I mentioned I had an uncle that was a cigar smoker and that I saw him recently but the one thing I didn’t mention was that as I was looking through his humidors, when I saw him last, he proudly reached up and in the topmost shelf he had an old box of Lanceros that he wanted to show me.

I remember he went to Cuba for the first time back in the 80’s and brought a few of us a few cigars to try.  He went with his whole family and assigned everyone in his party their allotment of Cubans when they got back to the Canadian customs.  I’m not sure but I think he had 400 or so cigars and as soon as he got home, he went to work on building his own 6′ tall humidor.  Through the years, whenever we go to see him, he always pulls out something from that trip and we get to smoke a wonderfully aged Cuban but he’s been holding out on these Lanceros.

When I saw them a few weeks back they looked like they were in perfect condition ( his humidor is always at 71) and I believe that as time goes on he’ll probably part with one or two…. At least I hope so…..

Last night at around 11:00 I found myself on the Trans-Canada Highway an hour out of Vancouver and the gauge on the dash told me that I needed gas.  I took the next off-ramp and pulled into a Chevron station and decided to fill’er up since fule outside of town is a bit cheaper than in town.  Don’t get me going about the taxes we pay in our fair city, gas, cigars or otherwise.

I have this little trick I use whenever I’mat a gas station with a lit cigar.  Instead of leaving the cigar burn inside the car I usually wedge it snugly into the arm of the windshield wiper… Lots of fresh air and a very minute exposure to gas fumes.  I’m not crazy, I’m NOT putting a cigar out while I fill up.. There’s always ways around a tricky situation. Since it was later on in the night I wasn’t in the mood for coffee and so I decided to pick up a hot chocolate with a small amount of vanilla flavored cream for a pairing with my Siglo IV. After driving out of the gas station I had to laugh at myself with my choice of beverage with my Cohiba but hey, a guy’s gotta be open minded.

I had about an hour to drive and that was the time left on the shelf life of the cigar so the timing couldn’t be more perfect.  To be honest I was getting more and more impressed with how the chocolate and coffee notes in the cigar went with the hot chocolate and it got better and better as the cigar burned into the final third.  When I finally drove into the driveway at home I had only about 3/4 of an inch of a cigar left and the drink was gone.. All worked out well and I can’t wait to try the pairing again on my next late night drive in the dark.

Well, I guess I’ve heard it all.  I’ve just returned home, this morning, from the corner store where I usually pick up cream for my morning coffee and I met a woman who said one of the most unbelievable statements I’ve ever heard.

It all started off with me commenting to the sales clerk about a certain crack smoker who was pan-handling out front and the clerk told me that, as far as pan-handlers go, the guy out front was one of the better ones that spend time there.  It all went wrong when I commented, “Oh well, I guess we’ll let him live another day!”  That’s when a well dressed woman standing behind me piped up and asked me if I feel we should kill homeless people………. Here we go……..

I live in a neighborhood where we have a lot of homeless pushing shopping carts around.  They check out our garbage cans and re-cycle bins as they look for bottles and cans to sell to the bottle depot we have on our street.  I don’t really mind that but it’s when they start sneaking around our yards, looking for stuff to steal.  We have to be quite vigilant and a lot of us in the neighborhood watch out for each other whenever that kind of behavior takes place.

So anyway this woman gets in my face and says that she has a history in law and social services and I felt that this was ramping up to be a heated discussion.  I told her of the situation we neighbors face and it didn’t take long for me to disarm her.  I asked her about herself and how long she has lived in Vancouver and then the answers I started getting were becoming very questionable, to me anyway.  Although she had credentials for miles she told me that she was unemployed and hadn’t worked for 2 years.  I told her that I thought that since she was smart enough to get a law degree she was more than smart enough to get a job… That was when she said it……… I couldn’t believe what I heard her say……

“Some people are too smart to get a job!”

I walked away…………..

I went home, poured myself a cup of coffee, went to the humidor and chose a Cohiba Siglo II and went out on to the deck.  The more I thought about this conversation the more I wanted to go back, track her down, buy her a one way Greyhound ticket to Moose Jaw Saskatchewan, but the cigar played it’s magic on me and I felt that I had to let it go……….. Ya gotta move on.

I was looking around the ‘net the other day after I got a few ridiculous emails about odd laws that exist.  The one that got my interest had to do with pets and all the things they are and aren’t allowed to do in the U.S.A. you take a look at some of the legislation regarding pets and it doesn’t take a lot of common sense to figure out why things are allowed and why some infractions deserve some kind of penalty.

But…………..  How about a few of these??

A law in Chicago prohibits anyone from feeding whiskey to dogs.

During the month of April in Massachusetts, all dogs must have their hind legs tied.

In Hartford, Connecticut, it is illegal to educate a dog.

In Sterling, Colorado, it is unlawful to allow a pet cat to run loose without a taillight.

French Lick Springs, Indiana, once passed a law requiring all black cats to wear bells on Friday the 13th.

But my all time favorite…………….

In Zion, Illinois, it is illegal for anyone to give lighted cigars to dogs, cats, and other domesticated animals kept as pets.

How did that possibly come to light??????  I thought maybe a cigar smoking monkey…… Probably !

I feel very lucky to live in a country where Cuban cigars are available to us.  They are sold in convenience stores, golf courses, smoke shops and very well stocked cigar specialty stores in every city in our country.   Now and then I have friends who come back from trips to Mexico or even Cuba and they’ll drop off a few cigars at our house and more often than not they end up being counterfeits.  I’ve smoked more Cohiba counterfeits than I wish to talk about but I always tell these people that I’m very thankful for their donation to my habit.

As years go by I get better and better at spotting a fake by either looking at the band, the box they come in or the construction of these pathetic examples.  Each time you light up a fake you’ll kind of get the same mild tobacco taste that never changes as the cigar burns down.  It is very boring and if you’re lucky the cigar will actually stay lit as you smoke it, probably not though.  You’ll be reaching for your butane lighter every few minutes to touch up an uneven burn and it doesn’t compare, at all, to the real thing.

Cohiba cigars are a miracle of construction, taste and tobacco evolution as the cigar moves from third to third.  You’ll be dazzled with a symphony of flavors from pepper, grass, vanilla, coffee and chocolate each and every time.  We have beautiful cities with fabulous views.  We have some of the friendliest people you’ll meet anywhere and, yes, we have Cohiba cigars for you to sample!

I’ve been giving a lot of thought about life, happiness and what a good cigar can do to contribute to both.  I just finished reading the latest article in “Cigar Aficionado” on Samuel Clemens or Mark Twain, as most of us would know him and his work.  Anyone reading this would see that Samuel was a man of great depth, a remarkable individual with an open mind and someone who had the kind of confidence it took to write volumes of work on many topics.  He became a man that many statesmen wanted to spend time with but more than anything else what struck me as being very interesting, was the fact that he was a guy that smoked cigars.  A whole bunch of cigars!!

What he had in common with George Burns is that Samuel smoked cheap cigars. Very cheap cigars.

I don’t know, if it matters what kind of cigars a man smokes to make him happy.  I’m not sure that the majority of cigar smokers in the world today know the difference or care.  We have to think that when you speak of cigar smokers, you have to include all of the people who light up a cigar from time to time whenever one is handed to him or her and if that’s the case, then the numbers go way up.

Lately when I’m out in public, whether its outside a pub or a restaurant, people will come up to me and say, “Boy that smells good, want to give me a cigar?”…. Well, here’s my answer!  Based on Canadian prices I usually smoke cigars that start at around $25 and up.  I have a hard time parting with cigars that cost this much, even to my good friends, and here comes some guy that I’ve known for about 3.6 seconds and he asks for one.  What do you think his chances are??  Yup, you’re probably right !

Another thing that I’ve been running into is this… When some stranger says that he likes smoking cigars I always ask what kind of cigar.  This is when I get the look of question marks.  9 out of 10 people these days will tell me that they have no idea, they just like them.   I could talk about Cuban cigars for an hour to any stranger I meet but as time goes by, I’m seeing that the majority of the people I meet on the street really don’t have a clue.  I guess maybe knowledgeable cigar smokers are the minority here but I want to make one point very clear, I am NOT an authority on the topic.  In the last decade or so I’ve smoked more Cuban cigars than I probably should have and as I sit here I can picture in my mind what a Trinidad tastes like, what a Partagas profile is like compared to a cigar from Romeo y Julieta and I can definitely re-live the joy of an Esplendido or Robusto from Cohiba.

All I can tell you is that I feel a kinship with fellow cigar smokers out there and I can especially have more than my share of respect for a true Aficionado who knows WHY a Cohiba is the finest cigar made today ( a bit of a bold statement, but I’m going to dig my heels in and not budge on that one ).  These cylinders of rolled Cuban tobacco simply are one of the very few things in life that give me more pleasure than most objects on this planet and I, for one, am so grateful that I’ve picked up on this passion that so many great men before me have enjoyed

I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen anything like the whirlwind of activity on the net these days about the arrival of the Behike.  It seems that every cigar site has something to say about it from the price, to the taste, to the whining of those that say because of the price they will probably never smoke one.  To those people I say, life is short, spend the money on a stick and pretend that you’re alive for a moment or two!!!

I’m not a wealthy individual but I want to experience as much as possible on this planet and I want to taste the finest cigars, sample the finest wine and see if I can get my sorry butt on the most exclusive golf courses on the planet before my heart finally blows up as I’m walking to the store one day!

The prices for the Behike in Canada will be through the roof but we have to get used to that fact and live with it.  The one good thing is that we live in a country where the cigars are actually AVAILABLE to us.. That in itself is something to celebrate!! So for the time being, I’m going to continue to wait for that glorious day ( you know what I’m talking about), keep reading what others have to say and work on my short game!!

Years ago I used to live in in Alberta and worked in an office selling computer equipment with a team of young yahoos who only wanted to work hard enough to party and go crazy on a daily basis.  At the time we were young and really didn’t have a clue as to what was important in life.  We had fast cars, real bad habits and concern for the betterment for society was the last thing we thought about.  I loved it !! At the time.. When I think back at how much money we made and how much money we all wasted I feel sick to my stomach but I guess we all have to learn. Some of us never did. Some of the guys I worked with have passed on, I guess their bodies couldn’t keep up with the strain.

Cigars played a part as well.  Cohiba cigars, to be exact!  I wasn’t smoking cigars back then and I remember hearing that from time to time a few of these guys would be smoking Cohibas whenever the thought occurred to them.. Why?? Well, for no other reason then that they had heard that Cohiba were the best cigars to smoke… Idiots!!! Those are the cigar smokers that drive me crazy.  They know nothing about the different brands coming out of Cuba, all they knew was that they wanted to smoke the best, but had no idea as to why Cohiba cigars were the best. Enough of that rant !

Years passed and then one day I’m seeing in the newspaper that one of those guys wins big in the lottery.. How big?? Well, about $5,000,000 to be exact.. I couldn’t believe it!! A large part of me wanted to call him up and congratulate him since we were sort of close when we worked together but I had no contact information about him and never got around to it.  A few years ago I learned that he too passed away from excessive abuse on his system. You sometimes wonder how different rock-stars are able to live long and full lives, I guess it must be in their genes.

I was smoking a Siglo I last night when I thought about this guy and the fact that I never spoke to him after his good fortune.  It was a particularly great cigar and I wished I could have shared that moment with him.  The next time I want to get a hold of someone from my past, I think I’ll try a little harder.

Sometimes being patient and sending the right thoughts into the universe will pay off in spades.  Yesterday morning I received a call from a guy saying that he had gotten my number from a mutual friend after he had heard that I was in the market for a Cohiba Piramides LE 2001.  This was what I have been waiting for and I didn’t hesitate to pick up 5, even though with our “through the roof” sin tax in Canada meant that I’d be spending more than I wanted.  Oh well !

Last night after dinner I went out to the deck and armed with only a glass of cold water I wanted to see if all of my expectations of this 9 year old cigar would be met.  The 2006 and the 2001, although having a lot of similarities, showed that they are different in a few different ways.  The one thing that I think I know about Cohiba is that their tenacity for consistency would probably dictate that the same kind of blend would be used for the 2 different vintages, at least I’m hoping thats the case and I would think that they would do their best to put out the same cigar for both years.

One thing that I noticed right away was that the defining characteristics really had smoother edges and I’m guessing that spending 4 more years in the humidor contributed to how the cigar behaved.  Any of the bean flavors I tasted were certainly creamier and so much more smooth than the ‘06.  Did I like it better than the ‘06??  I don’t think so, since they are 2 different cigars and the comparison would be totally unfair.  They are both magnificent and I’m very grateful to be able to look forward to smoking them again down the road!

I have a question for anyone reading this post.. I have a friend who is going to Cuba in the next few weeks and I was wondering if any of you have been in Havana lately, in particular, I am wondering if anyone has been to the cigar shop in the Hostal Conde di villanueva in the last little while.  This is a beautiful hotel at Calle Mercaderes 202 in old Havana.  If you’ve been there you’ll probably always remember it as being the hotel that has the peacock wandering around the inner courtyard.

Upstairs on the second floor you can see their cigar shop that has a walk in humidor with some wonderful aged Cuban cigars for sale.  This may be one of the better cigar shops in Havana and my question is…. Has anyone seen Cohiba Piramides LE 2001 still for sale.. They are now 9 years old and the possibility of this particular vintage still for sale in that shop could be questionable..

In Canada these cigars go for over $50 a stick but Cuban prices will be a LOT better than that.. Will they be cheap??  I’d say no.. Will they be an outstanding cigar?? By all means!!!

Please let me know if you’ve seen these for sale there in the last few months..

Thanks a lot!!!!