As has been my tradition for the last 13 years, I smoked a special cigar for Father’s Day. I wrote this in my June 20, 2010 post:
Since purchasing a box of Esperanza Para los Niños in 2000 for Father’s day I have smoked one of these every year since. The cigar is a beautiful box pressed maduro that was made by Christian Eiroa of Camacho to raise money for children orphaned by Hurricane Mitch, which devastated Honduras in 1998. Christian was an active contributor to alt.smokers.cigars at the time and brought several people to his facility to work on the blend for this cigar, with the proceeds going to charity. They came up with this amazing blend and sold 45,000 cigars through their dedicated website. I purchased a box of toros, of which I have one left after smoking and gifting them sparingly over the years. Tonight I smoked a Chruchill which was gifted to me by a good friend who won a box a few years ago and knew that they were very special to me.
I smoked the second to last Chruchill from the above mentioned batch and it smoked perfectly. What was once a powerful cigar has mellowed, but is still loaded with delicious chocolaty flavors and was a great after breakfast cigar. Sure, it could have burned a little straighter, but it was exceptional tasting and I smoked it to a nub. Several other cigars from this batch had trouble around the band, an ammonia flavor that I wouldn’t expect from such an old cigar. This one was outstanding. I believe I have 3 left, one more Churchill, a Torpedo and the last toro from the box I purchased in 2000, which will be the last one I smoke. It was really dis-heartening when I came across a batch of these on close-out for $50 a box in 2002 when I was in a state of unemployment and buying a box of cigars wasn’t a possibility. When these are gone, they will be missed, but not forgotten. Thanks to my kids for a nice Father’s Day!
Rewinding to Thursday, I needed a sure thing in anticipation of a long weekend (I worked at my second job both Friday and Saturday nights, I generally only work every 3rd Saturday, so this schedule wiped me out). I selected an Emilio AF1 that I had picked up at Classic Cigar Parlor in Doylestown, PA a few weeks back. They were clearing them out at $5 each so I cleared them out! Like the above cigar, this is a great maduro, I love San Andreas maduro wrappers, and this is a great one. It’s got a little bit of strength to it, but is always a solid smoke and always hits my tastes just right. It was the perfect cigar before taking a few days off from smoking. Some of my favorite smokes have this wrapper. Maybe it’s because I started smoking Te Amo maduros years ago, or maybe the wrappers are really exceptional lately, I don’t know, but give me a San Andreas wrapped cigar and I’m a happy camper.
I apologize for the brevity of this installment, but I’m tired out from a busy weekend. To add insult to injury, a routine WordPress update caused my access to the dashboard (and thus, my ability to update the site at all), which caused me no shortage of grief. All fixed now. In unrelated news, I saw this on Antiques Roadshow last week and thought it was cool. 
It’s a smoking jacked made from “cigar silks”, the ribbons used to tie half-wheels of cigars back in the late 1800s. I recognized Upmann and 7-20-4 brands represented. What a lot of work went into making this! Every now and then you see some neat tobacciana on there, I remember seeing a quilt as well as a really neat Hindenburg ashtray.
I’ve generously given the winner of Mitchell Orchant’s book, “Once Upon a Time in Cuba“, one more day to get in touch with me to collect his winnings. I see I’m going to have to add some wording to the rules regarding getting in touch with me to collect the prize! I naively expect people who enter to follow up to see if they won, or, at least, respond to direct e-mails! Silly me!
Enough for now, it’s time to grab some “Z”s before the work-week begins again tomorrow! Until the next time,
CigarCraig
