A cigar post.........

Last June, Smokin' Joe's Knoxville had a cigar event at their Alcoa store where Cynthia Fuentes, granddaughter of Arturo Fuentes attended. I bought $100 worth of cigars including the 9 1/4" Fuente Fuente Opus X in a "casket" model which normally sells for $40 which I got for $29. Anyway, a guy from the store I have always trusted to put me on the good stuff (Adam, who now only works evey now and again) picked my cigars and told me to be sure and keep most of these in my humidor for at least 6 months. Tonight, I pulled one of those: a Churchill length with about a 45 ring gauge, one of their specialty sun-grown varities. It has a cedar sleeve with a black ribbon on the foot. The box tells you it's sun-grown.

Now, I smoke some of these out of the box, but the one that has been there since June is sweet, smooth and burns very, very cool. It has mostly tobacco flavors though and I cannot complain one bit! I will tell you it is one fine smoke!

I have used the divider in my humidor to put cigars on one side to age and the other side is used to grab something when I want to do so. I'm trying to keep at least 15-17 aging and the same up for grabs. Either way, anyone who wants to enjoy a good cigar should invest in a decent humidor (Xicar makes some plastic travel humidors that I think are better than some wooden humidors), a humidifier with the propylene glycol solution to keep the humidity perfect and a hygrometer to read the humidity level (preferbly digital because you can calibrate easily). I don't care how fine your tobacconist is, he has no control how long cigars from South and Central America sit in a container in a shipping lot in Miami. If you buy a cigar and you see the wrapper is brittle when you take it out of the wrapper, it needs to sit in a humidor until that is corrected, probably a month to six weeks. Otherwise, as you smoke your cigar the wrapper will crack apart in your hand as you smoke. It will not be pleasant or enjoyable. I gave an Olivia O Series Maduro to a friend recently and that happened to him. Embarassing to say the least.

I'd get a good lighter, a double-flame unit to toast the foot as well. They burn at 1800-2300 degrees and you light your cigar without taking in a puff of spent butane. Doesn't hurt to give the cigar a blow out before taking a puff in, either. It keeps the flavor pure.

Lastly, get a good cutter. I use a Xicar cutter because their blades are near razor sharp. You get a great cut, a good view of the filler tobacco and how its packed which is different from what you see at the foot. Theirs is is designed so that you can lay it on a table and it cuts the head perfectly at the shoulder and stand it perpendicular to the table.

And oh yes, the Fuente I'm smoking uses a single leaf wrapper so there are no seams; sweet!

G

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