Cigar of the Year and more by Frank Seltzer
Just about everybody who blogs about cigars (me excluded) feels that at the end or beginning of the year they have to decide the cigar of the year. While it is nice and many arguments can arise from opinions as to what is the best…the ranking that seems to matter most is Cigar Aficionado’s. The number one cigar this year was the Alec Bradley Prensado. But there are a lot of other goodies in the CA top 25 which was released yesterday.
While the Prensado is a very good cigar, there are a couple of Bradleys I like a bit better. The new Black Market that came out at last year’s trade show and made by the Plasencias is very tasty. As is the company’s Tempus. It is nice to see Alec Bradley get some recognition.
The number 2 ranked cigar is the La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor. It is made by Pepin for Ashton.
While I like the Mi Amor and again think it is about time it was recognized, I really like the regular La Aroma de Cuba a bit better…maybe because it is cheaper.
An often overlooked cigar Altadis’s Warlock came in at number 9. Another one of my favorites– the Camacho Corojo –came in at number 24.
No matter what the CA guys decided there are a lot of great cigars out there.
Cigars and the Vote
Today is the New Hampshire primary. Since the 1960s, a cigar shop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire has conducted election polls via matchbooks (people still use matches for cigars?) They say they are about 80 percent accurate. Anyhow the store began its poll on December 10 and finished last week. The winner according to the cigar smokers? Romney with 43 percent followed by Ron Paul, Newt Gingirch and Jon Huntsman. Guess we’ll know tonight if it was right.
Indiana Ban Before Superbowl?
The nannys in Indiana are trying to fast track a smoking ban before this year’s Super Bowl. Somehow they think that a bunch of people willing to pony up big bucks for a football ticket want to enjoy premium cigars outside. Last year, there were a bunch of Super Bowl cigar parties when it was held here in Texas. One was put on by former Eagles Quarterback Ron Jaworski who uses the cigar event as a charitable fund raiser. Rocky Patel was the guest of honor along with representatives from SAG and Miami Cigar. The party organizers in Indiana are scrambling to find venues for their events…most will be outside ( how fun is that in Indiana in the winter?) Let your legislators know you are against this stupidity.
Smoking ban without smoke?
Stanton Glantz is an anti-smoke nazi at The University of California, San Francisco. He constantly campaigns against tobacco. His latest crow on his blog (which I won’t link) is that the super geniuses at UCSF have banned e-cigarettes in the smoke-free workplace/campus policy. The policy states:
“Smoking tobacco products means inhaling, exhaling, burning or carrying any lighted or heated cigar, pipe or cigarette (traditional or e-cigarette).”
As Christopher Snowdon notes:
“To the scientifically illiterate goons at UCSF, “smoking tobacco products” includes products which are not smoked and do not contain tobacco.”
Bottom line, the antis just don’t care…anything that even LOOKS like smoke is evil.
Ban Blowback
Over in Kansas, it seems that American ingenuity is not dead. Kansas law prohibits smoking except for state run casinos and in smoke shops. So what did one steak house do? Converted half the restaraunt into a smoke shop. It is a legal way to avoid the smoking ban and the restaurant owner said it was what his customers wanted. Look for the Kansas legislature to make smoking illegal in tobacco shops or try to sue to close this one.
Those Were The Days
It has not been all that long since cigar smoking was not only ok but encouraged. This past weekend, I stumbled upon a great article called Once We Were Herftones. (Thanks to Dave Hitt for posting a link to it on FB.) It reminded me of the time before Facebook, blogs and the like when some of us denizens of the net hung out in newsgroups. Alt.Smokers.Cigars was where we were…Herftones and North Texas Irregulars (our original name before DFW Cigar Society) alike.
It was a simpler time when we would all gather for herfs –a word stemming from the newsgroup– to sit around, smoke cigars, drink adult beverages and tell lies. It was when Steve Saka was just a computer geek who loved cigars, wrote his online magazine (not a blog we didn’t know that word yet) Cigar Nexus and held three great events in Las Vegas, Boondoggles 1, 2 and 3. In Dallas, we would often debate the merits of various Fuentes, experiment to see if Padron 2000 with age were really the anniversarios and try to decide exactly which cigar the Consuegra number really was. We even had phone trees set up so if one of us found the Connie 9’s available on the JR site we could immediately order them.(In those days they were scarce.) Most of the groups around the country are no more due to the smoking laws. Here in Dallas, we are still lucky (so far) in that there are places we can gather and our little band of brothers (and sisters) continues entering its 17th year. But those were the days…maybe the pendulum will swing back and we can smoke in more places again.
