Got a call to go down to LA tomorrow for a few days.  Back home Thursday… I’m always up for a trip to California since its a lot warmer than Vancouver right now but more than that, I’m very excited to visit a few tobacco shops to see if I can get my hands on a few cigars.

Canada has some of the highest sin tax in the world and Canadians end up paying twenty five dollars or more for a cigar that Americans pay six dollars for.. I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but its true.  I’ll be going to Santa Monica and from what I’ve read, there are a few cigar stores that have a nice selection of Dominicans, Hondurans and others that aren’t even available in Canada.

One that I’ll be looking for is the Arturo Fuente Opus X.  Wow, what a great cigar, and from what I read, it is a cigar that isn’t available at all times of year so I guess ya gotta be there at the right time and the right place.

Last point I want to make is…… Will I be taking any Cohibas with me???? Nope, no way!!!!

Tomorrow morning will be early, cool and probably windy out on the boat outside of Vancouver, where crab traps will be dropped and then trolling for salmon will be next on the agenda.  I’ll drop by the “Seastar”, moored by the Bayshore, where Preston the captain, will take us out for a morning of sports fishing.

There are a lot of different guys that offer fishing expeditions for a fair price and a lot of action but Preston Steele is probably the guy that they all call when they want to find out where the action is on the water.  Over the years, we’ve eaten a lot of Dungeness crab that Preston has caught and no one knows more than him on how to get them and prepare them for a real tasty meal.  His boat is comfortable and very seaworthy, fast and agile in the water.  Why would you call anyone else in this area?

As I think about what I’ll wear for tomorrow’s action, my mind also thinks about what cigar to take along.  There’s no point in taking along a large expensive Cuban cigar since there’ll be wind and wind is a quality cigar’s greatest enemy.  The burn is always uneven and then the cigar takes on a whole new flavor, which is always bitter and unpleasant.

So…………..

The perfect cigar, or cigars,  for a morning in the wind will be the Cohiba mini.  This tiny cigar has an incredible taste for something so small.  They’re really quite tiny and if you can get more than 12 minutes of smoking time out of one, I’d be very surprised.  There are a lot of larger ring gauge Cuban cigars out there that have more power and strength which makes this little cigar a real surprise in that the richness of the smoke has a quality that makes it very easy to believe that it comes from Cohiba.

Much has been written about the Cohiba Behike since last year’s release of the beautiful trio of larger ring gauge cigars containing the medio tiempo leaf.  Initially the Behike was introduced in 2006 and rolled, exclusively by one roller, or in this case the “torcedora”, Norma Fernandez.  The original Behike at a 52 ring gauge and 7 1/2 inches long was in a humidor of 40 cigars and only 100 numbered humidors.  Thats a lot of rolling …. and rolling….. The more I hear and read about this woman, the more impressed I am by her stature in the Cuban cigar industry.  She was given the task of blending and designing the cigar that became the most expensive in the world.  Originally these cigars were around $440 each but I’m guessing that when auctions come up in our future, we’ll be seeing these initial prices skyrocket.

I smoked a few of the Behike 52′s last summer and creamy and sweet were the first two descriptions of the flavors, this cigar had in it’s profile, popped into my mind.  I had a wonderful time smoking this smallest of the three and although my mind was always on the price, I felt that I truly had something special burning in my hand.  I remember looking at the 52′s wrapper and remarking to myself that I had never seen a cigar so perfectly rolled, so smooth and free of any large veins and with a color and sheen that easily showed that Cohiba had raised the bar in cigar production.

The Behike 54, which I smoked a few months later had all of the wonderful visible characteristics of the smaller 52 but with flavors that had more power, more complexity and more evolution as the cigar progressed.  The 52 and the 54 had slight similar flavors but the richness of the 54′s chocolate and creamy coffee notes had me guessing which other Cohiba cigar, or cigars, this middle child could be compared to.  The Maduro series always captivates me whenever I smoke one, the Genios being my favorite and for a while I found myself comparing, very slightly, some of what I was tasting in the Behike 54 to that other series… But only for a moment, these are very different lines in Cuba’s prestigious brand and the similarities are few.

The Behike 56 was again a beautifully constructed cigar and, as before, I felt a bit of sadness as I clipped off the pigtail cap and lit the foot.  I feel great pride and adoration for cigars like the Behike whenever I lift the lid of my humidor and gaze upon them as they rest and age, surrounded by the beautiful aroma of Cuban tobacco and Spanish cedar.  But really, why do we go through all the trouble of obtaining fine cigars, quality humidors, hygrometers that give you accurate moisture readings without actually smoking these handmade Cuban products?

The first few puffs of the Behike 56 were mild but complex, again revealing what I had tasted in the 52 and 54 but it didn’t seem to have the strength as the middle size cigar. Here is where I will probably get in trouble with a lot of you who have smoked the 56.  I will be the first to admit that in order to be an authority on the subject of judging this cigar, perhaps smoking 15 or 20 ….. Or 1,500 to 2,000 of these large ring gauge cigars would be a proper place to start but I’m simply offering what I noticed.  The 56′s flavors evolved very nicely as the cigar burned into the second third but I kept remembering what the 54 had to offer and I wondered if I am alone with my observations in comparing the two.  The one thing I DID notice was that the 56 might have needed more time in the humidor, more so than the smaller two.  Of course, any Cuban cigar only improves with age but I remembered being quite blissful during the smoking period of the 52 and 54.  The 56 had me asking myself more questions about it’s youthfulness and wondering what it’s future would reveal after a year or two of rest.

Volumes could be filled with everyone’s opinions of these three cigars, and I’m only one person, but the more I read about last year’s Cohiba release, the more I see that I may not be alone with what I’ve discovered.  The one thing I DO know is that I feel very fortunate in knowing that I’m able to buy, smoke and lose myself in the flavors of the Behike whenever I feel wealthy enough to go to the Vancouver Cigar Company and pick up a few.  I feel sad whenever I read about people getting counterfeits of this cigar but feel fortunate that I have a reputable source for a cigar of this calibre.

If you have any opinions you’d like to share, please leave a comment..

Thank you,

One person’s toasted coconut is another person’s vanilla.

One person’s cedar is another person’s burned oak.

One person’s leather is another person’s musky earth.

One person’s bitter chocolate is another person’s strong espresso.

It may or may not be all that far fetched but, from time to time, I have a bit of difficulty understanding how some of these cigar reviewers palates can be so developed and advanced that they can identify subtle walnuts amidst clouds of cigar smoke.  I guess its possible and far be it from me to disagree with what someone is tasting but the game we play of identifying flavors is very subjective.

I was spending some time with a few buddies last night, telling lies about the fish we caught and different accomplishments we were able to pull off in our youth and the topic of picking subtle flavors in cigars came up.  One of the quiet old guys in the corner piped up and asked if any of us could tell us what a banana tasted like… Kind of stopped us in our tracks when we thought about it, the room went silent.

Exactly HOW could you ever describe that kind of flavor in words?? Where would you start?? Are there any phrases you could utter that would accurately flip a switch in our olfactory nerves that would send that kind of message to our brains so we would get it??

Anyone who smokes quality Cuban cigars and has a hot blooded passion for the pastime would probably love to be sitting in a room somewhere in a cigar factory in Cuba and be a cigar taster.  You’d get handed robustos, double coronas, marevas and get paid to smoke them!! Now we’re talking.  It makes me drool just to think about the situation, but I’m sure those people probably get tired of it like anything else in life you’re supposed to do day after day…….

How do you get that job?  Is a sensitive nose something that develops over time or are you simply blessed with it from day one?  When is this gift discovered, in your youth?

Just a few questions that have been on my mind lately……………

I’ve smoked a lot of Siglo I’s, IV’s and a handful of the Siglo VI’s but for some reason, through the years’ the Siglo V is a cigar that I’ve spent only a little time with.  Don’t ask me why, its just worked out that way.  A shame, if you ask me, it may be one of the best in the Siglo line, very grassy, herbal and of extreme quality.

At least thats what hit me last night as I smoked one on the deck after dinner.  Last night was a bit of a cool night in Vancouver, so the gas heater had to be lit and all improved, as far as comfort goes.. Cooler nights are on their way and I was trying to get a bit more acclimatized to what is in our future, for the next few months.  We don’t have extreme winters so we are a lot better off than the rest of Canada.  Friends of mine occasionally visit throughout the winter, we golf, we try to catch a steelhead, but most of all we enjoy great cigars under the warm natural gas glow of the deck heater.

Getting back to the Siglo V, I found that last night’s cigar had everything I want in a cigar.  This being 2011 meant that the ’09 Cohiba had 2 years of age and the draw, the even burn and the flavors were absolutely perfect.  I paired this beauty with my favorite beverage, Oban, a fine fine single malt.  I get a kick out of the burst of caramel that happens on your taste buds after a sip of this Scotch and enjoyed 3 of them with the hour and a half that the cigar burned.

I’m one of these guys that loves to go to my humidor and check on my cigars after an experience like this, I make sure that the humidity is right, make sure that all cigars are lined up with the bands facing up and making sure that there are no non-cubans right next to Cubans.. Things get a bit obsessive after a Scotch or two and seeing that I only have a few Siglo V’s left made me wonder why I don’t own more…. First thing on tomorrow’s to do list will be a bit of a cigar shopping trip.

I know nothing about motorcycles except that whenever I’ve ever sat behind the handlebars, I’ve always tried to drive the thing as fast as physics would allow.  This fact is why my parents never allowed me to own a bike and now that I’m old, I can see their point.  I would never have made it this far, thats for sure.

I have a friend, Bobby, who is a motorcycle enthusiast, who has taken his bike all over North America in his quest to photograph scenes from Florida to Alaska.  I think that he has some fine shots of Mount Rushmore, Banff, golf courses in San Diego to military ships in Halifax.  Bobby is a gentle giant who’d never hurt a soul but as kids, we used to get mouthy around local hoodlums and Bobby would always come to our rescue.. But he was never happy with us and would show his displeasure after we would escape these situations.

I’ve stayed in touch with him all my life and decided to drop into the small garage behind his house yesterday.. He did a bit of a motorcycle tune-up while I sat and smoked a Cohiba Genios in the corner of his shop.  The weather was gray and not extremely warm so the shelter and good conversation was what I needed.  It had been a while since I lit a Genios and as usual, I was sad that I had abandoned this beautiful cigar for as long as I had.  This happens to me from time to time, and I always make the promise that I’ll pay more attention to the maduro line from Cohiba.

The 5 1/2 inch long, 52 ring gauge cigar is packed full of dark chocolate and strong coffee which is perfect for a cool day in a garage.  There’s something comforting about a good friend telling stories about his travels while smoking a cigar of that stature.  I feel that I can be myself and pick up where I left off whenever I run into my old high school buddy.. I mean, I could try to big time him with exploits of supposed greatness but he’d quickly put me in my place so, what’s the point!

The cigar lasted about 1 1/2 hours until I finally had to set it down and when I did, I noticed that we had covered all that we needed to talk about so I hit the road.. I think I’ll go see him more often and smoke more cigars with the Cohiba Maduro wrapper.

Its that time again in Canada when the Canadian Country Music Association or CCMA has it’s annual Awards weekend where it showcases country music and it’s performers with a series of musical workshops, a gala dinner where awards are given out to industry people and a televised awards show the following evening which spotlights the winners in various categories.  This is one of the most exciting weekends for country fans and industry alike because of the many late night jams played by the best pickers in Canada and of late, bands like “Jetty Road” from Australia, who’ve been performing and lighting up Canadian stages in the last few years.

These evenings are, most often, in local bars and rooms which are focused on live music with stages, lights and great sound in place and ready for an onslaught of maniacal country music folks hellbent on having the most fun they’ve had all year.  This year will be again a meeting of musicians, TV personalities  and producers now realizing that cigars are yet another thing that they have in common, will take place for 4 days in Hamilton Ontario.  This event moves from host cities in the west to the maritimes and this year’s event will will be very close to it’s association’s home town of Toronto.

Many great cigars will be passed back and forth and a whole bunch of drinking will take place.  One can only imagine the stories that will be told over breakfast tables this year.  I know that I’ll be seeing friends who play music and friends that are more involved in the technical end of things as well as producers that I sometimes only run into once a year.

As well as sharing Cuban cigars with old smoking buddies I always try to convert new smokers over to the cigar way of thinking… Yeeeeehaaaaaw!

I’m a guy that will always be on the hunt for a good cigar at a great price and quite often I check on Craigslist, here in Vancouver, to see if anyone is selling off any of theirs at a good price.  Now and then I find some real hidden treasure but I don’t believe I thought I’d find aged cigars so close to home like I did yesterday.

I woke up and was very excited that Kim Mitchell was playing at the PNE… I wrote an entry about that yesterday morning on this blog and after I hit the publish button I went to Craigslist to see if anyone had cigars to sell.. Bingo!!!! A very short ad describing cigars for sale came up and I emailed the address given, I got an answer right away only to find out that a few doors down from where I live, an older woman was getting rid of about 30 cigars for $100…. What????

After getting her phone number, I gave her a call and we were both quite pleased and surprised to find out that we were neighbors.. I walked over… In a city of this size you have no idea who some of your neighbors are and quite often we just don’t make the effort to get to know those who live close to us.  Life is changing, things get more complicated and I believe that we humans tend to cocoon more and more so maybe we live more guarded lives.. I guess I do that as well now…..As I walked into the entry of her home I was met with the smell that reminded me of Havana, you know the one, it is the aroma of a home that has seen many a burning cigar.. I was becoming very excited, I had no idea there was a cigar smoker who lived so close to me.. How could I have missed this?

This very pleasant woman, who could have been in her 80′s, explained that her husband, who smoked cigars all his life, had died and she was getting rid of his possessions before putting up their house for sale.  Her realtor told her that she would have to do a big house cleaning and paint the interior of the home before the sign would be stuck into the front lawn.  She also explained that the “wooden box” where he kept his cigars would be also thrown in as part of the deal… blink…… Ummmm, Ok…. Now my heart rate starts to go up 20 beats or so as she tells me to have a seat and drink some tea as she shuffles into another room to retrieve the “wooden box”..

I wasn’t sure what to expect but was very excited to see her return with a beautiful humidor that had the capacity to hold, I guessed, about 75 cigars.. This “wooden box” had the most beautiful barnyard smell come out of it after I opened the lid and inside were an impressive collection of cigars covered in plume… Good Lord.. What laid in front of me were Montecristo No 2′s, Partagas Lusitanias,  2 Cuaba Salomons, 4 H. Upmann Magnum 50′s, 3 Montecristo A’s, a few Romeo Churchills and the rest of the nicely aged cigars had that familiar black, white and gold band that we all love so much… I had to sit down and try to contain myself. I didn’t say anything for a while as she went to the kitchen to get more tea.

You know that dizzy feeling you get when you realize something has just happened but you’re not sure that it just happened and that maybe you shouldn’t have had those mushrooms sprinkled on top of that salad that those hippies just made for you….. Yeah, yeah, thats the feeling…

When she returned, I asked her if the smell of cigars bothered her and she told me that she loved the aroma so I reached into my pocket for my clipper and lit a Robusto adorned with that lovely yellow band.. The clouds parted, I was bathed in a warm comfortable glow as the first puff hit my olfactory nerves which told me that I now knew how the first guy felt as he picked up that rock which told him that the California gold rush was about to begin.  Just a few doors down???? I have a nose like a Steelhead when it comes to cigar smoke.. Why didn’t I ever smell cigar smoke so close to my home before???

I didn’t say much as I listened to this woman talk to her cat but decided that I would be a good neighbor and offer to cut her lawn as she was selling her house and moving out of our part of town.. This made her very happy and as I paid her the five 20 dollar bills she told me that the next time I came over, she’d let me pick a few cigars out of another “wooden box” that she was planning on giving to her brother…….. Heart rate goes up again……

Tonight is the night to go see Kim Mitchell at the PNE in Vancouver, a great stage, wonderful outdoor sound and they say we’ll be seeing 27 degrees this afternoon… Take your rock and roll t-shirts and shorts because you won’t need a lot of clothes today… We’ve had a great stretch of weather in Vancouver in the last 3 weeks and with all of the complaining about the Pacific North West’s summer this year, I’ve seen nothing but hot days, sunshine and warm nights… A perfect setting for a Rock and Roll concert..

Trouble is, the Pacific National Exhibition is in a Vancouver park, or at least classified as a park, so there is NO smoking on the grounds whatsoever… That’s right folks, non smoking hysteria is in full swing here in Lotus Town and any mention of a cigar in this post would be futile.. No matter, I want to hear, ” I am A Wild Party” and see my friend “Suds” on drums, as he drives the band in a steady and solid direction.. Chris is a Winnipeg drummer that has recently moved to Toronto and will storm the town, hopefully cleaning up with sessions and live work.

This has been a great week of getting new cigars, loading up the humidors and I’ll have more to report in that department in the next few posts.. Holy, Behike Batman!!!!

From all that I’ve read concerning the Cuban Cohiba 1966, I’ve gathered that it was THE cigar that impressed many people at this year’s Habanos festival in Havana this past February.  I was very excited to hear that Cohiba, my all time favorite Cuban, had a new cigar for cigar smokers world wide but Canadians are STILL waiting to get their hands on one.

I was told that it sometimes takes time for the new releases out of Cuba to make it to far flung shores but patience isn’t one of my finer virtues.  We haven’t seen any new cigars from this year’s festival and with all of the reading and research I do on a daily basis, I believe that I make myself crazy as I anticipate all of the new flavor profiles available.  Why wouldn’t we smokers feel these feelings when almost all of the brands from Cuba have such great taste and the experience of holding those great gems in our hands gives us such pleasure.

The Siglo series from Cohiba has given Cohiba smokers new choices when buying and smoking cigars for some years now.  The Siglo I, IV, V and VI are favorites of mine and never let me down whenever I want a great smoke… but…. Give me a Cohiba Robusto, Esplendidos and the fun REALLY begins.. Hard core cigar smokers have been smoking the original line ever since they were introduced but Pleeeeease, bring on the 1966 !!!