Cigar Thread

[Rick Nebiolo]

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really looking to get some authentic cubans though. how do you think the best way to go about this is? aside from websites that sell boxes...

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Why? The very top Dominican and Hondurans tended to rate just as well or better in evaluations in the Cigar mags (years ago when I read a few copies). Don't know if they are effectively blind tasted though or does advertiser influence creep in. I'd also be concerned that if a cigar maker knew his cigars were being tested he'd only send product make by his best hand rollers and so on.

The real knock against real Cuban cigars (when you can get them) is that they are being made by a country that has lived under Communism for 47 years. That's not good for manufacturing quality products.

~ Rick

[TxRedMan]

A few things to update this thread:

Casa Fuente in the forum shops- highly reccomend it. Not only can you find a normal stick that's only marked up a little bit (cigars on the strip are often twice your normal price), they also have a great cigar that's a house blend that you can only get there. It's about $20/stick but it blows away any other $20 stick you'll find in vegas imo. They also have some high end stuff, including the opus-x.

I love the way the opus-x tastes. It has a lot of bite and a great draw, spicy and hot. But it will knock you on your ass. I cant even finish the sort of rothschild-torpedo they have.

I bought one of the forbidden sticks last time i was there. At $75/stick it's not 4x better than a $20 stick, but it was exceptional. Very, very smooth, almost like tasting a handful of hot and fresh roasted peanuts/almonds. Great cigar.

My daily smoke has become the punch rare corojo rothschild. I love these cigars b/c i can finish one w/o having a total mind [censored].

I recently ordered some cubans from a very reputable swiss dealer and will post a report when i receive them. included in the order was a cohiba robusto, montecristo #1 (iirc), partagas, punch-punch, and a few other random-ish picks.

Still, for $5/stick, i dont know if i'll find something better than a punch rare corojo [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


-Tex


edited to add: if you're out on the strip looking for a cigar, buy one from one of the girls at cesars who walk around w/ cigarettes, cigars, roses, etc. You can find a cohiba toro for less than $25 (a good price for the stick) and some ashtons for about $20. Any other place will charge you at least that much for a far inferior stick.


Also, someone needs to go pick up one of the pre-embargo 1932 cubans from the cigar shop at cesars that's right where appian way meets the casino floor. They're $400/stick, covered in plume, and apparently ivey and rene angelil and antoine walker are the only ones to buy one. I know some pre-embargo cubans get sold at sothebys and are likely documented as being stored in good conditions and what not, so i'd think these would be as well. But [censored], $400/stick!!!

[guids]

Man, you love overpaying for your cigars.

[TxRedMan]

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Man, you love overpaying for your cigars.

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on the contrary. i love sampling great cigars. after receiving my shipment of cubans this week i can say w/o doubt that i'll never pay $75 for a dominican cigar ever again. furthermore, cuban cohibas are rather pricey and after sampling a few i only found one that i thought was worth its price.

the cohiba millenium pyraimdes was a good cigar, exceptionally mild for a cohiba, but not worth the $33 price tag. i thought the $20 cohiba corona especial was a better stick.

i particularly like the hoyo de monterrey petit robustos ($8).

and cubans aren't all hype- while there are a few dominican cigars i'd prefer over a lot of cubans, a good cuban is leaps and bounds better than a good dominican, and in my case cheaper. there's a bunch of cubans between $7-$15/stick that are wonderful cigars. i'm especially looking forward to trying one of the Bolivar gold medals.

if anyone's interested in obtaining the same supplier feel free to pm me, i dont want to post it in the thread b/c 2p2 can be kind of weird about lots of things, probably including posting a link to buying cuban cigars too.



-Tex

[raze]

Guys, this is a great thread, so I apologize for the noob question. My girl brought me a couple cigars from her trip to Niagara Falls. I don't have a humidor, but both cigars are sealed in metal casing. How am I to store these, and how long will they keep?

Also, the cigars are Montecristo Tubos and Macanudo Hampton Court.

[TxRedMan]

[ QUOTE ]
Guys, this is a great thread, so I apologize for the noob question. My girl brought me a couple cigars from her trip to Niagara Falls. I don't have a humidor, but both cigars are sealed in metal casing. How am I to store these, and how long will they keep?

Also, the cigars are Montecristo Tubos and Macanudo Hampton Court.

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unfortunately there's not a great place to keep cigars other than a humidor. they'll be okay for a week or two tops in the metal tubes, but they really need to be in a humidor asap. i'd reccomend going to a cigar shop and getting a fuente travel humidor bag. it doesn't have to be a fuente, and it's essentially a plastic bag with a very strong seal that has a time released self humidifying agent in the bag that sort of looks like a bag of silica. they're about $5 and they're good for six months, and you can open and close the bag and re-use it.

but i wouldn't feel too bad if that macanudo didn't last, iirc the hampton court is the new blend they came out with that bombed. the monte on the other hand is a nice stick.


all,

if you can get your hands on a bolivar gold medal, try it. smoothest cigar i've ever smoked.



-tex

[Tony_P]

Raze,

All you need is to stick them in a Tupperware container with a damp sponge. They will keep just fine as long as the sponge is damp and NOT touching the cigars. Open the container at least once a week to check the sponge and let a little air flow.

[Rick Nebiolo]

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A question on humidification:
Being a lazy person the automatic humdification systems appeal to me a lot. Plus it seems kinda cool to have an electric system to monitor your cigars (though a bit excessive for an amateur like myself).

But are they any good? I'm mainly thinking about the "Cigar Oasis XL Plus", it uses distilled water only (so I won't need to replace cartridges or anything, just refill water once every 6 months or so).
I'm planning to buy a new humidor, but not bigger than 100-150 capacity. Will the Oasis XL Plus work well in such a small humidor (says it is designed for cabinets etc)?

I'm also receptive to other ideas for humidification, but something that needs refilling every two weeks would probably not be the thing for me...

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A friend lives in relatively dry Los Angeles County and is looking for something more or less self-maintaining like this (except perhaps a smaller model than the Oasis XL Plus) so I'm bumping your post with some links that hopefully will encourage comment.

Cigar Oasis XL which is apparently the smaller model despite the XL designation.

Oops, there is an even smaller model called the Cigar Oasis Ultra at the top of the linked page. It's about the size of a standard rectangle humidifier that I assume most of us have.

Does anyone have any experience with this product?

Is this overkill for a table-top 50 cigar size humidor?

~ Rick

PS Lucky bathroom break before final posting allowed me time to read the new JR catalog and find this deal with a Cigar Oasis machine thrown in free. I suspect it might be last years model (apparently they added a gauge to the new ones).

[TxRedMan]

[ QUOTE ]
Raze,

All you need is to stick them in a Tupperware container with a damp sponge. They will keep just fine as long as the sponge is damp and NOT touching the cigars. Open the container at least once a week to check the sponge and let a little air flow.

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whoa whoa, make damn sure if anyone does this they used distilled water, mold/bacteria can/will form on a wet sponge and distilled water greatly (maybe eliminates iirc?) reduces the chance of this happening. mold/bacteria on your sticks is not cool.

also, you can sort of improvise a humidor with a cedar cigar box, some of that green plant sponge stuff that goes in many elements, and a bottle of distilled water. just make sure the element isn't soaked and the box has a decent seal.

anyone know about keeping sticks in a freezer? i was reccomended to do this for 24 hours with my cubans b/c they dont undergo the last process of freezing that apparently other cigars do to kill any potential threats, i.e., bugs in your sticks, but i never did it as i feel the swiss habanos dealer i go through wouldn't keep sticks that were possibly infected with bugs in their humidor that likely is worth seven figures....



-Tex

[BretWeir]

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anyone know about keeping sticks in a freezer? i was reccomended to do this for 24 hours with my cubans b/c they dont undergo the last process of freezing that apparently other cigars do to kill any potential threats, i.e., bugs in your sticks, but i never did it as i feel the swiss habanos dealer i go through wouldn't keep sticks that were possibly infected with bugs in their humidor that likely is worth seven figures....

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A couple of years ago I had a minor beetle infestation in my humidor and froze my sticks for 24 hours (after throwing out the obviously infested ones, which were unsmokable anyway). It seemed to cure the problem; the beetles didn't come back and it didn't do any lasting harm to the majority of the smokes (the wrapper on one cigar came loose and unraveled shortly after I thawed it, so I guess there's some danger).

Never heard that Cubans routinely needed this treatment, though.