Yeah, it's carcinogenic and my dentist tells me smoking a pipe is really hard on the teeth and gums.
In the pipe rack I've got four calabashes, four meerschaums, and a pile of briars. I lean toward the large, heavy, "bent" shapes with large bowls. The bents seem to keep the moisture in the pipe rather than having it run up the stem.
English blends, a lot of Latikia. Also dark, flue cured Carolinas.
Cigars are a second choice, but I like dark Churchills. Rich and spicy, not "mild" at all.
Just bought a few Punch Rare Corojos and Camacho Corojos this evening. I don't smoke cigars too often as they dry out too easily in the Denver area but do enjoy one every now and then.
Posts: 1244 | Location: Golden, CO | Registered: 05 April 2001
Originally posted by DavidReed: Just bought a few Punch Rare Corojos and Camacho Corojos this evening. I don't smoke cigars too often as they dry out too easily in the Denver area but do enjoy one every now and then.
"Humidor" is easy to make. Any tight container and the smoke shop can supply you with a velcro attached "moisture trap." Wet the trap and secure it inside the lid of the container. Gallon jars with a plastic screw lid work just fine. (Metal lids rust.) Ammo can makes a damn fine humidor.
Cool storage. Fridge is good if you have a tight container. But the basement is probably better.
I have a decent humidor, but smoking a cigar in the arid rockies just isn't the same as smoking them in more humid locals. I lived in Houston for five months this past year and smoking cigars there was much more enjoyable than compared to Denver.
Posts: 1244 | Location: Golden, CO | Registered: 05 April 2001
Ashton VSG the big ones! One of the nice things about hunting in Africa (April 9th I'll be there) is access to those magnificent Cohibas. Oscuro of course!
Ahh, George. I knew there was something I liked about you besides both of us being left handed. My favorite Ghurka is the Black Puro Special Edition. Had one last night.
.395 Family Member DRSS, po' boy member Political correctness is nothing but liberal enforced censorship
Posts: 3490 | Location: Colorado Springs, CO | Registered: 04 April 2003
Having rather plebeian taste for most things other than rifles, I have been smoking an inexpensive cigar for at least 20 years. It a G & V Crystal. Up until recently, before the increased tax on tobacco you could purchase a box of 20 at Sams for about $24. Here is a true story from the annals of yesteryear. I still chuckle when I think about it.
Years ago I took my kids and wife down to Cozumel. One of the all inclusive tourist hotels. Come evening I started drinking with group of guys sittin' around one of the pools. If I remember correctly we started about 7 pm. By 12 midnite or so, most everyone there had run out of cigars that they had bought at the market. Of course all the aficianados being from the states had gone and bought Cuban cigars of different make and vintage. During the night they had be regaling one another about the nuances of the great cigars they were smoking. Any way, I had brought a dozen or so of the G&V Crystals with me in my suitcase, so, as we were still imbibing adult beverages and several fellows were in need of a smoke, I went and got several of my Crystals. I took them out of the glass tubes before I gave them to each of the "aficianados". After lighting up, to a man they all wanted to know what this great cigar they were smoking was. I didn't have the heart to tell them that it was a $0.69 cigar from a 7-11 in Texas. I just smiled and told them that I had bought them at a shop earlier in the day, and I didn't remember the name or the maker.
What is it that Rudyard Kipling is supposed to have remarked upon one occasion........... A woman is just a woman, but a good cigar, now that's a smoke.
GWB
Posts: 23752 | Location: Pearland, Tx,, USA | Registered: 10 September 2001
News story the other day was discussing the notion that the "wine tasting affectionados" would wax poetical about a decent cheap wine if they thought it was "vintage."
The testing went so far as to take white wine and add food coloring to make it "red wine." And the "palates" would talk about "tannin" and "robust, fruity bouquet of dark red grapes."
All I require of a "decent cigar" is that it be rolled with full length leaves, not chopped filler, that it be fat, firm, dark, spicy -- unlike my taste for the most part in women.
Ah for the good old days before I had to quit tobacco. I liked no loved my cigars. 898 collection, Monticino's, La Gloria, I was privileged to smoke a couple of Opus X and a contractor friend brought back some Cohiba's for me. That and some Bushmills or a good Red Ale. Hell I'd buy somebody a Monticino just to smell it while they smoked it. DW
Posts: 1016 | Location: Happy Valley, Utah | Registered: 13 October 2006
I can't really tell much of a difference in most of the wines unless it is a major taste difference, but I can tell some of the different taste profiles in the cigars I've had, and the best all seemed to be smuggled from a little island in the Caribbean.
My favorites are Bolivar Belicoso Finos, and Monte #2's. Plenty of other good ones out there Cuban and domestic. I have noticed that domestics now leave a metallic taste in my mouth.
Just like some get hung up on brands of anything, there are brands people get hung up on; not necessarily the best, they just seem to get a certain status, and in cigars it's Cohiba.
Caleb
Posts: 1010 | Location: Texan in Muskogee, OK now moved to Wichita, KS | Registered: 28 February 2005
I still shed a sentimental tear when I remember the days when a man could walk into House of Robertson in Boise and buy the big one pound tins of Troost Aromatic. For about ten bucks! Sit out front with a big calabash packed full and some of the Old Man's homebrew peach brandy. There was a high school kid that came by checking to see if there were any Harleys out front that needed a little detailing and chrome polishing. Five bucks would leave my Fat Boy shiny enough to glow in the dark!
Those were the days...sigh...
April 8th, I will head out for South Africa. Cohibas and plains game hunting. Maybe a toddy or two of the evening. These are the good old days, or will be in ten years when I'm seventy.
Calabash -- I have a large Bauer, I can't remember the name of the other Austrian, one from 1920 w/ an ivory ferrule, and an old "Fireside."
Turks stopped exporting block meerschaum. Africans decided they wanted real wages for grooming the gourds. Nonetheless, decent old calabashes are pretty available for reasonable prices -- probably because they're only practical carried around in a case and smoked on a porch or in a den.
