In habanos, there are few real "withdrawals" to worry about. Cigars are not addictive so far as anyone has been able to prove, and while you never want to be without them if you can help it, there is no need to panic if you run out for a time.
Unless you are talking about Partagas Chicos. They are both addictive and cause a panic (in me) when I run out. There is a guy overseas who sells these by the multiples of boxes. That's a great way to get em. They are not cheap per se, but what you get for the cost of about a single box of 898Vs is basically a year's supply. Which is what you need. Not since Lay's Potato Chips has there been a challenge to 'smoke just one' that was so daunting. They are small. They are delicious. And if you can finish one without thinking immediately about having another, you are a better man than me, Gunga Din.
These come individually wrapped in a easy-open sleeve of cello, and for some reason, the band comes off when you slide the cello off.....every time. It makes me wonder if there IS such a thing as cigar band etiquette. Maybe we DO need to be removing our bands.
There is no need for a cutter, the smoke is already waiting for you when you open the sleeve....LIGHT ME, ALICE, it seems to call out. So I did. I had to cut the grass yesterday because the 13 year old kid that lives with his Granny, my landlord, can't be bothered to do it. I PAY to live there, he plays video games while I do the yard work. It is not stipulated that I do it, but if I didn't, we'd look like the hillbillies that they are. He also can't be bothered to put trash in a can til its full before starting another one, so today I rolled THREE partially-filled bins out to the street. And this afternoon, he will also fail to take them in, and I will have to do that just to get my car into the gate. But in the end, I win anyway. Sure, I sweated my butt off doing yard work this week in 100 degree heat (in freaking JUNE), but I KNOW he likes smoked ribs, and the porky little 5hit hasn't had one in two years. Not off my smoker anyway. And that is his punishment. If he asks me, I tell him straight out, you haven't done 5hit for two years to help me out, so you are banished from Rib City.
What the hell was I talking about? OH yeah, YARD WORK and rewards. I finished cutting the grass and edging all the sidewalks and curbs, put up my tools, poured a small glass of fresh-squeezed Valencia orange juice with a few ice cubes, foregoing the vodka even though it is sitting in the freezer, and lit up a Chico. What perfect pleasure. The cigar has a unique taste. At it's core, there is Partagas spice and an old flavor that seems to be what people must have enjoyed in a Partagas many years ago, before they all started to taste the same. But there are two strange notes that are VERY consistent for a cigar rolled by a machine out of random scraps of tobacco. There is a dank mustiness as well as a deep, winey flavor, fermented and sickly sweet. it sounds bad but tastes good. This makes me believe that while these are rolled from galera scraps, at least in the case of the Chicos, there must be a very consistent place and time where they are collected. Not sure if it is ONLY Partagas hand rolled scraps going in per se, but there should be NO WAY to have such a consistent flavor from rolling scrap. They burn fast yet cool for the first half, then ramp up and get hot at the halfway point, then mushy at the 1/3 point.
I know there are many among the people that read this blog who have never HAD a Chico. I have tried to remedy that with a select few of you, and you know who you are. But I just want to re-iterate what I have said many times here on this weblog. GET YOU SOME DANG CHICOS, MAN! What the hell are you waiting for? The em-bahr-go to lift? It ain't gonna happen.
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