NSXCIGAR

I can't say Bolivar has cannabis in it but whenever I fire up a BPC I like to watch The Wizard of Oz with Dark Side of the Moon playing.

WE are a winner for sure. Can't get enough of them.

I think In-n-Out just closed their first store ever there because people were constantly getting robbed and shot at in the drive-through. Denny's and Subway gone too. Although maybe this is the reason people are avoiding OAK airport: The airport has had to make changes due to crime in the region. They have signs at the rental car lot telling people to not keep valuables in the cars because they could get stolen. Workers there say thieves target rental cars. https://abc7news.com/in-n-out-closing-oakland-in-n-out/14350957/

I've found D5 to be all over the place in the last 3-4 years and mostly similar to your experience. I stopped buying them a while ago. D4 has had less issues. Neither are a regular rotation cigar for me so it's not a huge deal but D5 specifically has been in the doghouse for a while.

True, but the problem persists. They have to get more people into OAK. If hands have to be held to do it then so be it. Although I don't know why the market isn't solving this issue. If SFO is clogged it should be more expensive to fly in there than OAK. Also the airlines should be reducing flights to SFO and increasing to OAK.

From what I understand OAK is being underutilized because people don't realize how close it is to SF. Including SF in the name will prompt people to realize it's just as close as SFO. And seriously, who would want to be associated with SF right now unless they had to be?

09 Siglo VI release? Maybe that's the last cigar he liked before 2010. To be fair though, those were aged 5 years...

I would say that's basically true. Certainly much more "intense" in character. Some of that was due to youth. A young CC would tend to be much more tannic and ammoniac. No way would you want to smoke a Monte 2 or Lusi with less than 3 years on it. Even aged they were considered "powerhouse" cigars, particularly the PSD4. CCs in general were pretty much understood to be strong and intense. If you want mild get a Macanudo. There's definitely some flavors that have been lost since those days. For example RyJ Ex 4 was like eating a bowl of tropical fruit. There were brilliant woody flavors in cigars like Hoyo and Punch that I haven't tasted since then. The earthiness in Partagas and Boli was like fresh soil, almost peaty like an Islay whisky. Vegueros had an intense grassy flavor that was really nice, and Cohiba had a bit of that grassiness also. Of course there are some cigars that have changed less than others. I think ERDM is not too far from what it was. QdO Coronas. And the new brands are about the same as they were when they came out-- Cuaba, VR and SC. I also recall much more box-to-box and cigar-to-cigar consistency in the 90s. Construction was generally better and I rarely had a bad-burning cigar. They would stay lit much longer as well.

It's a left field cigar for him to bring up and I would say the ManTua is a great cigar but is within the spectrum of modern Punch character, and while I admit no other Punch I've had is blended quite like it the 898 and SS1 ERs are in that same general arena of flavor for Punch. So to say it doesn't taste like a Punch I don't think is entirely accurate. With his RA example it's true that the current RA (and Punch) profile has little in common with pre-2002 profile so if that's his benchmark then I suppose he's correct. Punch's flavor range has definitely evolved in the past 10 years and is getting quite diverse like HU has been for a while. If one isn't smoking CCs and Punch on a regular basis there would be no way to know that. If you're only familiar with Punch DC and Punch Punch I could absolutely see someone saying the ManTua is not Punch DNA. Yes, I'm not sure where his interests lay. Based on my experiences with people mainly in the NC world I would highly scrutinize any statements he makes. I can't deny that I also feel differences between brand profiles have diminished since the 90s. No way around that conclusion. While I can't say he's completely full of it here this to me sounds like someone who just hasn't smoked many CCs in the last 10 years. Those years seem pretty arbitrary to me. There were some outstanding cigars being produced in 2010-2014, particularly Cohiba. And I also think he's giving a lot of weight to aging which seems to me to be more a relic of previous eras. He's seeming to suggest that aging of CCs is essential or that a CC isn't worth smoking unless it's aged which I would strongly disagree with. The vast majority of CCs are perfectly enjoyable with a year on them or even less in some cases. I can't challenge him on the statement that some cigars don't improve with age, particularly NCs as I'm not an NC smoker but I have heard similar things about some NCs. I've also had CCs that taste exactly the same to me after 5+ years.

Tried the Rito today. I would have to say they remind me very much of the RyJ LdO in approach. Very high quality, pleasant flavors I couldn't quite place and zero Partagas DNA I could tell. It was just under medium with that creamy kind of texture you get from that "high-end" leaf in BHK and the LdO. Good cigar that was totally forgettable. I get far more enjoyment from a Salomones or even a good E2.

I think the idea behind shallow insertion is the same as removing the PD slowly. The shallower and slower you go the more leaf you can pull out. If you go too deep what you're pulling out will get held up on leaf closer to the head. The PD is all about actually removing the leaf, not moving it around or shredding it.

Yeah, 85 would be pretty much a bust on my scale. So in essence, I have a 15 point scale.

I guess technically BHK is standard production, so that would be no. To be fair I recall the Monte A holding the Guinness world record for most expensive cigar in the world.

Chuck Norris was once bitten by a cobra snake. After 3 long days of suffering, the snake died.

Seen it many times, usually cigars on the edges of the box. Combination of dry conditions and impact to the box sides. Can be hard to see until the cigar is removed to inspect the side.