great cigars, had to share

[Porschekid962]

I just finished a great cigar, Cohiba 2004 limitada Sublime. Darn good smoke, usually I stay away from Cohiba because most in SoCal are fakes and most I simply dont like. If you ever come across some try it, about the same ring gauge as a Ciglo VI but about churchill or DC length, powerful smoke and full from top to bottom.

Dont know how many of you fancy the cigar smoke but I do, just wanted to share.

My top 10 list of stuff I have smoked:

Partagas 155 Anniversario 199?
Cohiba Sublime 1994
Montecristo #2 1980
Partagas Series D No.4 2005 limitada
La Aurora Preferido Robusto limitada 2004 (powerful little thing)
R&J Belicoso limited 1995
Bolivar Belicoso Fino
R&J Robusto
Punch Punch Black Prince
San Cristobal La Fuerza

Honorables:
Partagas Solomon
Montecristo "C"
Ashton VSG
Fuente Funete Opus X CC2 (carlos&carlito blend #2)
Carlos Fuente personal stash

cheers!

[dd74]

Hey Ryder: waiting for my lips are:

A couple Ligeros (singles)
Two Joya de Nicaraguas
A Hoyo De Monterrey Excalibur 1066

A buddy of mine has turned me onto The Edge - pretty good smoke.

Ummm ummmm...

The problem is these days, I rarely have the 45 minutes or so to smoke 'em.

[Joeaksa]

Too bad you guys are not going to be in Vegas today/tomorrow. I just got back in the country and am bringing one or three cigars with me. Not saying where they are from nor what type they are.

Must be of poor quality, the bands fell off of them a while ago...

Had a Cohiba and Partega in the last few nights while overseas. With a good sip of 12 year old Balvinie, they make life a lot better!

Joe A

[Tishabet]

Mmmmm, cigars!
I have, no joke here, about 1200 cigars at home.
Leading my list of faves would be:
Sancho Panza Sancho
JR Ultimate petit Corona Oscuro - I have 2 boxes of 1994 vintage at home.
ERDM Choix Supreme
Padron Anniversario Maduro
MMMM MMM! those are some good gars!

[pwd72s]

Dutch Masters...

[Porschekid962]

Grant I almost completely blanked on the Sancho Panza and Padron. The Padron's have to be my number one around or under 10dollar smoke. My humidors are starting to get a little low so its time to restock em. Working at a cigar shop helps a bit! lol, Dave which Edge did you have, the madura or natural? Rocky also makes one that comes in its own coffin and is almost the size of a Cohiba "A". The maduros (edge) are a pretty strong smoke, I over humidified mine then left it in my "breathing" humidor and it took some of the no pun intended, edge off of it.

Has anyone gotten their hands on a Padron 40th anniversario yet? The 1926 and 1946 are excellent as well but the 40th is being praised up one butt cheek and down the other.

Neat story, customer came in the other weekend with a small cohiba box, figured they were cigarillos, nope, cuban tobacco filtered cigarettes, damn strong! Has anyone else noticed the decline in quality amongst not only Cuban cigars but non cuban as well? I dont know whats going on but wrappers are full of veins, there are hollow spots, draws are horrible, at least one out of almost every box of cigars I see are bad.

True story, it popped my bubble as well but its true and I believe it. A "friend" of mine is from that funny little island. He goes there now and again to visit family and sometimes finds things in his bags when he gets back here and has no idea how it happened......

Anyways, the only cigar company that has its own rolling facility is Cohiba (we are talking about the contraband island). The rest of Cuban cigars are rolled at factories all over the island so sometimes you see a Monte #2 with a light wrapper and then a box with nice dark oily wrappers. The rolling factories check to see what bands they have and what boxes they have and they all start rolling to use them up, so for a week lets say they will only roll perfectos as they call them which = monte #2, bolivar belicoso fino, diplomaticos, R&J belicoso, san cristobal la fuerza. They simply cut them down to different lengths and thats that. I was amazed to hear this but after thinking about it there is nothing unbelievable about it. You have limited resources and a huge demand so you do what you can to speed things up.

That being said, certain cigars, anniversarios, limitadas, ciglo VI, special blends are all blended by the manufacturers master blender and then rolled by an elite group of rollers at a "special" rolling plant in cuba.

Anybody seen a Padron 40th anniversario? To let you know each box is hand painted, all of those cigars are rolled by two men, thats it. Quality control on Padron is second to none, they roll very limited quantities and shut down for almost a month over christmas.

Ok back to class. Enjoy your smokes none the less because I still do. Each has its own uniqueness due to the fact that the tobacco from one factory comes from a different grower than another factory, smoke em and enjoy em.

Anyone in socal should check out the shop I work at, very big and super nice, I dig it. Not a shameless plug but it would be nice to have porsche nuts in there while I am working to talk to....lol

cenizalounge.com ryder

[HardDrive]

The fact that there is a company here in the US doing buisness under the name Cohiba make me want to puke.

I've been to Cuba. Nice cigars, nice rum.....nice women. Good times.

[bigchillcar]

Dutch Masters...

lol..paul. ranks up there with el producto..although dm's are better actually.

boy you guys are beyond me. i've only been smoking cigars for about 6 months..the only name you guys mentioned that i recognized that i've smoked is the 'punch' variety. i've smoked many of the cao brazilias..i recall one called a pihranna (sp). my favorite ones for smoothness have been macanudos..some other cigars, for some reason, i have to keep re-lighting (i use a torch)..they just don't burn evenly. i dunno..maybe i don't light them correctly. anyway, this has been a new thing for me in the evenings and have been enjoying considerably. it's easy to drop $50 in a hurry on just a few cigars, so i've tried to find some 'seconds' that i can stand to buy in larger volumes. i usually smoke these when i go for an evening walk. this brand 'national' i seem to like..they go for about $2 a pop and have a lot of sugar on the outside wrapper..good for a newbie i think. i've tried all of the various flavored cao 'dessert cigars' i call them..they don't appeal to me that much, although one called 'eileen's dream' i can stand okay. interesting thread..i'll look forward to learning more about my new hobby from you guys.
ryan

[scottmandue]

Porschekid, have you heard of a small shop in the Los Angeles area where they roll there own. It is set up like a butcher shop... you walk in and there is a glass case with bundles of cigars and behind that are people sitting at tables rolling cigar, pretty cool.

I pretty much gave up cigars however I do get the occasional craving, perhaps I could PM you some time and you could hook me up with some good smokes. I have friends in Pasadena I often visit.

When I was smoking regularly Arturo Fuentes (sp?) were my favorites, particularly the Hemingway's.

Funny story, my local liquor store has a small glass case with all the el-cheapo cigars and ther sits a box of Cohibas for like four dollar each... I giggled to my self and though yeah right... well in a weak moment I bought one... and it was damn good!

Porschekid, the shop you work at, is it the one that got held up or broken into a few month back?

[pwd72s]

Actually Ryan, I'm about to go to the garage, fire up a Honduran "Maria Mancini Magic Mountain with the "exclusive" Habana 2000 wrapper. While doing so, I'll sit on the workbench & just look at my car, reminiscing about times past. Wish you were here to join me. BTW, most of this BS about stogies? Just that. I doubt that, in a blindfold test, that many here could tell the difference between a $2 "hecho a mano" stogie and a $20 one. I know I couldn't. It's all about bragging that you smoked the more expensive one...

[Leland Pate]

As soon as I saw"Cigars" I knew it wouldn't be long before Paul chipped in.



I quit smoking so I can not add anything to this debate.

Thank god almighty for ZYBAN.

[dd74]

Originally posted by pwd72s
BTW, most of this BS about stogies? Just that. I doubt that, in a blindfold test, that many here could tell the difference between a $2 "hecho a mano" stogie and a $20 one. I know I couldn't. It's all about bragging that you smoked the more expensive one...

More or less, I think you're correct.
But doesn't a lot depend upon how long you've smoked 'em?
One of the first "sensations" I noticed when I started was some have more of a mustard taste than others. And, of course, some are stronger than others.

If a newbie picks a particular harsh smoke at the shop I go to, the manager will ask that person if they've eaten first. If they say "No, I haven't eaten," he won't sell them the stogie.

[pwd72s]

Originally posted by Leland Pate
As soon as I saw"Cigars" I knew it wouldn't be long before Paul chipped in.



I quit smoking so I can not add anything to this debate.

Thank god almighty for ZYBAN.

Yeah Lee, but the ones I shipped when you were deployed probably served you well. You gave some to your squadron Chaplin, right? I'm thinking he probably then put in a good word for you...where it counted!
dd74, you could be onto something about length of time spent with them...over time, I believe you find yourself moving towards the stronger ones. But really, I think there is a whole lot more "mystique" attached to stogies than they deserve...BTW, Maria Mancini has a good punch to her...she's a square pressed torpedo, 6" or so with a 54 ring... low 90's rating in cigar aficionado, yet not among the names listed in the high priced spreads. I just finished enjoying one...

[efhughes3]

Yep, sign me up as a lover.

I've got a few hundred mostly Cuban in my humidor at home.

Some of my faves:

Monte Especial #2
Monte #2 (now that they can roll them again)
Hoyo Epicure #2
Romeo Y J Cedros #3
Partagas- most any will do
R Y J Churchill
Monte #5
Punch Corona

[bigchillcar]

Wish you were here to join me.

sounds great, paul. spoken as a nearly broken man at 40..home after a few too many gin martinis served from a bartender who didn't know what a 'twist of lemon' is from a clump of lime..wish i could join you too..el producto, dutch master or macanudo..or whatever..sure it would be a pleasure.
ryan

[skipdup]

Can anyone recommend a good small/starter humidor? Preferably one I can purchase on-line.

Also, was at my local cigar shop yesterday, and they tried to sell me "pre-ban" cubans... There's no way that's for real, is it???

Thanks!
Skip

[zuffen]

just chiming in on my favorites


Vintage (made in Cuba) Davidoff Dom Perignon
Cohiba Siglo VI
H. Upmann magnum 46
H.Upman Magnum 50 Limited edition

Speaking of Cuba, Went over christmas and toured the Partagas factory, absolutely incredible, went and spent the afternoon in the private humidor smokin great cigars and drinking rum.....

[tabs]

FKING YUPPIES...Paul is an IDIOT who on a coupla points I share the same view on...Yes over time one does tend to favor the stronger cigars...and one tends to the bigger ring and length sizes....THE BIGGER AND BLACKER THE BETTER...

I've tried so many cigars over the past 25 years I don't have much of a recommendation...

The Partagas 150s ...were (limited 150th Anniversary edition of 1M cigars using 20 year old wrapper that Partagas found in a warehouse in Spain) the best Cigar ever...

Today I find the Partagas Black Label to be the equivalent of a Cuban Partagas Presidente I once had...I like em

Cuban RYJ Churchills I like em

Hoyo De Monterey Excaliber Maduro #1's I like em...

Private Stock #1s ...Churchill..which is an Avo-Davidoff second... I like em...

RYJ...Reserve #5..Churchill size...I like em but ehhh I can do without em

But what I smoke on a daily basis is a Bundle Cigar for $1.80 for a Presidente or Pyramid long filler....Domienico....which is a Carlos Turano Cigar...the best bang for the buck...

[greglepore]

The pre-ban cuban thing is real-there was a warehouse in Miami with a fair amt. that was recently rolled. They're not that special, but not bad.

I'm currently onto the upper end Joya's - Centennial series or something, and Aston VSG's, but both are deadly strong, after meal only.

Lighter stuff is usually Rocky Patel or Padron.

We have Bob Levin's shop in Philly - Holts - he's the guy that has Fuente make the Ashtons, so we get Opus at sane prices, 8-12 bucks a cigar.

I do have a beef-much of what i buy there refuses to burn properly, either it tunnels or it won't stay lit. I've attributed this in the past to the fact that they use whole store humidification, and I think they have it pumped up too high, but maybe its just an across the board problem. I was hoping that the end of the craze would mean a quality increase, but I guess not.

As to Cubans, I don't bother much any longer; the fakes and quality issues have burned me out. I love a Series D, most of the Panzas etc, and a good Christo 2 or A, but they're not nearly as "singularly excellent" as they used to be, not with the Fuente's doing their thing, and Padron.

[bigchillcar]

lol...and to think i played gin rummy all weekend with dad in the sticks of arkansas, smoking a few dutch masters and a handful of el productos. dad says el producto was all his dad smoked 50 some odd years ago..one right after the other. local smokes store in pine bluff, arkansas? that's all ya got outside of 'blunts' for the locals who unpack and refill.......
ryan