Saturday 8th August 2009

[Paulie]

Mostly due to being wrapped in a cedar sleeve, the older the box the more woody the flavour I have found. Oddly enough!

[Big Al]

Was that the Colorado Red label Al? Heard good thing about them.

That's the one Chris: Don Kiki Red Label Colorado wrapper. Currently selling at $59.99 for a bundle of 25 which is damn good value in anybody's money.

Just to add a note here re the Tabacaleri Esteli "Vegas" robusto which I ended the day with:

What a strange cigar! When I lit it I immediately thought "I don't like this". It tasted "hot" if you can imagine what I mean. Not "hot" as in chillie but just "hot tasting". This lasted about 5 minutes and by this time I was thinking of the bin. The taste then changed but for the worse in that it almost felt I had a sore throat and the call of the bin became more insistent. The bin would have been inevitable if this had lasted but no, it didn't. About 10 minutes in and approx an inch of the cigar gone, the cigar actually started to taste good and smoke really well. I ended up smoking it to the nub.

I got these Vegas' as a sampler set (various shapesand sizes) and I'm intrigued now how the others smoke.

[daverave999]

Started with my first SC La Fuerza in the car and a pleasurable experience it was too. Reminded me of the HdM Petit Robusto a little; had similar 'marshmallow' notes to my taste. Burn was a touch uneven, but then I haven't had them long. I enjoyed the extra length as it did almost the entire Cardiff to Swindon journey. I don't know whether it was the extra length, having had only a bowl of cereal before it or the fact I was slightly hungover, but I got a bit of a nicotine OD on this. Glad I've got a few more of these.

Then a Trini Reyes once we'd got the barbecue on the go. Excellent as usual. Knowing a couple of the people there were on/off smokers, I took some of the FdC Selectos to hand out and they went down VERY well.

After ploughing through most of a cow, I settled down with a RASS. Not had one in a while as I've been trying to leave them alone to age a little. I really love them. Pleased to see a few people here trying them today. One of our group had invested in a bottle of Ardbeg as I'd mentioned that someone on here had said about it. I think the RASS goes better with port myself, but I'm certainly going to look into scotch 'properly' now.

[larrysputnik]

D4, RASS, and a Punch Gran Puro Santa Rita during a friendly poker game.