Fugu

I saw your box @changbang and thought they looked great! We'll have to compare notes when that time comes! Always been a very fine cigar. And happy to see it being in production again. Although I must say I am not a fan of the dark, oily wrappers in these (as I am generally not, with the current trend of overly dark wrappers on regprod...). The Beli had always been known for sporting the nicest silky smooth, seamless wrappers, and I loved it when they matched, somehow camouflaging, the bands. Hope the current ones didn’t change in blend and profile.

? Entertaining review. Some points: The Minor was a mostly undervalued, bygone little cigar ? on RA Get yourself some non-vegan shoes for the fireplace. Tucker is an asshole.

Hasn’t there also been one where he was taking a leak down into Ken’s creek.... ?

Nicely executed, but coming with a central, crucial flaw - and that’s the blade. It’s too thick! The resulting steep angle in the chamfer of the blade’s grind makes the blade (in fact the one facing the cigar is the crucial one) transversally slip in the motion of cutting (which one can actually witness in the bloke’s crooked cuts). Faulty design right from the start! An almost typical mistake seen being made in many cutters from the “luxury” (lujo) department. This thingy here has obviously been designed by someone who understands machining and a wee bit of engineering and materials. But who had no understanding of the task this „instrument” has to fulfill (and who’d likely never cut a cigar). As a ‘form-follows-function’ guy these things can really upset me. One of the reasons why even my nice Xikar (gift from my dear wife) keeps resting mostly unused in the drawer, while for everyday use, I am sticking with that simple but effective 10-bucks Chinese plain steel double-blade guillotine gifted to me years back by my son. ?

What about having a peek inside? Best assessment on your boxes is your own.

Haha, sure, confirmed! ? No doubt with the box being from a time when factory names were still literally stamped onto the bottom (plus, not aware of any Extra having ever been made outside Partagás - unlike desDs ?) Enjoy them, a true classic and a favourite! Hope provenance is fine!

Rush and go get that protected before HSA snaps it up!

No, those lucky times are gone, since gov has taken them their income from dealing with weed. So that’s all pretty consistent ?

.... and I thought it were this one Honey, see, the pricing was just too good to pass up....

Oh, comment wasn’t ironic at all. I concur with you, 99 percent! Not democracy’s fault. I am all for it, the best govtl form we have, still. It is always in its incompetent execution by incompetent people being lead by personal interests. And often, a lack of independent external control. I digress... But one aspect being the limiting of overreaching, paternalistic regulations. Another, all too easy forgotten, the protection of minority rights.

.... cars, planes, hiking the Oz outback.... ... and remember to always wear your drab-brown latex when engaged in dangerous sex practices ? (you’ll excuse my weird imagination but can’t help, in these threads I always feel like being screwed and abused by some perv somehow...) I think, in addition to what @bundwallah said, there might also be legal aspects linked to it. As the producer you can’t claim trademark property rights to a product that you effectively don’t (cannot) trademark. Also all quality- and authenticity- / anti-counterfeiting means and guarantees are then taken from you. But what your buyer (read importer/distributor) eventually does with the product is out of your control and business, so you ship as usual, and all fine. (in that regard)

No, you guys got me wrong, completely. Not complaining to someone, and am fully aware that no one responsible will ever hear me. No, I am describing a situation. Again - the question was, does it make sense.... I will not call it good just because I cannot change it.

What I always said. They are altering the product. Original packaging is part of the product.

You didn’t?!? But you sure may have heard the many complain about the loss of a des Dieux, a du Prince or a du Roi?? I’ve noticed quite a few up here - yours truly included. With the Serie le Hoyo you are actually bringing up an excellent example for the same line of action. So, it’s all a God-given? One must not call it nonsense because that’s what HSA always does? It’s an “academic” exercise to speak up for smaller ring gauge, because wide is all they do anyway? Is that your logic? Each new release has to be wide, take it or leave it? Quite objectively, irrespective of personal preferences or quality, from the plain numbers, there’s enough wide-girth cigars in H. Upmann to choose from. So, how now, just because I am in the minority, a dying breed obviously, I still have to applaud those continual shifts toward wide and wider? I am requested to show an understanding for them squeezing in another fatty, just because it is under rg 52, which, quite arbitrarily, is where you draw the line? Formats that suit you or an alleged majority have to find my approval, because that’s just the way it is? Because there seems to be a sucker for every new 50 plus format, while I am finding myself more and more unserved, I have to come to terms with it? Sink or swim? Don’t you notice how you’re perverting your own argument and logic: You aren’t happy with it yourself, as you say, but because that’s just what HSA is always doing you agree with what they do and are thankful for a 51rg because they didn’t make it a 52. Me, I am here to discuss and express my feelings about it. And I will call nonsense nonsense. But I am reasoning from a smoker’s perspective, not from the producers motive to max out profits. Perhaps it is this why we may find us at cross purposes here.

Sure Bijan, believe me, long enough in this game to be aware of the situation. Yet, in the thread starter, Rob asked about whether it is making sense to members. And to me, for my purely selfish, very personal demands as a smoker, it doesn’t make much sense. I really don’t care what HSA marketing might have debated. Perhaps I fall for a misunderstanding here, may be. But just because HSA does what it does over the last two decades I don’t have to agree with it or show an understanding for decisions that don’t serve my needs, do I? To Rob’s particular inquiry (“Does how the connie 2 fits in to the Upmann stable make sense to anybody?”), I can only respond with a clear ‘no’. It’s too tight a stacking compared to the remainder of the brand. But if then, following your (or NSX’s) logic, from now on and forever only cigars of thicker girth are “admissible”, then what format should I ask for instead? For a 56 or a 50 rg? Personally, I see that as a vast redundancy. A waste of good tobacco and a missed opportunity to truly re-extend the range. Sorry for refusing to jump through that hoop. ?