contracorrientes

I love these under any circumstances but epsecially today, on this horribly sultry Queensland morning. The smoke kept the millions of mosquitoes away (barely - I didn't let my guard down and kept my leg in frame, they'd decided that ankle was prime meat!).

I'm nearly 35!!!! My shame intensifies!

It shames me that I have to really, really concentrate to work out the time on an analogue clock - and I still get it wrong sometimes.

I'm glad it did! Anything that normalises cigar enjoyment is good exposure, I think!

Then quick, someone ask him about plain packaging!

Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann pictured smoking cigars ahead of tough budget That's austerity!

Give me that Cohiba! Thanks for posting!

Nice work Fabes!

Great idea, Rob! This is my first ever review, and a bit of a milestone for me. This is the first cigar I’ve been game to try since being fitted with two orthodontic appliances. For weeks, I’ve had two…thingies…permanently stuck both above and below my tongue, in preparation for the horror that will be braces in a few months. Of concern: reduced tongue movement from wires above and below; there’s a small piece of acrylic bonded to one wire that covers part of my palate. Now that the oral trauma’s eased off a bit, I was interested to see if there would be any impact on my cigar appreciation. I already know that my sex life is doomed. Juan Lopez Selección Number 4, 2010 Regional Release This was the first Juan Lopez I’ve ever had, and I teamed it with a flat white made from beans from Five Senses. The new album from S. Carey (fantastic) plays in the background, and the scene is set! Perfectly constructed, with a nice oily sheen, and beautifully aromatic on the nose. This cigar’s handsomeness, teamed with a spot-on draw, gives me that special tingle of anticipation I like to call a “cigard-on”. Don’t judge me. Sparked up, this was rich right off the bat. Medium body. Earthiness, for sure, with something like sultanas, perhaps, mingled with an underlying hint of…orthodontic acrylic?! Regular sips of coffee seem to help with that. Saliva production is much greater now I’ve got these wires cemented into my mouth, but the confused taste of plastic and smoke on the palate is a small issue in the first third. Still, it is the return of a familiar stranger. There is a terrific smoothness that is clear, even if subtlety is lost on me right now. Progressing, flavours develop and change. At times apple pie, then vanilla, then hay, then wood. A couple of inches in, I’m left with an tight ash that’s like Hugh Jackman - it looks only kinda straight. Otherwise, my tongue feels joyfully liberated of its wire cage as time goes by. By half way, I notice I’ve been consistently puffing away clouds of nice, dense, smoke - the very kind that leads me to that cookies-and-cream feeling of satisfaction that marks a winner. The complexity of flavour becomes difficult for me to describe, but it remains rich. Smooth. Juanderful. Then, out of nowhere, the intensity ramps up. The first hints of bitterness–but not yet harshness–smack me around the mouth. Coffee beans, chocolate, oak. What was a cigar I would earlier have described as being approachable to anyone was now strictly full-bodied. Herb and earth dominate, for me, but there’s always something else thrown in the mix. Citrus peel? With the flavour density of mud cake!? I give up! But in the words of one other J Lopez, don’t be fooled by the rocks that this got. Although there were harsh elements during the final third, each time I thought I’d put it down for good, I’d give it one last puff. Which would lead to another, then another. One-hour-twenty later, I let the blessed thing sleep, only because I don’t want to burn my fingers again on the nub. This is, simply, exactly the kind of cigar I want to smoke.

Thanks for all that you do! Happy birthday!

Now that I think about it, maybe it was a KFC drumstick...

On a similar-but-different note, I occasionally experience what I can only describe as a "fried chicken" taste. Only ever in the, say, final third or so. And unlike actual fried chicken, it's somewhat undelicious.

Phoenix - "Too Young"

Ask and you shall receive?! Based on what I snuck out early from the Christmas sampler (shhh!), a box of HDM Grand Epicures, please. Why Santa Rob, you shouldn't have!