CrownN7eveN

+1

I smoke on the streets in New Orleans, Louisiana every time I visit. They even have a cigar shop on Bourbon that do they’re own custom rolls, although NC...

My journey to CC from NC started when my dad used to smoke the Hav-a-Tampa Jewel cigars. I was too young to smoke at the time, but I was intrigued by the smell. Not too long afterwards, he ended up missing 1 here and there every now and again, lol. So my first cigars were those. Not too bad since that was all I knew. A couple of years forward I turned 18, and the local convenience store ended up getting a small humidor (mind you this was around the time of the 90’s cigar boom here in the states). So I selected a white tubo with the word “Sublimes” from the humidor (Didn’t know or care at the time, but it was a La Aurora Sublime). At the time I didn’t know anything about how to clip the cigar, so I used to just “peel” the cap off the head of the cigar and smoke it. Well, the first time I lit one of those up, I fell in love with that cigar. It tasted absolutely wonderful! I couldn’t believe the flavors I got from that stick of tobacco. So, I bought ‘em up until they ran out. After that, I started going to a local B&M cigar store looking for those particular cigars, but they didn’t carry them. So that’s when I started Really looking at all the selections available. I may catch some heat from this, but I ended up spending quite of bit of money (for me at the time) buying those damn Lars Tetens Cigars. Looking back now, I paid too much for them, but what did I know? A young novice smoker trying to find his way through the endless cigar choices. I did like the Lars Tetens “grass” cigars, so that’s what I predominately bought. Now, during that time I was also interested in trying out other cigars, and I remember asking the owner, what he recommended that was similar to the “Sublimes”’ I used to smoke, and he recommended the Arturo Fuente “Curly Head” cigars. Well, once again I found a great cigar that was up my alley flavorwise, so I started buying those along with the Lars Tetens. Anyway, that lasted for a few years, off and on smoking those cigars on occasion. Well, shortly after that I went to college. So, with less time for cigar smoking, I started smoking cigarettes...I smoked cigarettes for a few years, then quit, (thank goodness). Around the time I quit smoking cigarettes, the local cigar B&M closed down. So I went without tobacco for a couple of years until I found cigars at Spec’s. Since there were no more Lars Tetens, I ended up trying a bunch of flavored cigars, mainly Acids. These I smoked on occassion unti about 2013. During those years before 2013, my sister knew I had an affinity for cigars, and bought me a 20 count Perdomo Humidor (which I have to this day) for my birthday one year. I never used it. It just sat on my desk as a decoration for a few years. It wasn’t until Christmas of 2013, where my brother bought me a 150 count desk top humidor, that I truly got into cigars. However, that humidor too, sat in it’s box for several months. It wasn’t until my brother called me one day the following year and asked how I liked the humidor, and if I bought some cigars for it. Well, to not disappoint my brother about his gift, I lied. I told him I loved it, and I had a few cigars in there already. So in order for him to not catch me in a lie, I searched the internet for cigars, and found ALL kinds of cigars. Little did I know, but my hobby would soon develop into a Multi-Humidor Hobby, lol. Had my brother never called me inquiring about the humidor he bought for me, and if I was using it, I more than likely wouldn’t be here at FOH today. So, that one fateful day I started with an empty humidor, then a sampler here, a sampler there, a 5 pack here, a 5 pack there, a box here, a box there. So, fast forward about 4 years of smoking NCs, I ended up getting interested in CCs. How? I don’t know. I think I was perusing many a cigar forums, and started reading about people talking about CCs. Well, I was wondering what in the world were these CCs, that these people were talking about. Well, lo and behold I found out. Now that I found out CCs were referring to Cuban cigars, I really did want to see what all the hype was about, so I made my first purchase blind. I was also tired of being asked SO MANY times when smoking a cigar in the smoke shack at work, “Is that a Cuban?” So that lit my fire, lol. After my first successful buy, I did further research and saw people talking good things about FOH. What in the world is FOH, I thought? Well, after some further research and digging up I landed here, and I’m glad I did. My first couple of boxes that I received blind, were crap boxes. I didn’t even know too much about CCs at the time, but I knew the cigars I received were dog rockets by appearance. BUT luckily, I did receive a good box too, and that box was none other than a fine box of Partagas D4. Well let me tell you, after Trying to smoke those dog rocket Monte 4s I bought, I tried one of those D4s, and it absolutely blew me away. It had flavors I never tasted before in NCs, and it was a flavor that I really enjoyed. Today, I realize that just like Honduran, Dominican, Nicaraguan, and other tobaccos have different tastes and profiles, so does Cuban. And I must say, although I still enjoy smoking NCs, I have a hard time not picking up a Cuban!

I live on the Texas Gulf Coast, and have issues sometimes like you’re having. #1 for me is making sure the cigar has had ample time to rest (months) at 65%RH and 70 degrees. Sometimes I dry box, but haven’t really noticed too much a difference. In my experience, with a rested cigar Relative Humidity range from 62 to 69, smoking outdoors at anywhere above your rested cigar RH (especially in the 80%+ range) is going to “humidify” the cigar, which may cause some variation of “Tunneling.” Humidity it seems, always gets to the cigar, whether CC or NC. You can tell, when the wrapper starts curling/“blistering” at the burn line. By the final third, it may require constant touch ups and constant toking (as it’s gotten so wet). This in turn for me, makes the cigar hot and start to taste “off”. I have come to terms with this as a byproduct of smoking in high humidity, because I don’t have these issues when the humidity is lower. However, I am still experimenting with storage conditions, so going even lower on the RH is still on the Agenda. Also, Construction can cause tunneling as well. If it’s a Construction issue, the best thing I can say is, is to kinda gently “pinch” the cigar together while smoking it. I believe PigFish wrote about a “similar” technique or if I remember correctly he may even have a video on the forum discussing it. I’ve used this type of technique for under-filled cigars (a major source of tunneling in my experience), and have saved quite a few of them. Now, in regards to “Canoeing”, it is mostly due to cigar construction issues whether CC or NC. I can usually tell from examining the foot of the cigar, and/or the head (when using a guillotine cutter), whether or not I’m going to have canoeing issues or not. To confirm, I roll the cigar between my fingers and find the “twisting” canoeing pathway that my cigar will follow as it smokes. To me canoeing very seldom follows a straight line, and can move from the outside of the cigar to the inside, or vice versa. If you’re canoing with a well rolled cigar, the moisture balance may be off, for instance if you grabbed an icy cold beverage and accidentally touched the cigar against it on your way to the porch. Uneven lighting of the cigar can do this as well, or I even suspect where the different fillers are bunched up running along the length of the cigar. Trying to get all the information about the individual cigar prior to smoking, helps me stay on top of the issues I may encounter. So with that being said, take what I say with a grain of salt, cause YMMV. I’m just throwing my 2 cents in from My Experience. Also for the record, I’m still “experimenting” with storage conditions in regards to all my cigars, so I can’t speak for ALL storage conditions. I’m still trying to find the optimum rH and temperature that will make burn issues like these far and in between. But I suspect it’ll take many more years of trial and error to find out. Y’all have a nice day!

I’ve allowed FOH packages sit in the box for weeks and even months before. So far I haven’t had an issue minus a little mold and cracked feet. But like mentioned above, I remove the “cracked” cigars to to rest with the singles, as they’ll be my first victims, and wipe the mold if there is any from the rest. I also inspect each cigar from the box, and “re-arrange” them with the better rolled cigars to the bottom of the box. Last thing I want, is for my last cigar(s) of the box to be a wind tunnel.

Wow, where there is a will, there is a way...

Definitely a crying shame. But on the bright side, I rather see plain packaging, then those absolutely horrid warning labels, granted they no longer need to be applied due to the plain packaging...

Damn...

Yeah upon closer inspection, some cigars look skinnier than others and the wrappers vary slightly in color. Not to mention the dead giveaway of terrible bands.

No peek at one?

This is gonna be very entertaining...

Looking forward to acquiring a box of those...

I second this prez!

Is that the new Spyderco Para in CPM-S110V?

Love those dividers! Awesome! Where might I ask, you picked those up at? If you wouldn’t mind PMing me, that would be great, thanks!