IanMcLean68

The worst, most cringe worthy attempt at an Australian accent ever award probably goes to Ron Moss. I know this was a mockup and meant to sound fake, but it really makes me cringe!

That wasn't my intention. The intention behind your idea is sound after all 😀 Putting the problematic execution of said idea aside, it would indeed be interesting to know the results.

Probably like sucking on a wet blanket (thanks @MoeFOH for that one), seeing as the cigar is already cut !!😉

Wow, blown away by this. What a surprise result. I've seen a YouTube video reviewer do this with vintage cigars, but never really believed you could improve them in such a substantial way. Good work gents! Gotta hand it to FOH, first you blow the cigar plume/bloom myth out of the water (well in my mind you have already anyway), and now I agree here with what El Pres says in the video, this really does settle the wrapper significance to flavour debate - although I feel you had already done that with the Siglo VI/Genios wrapper experiment. This second positive result concludes it IMHO. The wrapper does makes a significant difference. Well done. 👍

Yet another injustice to an animal because of the stupidity of its owner. Some people should not be allowed to keep pets.

Kusheca Reservas

I tend to keep them and use them to take cigars out with me. Stops the cigars getting damaged and crushed in my pocket or bag, and the little slip of cedar in the tube helps to keep humidity in the cigar for the trip out. There is one down side - ask me how I know 😉 If the cigar tube gets crushed in your bag, getting the cigar back out of the tube afterwards without damaging it is nigh on impossible! I did have a mate that took a couple of tubes off me a few years ago as he said they were a good size for making fancy pocket flashlights.

Been thinking about getting something like this. These things have one very real practicality! If you know anyone who is a BIC lighter kleptomaniac, notorious for pilfering your lighters, usually accidentally by slipping it into their pocket after borrowing it, and then forgetting about it. Something like this makes it very difficult for a friend to accidentally pocket your lighter, thinking it is theirs!

I still remember back to when I was still a big kid, first moved out of home, living with mates. I think we watched the Monty Python movies and flying circus series so many times that we could quote them ad-infinitum. Same with Star Wars (the original trilogy) movies, and the Star Trek series (mostly next gen). We were all budding muso's back then in the day, so rock operas like Pink Floyds The Wall, Tommy, and Rocky Horror used to get lots of screen time as well.

I nearly gave up on the beads too. However the secret really is to keep them almost dry. After making the same mistake of over-hydrating and seeing humidity average 5% higher than it should have been, I completely dried them out with a blow dryer. I did not rehydrate them. As they cooled from being blow dried, they absorbed enough moisture from the atmosphere. I put them back in my humidor, and I haven't had a problem since. A very, very light mist with distilled water every 6 months to a year now is enough (just a drop or two of waters worth maximum). Basically I went from having 30-50% of the beads clear and hydrated, the rest milky, to having only about 5-10% of the beads clear and hydrated.

After experimentation, I have found a good way to hydrate the Heartfelt beads when needed. If you draw some distilled water into a clean syringe - I use a 10ml one, with a blunt tip needle, and then push the plunger all the way down on the syringe to expel all the water, and then if you draw the plunger back out on the syringe again, there is just enough water left in the syringe for 1/2 pound of beads. Quickly pushing the plunger back down on the syringe releases that tiny amount of left over water as a fine mist, and that is enough for at least 6 months for 1/2 pound of beads.

Great cigar holder!

I totally get your point, and I am also aware that my brand of patience and abstinence is not for everyone. Lucky for me, I much prefer CC's with minimum 3 years on them, across the board. However, I also see this as something that should diminish over time, as long as you buy more cigars than you smoke in the short term. I smoked very little for the first few years I joined, but now five years on, I have a range of boxes with at least 3 years on them, which I am smoking through, whilst I wait for my newer boxes to age. I keep my smoking/ageing ratio at about 1:2.

I also voted 5% but the plugged rate for me is much much lower. I used to get plugs more often from poor storage conditions from a local B&M, but since joining FOH about 5 years ago, I have purchased 99% of my stock from Rob, and I have had exactly one plugged cigar in 5 years - a Partagas Short of all things. I doubt that average will be any worse in the 26 or so boxes I currently have. In my honest opinion it comes down to two things. 1. Good stock, carefully selected and stored properly by Rob. 2. Being patient, and resting cigars in proper conditions for at least 90 days. I don't touch boxes now until they are at least 3 years old. I know that this flies in the face of what many consider the "try regularly until they hit the sweet spot" mentality, but I know my preferences, and this approach seems to entirely eliminate these problems.