CaptainQuintero

The few SLR that I have tried have been incredibly salty. Salt all the way through and by the end (half way through) my mouth was like a nun's arse. Even worse I'd been walking the dog so was miles away from a drink. I'd just assumed it was the SLR flavour base?

I went through a phase of uing one around a year ago, the shave is closer than anything you have had. But I fell out of the habit purely down to the time factor, bad excuse I know! You only cut yourself once with one though lol, like the first and only timeyou cut yourself when changing the blade of a stanley knife etc. The tritual was very relaxing though, it is something that I still do every once in a while but probably only once every few months. It's something I would reccomend at least trying.

Ah right, so it really is just a case of smoke'em and see lol

Ah thanks, good to know. It's my first go at aging a box. I was wondering when the taste would typically be noticably different? From reading around I haven't been able to get too much information. Is there a point after a certain amount of years in which the flavours are very noticably more defined or is it simply a case of a gradual slight change just building up? I must be honest, I loved the hints of caramel from the first few sticks and decided to put the rest away to get more of that flavour, the quicker that comes the better for me! I had read that PL's would generally be best at the 5 year mark, it was just the comments in the video about them being at their best in 2 years which got me excited

So I got a box a couple of months back with the idea of aging them to let the caramel etc develop more (I have a June '10 box) and has settled on 4-5 years. But after watching Rob and Ken in a few of their recent PL videos it seems that Rob was saying the recent PL region releases will be pretty well developed in 2 years. So any suggestions? Has anyone tried any yet?

I like brandy and coke, something about it just hits all the right spots for me but the Armenian brandy is now my 'go to' brandy by a long way. I'm goin to go try and find the Georgian wine, say what you want about the EU it's made alcohol a lot more interesting!

Yeah that's the make I managed to get. Pretty luckily I think! It is about 70% of the price of all other brandies here too. Is the Georgian wine a fortified wine? From what I've read of the region it seems the grapes are similar through the Armenian style brandy and the wines?

Now that is a cigar fact that I'm going to write down for later use! Looks like I will need to take a trip to the deli counter in Covent Garden: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12569011

It really is a lovely drink isn't it, I've managed to turn die-hard bourbon haters wich a single measure. I'm on a bottle from batch 54 at the moment so can't match your luck! The nice thing is the in the UK it has really taken off in the last year, pretty much all of the large supermarkets stock it permanently now. Nice to see recognition for the guys work. I could be wrong but I think I recall my friend in Kentucky saying tht they do a reserve...of the reserve which is hard to get even for him, maybe that selection is more like your first batch? Worth a look into at the very least.

Just wondering if anyone has tried this before? I only recently heard about it and managed to get my hands on a bottle. Only one place in the entire UK stocks it! Bottle is rough as hell, huge air bubbles in the glass, the neck is twisted and has a knuckle sticking into the flow, the cork doesnt fit airtight due to the shape (lack of) of the hole. It looks as if the thing was made by 1940's soviet methods (it may be so). But the taste is like no other brandy I have tried, intense caramel and very smooth. I read recently that after a blind tasting by top makers in Cognac (the region) they awarded it the honour of letting Armenian Brandy call itself 'cognac'.

Glengoyne 10 I rate as my favourite Whiskey. By far the smoothest that I have tried. The smoothness to me works perfctly with a good cigar, neither covering up flavours from either the stick or spirit but just providing a solid platform for a cigar to be drunk from. +1 on the woodford reserve also, I was introduced to it a couple of years back when a friend of mine (who lives virtually next to the distillery) would not shut up about it.

Is that a release in memory of 9/11 or a badly thought up marketing strategy? I really hope the former! ------ ot- It wasn't in celebration but I had a completely and utterly plugged Monte #3 (from 2001 just by chance) I was an hours walk away from my home so wasn't happy!

So I've found that a nice drink that I enjoy with a cigar sometimes is an iced coffee. (It seems to go perfectly with a Cohiba Maduro 5 Secretos). I recently spotted a break in the clouds here and didn't want to waste the precious time that the sun had decided to shine so grabbed a glass of plain old pasturised semi-skimmed milk. Pretty fantastic! I really didn't know what to expect but the milk tasted like it had been squeezed from the teat of an angel and the spice and sweet from the Secretos was just rolling along smooth as anything you could wish for. So I wondered if anyone else had come across this strange combination and wether they had enjoyed/disliked it or has found some of their own odd drinks which they have found to suit a nice cigar? Ok you can stop looking at me funny now

Thanks for the welcome all, don't think I've ever been to a more friendly site! I'm off on holiday in a few weeks so picked up a Siglo VI to enjoy then, I might video review that one to see the before and after effects. It may be interesting lol

I want to see the thigh that it was rolled on!

Thanks Happy to have found a community of smokers even if it is online. The last shop that actually sells cubans near me shut down recently so it's just online ordered and no more face to face interaction. Unless I want to drive 1 and 1/2 hours I also noticed that in my post-898 haze I managed to post an introductary cigar review post in neither the introduction or cigar review section! Combined with somehow managing to unregister myself last night (Rob came to my aid) it's been quite a start!

So I find the traditional 'introduce yourself' posts on forums a bit awkward so thought I would do something different and smoke my first ever Partagas 898 and review it! I've been slowly introducing myself to Cubans for three years now, I needed a hobby and I don't have the willpower anymore for exercise so settled on the next best thing; smoking! I bought my Dad a sample pack of coronas for his Birthday about three years ago and saw a nice white tube with a catchy red top..hmmm Quintero...liked the name so decided to keep the stick for myself. That panatelas turned out to be a four year old stick and got my hooked. Since then I've been trying different makes and vitola, really enjoying searching for the perfect smoke. But I've never tried a Partagas nevermind the 898. I've tended to stick to Monte #3 and other similar strength cigars. Then I watched the 898 varnished video that Rob and Ken did on youtube and when Rob said it was better than sex, well I had to go pick one up and try it which I did yesterday! Draw: actually quite tight, had to do a bit of rubbing and heavy breathing to open it up. After the first third the draw worked itself out and wasn't an issue. Pre-light: Bit of spice and ceder First 1/3: Started off medium with strong notes of toast (brown bread) and leather. Very pleasant. Second 1/3: the power really started to go up another level here, full bodied, all leather and wood, a bit of spice in the background too. A very tiny amount of sweetness coming off the toast. The most overriding factor was the strength, like someone was stood behind me giving me a good punch to the back of the head, not unpleasant just nothing like I am used to. Final 1/3: kept up the strength but no harshness of bitter flavours, the toast came back for a second appearence before the finish too. Burn was fine all the way through, no issues at all. Overall, I would think a great cigar for those who like full strength Cubans, for the size it was punching far above it's weight in terms of strength, like two Monte #2 wrapped together. For my tastes at the moment I would give it an 85, purely down to the strength which I'm just not used to yet, but in terms of flavours and how I think I would be able to enjoy it in the future when more accustomed to being beaten up by a cigar I can see it getting an easy 90. Now I just need to lay down for a while in a dark room!