I will start with an apology, the quality of the pictures is horrid. Once again the curse of the oh so crappy iPhone strikes, also my crappy memory for forgetting to take a proper camera with me, oh well, no great shakes.
Well I had an invite from Ajay to join a members only sampling day on Saturday. The point of the day was to smoke the 2009 regional edition for Italy, the bloody HUGE Punch Diadames Extra.
You do not get a sense of scale in this picture of the size of the damn thing but most of you will be familiar with the Cuaba version, so you get the idea. How did this smoke? I would say it was just under half of a great cigar. The first half was very light, started almost dead but grew and grew. It was a long build up to the main event. More than the last third, but less than the last half, turned into a fabulous, rich, semi-spicy smoke. The last sixth filled the mouth and hugged you with dark flavours. Ignore the first half and it was a highly notable smoke, but I do not want to ignore the first half, oh well, it was for the Italians anyway, so what do we care?
I got to have a play with the Behike sampler that Ajay brought back from Havana.
I did not smoke a Behike on Saturday (but I know when I am, and it is not very far off) but some of the guys have smoked the largest and smallest. The conversation I had repeatedly suggest the smallest is a more pleasing smoke than the larger, apparently the size just suits the blend better. Nobody to hand had smoked the middle size, so the jury is still out. I strongly get the impression I should save my money and plump for the smaller as a better smoke.
Following the smoking of the Punch I was about to smoke a Partagas P1 but I have had that before and something rarer appeared on the scene. The 2009 regional edition for Cuba (seems odd concept to me), the La Gloria Cubana Deliciosos.
This comes in a jar, rather pretty it is too, if you like that sort of thing. For those of you who do not know, when Cuba do a "jar" one cigar in the bundle is wrapped in paper with a pigtail, so you can remove that first freeing up the rest of the contents. I elected to smoke the paper wrapped one, no idea why, just seemed like a good idea at the time. I will write a review of this one later.
There was also a couple of interesting other smokes floating about. Both very old DunhillDon C?ndido Selecci?n. For those who do not know about these cigar here is a link to some limited info on them...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill_(cigar_brand)
Here are some pics....
The partially smoked box is the Selecci?n No. 502 - 5 1/8" x 42 (129 x 16.67 mm) Mareva, a petit corona. The full box is the Selecci?n No. 504 - 5 1/2" x 52 (140 x 20.64 mm) Campana, a belicoso. Both of these cigars are valuable but the full box of 504's if funny money, apparently. These are in-line for smoking at a special event in the future but I suspect a touch rich for my taste, sadly.
A pile of other things happened that I should mention but you are probably bored by now, LOL. It was good to see mb55317 there, smoke again soon I hope!
Happy smoking guys, I needed this smoke fest this Saturday, end to a long week.
T.
Well I had an invite from Ajay to join a members only sampling day on Saturday. The point of the day was to smoke the 2009 regional edition for Italy, the bloody HUGE Punch Diadames Extra.
You do not get a sense of scale in this picture of the size of the damn thing but most of you will be familiar with the Cuaba version, so you get the idea. How did this smoke? I would say it was just under half of a great cigar. The first half was very light, started almost dead but grew and grew. It was a long build up to the main event. More than the last third, but less than the last half, turned into a fabulous, rich, semi-spicy smoke. The last sixth filled the mouth and hugged you with dark flavours. Ignore the first half and it was a highly notable smoke, but I do not want to ignore the first half, oh well, it was for the Italians anyway, so what do we care?
I got to have a play with the Behike sampler that Ajay brought back from Havana.
I did not smoke a Behike on Saturday (but I know when I am, and it is not very far off) but some of the guys have smoked the largest and smallest. The conversation I had repeatedly suggest the smallest is a more pleasing smoke than the larger, apparently the size just suits the blend better. Nobody to hand had smoked the middle size, so the jury is still out. I strongly get the impression I should save my money and plump for the smaller as a better smoke.
Following the smoking of the Punch I was about to smoke a Partagas P1 but I have had that before and something rarer appeared on the scene. The 2009 regional edition for Cuba (seems odd concept to me), the La Gloria Cubana Deliciosos.
This comes in a jar, rather pretty it is too, if you like that sort of thing. For those of you who do not know, when Cuba do a "jar" one cigar in the bundle is wrapped in paper with a pigtail, so you can remove that first freeing up the rest of the contents. I elected to smoke the paper wrapped one, no idea why, just seemed like a good idea at the time. I will write a review of this one later.
There was also a couple of interesting other smokes floating about. Both very old DunhillDon C?ndido Selecci?n. For those who do not know about these cigar here is a link to some limited info on them...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunhill_(cigar_brand)
Here are some pics....
The partially smoked box is the Selecci?n No. 502 - 5 1/8" x 42 (129 x 16.67 mm) Mareva, a petit corona. The full box is the Selecci?n No. 504 - 5 1/2" x 52 (140 x 20.64 mm) Campana, a belicoso. Both of these cigars are valuable but the full box of 504's if funny money, apparently. These are in-line for smoking at a special event in the future but I suspect a touch rich for my taste, sadly.
A pile of other things happened that I should mention but you are probably bored by now, LOL. It was good to see mb55317 there, smoke again soon I hope!
Happy smoking guys, I needed this smoke fest this Saturday, end to a long week.
T.
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