Out Sick… Again… Thursday, Oct 22 2009

I don’t know why this seems to happen to me every fall, but I am sick again.  Actually I am just getting over being sick, but I have a lingering upper respiratory issue that is hanging around so I need to stay off the cigars a little longer.  That is the reason there isn’t a new review up this week.  It was supposed to be a review of one of the new Cain cigars.  I hope to be back up and smoking next week if I’m lucky at which time I’ll review one of the Cain’s.  I haven’t settled on the Habano or Maduro yet so it will be a surprise.

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On Hiatus Wednesday, Aug 5 2009

So every August I take a break from smoking cigars. If you’ve been a reader of my site for a while, you already know this. If you are new to my blog I’ll offer this brief explanation. I like to give myself a break, to reset and refresh my palate. Also it is wicked hot in NC in the month of August and usually just don’t feel like smoking out in the heat and humidity. I’ve talked about it before here and here.

I will be back at it in September. Some things I am working on for my return include a side by side comparison review of the original 2006 Tatuaje Reserva Noellas made with an oscuro ligero wrapper and the current 2009 version that sports a broadleaf wrapper. I also plan on reviewing the Liga Privada No.9 and the Illusione ~hl~ along with my reviews for CigarsDirect.com.  I hope to come up with an interesting thing or two to post about this month while I am on this break to make sure the blog stays active.

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Avo’s 83rd Birthday – Compañero Dinner Monday, Apr 6 2009

My local cigar shop, Empire Cigars, hosted a dinner on Avo Uvezian’s 83rd Birthday tour.  The event was held in downtown Raleigh at Sullivan’s Steak house.  It was an amazing event and a real bargain to attend.  Everyone got dinner, wine, dessert, and 4 free cigars.  The food was amazing.  If you click the picture of my signed menu below you can see what we had.  I went with the Filet which I believe the majority of the men in attendance chose as well.  What’s better than a good steak with cigars?

Of course it was Mr U’s birthday celebration so of course there was Birthday cake.

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Updated Top 5 list Friday, Mar 20 2009

I was looking at my Top 5 List and figured it was far enough out of date that it warranted an update.  There is a new number 2 and a new number 5 resulting in two very good cigars falling off the list.  The original Oliva Master Blends and the Perdomo Edición de Silvio Cameroon still rank among my favorite smokes, but the Hoyo and the Cruzado that now rank in my Top 5 are superb cigars.  Truth is, trying to rank cigars that are this good is a difficult exercise so really this list reflects my feelings at the time I am writing it.  As I have said before, it is a very fluid thing that changes in my head far more often than it does on this site.  If you are interested, you can find Version 2.0 of my Top 5 the same place it has always been.

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I can see clearly now….. Monday, Feb 23 2009

That’s right. I can see. This is significant because before last Wednesday I could not do so without the aid of contacts or glasses. Today, I can see without those troublesome devices. I had my eyeballs polished with lasers!

I am still kind of in awe of the whole thing. Last week I had custom Lasik eye surgery to correct my vision and today my vision is better than it has ever been at 20/10. I have had glasses ever since elementary school, so almost my entire life. Seeing without glasses is like a miracle to me. I am still coming to grips with it. It is as much an emotional as it is physical change in a strange way.

The reason I mention it here on my cigar blog is as an excuse. My eyes are still healing and they are not quite ready to deal with the hassle of cigar smoke yet. They need a little more time to settle in and heal a bit before I expose them to that. So, due to my lack of sufficient planning, my review of the Tatuaje J21 will be delayed at bit.  I had planned to have it up this week, but now I will be pushing it back a week to give my eyes the time they need.  So no review this week.  Just an apology for the delay and the sharing of some exciting news.  I cannot wait until I have a chance to get out on the motorcycle for the first time without glasses or contacts.  I know that alone will make the surgery worth it.

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No Smoke, Just A Pic Thursday, Feb 5 2009

Didn’t have a chance to get smoke the Cuba Libre this week. Between being busy and it being to darn cold to even go out to my man cave (garage), I went cigar free this week. I didn’t want to let things float until I did get around to smoking the cigar for my next review so I have decided to share some pictures to heighten the anticipation for my review of the Tatuaje Reserva J21 that is coming up later this month.  Don’t they look delicious?  Click on them to see an enlarged view.

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Poll Results – 100th Cigar Review Friday, Dec 26 2008

I recently asked for my readers’ help in making up my mind on which cigar would be my 100th cigar review on Matt’s Cigar Journal and the verdict is in!  I have to say…

You guys are no help at all!! Really! I post my very first poll on this blog and we end up with a virtual tie. The Tatuaje Black did come out a couple votes ahead but the truth is, the vote is pretty well split down the middle (or in thirds in this case). There isn’t an overwhelming winner in this thing. I guess that means I picked three pretty damn good cigars as the candidates for my 100th review. It is funny because the results of this poll mirror the struggle going on inside my head trying to decide on this thing. The Tatuaje Black has always been the sentimental favorite in my mind, but the other two certainly demanded serious consideration. It appears the collective consciousness of my readership closely mirrors my own mind. A scary thought for all of us except that I will assume the affinity only relates to this one specific topic. Good news for the rest of you, lol. I wasn’t going to declare my intentions at the closing of the poll, but I have made up my mind and so I figure I should just spit it out already.

The Tatuaje (Black Label) Private Reserve will be the 100th Cigar Review on Matt’s Cigar Journal. Look for it on January 1st as that review will kick off the new year of what promises to be a another good one filled with great new cigars to try and enjoy.  Thank you to all those that voted, and thanks for taking the time to visit my little corner of the Internet.

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My 100th Cigar Review! Saturday, Dec 13 2008

… and my very first poll.

It took a while to get there but a little over three years after starting this blog  I am just a couple posts away from my 100th cigar review.  I realize this is not necessarily an impressive pace,  but I am a one man show.   I smoked and reviewed all 100 cigars myself.  No partners or guest reviewers helping to shoulder the burden.  It’s a dirty job and I enjoy being the one to do it.   Of course, I am taking some liberties with the term “review” here, especially in regards to my posts early on.  Back when I first started I am not sure you could call what I was posting a “review” but for my purposes they are.

Being the 100th review, it is a significant milestone at least in my mind.  Given that fact, I feel a special cigar is called for here.  I have struggled a bit with how to go about choosing the cigar for my 100th review.  I haven’t posted a review on a Tatuaje Black Label yet and given how Tatuajes are my favorite cigars, I am thinking it would be a good choice.  But I also think that perhaps this milestone is bigger than that.  Perhaps it calls for a cigar that is legendary in the world of cigars.  A Cohiba Robusto comes immediately to mind (Cuban of course).  Another option is a special, super expensive, limited edition cigar.  At the top of that list would be the Padron 80th Anniversary cigar.  I am having a tough time making up my mind so I have posted my very first poll on the blog and I am going to look to my readers for help.  I expect to see all 5 of you vote…  LOL.  I am not saying that the results of the poll are what I will ultimately go with for my 100th review, but the feedback will be taken into serious consideration.  So go ahead and vote, and thanks for the help!

With the holidays fast approaching and all of the associated activities that will compete for my time, I plan to make the 100th review my first review of the new year.  I’ll let this poll run for a few weeks and you’ll see the results as you vote.  I won’t announce my final decision though.  You’ll find out what I went with when you see the review posted in 2009.  Thanks again.

-Matt

P.S. I also just realized that this post marks another minor milestone for my blog. This post is the 200th post on Matt’s Cigar Journal. It’s a month of milestones around here.

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Out Sick Wednesday, Oct 15 2008

I am sure it is obvious by now that I have been MIA with the posts on the blog.  Work and home life are in their busiest seasons right now severely limiting my opportunities to sit and enjoy a smoke.  On top of that, I am an allergy sufferer and we are now in the midst of a change of seasons.  As my fellow allergy sufferers can probably attest to, a change of seasons reeks havoc on the sinuses and my respiratory system has not been right for the past week.  To make matters worse, now I have a sinus infection.

To make a long story short, although it looks as if I have disappeared, I am in fact still around and I plan to get back to posting reviews as soon as my time and my sinuses allow.

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Matt’s Top 5 Cigars Wednesday, Aug 27 2008

I have gone and done it.  I have added one of the most cliched cigar website pages there is.  I have created a Top 5 list.  To the left you will see a link for Matt’s Top 5. Click it and it will take you to a page where I detail my 5 favorite cigars.  That is my 5 favorite cigars at the time I was typing up the page.  It is a list that is always changing so it seems silly to even write it down but I did it anyway.  It is a conversation that we all as cigar smokers love to discuss.  What are our favorite cigars and why?  I’ll update it occasionally, meaning when it changes enough to justify the effort, and assuming I remember to do it.  Go ahead and check it out, and if you want to share your comments about my list, or share your own list just use the comment box on that page to leave your feedback.

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A New Welcome Page Friday, Aug 15 2008

Today I posted a brand new Welcome page. The old Welcome page was the very first post on the blog and being over three years old it is a bit dated. A new edition was in order. You can access the page be either clicking the cigar painting to the left or the word “Welcome” underneath it. This Welcome page is serving double duty. I am treating it as my “About Me” page as well.

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August Hiatus Friday, Aug 1 2008

Well August has rolled around again.  For the few who are regular readers of my blog (thanks mom and dad… haha), you know that around August each year I take a little break from smoking cigars.  I attempted to explain why last year.  This year I actually have a pretty good reason, not that I was looking for one.

I am training to run a 10K at the end of August and a 5k in September.  The 10K is a run I am going to do on my own as part of the Nike+ Human Race 10k that takes place globally on August 31st.  This 10k is a real event in 25 cities around the world, but if you are a runner and have a Nike+ armband or iPod kit you can run a 10k on the 31st where ever you’d like and just upload your Nike+ data after your run.  Seemed like a cool idea to me so I figured I’d take part. The 5k is an actual event I plan to attend and participate in.  There are a couple 5k races in the Raleigh area in September.  I just need to decide which one I want to run in.  I am doing this just as a personal competition to push myself and get some exercise.

Anyway, I will still be posting in August, just not cigar reviews.  I will take this time to rework my Welcome page, create an About Me page and possibly some other pages like my Top 10 Smokes or some other kind of feature page.  We’ll see what I come up with…

I post about my progress with my running on my running blog. I keep that blog solely as a focus and motivation tool so it isn’t terribly interesting, but if you’re interested to see how I’m doing, click the Nike+ picture above.

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3 Year Anniversary – Like a Well Aged Stogie Monday, Jun 23 2008

Today marks the three year anniversary of my little blog here. I started back in 2005. At that time I had it hosted on Blogger and moved it to WordPress a little over a year ago. This milestone had me clicking through a lot of my old posts. It is kind of funny looking back. It illustrates just how much my taste in cigars have changed over the years. Besides my tastes maturing and changing, so has my philosophy on cigars. The things that are important to me in terms of cigars has changed a great deal as well. I am also able to see how my writing has improved over the years. My reviews have gotten a lot better in terms of content and style and I have also gotten better at describing my experiences and the flavors I detect. That said, I still think I am a bit of an amateur in that department, but a better amateur than before (LOL). Given how much I have changed over the years, it has me thinking it is time to write a new “Welcome” page as well as a new “About Me” page with more current information. Look for those in the near future. So to wrap this entry up…

Happy 3rd Anniversary Matt’s Cigar Journal!

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The Keepers of the Flame Padron Roundup Friday, May 30 2008

Lucky7 and Cigarfan over at The Keepers of the Flame have recently honored me with an invitation to participate is a great project that they are undertaking, and it is a huge undertaking. They are putting together a vertical tasting of the entire Padron Series of cigars. They are calling it the Padron Series Roundup and together with a collection of reviewers from the cigar blogging community, they will be compiling tasting notes on every size offered in the Padron Series line in both the natural and maduro wrappers. I have been called upon to cover the #3000 natural and maduro in this line and I will also be contributing to the tasting notes on the Ambassador as well. This project will span the next 2+ months so be sure to check out The Keepers of the Flame periodically for the full reviews, and I’ll be posting some updates about the project along the way as well.

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Sneak Peek: Upcoming Reviews Friday, May 16 2008

I just wanted to give everyone a sneak peek into what the upcoming reviews will be in the next several months…

(Click to Enlarge)

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