Ask anyone in the habanos lovin' business and they will tell you that no matter how hard you try to fight the marketing machine that Habanos S.A. has become, they eventually win. It's called a monopoly. They're GONNA get you. I held out over a year on the Behike BHK line, just a ridiculous gilding of the lily to make DAMNED sure that you KNEW you were about to smoke the finest cigar in the world. I won't bore you with the details that have been lavished on video and print reviews of this line, with one taking 5 minutes just to unpack his box, pointing out every rich detail and never even lighting the cigar in the end. Suffice it say that no detail has been left to look 'common' with the BHK line.
Yep...that's laquer.
You unpack the box from it's "Get Smart"-style multiple layers of security (and opulence) and the occasional buyer might see a box of fat cigars that don't look any better-wrapped than any other havana....like mine. Some reviewers report flawless wrappers with angel music and radiant beams. The cigars are pretty normal-looking in THIS box, with a few surprising factory nicks out of the thin wrappers, and while there will be no mistaking here in a minute that they are SUPREMELY well-fabricated, I was under-whelmed by the final vista of the mighty cigars in all their glory.
I did a quick check of all of the sticks to find the one who would have to die, like a ruthless drill sergeant looking for any tiny reason to throw your footlocker into the air and create an unruly pile of toiletry items, towels and underwear. And I spotted it. A cracked foot on one of the cigars that signed it's death warrant.
The cigar lit very unevenly on the front porch of the house in the dark of a hot Friday evening at 9:30 pm. The heat was on, and the frogs were calling up a storm in the trees, begging for rain or sex or both. I had a triple torch in my pocket and a Wild-Turkey shot-and-a-half over ice in the other hand. I sat down in a folding chair in the dark and began to smoke the Cohiba BHK 52. I will not lie, it impressed quickly. No need to get warmed up, it seems the Behike creative committee had stolen the secret formula for the NUB, getting to the sweet spot from first light and puff. It was VERY round and creamy with a sweet milky quality, like the last puddle of milk you save in your Cocoa Pebbles. The cigar burned like crap for that first inch while the crack sorted itself out. But in terms of flavor, I was amazed at how the cigar managed to taste great with little sippy puffs and fantastic with big, bold, burn- enhancing puffs. There is literally no describing the mixture of undefined flavor characteristics. The whole experience, while a great treat, is a bit muddled at this point in the cigars age. The sweet, milk chocolate sensation remains throughout the entire length of the cigar I found, and there is no development to speak of in this two-week old new US citizen. I am sure that will change over the years I will be smoking these. For now it is a powerful blend of GREAT LOADS OF TEA, twang, chocolate and herbs, with Vanilla in there, too. And a nice looking band besides.
The construction needs to be mentioned here. I don't usually dwell on that aspect of cigars, it would do havanas a great disservice if I had to always discuss their problems with consistency here. But the BHK 52 is an enigma of sorts. HARD AS A ROCK, yet a PERFECT draw. Robusto-sized cigars often suffer an airy draw which I do not prefer. I like to give a nice pull on the cigar to get smoke and then after that puff, spend my next 3-4 puffs barely breathing through it, sipping the smoke. An airy cigar only allows the latter. This cigar draws at just a bit past medium and occasionally closes up to give a medium-firm draw, both well inside my range of enjoyment. I clipped only the pigtail initially, leaving a 3/16 hole in the end and the draw was fine for me, but I realized I might ruin the flavor with such a cut and apprehensively re-cut the smoke before heading outside, and the draw was identical with a 1/2 inch hole. Outside of the uneven burn from the split foot, the cigar was a marvel of perfect construction, which I do not consider too much to ask on a $35 cigar. Worth that?? Ehh, not so sure. But for the readers of the blog, sure, I am glad I spent the money and would do it again. Another box of these? Not likely.
A cigar like this might be a tale of three inches, as that's about all the smokeable length you get here. I know some nubbers, but I am not one. I do not get more of my money's worth by smoking it to a roach. The first inch was uneven owing to the crack, but light and delicious. The second inch was a model of perfection in every aspect. Increasing power, an increase also in the richness of flavors, although still quite confusing and muddled. Not like muddled is a BAD THING. The flavors were sweet and nutty and rich, so if I had to be a little confused by just what the hell they WERE, that's just too bad, I guess. I'll take it. The last inch turned into a longer and longer inch. As you can see in the last photo, I pushed the band up to near the head on this one, not wanting to let it end. I rammed the band underneath the wrapper accidentally, hell it was dark. Sue me. But the flavor just kept coming, albeit in a much more stout form. I think this cigar is designed to reveal the poseurs in all of us. It is a freaking phenomenal cigar, but it has a surprise waiting for the nancy-boy that decides he has what it takes to pop a roach clip on the BHK 52. It turned my stomach something fierce at the end. The sweat started rolling, my stomach got queasy and I couldn't put it down fast enough. No bad light cast on the 52, though. I prepared with a very large meal, and it sure wasn't the Wild Turkey what done it, lol. No, this cigar comes with a surprise inside, and ought to also have a warning sticker, although I am fed up with warning labels on cigar boxes. If you consider that I also got lit up by the little tiny Cohiba Panatela, maybe this shouldn't surprise anyone. But this does not happen often to me. This reminds me of a beer that covers it's 16% ABV so cleverly that you barely taste the burn going down. Then you walk into the door jamb on your way to the bathroom. This was a chocolate cake with a FILE in it. If only I were in prison. HIGH MARKS on the Behike BHK 52. I will give two scores...93 points on taste and quality, and minus 5 points for the ridiculous price. What's crazy is, when you smoke this cigar you can taste the 98-99 in there waiting to define itself, The materials are IN THE CIGAR to do it, maybe 100 too.
I was in Jackson, TN a few weeks back to smoke with a friend of mine, and it became clear right away that we hadn't done enough planning or thinking about the mini-herf. The beer at a street festival was not yet for sale, and the bar we had intended to smoke and drink at was not open for two hours. WE WERE lucky enough to buy a few Yuengling's apiece from the vendor after all, a lil under the table sale, and we walked for what seemed like 15 minutes until we stumbled upon a bench outside of a popular restaurant. I reached into my box and pulled out a 1998 Los Statos Deluxe Delirios. This is nothing but a machine-made piece of junk, but man does it ever satisfy me. It is hard to imagine that a 15 year old cigar composed of chopped up havana cigar scraps could BE THIS GREAT. I taste fine handmade cigars costing 20-30 bucks all the time, and this 55-center NEVER ceases to amaze me. The range of sweet and spicy and totally indescribable flavors is SO wide and SO good. Perfect burn, perfect light, perfect draw and even for a MM cigar, it rarely self-ashes on me. I think I have 30 or so of these left, and you can see here,
http://olscigars.blogspot.com/2012/03/los-statos-deluxe-delirios-1998.html
I seem to find the time to smoke them regularly. There was a time when I had 3-400 of these on hand. But the problem with a cheap cigar is they are so easy to give to people as gifts. And out of 50 I smoked personally and 30 I have left, you can see that had to be a lot of giveaways. But in the end, I am sure now as ever, the people that got these handed to them by the onesies or by the box of ten, thoroughly enjoyed their cigars. Simply amazing......94 points. Perfect in nearly every way.
If you really look you can find these to this day, but look hard and swallow harder, cause they ain't cheap no mo.
I must establish from the outset that I KNOW that I should not smoke young Cohibas. However, this blog ain't gonna write itself, I need to smoke cigars to keep people interested in what there is to say about the cigars that pass my way. This cigar is young, but I have heard rumours of young Cohibas tasting great these days. I will grant that the conversation turns rapidly to "a shame" and "a waste" after that, but initially people are liking the latest Cohibas. The Lancero comes to mind as a vitola that I have heard comments on lately concerning smoking what you have on hand and enjoying it.
And so it came to pass that a box of Panatelas came across my desk the other day. Naturally I grabbed a handful and ran. I have always been intrigued by this cigar, and the vitola in general. It is a completely handmade cigar, and specifically it is a charter member of la Linea Clasica of Cohiba, the first selection of vitolas, 3 if I recall correctly, that were introduced with Cohiba in it's first public appearance. They were the Panatela, the Coronas Especiales and the Lancero. Seems Fidel liked his long and skinnies. I wish he still held sway with Habanos S.A. because they apparently no longer care for the long, slim panatelas. 7 or 8 years later the Robusto, Esplendido and the Exquisitos were added and it was some time before the Siglos came along.
But I digress. There are two other cigars of this vitola one From Punch, the Margarita, and another from Montecristo, the Joyitas. All are wonderful little hand-made smokes, and how they get any flavor out of the tiny, prohibitive mix of leaves in a panatela is beyond me. But perhaps none does it as well as the Margarita and Panatela, and by virtue of price, perhaps the Panatela is the best of all. But I still think it is a tie. But in general I feel that all 3 cigars are over-priced for what you get. They all provide a satisfying, truly unique smoking experience, but at $130-$180 a box, I just can't get behind that.
And I digress again. So I have this cigar, and I know it is too young to smoke. But I took one to work the other day and smoked it in my car at lunch. Now this is a mistake in any trip other than an interstate trip of constant motion, if you want your car to smell nice. (I have a way of keeping 'new-car smell' in a car for years after purchase). I spent the rest of the day airing out the vehicle. But while I was smoking, I was treated to a great mix of flavors and PERFECT performance. I specifically chose the heaviest cigar I could find to tempt fate with the draw-gods. Not a lick of trouble, even after de-capping the cigar with my teeth. It lit well, and was a rich mix of musk, blackberry, vanilla and cocoa. The cigar was also STRONG. When I let it go at the 1/3 mark, I was woozy. I was walking into HOAM DEEPOT and looking to all the world like a drunk on the way home from a pub. I had a SLIGHT queasy feeling and sweat began to roll a bit. I KNEW I had smoked a cigar after that little number. The burn line was perfect the whole way down, and it never went out, except for when I went into the store and laid it on a garden center pull cart and went in to get safflower seed. When I came back to it, it was out, but I admit I was thinking, 'wouldn't it be cool if that sucker was still burning?' So I laid it on the car mirror and took a picture. I was going to light it up for another go, but as I was about to ride in the car again, I thought that I should use my road time to air the car at high speed instead.
After my experience I had some thinking to do. Is this cigar WORTH 7 dollars? If you were buying a five pack in cardboard, perhaps. $35 bucks for the luxury of having the best short smoke money can buy for 5 separate occasions would be fine. Having 25 of them is a bit of a stretch. I can buy two boxes of Partagas Super Partagas for $175, and MAYBE enjoy them as much as the Cohiba. I could buy a box of San Cristobal El Principes which I KNOW I like more, and have enough change left to buy that 5 pack of Panatelas anyway. So in the main, no, I do not think these are a good buy. Whether or not they are a good cigar is not a question at all in my mind. This is a fantastic smoke. AGED, I think they would be truly exquisite. In fact a few years ago, I had one brought to me from Mexico, and even after a ton of trepidation over it's certain fake pedigree, found out that no, it was indeed real and, how does the saying go, "it was fabulous". No idea how old that one was. It was likely 2-3 years old, since I am not sure how fast this cigar sells in shops with so many other choices. But I could taste all the pre-cursors of real flavor in this 2011 cigar, a ton of tannic power, hints of sweetness and DANK aroma unlit, chocolatey goodness when lit. The flavors I tasted were certainly near unique, with dark berry fruitiness, chocolate and a little vanilla. Not much 'grass' whatever that tastes like, but I am glad that the few leaves they had to work with left the "Cohiba grassiness" out of it. If you find yourself ordering a few 5-packs and 3-packs, these would be an excellent choice. If you had a chance to grab one in a box pass, it would be another great way to smoke the Cohiba Panatela. But buy a box at your own risk if you are budget-conscious at all. A great little cigar though...91 points
Oddly enough that is NOT the name of an island off the coast of Cuba. It's the jolly old elf that brought me some new Cohibas to taste for the blog. In the next week or so, I will be smoking a Cohiba Panatela, which I have had before and was very impressed with. I never smoked one for this blog, but it should be interesting, as they are 2011 smokes.
Also coming up is the Behike 52, which ought to REALLY be a trip. I have had friends who read this junk tell me that they appreciate that I never fail to tell them when the emperor isn't wearing any clothes, so to speak. I don't have a very good palate, but I do know what I like. And oftentimes I do not care for cigars that are widely accepted as great smokes, but that do not perform for me. While I understand the concept of a good, representative sample, I also know it's possible to find a great cigar occasionally, and I do....only occasionally, haha. So the Behike 52 review ought to be a hoot.
I also found my way into a few 2008 Esplendidos, and I expect the world out of these sticks. I have let far too many 04 and 06 models slip right through my fingers due to a reverence for a rule many have for aging you Cohibas before smoking them, thus avoiding the waste of a potential fine smoke. By the time they were ready to consume, someone else wanted them more than me. I wonder how those cigars tasted? They were certainly fantastic when they were new.
So look out in the next several days for some Cohiba reviews. I am hoping for some really high marks.
Also I would like to thank Jeff B, a co-inmate at the Asylum where I am locked away. He was the high bidder one of a few auction lots that I had in our troop-support auction. It consisted of three of the 5 highest-rated cigars I have smoked for the blog, Which turned out to be the 2001 Partagas Churchill Deluxe that scored a 97, and two cigars that scored a 93, the 1998 Bolivar Coronas Extra and the 2009 H. Upmann Coronas Major Tubos. Had the bids escalated to a troop-worthy level, I probably would have substituted the tubo with a 2005 Trinidad Fundadore which also scored a 97.
Also included in the lot was a OLSCIGARS pint glass, as well as a OLSCIGARS beer-tasting glass. Once the bidding rounded $65, I decided to throw in one of my new tobacco plant pint glasses.
The winning bid eventually reached 90 bucks and Jeff was the winner of the lot, using a persistent strategy of bids and I am glad he felt it was worth bidding on. With shipping to Canada, he actually paid about what it was worth in the end, though, haha.
Thanks Jeff.
I call this 'again' for a few reasons....No.1, I thought I already typed all this out, but suddenly the post is not there anymore. You can never be sure what is going on at Blogspot. They changed the whole way it operates for a "better" system that sucks. And now posts disappear I guess.
No.2, I have smoked a few of these for this blog, and they have all been reasonably good, at least as good as a giant comedy cigar can be. But this one would be different. I did not keep any notes, I smoke and blog, not letting much time pass in which I could forget what I remembered. So this post might be a bit thin.
The cigar clipped nicely enough, but there was no air to be found in the draw. I thought it was just plugged. I would find out later this was not really the case. So I put the smoke into a dry box and left it for a few days. When I went back to it, it was a bit better, and I wanted to smoke it and have a beer. I chose a Victory Golden Monkey...might be a bit too springy for this cigar, but it was looking like a dud to begin with, so I threw caution to the wind. The cigar lit slowly and burned agonizingly slowly as well. What I realized was that there was a hidden air leak in the wrapper that was stealing my suction. I found this out midway when the wrapper just peeled back in my hand. I was not happy. The cigar was a triple-clutcher. I had to pull three LONG draws to get any kind of smoke. What I got THEN was not bad, strong and full of chocolate and spices. I gave it a fair trial, smoking 2/3 of it's length until I just got mad and let it go. I do not think that the torcedore tricked me, hiding his error with a smooth wrapper, but I will say that if there had been draw machines in the factory back in the 20th century, this one would have been yanked, I hope. I enjoyed the flavor of my laborious draws, but the experience was not a good one. So I will eviscerate the cigar's noble reputation and say if you can't get it right, don't charge 20 bucks a pop for the smoke. 68 points.
I smoked a few cigars over Memorial Day weekend, and one of the three failed to get burned because it would not draw properly in the pre-light test. More about that Montecristo A later. Of course the way the blog is structured, you might read about it FIRST, so let's hope you read this entry first instead. The three cigars I wanted to smoke that weekend posed for this publicity shot on Friday night of that three day weekend.
The second cigar out of this little trio was a tubo-packed Montecristo Petit Edmundo.
I still don't get this cigar. It is supposed to be such a unique cigar, packed with sweet chocolate and herb flavors and toffee and cream and I JUST DON"T GET IT. They LOOK great, with oily if veiny wrappers, sometimes they feature good construction, but I have had a half a box and a couple of cartons of tubos, and I have yet to have more than one good one. (And I admit, that ONE was stellar.)
But this cigar was not so hot. It burned extremely well, and even slower than "extremely". There was a decent amount of tea, with only a little spice. The only time I tasted chocolate was in the tar at the end of the smoking experience. STILL, the cigar gave me an hour of easy smoking, didn't have to think about it much, and I let it go a LOOOooong time without ashing it. And it was NOT terrible.
All I really wanted was some cocoa powder like a real Montecristo, and like the best one of these I ever had, back about one year ago by Lake Erie at Sandusky Bay. I am not looking for better taste because I have a lot invested in these cigars, but this is a havana cigar, and not just that, but a havana cigar that the corporation that markets the havana cigar hangs one of it's many hats on. And I just don't get it. I have about 30 more of these, and I intend to smoke all of them, so there is time left to get it. But for now, i just don't get it. A good cigar, but not a good scorer.....I give it an 80.
Its only because of a great irony that I write this entry today. Today is what I CALL the first day of summer. Meteorologically perhaps, it's nowhere near it. But on the calendar, to ME, summer starts on June 1st. The reason this is odd is because it is 67 degrees outside in freaking Memphis, TN. On June 1st. This MIGHT just be the weirdest weather year I have ever experienced. Certainly the last 12 months were. If you recall, while the leaves were still on the trees in early fall, we had ice storms and snow in the northeast that brought down a LOT OF trees and limbs. Then we start 'summer' way early, before we have even had any kind of real winter. The bugs are here to take over the planet, and the campaign starts today!
So its 67 out, and overcast. I just put a down payment on a box of Behikes. The cheapest I could get. This from a man that never orders cigars from the forbidden island. I am ready to send out the lots that I put into our troop support auction this past week. I picked out all the cigars, the glassware, the humidors. I got a chance to see the bottom of every cooler I own, which never happens. Outside of a messed up Saturday afternoon working out of town, this is going to be a relaxing weekend. I am going to fill up the bird feeders, bring an ice chest outside, alongside a humidor of smokes, a bottle opener, a triple-flame lighter and my little TV. And I am going to soak up whatever is left of the cold front and watch the little birdies eat up my retirement money. Normally I would cook, too, but I have been cooking the carp out of some meat lately. I need to relax.
Then next week, after barely working at all, I get to drive to Charlotte and see my family for most of the work week. I get to play in the dirt with my mother and relax and be a good son. And sooner rather than later, there'll come another holiday, the 4th of July. And then before I get the smell of powder and magnesium off my hands I will be in the Smokies again for a whole week. As a fatty, I usually hate the summer. But this year I think I am going to go with the flow and slide into my 50th year with a smile. Just go with the heat, hope for a breeze, and smoke some of my best cigars.
