Ramblings

Its been a minute

2009-12-02T02:20:00.000-08:00

Well it appears that I havent made any posts/updates/whatever in a while. So here is a little of whats going on in my life currently as well as some cigar related stuff, sorry no pics this time.

I graduate from college with my B.S. on Dec 19 this year, woohoo!!!! I am applying for a nonthesis masters program starting fall 2010, so cross your fingers for that. I am also in the process of writing my first paper that will be submitted for publication, thats a trip I have never had to write something "legitimate" before, just lab reports and college papers.

Cigar related, havent smoked anything knock my socks off wow in awhile, but I was lucky enough to secure a box of Tat Dracs via Mr. Goodfella on aficionado and I was able to piece together a box of Tat Boris with some botl help, also I got 5 extra dracs and 2 extra boris to smoke while the boxes chill for a minute. I have a box of the 2009 Oliva V Maddies coming in as well as a couple other recent purchases. Waiting on a 5er of the Miami FF from Dan at NHC to come in as well maybe by the end of the week.

Got a hell of a secret santa package coming together that is part of the secret santa pass/trade/what have you on aficionado, and my recipient should be more than a little satisfied if I say so myself.

And.....the big thing is I got my shelves and drawers for the wine-a-dor from Chas on asylum in a couple weeks ago. So it seems that I have some photo updates to catch up on soon.

Opus additions

2009-08-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

So Im running out of packages to expect, the opus I purchased from mugen910 on asylum showed up today. But not after I made the run home yesterday between class because I thought they would be here...usps tricked me...bastards. Anyway here are the contents;

1 Opus X Perfexcion A

1 Opus X Big Bad Mother Fucker Natural (2005)

1 Opus X 952R

1 Opus X Forbidden Tres (2005)

Thanks again Bao

Numer 2 is in

2009-08-22T14:08:00.000-07:00

Today I got my end of a trade with mkirk76. Promised to me was 2 Tat Franks and a Tat Cohete with a couple mystery sticks to be included, well here is what came in;

2 Tat Franks

1 Tat Cohete

1 Tat Black label corona gorda

1 Liga Privada No 9 Belicoso

1 DPG My Father Cedros Deluxe No 1

1 La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especial No 1 corona

Thanks again for this

Also in the mail today was my air-n-water 28 bottle wine cooler, and I have made the order for drawers and a shelf to be made to turn this into my wine-a-dor.

Package in

2009-08-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

The first of my expected packages made it in today, this one is from steve731 off aficianado. This trade was for 2 Tat Franks and 3 T110s...well he decided to throw in a couple extras. So on top of the tats there was a Oliva V Lancero, and a Perdomo Criollo 10th anni robusto. Thanks

Unfortunately the water pillow busted a seam and the T110 on the right got nailed. Not sure how it will smoke but Im gonna let the stick dry a bit and give it a shot.

nothing special

2009-08-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

Well since coming back from the ipcpr show and moving into my new apartment I have become a little bored. This is not bad until I end up on cigaraficianado and cigarasylum with no supervision and with Steve encouraging me to pick up some sticks that I probably shouldnt. Anyway yesterday I managed to trade for 2 Tat Franks and 3 Tat T110 from one botl on aficianado as well as 2 Tat Franks a Tat Cohete and some mystery sticks from another botl on aficianado, then on top of that I picked up an Opus 952R and A from a botl on asylum. Then today to top it off I grabbed a BBMF and a Forbidden Tres off the same asylum botl. And to top it off I sent a sampler to Marvin in HI for a 5er of T110s.

So it looks like this upcoming week should be fun as a test of my apts resilience to the bombs that are headed my way, pictures will come as the packages come.

Also I got a package from a different botl on aficianado the other day that included 2 Illusione eccj, an Illusione culebra, a Triunfador, and a Rocky R4 toro...thanks bro.

Rocky Patel Edge Sumatra Toro

2009-07-20T04:02:00.000-07:00

Origin: Nicaragua
Length: 6.00", 152.4mm
Ring Guage: 52
Wrapper: Sumatra

Wrapper has a prominence of large veins which seems to be standard on the edge line cigars. There is a small split in the wrapper near the foot of the cigar and is only present for about a 1/4 of an inch, this I would attribute to the large veins in the leaf. The cigar is a dark chocolatey color and uniform throughout, no sun spots or imperfections from contact between the leaves during the fermentation or curing process.
7/10Prelight: Effortless draw, strong presence of a dark fruit sweetness, cherry is what come to mind with some woodiness. Reminds me of my grandpa's wood shop when he is working with a fruitwood or a hardwood.
8/10

1/3
Flavors seem to be subdued at this point, this is something I have come to expect from Rocky Patel's cigars with the exception of the Old World Reserve. However, there is something there maybe come espresso mixed with cedar? Its not really there at first but shows as the flavors sit on my tongue. Pleasantly though the dirty characteristics of the vintage line cigars is not in this one. Fair amount of spice coming through and I am picking up some chocolate in there as well. Slight unevenness in the burn not to bad and certainly acceptable since this is not an ultra premium cigar. At the end of the first third definite cocoa and cedary sweetness.
6/102/3
Much better flavors to start the second third of this cigar, sweetness of honey reminds me of goldenrod, with some acidity. Pairing very nicely with my coffee, cafe du monde, if it wasn't 6:30am and I didn't have to goto work this morning I would like to pair this with a bourbon either Elija Craig 18yr or Woodford Reserve. Finish on the palate is remarkably light for a full bodied cigar. More cedar notes are becomming aparent but unfortunately not a lot of depth. The burn has evened out with only 1 touch up for pure anal retentive reasons. Towards the end of this section of the cigar the flavors are becomming muddled with the sweetness diminishing but with some earthier tones overpowering.
7/103/3
Started harsh unlike the rest of the cigar. Spice has dwindled out to almost nonexistance, as has most of the plesant flavors. Not a nubbing cigar by any means,
took about an hour to reach this point. Increased acidity but not bitter, finish is slightly dirty but this is something I have found to be standard on all of the edge cigars.
5/10
Thoughts
A decent full bodied cigar for a reasonable price, the ash was a very light shade of grey and only slightly flaky. Held an ash for about 1.5inches and when I tapped it off did not leave a clean separation but left some small flakes. To me this cigar should be made in a corona gorda size but that is preference as the cg is my size of preference, however I would like to try this in the missile/belicoso vitola. Would pair well with a medium meal to round out the strength. Better than the natural edge and about on par with the maduro. Lots of smoke throughout another signature of the Rocky Patel cigars, smoked to an inch and a half remaining.
4/5

Overall
36/55

Thanks Steve(cigarguy88) for giving me one of these cigars to try, now you need to smoke one of those old vsgs I gave you in return.

family affair

2009-07-16T18:20:00.000-07:00

So I did it, I got em all. Now what do I want to aspire to?

TMC Box Pass 2009

2009-07-13T23:02:00.001-07:00

Inventory for the tooomanycolors summer 2009 Box pass on cigar aficianado(starting)

CC Hard to Find
Montecristo A from 1999
Montecristo EL 2001 Double Corona
Trinidad Ingenios EL 2007
Ramon Allones Phoenicio RE Lebanon 2008
Montecristo C EL 2003
Hoyo de Monterrey Regalos EL 2007
Ramon Allones Belicoso RE UK 2005
Partagas Serie D No 5 EL 2008

CC Common
Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona
Punch Double Corona
Romeo y Juliet Churchill
Hoyo de Monterrey Churchill 2001
Hoyo de Monterrey Churchill 1999
Cuaba Salamone
Cohiba Lancero
Vegas Robaina Unicos
Juan Lopez No 1
San Louis Rey Serie A 2000
Partagas Serie D No 4
Cohiba Maduro 5 Secretos

NC Hard To Find
Romeo y Julieta Museum
Opus X Perfexcion X
Opus X Petite Lancero
Opus X Perfexcion No 2
VSG Wizard
Opus X Fuente Fuente
VSG Belicoso(~2004)
La Aurora 100 Anos Preferido
Partagas 160 Robusto Major
VSG Round Robusto (1999)

NC Hard To Find cont
Hemmingway Untold Story
Opus X Double Corona
Diamond Crown Maximus Stanford's 90th
Ashton ESG 20th
La Aurora 100 Anos Churchill
Padron 1926 No 1
Opus X Reserva d'Chateau
Don Carlos Annivesario Toro
VSG Corona Gorda (~2004)
Rocky Patel Edge Sumatra
Padron Anniversary Natrual 40

NC Common
Rocky Patel Decade Lancero
AVO 787 Toro
Savinelli Special Selection Torpedo
Camach 10th Anniversary Toro
Rocky Patel Signature Perfecto

This the starting inventory for my box pass this summer/fall...I cant wait to see how it ends!!!

Opus wrapper variances

2009-07-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

So I was taking an inventory of my humidors and I noticed a strange discrepancy in the wrappers of a couple of my Opus X Petite Lanceros, one has the normal almost rosado shade wrapper and the other has a much darker maduro shade wrapper. I know where both of these came from, so Im not worried about fakes, but is it possible that some maduro wrapped Opus made it out by mistake, or is this just a fluke? Anyway here are the pictures.

What a Week

2009-06-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

Ok so wow what a week, this first package I recieved was from Alan and included 8 HdM Churchills, box code: CPV LR00, unfortunately the 2 of these that have been smoked were both plugged. However, once the plug issue was remedied they were wonderful cigars. Also in the package were 12 SLR Serie A, box code: RPO JUN00, none of these have been smoked yet but I look forward to the first one.
SLR Serie A
HdM Churchill
Another group shot
And the heavy hitting package of the week came from Vithoun. The premise for this package was the MAW thread on aficianado. Well he offered to take care of the Phoenicia from my list but said that he couldnt take care of anything else. To me the Phoenicia was more than enough on its own but holt shit did he send some great suprise sticks as well.

Included was:
Cohiba Robusto
Ramon Allones RE Libano Phoenicia
Montecristo EL 2001 Double Corona
Montecristo No 2

What a great guy and in case he didnt notice my MAW list said and EL/RE so he covered the 2 stick rule with the Monte EL. Now unfortunately when am I going to have a moment special enough for that Phoenicia and EL?

Anyway Im off to Alabama next week, so who knows what surprise sticks I might find down there.

upcoming stuff

2009-06-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

So I have a package from Alan on aficianado that should be arriving in the next day or two which contains 8 HdM Churchills and 12 SLR serie A which is pretty exciting. They are from '99 and '00 respectively which I understand to be down years for CCs but who knows maybe the 10yo sticks will be phenomenal and in any case Im still excited.

Also coming up is my MAW from Vithoun also on aficianado which contains at the minimum a Ramon Allones Phoenicia, this alone would be amazing and I told him that anything else in the package would be icing. But I think I may have to fortify my apartment for what I anticipate to be a heavy hitting package.

Anyway thats all for now, unless everyone wants to know about my research but thats not cigar related.

(there steve I finally posted again)

Poker

2009-05-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

Staight flame grain apple

2009-05-02T07:49:00.000-07:00

Puzzle Pipe

2009-05-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

This is a former pipe that one of the guys who works at the local owns. I have never seen a pipe this puzzling, a blowfish that isnt at all typical, the lines are true and straight on the top, but the bottom is crazy. The lines on the pipe follow the grain perfect, this could be the greatest pipe Ive ever seen.

Quarter bent Former Brandy

2009-05-02T07:35:00.001-07:00

This was a series of pictures of my newest pipe purchase, a former that resembles the one I have made by him already. Hope you like it

PSD4

2009-05-02T07:28:00.001-07:00

Project Opus additions

2009-04-23T20:42:00.001-07:00

Bought the No 4 and XXX to help fill out the 1 of each size goal. Got the Toast across America from somebody....dont remember who, its in an earlier post. The DC was a prize from a bet on my birthday which has also been posted previously. And the big boy is the 'A' I got from a trade with a local BOTL for a Partagas Culebra!!!!

Da Pipes

2009-04-16T11:59:00.001-07:00

Here is the second Meerschaum that I have purchased. I wanted this since I am a fan of the claw and egg design. Only smoked a couple bowls out of this one, as it just isnt one of my favorites and as I rarely smoke my pipes over a cigar its just hard to crack the order. This is an SMS Meerschaum nothing really special about it but as you may be able to see the top of the bowl is beginning to get a nice rosy color to it.

This is my lone briar pipe. It is a Jons Pipe Shop Special from master Former of Denmark. There are 2 stores in the country that I know of that get these special pipes, the Jons Pipe Shop in Clayton, MO and my local in Champaign, IL. To me these are the most beautiful briar pipes on the market, when Former next comes to town I will get some pictures of his namesake lines and post them. But for a fraction of what a Former costs and on my college student budget I am very happy with this pipe.

I do own one more Meerschaum pipe, it is a simple lattice on a half bent. This pipe is currently residing at my B&M so Ill get pictures of it up in the future.

Hope you enjoyed

New Guys

2009-04-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

Here are the newest additions to my humidors: From left to right

The Opus X Double Corona was my prize for winning a bet against a hater at the Cardinals game on April 9. I put up a Romeo y Julieta Museum against the DC from 2005 and until the 6th inning I was nervous that I was gonna lose, luckily for me they pulled it out and I won. This one came compliments of a Cubs fan.

The Opus X Reserva d'Chateau was the prize from the other bet I made at the same game against a Red Sox fan. This time I had an Ashton ESG 20yr saulte against an undisclosed Opus. Between the 2 it made a nice birthday addition to my humidor.

The Diamond Crown Maximus Stanford's 90th is what I got in return for an Ashton VSG corona gorda and a La Aurora 100anos preferido.

The Cuaba was a late birthday present from a local BOTL

2009-04-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

Got this used humidor from tgherpst on CA, traded him a nice selection of 8 cigars for it (see previous posting). Now all I need to do for it is get it seasoned and pick up a digital hygrometer for the inside of the box. The ultimate plan for this box is to use it for CCs and aging, for the short term however I think I am going to move my NCs into it, with the exception of the Opus, since I only have about 27 CCs which doesnt make much sense in a 300ct humi.
Here is the damaging package I got from CP Staley through the MAW thread on CA. If youre not sure how this pass works, you post a list of cigars you want to try and if someone can take at least 2 sticks then they send you a package and they get to put up their own list. Well CP said he could take care of the PSD5 EL 2008, and an Ashton ESG 22yr Salute. Unfortunately he sent me an email saying he couldnt get that size on the ESG but he had the 21yr instead. Either way just look at the accompaning cigars, an Opus X Taste Across America from what I think was the 2008 release, a cuban Romeo y Julieta Churchill en tubo, a freaking Partagas 150 Signature Series B (I think that is the size), and an Ashton VSG Round Robusto, these sticks are from 1999 the only time the VSG was released as a nonbox press.

The middle one here is the VSG Round!!!
And I thought it appropriate to go back to my B&M and pick up the last of the old VSG Corona Gordas, these are about 5yrs old.

Birthday present to myself and a package from SPS

2009-04-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

For my birthday I went to the PIT@STL game with some BOTLs from here in town. Afterward we went to Jons Pipe Shop in Clayton, MO. While my friends all bought much more stuff I was happy to simply replace my other aluminum xikar cutter with this one, the composite just doesnt have the same feel. The La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Miami is a wonderful blend and the Elegante was deserving in my opinion of the #9 cigar of the year by Cigar Aficianado.

Enjoy the rest of the pictures.

This is what was waiting for me when I woke up yesterday. Yes I slept in, had to recover from the birthday festivities.

Anyway good wake up surprise

Shipping Day

2009-04-07T12:47:00.000-07:00

Today I have 3 packages that need to be sent out, all of these are from the CA forums. There is one package that is part of a trade for a humidor from tgherpst in MD, another is to CUsscrstud in MI for his CC wishlist, and the last is for maverickdrinker in ON for the MAW PIF. Hope they get to there respective destinations without any problems

Here are the contents of the packages, the 2 on the left are for the humi, the 3rd from the left is for Aaron, and the last is for Art.

No all I have to do is wait for the humi to get here, and wait for my culebras from SixPack.

Back From Vacation

2009-04-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

Here is what I was able to bring back from my cruise. Left to right we have 2 PSD4s, a Bolivar Royal Coronas ( had another of these but it was destroyed by fire), 2 VR Unicos, and San Cristobal de La Habana Mercaderes, and 5 Trinidad Fundadores.

In addition to the BRC that I smoked on the trip there was a 3rd VR but it was smoked as well. The Bolivar that I smoked was very young and had some bitterness to it so this one will have to be aged for awhile to say the least.

In addition to the cigars I brought back I picked up a liter of vanilla extract for my mom, she is a phenomenal baker, and a 250ml bottle for myself. Also I grabbed an 8oz package of jamaica blue mtn coffee for myself.
This is my attempt at being a photograper, here is my cigar ( I believe this to be a DPG My Father Robusto) and my port for the night (Dows late bottle vintage) in the ships cigar lounge.
Here is my free ashtray from my dad, we stopped at his house on the way to Miami for a place to crash. And after "trading" some cigars with the old man I asked if I could have one of his ashtrays yet. In my head I was thinking of the Blue Helix ashtray he has since it was smaller but instead he pulls out this box with the RP Old World Reserve ashtray in it. So now I have an ashtray.

These last 2 pics are some I took since I knew I couldnt afford the actual cigars. The cohiba Gran Reserva were priced at $200USD for the above item.

The only other item I wish I would have gotten a pic of or attempted to buy was the Fesitval Habanos 2009 ashtray which was at the Club Havana in Grand Cayman with the Cohiba GRs, along with some packages of cuban coffee which I didnt try since US customs was able to intimidate me out of trying for.

Fuente Love

2009-03-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

First you gotta have some love for Carlito and what he turns out. From most of what Ive heard he can be kind of a dick but thats all second hand info, and regardless he makes some of my favorite sticks. You can see what I have thats made under the Fuente name in this post, there are some VSGs, ESGs, Hemingways, DC annivesario, and even an Anejo.

The big hitters, ESG 20yrs, DC annivesario and my lone remaining anejo 46

The middle of the lineup, Hemmingway madure Untold Story, Big maduro from the regular line, Flor Fina Maduro 8-9-8, VSG Wizard, VSG Robusto, VSG Beli No 1
The small guys, 16 VSG Corona Gordas that have the old band, so they are least 2 years old, but the B&M owner gave me an estimated age of about 5 years. These sticks are covered in wonderful white bloom, you can feel the crystallized oils, its wonderful. These are what I have left after making the box purchase a few weeks ago, this was also my first box purchase.

Project Opus

2009-03-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

So this is my favortie humidor at the moment that I have. The idea here is that Opus X should be kept essentially by themselves since they have the ability to overpower even other full bodied cigars as the opus flavors will marry with other cigars. Thus the only logical solution is to buy more...enough to justify another humidor...and segregate them. Thats right no Opus love in the regular box.

Top of the humidor, got this off of a local BOTL who had a few to part with. This one happens to be number 49 of 450

My only Opus Double Coronas

The newcomers to the party, Reserva D'Chateau grabbed them this afternoon

A couple Perf X's...ahhhh cedar makes everything better

Some Perf No2s

A couple Super Belicosos, these are reserved for June at the earliest so that the first Opus my dad will try will be with me and the sticks will be a year old
A couple robustos, gotta have a robusto right?Opus X petite lanceros, this was the lancero that turned me onto the lancero shape for cigars, cant wait to try one with a year of sleep on it.

What a good looking familyAlright everybody back to sleep

ISOM

2009-03-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

Here is my humble selection of cigars from the ISOM, not very extensive at this point in time but that could change quickly...if I get another humidor...

The Bolivars

The Cohibas

Hoyo de Monterreys

Romeo y Julietas

H Upmanns

Lone Ramon Allones

Montecristos

my lone Saint Louis Rey

And my Partagas selection

So there may be more here after my cruise this upcoming week for Spring break and definately when I get back I should have 3 Partagas Culebra coffins coming in.

Intro and some schwag

2009-03-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

After reading SPS's blog, I decided this would be a great way for me to talk about cigars, be they mine, ones I want or cigars Ive had. Also I guess this can be a platform for me to talk about the mead I make (that would be honeywine).

This first entry should be rather large as I have made a few acquisition recently and it is also time to do an inventory of my humidors.

I picked this back lit sign from my B&M for no charge at all. I have been fortunate to find a shop like the local one, especially on a college campus. The owner is a great guy and very reasonable in his prices. He was kind enough to just give me this sign, however he said it would need new bulbs...no big deal right with fluorescent bulbs only running $5-6. So I get new bulbs and it turns out that the ballast is shot....this is getting complicated at this point. I looked into the feasibility of replacing a ballast and the result was nope this isnt gonna happen. So I instead purchased one of those utility lights you use in the garage or attic and ran that into the sign. Of course this couldnt go without incident either, as I was checkign to see if everything was connected correctly I forgot to ground the third wire and poof my hand was numb for about 30 minutes. So this sign is good to go, except I want to replace the plastic sheet behind the image since it had a pretty profound crack in it.

To go with my sign I got the matching ceramic cigar jar. Nothing really fancy about it just matches the sign and I got it for $15 so I figured what the hell. Now I am trying to decide if I want to use it as an actual cigar jar, which would mean figuring out if it does indeed hold humidity or not, but right now it is just a jar without a purpose.

Ok so maybe a little ambitious in my original purpose, the pics of my collection will make it up in the near future.

Anyway tonight I smoked a Tatuaje Black from SixPackSunday on CA from my box pass, nice cigar but still not sold on all the tatty hype. None the less thanks for the opportunity to smoke this ellusive cigar.

until later