aushy

And so it begins..

Delicious

I don't have a size preference when buying, however I do like to make sure I have a good range of sizes in my humidor. I need to have smaller sizes available for when I don't have much time, and then I like to enjoy larger cigars when I have more time to smoke.

I'm not sure, it's hard to say. I wouldn't describe what I was smoking as sweet tobacco or spice. I generally like the spiciness of brands like Partagas. I couldn't actually tell you any discernible flavours, all I can say for sure that it was not even remotely similar to any Cuban I have smoked (not that it is supposed to be) and it just didn't agree with my taste buds. They have excellent reviews so I will definitely be trying my second one to see if perhaps it was just that stick.

I think what you are suggesting is unfair on the consumer though. A consumer does not necessarily have all the information on hand, and that is often the exact reason to go into a shop. You go to a shop to receive advice and recommendations on products. In this case, the person buying these 'Cubans' may not even smoke cigars, they may be a gift for example. The current embargo status is indeed confusing for people who haven't followed it. But you can't blame the consumer for being given bad information from a supposed professional. You should be able to trust in a shop owner to give good advice and you definitely should not expect them to sell you an illegal product.

I'm finding it a bit skeptical that a tobacco retailer, someone who specialises in tobacco and makes a living of it, does not know the rules and regulations regarding said tobacco. He is quite clearly not using official distributors either which would make me question the entire shop operation.

Thought I'd mix things up and try a NC. Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story. This was not my cup of tea at all. Was about to ditch it about 1cm in, then decided to look up reviews. This cigar has got glowing reviews from everybody so I thought I'd persevere and gave it another centimetre, but I can't do anymore. Terrible smoke IMO and thank god they were cheap and I only bought 2 singles.

What did they expect would happen?

Has anybody actually tried the top cigar, the MY FATHER LE BIJOU 1922 TORPEDO BOX PRESSED? I haven't, but I did try a My Father No. 1 Robusto a couple months ago and was impressed. Do you have a link? If I understand you correctly, all that means is that NC brands have the potential to make the list multiple times whereas CC brands can only be on their once. But I don't see why that matters, a good cigar is a good cigar.

I love these! I'm in need of a new watch box as well, will definitely be giving this a shot with my next empty box.

Gotta love a good Mongrolian cigar!

Go back the past few years of their top 25, most years have 3 Cubans, some have 4 Cubans. Seems they follow a formula. They will always put 1 cuban in the top 5, perhaps to give the impression of it being a somewhat credible list. They are a magazine which primarily targets the US market who predominately smoke NC cigars. Just think of the list as the top 25 NC cigars of 2015. If that is useful to you then so be it, if it is not useful then don't bother reading CA because they won't be changing anytime soon.

You skipped number 4. I think you mean: 4 = 12 -6 3 = 6 That's the way I saw the pattern, the subtraction on the right hand side is decreasing in 2 each time. E.g. subtract 14, subtract 12, subtract 10 etc. I never thought of it like x*x -x like some of you guys did. Interesting the way people work this out differently. The use of the equals sign really annoys me though. 8=56 is a blatant lie!! So on second thoughts, I'm going to change my answer to 3=3. I challenge you to prove me wrong!

Another vote for 90.

We have some great beers in Australia, it's a shame that other countries associate us with this "Foster's" stuff. Surprisingly enough I have never seen it on tap at any pub/bar/club nor have I tried it in Austraila. I did have the misfortune of trying it in London when apparently all the other 8 beers on tap were sold out..