El Presidente

Getting closer. Boxes ready for packaging this week. VID-20251026-WA0003.mp4

Prayers and thoughts to all friends and family in Cuba. Get through this one and hopefully that will be it for the year. I am sure we all concur that cigar production/pricing is an irrelevancy at this point. Those cards will fall where they may.

How I would love to own the retro piece of perfection Promotional briefcase for the Café Crème cigar brand. Exclusive to tobacconists.

Fernando "Ferdie" Pacheco Jimenez (1927-2017) [Ybor City Cigar Makers' Strike of 1931] Oil on canvas A vivid and bustling depiction of the cigar makers' strike of 1931 that took place in the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa, Florida. The cigar workforce had long been organized, and in response to falling wages during the Great Depression, the Tobacco Workers Industrial Union engaged in radical demonstrations, including an anniversary celebration of the Russian Revolution. Seventeen workers were jailed, and the Lector, a worker who read newspapers aloud, was accused of proliferating Communist propaganda and expelled. This led to a three-week strike that was opposed by the police, vigilante squads, and the Ku Klux Klan. Ferdie Pacheco (1927-2017), also known as The Fight Doctor, was the personal physician and cornerman for world heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali and later became a well-known boxing commentator on television. A self-taught artist, most of his works focused on boxing and the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa, Florida, where he grew up.

Try getting away with this today Antique hand-painted ceramic character-head tobacco humidors

Swanky dinner tonight at Essa so I took the opportunity to book a swanky room at Hotel X around the corner. I love Hotel X as it is boutique "great quirky", has a great restaurant downstairs (Bisou Bisou) and a rooftop bar that encourages cigar smokers. I had my 60th there as well as a pre wedding event. Negroni or two and a 109 this afternoon. Back home Sunday lunch and in time for the Tonga V Samoa Rugby League international being played at our Suncorp Stadium. Sold out 52K insane islander crowd. Picture 26 Dwayne Johnson "The Rock" running at each other full steam for 80 minutes. This is an example of the "pre game warmup" by the teams. It's a must watch

Fantastic review and glad you enjoyed it A couple of our own observations. There hasn't been another Fab5 cigar so far that has evolved more with 30 days acclimatisation. The BR Petit 109 comes in second. 2. This cigar has legs baby. She is consistently showing 90-92 points 30 days down with a mix of complexity and at points, surprising power. She is a babe in the woods having been rolled in July/August of this year. Hamlet's blending has been spot on here.

The Fab5 team are working hard currently on putting the finishing touches on the Bond Roberts Dalia and Fenomenos for the launch in Kuwait on December 1st. I have also signed off on the Bond Roberts Robusto this week which we will see in March/April 2026. That one posed a challenge as the bar was set pretty damn high with the MOFOH Robusto Trinity. 50+ blends BR Robusto blends later and I finally hit that one that is several cuts above.....thank God! The BR 109 and Petit 109 in 10's continue to fly off the shelves. Next production run on these will start in January after the team comes back from their 3 week December break. On the Nudies/MOFOH front we are working on three cigars. A Double Corona (10 packs), a shorter version of the Fat Fundy ( 5 1/4 x 44 gauge) and a 5/58 x 54 gauge Robusto Extra. The Double Corona we have nailed (thanks Mike and George for your tasting assistance) and they will be seen early 2026. I have 5 blends of each of the other two which are resting. I will call in the FOH cauldron tasting cabal come December/January once I narrow it down. On the backburner we are ageing some maduro wrapper for testing mid 2026. I am liking where it is heading but it can't be rushed. All in all it has been a big 6 months. I am very proud of what the team is putting together. This is your factory as much as it is ours.

My pick. I have always wondered about this cigar. It would be my dream pick for this Sunday. Rafael Gonzalez Conicales

This weekend, take a wander through Alexander Groom's Cuban Cigar Website catalogue https://www.cubancigarwebsite.com/ and pick one discontinued cigar that you would magically make re-appear for a Sunday smoke.

Cody, you put together some of the best reviews out there.

I suspect the challenge for GM may be the following No customers = no data = no value

This series seeks to explore whether a particular cigar is humidor worthy. Cost these days is an issue for many so let's see if we can highlight some absolute standouts. This should particularly assist those new to the cigar world. To be fair, most of the cigars we have featured to date have scored exceptionally well. Surprisingly well! Scoring is: 1-3 (Poor) 4-6 (Average to good) 7-10 (very good to excellent) Use the Poll. You are more than free to comment away Today: Punch Short de Punch Petit Robusto are up there with Divorce as among the things I despise most in life. Come-on people....find the extra 15 minutes and enjoy a full Robusto or go and find one of the many cracking Petit Corona! To be fair the Punch Short de Punch at 4 3/4 " is almost there as a full Robusto, which leads me to ask "which moron marketing genius came up with this plan for Punch”. Well, that is how I use to think of Petit Robusto until Tabacuba/HSA started playing with my mind by releasing some exceptional 44-52 gauge / sub 5 inch cigars. Magicos/Behike 52/Medio Siglo/Magnum 48/Party 5&6....etc. I have to say I have always had a soft spot for the HDM Petit Robusto and its sugar cane coffee cream hit. I have always been a Hoyo fan however and that not all are. So, the Punch Short de Punch was released 2019 and proved to be an immediate hit. Why? because it hits its flavour stride from the first touch of flame and doesn't let go. Then cigar Armageddon came followed by a litany of production problems fed by top-down incompetence. Punch Short de Punch drifted in and out of availability. Remember as a child that uncle that you would only see at family gatherings sporadically because of a nebulous criminal past?......Punch SDP appearance is a little like that Your thoughts on the Punch Short de Punch? Outside of the poll, which Petit Robusto do you prefer and why? Let us know in this thread