Puros Y Vino

I hear ya Chris. I respect what Gretzky accomplished, which is why his current stance is so disappointing. But, I too prefer Messier. He's more like Gordie Howe , but not as much career points OFC. You put your life in your hands if you wanted to square dance on the ice with Messier. After he buried you on the ice, he'd bury a few pucks into the net too once his penalty was over. Despite all the Cup wins with the Oilers, that Rangers one was the capper for his career. That dude lead that team every night. Was happy to see him accomplish that.

This is some dumb shit. Candace Owens is a moron. There's no need for this level of discussion here.

Yeah. I'll be skipping that issue for sure.

Torontonian here. Yeah, the situation here does kinda suck. But...we've developed a Prohibition/Speakeasy culture around it. Don't ask about it. Don't post about it if you do know what I'm alluding do. I will personally delete any offending data. I do notice more people enjoying a stick where they can. And by notice, I mean the sweet smell of tobacco first and then who is smoking a stick shortly thereafter. It's a bit of a fractured community for sure, but there are some stalwarts and rebels amongst us still.

Several years ago. A lot of these original box designs were on eBay. Some really great ones too. IIRC, the seller was Spanish. He also sold some iron brands used on Cuban Dunhill & Davidoff boxes.

While it will be prohibitively expense, I would have loved to see a Cohiba Perfecto along the lines of a Cuaba Exclusivos. Maybe even a Montecristo one too. Loved the Punch Ninfas. Bring those back! If not, a Ninfa Ramon Allones. I second @LordAnubis' H, Upmann Lancero suggestion. Return the Partagas Lusitania back to the 109 format. (Pre-Embargo days IIRC.) Resurrect the La Escepcion line as a regular production marca once again. DO NOT offer up the Selectos Finos and Don Joses. Let them stand as they are. Kick it off with an "A" in 898 style boxes. Add a perfecto, piramide and 50 cabs of Bombones.

Great examples! That Dunhill is in amazing shape. Have a couple H Upmann ones myself.

Glad you enjoyed Correntis. Too bad you arrived during a cold spell. We were having a pleasantly warm Spring for a week or so.

The Canadian distributor, Havana House, applies the green bands in Havana as well as the replacement, cardboard boxes.

I'm more a $15-25/bottle guy. So here's my picks... This one sells for $16CAD and alwTays performs well across vintages. We grab these these by the case. This one is $33CAD (so ~ $30USD). I grab a few of these now and then and let them sit for special occasions. This one is $28CAD and does need some extra cellar time to shine: 2-3 years. But it's well worth it.

A little something special.

Blue Jays for me. A few interesting signings. Nothing major IMO. Having not signed Vlad properly years ago, have left them in the position of either putting up really stupid numbers that near Soto's or just letting him go after this year. Vlad's a fan favourite but stat wise, he isn't up there with the big names and definitely not as consistent. Bichette might be returning to form. Whether his heart is in it, is TBD.

I get the impression the Cuban tobacco farmers don't have much choice but to farm. Partly out of a love of doing it and partly of getting some money even if it's less than before. And if it came to blows, I somewhat think the Cuban govt would find some way to compel people to work those fields...😥

I have a pretty good recollection of my first smokes. The top two are definitely chronological. Joya Di Nicaragua Antanio RyJ Churchill Partagas Black Label Toro(NC) Punch Presidentes(NC) Oliva Serie O RyJ Petit Corona Bolivar Belicosos Finos Monte 4 HU Magnum 50

FWIW. And it's anecdotal. Over the years, some doctors, dentists and some in gov't have stated that here in Canada, when our Federal body (Statistics Canada) reviews death statistics for a calendar year, they look for if the deceased has tobacco use/smoking in their records and sometimes swing the "cause of death" over to tobacco usage. In Ontario, the province I live in. Yearly budgets used to show what annual alcohol and tobacco tax revenue numbers were. Despite our gov't spending tons on anti-smoking campaigns, tobacco in all forms still put up solid tax revenues. So much so, that they removed the line item for tobacco tax revenues and put it under alcohol tax revenues. That way, they can claim booze tax revenues went up, but tobacco taxes went down due to less usage.