JJ Fox London 22nd March - Cigars & Rum

[HabanoSy]

All booked...

Looking forward to this...

See you guys there...

Cheers, HabanoSy

[spirit_of_will]

All booked...

Looking forward to this...

See you guys there...

Cheers, HabanoSy

Nice work! Should be a good crowd of us and pretty handy that I've met a couple of you before (albeit rather briefly...) so no need for a Carnation in my lapel instead of the often talked about UKCF pin-badge!

[HabanoSy]

Really looking forward to this now...

Forum members in attendance...

HabanoSy
Monkey66
Peanut Pete
Snooky
Spirit of Will
Stefan
Jimmy Mc

Anybody else going...!?!

Cheers, HabanoSy

[spirit_of_will]

Should there have been an actual ticket turn up or am I good with the payment confirmation and my name on the door (in a if your name's not down you're not coming in style)?

See you tomorrow...

[HabanoSy]

Right im off to the train station...

All things being well i'll be arriving at London Waterloo at around 11:30ish...

Be at Foxes around midday...

See you later...

Cheers, HabanoSy

[Seriesteve]

Enjoy the day Guys
Ss

[Jimmy Mc]

A quick Martini and a half corona at Duke's and I'll be there about 6ish...

[monkey66]

A few of us made a day of it, a lot of rum and some nice smokes were consumed. My day went something like this.

1. Apr10 QdO corona. New to the UK market, immaculate construction, very dry in the mouth initially but got better and better. Got to imagine they will age really well.

... started working our way through a bottle of Gosling Family Reserve old rum


2. Rob Fox joins us and passes round some mystery sticks (selected by Jean from Foxes vaults). There were about 4 coronas and 4 robusto's all un-banded. three of us went for the corona and one for the robusto. I had noting to report on the nose but my construction was excellent. As we cracked into them Rob told us what we had, the robusto (which I didn't smoke) was a '91 D4. Rob had one and thought it was a bit flat but Gerry reported a terrific smoke full of different meat flavors.


I smoked the corona which was clearly old, full bodied and plenty of smoke. None of us had any useful guess as to what it was. Rob revealed it was a '74 Fox Exclusive Selection Bolivar Amardo C. It was a really great smoke (and probably one we will never see again). What was very interesting was the difference between the three that were smoked. Mine was almost full bodied loads of smoke and legs for further ageing! The other two were ethereal and medium bodied but certainly had no more legs for ageing. The very clear conclusion for us is there is no conclusion when it comes to 40 year old sticks. If you had smoked one in isolation it would have been easy to put the box down for another 10 years or hand them all out as they have got to be smoked.


We then debated the possibilities of sticks in different positions in the box ageing differently over 40 years (nearer the box joins etc).


... Gosling now finished! The event is about to kick off downstairs but we are all feeling very comfy in our chairs.


Head downstairs get our event cigars, hear the intro from Jimmy (H and F) and Dawn Davies (who is the somellier and chief buyer for Selfridges ...possibly the best job in the world?). Jimmy talked through the cigars (Hoyo Piramedes 2011 EL and PSE2) and Dawn the rums ....can't remember all 6 of them but to me the only one that measured up to our first bottle was the Diplimaticos Reserva Exculsiva (which is great).


Looked at my box and thought there is no way I am going to smoke anything decent as I was in no state to appreciate it.


3. Hoyo de Monterrey Short Hoyo Piramides Edicion Limitada 2011 - My first, I was fairly merry by then but could still stand up. Very nice smoke, will buy some now.


.....another 5-10 different rums


4. Want something to smoke. Fire up the PSE2, I have a few of these from other events but have never been drawn to smoke one. All I can tell you is it is a big gauge cigar, no more no less.


Last to leave we wobbled our way back up St James towards Green Park station ....the last third of the E2 hits the gutter just before Piccadilly.

[cohibaIV]

Sounds like a cool day Monks

[bfg84]

Gotta love the Goslings family reserva. Its my fave rum... Lovely. Sounds like a great day!

[spirit_of_will]

Good write up Monkey! Really good evening with some entertaining company...

Gotta say that I thought you chaps were on incredibly fine form considering you'd pretty much polished that bottle of Goslings off by the time I got there at 5:30! I'd have been in the gutter waiting for that final third of PSE2!

Had a Coloniales when I got there and sparked the Hoyo SP later into the event. The Hoyo wasn't as good for me as they were on release last autumn, really nice stick and I'm dead glad I have a couple of boxes but I don't feel the urge to burn through them after trying that one on Thurs evening.

[snooky]

Very nice afternoon / evening spent with fellow BOTL Started my day with Bolivar gold medal my first ! this was full flavoured earthy evrything good that you'd expect from Bolivar. I enjoyed the Hoyo Pyramides , less said about the E2 that ended up roadside on St James St, There was no comparison between this E2 to those i had bought recently which have a much more supple wrapper and chocolatey , earthy notes .
The Rums were very nice however thanks to Monkey who shared a bottle of excellent Goslings my taste buds were only destined for one other Rum and that was the Diplomatico . Nice to share a smoke with Rob Fox . All in all a good first Herf of the year.

[RickMG]

Great write up Monkey. I felt like I was there. One thing for sure, the Fox brothers know how to do things right. Class all the way. Glad you had a great time. I swear I was thinking you were going to write that you fell asleep on the E2 and missed your stop.

[Stevieboy]

Great write up Monkey....sounds like you got some cracking sticks. Jealous of the old Bolivar

[Monkey Nuts]

Sounds good gents!

So glad I had a first aid training course and had to miss this. It'll be worth it if I save someones life though!