Memoirs of a Cigar

If your a Rocky Patel fan, or have been thinking of trying some Rocky Patel cigars, you cant go wrong with this deal.  I ordered this myself a few months ago, and it was one of the best cigar purchases I have ever made.  You get the entire line of Rocky’s cigars, many rated over 90pts in Cigar Aficionado, and for blowout prices.  The Indian Tabac and Virgin Sun Grown were my favorite, but they are all really good quality smokes, for an unbelievable price. You get 2 of each shown in the picture, all in big sizes!

SO IF YOUR NEW TO CIGARS, AND YOU HUMIDOR IS LIKE A DANCE CLUB AT 930PM (i.e. stil pretty empty), ORDER THIS NOW!!!

http://www.thompsoncigar.com/catalog/product.jsp?TLCode=31767&productId=66612&cm_mmc=Email-_-20090227-RockWorldSamp-31779-_-nav-_-RockySamp

How could I resist 100% Nicaragua Puro’s from the world famous Oliva Family Farms!

They had me at 100% Pure Dominican Cigars. When I learned they were also 100% Oliva Tobacco, they became simply irresistible!

They were produced to honor Anhil (Angel) Oliva, who was born in 1906, in the Pinar del Rio region of Cuba. Hand made in Esteli Nicaragua, these box pressed puro’s are fantastic! Smooth tasting, luscious smoke blowing, pure cigar ecstasy.

I brought a few cigars with me to our company Christmas party. It was at the St. Regis; great food, great speech, open bar and dancing. It was a killer company party! I ended up handing our CEO a Padron 1926 Presidente, the #1 rated cigar of 2007.

A few of us ended up going to Cigar Bar after the party. I ended up smoking a God of Fire with my friend JT outside. I was pretty wasted at this point so I don’t really remember the flavors of the God of Fire, but I do recall stopping a few times and saying to my self, “damn this is a good cigar”.

The God of Fire is the most limited cigar made by Fuente, so good luck finding one, but if you do you better snatch it up. I think it was one of the best cigars I have ever smoked, but I was so drunk I cant remember for sure. I guess I should drink less free liquer and smoke more expensive cigars!

I ran into my friend Richard in Union Square San Francisco, and we ended up swaping cigars and smoking. I gave him a Punch Champion, and he gave me a Cuban Cohiba Siglo II, a great little cigar fresh off the plane.

It was in a tube which must have been opened, as it was a bit dry. Never the less, it was a nice mild smoke with a touch of spicy wood taste. It didn’t have the grassy taste that most Cohibas have, but I milked it down to the very end, so I must have enjoyed the taste.

Achiles stormed the beaches of Troy under cover of smoke from a Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve. At least he did at my house this Friday night.

He battled up the hillside to the Temple of Apollo, and sliced off the top of the cigar with his Xikar blade.

Prince Hector fought back by pouring Bass Pale Ale down the gauntlet, but it was no match for this powerful box pressed maduro.

After resting a few months in his Humidor, Achilles was summoned by his King for this epic battle of cigar versus flame.

In the end, Troy had burned to the ground, and nothing but ashes remained.

Another value cigar I purchased down in Key Largo at Island Smoke Shop. For $4.19 I got this cuban-esqe medium bodied robusto, and after aging it 3 months I decided to give it a whirl.

I paired it with Tangiers -a premium Sri Lankan Black Tea that has Apricot and Saffron Petals, courtesy of Le Palais De Thes.

I smoked it while petting my cat Ibiza and watching the Godfather II in the basement.

It’s a well made cigar that has a great burn and produces lots of smoke. It’s a well balanced smoke, with some toasted nuts, leather and cinnamon taste. It’s a good $4.00 cigar, with the strength you would expect from Hoyo de Monterrey, but not as tasty as their Cuban counterparts.

I recently smoked an Alex Bradley Tempus at Maveriks Beach, and my oh my is this a great smoke. Cigar Aficionado rated this cigar 94 points, and trust me, it smokes like a 94 point cigar. For those of you who think only Cuban Cigars are worth your time, go spend ten dollars on an Alec Bradley Tempus, and see just what you have been missing.

My friend Dave ordered a bunch of Cubans recently, to see which ones he likes best. He ordered 2 of each, and was gracious enough to smoke his Romeo y Julieta’s with me. We had some Stella Artois beers with our little Romeo’s, and talked about the home market, the job market, and life in general. Afterwards we got a shoe shine, and I’m happy to report that my 8 year old Prada’s, that I bought on my first visit to Milan, look like new again. Thanks Dave!

Tonight I am smoking a Indian Tabac Maduro Super Fuerte, that was given to me by the owner of Cigars & More in San Carlos. He also allowed me to purchase a beautifull Monticristo White Box, to use as a over-flow Humidor, which is an amazing cigar box that I’m sure was difficult for him to part with.

The Indian Tabac Maduro Super Fuerte is actually the first cigar ever produced by Rocky Patel. The one I’m smoking right now has the largest ring gauge I have ever smoked. It’s so big it wouldnt fit in my Xikar, which can cut up to a 58 inch ring gauge! The cigar hits perfect, and the smoke has a clean odor. The cigar isn’t as full flavored as I was expecting, but I’m sure that is due to it’s large size, and my comparing it to the small size I had smoked previously.

The first Super Fuete I had was at Stanford Mall a few months ago. It was a short, box-pressed beauty, and really impressed me. It tasted very similar to the Cohiba Maduro #5 Secretos, which you can’t freely buy in the states. I’m planning on buying a box of the small Super Fuerte’s when I find them on sale. They are a perfect short breakfast smoke and go great with Cuban Coffee.

At what point did my Cigar Hobby become an Obsession? I can now Blog about Cigars on my iPhone while holding a Cigar, and have no restraints on smoking them in my Lexus, but it wasent always this way…

I guess it was still a hobby when I wasent very good at it. I would buy all the sampler packs offered at ThompsonCigar, and I thought the Cigar Afficionado Top Ten list was like the Ten Comandments.

I would like to think that my first Padron 1926 80 year Perfecto at the Breakers in Palm Beach Florida, where I paired it with an Oban 14 year single malt scotch, was my coming of age moment, but how could it be, it was only the second cigar I had ever smoked. The first was a H. Upmann Habanos in Union Square given to me on the morning after my first annual Truffle Party. Actually, I had smoked an expensive Cigar given to me at North Beach Resturant in San Francisco by one of the Founders of Kaiser Medical Group before that, so the Padron was actually #3, but alas I don’t know what it was, or remember how it tasted, so I usually don’t consider it as one of my first cigars. Now that I think about it, that moment did alter my perception of cigars, and make them seem cool & sophisticated to me.

Now that I have my own Cigar Blog, and people come to me for answers to their cigar questions all the time, I think you could say I have turned Pro. Im pretty sure I crossed over the “Obsession” line once I stopped counting the money I spent on cigar purchases.

Even as a young grasshopper first frolicking in the tobacco fields, there were clear signs of OCD – Obsessive Cigar Disorder. Like the day I smoked 3 Cohibas (Secreto, Singlo and Esplendido) while driving the golf cart around Ambergris Kaye, Belize. Or the following day when I smoked 4 Romeo y Julieta Bellicoso’s relaxing on the beach at Matta Chica while reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, and sipping on chilled bottles of Chilean Chardonay from the Rothschild Estate. Or how about spending $1000 US Dollars on Cuban Cigars, in Guatemala where the dollar is valued at 7-to-1, within 48 hours of leaving the country? If that’s not crazy for cigars, I don’t know what is.

Stay tuned for more reviews, stories and crazy cigar antics…same Cigar Time…same Cigar Blog.

I enjoy cigars with scotch, champagne or mojitos, however my beverage of choice is coffee. It’s funny because I don’t really drink coffee otherwise, I prefer tea, and not that crappy bleached bagged shit, but real loose whole leaf tea, like Yame Kykuro or Formosa Nut Oolong. In fact whenever I do go to Starbucks, I order a Green Tea Latte, which uses Japanese Cerimonial Green Tea.

Nothing spells vacation to me like waking up in the morning with a cup of coffee and a maduro cigar. Coffee really brings out the coffee and cocoa flavors, for obvious reasons.

This morning I lit up a La Gloria Cubana Reserva Figurados Maduro, an elegent shape that showcases the full spectrum of taste in the cigar. The pointed end quickly opens up to a full ring gauge, while the torpedo tip funnels the flavors to your lips.

It’s sad that La Gloria Cubana has probably passed it’s prime now with it’s 30 year owner and cigar master Ernesto Perez-Carrillo leaving the company. He sold La Gloria back in the 90′s, but stayed on as the creative force and manager of operations. Now he has decided to strike out and build a new brand with his two children who want to get into the cigar business with their dad. I’m excited to see what new cigars they will produce, but it will probably be a few years before they are available. I’m sure La Gloria Cubana will continue their cigars with the same quality as they are today, but innovation will probably be non-existant. Ernesto did produce one final gem before leaving La Gloria Cubana with the new Artesanos de Miami collection, his swan song, which are great cigars and have placed in the top 10 cigars for 2008.

Pretty strange pairing…yes… but then again, I’m not your typical aficionado.

For example, next weekend I’m contemplating driving down to L.A. for Tea. But not any tea, the best tea in the U.S., courtesy of La Palais De Tea, which is the The Tea Palace in French. They have the absolute best tea’s on earth, and are a tea conisuer’s Mecca.

But back to the cigar, I have never had a bad Punch. I have had 5 types of Punch cigars from a 25 pack, and all of them have been great. Maybe Punch only releases 90+ rated cigars, but whatever they are doing, it works.

While roasting marshmallows over the campfire, I endulged in a champagne colored Punch Gran Cru, an excellent, smooth, creamy, semi-sweet cigar. I paired it with a bottle of Proseco Champagne, which was an excellent choice. You can always tell if you made a good choice by asking “would you order it again”? The answer is invairably “Yes”.

BTW, the “would you order it again” system works great with Foie Gras too!

For lunch today, my friend Doug and I went to our local Cigar Shop “Cigars and More” in San Carlos.  I had picked up a CAO LX2 Lancero there yesterday, and needed to get a few more.  While inspecting each box in the walk in humidor, I discovered a box half-full of Casa Magna Colorado Robusto’s, the #1 rated cigar of 2008 by Cigar Aficionado  We quickly alleviated them of that problem – all gone!

The Casa Magna Colorado Robusto is rated 93 points, and its priced at only $5.25 wholesale, which helped elevate it to the #1 rated cigar in the world.  We paid $7.00 for ours, which is quite a resonable markup.  Their was quite a bit of confusion this year over the fact that price was one of the combining factors affecting the Top 10 Cigar Ratings, as most people wrongly assumed it was based purely from taste.  Anyways, you can read more about that here if your interested: http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Blogs/Blog_Detail/0,4695,346,00.html

My full purchase today consisted of quite an assortment of sizes ranging from Robusto > Torpedo > Belicoso > Lancero.

• Casa Magna Colorado Robusto — #1 “Top 10 Cigars of 2008″ by Cigar Aficionado, Rated 93 points
• CAO LX2 Lancero — Brand New Cigar Rated #91 points by Cigar Insider
• Dunhill Signed Range Torpedo — #10 “Top 10 Cigars of 2007″ by Cigar Aficionado, Rated 92 points
• Joyo De Nicaragua Belicoso — Rated #91 points by Cigar Insider

We both smoked a Casa Magna right there on the spot.  I mean come on, seriously, how far did you think we were going to get with the #1 rated cigar in the world.  And at that price, I can have one for lunch every day.

I’m smoking that new new LX2, that ain’t even out yet. Somehow the cigar shop in Belmont had a stash of these, and WOW is it a great cigar. It’s the newest full bodied cigar from CAO, and it’s scheduled for release this March. Cigar Insider just gave this cigar a 91 rating, and I might even rate it higher myself.

CAO is the famous Brazilian cigar brand. They have an astonishing selection of different cigars and flavored cigars. The LX2 stands for Double the Ligero (type of tobacco leaf). Lancero is the size, a long, thin cigar size which is making a comeback. You can see pictures of people smoking Lanceros back in the golden days of Cuban cigars, and like I said, expect to see many more Lanceros hitting the shelves soon. The small ring gauge offers a powerfull smoke, and the length gives you a long smoke. I’m at an hour and a half right now, and still have a good 20 minutes or so left.

When lighting the cigar I tasted a powerfull ‘knock your socks off’ spiceiness. After about a third of the cigar, the LX2 started to mellow out and then BAM, clear as day I tasted chocolate. Pure chocolate. Amazing. The chocolate and spice taste mixed perfectly and continued through the half way point. The flavors mellowed a bit, but were still excellent throughout the second half. Toward the end, I tasted a wooden cask type element envelop the flavors.

I feel privledged to have smoked the CAO LX2 LANCERO before it has been fully released. Especially since the Lancero size is so rare and hard to come by. I’m going right back to the shop tomorrow to pick up a few more of these so I can share them with my friends for our next cigar night.

I wasn’t really hungry at lunch time today, so I decided on something low fat, low carb, but full in taste. I chose the #9 rated cigar of 2007, the CAO Vision.

This is the first of CAO’s non-flavored cigars to be rolled in the Dominican Republic, and my first ever lunch time smoke.

It was a really well balanced cigar with a roasted nuts aftertaste. It was wonderfull. I might have to consider continuing the Cigar-Diet for a few more days.