La Gloria Cubana Medaille d'Or No.3

A wonderful cigar for a gorgeous fall morning that isn't actually fall....is it?  Yeah it is, right?  Anyway.  Lit this up while I built the fire for today's smoking of some baby back ribs and some chicken wings.  Firm draw that gives up good enough smoke, the smoke gentle and creamy with a little orange peel and lemon zest notes in the background. 

Burn was great, but pics are short, as I was busy smokng meat.  Poured some Bacardi Select with some Dad's Root beer into an insulated mug for a beverage.  The sharp, sweet root extract paired well with the cigar, and between the dog wanting some love, the meat in the smoker and revelling in the beautiful weather, I barely noticed the cigar.  But it was a great smoke all the same.  The firm draw helped with forcing me to draw gently, but knocked a few points off the score. I give it a solid 78.

As for the ribs, a hair too much smoke I think, and all I had was oak to smoke with, so they only rate a 98.

Bolivar Coronas Junior 2003

My favorite cigar, hands down, bar none.
Not too easy to say that, given the excellent cigars available from habanos, but then this is no JUNIOR cigar.  This particular example is BEAT UP.  It is squared off and tightly packed.  And yet I have no fears about a poor draw. 

I clip it and it lights right up and slaps me across the face with a giant blast of powerful habano goodness.  Bold strikes of leather and spice, with a creamy, round undertone from the first puff and loads of smoke.
The cigar burns laser straight, the draw is medium and offers loads of delicious smoke.  I taste butter, herbs, sweet spices, toffee and cream.  I have never had a bad Bolivar Coronas Junior and I suspect I never will.  These are sporadically available and boxes should be stocked in threes and fours when available and onsale.  it has long been my opinion that habanos never shines as brightly as when it offers a minuto or perla.  The Montecristo No.5, the Partagas Short, the San Cristobal El Principe, the Ramon Allones Small Club Corona:  All spectacular cigars featuring wonderful flavors, construction and value for the price.

I think it's clear that I enjoyed this one.

And while we are on that subject, take a look at the lineup for this weekend.

many reviews to come, obviously.

Trinidad Robusto T

Right off the bat this is a sweet cigar. I like classic cuban flavor in a cigar but when I get something different from the very first puff, I have to admit feeling a little excited. Unfortunately, it seems that to get really bold and exciting flavor from a Havana cigar, you have to pay a lot extra. I am referring to Habanos book humidors, Edicion Limitadas, Super Premium Cohibas, etc. What was once the finest handmade product in the world is now the second tier product from the country that once laid claim to the finest cigars in the world. So to get a really good regular line cigar is a bit of a surprise to me, even though admitedly, this is the most expensive cigar in the Trinidad marque.

And it's not super-fantastic, just different. It's strong.  It's complex. It's young. There are subtle notes of tea, and a sweet leather component. While it has a full, or medium to full body, it is a little light on flavor,  however. I know that I have gone on about flavors so far, but they are unique, not necessarily strong or bold. To my palate, it is as if the cigar is too young to allow for a true blossoming and marriage of flavors.  However, the signs point to a good future for these cigars. And make no mistake, this is much better than the
recent Cohiba Robusto I had a few months ago. Where the two cigars would rate if both tasted in 5 years is another matter. I rather think the Cohiba would hold it's own when it grows up. The tea component is moving well to the front now, with a slight hint of ginger on the finish. The burn is a little crooked, and I am not sure,
after several small corrections, if this owes to an inferior lighting job or not. I tend to underlight a fine, expensive cigar. Who wants to scorch a wrapper on a cigar that costs over 15 dollars each?

What is it with modern dramas these days where the president is ALWAYS black or female, lol? It's as if they are purposely trying to apologize for our countries tendency to elect white males. Sorry. Just watched the opening of "the event". Nope...this is burning crooked. So I give it a hard pull to both prepare for the ashing and to get a bit of heat into the wrapper. There is some very noticable chocolate flavor coming through and not so subtly. The tea-like finish completely coats the tongue. But there is an unidentifiable sweetness on the front palate that I am trying to finger. Maybe honeysuckle. but the burn is so bad.

It's the same effect you get when it's a magazine roll and there is a lightly filled side opposite a crescent of leaves packed together. There is usually no saving that, so I am going to call this cigar a 'taster', likely not really worth savoring and smoking for maximum pleasure. It is also not very likely it will improve if I keep babying it.  So based on it's initial flavor an not it's construction, it has to rate a simple 82. I will visit it again in a year, and say that I am awfully disappointed in this cigar, especially at it's premium price.

Romeo y Julieta Duke

I got a chance to smoke the vennerable Romeo y Julieta Duke Edicion Limitada 2009 the other day, and while it was a little below my first Duke experience, it showed top notch construction and pretty good flavor.

 My first Duke was loaded with tangy red wine notes that I found unique.  Unfortunately there was none of that in this smoke, but it was loaded with leather and a fruity, dense, rich flavor and a rich tobacco core.  The burn was a tad ragged but relatively straight and true all the way down. 

The draw was fantastic and there was not much progression of flavor, but what flavor there was was good and satisfying.  The cigar went on delivering puff after puff of delicious smoke for over an hour.  I dumped it about where you see it near the band.  It went sour in one puff and there is NO reason to ever smoke a cigar past it's prime.  Even when you think you have to have more smoke, you'd be best at that point to light up a fresh cigar before you smoke that stale, sour, hot butt.

  If I based my reviews on this one cigar, it would rate an 85, but coupled with my previous one I would bump that up to 91.

Revisiting Montecristo Petit Edmundo

Well I had a chance to smoke the Montecristo Petit Edmundo a few times over the last month.  I have had quite a bit of trouble with the cigar that one particular fired, Cigar Aficionado editor spent a year trying to get to marry him.  Turns out the Petit Edmundo likes guys with jobs. 

I enjoyed one at the Shack Herf in August, just as perfect a Montecristo as is possible with such a ridiculous ring gauge.  Lots of medium bodied tobacco with steroidal tea flavors and a generous helping of cocoa.  Had one just a moment ago on my porch, and it was half a great cigar and another half of airy, fat, useless draws of no smoke.  Sigh.

Would it be so hard to make 25 cigars in a box that were almost SIMILAR?  Sometimes just ashing a tempermental cigar is enough to spoil the party.  It was perfect until I ashed it.  But I am not about to kid ya.  I would be embarassed if I was once the world-wide standard of perfection and good taste and now I had an entire habano-lovin population agin' me.  Make no mistake, the raw materials are there.  Someone just needs to excercise some standards of minimal skill level in the rolling business.  Granted, you have a giant- scale failure of the commie-nist ideal in full progress down there.  I am not sure I would take all that much pride in my work if it had absolutely nothing to do with my value to the "company".  People need to earn a living based on their job skill and believe that what they put into it is going to matter in whether or not their "company" survives.  Sorry Fidel and Raul, you guys have a lot to learn about earning a living in the world.  And all of your people have to pay the price for your stubbornness.  As much as I hate to say it, you can still crush the opposition, and have a decent economy.  You can still throw people in jail forever and be a trade darling across the world.  You don't have to fix everything at once, just read a Economics textbook and follow the simple instructions.

Weekend at the Shack

A long time ago, a man purchased a piece of bayfront property that he called The Shack.  One day that man got together with a dozen of his pals from a cigar web forum and had a Herf.  For those that do not know what a HERF is, it is simply a get together for cigar lovers, where cigars are smoked, beverages are drunk and food is consumed.  Well after 5 years, it was time for Shack Herf VI. 
I took a few days off from work and headed up to Ohio for the event.  But I am not here to tout the virtues of the Shack Herf.  I am here to say that I smoked a good many cigars there, and I KNOW that I have not been smoking many cigars for this blog.  So I thought maybe I could write a bit here and there about the cigars I smoked.  But to be honest, the best cigar I smoked of mine was a 2 dollar tubo from Belinda in a plastic tube.  It was a Coronas Claro Tubo.  It was bright and fresh and breezy, twangy and totally enjoyable.  It was a machine-made cigar, but quite a nice surprise. 

Later during the day, I had occasion to join a Puff, Puff, Pass.  Several people ring a table and most times contribute a cigar to the circle which travels along at one puff at a time and rotates clockwise or counter.  The stars of this PPP were a Cohiba Maduro Genios, kind of a fat toro or corona gorda.  It was toasty and chocolatey and was the star for a time.  Also featured was a fantastic Partagas Lusitania from 2001 that rolled along with no particular wow moments until about halfway, and it absolutely sparkled with flavor and spice and herbal excitement.  Then a gent walked up with a real rarity nowadays, a Ramon Allones 898 from a cabinet, I think from the 2001 vintage.  I could be wrong.  Everytime it passed around the table, it had gotten just that much better.  I have no qualms about saying that it was the best tasting cigar lit at that hour, and there were some real stunners going among the 100-125 people all smoking at once.  I threw a Bolivar Belicoso Fino in there at one time and it was good, but did not get anyone all that excited.  To kick the whole show off I smoked a 01 Cohiba Lancero that was very well regarded, from the same batch as the original one that began this blog.  We also tried a Partagas Serie P No.2 Tubo that was pretty nice, as well as a H. Upmann Magnum 48 EL.  Imagine those all going around the table over and over.  I think no one got sick, but that is no easy thing to puff at a rate of one every 15-30 seconds.  It also ruins cigars, and I think they all expired at abut the 1/3 to 1/4 mark and certainly none were nubbed.

Beautiful Sights in the Smokies

So We had to be out of our Cabin on Saturday morning.  Everyone had to leave town, but I had nowhere in particular to be.  Once I returned to the intolerable western end of the state, there would be no going back, so i took a solitary drive up to Newfound Gap for a little peace and quiet.  Light streamed through the trees in the misty morning all the way up Newfound Gap Road.  No one was pushing me up the mountain, and I just cruised up at 30-something miles per hour and drank in the cool morning air through 4 rolled-down windows.  I got to the top and walked around like a beggar, asking people if I could take a photo of them.  Nothing is as sad as coming home to your photos and someone is always missing from the picture because they had to take the photo.  Sometimes the bold will ask outright if you will take their photo, but with camera-snatching always on people's minds, it happens infrequently.  So I just ask when I am around photo folks.  They never say no, and I like to do it.  I take pictures for a living, more or less.  So I am qualified.

The view of the Appalachian trail from Newfound Gap that morning.

Man that's CLEAR.

Kind of sad, too, knowing that as soon as I had had my fill, I'd be going home to the place I had run from just a week earlier.  And returning home, I found that we will be spending next week at or above 100 for the entire week.  Our nightly low temps are 82-85.  yay.  But speaking of hot, Girls in Gatlinburg certainly know how to beat the heat.

My little earth mother...

I am too old for these little flower child types, but not too old to hang out of a moving car and snap a photo for posterity.  Or posterior, something like that.  If the girls at Elkmont had been wearing skirts like these, they all would have been burnt at the stake.  Moving cars........who knows.  She may have STOPPED to get an ice cream cone.  Thank goodness I'll never know, because THAT photo would have been more than I could take, I think. 

But that's not the real beauty in the Smokies.  There is only ONE reason to hike 5 miles up a mountain when you're in the kind of shape I am in.  Either girls like the above-mentioned at the top waiting for me, or views like this.  The best thing about the Alum Cave trail route to the summit of Mt. LeConte is the ever-increasing height above the surrounding terrain.  You can look UP and see that you are nowhere near the top, but you can look OUT and see that you are getting pretty high up there. 

Like i said, this hike killed me.  But the views (and the breaks to enjoy them) lift you up a bit so you WANT to continue.  At this point my clothes are soaked and my nephew has a small circle of sweat under each arm.  I wanted to throw him off the mountain.  But I guess I am glad he has the guns to get to the top.  And in recuperative power, I kicked his butt the next day, when he said I would be ruined.  I was not ruined until several days later, when he was not looking.

And I did not trample these two rare flowers, either.  These are 'endangered', whatever that really means when you are a flower.  I guess it's the same as any other species, but flowers do not seem to be under threat from anything but lack of water and sunlight, so up here, to me, what's the problem?  Collection maybe.  Being stepped on maybe.  I wish the purple flower had been expanded.  I wonder what it looks like?