Crayzital3

As a newbie smoker this thread has been incredibly helpful. Though I consider myself a decent foodie, I still find it semi hard at times to identify certain flavors. For myself I pick up cream easily, cedar/wood, leather, tobacco, and hay sometimes. Some of the other flavors are definitely beyond me at the moment, but those wheels will definitely make it easier to pick up other flavors. Thanks gentlemen!

My most recent purchase is a box of HDM EE from our host. Very much looking forward to trying a couple and then letting them sit for a while.

Man I'm dying over here

Sounds pretty interesting indeed!

Is anyone else here completely obsessed about fresh winter truffles? From the musky slightly earthy scent when cooking with them, or shaving them fresh into something, to the very pronounced earth flavor when you cook them in a dish I just can't get enough. Your winter/summer whites are great albeit very pricey (especially for the winter white). More affordable and highly sought after are the black winter truffles with a more pronounced/stronger flavor. I'm personally not as big a fan of the artificial truffle oils as I am of the real deal. Anyone else ever cook with them or have a great dish at a restaurant that incorporated some truffle to give it that perfect touch? -Anthony

Former NYC resident, current NYC employee, an avid diner, and soon to be resident again in the city you MUST check out Kesté Pizza & Vino. Excellent traditionally made Neapolitan pies in a wood fired oven. It's still winter so you should be able to get a truffle pie which was out of this world delicious. Not just that but they're run by Italians and my server last time was from the same town my mother was born in by chance.I'm almost disappointed with all of the avid smokers on here no one recommended Kesté Anyone else know the dialect meaning of Kesté?

I wish I had enough to send one to everyone who wanted one lol! I figured that much with the QC. I may have received a box that has some great high quality medio tempo it was just not finished by their best roller. Honestly as long as it tastes like the one I had, or better, and pulls right I don't care if the triple cap wasn't applied just right. I was thinking a little tooth. Shlomo you are 100% right I need to relax, wait another week or two for the cigar to rest in my humidor and the weather to hopefully warm up and go enjoy one. It's a box code BTO DIC 12 I think I'm going to really enjoy these

Not too much 2"-3" then it rained so it wasn't bad. I'm living in Deer Park currently . Nice to see so many other NYers in here, and thank you guys for the warm welcome!

I've only done it a couple times but I enjoyed a nice bittersweet dark chocolate in the 70%-80% cocoa range. I've been wanting to try pairing a creamy CC with a bitter chocolate that has sea salt in it to see how well they would mix.

Well it is definitely in the top 5 meals for me, only because it's too hard for me to pick one, but Maroni cuisine in Northport, NY on Long Island. What a great place to eat and enjoy a culinary experience. For me it's as close a culinary experience you can get to smoking a cigar. 20-25 courses, no menu, relaxing, unlimited beer/wine, and your meal evolves and the flavors all change from course to course exciting all of your taste buds. A little pricey, not too fancy inside, and the owner and his family serve some of the courses most days in a very friendly welcoming way. Best meal so far this year was with my girlfriend on valentines day at Madame Janettes in Aruba last week.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and DWC for recommending this spot. It's very nice to have some familiar faces I'm looking forward to learning and contributing. -Anthony

Thank you JPS that clarified a lot for me. . Put me at ease also!

Hello guys! I've been lurking for 2-3 months now and finally posted a thread after getting a box of CCs and lots of excitement I'm very much looking forward to contributing when I can, and learning as much as possible about Cigars. This community seems like the perfect place to do just that! -Anthony

Well a little back story as it is my first post, but felt it may be able to help some noobs like myself or even those who aren't but are new to the Behike's. I've bee smoking on and off for 7-8 years and really got into it "steady" about 3 years ago (I'm still a complete noobie IMO). Never liked too many Cohibas, until last week. I was gifted a Behike 52 from my cousin last week and got to try it at a cigar lounge near my girls house. I was a little skeptical at first after reading about the vast quantity of fakes being Cohiba, personally seeing a ton of Cohiba fakes, and unfortunately smoking an occasional brown stick of counterfeit poo. So I did my hw online and the band checked out (gorgeous btw), the wrapper was perfect, the foot was packed well, and it stood up on the well cut foot almost perfectly perpendicular to the surface we tried it on. Man did it taste delicious! I should of been taking notes on what I was tasting and experiencing! I decided I needed more of these cigars in my life, I couldn't not smoke that again. So I bit the bullet and made my first CC purchase online after always paying more $$$ stocking up while out of the country. I was recommended this forum, and a reputable online vendor who I purchased the box from, a few months ago and figured why not join and either quell or confirm my silly or legitimate fear. I was away in Aruba last week when my box came in. I left my cousin instructions and directions for when the box came in if I was still away, which it did. Getting those pictures with free wifi, while enjoying a nice tropical drink on the beach with my beautiful girlfriend next to me on the beach, and reading American Badass couldn't have been any better . It made coming home to the brutal NY winter a little better. So I come home. Inspect the box and look for the intricate details my hw taught me to look for. Perfect everything checked out. Labels, check. Beautiful, and the holograms are very intricate. Now to inspect the most important part, the cigar! All 10 cigars stood up on a well packed foot no problem. One or two weren't exactly 90* standing off the countertop but the cuts were very clean. A little veining but no toothing or massive unsightly veins. The wrapper is a beautiful slightly darker than milk chocolate color with a little fuzz on them, I'm assuming from the oils on the wrapper? My only big concern was the triple cap on the pigtail. It didn't look like some of the triple caps I've seen on other CC's I've enjoyed. I know the pigtail is a unique touch, especially to me, but it seemed as if on some I could only make out two "caps". I hope someone can chime in and hopefully calm down my excitement and paranoia . I'm pretty sure they are good, but I'm no expert at all. I should probably go smoke one and if it blows me away like the first one I know all is well, but the climate where I am and no day off to get to a lounge for a little while prevent me from doing that currently. Thanks for reading gents and I hope this thread can help out some others as well. **EDIT** Any idea why all of my pics come in rotated 90*?