Notsocleaver

I got a box of NOV LUB 14 Hup#2s to celebrate the birth of my first child. Smoke one a year, but its always a top 5 contender for the year. I'm probably gonna pair down 80% of my cigars soon, but I'll never part with that box.

I can't remember the exact price, but I remember picking some up years after release because they were cheaper than buying a mag 46 box. I always liked them, they were consistently good, never amazing but the format is the perfect 'short robusto' size. I wish it was used more.

Long filler at $6 a pop and I'm buying CCs again, but you can't even get a perlas for that price, so I'm skeptical.

Overall, I prefer Islay peat, but its my favorite alternative for a smokey dram. Del Maguey Mezcal Vida with raw agave syrup and a grapefruit wedge makes a killer alt-style old fashioned. Use hops bitters if you can find them

I smoked my one and only Behike 52 a few years back to celebrate getting my dream job. It was a generous prize for placing in the old fantasy baseball league here. It was a great and memorable cigar. But at today's prices, I couldn't have enjoyed it. Maybe its too much Scottish blood, but I'd spend the whole time thinking 'this could be an entire bottle of octomore'.

Habanos are just as good as they have always been, if not better. But I used to get PSD4 cheaper than a Tat J21. That was a no-brainer. Now I can get two j21s for the price of a PSD4, or one Padron family reserve 45. Thats a no brainer too. Past the point for me to move on.

It makes sense, who hasn't smoked a HUHC and thought I wish this lasted longer. They love the cigar in spite of the format, not because of it. Its a bad size executed well.

Billionaires pissing away money on long shot ideas is certainly one way to incubate innovation. Seems like its either that or have the military fund it. FB as a platform has gone from bad to awful in the past couple months, they just laid off a mate from high school and Zuck hasn't exactly been a great neighbor over on Kauai, so his failure won't have me shed a tear, but I respect him for shooting his shot.

Tested positive once because everyone in the house had it, wouldn't have known I was sick since I felt fine. This was the omicron variant and I was vaccinated.

Seeing Trinidad Coloniales surprises me. That is a cigar that seems like it was unloved for years both by Habanos SA and aficionados alike, with all of the recommendations I remember getting going to the Reyes instead. Sure seems like people turned on a dime here. Has the recent production really been so good that people have forgotten the years of reported lackluster quality?

I remember being gifted one of those VSG rounds and thinking it was just a regular Ashton Cabinet selection until I was about half way through smoking it just being blown away by how good it was. It was only then that I took a closer look at the band and understood just how generous a gift I had recieved. Still up there in that top ten all time for me.

I've probably already purchased my last box of Cuban cigars. I have 5-10 years of stock on hand at my current smoking rate. When that is done, I'll reassess, a lot can happen in that amount of time. However, its really tempting to sell boxes to fund other hobbies now that the pleasure per dollar formula in my head is spitting out vastly different results than it did a couple of years ago. I'm not mad or sad, I'm just moving on.

I wouldn't pay more than I would for a fresh box.

Weirdest looking taxi I ever saw.

At a certain point can you really even call them fakes anymore?