It’s been a busy week so not a lot to report I’m afraid. Wednesday I grabbed a Maria Mancini Magic Mountain for a walk to the store. This particular cigar has a little looser draw than I prefer, so I had to smoke it a little slower. It rather amazes me every time I smoke one of these how good a $2 cigar can be. I’ve smoked dozens of Maria Mancinis over the years and have never had a major problem with them. They taste great and generally burn well. As I’ve mentioned before, I have always had some of these in my humidors over the last decade. I imagine these could go for $3 or $4 retail, but you can get 5-packs from JR Cigars for a shade over $10. Even if you order online and have to pay shipping they are still a great deal.
Thursday evening, after having a brief conversation with a friend about his recent CAO buying spree, I was inspired to light up a CAO Brazilia Robusto. There are quite a few CAO cigars I’ve enjoyed over the years, and there’s a few that just don’t do it for me, like the Criollo line. I loved the cameroon wrapped line back when it was called the Anniversario, then later L’Anniversaire, and they were severely box pressed. The corona in particular was like a tongue depresser it was so flat! I had a box of the Tubos in that line which were really nice. Now I guess they are just called Cameroon. Back to the Brazilia. Beautiful dark wrapper. Dense smoke. Good stuff.
As my son and I were walking around the block I introduced myseld to a neighbor who I’d seen smoking a cigar while cutting his grass. He said that he had just returned from the Netherlands and was enjoying a Partagas which he had picked up there. You have to love a guy who smokes Havanas while pushing a lawn mower! Naturally, I mentioned that I had recently received a box of similar Partagas cigars and my son (who is 20 and enjoying the occasional cigar) asked if he could have one. He lit one up after our trip around the block. I warned him that these were a little on the aggressive side, but he enjoyed the experience. His first cigar was a Romey y Julieta Coronitas en Cedro when he was 18 which I had gotten for my daughter’s wedding. Spoiled brat 🙂
Sunday is Father’s day, so I will be dipping into my dwindling stash of Esperanza Para los Niños. These are over 10 years old, so every year I wonder how they’ve aged. I will probably smoke a Churchill, as I still have a few of them. It’ll get difficult when A) I’m down to the last one or two, and B) if I find that they are losing their flavor with age. For some reason the Churchills have had some burn issues for me in the past, so we’ll see how it goes. I think the last one I smoke will be the Toro from the box that I bought in 2000, and it will likely be to celebrate some major kid-related milestone of some sort. We’ll see.
While I’m thinking of it, for those of you who live in Pennsylvania, or purchase cigars from vendors in PA (which I’m willing to bet most have at one time or another), our government is at it again, trying to fill budget gaps with tobacco taxes. Here’s the letter I sent to my representatives, with some help from the IPCPR‘s legislative action center:
I urge you to oppose any new taxes on premium cigars and other premium
tobacco products! Additional taxes will drive business out of state,
drive consumers to purchase out of state, and will result in less revenue.
Business taxes, sales tax, income tax, all will be reduced as a result.
What will be taxed after tobacco to make up that deficit?
Please remember, your tax revenues come from me-and I vote! We do not need
more taxes–not during this recession!
The IPCPR and CRA both have information on how to contact the PA Politicians and I would urge everyone to drop them a note pointing out the folly of thinking a tobacco tax is going to accomplish anything besides driving businesses out of PA. Here’s a press release from the IPCPR: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/06/prweb4154864.htm
