Weekly Cigar Ramblings

I’ll have to start out by re-winding to last Saturday night.  I had planned to take my sons, 15 and 20 to a local establishment to see an old high school friend’s band play.  The enormous bouncer at the door turned us away because you had to be over 21 to come in because it is a “smoking establishment”!  Well, I had mixed feelings about this, especially since I really tried to contact the place beforehand to see if I could bring my boys and couldn’t get through.  I though it would be OK since the band was playing in the “dining area” and not the bar.  I took the boys home and grabbed some cigars.  When I returned and asked if cigars were OK I was told that smoking was permitted in the bar!  I was trying not to be indignant with the bouncer who was easily twice my size, and he was very apologetic that the rules were so goofy.  I sat down to enjoy the excellent classic rock stylings of Now and Then.  They are a 3 piece band and are very, very good.  Mid way through the set the bouncer came to me and said that he had been informed that it was OK to smoke where I was sitting so I got an ashtray and lit a Toraño Exodus Gold Churchill.  I’d gotten about an inch into this cigar, which was really a nice, smooth cigar, when the band finished their first set.  Greg came over and we did some catching up.  Greg and I played drums together in high school band and hadn’t really seen one another since.  It turns out that he live a few miles away from me, and has a cigar interest.  No sooner is the band ready to start the second set, the power goes out!  Long story short, the bar decides to close after finding out it was a transformer in the area and the band packs up.  No sooner do they get loaded up, the power comes back.  I did get to finish my cigar and catch up with an old friend.

Fast-forward to Wednesday night, when we took the boys to Steel City Coffee House in Phoenixville to see our friend Cliff Hillis perform with his band, the Forward Thinkers.  The only cigar experience to report is that we parked in front of a cigar shop I hadn’t seen before, Twisted Leaf, which I will try to visit this weekend and provide a report.  Cliff always does an excellent show, and the band was very tight.

Finally, last night (Friday), I finally got the chance to sit on my front porch and relax with a cigar.  I went with the  Camacho Connecticut from the Black Band Project.   The Black Band Project was a marketing thing Camacho did where they tried to do the “viral video” thing.  One was required to watch 4 videos over a month’s time and after you had watched all of them they sent 3 cigars.  They kept Camacho’s involvement a secret until the end.  I received a Connecticut, a Corojo and a Triple Maduro.  I used theCigarSpike again with good results.  Like the candela version I like so much, the Connecticut shade wrapper does a nice job of tempering the strength in this cigar.  I liked it, it was smooth, yet very flavorful.  I look forward the trying the Triple Maduro, theCorojo is an old favorite, although I always like the Havana Blend the best.

That’s enough for this installment.  As always, I welcome any comments or suggestions you may have.

Until next time,

CigarCraig

***Update***  I just received the following note from the legislative director of the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers regarding the PA state legislature trying to include a 30% tax on cigars:

“We stopped the Cigar Tax Increase! Your legislators read your notes and phone messages and sent to the governor a budget with no premium or large cigar taxes included! Your efforts, combined with those from other consumers and retail tobacco shop owners, helped stop this excessive and regressive Cigar Tax! Thank you for your support in helping us Protect Your Liberty!”

This is great news as a tax on cigars would have caused a ton of small tobacconists to go out of business, driven consumers to buy out of state, and let to the exodus of several very large retail/wholesale outlets to Florida.  I’d like to think that our elected officials saw the wisdom in keeping businesses open and Pennsylvanians employed.