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Petite Eddie

Siglo II RAT DIC 20

Ken

Our Blind Tasting Book is now officially closed Let the game begin!

Oliva Serie V Melanio for myself today. Even though these aren’t CC I do enjoy this specific NC very much and it’s always been very consistent in flavor for me. Cheers everyone!

We might actually do this on FOH Zoom in order that it can be recorded. Have discussed this Friday with ken and he was keen. Overview. At the beginning of the month we propose a bottle of Australian wine/liquor that is readily available in the US/UK/EU and recommend a selection of cigars that we believe will match well. Over time we may showcase other wine/liquor that is also readily available in those markets. Initially we will try and stay with Australian produce. You source the wine and cigars. You will have close to a month. You join us on the Masterclass that will be run by Ken in the last week of the month. Generally Saturday or Sunday US/UK/EU. Thoughts? We do a series of them and re-evaluate.

Dr Joe

How can you have kherbie without jiz'eem?

White bat plant flower is almost fully open. Not an easy plant to grow. My highlight horticultural achievement 😅

MOFOH Trinity

Bond Roberts Petit 109 Linea D No.06

RASCC before a red-eye.

First time trying a Partagas Maestro…to me it tastes much closer to Trinidad and QdO than Partagas…I like it.Punch was amazing as usual.

Por Larrañaga Galane (BRM NOV23).

A MAG 50 SOU NOV 2020. It's been a couple of years since I had one of these, since I only purchased a 10ct box from FoH. A smooth creamy smoke, a little on the milder side to start the day. Great with a cup of coffee and porch sitting, listening to the wind chimes playing me a tune and the rooster crowing. There is a couple of owls back up on the hill in the woods behind me carrying on one heck of a conversation.

I am almost finished with a new video (thumbnail is below). I think I will release it as 5 separate videos lol. Rob Ayala's piece is also about the impact of FOH and some of the other great folks here. I hope I do it justice. They are not completely unsung & Kirby is on there - I know a bit controversial but wait until you see it. Who are your favorite Cuban cigar world people?

From the hip 2025 and CC only. Pure influencers out there kicking goals (regardless whether they are your cup of tea). Kirby, Jasim and Alex Stipcic "Alex Cigar Dandy Knowledge guru moving the hobby needle. Alexander groom. Posthumous lifetime achievement award Min Ron Nee

I'm a fan of them - I actually mention them in my scdlh el principe review. Nick has liked some of my IG posts which was an honor of course. I am a fan of the Sahakians as well! Both foulkes and Sahakians are less unsung.

I lost a lot of money on that stock. I think the CEO ran that company down with the hopes of buying it back. Remember she was married and has kids with Sergei Brin of Google ( worth 128 billion dollars) and her sister ( now dead) ran YouTube. Deep pockets. Fuckery is afoot

Nice to see them getting out there 109 released late April.

Never seen him before. I like him.

In 2022 I created a new spreadsheet which also references which storage container it is in. I know roughly the volume I smoke a year. Currently only buying custom rolls. I have a rough idea of count and more specific on location. I only update when a banded box is finished and remove from the current rough count. I can find anything I have pretty quickly these days and also know I have many many years of stock on hand. if I were to finish all of one vitola, plenty of others to smoke. so while I keep thinking I’ll take a day while my wife is out to update my list, it is not likely to happen for a while. Been three years already…

Top tier but I haven't seen enough of the 2024 to put them in the mix. What I have seen are excellent.

I’m going to be hilariously bad at this and I can’t wait

You guys would get a kick out of GeoGuessing:

I worked yesterday but did a fire pit when I got home...marshmallows for kids & Presidentes for me, cigar was 🔥👌 Today I rehabbed son's basketball set up with new back board & hoop. Later, I'm doing a birthday dinner for mom/grandma.

I have a lot of free time...🤣

1. Invest in proper storage. Be realistic about the qty of boxes you want to inventory and size the storage appropriately. 1a. research your vendor and stay with the reliable ones. 2. Try as many things as possible early and stock up on what you like. 3. understand that your tastes will change. 4. find someone to share the hobby with. it gets pretty lonely otherwise.

I don't use up the stock after every cigar I smoke. It is more important that the database contains the history of each box and its release year.

Fair comments. I would only throw these into the mix: 1. PSRs, in addition to details of the background of the offender, also disclose any prior convictions and compliance with probations. Based on that, I do not read them as automatically leading to leniency. 2. This is not being imposed by the current/new govt. The guidelines are being issued by a body that is supposed to be independent. In fact, the current govt has expressed opposition to it. The party forming the previous govt has been, unsurprisingly, very vocally against it. Surprisingly (to me, at least), the proposal to re-look at the original guidance was commissioned by the previous govt, and the consultation process for the resultant change was completed during the term of that last govt.

SOMM BDX Robusto. Got this in a COTM selection. Was not for me.

RASS are en fuego.

Started my Saturday with a Ninfa and a double Latte.

How often to I audit my inventory? Every time I smoke a cigar. Cuban Cigar Website has an easy and efficient Collection Management feature. I update my collection as I go along and acquire cigars (obviously like many of us, that's much less often than what it used to be) and when I smoke a cigar I can easily see how much of each cigar I have left in my inventory.

That sounds relaxing! If my Dad had a huge stash of Cubans that would have sweetened the deal for traveling all the way to his place when he was alive. I got into cigars at the same time my father had heart issues and he quit cold turkey. He bought me two boxes of what I liked back then and enjoyed watching me figure it out. I feel like I have Masters Degree in cigars now compared to back then and I'd love to be able tell him that you can buy Cuban Cigars online and have them delivered to your door in the US. He'd be astonished to know that! I'd tell him about all the wild developments and the price per box and how many fakes are out in the world and he'd just shake his head. He probably didn't know they sold Cuban Cigars in Serbia and Croatia and I'd drag him out to the "old country" for a last trip before it was too late. That would have been cool.

I put them in my cellar by themselves. I freeze them, bring them back to a humid state and then vacuum seal. Since each box is sealed, any beetle devastation is contained to that box. My basement never gets above 70 degrees. If I have identical boxes, I may seal them together. Only because it could be a decade before I get to them and to save vacuum bags. No Boveda or additional humidification is needed. My cellar is a wine cellar and can get too humid at times. That is another reason for vacuum sealing. The only concerns with vacuum sealing are making sure the box is not too humid before sealing and not crushing the box when sealing. No need for a Tuperware container unless it's for consolidation. A couple of early boxes I unsealed after a year and two just to sanity check and they were fine. Not bothering with the others as I feel confident on them. I wish I had started vacuum sealing 10-15 years ago when boxes were more affordable. I'd have quite stock if I did. I have a hunch, 10-15 years from now, the prices will be so high, I wish I had kept buying boxes today!

The blend has changed from 20+ years ago, but not the enjoyment or consistent quality. Never had a crappy box of Juan Lopez and they've held their price point too.

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In terms of 2023/2024 production, the 5 cigars that spring immediately to mind as cigars that are as good as produced at any time since 2000 are: Partagas SD4 HDM Epi 2 Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill (launched 2010) Bolivar Royal Corona Ramon Allones Specially Select.

Modern items taste well when young, but lacking some complexity when aging. For me JL2, D4 are benefit from current seeds, they taste good when young, saving my time to stock/age.

H. Upmman MAG 54, RASS and Partagas D4 all from 2024. So good, I am going through my boxes faster than I would like.

(Scott Suchman for The Washington Post/food styling by Carolyn Robb for The Washington Post) 100-Year-Old Cigar Cocktail Recipe By M. Carrie Allan This complex, spirit-forward cocktail combines aged rum, herbal liqueurs and just a touch of peated Scotch whisky to evoke the fruit and smoke of a fine cigar. It was created by bartender Maks Pazuniak at Jupiter Disco, a cocktail bar in Brooklyn, and is an ideal cocktail for anyone who loves stirred, brown spirit-focused drinks. Adapted from bartender Maks Pazuniak’s recipe in “Brooklyn Bartender: A Modern Guide to Cocktails and Spirits” by Carey Jones (Black Dog and Leventhal, 2016). Ingredients measuring cup Servings: 1 (makes 1 drink) 1 3/4 ounces aged rum, preferably Ron Zacapa No. 23 1/2 ounce Cynar 1/2 ounce Bénédictine 1/4 ounce Islay Scotch whisky, preferably Laphroaig 10-Year 1 dash Angostura bitters 1/4 ounce absinthe Directions Total: 5 mins Step 1 Chill a coupe or Nick and Nora glass in the freezer for 5 minutes. Step 2 Fill a mixing glass with ice. Add the rum, Cynar, Bénédictine, whisky and bitters, and stir to chill and dilute, about 20 seconds. Spritz or rinse the chilled glass with the absinthe, discarding any excess. Strain the cocktail into the absinthe-rinsed glass and serve immediately. Adapted from bartender Maks Pazuniak’s recipe in “Brooklyn Bartender: A Modern Guide to Cocktails and Spirits” by Carey Jones (Black Dog and Leventhal, 2016). Tested by M. Carrie Allan. Published March 19, 2025 Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/100-year-old-cigar-cocktail/

Pick a budget and stick to it. When I started in 2005, boxes of the staples were ~$150-$175. Obviously much has changed since then, but it's easier to over extend yourself when spending $600+ for a box today.

The newer members very likely will be saying the same thing one day. Have a plan for long term storage that works based on your climate. Use that wooden desktop to dry box if needed, not for storage. Sample everything you can to develop your own opinions regarding taste and vitola. Taste a wide variety and stock up on the cigars you really enjoy when you can afford to.

I live on a plant nursery in Hawaii. Some photos from our property. That big lawn area is my nightly smoking spot. Ironically, I don't have that great a green thumb. That part my pops is in charge of.

Your plants look prettier than mine 😉

so you killed the fish. you killed the lizards and now you have some of the most terrified plants on the planet.

Simple set up. Backdrop use to be a custom built 6000 litre fish tank that we converted initially to a terrarium and now an open raised garden. Side shot, BBQ, exhaust, remote control drop blinds and shutters. Front: TV, air-conditioning. All season. Can be open or closed. Ceiling has three exhaust fans to clear smoke if closed (winter nights).

Orange juice and sparkling water. I don’t know what it is about OJ but the flavors mix surprisingly well together with a cigar. Don’t take my word for it. Try it out.