Bijan

The issue isn't actually weight based taxation, it's just high taxation. In Canada taxation is based on sale/retail price. And it's 200%+, so around monte 2 level and above cigars are more expensive at retail in Canada than Australia. Although Australia has been raising taxes much faster than Canada. Also we have stores on native reserves that have half or less the tax as they only charge federal tax and not provincial or sales tax. All that's left to say is that if you're paying triple or more per cigar than international prices you're not going to want to buy 50 at a time.

It's not the profile. Or not just the profile. As I said Trinidad quality is as much about consistency and construction as much as flavour and profile. I enjoy a sweet chocolate monte as much as a sweet donut Trinidad. The batting average of monte 4 and 5 is nowhere near that of Reyes and coloniales. Monte especiales, double Edmundo, etc do compare more favourably though. But if half of a box of monte 4 smokes really well I am happy. Whereas Trinidad is as consistent as CCs get. Trinidad is like the opposite of an RyJ Churchill. I like that profile too but construction is often atrocious on those.

RyJ cazadores.

If coloniales and monte 4 on the one hand and Reyes and monte 5 on the other were the same price I would smoke way more of the Trinidad ones. Right now I smoke more of the Monte ones. Because already before this crazy hike there was already, in practice, a 50% premium on Trinidad over Monte. I sort of agree on smoking Cohiba, some of the best cigars I've had were Cohibas but I feel like I'm chasing a dragon. Not a sure thing at all. If we got the cigars without bands and packaging I think the Trinidads would beat the Cohibas. Also if you didn't know Cohibas were THE premium cigars, then the packaging on the Trinidads is nicer (minus the fancy holograms Cohiba bands). I really do think Trinidad especially with the new releases is one of the only cases where Cuba delivered a higher quality premium product. All that said I am not the biggest Trinidad fan, nor do I smoke them that often, but to me they are definitely nice cigars.

In my experience Cohiba are different but Trinidad are better. That is to say somehow Trinidad is better constructed and the flavours are consistently good. I don't think I'm as happy with a quarter of the Monte Cristo I smoke as almost all the Trinidad I smoke. And I smoke more monte. Cohiba is unique but construction is about as bad as any other CC, possibly even worse than the average (RyJ Churchill's excepted).

Cuba tried the opposite strategy then, and tried to double production and ran out of tobacco. Also had some change in tobacco plant strains going on at the same time. Big crisis for Cuban cigars. Some good cigars out of that era, but a few of those years had really crappy rolling due to the massive number of new rollers and amount of production, other years had off blends due to changes in strains of tobacco and figuring the blends out again.

This is the one part of that paragraph I think is probably correct. At least anecdotally. A lot of people myself included could smoke cigars during the work day, due to work from home and generally being stuck at home for a while. Edit: oops I just reread what they wrote and they got a lot of timelines wrong. Demand went up with COVID and may stay high or taper down as people go back to the office. Also Cuba only lost the ability to supply cigars with the chaos caused by COVID and not before COVID. And yeah harvests were good recently. Which might drive demand through increased quality. It was definitely a justification people used on the forum for "going deep on 20/21 boxes".

I definitely remember buying a lot from 2020 through 2021 and constantly hearing about how crazy the prices were. Now I feel they are crazy and someone else will start buying.

I paid $249 in 2020... But that's a cigar that didn't move much in price from the early 2000s until recently.

Connie 1.

I mean how long are we talking? A couple of mm? Or more? Anyways if it's a fake all you would have to do is to take a Siglo III and cut it shorter. Maybe change the band. If it's more than 2 or 3 mm long that is a possibility, that they did so and left too much on...

PSP2 on zoom with @JohnS last night. Edit: apologies to @Lord Verulam the draw was indeed tight!

Reminds me of this dialogue from the first episode of Sex and the City 1998: BIG: I've been smoking cigars for years, back when they were terminally uncool SAMANTHA: I've got this great source that sends me Hondurans. Do you want to try one? BIG: No, thank you SAMANTHA: Really? You can't find them anywhere BIG: Cohibas, that’s all I smoke. (lighting cigar for Samantha who puffs it suggestively) Don't ask me why I remember this...

Epicures, Petit Edmundos, PSP2. All from 24:24.

I think you'll enjoy them. To me they're the best Upmann C&C. Edit: Half Corona might be better, I just don't like the vitola.

I'd buy HdM du Député, RyJ Sports Largos, PLPC. Otherwise more of a time to take stock than acquire stock.

H upmann epicures. Still like the RyJ Sports Largos much more in a similar format. Good construction but a little rough and plain tobacco for the most part. Still a solid cigar and 30-40 minutes for me Edit: this one ended up being 50 minutes to the band.

I did not want Behikes at $100. I might have tried them at $30-$50. It's just not for me. I'd rather have most other Cohibas, so it would have to be a very generous trade, and even then it would be wasted on me.

Congratulations!

I've got enough cigars to smoke 1 a day for 10 years. And in reality that'll likely last me 30+ years at my long term rate of smoking. And similar to @gojira I have enough Cohiba to have one a month for about that long. I always thought Canadian anti tobacco laws would price me out sooner or later. So this isn't as much of a shock to me as to some. I'll keep buying a bit here and there. But I guess I'll probably never smoke a Behike as they were too obnoxiously expensive before, and I don't want to think of them now.

Mdo4 after an exhausting day off 😂

Unfortunately I did not lose any additional weight. But my son just got stomach flu, which is likely very contagious. That plus the foot photos should help me lose some weight after the contest though. 😂

Hadn't BBQ'd much in a while. Did a beef tenderloin.

It was from a March 2019 box. A lot better than last year. Good flavours but still mongrel/rustic/strong and could use some more time. This box is half finished and won't get that rest, but I have 4 more boxes after that 🤞.

Super Partagas today. Ended up being a good choice since it was so windy. First one after a long while. Forgot how strong they are. Very strong for a CC.