Monday, March 30, 2009

Cigar Review: Carlos Torano 1959 Exodus Toro

Pre-light:
This box-pressed cigar offers up a very nice looking smooth wrapper with no large veins. It has a deep/dark brown color. It smells of sweet leather. Upon cutting it, the cigar has a very easy draw and has a sweet flavor with just a hint of spice.

The Smoke:
In the beginning of the smoke, it is a mild to medium bodied smoke at best. It is creamy with a little pepper and a leathery after taste. The draw is perfect and offering up a lot of smoke. After the first third, the flavor changed a little as it mellowed out and had more of a leather taste and added a little bit of chocolate flavor. As I continued to smoke it, the chocolate flavor took over in the 2nd third. It's pretty mild at this point. Through the rest of the cigar the taste was pretty consistent making the cigar pretty boring for me. I was hoping that it would bold up a little bit at the end, but no luck. It gave off a very soft creamy inviting aroma. The ash was a good bright color, but wasn't pretty nor tight. The burn wasn't the greatest a few issues, but corrected itself quickly.

Final thoughts:
It was a little boring and way to much chocolate for me as I love spicy and peppery flavors. It's hard for me to be completely objective on this one since the flavor just didn't appeal to me. I'd give it a 72 out of 100 trying to fight for those who like those kinds of flavors.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Smoking Season Is Right Around The Corner!!!

Some pictures of a few of my recent smokes.
5 Vegas Torpedo



















Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story














A couple of Rocky Patel Sun Grown Torpedos

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Willis Tower?

So like the rest of the world, I found out that the Sears Tower will soon change its name to "Willis Tower", or something like that. Willis Group Holdings, a London-based insurance broker, agreed to occupy 2 floors of the building, holding a total of 140,000 square feet. In the lease agreement Willis Group was granted naming rights of the massive Chicago Landmark. On a side note, this makes me wonder how much of that building is vacant. I would be willing to bet that it was an alarming percentage. After watching the news, I was already tired of people complaining about the name change. There is no use calling it Sears Tower anymore when the company does not even lease any office space in it. Let's think about it, it was not too long ago that U.S. Cellular Field was Comiskey Park and the Macy's on State Street was Marshall Fields, but you don't hear too many people complaining anymore. I do agree that it will be a little odd calling Sears Tower by its new name, but I'm not torn up about it. It's just a building people!

This week has been going by amazingly fast. So close to the weekend and St. Patty's Day!

Yun and I Burn at Kaw Kaw's Again

Some of the things I love are my meetings with Yun, my pastor. We are able to meet up pretty regularly to burn some fine tobacco. Our conversations can last forever and I feel like we always get cut off short. None the less, it's always a great time! We found this spot/lounge/store, Kaw Kaw's Cigar Society, that has a very nice atmosphere to it. It's never too crowded and you're always able to get a table.

Tonight Yun had a beautiful La Flor Dominicana Chisel
Nice and even light.










A picture of the punch on the chisel.









I had a nice Alec Bradley Tempus Churchchill. Very tasty.









The damage.









And finally Yun and Me outside of Kaw Kaw's, ready to head home.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Open for Blogging

I've had the desire to start a blog for quite some time now and I finally decided to pull the trigger.

In recent months, I have been seriously considering getting a dog. I love their camaraderie and loyal spirits. In a good home, they seem to always be another member of the family. Bill Simmons, a writer, has his own section(Sports Guy's World) on espn.com. Today, I read an article that he wrote in January about his dog, The Dooze, that had me thinking about our beloved canine friends for a while. The piece is about how much he loved The Dooze and her premature exit from this world. OK, I'm a guys guy. I love working out, shooting guns, playing sports, rare steaks and of course, smoking cigars. This article almost had me in tears. I don't know if I would be able to handle losing a dog after the way he described it. But then again, what's the saying? "It's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all"?

I need a cranberry juice.