Cubans & Non Cubans

[imangelo]

I've fallen in love with the Zino Platinum Scepter Robusto. I believe it's a Dominican puro. Right up there with my favourite CCs lately! Although it's really the Zino and Padrons for me when it comes to NCs these days.

[Maplepie]

  On 9/25/2014 at 2:07 AM, imangelo said:

Although it's really the Zino and Padrons for me when it comes to NCs these days.

expensive palate you got there for the NCs.

watch out for Scylla when you try to avoid Charybdis..................

[imangelo]

  On 9/25/2014 at 2:09 AM, Maplepie said:

expensive palate you got there for the NCs.

The Padrons are the pricier of the two...got a great deal on the Zinos. I think it worked out to $6 a stick.

When you consider how consistent Padrons are (never had a bad one) then they compete very reasonably with the crap shoot you get from *some* regular production CCs. Have you tried the 1964 Diplomatico Maduro Churchill by Padron? Incredible.

[tjohn7]

  On 9/25/2014 at 3:28 AM, imangelo said:

The Padrons are the pricier of the two...got a great deal on the Zinos. I think it worked out to $6 a stick.

When you consider how consistent Padrons are (never had a bad one) then they compete very reasonably with the crap shoot you get from *some* regular production CCs. Have you tried the 1964 Diplomatico Maduro Churchill by Padron? Incredible.

A very good cigar. Unfortunately I've shifted my humidors to accommodate my CCs so now my Padrons don't smoke well or have the flavor I once loved. Either that, or the CCs Rob is sending me are that good that everything else pales in comparison

[topdiesel]

NCs can be good. I have smoked plenty of good NCs. There are soooo many NCs and more coming out by the minute that it becomes overwhelming. You can waste your money on thousands of smokes and only find 30 that are worth smoking the whole stick. I will admit that CA wasn't wrong about the Davidoff Nicaragua Toro. That is a tasty smoke. It is on the good NC list.

That being said, a good NC is good. A good CC can stop time and take you on a vacation (I have palm trees and a pool in my back yard, so that helps). I don't think that there is any comparison between a great cuban and a great NC. In fact, once you find a line of Cubans that you like it is hard to justify spending more money on a NC than your favorite go to Cuban. I only have two boxes of NCs in my humidor. They are the only NC boxes worth the real estate at this point. La Aurora Cien Anos Churchills and an older box of Graycliff original Presidente's from the hotel. I have never had a bad experience with either.

Why waste time and money when you have found something so great. I do still burn NCs from time to time, but I don't purchase them by the box. Only when out at a lounge or with friends who are providing them.

If you enjoy them that is great, everyone should smoke what makes them happy. If the NCs ever blow my socks off, I am not too proud for my opinion to change.

[trader1974]

I have gone to strictly CC's. I will have a NC once in a while because it is gifted to me or whatever, and every time it is a let down.

[Habana Mike]

As this topic has popped up again and I was recently asked whether I smoke only Habanos, time to update previous comments.

I have been cyclical in my smoking over the course of a couple of decades.

Started out with NC in the early-'90s, discovered Habanos (and how to source them) in the late '90s.

With that I slowly shifted to primarily Cubans for 3-4 years. Had a bit of a scare after a few too many letters and as a result my CC stash dwindled. I migrated more and more to NC for a couple of years. Around 2007 I began restocking island smokes and as the volume increased I found myself smoking those more and more.

By 2011 I had moved once again to primarily smoking CC and over the past couple of years almost exclusively.

I still reached for an NC from time to time, perhaps 2-3 a month until of late.

I am currently involved in a project where I am doing blind reviews and ratings of exclusively NC cigars so am now smoking around 4-6 of those a week and still occasionally pulling one out from my NC collection.

This exercise has proven quite interesting to me as part of the project involves having cigars recommended to me based on my preferences identified from the blind tastings.

While my part of the project involves only domestically available cigars as I am one of the US controls, the project is global in scale and as such a majority of cigars that match my profile are Cuban.

As a result I've come to enjoy smoking the NCs on occasion again as they exhibit different characteristics over the Cuban leaf. To my mind this has also helped to recalibrate and further refine my palate.

[mikek]

Like A Padron 1926 or 1964 maduro every now and then! My favorite non Cuban is AF God of Fire 2006 tubo robusto,when I can find them .

[JustinThyme]

I smoke both regularly. Different regions and different blends have different flavors, variety is the spice of life. Not to be a stick in the mud but those who post that "there are no cigars made outside of Cuba" or there are no good NCs are full of themselves. Thats like saying there are no sushi bars outside of Japan, or there are no cars outside of Germany. Ive had really good CCs and NCs and Ive had really bad of both too.

[earthson]

Lately, I've really fallen for the illusione mk petit corona - sort of like the floral & sweet elements of a por larranaga mixed with the cherry notes of a RyJ. Rolled really well, too.

I've also found that the oliva serie v, fuente sungrowns & rosados, la aurora preferidos, and tatuaje brown labels still wow me.

[maxcjs0101]

One of my favourite NCs are the Quorum Coronas and in my opinion, NCs and CCs are a different breed of cigars altogether so i do enjoy both.

[ramon_cojones]

Don't think i've had in nc in at least 4 years.

[amart]

Both for me!

[forgop]

I have around 55 boxes and all but 3 are CC's I believe. I picked up some Ortega Wild Bunch cigars for mowing the yard for less than $3/stick on clearance, otherwise it would be zero.

[jdackerman]

I do a bit of both, it's more of what I'm in the mood for when I'm smoking. I'm new to the cigar world at least with buying (I used to steal my father's cubans all the time, I hope I don't have a kid like me ) I've found that the NC's are generally just fine being young as most of them are aged already and my CC's need some time on them. That's not to say that there aren't good fresh CC's, but so many of them have such long term potential that I would rather let them rest and smoke up all my relatively inexpensive NC's. Also most of my friends don't buy cigars so I'd rather offload my easy to come by NCs on them haha, so I'll always keep some around.

[Arkay]

I pretty much smoke only cc's daily with a few exceptions.

One being 90's LGC Wavells and Torp #2s----These kick butt!

[terrantheman]

I love a great cigar!

[KRunch61]

90-10 in favor of CCs. I've had very good experiences with Fuentes, so a good NC is never too far off my radar.

[bradbrennan]

  On 10/23/2014 at 5:08 AM, Habana Mike said:

As this topic has popped up again and I was recently asked whether I smoke only Habanos, time to update previous comments.

I have been cyclical in my smoking over the course of a couple of decades.

Started out with NC in the early-'90s, discovered Habanos (and how to source them) in the late '90s.

With that I slowly shifted to primarily Cubans for 3-4 years. Had a bit of a scare after a few too many letters and as a result my CC stash dwindled. I migrated more and more to NC for a couple of years. Around 2007 I began restocking island smokes and as the volume increased I found myself smoking those more and more.

By 2011 I had moved once again to primarily smoking CC and over the past couple of years almost exclusively.

I still reached for an NC from time to time, perhaps 2-3 a month until of late.

I am currently involved in a project where I am doing blind reviews and ratings of exclusively NC cigars so am now smoking around 4-6 of those a week and still occasionally pulling one out from my NC collection.

This exercise has proven quite interesting to me as part of the project involves having cigars recommended to me based on my preferences identified from the blind tastings.

While my part of the project involves only domestically available cigars as I am one of the US controls, the project is global in scale and as such a majority of cigars that match my profile are Cuban.

As a result I've come to enjoy smoking the NCs on occasion again as they exhibit different characteristics over the Cuban leaf. To my mind this has also helped to recalibrate and further refine my palate.

Mike, I'd love to hear more about this project! Probably others would be curious as well, maybe a good topic for you to start? Or a link or PM if you have?

[Habana Mike]

  On 3/5/2015 at 12:02 AM, bradbrennan said:

Mike, I'd love to hear more about this project! Probably others would be curious as well, maybe a good topic for you to start? Or a link or PM if you have?

Hi Brad

I actually posted a request for final beta testers just yesterday in the US forum. You can find some info on this there.

It is essentially a web site that provides a recommendation engine based on your preferences and updates suggested cigars after you input your smoking experiences. I spoke with Rob about it in Cuba last fall.

I will create a topic with more details soon as the site is planned to launch end of month.

[JohnS]

I don't mind a good non-cuban cigar, but I do prefer a good cuban cigar instead. My inventory is now 85% cuban.

[Borgy]

So far it's a 80/20 to N/C I've found them cheaper depending were you shop my pockets or should I say the handbrake/kids are holding me back to change stock.My eyes are just opening to the differance evan though there's some real good N/C.I guess its a matter of taste they both have good and bad but the Cubans I've had are a great taste and have the edge.

[laficion]

  On 10/20/2014 at 11:22 PM, topdiesel said:

If you enjoy them (N.C.'s) that is great, everyone should smoke what makes them happy. If the NCs ever blow my socks off, I am not too proud for my opinion to change.

Hi all,

This was well said to end It all. If they were as good as the N.C. makers say they are,It would be known and the rest of

the world would not be smoking all those Cubans for their taste .

Guy

[dchapman]

I'm about 50/50. The debate between CC and NC seems to be a common one here, and I concur with those who have made statements to the effect that a beauty is in the eye of the beholder. After 20 plus years of smoking I remember fondly as many NC and CC.

[BBS]

My inventory is slowly shifting to CC's. In the past, I'd pretty much gotten out of CC's when the industry went through their bad times. I can recall boxes of CC's where I'd throw half of them away due to being completely plugged, and I quit buying them. I'd enjoyed NC's for years, really like some of the stuff that comes out of Nicaragua from Padron and some of the Tatuaje smokes. But I started getting burned out, started questioning the smokes. I was recently bombed by a couple generous friends, and my journey back to CC's began with a bang. I've bought nothing else but CC's for the last few months, and sold many boxes of NC's to make room in the cabinet. I'm very much enjoying the subtle complexity of CC's, really finding that I enjoy smoking much more than I had in recent times.

I'm keeping a few boxes of NC's that really work for me, but they will age a while as I'm really enjoying my re-entrance to CC's. I figure tastes are cyclical, and a year or two I'll revisit some of those favorites. Maybe.....

But, as the other guys have said so well, a good smoke is a good smoke...period. Different, to be sure, but a quality stick has something to offer regardless of where it came from.