BAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa!

It's widely known I have the palate of a Billy Goat.  I did not coin that term, I wish I knew the smoker who did.  I'd like to meet him, because it's so perfect.  I KNOW what I like.  I like what I taste.  But there is more to be tasted and liked and I just can't do it.  As this blog has come through it's 1st year anniversary, a number of things are coming to pass for the second time since I started.  One of them is that World's Greatest Cigar Herf up in Ohio.  Cigars that are scarce as natural blond japanese guys get smoked up regularly.  And so it came to pass that I got to smoke some pretty great cigars this weekend.  And they were good smokes, from what 2-3 puffs could tell.  But on two occasions, I had to tell my uber-gracious host "it's GOOD, but I honestly don't GET IT."  I had a little run at a Havana Davidoff No.1.  It's old yellowing band that had once been stark white attested to it's long life as a cigar.  And unlike most of it's Davidoff family, this cigar still had some legs left.  Maybe it's from a box of re-banded '99 lonsdales that Mitchell Orchant slipped some old Davi bands onto.  Or maybe it is a rare Davidoff in a line of mostly spent, or getting there, smokes.  But while it was smooth and rich and delicious, it was no better to me than a Diplomaticos No.1.  Or rather, had I not seen the band, I would not have known it was a long discontinued gem.

So perhaps puzzled, or enraged even, my host approached me later with a 1492.  Thanks again, and from the bottom of my heart, for having me up to Ohio in the first place, but thanks a million for the chance to smoke my first 1492.  Sadly though, it happened again.  I THINK only about 12-15,000 were ever boxed.   I took a few gentle puffs, and then one whisper of a breath puff, and still, great flavor that stood up to any non-cuban cigar, but NOT quite what I would call special.  This completes the trifecta, with me having had a similar experience 3 years ago when he handed me a 90's era Cohiba.  It was smooth and delicious, but not discernably different from anything else of quality I had had to that point.

So why do I mention it at all?  I used to smoke a great deal of cigarettes.  And pot....I won't lie.  I hate to ever admit it, because I can see my sister imagining me in the home of a dope dealer, and her blood must just curdle.  But it's not like some kind of illicit Ralph Bakshi cartoon.  More like a Freak Brothers comic.  I always thought it rather innocent.  But I AM the Black Sheep.  AHHhhhh!  Maybe THAT'S it.  Maybe I do not have the palate of a Billy Goat, but rather a Black Sheep.  Years of going to sleep with a tongue that tasted like it had been stepped on repeatedly by a alley-dwelling homeless guy has just taken the best layers of taste buds off.  I can taste good stuff, but I can't zoom in and focus so to speak.  And I am not upset by it, I dealt my cards early in life and am playing them now.  But as I told my host then and am telling you now, I am not sure exactly how this is going to go from here on out.  Either he will be challenged and want to constantly let me try the best to see if I can come around some, or he has written me off now, having let me taste his finest cigars and not been pleased with the results.  But as another brother still told me at this herf, "You should ALWAYS tell people the truth, even if in your eyes the emperor has no clothes....no one likes a yes man."  Which a.) steals my favorite analogy and b.) is hardly true.  Most people like a yes-man, provided that they don't realize there IS one standing there.  But my man Dave is a pretty outstanding host, and I think it will turn out to be a bit of both A and B.

Thanks Dave, another fantastic weekend.