It’s a holiday weekend, so, of course, our internet, TV and phones in the house mysteriously stop working and Verizon won’t be able to fix it until Monday. No idea what happened, it just looks like the optical signal isn’t making it to the house. So here I am, writing my Sunday post from Panera Bread (while noshing on a toasted Asiago Bagel with a schmear!). I did manage to smoke some cigars this weekend! I’ll miss watching Finding Bigfoot (best reality show on TV!) to night to end my weekend, but the weather has been spectacular, so I’m getting some things done outside!
Thursday evening there were some storms rolling in, and I mentioned before that the new dog isn’t a fan, so I decided to grab something short, and picked out a RoMa Craft Cro Magnon Knuckle Dragger that I had bought down at Cigar Mojo a few weeks ago. This is a beautiful Broadleaf wrapped 4″ x 50 petite robusto. I’ve only had a few of this line, despite knowing Skip Martin pretty well. I’m just not a very good weasel, I guess. This is a really brilliant cigar if you like strong, rich, dark flavors in a cigar. It burned perfectly, even though I had to turn around from my walk at the first rumble of thunder because the dog immediately turned toward home and started pulling. I finished the cigar in the garage, and it was a really great smoke, clearly Skip, Mike and the gang are doing things right.
Friday was July 4th, a significant date, in the US, as it commemorates our young country’s independence, as well as the day my wife and I tied the knot! Certainly celebratory cigars are in order. I started the day with an Alec Bradley American Classic Gordo in the pool, but the cap split badly when I cut it. It didn’t really effect the burn or flavor, it was a nice smoke while relaxing after doing some yard work. I followed it with a pre-dinner Partagas Petit Coronas 
Especiale from a box I bought about 4 years ago. I’ve smoked a bunch of these and really enjoy them, sadly I only have a few left. Every Fourth of July I try to smoke a Havana cigar as a form of civil disobedience, I think the founding fathers might take a moment from spinning in their graves and approve. I like the cigars too, I just think that there are many better cigars and Cuban cigars, while different, aren’t necessarily best. After going out to a nice dinner with my wife, I sat on the deck with the American Puro Corona Gorda from George Rico. I know, it’s a bit of a cliché, but I had it staring at me, so why not, and the Corona Gorda size was perfect for the occasion. The first thing you notice about this is that smokey, Kentucky fire cured tobacco, which was fairly dominant to me. Perhaps it was a happy medium between the Leccia Black and the My Uzi Weighs A Ton Kentucky Fire Cured cigars. This sample came from Gran Habano along with the 5 Vegas I talked about last time, and shared a similar lack of straightness, no big deal, just a minor offence to my CDO (OCD in alphabetical order, AS IT SHOULD BE!). I really enjoyed the heck out of this cigar, the Connecticut and Pennsylvania tobaccos complimented the smokey Kentucky leaf, and it was a surprise for me. I would highly recommend trying this cigar as it’s unique in the marketplace, and is pretty darned tasty!
Saturday ended up being a spectacular day, so we cleaned some more stuff up in the yard (this will be a recurring morning activity for the foreseeable future!), and hit the pool with a Foundry Compounds Elements and Musings Uranium: The X-Ray. I bought this at a local shop begrudgingly. I have been trying to smoke all of the cigars in this line, but that just might be impossible, so I had to get it. On the other hand, it’s a 7″x70 which is just way too big. This is listed as containing Honduran, Nicaraguan and “Mysterioso” tobaccos, one can never be sure what’s in any of the Foundry cigars, Michael Gianinni raids General Cigar’s tobacco library and picks out unique tobaccos from unusual places. This cigar was mild, had a nice flavor, which is why I stayed with it for over three hours. I went for a swim, read a book, went for another swim, got dressed and listened to a podcast on the deck, it was still going. Over all, it burned evenly and was a tasty smoke, although it took a while to get from mild to the low side of medium. I’m glad I tried it, but I don’t see this as a box purchase for me, although I dig the artwork, how can you not like a cross-legged skeleton flipping the bird! I have the CAO Flathead 770 in the humidor which is quite intimidating. I wrapped up the evening going out to see a friend play at a local country club, and meeting some other friends there, where we smoked a couple of the Foundry Compounds Elements and Musings Vanadium, which are aging very nicely. I may have to consider getting another of the V shaped boxes before they sell out.
That’s it for now, the Panera people are staring lo look at me like I’m overstaying my welcome! We are looking forward to getting things back to normal at home. Until the next time,
CigarCraig
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