Favorite cigar?

[Shawn Nelson]

I know whisky to a decent extent, and I enjoy my irish pipe, but now I've decided to learn cigars. My father picked me up a dozen good ones whilst on a trip to Florida and so I got a good humidor to store them in. We heard that you want to keep a wet paper towel in the bag until they were in a humidor: bad idea! It took me a couple of weeks to get the humidor and even though the paper towel was not in contact, it still caused two of them to get very moldy on the tip (both were Cuban Cohibas...sigh), and the rest smelled of mold. So, I searched around the net and read a technique so I cut the tips off all of them, lightly dipped them in white vinegar and put them in my humidor, that seemed to do the trick. While at NAB Larry McKee gave me a 49 year old Cuban!! Wow! Thankfully I kept it apart from my other cigars and thats still in great shape. I haven't yet put it in my humidor though, in fear that the other ones are still moldy, but the've been in there for a while and so far so good.

So what are your favorite cigars? I know that Jim's is a Cohiba Sublime, but since I don't have reliable means of acquiring Cuban cigars with regularity... ;-)

Here are the cigars my dad got me that I am going through.
-Montesino
-Winston Churchill Chequers
-A Fuente Gran Reserva
-Cao
-Diamond Crown
-Ashton Cabinet

[Christian Edwards]

cant say im a fan to be honest but if i had to pick id say whatever Fidel Castro smoking

are Cubans still banned in your country ? ...(cigars i mean lol)

[Fredrik Callinggard]

I'd say the Trinidad's are really nice, which comes from the same factory as Cohiba (Fidel's favourite).

Fredrik

[Shawn Booth]

Hey Shawn -

A little mold isn't all that bad on a cigar, I mean a little. I would really suggest getting your sticks into the humidor asap rather than leaving them out for more than a day.

You kinda have to try various cigars until you find what you like.

IMO - Nicaragua grown tobacco is really good. Cuban is really nice as well. But my favorite is a new discovery, Hawaiian grown tobacco. The Kauai Cigar company makes a really nice blend. The tobacco is grown in volcanic fertilized soil... Nothing like it. Let me know if you like light or dark and I'll send you one for free (they're $15 a stick). I love sharing the cigar wealth. If you're ever in LA, I can help you find what you don't have access to.

Partagas are really great (Cuban grown or otherwise). Series D, Number 4.
Rocky Patel, The Edge are in my top 5. Rocky Patel's are nice.
Avo Uvezian, Intermezzo
And of course, Padron. Any of them really.

[Tobias Straka]

AFAIK, the Trinidad was produced exlusively for Fidel, he gave them out to friends of his (and Cuba), but you couldn't buy them. Luckily, that was then, the Trinidad is a great cigar.

My personal favourite is the Partagas 8-9-8 in the polished box. I love the format and the taste is just amazing.

I agree, the Series D No. 4 is great. A very nice alternative is the épicure no. 2. And of course, there's the Punch Punch, the Trinidad and the Cohiba Sublimes.

If you wanna go dominican, you should try Patoro (A Swiss guy is the founder of this one), preferably the Gran Añejo Reserva Churchill.

Oh well, so many choices, so little time. Sounds just like Red.

[Hans von Sonntag]

I stopped smoking 12 years ago because I started smoking - cigars. Since 8 years or so I smoke only one cigar in a fortnight and consider myself more or less a non-smoker. I've got an old cabinet with a thick inner-layer of cedar wood. It's filled up with 500+ cigars I collected the last 10 years. I don't think of myself as an afocinado, I don't go to silly cigar smokers events and don't attend testings, but: From time to time I love the rich and heavy taste of great cigars.

I see it this way: There is still no substitute for cuban tobacco, at least for me.

No one in the world is capable to create the rough and heavy taste of a
Romeo Julietta Cazadores, unbeaten and a relict from the golden 20ies. A true rare survivor, not killed yet by the marketing managers seeking for a "smooth" taste for the party bunch. Cohiba is a victim for instance.

Partagas SeriesD is a great Robusto. The Romeo Julietta Chrchills are stiil untouched aswell and so are a few others, e.g. Bolivar Coronas Gigantes.

The trend admittedly shows only one direction: User friendly "smooth" taste. In the forseeable future Cuba will be "liberated" by the US and the last mohicans of taste will die the death of mass-production and egalitarianism - a pitty.

Hans

[Shawn Booth]

Sorry, had to bump it - love this thread.

How about a cigar holder attachment for the camera? Like the sunglasses holder on Panavisions or cigar holders for your golf bag?
I am just kidding. "NO SMOKING AROUND THE CAMERA!!"

Hey, why don't DPs smoke?

[Rob Gardner]

I used to smoke hand made cigars, but after a while my mouth tasted like cigars all day, so I stopped. That and the tongue cancer...

[conrad gaunt]

I used to smoke hand made cigars, but after a while my mouth tasted like cigars all day, so I stopped. That and the tongue cancer...

I think you made the right choice, especially if you recently recieved a R1. Apparently evolution has provided man with a cure for cancer, its called death, and why are cells are hardwired for about 120 years before they break down, otherwise cancer would be inevitable Cancer is mutation, and mutation is evolution.. anyway, I always think the ones recieved as gifts taste best, that and the hand rolled ones made from mostly marijuana..:biggrin:

[Greg M]

Fuente Short Stories are my favorite...Don Carlos a close second.

[Kyle Presley]

El Rey Del Mundo and Cohiba are mine.

[Evin Grant]

Cuban Punch, La Gloria Cubana and the Dominican Dark Partagas.

[Rudi Herbert]

Shawan,

Never smoked a cigar or anything else in my life, BUT I was born in Cuba and worked in the Partagas cigar factory for over a year when I was a young boy of 16, because part of our payment was in cigars, which I would exchange for Fuji film for my photography :-) Anyway, one thing I can tell you is that, regardless of what any of the experts know, or think they know, the quality of Cuban raw materials has been in a steep decline, because when the Soviet empire disappeared and Russia stopped subsidizing Cuban sugar, cigars became the number 1 export. Thus, the growing and curing time of 90% of all cigars were decreased by as much as 60%, the most notable example being the whole Monte Cristo line, which used to enjoy curing/drying times of around 6-7 months and now started to be rolled after only 3-4 months. This extended to most other brands, except Romeo y Julieta and some Partagas examples because those were cigars that were rolled with very raw material anyway. This trend has never stopped, it has only gotten worse, to the point where on years of heavy rains in the Caribbean, Nicaraguan and Dominican tobacco produces better cigars than Cuba without exception, since they still follow the old formula that Castro eschewed.
If you can find any of the Dominican made "Arturo Fuentes" cigars, they are actually made with the old Cuban formula, in terrain that mimmicks the topography of Cuba's golden zone, Pinar del Rio, and by Fuentes himself, who was a star cigar roller and maker in pre-Castro Cuba and who managed to take a lot of graftings and seeds out of Cuba and planted them in Santo Domingo. That should be, for your money, the best example of Cuban style cigars, not coming from Cuba.

[HD Hildebrand]

IMO - my favorite is a new discovery, Hawaiian grown tobacco. The Kauai Cigar company makes a really nice blend. The tobacco is grown in volcanic fertilized soil... Nothing like it. Let me know if you like light or dark and I'll send you one for free (they're $15 a stick). I love sharing the cigar wealth.

Okay, I like anything from Monte Cristo's to some of the Dominican's (which use a blend of tobacco's), even a Dutch cigar now and then, but these Hawaiian cigars sound wild.

[substrata]

Not a frequent smoker....but

La Gloria Cubana - Minutos. They come in a package of 5 for about $15

Small little things that are wonderful to share with your Keys after the end of a good day. Those and a shot of single malt. Very important to keep moral high.

[Greg M]

If you can find any of the Dominican made "Arturo Fuentes" cigars, they are actually made with the old Cuban formula, in terrain that mimmicks the topography of Cuba's golden zone, Pinar del Rio, and by Fuentes himself, who was a star cigar roller and maker in pre-Castro Cuba and who managed to take a lot of graftings and seeds out of Cuba and planted them in Santo Domingo. That should be, for your money, the best example of Cuban style cigars, not coming from Cuba.

Arguably the finest cigar maker in the world...I still have several boxes of the original Opus X, which are awesome!

both his Don Carlos and Hemingway lines are my favorites though.

[Andrew Hewlett]

Back in my smoking days it'd be Cuban Monticristo Torpedoes or Cohiba's.

My opinion, unlike wine or whiskey, a cigar is a very personal love affair which is best learned by smoking a lot to find the few you like.

[Shawn Booth]

My opinion, unlike wine or whiskey, a cigar is a very personal love affair which is best learned by smoking a lot to find the few you like.

It literally comes down to this.


But cigars are all about the the soil in which the filler tobacco is grown. You just have to find what you like.
The Kauai Cigars are nice, smooth and robust. You smell the end and ...... Even my girlfriend was considering trying it when I opened the single stick box (yes, they come in their own box.)
If anyone's interested, simply PM me, no need to post that you have, just do it.
Aloha

[John Hunt]

Cuban Montecristo #2 - I love that torpedo. Cohiba Esplendido is another favorite and an easy smoke.

Or when I have no access to Cubans, almost anything from Arturo Fuente...

Funny this thread pops up just when we've started a "Tuesdays with Fidel" cigar smoking evening at work - makes network TV work a little more enjoyable...

[C.H.Haskell]

Interesting post Rudi, I am a fan of anything grown on cuban soils...something is still so sweet and saturated in its results, specially in the golden zone of Pinar Del Rio. In all my time spent down in cuba, the best smoke I partook in was visiting a an old tobacco farmer in Pinar Del Rio...he pulled some leaves from the drying shed and rolled it up and and we sat and smoked quite possibly the best tobacco I have ever smoked. SOrry for my lack in knowledge of this subject but if my memory serves me well this was the same tobacco being used for the Montecristos.

[conrad gaunt]

Shawan,

Never smoked a cigar or anything else in my life, BUT I was born in Cuba and worked in the Partagas cigar factory for over a year when I was a young boy of 16, because part of our payment was in cigars, which I would exchange for Fuji film for my photography :-) Anyway, one thing I can tell you is that, regardless of what any of the experts know, or think they know, the quality of Cuban raw materials has been in a steep decline, because when the Soviet empire disappeared and Russia stopped subsidizing Cuban sugar, cigars became the number 1 export. Thus, the growing and curing time of 90% of all cigars were decreased by as much as 60%, the most notable example being the whole Monte Cristo line, which used to enjoy curing/drying times of around 6-7 months and now started to be rolled after only 3-4 months. This extended to most other brands, except Romeo y Julieta and some Partagas examples because those were cigars that were rolled with very raw material anyway. This trend has never stopped, it has only gotten worse, to the point where on years of heavy rains in the Caribbean, Nicaraguan and Dominican tobacco produces better cigars than Cuba without exception, since they still follow the old formula that Castro eschewed.
If you can find any of the Dominican made "Arturo Fuentes" cigars, they are actually made with the old Cuban formula, in terrain that mimmicks the topography of Cuba's golden zone, Pinar del Rio, and by Fuentes himself, who was a star cigar roller and maker in pre-Castro Cuba and who managed to take a lot of graftings and seeds out of Cuba and planted them in Santo Domingo. That should be, for your money, the best example of Cuban style cigars, not coming from Cuba.

Haiti also produces "cuban" cigars too, I believe. Apparently Cuba s other big export, apart from international medical training, cigar plants and revolutions, is in the area of canver research. About five years ago I heard they had 21 of the most advanced cancer research centers in the world, despite the poverty in other areas of the cuban economy, and unavailability of simple things like aspirin. Cuba has supplied south America with vaccines for decades (created by, and in, Cuba), for things such as Meningitus (spelt?), years before the UK public got a vaccine (not that every parent wants one..).. Castro has always invested in drugs and medicine, he`ll be pleased he did given his current state of health..

[Rudi Herbert]

Haskell,

Yeah, the best experience surely is to smoke something rolled right then and there by a farmer that keeps properly aged portions for his own cigars, those are still the best. If memory serves me well, Monte Cristos used to be sourced exclusively from 4 plantations around the Vinales valley inside Pinar del Rio, so if you were in that area, then yes, you were smoking Monte Cristos.


Haiti also produces "cuban" cigars too, I believe. Apparently Cuba s other big export, apart from international medical training, cigar plants and revolutions, is in the area of canver research. About five years ago I heard they had 21 of the most advanced cancer research centers in the world, despite the poverty in other areas of the cuban economy, and unavailability of simple things like aspirin. Cuba has supplied south America with vaccines for decades (created by, and in, Cuba), for things such as Meningitus (spelt?), years before the UK public got a vaccine (not that every parent wants one..).. Castro has always invested in drugs and medicine, he`ll be pleased he did given his current state of health..

I've always promised myself to remain dettached from all political issues, it isn't worth my time and frustration, but a quick reply. All the news about the "advancements" in Cuban medicine and science are fed to the world by the Cuban themselves, so it's easy to say whatever you want and for the world to believe it since there's no way to prove the contrary. The idea that Cuba is a medical superpower is a falace, a myth of gigantic and unwarranted proportions. MEdicine, like any science, requires a constant exchange of information, for ideas, theories and new concepts to flow between practitioners, none of which is available to Cuban doctors. They have solid BASIC skills but lack tremendous knowledge in every other area, given the fact they cannot access the internet, attend conferences, read research materials and the like. Castro invested in drugs and medicine because it was an easy way to impress the world, but the true extent of this investments does not go beyond a large mass of mostly uneducated doctors and a few flagship centers that cater only to foreigners, offering last decade technologies at cheap prices, nothing else. Anyway, back to cigars...

[Shawn Nelson]

Holy crap! I just smoked the Ashton Cabinet...best...cigar...ever!! It's been sitting in my new cedar humidor for a few months and picked up a bit of the cedar flavor. I sat and enjoyed it outside with my brandy while talking to my wife.

I'm still saving the 49 yr old Cuban that Larry got me, but up until now, this Ashton is easily my favorite cigar.

[paul dudeck]

I did not see any fans for Davidoffs???? One of my favorites, but the price is steep. Like everyone else, Cubans are usually the best, but Dominican grown cigars with Cuban seed are excellent and less expensive!

[Tico Llaurador]

There used to be a bunch of cigar rollers in a hole-in-the-wall kind of shop around mid-town in NYC, near MSG. Rolled some mighty fine cigars. Went looking for them not long ago and the place had vanished.

The point is this... big label cigars are clearly not the only jewels around. Some of the best cigars ever made may have never made it into a box proper. Let alone for export.

BTW... the Davidoff AVOs are mighty fine cigars!

[Ivan G]

I enjoy smoking ACID Kuba's and Cartel. Great cigars!

[Rob Gardner]

I used to smoke hand made cigars until one day I noticed that everything tasted like cigars. That and they are expensive (not to mention the tongue cancer...)

[Shawn Nelson]

GFIRob, dude, seriously? You posted that exact thing a few months ago. This is clearly a thread for people who want to smoke cigars.

[Rob Gardner]

That's why I posted the same thing. Wisdom through experience does not die. It is my gift to you. Smoke on...

[Shawn Nelson]

As to the taste, and the prolonged effects, I simply disagree.

As to cancer, this is something I am serious about, and have researched. I feel the data is flawed on cigars. First, it is almost all funded by organizations with wrong motives. The studies I've read on cigar and pipe use do not make three HUGE differentiations: they don't exclude cigarette smokers, they don't differentiate styles (such as not inhaling cigars or chewing on them all day) and they don't take into effect the casual smoker (1-3 times per week) vs the intense smoker (>1 per day). Anecdotally, let's consider a few cases.

Winston Churchill: a guy so famous for his INSANE love of cigars that he has sizes and brands named after him. By one account, he smoked over 250,000 cigars in his lifetime. Think about that! That blows the mind. That's an average of MANY per day, for many decades. He was also overweight and an intense drinker. Did he die young of cancer? He should have by "overwhelming" conventional wisdom...he lived to be 91 years old.

Mark Twain: another famous cigar smoker, loved them dearly. Died at 75 years of age, of heart problems.

Zino Davidoff, one of the most famous men in the history of cigars, died at age 87.

George Burns. I found this on cigaraffecionado.com 'Burns, who lived to 100, credited his 10- to 15-cigar-a-day habit over a 70-year span with not only keeping him spry on stage but also with helping him outlive his physician. "If I had taken my doctor's advice and quit smoking when he advised me to," Burns quipped at age 98, "I wouldn't have lived to go to his funeral."'

Sigmund Freud, it's said that he started smoking at age 24 and smoked an average of 20 a day. He lived to be 83.

Now those are a few guys that are famous and smoke VASTLY more than I intend to. I doubt you could compile much of a list of avid cigarette smokers who live such long lives, so clearly a distinction must be made.

Everything in moderation, enjoy life, something has to kill you eventually because we don't live in these bodies forever.

[Hans von Sonntag]

Well, undoubtedly smoking cigars does harm ones health.

Surely there are a few cigar smoking famous men in history who reached a fairly old age but in the 19th and early 20th century almost everybody smoked - so no wonder really. Nevertheless there are many who's life could have been longer if they would have been non-smokers.

BUT, I heartly agree with Shawn when he says that moderately smoking cirgars - say one in a week - does not harm ones health in a way that one can talk about a significant damage. A real connoisseur would never inhale and that is a huge difference to arbitrary cigarette-smoking which is a pest.

Drinking red wine is not good for your health either, so is any alkohol - but most of us love these things because they make life more enjoyable. And isn't any kind of art something unnecessary, apparently senseless? All these things, paintings, films, music, sport, etc.. and fine cigars are vital for our culture.

Hans

[Shawn Nelson]

And actually the moderate, daily drinking of alcohol, and especially red wine, is being shown repeatedly to be rather good for your health and longevity :-).

But the bigger point is that I'd rather like a happy 75-80 years, then a stale 90.

[Rob Gardner]

I don't disagree with you, Shawn, but we don't always get to make that choice. We don't set the dates. And anyway, when I was doing it, I just smoked too many of them. I really enjoyed it, but if you really like it and you smoke them all the time, well, you get my point. It was my own excess. Smoke on, brother...