The Madness Continues But I am Having Fun

As I have written earlier on I mentioned I am crazy, maybe obsessed is a better word. I have been on a quest to find cigars that I would like, and maybe share what I know or don't know about them. My original quest is to find a group of cigars that I like and would gladly give someone else, and tell them that it is a good cigar. I feel like I am getting there. In today's world I have been lucky because there are many people that smoke and evaluate cigars, and then tell us they are good and have all these wonderful flavors. I will agree that there are flavors but man I don't taste some of the nuts and berries these guys are talking about. I have been working on my retrohale and expand what I am tasting and what flavors are there for me. I feel I am developing a good feel for what I like. I think my tastes tend to run from the medium to full bodied smokes over the mild ones. It's kind of funny because when talking to the experts they find that the beginners tend to lean toward the light to medium cigars. Most of the milder cigars I have tried just don't excite my particular senses. Several cigars I have tried might as well have been a Garcia Vega or White owl of my youth. I don't want to spend my money or for that matter have you spend your money on those when there are some really good cigars for less than $10 and I mean really good.  What I will try to talk about today is a list of cigars that I have tried and what I feel about them. I'm not going to necessarily evaluate as much as what I like or don't like and why. I will probably have to break them down into 3 categories absolutely yes, absolutely no, and I will get back to you or say maybe we should get together and share the experience and talk it out.

Here is an example of a cigar that I did not like at all, but because of it's ratings I might give it another try. The Arturo Fuente Hemingway short story. I found this to be a bitter biting cigar throughout the smoke. when I have told my story to several experts in the field they are surprised. This is why I will give this cigar another try.

Now I have tried 5 different Rock Patel's and not one of them will ever be in my humidor again. I will someday when I have space talk to some people that I respect and have them point me to one I might like. Please answer me this why are the Patel's so popular?

CAO CX2 another cigar I would never spend money on again, but the CAO OSO SOL lot 50 is very tasty and I have one resting now for 2 months and letting it rest at least another month before I have another one. Not sure about any other CAO products at this time. If you know of something you like let me know and I will give it a whirl.

My favorite $5 or less brand because I can always find a deal is the Perdomo's. I can usually by these on the cigar auctioneer or monster both part of the Famous smoke shop in Pa. for around $3 per stick.
Favorite   Lot 23  tasty, smooth, buttery, with lots of flavor throughout the cigar.
The Habano is good but again the 23 is better, and the 10th anniversay's are also a good smoke.

Hammer and sickle has 3 cigars and I would recommend the Berlin wall to anyone, a very good smooth tasty cigar that is very enjoyable. The hammer and sickle is their lighter version and I liked it ok but just not as flavorful as the Berlin wall, and the Moscow city was good, but loaded with pepper especially early on and I'm not sure a true novice would enjoy it as much as the Berlin wall. I did go back to the store and got more of the wall's especially when I found out they were limited supply.

My golfing partner is enjoying my trip because I keep bringing cigars to enjoy while we play. Well he returned the favor and introduced the Romeo n Juliet Reserva to me. It was a nice cigar on the lighter side but still good but I'm not going out to buy some more.

I had a cigar from Drew estates that was in that old time grandpa cigar type of flavors and was not turned on at all the Joya De Nicaragua cabineta serie. I did like the Antano 1970 though. From the same family Drew estates has put together one of my top 5 cigars The Undercrown, all I can tell you is delicious. I have about 3-4 more from Drew estates in my boxes to try.

There was a lot of hype about the Cro-magnon Knuckle dragger and I took the leap and bought an 8 pack because they were sold out of all other combinations. I sent 3 to the Aficionado and we both liked them. I will say the second one I smoked after only 1 month in the humidor was delightfully better than the first one, and that one was good.


The Oliva serie V I thought was a nice cigar and I did buy 5 more and they are resting nicely. I also have a serie G in the box but some not so good reviews are making me wait.


The Cain F 550 I absolutely love, but the daytona is ok. I have 3 others I still haven't gotten to.

The EP Carillo short run is a wonderful cigar very tasty but like it's name is a limited series. The New Wave is good but in my opinion the short run is enough better that I would buy more of those before the new wave.

I had my first Grimalkin yesterday and I will do a full report on that after I have another one but my first impressions were very good. I also have the AF-1 and AF-2 to try.

The San Lotano line from AJ Fernadez I truly like all 4 cigars and am torn as to which one I like best thank goodness I have at least 10 ovals and 3 each of the others to enjoy at my leisure. I would gladly recommend any one of these to novice or experienced smokers alike.

Obsessed? Probably humidor #4 with all the cigars still in the wrapper for long term storage has:
2 Berlin Walls, 1 Ancient warrior, 1 Corona  cigar package throw in, 1 Antano dark Corojo, 3 San Lotano Habano, 3 San Lotano Maduro, 1 1962 ortsac toro gordo, and my Uzi weighs a ton. That is the bottom row. Row 2 4 Undercrowns, 2 EP Carillo new wave, 1 Tabak especial, 1 natural Dirt, 1 Knuckle Dragger, 4 AF-1's. row 3 4 AF-2, 3 grimalkin, 7 Champagne tenth anniversary Perdomo..

Thats 40 cigars

Humidor 1 still has top notch cigars only and there are 14 in that one.

humidor #3 is overflow from #1 and 14 in this one too.

and humidor # 2 has some long term resters like the opus X lost city, and the Davidoff anniversary #3 that's $53 worth of cigars by themselves and there are 43 more packed in with them including
4 Padron 1964 aniversary,

That's a total of 113 cigars plus 11 still in the box of San Lotano ovals.The only thing I am looking for at this point is the time to sit back and enjoy them, maybe I should get out of the Car business.

The Newbie