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After a nice comment from our very own Butternutsquash, I thought it would be interesting to hear how many of you keep a cigar diary? Do you record every smoke or just new ones or just those that tickle your fancy? Do you attach photos or keep them seperate? Think this would be interesting for those just starting out as your tastes & pallette change most in the first couple of yrs of smoking & without some real notes, you'll never be able to really look back on it with any detail. So here's my two pennyworth, it's not the necessarily the best way & certianly not the only way, but it works for me.
My diary goes back 10yrs & to be honest didn't include every smoke until 2004 but I do have 18 enteries before that, the earliest being 07/01/00 Steve's Cafe, Late New Yr Celibration, Cohiba Exquisitos. Score 84. 'Taking a break between Grace's rehearsals' (dance show).
The next entry was also about Grace. 09/05/01 At 9yrs she had finally swam 100mtrs so when in the Thistle Hotel Dyce, before going offshore I had a Cohbia Espen', smoked in the resturant, I waited until the othe rguest shad left & the staff let me smoke it whilst they laid up for breakfast (weren't those the days). A great cigar for a landmark occasion.
Mine diary is electronic but I don't attach the photos. I have a folder with 1205 photos onboard but I do have more at home, (keep meaning to bring them out on a stick). I down load my camera offshore, then the photos reminds me what I smoked & the exact date is recorded in the camera so thats easy to confirm, if I had forgot to write one down in my real diary - which is where I write the intial notes & score. I then write these notes up on the electronic diary: give brief notes, compare number of sticks smoked with the previous 4yrs up to that month, ie how many I have usually smoked by October, the differences ar eusually work or weather related. Then use this diary to go through my list of all the vitolas I have ever smoked, adding new ones & deleting the smoked cigars from my stock list. The list is in graded order from highest scores to lowest. I have a section listed at the bottom of those vitolas I have in stock but have yet to smoke.
One column adds up the total number of sticks held, another the value of the stock; I have just updated this for the cab's as I have noted recently just how much EU cigars have gone up.
I then have a section that lists my cigars that are held in cabs & boxes, with dates & delete from that as they are smoked.
I have a seperate page to record cigars brought each yr & the planned buying for 16yrs. Well that is what it is called but I am nearing the end of this plan now & should start projecting ahead again. If you always want to have cabs that are 5-10yrs old you have to buy ahead of when you expect to need them. Last week when I was updating my summer smokes & noted that after 9yrs of buying I have a stock worth about 70% of my total outlay. Considering I have been smoking nearly as often as I would like (do we ever have all the opportunites we desire?) albeit a modest 1-2 per week, I think that's a reasonable investment & a lot more fun & pleasure than I ever got from an ISA or wines in bond.
I got used to keeping these sorts of notes from my fishing diaries which I used to write by hand but now do electronically. My fishing photos are also kept in a folder (only 980 onboard but catch catching fish is harder than smoking a cigar!) I store my fish photos by listing species date, weight, location eg Pike.2013.10.11.11lb02.St Lenaarts. Then I have a chronological order to my file & can slide show it. So my cigars are listed as brand, vitola & date smoked. eg Cohiba.Robusto.2013.08.12. So if I am looking for a photo of an ERDM, I can whizz this that section & with the date smoked from my diary, it's easy to find. Usually I can remember more or less where it's going to be anyway. I find this easier to use & more flexible than attaching photos to a dairy page itself. And I just haven't got time to do that, I am out here working you know! Find a system that works for you & it will pay handsome dividends over the yrs & give you hrs of reflective pleasure.
So here's the oldest two photos I have onboard, from 2004.07.27.Hoyo.DC. It was my Belgian mates 40th, I had given him his first humidor; a crafty plan to keep him smoking cigars after I got him started & it has meant that every time we visit, I get to smoke in their garden or extenson & my wife never complains! The first photo I see shows my going into bliss with the first few puffs, the second looks like the photogragher had been drinking even more than us.
Sorry phots not attaching tonight will try again tomorrow.
My diary goes back 10yrs & to be honest didn't include every smoke until 2004 but I do have 18 enteries before that, the earliest being 07/01/00 Steve's Cafe, Late New Yr Celibration, Cohiba Exquisitos. Score 84. 'Taking a break between Grace's rehearsals' (dance show).
The next entry was also about Grace. 09/05/01 At 9yrs she had finally swam 100mtrs so when in the Thistle Hotel Dyce, before going offshore I had a Cohbia Espen', smoked in the resturant, I waited until the othe rguest shad left & the staff let me smoke it whilst they laid up for breakfast (weren't those the days). A great cigar for a landmark occasion.
One column adds up the total number of sticks held, another the value of the stock; I have just updated this for the cab's as I have noted recently just how much EU cigars have gone up.
I then have a section that lists my cigars that are held in cabs & boxes, with dates & delete from that as they are smoked.
I have a seperate page to record cigars brought each yr & the planned buying for 16yrs. Well that is what it is called but I am nearing the end of this plan now & should start projecting ahead again. If you always want to have cabs that are 5-10yrs old you have to buy ahead of when you expect to need them. Last week when I was updating my summer smokes & noted that after 9yrs of buying I have a stock worth about 70% of my total outlay. Considering I have been smoking nearly as often as I would like (do we ever have all the opportunites we desire?) albeit a modest 1-2 per week, I think that's a reasonable investment & a lot more fun & pleasure than I ever got from an ISA or wines in bond.
I got used to keeping these sorts of notes from my fishing diaries which I used to write by hand but now do electronically. My fishing photos are also kept in a folder (only 980 onboard but catch catching fish is harder than smoking a cigar!) I store my fish photos by listing species date, weight, location eg Pike.2013.10.11.11lb02.St Lenaarts. Then I have a chronological order to my file & can slide show it. So my cigars are listed as brand, vitola & date smoked. eg Cohiba.Robusto.2013.08.12. So if I am looking for a photo of an ERDM, I can whizz this that section & with the date smoked from my diary, it's easy to find. Usually I can remember more or less where it's going to be anyway. I find this easier to use & more flexible than attaching photos to a dairy page itself. And I just haven't got time to do that, I am out here working you know! Find a system that works for you & it will pay handsome dividends over the yrs & give you hrs of reflective pleasure.
So here's the oldest two photos I have onboard, from 2004.07.27.Hoyo.DC. It was my Belgian mates 40th, I had given him his first humidor; a crafty plan to keep him smoking cigars after I got him started & it has meant that every time we visit, I get to smoke in their garden or extenson & my wife never complains! The first photo I see shows my going into bliss with the first few puffs, the second looks like the photogragher had been drinking even more than us.
Sorry phots not attaching tonight will try again tomorrow.
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