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For anyone who might be interested, I have put up a few new reviews on my blog (link below) including the Brick House Robusto, and El Viejo Continente Classic Robustrom
Thanks Pandora interesting reviews. I do like your style of writing.
My better half has just ordered me a box of cigars from Boutique Cigars for my upcoming birthday, although she’s keeping ”stum” on which one she finally went for......
Looked the reviews for the first time and agree with Vitola. Well written.
Taste wise we seem a bit apart. The Pichardo got a lower score than the Project 40, which I'd give 87 points at best. Maybe one point of criticism. You seem to select different drinks with the cigars, which can highly influence the flavour and you only seem to smoke one cigar before scoring it? That might lead to some variance and explain how the scoring differs from mine for example.
Thank you for taking the time to have a read and thanks for your feed back, it is appreciated 👍🏻❤ Vitola I'm sure you won't be disappointed by anything from Boutique Smokes. Mike and Joe put a lot of time and research into what they sell 💨😎
Niela I have tended to get a lot of singles and if I really like them I get more, but it's as much about space and wanting to try as many different cigars as I can. Most of the time I choose the drink after lighting up unless it is a coffee or Espresso Martini. At the end of the day, it's as much a record for me as for anyone else. I know that my tastes, smoking habits and preferences will be different to other peoples.
I'm glad you enjoyed reading the reviews though ❤🙏🏻
For anyone who might be interested, I have put up a few new reviews on my blog (link below) including the Brick House Robusto, and El Viejo Continente Classic Robustrom
Thank you for taking the time to have a read and thanks for your feed back, it is appreciated 👍🏻❤ Vitola I'm sure you won't be disappointed by anything from Boutique Smokes. Mike and Joe put a lot of time and research into what they sell 💨😎
Niela I have tended to get a lot of singles and if I really like them I get more, but it's as much about space and wanting to try as many different cigars as I can. Most of the time I choose the drink after lighting up unless it is a coffee or Espresso Martini. At the end of the day, it's as much a record for me as for anyone else. I know that my tastes, smoking habits and preferences will be different to other peoples.
I'm glad you enjoyed reading the reviews though ❤🙏🏻
Fair enough. I have noticed stark differences between singles, based on my daily form and sometimes the cigars themselves. When I try a new cigar, I now buy 2 or 3 different sizes and two of each size. It's a bit of an investment sometimes, but the cigar shop of my choice has a way of describing and pre selecting cigars that I never had any disappointments. I have had singles I absolutely hated, before I tried another one a year later and all of a sudden really liked it. Sometimes the other way around.
Might be interesting to revisit some you reviewed after some time to see if your review changed over time or indeed stayed the same. I'd certainly read something like that.
Although I do not share Pandora's taste for NC's I have never been one for tasting with just a glass of water as some purits do (tasting club in Brugge, might be familiar to you Steve Halaart?) but I start most of my Havana's with a coffee so that is pretty neutral for me to jusde against, especially at home, where I am drinking the same coffee.
I would like to congratulate Pandora on her contribution to our group. To the best of memory, we have never managed to keep a lady interested for more than a few posts, perhaps due to the lack of other female company but perhaps we weren't all as grown up in the past to be as welcoming? I think Pandora has certainly added something unique & none of us can say more than that! I look fwd to continue to follow your posts & hope one day we will be able to met at a UKCF Herf (remember those?).
Simon Bolivar: Liberator of Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru & Venezuela.
Although I do not share Pandora's taste for NC's I have never been one for tasting with just a glass of water as some purits do (tasting club in Brugge, might be familiar to you Steve Halaart?) but I start most of my Havana's with a coffee so that is pretty neutral for me to jusde against, especially at home, where I am drinking the same coffee.
I would like to congratulate Pandora on her contribution to our group. To the best of memory, we have never managed to keep a lady interested for more than a few posts, perhaps due to the lack of other female company but perhaps we weren't all as grown up in the past to be as welcoming? I think Pandora has certainly added something unique & none of us can say more than that! I look fwd to continue to follow your posts & hope one day we will be able to met at a UKCF Herf (remember those?).
Never been to that club in Brugge, Simon.
Pandora, your reviews are indeed great, although as Simon I’m not really into NC
I would like to congratulate Pandora on her contribution to our group. To the best of memory, we have never managed to keep a lady interested for more than a few posts, perhaps due to the lack of other female company but perhaps we weren't all as grown up in the past to be as welcoming? I think Pandora has certainly added something unique & none of us can say more than that! I look fwd to continue to follow your posts & hope one day we will be able to met at a UKCF Herf (remember those?).
Thank you for your kind words Simon ❤ I do enjoy having a look around the forums and putting in my two pennies worth from time to time. I honestly can't really see why there aren't many women on here because you have all been so welcoming. Maybe there is still a bit of a stigma about cigar smoking being very much a man's thing, but hopefully I can do my little bit to break down the stereotypes 😎 I do look forward to meeting you guys in person when we are able to travel again.
Haaltert You really should give some NC's ago. For my money you do get more bang for your buck as they tend to be a little less pricey. That being said, I do love a good Cuban as a treat from time to time
Pandora, i did do this numerous times. I don’t know why but there is always something I seem to miss in NC, there might just be something wrong in my head too you know.
The CC V NC debate has been had many times, I like to think I haven't closed my mind to them but one thing a friend was told when he started smoking cigars, if you start on Dominican's you won't go on to CC's.
Now that was a cigar seller obviously but I think what he might have been referring too so that if you try a NC & you tried it because it was affordable (perhaps because you were on holiday in the D.R. rather than Cuba), you liked the easy draw & the mild flav & you took a couple fo boxes back home. Some months later when you are finishing your boxes off someone gives you a CC. You have already seen how expensive they are in the UK, this one has a tight draw, your friend assures you this is 'normal' for a CC & they usually are a firmer draw. You struggle & start going blue in the face, he offered you a instrument you last saw something similar whilst having root canal work at the dentist, & he says, 'stuff this up it, that's open it up!'
It starts to smoke easier but it's a fresh, green cigar & the nicotine hit whacks you, & now you feel green around the gills. 'Ah, should have had lunch first' says your friend, finding it rather amusing, as he remembers his early smoking days.
Two weeks later you feel like finally smoking the last D.R. in your box, it lights first time, the draw is easy, the taste reassuringly mild but still with a nice cedar twang, you finish it feeling fine & next time your in Town, you pick up another box of the same & the helpful merchant suggests a couple of other NC singles to begin exploring the never ending variety of NC's available in the UK.
My story is different. I smoked the occasional cigar since I was 18yo, not handmades but the usual fare available in British pubs in the 70's, Henri Winterman, Castellas ect. So when at the age of 34yo I tried my first Cuban on hols in Spain, I was blown away. The wrapper was so smooth, the aroma intoxicating & the taste was so much better than my previous experiences. Because it was Spain back in '94, 5, the prices were a third of UK so as I only smoked a few a month cost wasn't really a problem. (I can remember going once into Mr Frank's shop in Antwerp & I noticed I was had started drooling like Pavlov's dogs, in the walk in humi!) I had several that holiday & brought a box of R&J Julieta's home, to smoke whilst fishing instead of Cafe Creames.
Next holiday I bought a box of Monte No4'a & single sof Hoyo Epi No1 & 2, Cohba Esplen's. I haven't come across a NC that comes close to matching those or any of the prime Havana's, I am not saying they don't exist but in the limited time I have smoking, just a couple a week, I have just managed to cover 440 Cuban Vitolas, can't see me managing to convert now. However last year I did buy my first NC's Red Knight Lanceros & that is one I have enjoyed before.
Simon Bolivar: Liberator of Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru & Venezuela.
I think as much as anything it comes down to personal taste. Some people will only drink white wine, others will only have beer, etc.
My first foray into "proper" hand made cigars was Cuban. In fact for the first year I didn't smoke anything else. Since then my taste has widened and I want to try as many different cigars as I can from as many different places as I can. Looking back through all the cigars I've smoked, about 40% are Cuban, 40% are Nicaraguan, 7% Honduran, 6% DR. the final 7% are other regions. To be honest, I'm open to trying anything once, twice to make sure. There is nothing quite like a Cuban cigar, but given their current UK cost, they are definitely a treat for me.
I think as much as anything it comes down to personal taste. Some people will only drink white wine, others will only have beer, etc.
My first foray into "proper" hand made cigars was Cuban. In fact for the first year I didn't smoke anything else. Since then my taste has widened and I want to try as many different cigars as I can from as many different places as I can. Looking back through all the cigars I've smoked, about 40% are Cuban, 40% are Nicaraguan, 7% Honduran, 6% DR. the final 7% are other regions. To be honest, I'm open to trying anything once, twice to make sure. There is nothing quite like a Cuban cigar, but given their current UK cost, they are definitely a treat for me.
Wow! That's certinly a wide spectrum of cigars sampled, enjoy your own journey Pandora, that's all we are doing after all.
Simon Bolivar: Liberator of Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru & Venezuela.
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