The best laid plans of mice and cigar smokers

It seems like there are conspiratorial forces as of late that are determined to ensure that I do not have enough material to be able to post to this blog. It is such a shame that my life is so devoid of possibilities to smoke that my general noontime lunch routine marks the only time that I get to enjoy a cigar. This being said I haven't had the possibility to have a lunch time cigar in almost three weeks or more, damn corporate growth!

 Ah but for the wonders of a caring spouse! My wife, who does not particularly share my love of cigars, noticed that I had not had the opportunity to indulge in my normal lunch time routine. This may have been in part of my cranky old man rants but she noticed. Well last evening after I had gotten home at 7:30 pm and had a wonderful dinner that she prepared, she suggested that I grab a cigar and maybe a glass of bourbon and go outside to sit and enjoy the rest of the evening.

 I happily agreed and went to plunder one of my humidors. Now it had been over three weeks since I had time to sit and just relax and enjoy a good cigar thus it took me almost fifteen minutes to decided upon what to smoke, I settled upon a cigar that a good friend over at the Cigar Weekly forums board suggested that I buy about four years ago. A Partagas de Luxe AT.

We retired outside on a perfect evening, a cool 72 degrees with a clear sky, stars everywhere! My beautiful wife requested a glass of her favorite sangria and at that point I knew it was going to be a magical evening. We made small talk while I lit the beautiful Partagas. Nothing special, just kids and such. After about five minutes my neighbor from across the street came over and I went and got him a Sam Adams (he isn't a bourbon drinker)and we spent the next forty minutes or so just making small talk and enjoying each others company.

It is amazing but I couldn't really tell you about the cigar other than it burned razor sharp and it just seemed to make the whole evening just right. There is nothing more enjoyable than to just sit and relax with a loving spouse and a neighbor while enjoying the wonders of nature (cigar and bourbon) on a cool evening.

My work schedule should be slowing down enough in the next week to allow me to resume my normal lunch time cigar interludes so that I will be able to keep my promise of updating more than once or twice a year. Love ya mom and little sis!

Poor sport on my part

Wow, I can't believe that I have truly allowed this part of my life slip into such disuse. When I started this I had grand designs of posting at least once a week some review, rant, musing or just a general lopsided view of cigar life that could only stem from my brain. Seeing as that my last post was almost three years ago I have utterly failed in this little experiment.

Well no more, time to get back on this horse and see where it will take me. In the three years of my sloth I have acquired and smoked hundreds cigars, lived at least a dozen lifetimes (I have adult children you know) and have countless memories to share with the whooping two dedicated readers (thanks mom and sis!) of this little blog. So onward and upwards and be prepared to be amused but more than likely disgusted.

Black is back

Well it really never left, just cool to say I guess. The black I am referring to can be none other than the CAO Black and this particular one on review is the Gothic.

Now I have a double confession to make. I am not really into the CAO products (I know I can hear the boos and hisses from here) but I am a bit of a sucker for the whole “limited”, “only xxxx boxes made” type of marketing. So when a certain vendor offered these “limited”, “numbered box”, “can only get them from us” cigars from CAO I got sucked in and decided to take a shot and ordered my favorite size. Needless to say that was a good four years ago and I think that the numbers on the boxes have been recycled a few times. Not to say that anyone is being deceptive but they are just that good of a cigar.

So here we are, it is a beautiful February day, clear skies with a temp somewhere around seventy two degrees. Of course I have great company with me for this lunch time smoke. The saddest part of this event was that this was my last one from the original box. The cigar was toasted and the lit producing right from the onset huge volumes of smoke, something that always turns me on. She burned, not with a razors edge but still very even with no touchups needed. From beginning to end your taste buds are assaulted with woody cedar flavor mingled with undertones of creamy vanilla and other spices that seem to just dance out of reach and keep you wanting more. I will honestly say that I have not been this satisfied with a non-Cuban in a very long time and it was with deep regret that I laid the nub down so she could go out with dignity.

Please feel free to comment.

This is cigar related to a degree because it is about my favorite cigar board web site. I posted it there and the only response I got was to make sure that I wasn't despondent, which is nice but I don't think anyone there made a connection.

I see you dying and don't know what to do.
I see you dying and want to save you.
I see you dying and it breaks my heart.
You have seen me through highs and lows.
You have taught me so much.
You have allowed me to teach.
So few now visit you anymore.
So few now take advantage of your lore.
So few now contribute to your knowledge store.
Do I mask my pain by pretending it is not true.
Do I mask my sorrow by not visiting today.
Do I mask my anger by putting on a happy face.
I need to fight to keep you alive.
I need to fight to preserve your dignity.
I need to fight to ensure you stay.
I see you dying and don't know what to do.
I see you dying and want to save you.
I see you dying and it breaks my heart.

As you can see it is very dark but hey life is dark sometimes, now lets go smoke a good cigar.

Where does Customer Service start and end?

I ordered some cigars that come in a glass humidor during one of the sales of the last few weeks and it arrived last Friday. When I opened it up there was a layer of mold across the top. Now you may be thinking that the cigars are toasted, but actually as long as the mold is just on the surface it can be wiped off without affect the cigar. On the other hand actually receiving product from a vendor that has mold on it is unacceptable.

So I sent the vendor’s customer service an email stating the problem and asking what could be done. The response I get was that they were sending me a pre-paid return UPS address label so I could return them and they would credit back my credit card since they were now out of stock, they also closed the “ticket”. Fine and dandy if I had wanted to just return them but I bought them with a specific purpose in mind and returning them for credit wasn’t an option I wanted to hear. Besides no one gave me any options, just here is what we are doing, live with it.

Well today I got on the phone with the vendor’s customer service and basically got the same response, not what I wanted to hear. The thing that burns me the most is that I wasn’t even contacted with a list of choices; even if those choices were to only keep the product in the condition I received it in or return it for a refund.

Customer service is there to interact with the customer, not to follow some flow chart and perform the end ritual.

Happy New Year 2009!

Just a quick post to say Happy New Year to everyone, I will be posting with more frequency this year (and that is not some lame resolution either)

A couple of weeks ago we, the family and I, camped in the keys at a wonderful state park on Long Key, spent eight days there. Most of the days were spent frolicking in the water while the afternoons were spent fishing from one of the little bridges nearby. Most evenings I spent relaxing in a chair smoking a great cigar and enjoying the natural surroundings. One of the days we went into Key West, mostly because I had my nephew with me and he had never been, we really wouldn’t have gone aside from that. While there I picked up a House Special from the Original Key West Cigar Factory cart located outside of the Conch Tour Train station on Front Street. That night I placed it in my travel humidor and planned on smoking it later.

Well today I smoked it. Well maybe not smoked it but tried to smoke it I should say. Here is the “lipstick on the pig” description:


House Special - 25 Count
Never a complaint, our House Special is a traditional robusto size that is just about everything a cigar can be. It's tasty, lasts a good while and just the right blend of pure Dominican long-filler and binder and medium shade Sumatran Cameroon. It's a winner that friends like to share with friends.
Ring Size: 50
Length: 5

Nothing special about the cigar, wrapper had some good size veins but the smell was nice. I punched the end and did a pre-light taste. “What the hell?” Obviously the end was sugar dipped, I thought for a moment that I had stuck a swisher sweet in my mouth, from here on out everything just goes downhill. Lighting the cigar seemed to take some effort and within minutes started to canoe and even though the draw was good I couldn’t get any smoke out of the cigar without huffing away at it, which in turn made it hot. What smoke I could get out of it tasted like burnt garbage. This lasted for about an inch before I gave up and clipped the end, thinking I could relight it. This also didn’t produce anything but the same results. With about three and a half inches left of the cigar I gave up. Curiosity got the better of me and I split the remains open. While this is touted as a long filler cigar there was plenty of short filler present, I would actually classify it as a Cuban sandwich fill. Needless to say I would rather have had the Swisher Sweet.