Cigars on Ice

Most people have the misconception that only Jesus can walk on water. And, most people aren’t from Minnesota. Up here, for 3 months out of each year, we are able to reenact this great miracle. Some of us sit on a bucket outside on the ice, with a short pole, waiting for the fish to bite. Others of us, spend thousands of dollars to sit on the ice in the lap of luxury, watching satellite tv, sitting in leather recliners in our “spare living room” that often times is nicer than our homes. Though I don’t go to that extreme, I do enjoy ice fishing in a revamped pop up camper, with some good friends and good cigars. This year, we went back up north to the Crosslake area of MN. With fishing gear in tow and a nice La Gloria Cubana in mouth, I was set for a great manly weekend. It wasn’t until I was parked at the public landing, and a Gurkha Master Select #6 later, we went to get more bait. We pulled up to the landing, and looked at these black pieced of plastic lying by my car. Looking up, I realized someone had obviously hit my car and drove off. The nerve of some people! Luckily I was in the company of good friends and cigars to calm me down.
This brings me to my point of this article. Some people are blessed to be able to smoke indoors whenever they want. Some people are lucky enough that the weather is nice all year round and can enjoy their favorite stick on a nice patio. But, none of that matters as long as you have good company and good cigars. As I sat on the ice, pondering who the bastard was who hit my car, standing outside in -15 degree wind chill, I realized something. Life is too short to bitch about a stupid car, or how I have to smoke outside, even when it is cold. All that matters is that you are with the people you love, doing what you love. Life is not always about what you do, it is how you do it. As long as you have passion for everything you do, then life is worth it. Take a look at the cigar you are smoking. Up to 500 hands have touched that cigar, giving it all the love, care and passion that it deserves. Next time you have to smoke in a less than ideal place, just take a minute to reflect on your passion for life, and the passion that went into that roll of tobacco. Both you and the cigar deserve it.

Padilla Cazadores

Today's smoke was a Padilla Cazadores Robusto size cigar. I jumped in the herf-mobile at lunch time and fired this baby up!

Unfortunately Padilla's website is being updated, so I couldn't find too much information on this cigar other than it has Honduran tobacco filler with a Habano seed wrapper.

Pre-Light:
Upon taking the cellophane off of the cigar, the wrapper had a very nice grassy aroma to it. The best surprise was when I smelled the foot. The filler had LOADS of dark chocolate scents, with just a hint of citrus.

The Cigar:
After lighting this cigar up, I could taste the dark chocolate and woody characters. It wasn't until the retro-hale that the heavy cedar and wood shop tastes came through. I was blown away by how tasty this cigar was! The smoke was more on the medium bodied side, but where it was medium in body, it more than made up with incredibly FULL and rich flavors it produced. At the end of the cigar, it transformed itself to a white pepper and cajun spiciness taste. If you ever get a chance to be in Minnesota in late spring, and walk out into a grassy field, you will smell the sweet aromas of dewy grass, sweet nectar of flowers, and the earthiness of the trees. This cigar tastes much like that. I found it to be refreshing on the palate, yet kept me interested as the flavors melted into eachother at the end.

Aftertaste:
This cigar has a very mild after taste, and keeps your mouth watering well after you are done smoking this cigar.

Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this cigar to anyone. Padilla has a great taste profile that a precious few companies would be able reproduce. Congratulations to Padilla for a job well done!

Too much age??

Last night, I dug to the eternal bowels of my humidor and pulled out a Partagas Black label pyramid 1845 series. I remember buying a a box of these back in 2004 or 2005, but must not have smoked all of them. Once I realized that this cigar had 5 years of age on it possibly, I got my self excited! Maybe too excited... Well, the whole experience proved to be disappointing. Not only was the cigar extremely plugged, and didn't produce hardly any smoke; the cigar lost most of it's flavor! This brings up a good point that I think some people don't really think about. Like different wines, some cigars are meant to have the consumer age them, and some are not. The difficult thing is that, the manufacturer often times won't tell you that it should or shouldn't be aged. Which leads us to make a subjective opinion on the matter. AND like wine, a cigar will peak with age, and start a steady decline not only in flavor, but composition as well. Unlike Cuban cigars, most non-Cuban cigar's tobacco is aged anywhere from 6 months - 10 years. Cuban manufacturers tend to ferment the tobacco for a much shorter period of time, hence why many people box age their Cuban cigars. I think this is more of a cultural thing than anything else. We here in the USA tend to like our products NOW. We as a culture don't like to wait for things. Latinos and Europeans tend to be much more accommodating when it comes to waiting for the finer things in life. Let's face it, the Europeans know how do it right!

In conclusion, I believe that 5 years was probably 4 years too many for this Partagas cigar. I need to get better at rotating my humidors!!

Smoke Today

Today is a little cold here in MN. A blistering high of 7 degrees. So needless to say, I had the heat cranked up in my herf-mobile to full blast. I had a little scare when I rolled down my window, and it wouldn't roll back up... but with a precision whack to the door, the window submitted to my disapproval and rolled back up.

Anyways, on to the smoke for today!

Today I smoked a Joya Cubana cigar. Unfortunately, I am not exactly sure which stick it was, as I believe this was a single I got from the Dogwatch cigar club run by Fullerspullers.com.

Pre-Light:
Examining the cigar, this stick looks to be about a robusto size, at around a 50-52 ring gauge, and maybe 4 inches long. The wrapper is dark and oily, reminiscent of dark chocolate in color. The wrapper aroma is a bit sweet, with smells of sweet hay and grassy notes, and the filler has that classic barnyard sent.

Light:
After toasting the foot, the aroma smells of fresh baked bread, and leather. After finishing the light, I got strong black pepper notes, but that hint of sweetness persisted throughout. Although this cigar looks strong, it is a classic example of "don't judge a book by it's cover." I found this smoke to be more medium in body and strength. About half way through the cigar, the flavors melted into a sweet caramel, chocolate, and leather flavor that kissed your mouth with a sweet residue that had me licking my lips with each puff.

Aftertaste:
I also like to talk about the taste that cigars leave you with after you are done smoking about them. This particular cigar left me with a sweeter aftertaste that has hints of that chewy barnyard air to it.

Overall this was a very nice and pleasant smoke, and I would love to get my hands on some more!

Stogie Fresh

Hey all,
A few days ago, a college kid asked me about cigars. Now I am a younger cigar smoker, and I fully support the recruitment of young cigar smokers into our hobby, as long as they are of legal age. We need to end the stereotype of cigar smokers either being hard ass bikers, or stuffed up old guys. Yes, a regular college kid CAN enjoy a cigar from time to time! Anyways, that is not my point. This kid asked me about humidors and how to season them. I explained everything I could, but I also referred him to Doc at Stogie Fresh. Not thinking much about it after that, I put the whole experience out of my mind until this morning. I received a phone call from this college kid, thanking me for the help. He had bought a humidor and was in the process of starting a cigar club at his college. He also mentioned that he loved the Stogie Fresh website. So, if you have just bought your first humidor and are wondering what the heck to do with it, I encourage you to check out the website!

The CRA is YOUR friend!

There comes a time in a man's life, when it hits him... He has a God given right to enjoy a cigar! Not only should we be able to enjoy a cigar on birthdays, and holidays, but whenever we feel the need to indulge in this great gift we call the tobacco leaf. I am in no way advocating cigarette smoking, as I believe that cigarettes are just a delivery device for the addicts, not smoked for their taste or aroma. I am strictly talking about a cigar or pipe. The sad thing is, we as cigar smokers are getting lumped in with the cigarette smokers. The type of people that smoke cigarettes are so extremely different, and marketed towards oppositely, than that of a cigar smoker. If we don't do something soon, and stand up and say "HEY!" we are going to be dragged down with the chopped up, additive rich, tobacco and cigarette smokers. There is an all out war against cigarette companies. You see the adds on TV, in newspapers and magazines. And we are getting lumped in with them! This is an all out prohibition, and for that we shall not stand. So, I encourage you to check out the CRA, Cigar Rights of America. I am a member, and believe that every cigar smoker should be as well. They are one of the only organizations that will stand up to Washington, and say "HEY! We have rights too!" So check out the link on the left hand side of this page, and please become a supporter!

What is a herf!?!?

You have heard the term before, "herf." No it isn't a STD, or a body part, or hardcore gang street lingo. It is the term for a cigar gathering. The word, Herf really has unknown origins, there are many theory's out there. But here are the main points.

1. A herf takes place when two or more people get together to smoke a cigar.

2. When attending a herf, always bring your own sticks, plus a couple of extra to share and trade. Don't worry, you will probably walk away from a herf with some pretty great cigars.

3. Bring a libation of some sort to share. A nice rum, or beer would be preferable.

4. If the herf is at your local "brick and mortar" shop, bring a little cash and purchase something from them. They are being extra generous opening their doors to you, so please, return the favor.

5. Be prepared to talk. Not only will you be talking about the cigar, but most likely you will be sharing your opinion on politics, current events, sports, etc. There is one think I can't stand, is someone in the corner, not being involved!

So there, those are my 5 things to know about a herf!

Now, start a herf and enjoy!

My first Blog

Greeting cyberspace! Welcome to my humble blog. This blog is mainly a place for me to write about cigars, and to share with you, the readers, my thoughts, feelings, and experiences as a young cigar hobbyist. My name is Adam, and at most cigar sites I go by the "Soundman"as a screen name. I am 27 years old, and live in the Twin Cites area of Minnesota. I am married, and don't have any children at the moment. My wife is a school teacher, so that has proven to be good contraception.

I can deduce that if you are reading this, you are more interested in cigars than my life, so let's get to it!

Let me explain my setup. I have three desktop humidors. Two of which are at home, and one I keep on my desk at the office. The two at home have the capacity to hold around 100 - 150 cigars, the one at the office, is small and holds more like 25-30 (if it is really packed). Once I figure out how to post pictures, I will.
I also have what I call an "end table" humidor. This humidor looks like an end table in my family room, but if you open it up, it is a humidor. This is where I keep my boxes of cigars, plus some singles in a drawer. I find this to be a wonderful addition (if you can spare a few hundred dollars), because it allows me to box age some cigars. Granted this is not a huge humidor, I currently have about 10 boxes of cigars just in that humidor.

So, if you are just starting out and wanting to gather information, here are a couple of sites you should check out:

The first one is http://www.stogiefresh.com/
This is run by Doc. He is a really animated (sometimes overly) guy that expresses his passion for cigars through his website and pod cast. I have found many useful tips on his website and encourage anyone interested in cigars to check his site out. You can download his pod cast directly from his website, or via iTunes.

The next site that I visit, almost daily is http://www.cigarmedia.tv/
This is the home to Dogwatch Cigar Radio. Bob and Dale, by far, are my favorite cigar pod casters. Their explanations on cigars they are smoking are beyond descriptive, and they are always striving to bring you interviews and news going on in the cigar world. I have learned a tremendous amount from those guys alone.

So, on to what I have been smoking. Typically I smoke a stick at lunch time. I am blessed to get an hour for lunch, so I usually jump in my mobile herf-mobile and have a smoke. Today, I smoked a 1961 Rocky Patel, I believe it was a robusto size. Rocky Patel, in my opinion, prides himself on full body smokes. So I was slightly surprised when I found this smoke to be more medium bodied. The pre light aroma smelled like sweet hay, and the wrapper was nice with just s few veins visible. The first few puffs were the RP spice I look forward to in an RP cigar, but I found that the spice mellowed as I smoked the cigar. It has nice characters of leather and black pepper. According to Rocky's website, this cigar has a Habano seed wrapper from Ecuador, a Honduran binder and Nicaraguan fillers.

http://www.rockypatel.com/html/1961.html

Thanks for checking this blog out, I will be sure to update it as often as I can!