smoking season!
This has been a pretty darn strange June here in the Southwestern US. Nearly the whole month has been overcast, rainy and windy. Most of these are normal in small amounts but this year they’ve combined to produce some lousy cigar smoking conditions in Albuquerque. During these bouts of iffy weather I’ve also turned to some of my goto cigars leaving me smoking, and reviewing, fewer new sticks.
I have some great review smokes lined up, though, so stay tuned as we head into July!
Just got a shipment of stuff, after splitting and trading with another aficionado at work, I have the following to add to the humidor. Yum!
9 Montecristo Media Noche Edmundo
5 Oliva Serie O Maduro Torpedo
3 Padilla ‘68 Robusto
2 Padilla ‘68 Toro
2 Padilla ‘68 Torpedo
3 Padilla ‘68 Churchill
1 5 Vegas Series ‘A’ Robusto
1 5 Vegas Gold Robusto
1 5 Vegas Classic Robusto
Today’s my birthday. In addition to having an all-night rock band party, here is a photo of my plans. I don’t think I’ll review the Mike Ditka cigar 
Today I attended a small Rocky Patel event held at my local shop. I typically buy about 75% of my smokes online simply becuase of the much better prices, but I still try to patronize “brick & mortar” shops for single sticks and to talk cigars with people who know a lot more than I do.
The event was run by Rocky’s brother Nish Patel, and the deals were quite good. 20% off boxes, free RP cigars with singles or box purchases, and a raffle for some cool stuff like an HDTV and a nice RP humidor. Until today I’d completely forgotten about the SCHIP tax increase poised to hit in just a few days. I’m really not opposed to some taxes, but taxing something that people are supposed to be quitting seems like a stupid idea because if the plan works and fewer tobacco products are consumed, the needed tax revenue will evaporate and then will have to come from somewhere else. But I digress. I decided that despite my nearly overflowing coolerdor and humidor, I’d see if I could find some goodies to add to the collection before the tax increase.
After a long internal debate between a box of the Vintage 1992 and the Olde Worde Reserve Maduro, I opted for a box of the Vintage 1992 Robustos, it being one of my overall favorite blends and a great value at only $95 for the box plus 5 free extra Rocky cigars. I also picked up a variety of smaller cigars, which I have begun to appreciate more as I don’t always want to commit 2 hours to a stogie.
The final SCHIP-evading haul:
20 RP Vintage 1992 Robusto
3 RP ITC Toro
2 RP Autumn Collection Toro
1 RP Vintage 1990 Petit Corona
2 Don Tomas Maduro Robusto
1 AF Hemingway Short Story
2 RyJ Vintage Love Story
1 Oliva Serie V Double Robusto
1 Padron 2000 Natural
After making my picks I sat in the lounge and smoked one of the RyJs. I think I was the only one of the 30-40 people around who wasn’t smoking a RP, but I wanted to age those for a bit.
It required some creative shuffling but I managed to fit everything into the coolidor, which is now absolutely packed. I should have quite a bit of review fodder for the year!
If you have a local shop I’d encourage you to look into whether they are planning any of events, whether it be a basic herf or a manufacturer sponsored sale. It’s a good way to meet some of your local enthusiasts and possibly get some good deals.
Last night while smoking a nice 120 minute Rocky Patel, I was reminded of something that I don’t do nearly enough on my longer cigars: purging. Simply put, purging your cigar is blowing gently the opposite direction that you would to take a puff. Why would you want to do this? There are two reasons:
Ok, so how do you purge your precious stogie? If the cigar is fully lit, just blow gently through the cigar several times. You’re looking to completely clear the tube of lingering smoke and then a bit more for good measure. If the cigar is not lit (scenario 1 above), use your lighter to get the foot very hot, hopefully fully lit, then proceed with the purge.
You can also refer to this article at Puffing Cigars, which has some impressive visual accompaniment.
The other day I began using Twitter, convinced I could find some fellow cigar enthusiasts. I was not disappointed; there are lots of aficionados tweeting all the time! If you haven’t looked into it I’d recommend it. One of the first users I followed was http://twitter.com/caocigars. As it turns out, they were planning on giving out a prize to their 500th Twitter follower which just happened to be me.
A few messages and a couple days later, I receive a box with a nice note from the marketing director (who is the one Twittering) and a 5 pack of CAO LX2s! I’ve had the Brasilia, Italia, MX2 but had never tried the LX2. Thanks CAO!
Blog is set up and ready, just working on some tags and categories now. Also need a nice theme.
