There have been a few things I haven’t done this winter….. I haven’t smoked a Behike…. Last summer I tried them, loved them and decided that at least a year’s rest in my humidor would be the fate of my remaining Behikes..  I fell in love with the 52 after trying it last summer and in the fall the 54 was a great cigar…. But….. I know they can get better and I’m willing to invest the time…..

I haven’t been anywhere tropical and usually that doesn’t bother me all that much but last month I started losing my mind when I knew the Habanos festival was taking place in Havana… Without me being there…..  A lot of people will read about the day to day exploits of those attending that wonderful festival and many salivate all over their computer keypads as they read about all of the cigars being smoked in Cuba…. That doesn’t really bother me since I have 4 humidors that all have a nice selection of Cubans that are presently further fermenting….. Whenever I want one, I smoke one..  What bothered me was that I wanted to take part in many of the seminars available to festival goers….. Next year will be different !

What bothers me the most is that, although I’ve golfed all winter……. I haven’t been warm ONCE on the course !!  That is starting to really get on my nerves!  I can’t WAIT for a warm day when I can swing a club in a T-shirt… C’mon already!!!!!  I realize that the rest of my Canadian brothers and sisters are still shoveling snow from their driveways when I’m complaining about needing to wear too many articles of clothing on the course but I DON’T have a lot of body fat and this is getting old!!  Our winter is going on and on and although yesterday was the first day of spring, its seems like an eternity until we’ll be getting days that reach 15 degrees…

Oh well, thats my list of complaints for the day!!!!!  Tomorrow is another day!

For the last week I’ve been glued to the Cigar Aficionado site so I can read Gordon Mott and David Savona’s daily posts about their experiences at the 2011 Habanos Festival in Havana.  Although I’ve been to havana and smoked cigars in that beautifully intoxicating city, I’ve never been to the festival….. Next year will be different…

I’ve loved hearing about the new cigars that are coming out this year and in particular I’m interested in the Cohiba 1966 and the Montecristo Gran Reserva…. BUT…. I love cigars from H. Upmann and Partagas as well so 2011 just may be a year to remember….

Reading short reviews about the cigars from these guys has been very entertaining but more to the point, who do you really want to hear a cigar review from?? You want to go to the ones who have had this passion for many years and have devoted so much of their time and energy in dissecting the subtle nuances of a cigar’s profile and writing their thoughts in their own prestigious publication that informs cigar lovers around the globe.  That’s called TRUST !

Also too, these men are educated and very adept at expressing their feelings and experiences in a writing style with a quality and beauty that towers over the rest of us mere mortals’ attempts at describing the flavor of a cigar or the surroundings in which it was smoked.  Bravo !

I’ll still continue with this blog since I love writing and will continue to so…. Hey, nobody has lost an eye yet!

I’ve been hungrily devouring every word that the Cigar Aficionado guys have been posting on their daily blogs from the Habanos Festival from Havana.. Good Lord, I’ve been promising myself all last week that this will be the last time I read someone else’s blog as they tell us the day to day events from the Festival.. Next year I’ll be there…..

I’ve been to Havana and smoked their superlative cigars in the bars, restaurants and sidewalk cafes and I can’t begin to describe how wonderful it is to be in that city and soak up all of the sights, sounds and flavors that the city has to offer.  Although there are only 5 LCDH outlets in Havana, Cuban cigars seem to be everywhere in Havana but I tend to dig my heels in and only shop where I know that I’ll be getting the real thing….. Yes, there are a lot of cigars for sale but there are also a lot of BAD cigars that get sold to unsuspecting victims that want to taste the best.. Be careful.

I’m sitting on pins and needles waiting to taste the 1966 from Cohiba.  From all reports it is the best of all of the new cigars coming out this year and when you think about it, it really isn’t that much of a surprise since Cohiba gets the first pick of the tobacco leaves grown on that island.  Their rollers use great care in the preparation of Cohiba cigars and strict and attentive care is adopted when grading and packaging as well..

The Cohiba 1966 is being released to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Cohiba brand.. I can’t wait to get my hands on one!

Traditionally, New Year’s Eve is one night when we pull out all the stops, dress up in our finest garb and ring in the new year with Champagne, music, dancing and for some of us, handing out and smoking some of the best cigars in our humidors.  Cubans and Non-Cubans are usually set on fire and sacrificed to the tobacco gods so that the new year will surely bring prosperity, comfort and good health.  All should unfold nicely as long as you light something that pleases them.

Christmas, of late, has resulted in more than a few new cigars sitting in my humidor so as time goes by I find myself with something that can’t wait to be lit and a night like that is a good enough reason for me so I’m thinking of taking a few options in my travel humidor.  I DO have friends that love cigars but quite often are not carrying any so I’ve become the guy that passes a few out to close friends.  I love sharing the experience with my friends and look forward to contributing to their evening.

I plan on taking Cohiba Lancero, Robusto and maybe a Genios for the maduro guy in the room… Maybe I’ll be the maduro guy… Don’t really feel like making any plans yet and will let everything unfold.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you plan on smoking.

I’m always poking around the internet and looking for good cigar deals on some of the sites that the public use to sell items and for some reason Vancouver is seeing a lot of ads from people who have just returned from Cuba with cigars to sell.  The last few days have seen more activity than usual and it gives me an opportunity to make a deal or two.

I’m not going to buy the first Esplendidos that come around.. ( I’ve done that a few years back )…. NOTHING is more annoying than getting a box of cigars for a great price, taking them home and after a few terrible sticks, you realize that you’ve been duped.  Well, let the buyer beware, I always say.. I’ve spent good money on counterfeit cigars and I won’t be doing that again.

After looking around the internet this morning I was, once again, amazed at the amount of information available to people who want to learn about Cuban cigars… It is actually mind boggling!  I believe that there are many many informed compassionate cigar smokers that  are more than willing, for no reason other than to help out, to share their experiences and knowledge with anyone who cares to read their pages.

The Habanos site is one of the greatest aides in checking to see if cigars for sale are actually authentic.  Go to their site and on the top of their home page there is an authenticity check that helps you identify cigars by the bar codes that are now on the green seals folded around the left hand side of the box.. No bar code= FAKES..  Of course there are always aged cigars without the bar code but its getting harder to find aged cigars in Cuba and the ones that people are buying are usually going home with them and smoked with extreme enjoyment.

I have nothing against the people who actually don’t know anything about Cuban cigars, my beef is with the people who sell the counterfeits in the first place.  Cohiba Esplendidos, Robustos, Montecristo No. 2 and 4 seem to be the cigars that get copied and sold the most because of the quality of the real thing so these are usually the first to be offered on the local buy and sell pages.

I guess it will only be a matter of time until we start to see the Behike copied and sold but that band is going to be either stolen from the factories ( good luck trying to copy that one ) and the boxes are going to be expensive to mass produce with any believable results.   Anyone who has had the good fortune to smoke a Behike or two has probably noticed the immense quality of construction and I’ve NEVER seen very many Cuban cigars that can come close, let alone a counterfeit.

Do a bit of research before blindly diving into the market of cigars from private sellers and you may just be able to pick up a good cigar at a good price.

Hey Tommy, thanks for leaving a comment on the Cohiba 1966 entry, I like your site and I think it provides great reading…..

There is no doubt that the cost of these humidors will be through the roof, not unlike a special vintage limited release wine from some of the finest regions in France.  One thing for sure is that when almost ANY cigar from Cuba has aged the right amount of time you can almost say that it’s time has come and the flavors can be extraordinary.  We are very lucky to live in Canada and to be able to buy Cubans whenever we want.  Our SIN tax is through the roof and Cuban cigars cost more than almost any others on the market today but once you get a taste for them there’s no going back.

When The Cohiba Behike became available many Canadian smokers had a bit of difficulty getting their hands on them because there were only so many boxes available to smoke shops around the country.  People were on a waiting list and it became a first come first serve situation that left a lot of smokers wondering what happened and why did it happen so quickly.  A lot of hard core cigar smokers in Canada have DEEEEP pockets and had no problem snatching the first VERY few boxes of these wonderful creations with the medio Tiempo leaf and the rest of us wandered the streets in search of the odd cigar here and there that were still available.

I was very lucky to get my hands on one of each of these Behikes and so far I’ve smoked the 52 and the 54.  I’ll let the 56 sit in my humidor until Christmas, I hope that it will probably be as fantastic as the other two.  Getting back to the 1966, I’m not sure I’ll ever get my hands on one but if I elevate myself to a different class of schmoozing cigar smoker, I just may find myself in someone’s private smoking rec room and with enough good fortune I may be able to sample one of them..

Thanks for leaving the comment!

Here I sit in Vancouver on my last day in the Pacific North-west typing and puffing away on a Cuban as I try to imagine what will be revealed in this week-end’s Canadian Country Music week in Edmonton, Alberta, the host city for this year’s Canadian Country Music awards Show on Sunday night.  I love attending this event and as years go by I see a ton of familiar faces, hear some great late-night jam sessions with Canada’s premier players and smoke beautiful Cuban cigars with more and more friends that I’m trying to convert into full-on wild eyed cigar smokers.

The weather in Edmonton will be rather OK for cigar smoking outside some of that city’s country music venues so I’m not afraid to load up my humidor with some of my better Cubans as I know I’m going to have a lot of opportunities to smoke, listen, drink in almost perfect conditions that just may NOT require long johns and down filled jackets. The city has some very well stocked stores but before I leave I’ll probably drop down to “The Vancouver Cigar Company” and see what Cuban favorites I can take to Alberta.

The country music industry has contributed some very big participants, through the years, in North America’s country music scene and this year I know I’ll be seeing and listening to some of Canada’s singers, home from their new neighborhoods in Nashville to entertain, compete and talk to the rest of us who support this industry.  Names like Shania ( only one name needed ), Anne Murray, Hank Snow, Terry Clark, Derick Ruttan have represented our country very proudly and contribute loads to the genre of music that more and more people listen to these days..  Hey, let’s face it, country music these days is nothing more to Def Leopard with fiddles.  Something huge happened to country music when rap came out, people switched their radio stations over to Country music stations and the industry adjusted to these new listeners.

Now lets get back to the cigars for a moment…… There are still a ton of cigarette smokers out there who are very open minded about having smoke in their systems but still don’t have a clue as to how great Cuban cigars taste.  My passion here is to mill around the different smoking areas at this annual event and stick the odd cigar in someone’s face that really need it.  This is something that we should all do to improve the health, enjoyment and well being of our friends out there.  I will probably take my supply of Cohiba Robustos, Esplendidos and Silgo I’s ( for those short windows of opportunity for smoking ) and enjoy them with some of Canada’s movers and shakers, VJ’s, promoters, agents and general yahoos…….

Wish me ( and my liver) luck!

Just returned from golfing the desert courses in the Okanagan, lots of wine, tons of sun and many cigars every day.  My humidor took a terrible hit but special occasions deserve special cigars and this trip, 6 days in total, ate up some very special cigars.

I had a couple of Behikes with me and the 52 was the first to get smoked one night after dinner.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to taste when I lit this one but I was met with flavors that aren’t usually present in Cohiba cigars.  If you are looking for that grassy herbal taste that we get from Cohiba cigars you may want to reconsider your purchase but if you have any kind of adventurous spirit then this is the FIRST cigar you should go pick up.

This was the first time I had smoked the Medio Tiempo leaf and I believe that this leaf in the blend of Cohiba’s new line of cigars gives us a whole new perspective when smoking Cohibas.  I’m not exactly sure how I can describe the taste of this cigar other than it is balanced, not one flavor jumping to the forefront.  I found it to be loaded with chocolate and maybe even hazelnut but I have to be really honest, there was alcohol present at the table I was sitting at and a fair bit was consumed.

My wife loved the 52 Behike, she gets to try out all of the cigars I smoke and this one made her sit up straight and take notice.  She knows the difference between Cohiba and non Cohiba cigars but she couldn’t identify why this one tasted different other than the fact that she loved it.. I had a hard time getting it back from her.

The draw was perfect, the burn was very even to the nub and the firm cigar behaved very very well, needing no touchups at all.  I need to get more of these if I can…. May be a bit difficult but that’s my mission.  The Behike 54 will be the next one that will be smoked and I’ll let you know in maybe more detail what I run into!

Sunday my wife and I, along with two close friend, will be leaving Vancouver and taking a couple of cars to Penticton in the Okanagan valley for wine, golf and cigars… A lot of emphasis will be placed on the golf and cigars.. OK OK, there’ll be Scotch, Grand Marnier, port, cigars and Golf..  We’ve been doing this for the last five years and we all agree that these are our best days of the year.  We come home with cases of some of the best wine our country has to offer and a few big hits on the old credit cards.  Hey, what’s life all about anyway??!!?!?!

The weather will be hot and calm, wind wise, so that will make for some of the best early evening cigar smoking I can imagine. I especially love the no wind part.  Being able to golf for 5 days in a row is something my friend, Tom, and I have been talking about for the last few months.  We work extra hard to make sure that we can pull this off and when it does we feel very victorious indeed!!

The Behikes that I’ve picked up will be sacrificed on this trip as will be a few Esplendidos and some Cohiba Robustos.  When spending time in a great environment with friends, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t pull out all the stops and decimate your humidor to the best of your ability.

Well so far I’ve been able to get my hands on 2 of these much acclaimed Cohiba cigars but have yet to taste them.  How long will I wait??  Its anyone’s guess but I can tell you that what I think the right thing to do and what I WILL do will certainly be two different things.  The sensible part of me thinks that the best thing to do would be to hold on to them for at least 10 years.  But hey, I paid an arm and a leg for them so I can definitely say that the sensible side of me has no say in this matter whatsoever.

What I’m now looking for is a 56 ring gauge Behike and so far I’ve come up empty in Vancouver so far.  This is a big city, one of the world’s travel destinations.  We have some very respectable cigar stores and my next stop will be ” The Vancouver Cigar Company”.  Trevor, the shop manager, is a very knowledgeable cigar aficionado who will get me hooked up and when I have the third installment in my holy trinity I’ll break out the Scotch, reach for the torch and sacrifice the first in a three day ( one each day ) exercise in hedonism of the purest form.

To be honest, I’m really looking forward to the 54.  I’ve been reading different reviews about the Behike middle child and, from what I gather, this is the one that has all of the people talking.  I HAVE heard that there are Cohiba lovers that have been going wild about the 52 and that really has my curiosity Piqued so that will be the second one I try.  The 52 I was able to get is one of the most beautiful cigars I have ever seen, very smooth and slightly oily.. I can’t wait!!

The 56, on the other hand, has been selling very very well and it is the most difficult to obtain.  Remember, stores across Canada have been getting only one box of each.  Wow!! These Cohibas are as hard to get as gold medal round Olympic hockey tickets.  Thank God they are a “Little bit ” cheaper!!!