I have to go back to last Thursday when I smoked a lovely little cigar, the La Palina El Diario KB. This is a pretty little petite corona, 4½”x40 with a Honduran Corojo wrapper and Nicaraguan Corojo and Criollo filler, and a double Honduran Criollo binder. I only had about 45 minutes until the hockey game was coming on so I selected this cigar, which I received from the company as a sample. It’s a tasty cigar, many cigars from the Raices Cubana factory are, and it’s maybe a little stronger than its line-mates due to its diminutive size. It was perfect for two laps around the neighborhood, and finished up just after the puck dropped. It’s a really nice little cigar, but I have trouble with the price tag, which is $35 for a 4 pack. It’s a pricey little smoke, however the rest of the line I consider pricey as well. For me it’s not a daily smoke, but the line is delicious and refined and a very good special cigar.
Friday night I decided to treat myself, and selected an original Liga Privada No. 9 from March, 2007. This had a pre-oroduction band with Saka’s name on it as these were originally rolled as his personal cigar. This was given to me by a former member of the staff at the time. I initially thought that it’s time had passed, it was off to a slow start. After about an inch it kicked in, producing the lush, savory flavors that one would expect. It had a perfect burn and I wasn’t going to put it down. I finally did when it reached the half-inch mark and was too small to hold any more. The Liga Privada series remains a favorite special cigar, one I don’t smoke often, and one of the few I will pay the high price for (although not frequently). I actually did see some Feral Flying Pigs in the shop I mentioned a few posts ago, but couldn’t talk myself into paying the $15+ price tag.
Sunday my wife and I took a ride to Atlantic City in a vain attempt to win a bunch of money. While there we came across a Cigar themed slot machine, and I’ve NEVER played a $2 slot before, but I had to, ya know? I put my $20 in the slot, and within a few pulls I was actually up $22. Normally I would cash that out and walk, but I let it ride, right down to $0. Oh well, the machine was in a smoking section, so I managed to enjoy a wonderful CAO OSA Sol Lot 50. Nice, bright flavors, a really smooth and tasty smoke. Well behaved, I only dropped ash on the floor a few times! When we got home we found that the power was out in the neighborhood, so I sat on the front porch until it got dark smoking a cousin to the OSA, a La Gloria Cubana Retro Especial Cubano. Nice, big cigar, similar to the CAO in that it’s medium bodied and bright. I love both cigars for different reasons. The power came back on around 4:30 am, so it was out for around 12 hours.
Editorial
If you read my last post about the IPCPR‘s Internet Media Membership, you will see that there were a ton of great comments from my fellow “new media” types, as well as a response from Bill Spann, CEO of the IPCPR asking for a proposal and promising to re-think their current policy. I plan on bouncing this off of the Internet Media Members to see where improvements can be made. I suppose we can call this group Brothers Of The Online Media, or BOTOM. :-).
Until the next time,
CigarCraig
The acronym is fitting, seeing as how that where the IPCPR places the bloggers on their priority list.
I guess that would make us readers the “BOTOM dwellers”. 🙂
Too bad you didn’t keep your winnings. But at least you had fun!
You know, there was a time that I would have cashed out and quit, but I was in the hole already…it was a fun machine until it took all my money (then took my wife’s too!) Sometimes it’s the cost of entertainment…and it’s nice to be able to enjoy a fine cigar in public!
That’s a pretty good attitude about gambling … if you’re willing to accept it as the cost of that entertainment, then go for it.
BTW – I’ve got a Liga Pravada #9, maybe even two of them, sitting in the back of my humidor, since early 2010. I’ve been afraid of their reputed power. Hoping they can mellow out a bit more and my palate can move upstream to handle them!