The PH Cigar Thread

[smokeymo]

Many thanks - glad my team were helpful

You can certainly sample cigars in the lounge and yes we also have tasting samples of single malt whisky

Best

Mitchell

BigBen said:

That would be the one. So can you sample booze in there at the same time? The staff were very helpful BTW.

[red_slr]

Mastodon2 said:

How full is the humidor? Do you have any cigars in it yet? They might be getting a bit dry if you do.

Is it a new humidor, and have you seasoned / conditioned the inside of it? New humidors can benefit from allowing rubbing distilled water into the ceder liner. It might be the case that your humidor is parched, and the wood is sucking up all the moisture - it should eventually balance out, but if your humidor has been sitting for a year in a warehouse in Guangdong province it could be pretty dry.

However, if you've tried two hygrometers and have taken reasonable steps to ensure they're working properly, I do wonder if your lid is sealing properly. A humidor needs a good seal to prevent moisture loss, when you shut it you should hear a slight whoosh as the lid goes down and makes the seal. If the seal isn't working, it could be the case that the humidor is effectively open to the room and has just acclimated to the relative humidity of the room you're keeping it in.

It seems almost daft to ask, but presumably you're keeping it away from direct sunlight and storing it in a cool location?

Thanks for the reply, yep I followed the guides on youtube on seasoning and did it over a few days. The seal seems reasonable and the lid does indeed close with a nice thud rather than the clatter of 2 bits of wood hitting together. I have tried putting something heavy on the lid.. it did not change much. Yes its out of sunlight... there are 10 or so sticks in there. I think I will try and reseason it this weekend if its still around the 60% mark. Like you said really it should even out - but its been like this for a couple of months so I am starting to get a bit confused!!!

[smokeymo]

If you enjoy Havanas you may be best to sticking with them rather than moving over to New World cigars to be honest.

if you fancy a change of pace our most popular range of ' golfing cigars' are Oliva from Nicaragua. excellent value for a premium hand made long filler cigar

Best

Mitchell

hacksaw said:

I have a charity golf match coming up in the next few weeks and I'm wanting to take a few cigars along. Much as I enjoy the odd smoke, my exposure has basically been Romeo y juleitas and cohibas and so forth so I'm certainly no expert!!
I thought I would ask here for some recommendations of what to take along, something easy smoking and inoffensive that, hopefully, everyone will get along with. All the others in my group are similar to me, enjoy a social smoke but beginners.
Thoughts?

[smokeymo]

Try 'Boveda' inexpensive quick fix

I don't really believe in the whole seasoning thing as most people tend to drown their humidors in error !

Best

Mitchell

red_slr said:

Thanks for the reply, yep I followed the guides on youtube on seasoning and did it over a few days. The seal seems reasonable and the lid does indeed close with a nice thud rather than the clatter of 2 bits of wood hitting together. I have tried putting something heavy on the lid.. it did not change much. Yes its out of sunlight... there are 10 or so sticks in there. I think I will try and reseason it this weekend if its still around the 60% mark. Like you said really it should even out - but its been like this for a couple of months so I am starting to get a bit confused!!!

[Jambob]

Jambob said:

red_slr said:

Any tips for getting the humidor to a stable 70/70?
I am struggling to get mine to 70%.
I get it to 65% no problem but if I try and go any higher it goes to 75% or above.
Its only a small 20 stick box too which is probably not helping!

What system are you using at the moment? Is your hydrometer calibrated? Is it digital or analogue? The size of your humidor shouldn't really make it any more difficult to keep the humidity, is it in good condition? Is it old?

I'd give these a shot https://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/boveda-humidifier-60g-p... I use them in my smaller humidor and they are fantastic. Both of my hydrometers in the smaller and the larger humidors are digital and display minimum, maximum and present humidity. Minimum with the above pouches is 69% maximum 73%. I check both of my humidors on a regular basis.

Recent smoking highlights of mine include a Vegas Robaina Unicos, it was bloody lovely.

Seriously, try the pouches. They work.

[Miguel Alvarez]

Well it's a lovely day in sunny Berkshire and hopefully it will stay that way.

What's everyone smoking this weekend?

I feel for a Diplomaticos and a BBQ.

[RichUK]

It's been a quiet week for me.

I delved deep into the humidor and had a very enjoyable Montecristo No 4 at the start of the week.



Last night I fancied something a little punchier, so opted for a Partagas Serie E No 2. This fast becoming a favourite.



A colleague flew back from Dubai at the start of the week and so I stocked up on the typical 'go to' cigar that is usually the one I opt for at the moment. Sorry Mitchell, even you cannot compete with Dubai duty free prices - normal service with you will be resumed for the cigar auction!

[EJH]

Seeing an old university friend for a drink after work (I seem to have chosen a bar with a rather good humidor...) and a bit torn between:

Behike 54
Maduro 5 Genios
Wide Churchill
Serie E No.2

Not sure at the moment and choice will probably be determined by how the rest of the working day goes and the mood I’m in at the time of choice.

If I’m not in the mood tonight, I have some Short Churchills, Wide Churchills, Serie D No.4s and Epicure No.2s a home, to tempt me over the weekend.

[RichUK]

EJH said:

Seeing an old university friend for a drink after work (I seem to have chosen a bar with a rather good humidor...) and a bit torn between:

Behike 54
Maduro 5 Genios
Wide Churchill
Serie E No.2

Not sure at the moment and choice will probably be determined by how the rest of the working day goes and the mood I’m in at the time of choice.

If I’m not in the mood tonight, I have some Short Churchills, Wide Churchills, Serie D No.4s and Epicure No.2s a home, to tempt me over the weekend.

I had a BHK54 the week before last, still prefer the BHK52 myself.

[Mastodon2]

It was a packed night at my cigar lounge last night, a lot of cigars going through the till, the cigar of the evening was the Aging Room M356 in Toro Grande (6"x60). A lot of gents in the lounge hadn't tried them but after sampling they were buying up the stocks. Smooth, medium-full body with rich, oily smoke, pepper and earth notes throughout. A few of us found them to be a little underwhelming in the first 10-15 minutes, but after the first 3/4 inch, the flavours and smoke production ramped up considerably, I got about an hour and 20 minutes from my stick. A fairly cost-effective, flavoursome and superbly constructed stick.

I had a bowl or two of Peterson's Connoisseur's Choice in my pipe, which was a lovely sweet, smooth smoke, and helped to reset my palate for the next cigar.

My final cigar of the night was a Paradiso Francisco. These cigars are called San Cristobal, outside of Europe due to a naming rights thing, they're made by Ashton. This was fantastic, a beautiful cigar with excellent construction, great smoke output, I found it to be a rich, sweet coffee stick on the whole. Even the band was really nice. This was a really nice smoke.

I have to say, I love a Cuban but I think I prefer new world cigars on the whole. While there are some Cubans I love, like a Romeo y Julieta no 2, Diplomaticos, Trinidad Reyes etc, I find the bang to buck ratio stronger on new world cigars. I haven't had anything from the coveted Cohiba range yet, but imo the new world can go toe to toe with Cuba and often do so for less money. But cigars are a very personal thing of course, so if I'm ever giving my opinion to people who are new to the hobby (while recognising I'm a newbie myself) is to smoke a load of cigars and just find the ones you like and make your own mind up.

[EJH]

I like Cuban...but what I think ties our viewpoints is your comment,

"smoke a load of cigars and just find the ones you like and make your own mind up."

This I agree with wholeheartedly; all that matters, to me, is finding what you like yourself; too many people still order based on what they think they should like.

[Miguel Alvarez]

you can all call me a big girls blouse if you like but I've got the ageing room cigars on my do not touch list. There's something about them that ruins me. After one stick I end up passed out on the sofa wondering why the room is spinning. I don't know what it is with them they're super strong.

This weekend I passed by my local and picked up a Hoya Epicure 2 and another Ramone Allone along with a handful of Charatans. I haven't decided which one to have tonight. Probably the charatan.

[red_slr]

Update... after a few days it got to 63% with the Drymistat.
Threw in a few of those pouches (69s) yesterday and its up to 64% today.
Will check again in a couple of days

[Mastodon2]

Miguel Alvarez said:

you can all call me a big girls blouse if you like but I've got the ageing room cigars on my do not touch list. There's something about them that ruins me. After one stick I end up passed out on the sofa wondering why the room is spinning. I don't know what it is with them they're super strong.

You'll hear no mocking from me. I've not had a single cigar that has made me feel ill, but I've overdone it once, with a 3 cigar sitting that took me a little too far. The middle cigar was an Alec Bradley Nica Pura in diamond press, which is a fairly large cigar and the one I had was very strong. I was fine, but I should have called it a night. Instead, I decided to finish up with a Trinidad Reyes - just a little one, it won't hurt etc, but by the time I'd finished that the nicotine had worked me over, I felt hot, a little headachey, felt hungry one minute and sick the next. Nothing more than a mild nausea, but it reminded me that when you think you've had enough, you probably have. I've never had that since though.

The Aging Room was noted by my tobacconist as one of their stronger selections in the humidor, and the bloke smoking one next to me did look a bit clammy and said he thought it was pretty strong, but it just felt like a regular cigar to me. I suppose there will be some days when you're more sensitive to it than others, last Friday I felt like an iron man, smoking through the Aging Room, some pipe tobacco and then a Paradiso (San Cristobal) Francisco without batting an eyelid.

I'm looking forward to another smoke on Friday night, not sure what I'll have yet. One of my friends was waxing lyrical about a Rocky Patel the other day, I can't remember the name (not the 1990), but I know the band so I may well have one of those, some pipe tobacco and maybe another stick. I don't know what it is about cigars, but when you've got a few guys sampling in the lounge, shooting the st and enjoying quality tobacco, there really is something magic about that.

[Miguel Alvarez]

Mastodon2 said:

Miguel Alvarez said:

you can all call me a big girls blouse if you like but I've got the ageing room cigars on my do not touch list. There's something about them that ruins me. After one stick I end up passed out on the sofa wondering why the room is spinning. I don't know what it is with them they're super strong.

You'll hear no mocking from me. I've not had a single cigar that has made me feel ill, but I've overdone it once, with a 3 cigar sitting that took me a little too far. The middle cigar was an Alec Bradley Nica Pura in diamond press, which is a fairly large cigar and the one I had was very strong. I was fine, but I should have called it a night. Instead, I decided to finish up with a Trinidad Reyes - just a little one, it won't hurt etc, but by the time I'd finished that the nicotine had worked me over, I felt hot, a little headachey, felt hungry one minute and sick the next. Nothing more than a mild nausea, but it reminded me that when you think you've had enough, you probably have. I've never had that since though.

The Aging Room was noted by my tobacconist as one of their stronger selections in the humidor, and the bloke smoking one next to me did look a bit clammy and said he thought it was pretty strong, but it just felt like a regular cigar to me. I suppose there will be some days when you're more sensitive to it than others, last Friday I felt like an iron man, smoking through the Aging Room, some pipe tobacco and then a Paradiso (San Cristobal) Francisco without batting an eyelid.

I'm looking forward to another smoke on Friday night, not sure what I'll have yet. One of my friends was waxing lyrical about a Rocky Patel the other day, I can't remember the name (not the 1990), but I know the band so I may well have one of those, some pipe tobacco and maybe another stick. I don't know what it is about cigars, but when you've got a few guys sampling in the lounge, shooting the st and enjoying quality tobacco, there really is something magic about that.

I've had a few over the years just to test and all of them have had the same effect. Evil things lol. The only other stick that did that to me was a Davidoff but that was my first cigar and I had no idea on cigar etiquette at the time and tried to puff it down on a 20 min drive to work prior to having any breakfast. I was a funny shade of green apparently by the time I sat at my desk to log in.

[smokeymo]

Working from home this morning and managed to prepare a light breakfast :-)

[Cuchillo]

For breakfast!!!



Mind you, to say that I am a little bit jealous would be an understatement

Edited by Cuchillo on Thursday 11th June 09:39

[EJH]

smokeymo said:

Working from home this morning and managed to prepare a light breakfast :-)

For those of us that don’t know (like me), what is this morning’s stick (looks to be, I am guessing ~52 or 54...?)...and I can’t read the bands.

[Cuchillo]

EJH said:

For those of us that don’t know (like me), what is this morning’s stick (looks to be, I am guessing ~52 or 54...?)...and I can’t read the bands.

Am guessing this one

[Miguel Alvarez]

I thought it was a Bolivar.