A few days ago I dropped down to one of my favorite cigar stores in Vancouver, “The Vancouver Cigar Company” and my friend Trevor revealed to me that they had discovered a bunch of boxes of aged Cohiba Maduro 5 Genios from’08 and ’07 that they had forgotten about. These guys have a nicely stocked humidor and I can see how things can get misplaced. The cigars have been in ideal conditions for the last few years and I had to pick up a few from each vintage.
As usual, I thought that the best thing to do would be to try out the older of the two so after dinner last night I pulled out an ’07 and lit one up on the deck as I watched my neighbors re-shingle their roof. I love it when someone else is working hard and doing something to improve their home, especially if I DON’T have to help. My neighbor is a good friend and couldn’t help but walk over at one point last night to see what I was smoking.. We often smoke cigars together at night but he was in a hurry to get things finished before it got too dark to work.
When he dropped by I was getting into the second third of the Genios and my taste buds were experiencing as many different kinds of chocolate as I could imagine. There were only about 3 years of age on these cigars but the smoothness was out of this world. Very balanced, not one flavor ever taking over, and as I got into the final third the cigar was getting beanier by the minute without ever becoming harsh. I wasn’t in a drinking mood last night and only had a bottle of mineral water with me on the deck which I think was a great idea. I didn’t want to taste ANYTHING else but the Genios.
I can’t wait for tonight’s ’08 !!!!
So my rant about not being able to have a cigar while I golf in Surrey, B.C. was a bit premature since its just the Vancouver courses that will not allow any kind of smoking….. for fire reasons….. Yeah, right!!!!!! Fire?? I’m wondering when was the last time a Vancouver golf course went up in flames because a lit cigarette butt or cigar butt was dropped into the rough.. I’ll tell you one thing about golfing in Vancouver, BUY WATERPROOF FOOTWEAR !! I’m serious, unless you have a passion for soggy feet while you’re tromping around, looking for your ball, you better be prepared for wet, damp and soggy patches of ground. Fire?? Give me a break!!!
So I’m golfing with my buddy, Paul, and he tells me that he’ll be going to Cabo this winter and he’s wondering if I want him to bring back a few boxes of Cubans for me.. Well sure I do, but he’s not a cigar smoker and doesn’t really know a thing about the topic and to him, a cigar is just a cigar and they’re available everywhere in Mexico…… Can you hear the evil Alfred Hitchcock music start???
I haven’t been to cabo and so I’m thinking that the best place to start is the internet.. The last hour or so has been spent looking around at the different sites describing different people’s experiences with cigars in Mexico. I feel quite optimistic in that I can probably point Paul in the right direction but there are a few things that have me wondering if Cabo is the best place to pick up Cubans. One of my concerns is the tax rate that Mexico has when importing Cuban cigars.. It seems that for every $100 spent on Tobacco, they tack another $100 for tax…….. Soooooooooo, although I can direct my buddy to a LCDH, I’m wondering if I should simply wait for a trip to Cuba, or at least another friend going there.. Havana or Veradero has authentic Cubans available for the careful shopper so I may just wait…
Sometimes the easy option in life isn’t always the best option!
Just when you think that the Cohiba brand has done more than enough to impress us all, out comes a new story. Well it’s not exactly new but it’s definitely new to me. The Vancouver Cigar company still has the 35th Cohiba Special Edition Humidor (Yes believe it or not, they STILL have one left!).
What is so special about this one?
Well for starters, this humidor was released in 2002. Plus the Cohiba cigars have been aging for 6 whole years in this humidor.
Can you imagine the complexity of the flavors locked within this treasure chest?
You get about 135 ‘Well aged’ Cohiba cigars.
After calling these guys up, I was told that they’ve already sold two of them and now they have the number 422/500 Cohiba humidor left.
Now are you ready for this?
Below is an excerpt from the Vancouver Cigar Press Release:
“The vitolas (Size of cigars), are all dressed to impress with a special cigar band solely created for this 35th anniversary, edition. Included are 35 Cohiba Lanceros, 20 Cohiba Esplendidos, 20 Cohiba Robustos, 20 Siglo V and two unqiue Cohiba sizes (20 Gran Corona) and (20 Piramides) that have only been included in this edition and will never be mass produced again.”
Did I just read two special sized that will NEVER be mass produced? Now that is impressive.
You can even get this Humidor straight from their website by clicking here:
PS: Or you can send me the fifteen gz and I can get it for myself 
– feel free to do so
Another great stogie. The Cohiba Maduro Piramides are similar in taste to the Genios. The smaller ring gauge makes it a little more of a tight draw. With that said the Piramide also seemed to be a bit smoother, some of the more subtle flavors in the cigar seemed to have been more evident than in the larger Cohiba Maduro.
I got them from a shop other than my regular hang-out and they were a little less humidified than I prefer. I have laid down a couple in my humidor for a couple of weeks and will let you know how those smoke at that time. Overall this is a great 35-40 minute smoke. It is smooth, subtly spicy yet a bit stronger than some of the other Cohiba’s.
As a side note I noticed that there are some great deals on boxes of Cohiba Robustos and Cohiba Esplendidos ($450.00) online at Vancouver Cigar… I have verified the authenticity with a visit to their storehouse last week.
I attended a cigar club reception recently hosted by the Vancouver Cigar Company. They had a few of these in stock and I have ordered them online from elsewhere but these were fresh out of the humidor. The Piramide also referred to as a torpedo is something new to Cohiba (last 3 years)
This is another great addition to the Cohiba family. This was a complex smoke. Rich and spicy, and noticeably consistent right until the end. These are a classic smoke, and meet up to the Cohiba brand. Like the Maduro 5 they are also great value per dollar overall.
I like an easy draw so that would have to be the only thing that I didn’t find totally satisfying about this one.