MrGlass

Pretty wrappers look pretty, but that's about the extent of it in my experience. I've probably had more memorable cigars with toothy wrappers than perfect, but those results are biased by the reality that I've smoked more cigars with toothy wrappers. When you're buying blind, you get what you get.

I've spent more time in shisha cafes through the Middle East than I have in cigar lounges (anywhere), and loved the experience enough to eventually pick one up for home. The setup and pack down is a lot of effort so I don't use it regularly, but it's still great whenever I do. These days, it mostly gets pulled out when my brother comes over as we can just connect two hoses. I use the coconut charcoal as well for my hookah, and picked up one of these coal burners which works really great. I light three cubes at a time, and this thing get them going in around 10 minutes. I just put it outside and turn it on while I set up the hookah, and flip the cubes after about 5-6 minutes.

Cigar box juggling is almost a lost art form. I have still never tried it in my 20+ years of recreational juggling, and I've only met a small handful of people started to learn, even less of which performed it. Maybe I'll give it a shot one day using actual cigar boxes for a change.

I was surprised at the smoke time length myself. I generally let the cigar dictate the pace it wants to be smoked at, finding that balance between keeping it lit, actually enjoying it and not getting harsh. I never felt like I was intentionally slowing myself down with this one - the pace just felt right, and the 1.5 hours passed before I realised it. There was only two touch-ups and a single relight required over the whole smoke. It was just a really well constructed cigar, and I hope the others from the box fair just as well.

Paired with white coffee. Fairly dark and rough wrapper - certainly not the prettiest cigar I've ever had. Aroma at cold is barnyard, but quite sweet. Cold draw is perfect, just a little resistance and reinforcing that sweetness. Opening third: Cigar immediately opens with toasted tobacco drizzled with syrup. I can't remember the last time I had a cigar this sweet - it just coats your whole mouth. The draw has opened slightly and that resistance is gone. Halfway through the opening third, the syrup has transition to honey. It's still very sweet, but less sugary than the initial opening and very creamy. Middle third: Picking up slightly in intensity, but still medium bodied and producing heaps of smoke. Almonds starting to come through now with a slight bitterness, but still with tons of honey. Right in the middle of the cigar, it suddenly transitioned to lime zest with black pepper. The sweetness is still there, but it's really toned down and hiding in the background now and you have to look for it. Final third: Going into the final thirst it's predominantly citrus zest. The black pepper is around, but the intensity of this is completely dependent on how hard/fast you draw. That lingering sweetness from the first half is all but gone. Halfway through the final third, the zest disappears and we're suddenly back to almond/marzipan and the cigar is the creamiest it has ever been. Then as my fingers start to burn, it snaps back again to the lime zest and black pepper from the middle. Total smoke time: 1:25. Conclusion: What an absolutely brilliant little cigar this has been, and what a cracking way to spend a quiet Sunday morning. This cigar packed so much into its tiny format. I smoked this as slowly as I could and it rewarded me in spades for my patience. It was fantastic right up to the very end, and my biggest struggle was deciding when to finally put it down.

I've had two $100+ that both ultimately failed within 3-4 years. My primary lighter these days is some plastic thing that was a free gift in an airport duty-free shop with a box of cigars - still going strong after 10 years of being carried around (so I didn't damage my good ones). I always wanted a DuPont, but I just can't see myself spending the money.

And here is the instruction sheet from a different (but similar) model. "fill with good grade gasoline" made me laugh.

They look like bots. The responses are typically only vaguely related to the topic, and often have external links embedded within the response text.

Regular cigars can still be high end to you. My cab of 2015 Por Larranaga Petit Coronas are amongst what I consider my high end sticks. The most special cigar in my collection is the last Des Dieux from the first box of Cubans I ever bought, above all the other signficantly more expensive cigars in my collection.

I have a bunch of reward sticks that I put aside for when I managed to do a series of specific trapeze tricks. Now that my rig is closed, I'll need to reassess those goals. Monte A has become a staple at New Years Eve for me. Apart from that, I usually reach for the older/more expensive sticks if there is something to celebrate.

Two of their cigar offerings. Those bands look strangely familiar.

Fun fact - after this comic, the term "thagomizer" was adopted by palaeontologists as the informal anatomical term for the spike arrangment on the tail of a Stegosaurus, which previously had no distinct name.

I bought a few singles of these earlier this year as it had been quite a while since I had one. The cigar had a firm draw, and the opening third was just crazy. Nutmeg and cloves, slightly sweetened black tea, straight black tea, pure cream, espresso martini, espresso with cream - the cigar just jumped from one to the next, sometimes lasting a few minutes before moving on, other times only lasting for a few draws. The middle third was a similar story. Salted cream, savour, light cream with spices, cream increasing in intensity. The final third was a bit of a mess and let the cigar down overall. From the start, the cigar required a few touch ups to correct a wonky burn, but the burn issues became more of an issue in the final third and the cigar had to be relit a few times. Flavour wise, there was salt, cream and spices, but it was all a bit muddied and nowhere near as enjoyable. No cigar triggers memories for me as strongly as this cigar. This story starts on May 2, 2009 - the night I nearly died and the catalyst for my cigar journey. On this night, I was out in the city with a friend and we were walking home. We stopped to talk with a girl who was stumbling behind us, as we thought she might have mistook us for her friends. As I was handing her a card she dropped on the ground, she started to fall and I caught her. Next thing I knew, I was being thrown through the glass shop front window we were standing in front of. Two guys who were nearby helped me out of the window, looked at me, and suggested I lie down. It sounded like a good idea. I knew my left hand had been cut badly by the broken glass, but what I didn't realise was that a two foot shard had gone through my chest and was still hanging there. Police and paramedics arrived pretty quickly, but it took them a while to figure out how to move me. After arriving at hospital, the doctors spent the next few hours working out how to safely extract the piece of glass. The glass had pierced my armpit, and came out the centre of my chest, but amazingly had stayed outside of my ribcage. The guy who attacked me was the boyfriend of a friend of that girl. He fled, but came back to see what had happened when someone spotted him and the police arrested him. The CCTV footage showed it was an unprovoked attack - he simply came charging in out of nowhere and threw me against that window twice. The second throw sent me through. I had always been interested in trying Cuban cigars, simply due to the mystique surrounding them. But it was always something I was going to get to eventually. I had tried a few cigars at this point, non-Cubans predominately but never anything special. But this experience was a trigger to finally do something about this. So a few months after the attack, we were heading away for a family weekend, and I decided to pick up a few proper Cuban cigars to take with me. There was a coffee and cigar shop in South Brisbane - the Paladar Fumior Salon, and I went in looking to pick up the three cigars I had decided on. While Fil didn't have those cigars, he picked three alternatives for me, then asked if there was any particular occasion I was celebrating. I said "being alive I suppose". Confused, he asked for more details, and I told him the story of what had happened. He was taken aback, then asked if I was in any rush. When I said no, he made me a coffee, told me to take it out the back, and he'd be with me in a few minutes. I sat outside, enjoyed my coffee, and got ready to leave when Fil came out with two Epicure No. 2's and said "Nick, I'd like to buy you a cigar." And together, we sat there and smoked a cigar together, in what became the first of many during our friendship. He has always said that that was the only time he ever gave a cigar away to a stranger. That Epicure No. 2 was absolutely fantastic and I still remember how overwhelmingly sweet and creamy it was. I've been chasing that dragon ever since. The other cigars that I bought that day simply paled in comparison, as I approached them with the expectation they would be just as impressive as that Epicure No. 2. When I got back, I went back to that shop and bought another Epicure No. 2, which was the last of that particular box and just as impressive. This cigar will always hold a special place in my heart. Every time I think of them, it takes me back to the start of my cigar journey, that afternoon I spent with Fil and all the friends and experiences this led to. But they also inevitably take me back to that night as well. I don't smoke many of these anymore. I've tried repeatedly over the years, but none of them have ever lived up to that first one. Tonight's example showed promise from the start, but it's hard to compete with a memory.

Even in our office, I was essentially working remotely as we connect to a server in the US. Whether I do that from home or the office makes little difference. Moving forward, I won't be surprised if they make the decision not to renew our office lease this year. Unfortunately my apartment is quite small, so the working from home conditions aren't exactly ideal, but I am enjoying the commute.