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Well, it's that time of year again, time to speculate on what will go in 2014 and to reflect on some of the great Cuban cigars which have left this Earth never to be found or repeated again.
Why Habanos SA do some of the things they do is a mystery, cost probably has something to do with it, or maybe the better tobaccos being diverted to the EL and RE programs. But whatever, year on year we're loosing the likes of the Diplomaticos 5 and get some ghastly mediocrity like the Rafael Gonzalez Perlas in return.
Perhaps I'm just old and yearn for a past which didn't really exist, or worse I might be cack-tastebudded, and the ubiquitous RyJ Romeos 1 to 3 and the endlessly and unmercifully churned out Partagas SD4 are in fact good cigars, and all the lost vitola which I like are little better than Waitrose Wintermann.
Still, not to worry, what we can't find we can't have and can't miss, that is of course unless we've been unfortunate enough to smoke an RyJ Celestiales Finos, Gloria Cubana Medaille d'Or No 1, El Rey de Mundo Grandes de Espana, Punch Ninfas or a Partagas Seleccion Privada No 1, because then we join the ranks of the walking fallen, doomed forever to scour the planet in search of half-remembered tastes burned by guilty pleasure into our memories, and which we are unlikely ever to experience again.
True, all hope isn't totally lost. There's always SmokeyMo's Auctions or the prospect of some future trip to Andorra, but even there Partagas Astorias and Ramon Allones 898 will inevitably loose their shelf space to Wide Churchills and Open Series.
If I have a great regret, it's that I didn't really start smoking cigars until mid 2008, and by then most of the cigars I've mentioned had but disappeared. Had I realised then what I know to be true now, I would have stretched myself to a box of each and been a very happy fellow today. In future, if something which I really like is to be deleted I'll get a box, because not to do so results only in dead vitola cravings.
So, Here's to the New Year and Here's to all deleted vitola haunted BOTL everywhere. May you find what you desire and enjoy the space and time to enjoy it.
And a Happy New Year to all the Newbee's who haven't yet smoked anything out of the average or out of infancy, my advice to you is stay exactly as you are, because venturing into vintage will zombify you into endless shop surfing and leave you with tastes in-the-head that can't be satisfied by anything in the current catalogue.
Why Habanos SA do some of the things they do is a mystery, cost probably has something to do with it, or maybe the better tobaccos being diverted to the EL and RE programs. But whatever, year on year we're loosing the likes of the Diplomaticos 5 and get some ghastly mediocrity like the Rafael Gonzalez Perlas in return.
Perhaps I'm just old and yearn for a past which didn't really exist, or worse I might be cack-tastebudded, and the ubiquitous RyJ Romeos 1 to 3 and the endlessly and unmercifully churned out Partagas SD4 are in fact good cigars, and all the lost vitola which I like are little better than Waitrose Wintermann.
Still, not to worry, what we can't find we can't have and can't miss, that is of course unless we've been unfortunate enough to smoke an RyJ Celestiales Finos, Gloria Cubana Medaille d'Or No 1, El Rey de Mundo Grandes de Espana, Punch Ninfas or a Partagas Seleccion Privada No 1, because then we join the ranks of the walking fallen, doomed forever to scour the planet in search of half-remembered tastes burned by guilty pleasure into our memories, and which we are unlikely ever to experience again.
True, all hope isn't totally lost. There's always SmokeyMo's Auctions or the prospect of some future trip to Andorra, but even there Partagas Astorias and Ramon Allones 898 will inevitably loose their shelf space to Wide Churchills and Open Series.
If I have a great regret, it's that I didn't really start smoking cigars until mid 2008, and by then most of the cigars I've mentioned had but disappeared. Had I realised then what I know to be true now, I would have stretched myself to a box of each and been a very happy fellow today. In future, if something which I really like is to be deleted I'll get a box, because not to do so results only in dead vitola cravings.
So, Here's to the New Year and Here's to all deleted vitola haunted BOTL everywhere. May you find what you desire and enjoy the space and time to enjoy it.
And a Happy New Year to all the Newbee's who haven't yet smoked anything out of the average or out of infancy, my advice to you is stay exactly as you are, because venturing into vintage will zombify you into endless shop surfing and leave you with tastes in-the-head that can't be satisfied by anything in the current catalogue.
Noted Pete, your name will be added to my little book
too small a voice and too bleed a heart.. just like the smoking legislations in all our countries, it's an uphill battle against the gods on Olympus
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