Tom Bolivar

Personally I am very disappointed with the book this year. I still wanted to see a Ramon Allones or Vegas Robaina book (or even Fonseca or Jose L. Piedra for crying out loud) before Cuba starts to do re-makes. I do see that it is nice to get a feel and smoke of some of the cigars re-produced after originals which some of them are nowadays difficult to find. But from my point of view I find it simply poor imagination and watering the vibe. Based on this years release I decided not to keep collecting the books any more. I am asking myself what will be next? 2013 - containing one of each

Nice haul! And respect for dealing with the addiction! As for addtions: You need some serious Bolivars! PCs, CEs and BBFs. And make sure you build this humidor extra big. Those things have the tendency to grow small very fast!

I believe it really depends on the boxing date of the Behike box if you should store it in its original container or not. At least I have a box of Behike 56 from Mar 2010 where I had to take out the cigars because of the varnish smell. I have another box of the 52s from about half a year later and there is no varnish smell what so ever. Maybe I was just unlucky with my first box, maybe the Cubans used a diffrent varnish in the first batches. And if you have a box that does not smell of varnish there should be no problem at all. BTW - I have the same 'smelly' issues with the San Cristobal s

Love the jar and the marca! We'll see if I have the connections to get one. :-)

So far I smoked two E2s and two D5s. I did not receive much flavor from any. I find other releases this year much better.

Being in Cuba last year when the Behike was launched there was a lot of talk about this Medio Tiempo. One of the explanations I got was that the Medio Tiempo leaf, being the last on top, takes one to two weeks longer to grow. Due to time scheduling/improving/saving time/economizing of the crops (starting somewhere in the 90ies?) many tobacco growers did not wait for the Medio tiempo to fully grow and did therefore not harvest it. The other thing I have been told by several other persons was what was mentioned here already: Medio Tiempo was simply harvested and treated/graded as Ligero. Ou

Looking forward to the tasting info. Wonder how they compare to the German ER Lonsdales? Packaging is spectacular. Gotta love it!

The brand and the size certainly caught my attention!

Thougths and prayers sent! May you all recover fast and rise in new strength! God bless you!

Wow, can't believe nobody mentioned the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy yet. Certainly made an impression on me by showing me two things: Do not take everthing so seriously and there are other strange people out there, I am not alone. And MRN showed cigars in a diffrent angle to me and it had a direct impact not only on me if not an impact on my bank account too... Couldn't stop buying cigars afterwards. Speaking a bit more seriously, I can vote for anything that Hermann Hesse wrote. Some of it might not be life changing like Siddharta but is very epic, looking at menkind in diffrent ways. St

My Dad knows I love my Cubans. He brought me a Glass top box of Cohibas from a trip to the Domenican Republic. He knew they were fake and just did this to tease me, see my face when he handed his vacation souvenir to me. At 10$ I thought it was worth the joke.

Happy New Year to all Friends of Habanos!

'good quality Seco is where the magic comes from' - I couldn't agree more. I prefer a flavorful cigar over a strong one any time! This part of the interview reminded me of what I was thinking when visiting Cuba: Talking to Cubans in comparison to many vendors I know is like talking to the chef about the food instead of having the waiter giving you information about it. It's just not the same. Rob, you of course, are one of those positive exceptions. Sharing interviews like this is sharing very valuable thoughts and info! Thanks again.

The only thing i know for sure is that your neighbour outed himself as a non expert using half baked theories. ;-) As for the cigars bought in Brasil. If you enjoyed them they were worth it. Of course it is always better to go with trusted sources. As for ashes itself I have nothing to add to what has been said here.

400 made? I wonder if this humidor will sell equaly fast as the San Cristobal does?