2003 San Cristobal de la Habana la Punta

Today I had to replace some patio tiles that had cracked.  My landlady hires people to work for her that do not think about things like what might occur in the future, they do the job, collect the money and go.  I have never seen anyone do a job for her the proper way.  It once took a guy 10 calendar days to repair her air conditioning system.  On this particular project, she asked someone to cover her patio in tile.  Now some 10 years later, half of the tiles are cracked or coming up due to the ravages of winter with water getting underneath them and freezing and thawing, lather, rinse, repeat.  I can honestly say I did not do a better job than the original tile man, but that was not my intent.  She has no money, only spare tiles.  I laid down a layer of thinset and placed the tile in by eye, with no thoughts of leveling.  The patio underneath is not level, and I do not care how it looks in the end, I work free.


My reward during the afternoon was a Westmalle Dubbel and one of my older cigars, a 2003 San Cristobal La Punta.  It is one of the cigars that came from a box I keep around that holds the last 5 cigars from any box I finish.  Once any box gets down to the last five, I put them in a cabinet box for as long as I can wait.  They go anywhere from 1998 through 2005 these days.  It's nice to open the box from time to time and see what a little forgetting can get you.  It's not unlike blocking out all the bad stuff that happens to you over decades, (without the serial killing at the end).

I cut off a 1/4 inch and gave it a draw test.  It was a little firm, but just inside the range I prefer, so that was that on the cut.  It lit a little slow, which showed me that it had absorbed the proper amount of moisture after something bad that happened that I failed to mention earlier.  It's embarrassing, but true.  I took a bunch of cigars to the mountains over the summer.  When I unpacked my cigar box after the week, I failed to unpack the box I unpacked.  Confused??  I thought I did, but I did not.  I just laid the box down in a cabinet and forgot about it until the next time I took a trip.  So these cigars sat in a cedar box for about ten months.  This is what we in the aficionado set like to call "dry-boxing".  Extreme dry-boxing.  So of course, the cigars were ruined.  Or were they?  I tossed em into the ice chest and waited a month and decided to take one out for today.  SO TECHNICALLY this is NOT one of the cigars out of the Fivers Box.  It's something much worse.

But it was not bad.  A little one-noted, but not bad.  It was smooth and creamy but a little thin.  There would have likely been hints of vanilla and coffee-cake spices like the ones I used to enjoy from the original box.  It was decent though, with some buttery notes and toast.  No eggs or bacon, though.  As you can see from the photos, it burned just perfectly.  It offered up a little less smoke than I like, but what was there was not particularly offensive.  It was obviously not the impressive cigar that a 8-year old smoke should be had I taken proper care of it.  It would not be fair to rate this cigar, because I ruined it.  And I can honestly say the cigars from this box were really great in their prime.  There is something about the cuban belicosos that is right up my alley.  I love the Belicosos Finos of Bolivar, I love the Belicosos from Sancho Panza.  The only one I can't say I love is the only one I have not tried, the Romeo y Julieta model.

So perhaps unfortunately you can look forward to more reviews of the other 10 cigars I ruined from this box.  And sadly, when I go on the road, I take great smokes with me.  So I have no "crap cigars that I ruined" posts to make."  Only sad stories.  Unless the cigars are great.  We should know soon enough...