A Special Night Saturday, Jun 7 2008

Last night I attended an event at a local cigar shop. They were featuring the new Nub cigars. Jose Oliva was at the event with Sam Leccia. I took advantage of meeting Jose Oliva and brought my original Oliva Master Blends cigar box with me to have him sign it. The original Master Blends is my all time favorite Oliva cigar. Jose was a really nice guy and it was awesome to have a chance to meet an icon of the industry. You can check out my post which has pictures from back when I purchased the box.

Here is a picture of the signed box sans cigars…

(click to enlarge)

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Purchase: Tatuaje Black Ceramic Jar Wednesday, May 28 2008

So here it is at long last. I have been obsessing over this thing for months now and I finally have it. The jar is beautiful and of course having already smoked the cigar before, the cigars will be a joy to smoke. I could clumsily try to describe it in words but instead I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. Each can be clicked for a large version or click the picture above for a slide show.

Oh my…

A couple notes about the above pictures. The Blacks have been in production for a while. They are not new cigars. They were up until this point Pete Johnson’s private line of Tatuajes made exclusively for him, and why not, he owns the brand after all. That is why you see the name Private Reserve in some of the pictures above. The bottom of the jar has Pete’s signature on it. The fourth picture down in the first column is the inside of the jar lid. I have to say this jar has lived up to the hype. It is one of the most beautiful presentations I have ever seen for cigars. It is truly special and I am one happy cigar smoker today.

Related Posts:

• Tatuaje Blacks
• I Dream of the Day

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Happy Birthday to Me! Tuesday, Apr 29 2008

Had a great Birthday today. My wife got me an Oasis XL Plus for my winecoolerdor and I finished off the day in style. Smoked a 2005 RASS and paired it with a glass of Remy Martin VSOP. I am amazed how every year these cigars get better and better. With 3 years on the beautiful Robustos, their youthful edge is completely gone allowing a lot of subtle flavors to come through. It is one of the most engaging smokes I have ever had. It started off with a slight sweetness and a very unique twang that I can’t put words to but was just great. As it progressed it kept changing, it was almost hard to keep up with it. I hadn’t planned on doing a writeup on it so I wasn’t taking notes, but it was such a great experience I felt compelled to write something to help me remember the occasion. Leathery, earthy, nutty and creamy… Just amazing.

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Purchase: Tatuaje Blacks Sunday, Feb 10 2008

Update[5/28/08]: I finally got the jar!!!

A couple weeks ago I was at the beach and visited one of my favorite B&M cigar shops. They have been a Tatuaje account almost since the beginning so they get all the good stuff. A major reason why I like them so much. I got lucky and just happened to stop by when they had just a few of the elusive and almost mythical Tatuaje Blacks in the humidor. I didn’t have enough money to buy all eight *snif* but I did grab these four. The Tatuaje Black is Pete Johnson’s personal cigar. Once upon a time the only way to get one of these was to meet the man and have him offer you some. He has decided this year to release a limited amount to the public. Select shops received one or two cabinets of 24 and later this year they will be released for sale in a collectible ceramic jar. I can’t wait. I’ve already started to save up for one. These are really cool looking cigars. They have a really unique nipple on the head and the foot is unfinished. They smell amazing but I am admittedly a little hesitant to spark one up before I get my hands on that jar. Maybe I’ll talk myself into smoking just one sometime soon. Here is a picture of my good fortune…

(Click for larger view)

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My Prize has Arrived Friday, Feb 1 2008

I won a ST Dupont X-tend lighter in CigarInspector.com’s cigar review contest and the lighter has arrived. It is a very sharp looking lighter. Click the picture for a better view.

(click to enlarge)

A big thanks to CigarInspector.com for selecting me as the winner and to TopCubans.com for supplying the prize for the contest.

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My Pride and Joy… well one of them anyway. Friday, Jan 25 2008

A while back I posted picture of my poker table. I actually made a few posts of the progress of the table being built here, also here, and again here. I made this thing from scratch and as it was my first ever attempt at wood working. I am pretty proud of the results. I ran across a couple of pictures I snapped of it a while back before a game and decided I wanted to share them. You can see a little more detail in these pictures than you can in the one I originally posted. Click the pictures to see a large view.

At the risk of blowing my own horn, I have to say that this is a great table to play poker on…

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I won!! Friday, Jan 18 2008

It’s a good start to the day when you get an email informing you that you’ve just won a very nice, very expensive cigar lighter. I entered my review of the the Perdomo Edición de Silvio in a cigar review contest over at Cigar Inspector. There were several really great reviews submitted in to the contest and I was honored by having my review selected as the winner. I want to send my thanks once again to Cigar Inspector and his panel of judges for selecting my review as the winner. I also want to thank my fellow BOTL who I competed against in the contest. The reviews that were entered into the competition were very good so the competition was tough.

My Prize is an ST Dupont X-Tend torch lighter. I’ll post some pictures once I receive it.

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Box Purchase: AF God of Fire 2005 Thursday, Nov 1 2007

I had a little extra money and decided to treat myself to some special cigars. The email alert from CigarsDirect.com about these being in stock came at just the right time. So here are some pictures.

God of Fire 2005 Double Robustos by Carlito

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Box Purchase: Tatuaje Havana Cazadores Saturday, Sep 1 2007

I am the proud owner of yet another box of Tatuajes. I recently started a great new job and got a little sign-on bonus with it. I decided that I earned myself a little reward for landing such a good gig so I took a bit of that bonus money and got me a box of the elusive Tatuaje Havana Cazadores. This particular vitola is reported to be Pete Johnson’s personal favorite and are considered by many to be the best in the regular brown label line (non Reserva or Cojonu). They tend to be darn hard to find too. These beauties measure in at 6 3/8′ x 43 ring. They are a sight to behold as you can see below (click each picture for an enlarged view).

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Box Purchase - Tatuaje RC184 Monday, May 14 2007

Feeding An Obsession - Part Duex

My favorite cigars for about the past year or so have been Pete Johnson’s Tatuajes. They are made by Pepin Garcia in his El Rey de los Habanos Factory in Miami, Florida. Even outside of the Tatuajes, I am something of a sucker for just about any cigar Pepin makes. I further indulged my obsession with these smoke with my most recent purchase. I found some Tatuaje RC184 and RC233 perfectos. The RC184 measures an impressive 7.25″x57 ring and the even more impressive RC233 is a whopping 9.125″x55 ring. Both are foil wrapped perfectos sporting a distinctive 3 colored band that sets them apart from the rest of the “brown label” or “cabinet” line of Tatuajes. This presentation is meant to be a sort of Retro Cuban style and the “RC” even stands for “Retro Cuban”.

Here is a picture of my purchase. A box of 10 RC184’s and three RC233’s.

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Feeding An Obsession Wednesday, Apr 4 2007

If you couldn’t tell from the cigars I’ve been posting about lately I have a bit of an obsession with the cigars made by Don Jose “Pepin” Garcia. The man is a cigar making savant and I have enjoyed a good number of his products above and beyond just what I have posted about here. From the Tatuajes, to the DPG’s, to the 601s, the list goes on. Today I indulged this obsession some more with a small purchase. These Don Pepin Garcia Series JJ Salomones arrived today and they are beautiful…

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Box Purchase - Tatuaje Regios Friday, Dec 22 2006

I just picked up a 25 count cabinet of Tatuaje Regios. This is my favorite cigar and given how hard it has been to find, I am excited about the purchase. My favorite local cigar shop finally got a couple boxes in and they were nice enough to hold the box of my favorite vitola for me. It’s a little Christmas present to myself. It took almost a whole year from when I first asked them to try and bring them into the humidor, and although they only got a couple boxes in, hopefully I will start to see them there more often and in a few more vitolas.

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My Gear Wednesday, May 3 2006

I thought I’d share some pictures of my humidors. Just click one of the pictures as it scrolls by to see the full sized pic.

(I can’t get the embedded slideshow to work for some reason so here is the url to view the pictures….)

My Gear

The wine cooler pics are a little out of date. I have reconfigured the shelves, added some cedar trays and I have added a few boxes of cigars as well. It is a thermo-electric wine cooler. It keeps my cigars at 65 degrees and 65% RH very nicely. Because it is thermo-electric and doesn’t use a compressor, the RH stays stable even when the unit is cooling. It has been a dream come true. My cheap man’s climate controlled cabinet humidor.

Update: Here is an updated picture of the wine cooler that shows the cedar trays I added.

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Evil Cigar Wednesday, Feb 15 2006

I entered a little contest on my favorite cigar forum for the most evil cigar. Here is a picture of my entry

“Luke… Join the Maduro side and together we will rule the galaxy as father and son.”

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Master Blend Box Pictures Thursday, Jan 12 2006

Here are the pictures I promised of the Oliva Master Blends box. It is beautiful.

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