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Cuban Smooban

The debate here really is pretty pointless. You smoke what you like and that's that for that. Moki's inexperience with Habanos is quite obvious in most all of his posts on this thread. That's not to say that he isn't right in his opinion. I do see that he has been reading up on the subject though and would like to think that he would, at some point, forget about all the stuff he is reading from MRN and cA, etc., etc. and actually experience the hobby, instead of just reading about it.

If you think it's pointless to smoke only Havanas, so be it. I don't, because I like 'em and I don't like other country's tobacco or blends of their tobaccos. [I also don't drink French wines, as I find Californias or Austrailians more to my liking.] If I was forced to only smoked Dominican's, I'd quit. Just wouldn't be worth it for me. It's quite the opposite for Havanas though. I could and pretty much do, smoke only Havanas.

Just out of curiosity though, moki, do you think MRN smokes pretty much just Havanas? Or, does he mix in the other countries cigars? :) I am pretty sure I know the answer. Actually, I am sure I know the answer. ;)
 
I second moki's views, good and bad cigars can come from any region.

I qualify this by saying that my sense of taste is not as developed as some others around this board. I see no reason to limiting my chance to experience something new and forming my opinion on it.
 
Matt R said:
The debate here really is pretty pointless. You smoke what you like and that's that for that. Moki's inexperience with Habanos is quite obvious in most all of his posts on this thread. That's not to say that he isn't right in his opinion. I do see that he has been reading up on the subject though and would like to think that he would, at some point, forget about all the stuff he is reading from MRN and cA, etc., etc. and actually experience the hobby, instead of just reading about it.
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It's definitely true that I don't have near the experience you do with Cuban cigars, or cigars in general for that matter. Still, I have smoked a fair number of Cubans in my day; granted most of it was over the past 10 years where I smoked rarely (only on vacation when I could pick up some Cubans, for no reason other than I couldn't easily get them while in the states... or so I thought at the time).

Still, I have a fair collection of 150 or so Cubans of various varieties (nothing compared to the Habanos stockpiles some folks have). Some I love, some do nothing for me, and some I've never smoked.

Regardless, I still maintain that restricting yourself to smoking "only Cuban cigars" is as wise as restricting yourself to drinking "only French wine" The same arguments are made in both cases... the soil, the weather conditions, the experience and tradition, etc.

However I believe that in both cases, there are lousy products and excellent products coming out of the respective countries... and companies outside of France and Cuba have come up with product that more than holds its own against these venerable stalwarts.

If you want to chalk that opinion up to inexperience, you're more than welcome to -- and you may very well be right. Or you may simply be a victim of your own biases. Who knows?

BTW, I also fully believe that after smoking Cuban cigars for so long, one can acquire a taste for only that particular flavor of tobacco. But even then, there have to be Cuban cigars/blends that you find not enjoyable -- the flavor profile varies so much from various lines of Cuban cigars, not to mention the quality.
 
I don't disagree that there are good and bad in the area of Havanas. My experience has been, that even the worst Havana I have had(and there have been plenty of bad ones), has always been better than any Honduran cigar I have had. Nicarauguans.. had a few that were OK, because they were different. I remember smoking the PAMs when they first hit the stores. They had what I called a "chocolate-mud" taste. Not something I really enjoyed, but it was different and interesting. Dominicans.... had several that were very good. Most of them being Fuente products. But, I've always gone back to Havanas because there is just something that the others do not have. Mostly it is the depth of flavors and the complexity that Havanas offer and the other country's blends do not.

I really don't equate the French wine/Havana cigar comparison the same as you. Mainly because with wines you are more often comparing the grapes of one area to the grapes of another and not blends. With Havanas, they are puros and most of the other manufacturers out there are blending several different country's leaf. So, while it does seem a logical comparison, in reality it's not quite the same logic when making a general comparison. But, I think your point that limiting one's self to nothing but French wines and Havana cigars is legitimate, for you. You like other country's tobacco. I do not.

I also didn't mean to say you had no experience with Havanas, because clearly you have smoked them. What I was more referring to is the inexperience with quantities. Have you ever smoked a whole box of anything?? I think that is where you start to gain knowledge of a cigar. Not in picking up a single here or there. It is when you actually go through three or four boxes of the same thing, from various vintages, that you gain a real insight into what the tobacco can do.
 
qcalan, I basically had the same position you do when I first started smoking Havanas but the more boxes I smoke of them, the more I like them.

Maybe I'm crazy ??? but they've got the taste and flavor that I like more than anything else out there at this point.
 
Matt R said:
Have you ever smoked a whole box of anything?? I think that is where you start to gain knowledge of a cigar. Not in picking up a single here or there. It is when you actually go through three or four boxes of the same thing, from various vintages, that you gain a real insight into what the tobacco can do.
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This is in no way meant to be flippant. ;)

1-2-3-4 boxes of something? Holy Moly! I never have. I gotta quit doing box splits and get off the hip!

It makes sense that you really should smoke more than "one" (I mean one single cigar) before making an assumption about the brand. I've just never thought of it that way.

What a concept. :thumbs:
 
Alright, I'm going to put together a little taste test for CC and Matt R -- we'll see what they think. Thing is, people can pick out many Cuban cigars just by looking at the wrapper. Too bad we can't blindfold 'em and stick cigars in their mouths.
 
Matt R said:
Have you ever smoked a whole box of anything??
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Yep. A whole boxes of a number of Romeo's, Monte "Cs" (well, nearly, gave away some too), Padrons (puros -- all sun grown), Opus X's (puros), Cohiba's (don't have any recollection of which one it was tho) -- admittedly not many!
 
Hmm... come off a little judgemental and get free cigars. I need to write that down. :D
 
Different smokes for different folks I suppose, even if someone smokes only Cubans using what I'd define as "flawed logic" I don't see a problem with it. I smoke because it makes me happy, so smoke what makes you happy.

Also, pink lady apples are the best. Or Jonigold, but they're both red, yellow, and pink. So now I'm not sure what color to argue. Oh well.

If some apples were blue, I'd bet they'd be best!
 
Wildcard said:
Hmm... come off a little judgemental and get free cigars. I need to write that down. :D
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heh -- trust me, neither of these guys needs cigars from me -- they have collections much more extensive than I have. ;)

Still, it'll be an interesting experiment.
 
Some of us have sources for paying damn close to MSRP ($7.50-13.50) for cigars like Opus X cigars, just like many people have sources for obtaining Cuban cigars in the USA at reasonable prices.
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Please, Please let me know this sourse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please
 
I like gala apples the best. :)

Moki, I have done the blind comparison thing many, many times over the last 6-7 years of being on these message boards. I'm not against doing it again, but have very little time to actually sit down and compare cigars to each other. Over the last six months I have cut myself back to only a couple of cigars a week because of time restraints. This is one of the main reasons I have very little opinion on the newer cigars. I just haven't had any time to sit down and smoke them. I also would bet your collection is catching up to mine pretty well. I looked back over the last 10 months and have only bought one full box of cigars. :( I haven't even had a chance to smoke one from that box yet. If you wanna do a little experiment on me, that's fine. But, it may take me a while to provide the data for your test.
 
Moki, you know I'm a fellow Padron slut. With that being said, on consecutive nights I've had a Padron 1926 no.2 and a Cohiba Robusto. The Padron was flawless. Perfect construction, perfect burn, perfect everything. The Cohiba's construction was not perfect, yet decent. However, the flavor of the Cohiba IMO, totally blew away the Padron.

Do I prefer all Cubans to Padron, absolutely not. In fact there are some Cubans that I don't like at all. I do however prefer a good Cuban, over just about a good anything else.

I would love to see what Padron could do with Cuban tobacco at their disposal.
 
Monte said:
Some of us have sources for paying damn close to MSRP ($7.50-13.50) for cigars like Opus X cigars, just like many people have sources for obtaining Cuban cigars in the USA at reasonable prices.
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Please, Please let me know this sourse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please
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Hang out at Cigar Family for any amount of time and eventually you will hook up with people who sell at MSRP or below. Our local shop always, well almost always, has Opus on the shelves at MSRP + state tax. Online vendors are few and far between for MSRP, as technically authorized Opus delaers are not allowed to sell online. They still do it, but they really aren't supposed to.
 
ricmac25 said:
I would love to see what Padron could do with Cuban tobacco at their disposal.
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That's cigar porn if I ever read any. :p
 
Matt R said:
Monte said:
Some of us have sources for paying damn close to MSRP ($7.50-13.50) for cigars like Opus X cigars, just like many people have sources for obtaining Cuban cigars in the USA at reasonable prices.
Click to expand...

Please, Please let me know this sourse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please
Click to expand...
Hang out at Cigar Family for any amount of time and eventually you will hook up with people who sell at MSRP or below. Our local shop always, well almost always, has Opus on the shelves at MSRP + state tax. Online vendors are few and far between for MSRP, as technically authorized Opus delaers are not allowed to sell online. They still do it, but they really aren't supposed to.
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Sounds like your my source!!! What ya need?
 
Monte said:
Sounds like your my source!!! What ya need?
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That depends what his state sales tax is, and whether he'd want to be seen buying Fuente products in public! ;)
 
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