Ok guys, I brought out the "good" stuff (yeah I know its subjective) for this weekend. Which one to start with? I'm anxious to try the sharks and the opus x's, never had them. Also anxious to try the the Avo tenora's. There's only 6 left in the box.

Start with the Padron Family reserve. Make that your birthday smoke. Everything else after that will just be "ok" Ive got some of those opus 20ths and they're good, not good for the price but a solid smoke. I like the anejos better, but i am biased, you could wrap a gurkha in a broadleaf and I would like it. (Jk, Gurkas will still be gurkhas no matter what) the Don Carlos are awesome though, a bit more spice and complexity than the opus. RASS is always solid (except for the 2 out of my last box that tasted like dirt, thats a first btw.
On second thought, smoke the birthday Padron last.

Tonight i grabbed a LFD Texas cigar festival limited edition. The wrapper smelled briney? Almost like how a strong peaty scotch smells, the foot smelled like cocoa and prelight draw was all cocoa. These have the ugliest broadleaf wrapper i have ever seen, well 2nd most, 1st is a charter oak maduro, those were terrible and tasted like Cardboard. First 3rd so far is awesome, mild and smooth cocoa with a bit of coffee, flavors almost like a padron without the pepper, a good pepper retrohale though. This thing is yuuuge, at 7x60 the draw and burn are spot on so far.

Liga UF-13 last night. Is this year over yet?

Hey Ronin

A damn good swisher.

Jay and others...a little review of the Macanudo Vintage Maduro 1997, smoked ROTT.

First, it is strikingly beautiful. The dark broadleaf wrapper really is attractive.

A little toothy. The draw was pretty firm with little smoke production. It had a wispy blue smoke kinda like one would want when smoking a pork or brisket on a smoker. It continued this way until until well to the end of the first third.

Flavor wise, not overly complex. A good bit of sweetness, almost tasting like a chocolate shake. I wanted more of that but could not find that flavor profile building at all. Very small amount of spice. Very small.

The retro-hale didn't produce any different flavors, and was quite mild. The ash, as seen in the pic, was layered very tightly, one of the tightest I've seen, and held on well into the second third before the first dump happened.

It did start to heat up and produce more of a milky/grey smoke but I think I overheated it by puffing so hard as it was a tight draw.

No flavor change even into the last third, and still very mild, although maybe a bit of cedar came in.

Good smoke, certainly not great in my book, but intrigued enough by the chocolate milk flavor to revisit in the future.

Enjoy

That ash does look incredibly tight. Some dry boxing and a perfect draw may help them out if draw is a problem, I have a box arriving monday, i will post up a second review but i may let them rest until next weekend.

I had a T52 cigarillo before work this morning, and staying with the Connecticut stalk cut habano wrapper this evening.

quote:

Originally posted by Jaywendland1981:
I had a T52 cigarillo before work this morning, and staying with the Connecticut stalk cut habano wrapper this evening.

Black dog - good choice

The metal ring around the Macanudo is a hydrometer, if it slides too easily it is dry, not at all it is too moist. It should be able to move but with resistance.

quote:

Originally posted by petr:
The metal ring around the Macanudo is a hydrometer, if it slides too easily it is dry, not at all it is too moist. It should be able to move but with resistance.

Interesting. It actually slid off as it should, with just a slight resistance.

Some cracker crumbs before dinner.

La Palina TAA almost as good as a goldie, at half the price and made in Miami at El Titan de Bronze factory.

Nice ashtray!

I finally busted mine out last week.

Lfd event only.

So how does one join Saints and sinners?

quote:

Originally posted by Jaywendland1981:
So how does one join Saints and sinners?

Jay,

I'll keep an eye out and help however I can.

I tried the sns website but there is no place to sign up.

This year it is by referral only. Any current member can nominate a new member.

So is it just some swag and special smokes? Or is there more to it?