The Man who Came to Dinner--and brought cigars!

If you've been reading this little blog long enough, you know that not only do I play a wallflower on TV,* I'm also one in real life. In fact, my superpower is invisibility. Unless I think of something funny to say, although even then, I generally can't exeunt off stage quick enough.

Ever meet someone who intimidates you from afar** but when you*** talk to them you just like them and they aren't intimidating at all? (The initial intimidation comes from an outgoing, usually well-known person who triggers my inability to sound like the smart and funny girl my mom says I am.)

Me, when trying to speak with someone in authority or an expert in a field.

That just (and by "just," I mean a month ago, because I'm me) happened. There we were, standing in the buffet line, when Valentino started chatting with Dan Welsh, he of L'Atalier, who was strategically standing on the line outskirts.****

He wasn't very pointy when we saw him;
neither was he followed by two logos floating over his head.

Now keep in mind, I am literally starving at this point, not having consumed much of anything all day (Raisinets! The chorus line of candies!) and if I don't get to that food soon, people will die. Or I will fall asleep. It's always a crapshoot. 

When Valentino and Dan started chatting about the land fertility in the Nicaraguan Jalapa Valley versus in Esteli, I wanted to stay and listen. Not intimidating at all! Just...nice. And kind. And knowledgeable! (Wicked smaht to my fellow New Englanders.)

A veritable Sophie's Choice occurred. Do I stay, listening, learning, and disappointing the getting-angry line-dwellers? Or do I abandon conversation, full-steam***** ahead?

You've met me, so you know I went for the food, but the fact that I THOUGHT about not going for the food says a LOT!

Here's a little about The Man who (almost) Made Me Forget about Food:
  

Way back in about 2011, some chaps cooked up a cigar caper; seekrits ran amuck with whispers of surrogacy. None of this made any sense until the Surrogate Cigar line was born, delivered in the My Father Cigars factory in Nicaragua. 

Right around that first birthday, the chaps--Dan Welsh (obviously), Sean "Casper" Johnson, who is no relation to... brothers K.C. Johnson and Pete Johnson, who round out the gang--created a bigger world in which the Surrogates would live. And they called it L’Atelier Imports. (L'atelier means "workshop" in French.)

You know how sometimes you would love to have those limited edition sticks your pals wave around, hoping to rev up your jealousy? (Don't you hate it when it works and even more than wanting that cigar, you'd love to accidentally throat-punch that pal? If it makes you feel better, most of those guys won't actually smoke the cigar because it is limited.)

Well, the Surrogate cigar family, premium in nature and awesome in execution, allows you to have your limited edition and smoke it too, thanks to a more budget-conscious price point. (You can still throat-punch the guy if you'd like. We won't tell.)

Yes, delicious; yes, wallet-friendly. But you know why I--the girl who adores words--love them, right? Have you tried the Skull Breaker? Bone Crusher? Tramp Stamp? Crystal Baller? Satin Glove? Animal Cracker? Cracker Crumbs? Oh, the cleverness abounds!

[Source]

The company has lots of awesomeness I could tell you about, but we both have limited attention spans, so here's some info on the newest Animal Cracker in the box:

In March, L’Atelier Imports introduced "a new line extension to its Surrogates Animal Cracker blend. The Surrogates Animal Cracker AC550 will add a traditional 5 x 50 sized offering into the popular line.The AC550 becomes the third vitola based on the Animal Cracker blend. The announcement of this new size was reported by New Havana Cigars – the retail outlet owned by Dan Welsh," according to Cigar Coop. 

Here's a video, because I know you're bored at work and you're almost ready for cat videos. Check this out first. Then may we suggest this? And on your way home from work, stop and pick up some Surrogate cigars. You can leave your "thank you" in the comments section tomorrow. (You're welcome!)

Video - Interview: L'Atelier Cigars, IPCPR 2012 - Orlando, FL 

Cigar Explorer from Cigar Explorer on Vimeo.

Got to go! We're heading to another of these fab dinners. This time with Steve Saka. I should probably have a snack before we leave!

*Not true. The very nature of the wallflower  keeps me from being on TV. 

**afar joke

***Valentino, not ME, silly. Didn't you read the first paragraph?

****Look, honey, it's that nice cigar man. 

*****This is the correct usage. I saw this in a magazine advertisement the other day and it said, "Full speed ahead."  Dear god, have you no copy editors with fully-functioning brains???

******

An explosion of awesome!

"I should buy those," I said, although I pretty much say that daily about a variety of cigars.

[source]

Sometimes I actually buy them. Sometimes I don't--for a variety of reasons, including I forgot about it or was distracted by something else. (Dust motes? Possibly. Ginger ale bubbles? Maybe. Another episode of Archer? Always.)

The world stops when this is on,
regardless of the time or prior commitments.

Thankfully, sometimes Facebook is an awesome secretary. Pal Barry Stein (Hi Barry!) of Two Guys SmokeShop in New Hampshire told us (okay, told the Facebook world) about the TatuajeM80.  Unless you're new to the blog,* you know Valentino and I love love love almost anything limited edition or hard-to-find. Plus...Tatuaje, so....

Barry's a wily bugger.  First, he said, "Hey, we have these. They're made for us and only us!"** and later, "Only xx boxes left!" And then "Really, they're almost gone!"

 

One morning, I was lying in bed, procrastinating getting up because mornings can be assholes. I flipped through Facebook and there was Barry again. His message pretty much said, "For reals. This is it. They're going to be gone in nanoseconds!"

I started filling out the info, squinting because my glasses were out of reach, and hoping the system held my credit card info from the last purchase.  Nope. Maybe they take PayPal? Nope.  I didn't want to get up. Nope. Not for anything.

Dammit. I could wait and finish the order when/if I got up. It's not like they'd sell out, right?

But what if they did and I missed out due to pure laziness? That would be sucktacular every time someone splashed a picture of the M80 mid-smoke.

I trounced, no shambled, no, stumbled down the stairs for my wallet and card, entered the requisite info, and hit Submit Order, all the while holding my breath.

Shortly afterwards, Barry posted Two Guys had sold out. I happily wrote "I got mine!" while feeling a little giddy, as if I'd just been accepted into the cool kids club. He told me I got the next-to-last box.

I headed back to bed, but that ship had pretty much sailed. You can't and shouldn't interrupt laziness with productivity. That's just stupid and I know better, but I did it, all for the love of the leaf. (See what I did there? Said the name of the blog in the blog?)

I kind of forgot about them as I scurried around in preparation*** of Valentino's return from a week-long golf trip.

 

 

Then, the day of his return, a package arrived. 

"What did you buy?" he asked.

I crinkled my forehead  with perplexitude. "I have no idea."

He opened it and...

 

We decided to save them for a 4th of July party at newly-minted Caballero #3's house, which seemed apropos.

And so this happened.

 

L-R My boy, our hero, Caballero #3, and Caballero #2

"This is fucking good," Valentino said on the third puff of this 4 x 50 with an Ecuador Habano Oscuro wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and filler. He waited that long to tell me because I was noticeably absent during the first two.****

 

Some guy at the party said, "I'm going to have to have to get some of those."

 

None for you!
(Unless you already have them, of course.)

 

"No," our hero said, a wee bit smugly. "You can only get those at one place and they're sold out. Penny got one of the last boxes."

I'll admit a bit of smugness as well. Yay me! Yay American Express!

Of course this means he's going to ration these to the point where he won't actually smoke them. And now I'm mad I didn't get the last two boxes. When am I ever going to learn?

As I'm sitting here writing this, I remembered that I currently have a box of LFD Firecrackers, also only available at Two Guys, in that shop's online shopping basket. Letting those go because of cupcakes and words would be a shame, so I hit SAVE on this very blog post, and ordered them. What are the chances I'm going to remember that I ordered them? Not very good, if you must know.*****

But when they do arrive, you'll be the first to know. Well, not first. But as far as you know, you'll be the first.

Will misunderstood our M80 discussion.

 

 

*In which case, HELLO! how are you? You look very pretty today.

**Paraphrase

***Cleaning, but not that "everything is messy and he's going to flip if I don't do it," but instead, "Crap, I have seven pieces of paper randomly strewn on the counter and the vacuum lines have disappeared from the carpet" clean. But still, it was making me crazy.

****there were CUPCAKES that needed to be eaten and I take that job seriously.

*****However, I CAN remember that John Lennon died in 1980, even though I never really paid much attention to him or his music at that point. Also, Sammy Davis Jr. and Jim Henson died on the same day. (There are people sitting near me talking about celebrities and when they died. These two fun facts popped into my head during their convo.  Because I am socially awkward, I kept these thoughts to myself and my nose in my iPad.)

 

Tatuaje is a super-fun word to say. Or: Is it hot in here or humid or...?

Once upon a time, Valentino and I had a few small humidors spattered around the house, holding a respectable amount of cigars. Somehow, we worked our way up to seven stuffed desktop humidors. At that point, we had two choices:

1. Stop buying cigars (hahahaha. As if.)
2. Get ourselves a stand-up humidor

We obviously chose door #2.

 

That 2,000-count humidor filled itself up quite nicely and right quick.  We needed another.

 

We ordered another. It arrived and...

 

 

 

 ...we nestled it into Casa Awesome. Then, we went outside and when we returned to joyous central air, we found that second 2,000-count humidor full.* Sigh.

 

Recently, SuperFriend Kurt Kendall, created the most gorgeous shop, humidor, and lounge when he (literally) moved Twins Smoke Shop to new digs. As a result of that relocation, a few display humidors were stranded at the old place. Because we are generous souls, we and Caballero #2 offered to adopt them. Commence negotiations, mayhem, and shenanigans, because that's how we roll.
 

Bonus points to me for this killer segue: The three caballeros and I hopped** into the HerfMobile and rolled our way to aforementioned humidors.***

Many of you have seen this truck
at various (understatement) cigar events.

After a quick trip to Dunkin Donuts for people-fuel, I said, "You're probably wondering why I brought you all here," while stuffing a jelly munchkin into my mouth, so it sounded like "Gru prablay worworworing un brut un uh he." I wiped the powdered sugar from my fingers right onto my jeans**** and handed each of boys one of these:

The ones I gave them were unlit, of course.

 

You say, "Hey, is that the most awesome Tatuaje Havana VI Artistas?"

 

I say hold your horses; I'm getting to that.

As I bossily thrust the medium red-banded torpedos into their faces, Caballero #2 said, "Hey, this is a Tatuaje. Yum. Which one is it?" (Usually he can identify a cigar at a zillion paces, but in his defense, he was charged with navigating through outer-Boston traffic.)

Always afraid of upsetting my epic-level nerdiness and conveying incorrect information, I consulted the mighty internets for cigar details. (Hahahaha. I could barely write that without laughing so hard Diet Coke came out of my nose!) Anyway, thanks to the folks at Cigar Coop for the info (unless otherwise noted), here's the dealio on why the fab Tatuaje Havana VI Artistas is so named:

1. The cigar is made in traditional Cuban “Havana” style, complete with a "beautiful Cuban triple cap," according to the Tatuaje website. 
2. "As for the 'VI', this goes back to the fact that originally there were six vitolas made available (since then there have been more)." 
3. And pay attention to the first letters of these original core line vitolas--

• Hermosos – Corona Gorda: 5 5/8 x 46
• Angeles -Petite Corona: 4 5/8 x 42
• Victorias – Corona Especial: 6 x 38
• Artistas – Torpedo: 6 1/8 x 52
• Nobles – Robusto: 5 x 50
• Almirantes – Churchill: 7 x 47

The Havana line-up. <--See what I did there?
::pats self on back for unplanned cleverness::
[source]

 

So the answer to "Is that the Tatuaje Havana VI Artistas?" is Yes. Yes it is, courtesy of our BFFs at Famous Smoke, who sent them to me and said, "Howzabout you get your Band of Merry Men to smoke these mofos?" <--All my words, their idea.

Speaking of words, humidor retrieval day also included a continuous stream of verbal volleyball because these boys play rough with the cleverness and words--except when they're talking about this Nicaraguan-born Tatuaje, included in Cigar Aficionado's 2014 Top 25. Then they're all hearts and rainbows and sparkles and unicorns. Manly unicorns, of course, but still unicorns.

 

By the way, the wrapper is Ecuadorian Habano, binder and filler Nicaraguan. The Garcia family, yes, they of My Father Cigars, creates these 6.12 x 52 "Tatuaje Red Label," which Cigar Aficionado describes as "rich, toasty and earthy quality and that leather note found in many Tatuajes."

In an interview with CA, Pete Johnson said about the Garcias, "They’re like family. We kind of grew up with each other. We really made a life for ourselves by doing something together. They give me credit all the time and it’s a two-way street. I praise what they do. I think they’re phenomenal cigarmakers, and they take the time to teach me. They took the time to actually explain the history of what they did, and why they roll the way they roll. That’s why I made a commitment to work with them only."  We recommend you follow the link to check out the whole interview.

Anyway, Valentino proclaimed this Tatuaje Havana a fab morning smoke, which thankfully worked just fine, as I demanded cigar ignition soon after truck ignition, so about 9:30 in the morning.

Valentino looks like he's plotting world domination.
Or falling asleep. Why so early, mornings?

 

As all three caballeros oohed and ahhed over their cigars, I knew Valentino seethed inside.  Even though these guys are besties, he hated I gave away "his" most delicious cigars (a frequent occurrence). You'd think them the world's last few Tatuaje Havana VI Artistas ever ever ever. I promised him an internet visit to Famous for more! Wheeee! Tragedy averted! Internal conflict resolved!

Caballero #2, HerfMobile owner,***** driving.
Pinky swear his eyes were open during most of the drive.

 

Caballero #3. This was his second partaking.
I demanded he smoke one the previous week at Habanos:

We were listening to my brother's band, Shuttlecock,
which plays at Habanos every Wednesday.

Insert here a series of wonky images as the three gentlemen lifted and organized and planned and coaxed the humidors into the U-Haul. Picture me off to the side, sitting on the empty shop's front stoop, watching, for I am a delicate flower.

Now add more fun through a time-lapse activity montage and the new-to-us humidor is in place, cleaned up, and I, as house humidor manager, happily fill and organize this:

Soooo purty...and organized!

You can't see it in the picture--because it hadn't yet arrived upon the quick snapshot,****** but this is making its way to Casa Awesome:

 

By the way,  Tatuaje, Spanish for "tattoo" and created by Pete Johnson in 2003, is super fun to say. Repeat after me: "tat-oo-ah-hey." 

What's that? You want to know why tatuaje? Pete explains during that Q&A with Cigar Aficionado, "The name came about because Robby Levin, Carlos Fuente, Wayne Suarez, they all gave me the name 'Tattoo Pete.' I had tattoos, but my OpusX tattoo really stood out. I kept on looking at different brand names, then I thought 'let’s try Tatuaje.' People said you can’t pronounce the word, but I think it worked to my advantage. People would say, 'do you have those Tats? Do you have those tattoo cigars?'"

Soon enough, all three caballeros and I will have those tattoo cigars; I think they'll fit into that new humidor quite nicely, don't you?
 

 

*Really, not that much of an exaggeration.

**Me? Hoisted, actually, as the HerfMobile stands no less than one thousand feet high. A winch was required for loading and a slide for unloading.

***Kurt knew we were coming, obvs. We didn't organize a caper or heist, although it would have been hilarious had we done that, starting with me telling them to go in the wrong direction. Hilarious, I tell you.

****And Valentino's head exploded.

*****Although can someone really ever own the HerfMobile? More like the HerfMobile owns you.

******Obvs, I took the pic. Had Valentino used his mad photography skills, you'd still be gazing at the humidor's beauty and not reading this.

It wasn't an Illusione after all! I do mix the metaphors into a dangerous concoction! Enter at your own risk!

Number three? Make that number awesome.

One of the millions of best parts of this movie.
[source]

 

We hadn't had Cigar Aficionado's #3 in their top 25 of 2014, the Illusione Fume d'Amour, yet...mainly because so many cigars, so little time. Sigh. 

But we're* at a cigar dinner sponsored by Mr J's Havana, our once a month festival of smoke and food and pals.  Yes, herfing.  But that sounds so...I don't know. Dirty? Kind of.

 

Anyway, Illusione is the featured cigar this month and (keep in mind I've been choking down huge quantities of prednisone lately) the Fume d'Amour Clemente is mother-effing fantastic.



The beginning of a love affair

You already know how we feel about best-of lists, since everyone and his brother has one, all based on an elusive, intangible selection process.  So keeping in mind that we're meh on it, Valentino lit up the Smoke of Love or Love Smoke and, I hate to say it, I fell in love.** 

Named #3 in the Cigar Aficionado 2014 year-end wrap up,*** this Nicaraguan puro, at 6 1/2 x 48 was "created by Dion Giolito, a cigar retailer from Reno, Nevada, who knew what he wanted in a great cigar and wasn’t afraid to push hard to get them just right," according to the Cigar Aficionado story. 

A few members of the regulars--Paul Joyle, Tom Joyle, our hero,
Mark Freeley, and Edgar Deckmange.

For this gang at Millonzi's in West Warwick, RI, the Fume d'Amour  is the perfect post-dinner...I guess you could call it dessert.****

"Limited production and high grade tobacco combine for what are some of the top-tiered blends on the market today, and Fume D’Amour stays true to that recipe." [source]
 

At the Mr. J's dinners, you receive two cigars.
Naturally, our hero gets four, because he makes off with mine.



Illusione spokesmodel Edgar Deckmange told us about how this cigar doesn't use any ligero, which is usually the leaf that punches you in the face, the heavyweight champion of tobacco leaves. Instead, Giolito blended viso and seco, the lower, milder primings, which created the full-bodied bout, without the 1-2 punch. But like a fight of experienced boxers, the small moves, the refined notes, create the technical knockout of other cigars in a sly, subtle way.

"You wouldn't know there's no ligero in this," said our hero, as he performed a magic trick, making the cigar disappear.


The hand is quicker than the eye.

"That's the 4-6 year old tobacco," Edgar told us. And Giolito choreographs different portions of the leaf, some closer to the stem, others towards the end of the leaf, which makes for the unique blends found in the Illusione cigars. The prizefighter makes sure all rollers are making cigars only to his liking.

It's true! Not only do you get great food and cigars, you can also LEARN things at these cigar dinners. 

If you're interested in whooping it up with us, the next two events will be:

Monday, April 6--Drew Estate

 

 

Monday May 4--Tatuaje

 

*I swear I start these things with the good intention of finishing them that night and being all timely--like back in the days when I was a newspaper reporter: Getting shit done right away. I was much younger and less distracted back then.

**I'm sticking with the present tense. If this bothers you, let me know and I'll get a Sharpie so you can change it.

***Sometimes I can be such a stupid girl.


****It IS Cigar Aficionado, so that's something.
 

*****Dammit. I want dessert. Why can I never ever get dessert at these damn cigar dinners, regardless of where they are held and by whom. 

Serendipity Happens: Lord of the Rings

Serendipity: "fortunate happenstance" "pleasant surprise"

Serendipity: A pretty good John Cusack movie

Serendipity: A chocolate shop where you can get this ice cream sundae:

For a mere $1,000. [source]

Serendipity: One of my all-time favorite words and a favorite occurrence. I get sad when serendipity happens and I miss it!

The other evening, while at Habanos, Valentino saw someone wearing a Tatuaje shirt and asked our friend and fabulous bartender Nathalie (Hi Nathalie!)* if he worked for one of the cigar companies. She said, "No," but thought Valentino would enjoy chatting with him, so she introduced them.

As they chatted, Valentino noticed a magnificent ring on his finger--in the shape of an ashtray with a cigar and lots and lots of shiny elements.Naturally, my man swooned, because that ring, loaded with sapphires and diamonds gold and silver is effing gorgeous.

The man, Hamo Tavitian, told our hero that he DESIGNED it. He MADE it. (You guys! How cool is that?**) He showed Valentino pictures of other things--cufflinks, money clips, bracelets...and much more, that he's designed. You can see some of them here. Gorgeous, right?

Of course, I didn't know any of this was happening because I was home grading papers.*** But when he returned to the homefront, a mere six minutes away, he told me the whole story and showed me pictures. How could he pass up a custom-made ring? Especially one as super cool as that?

Now if I had been there, I probably would have been vying for his attention**** and he might not have even noticed the nice man and his shirt, and then...and then...

The next day, he made the call and ordered this baby:

It's a little reminiscent of that delectable dish above, isn't it?
(Humour me and say, "Yes.")

But wait! There's more:

Here's a funny thing: Let's call it serendipity light.  We were chatting with our friends at Rolling Stogies during the Providence Columbus Day Festival on Atwell's Ave...

Thanks for the day off, sir!!

...and one of the guys (Hi Joe!) said, "Hey, we just saw a guy with a really cool ring. It was kind of like an ashtray."

We were all, "Whaaa?" and "OMG!"

Here's another funny thing: We were at the festival 1. Because you know we love those things and 2. To meet up with Hamo to pick up Valentino's ring!

And here's a fabulous thing about this ring: It is custom-made, so even if another guy did have one, it would never be the same as our hero's!!

 
You need to check out Hamo's website and then you need to contact him and then you need to get one and then you need to call and thank me and buy me a cupcake.*****

Lord of the Rings (and other lovely jewelry)

"I'm passionate about my work," Hamo said. "Jewelry is my first love and cigars are my passion--every piece of Design by Hamo jewelry is hand-designed and hand crafted by me. I hope you enjoy wearing it as much as I do making it." Trust us, you totally will.******

Note the H on the cigar. Hmmm...I wonder what that stands for...
(It's Hamo.)

Know what helps up the Cool Factor? It's as heavy as...a really, really heavy thing. So heavy that if I wore it around my neck for more than ten minutes, I'd become a C-shaped lady right-quick. But it would be worth it because everyone would stop and admire my lovely necklace, just like they admire his gorgeous ring.

Just so you know, Hamo creates a full line of men's and women's cigar-themed rings, cuff links, pendants and accessories with many various stones and metals including ruby, emerald, gold, silver and more. See just a small sampling here and here.

Let's take another look at this and swoon over the blue sapphires, diamonds, Argentinian silver, and gold. And you can't even see the ruby that's mimicking the lit end of the cigar.

Hamo's business is located in Boston, but that doesn't preclude you from chatting with him and maybe getting a little something--or somethings--for yourself, regardless of where you live. Or you could just happen to leave the website open on a page that just happens to have a picture of something you just happen to want. Because sometimes, just sometimes, serendipity needs a jump start.



*Hi (again) Nathalie!

**The Cool Factor is cranked up to a zillion!

***Grrrrrr

****Hahahaha

*****Cupcakes are the world's greatest reward.

******We are incredibly trustworthy, if we do say so ourselves. And we do say so.

The Big Eek! Plus! Fun with Joya de Nicaragua and Tatuaje

The pair of caballeros and their lovely partners headed to Springfield, MA for the 99th annual Eastern States Exposition, known to most folks as The Big E. (Insert your own joke here.)

"The weeks-long shindig is billed as "New England's Great State fair". It is the largest agricultural event on the eastern seaboard and the sixth-largest fair in the nation. The Big E is inclusive of all six of the New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.* Each of the New England states is prominently represented at the fair," according to the Almighty Wikipedia.

We joined all the people in the world there. And they all decided to show up while we were safely ensconced in New Hampshire, thus lulling me into thinking the crowds wouldn't be all that bad. I do not like crowds. I do like Xanax**, which helps me not hate crowds of people as much, so there's that...

It may be nice and peaceful when you go in right as they open...
but not when you come out!! [source]

But that's beside the point. We're here to talk about cigars, and that's what we shall do...

While in Connecticut,

[source]

...we happened upon the Connecticut Valley Tobacconists, who were rolling and selling cigars.

[source]

Valentino picked one up and said it was a good smoke, although I think he was a bit distracted by the throngs of people to fully enjoy it. Unfortunately, all the smells of deep-fried everything in the world (or at least New England) kept me from actually enjoying it, so we're going to have to take his word that the cigar was pretty darned fab.

Once he finished that, he and Caballero #2 synchronized their smoking and this happened:

No, we did not ride any rides.
Unless you consider eating and shopping a ride.
Then, wheeee!

Every time I see this picture, in my mind,
I make a little toasting with glasses noise.
Clink! A votre santé! To your health!

Caballero #2 gave Valentino this Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta, which I luuurved. Unlike the first cigar of the day, we were seeking refuge from the rain while he smoked this one, so I actually got to enjoy it.

Get them all! [source]

You know how any Nicaraguan cigar is almost always a slam dunk in Valentino World, so this one screams "Love me!" before a flame ever touches it. Because it's on the label and all. And because the filler and binder are from that very land and the wrapper is Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade and Nicaraguan Habana Criollo at the head.

What does all this mean? Super creaminess, which I'm learning is a slam dunk in Penny World. And just like a sugary dessert is enhanced by a pinch of salt, the pepperiness perks up the creaminess. This delight also has undertones of almonds, cocoa, and even a bit of earthiness.

Here's an interesting fact: Did you know Drew Estate handles the U.S. distribution of Joya, Nicaragua's oldest cigar company? True story.

Per usual, Caballero #2 brought a pocketful of cigars. For this portion of the show, he produced...wait for it...the Tatuaje Tattoo Caballero***!!

And then get these!! [source]

According to Cigar Coop, "While Tatuaje Cigars are made by My Father Cigars, this particular cigar is made at Tabacalera Cubana (TACUBA) in Esteli, Nicaragua.  TACUBA is a factory owned by the Garcia family.  It was opened when the Garcias expanded its operation out of El Rey de los Habanos in Little Havana, but before the construction of the My Father Cigars S.A. factory.  TACUBA is still used by the Garcia family today."****

As I didn't get close enough for a full-on second-hand smoke, we're going to go to CI for some deets: "The buzz has been flying over the reintroduction of the Tatuaje Tattoo series, which originally appeared in 2011 in a limited edition version. The cigar was massively popular, and for good reason, a great blend without the boutique price tag. There is no question why the new Tattoo should be any different, seeing as how it comes with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper and an enticing mix of Nicaraguan filler leaves. Medium bodied and bursting with notes of cocoa, leather, pepper and a slight sweetness. To Tatuaje, all we have to say is this: Welcome back."

Many more cigars were smoked; much more food eaten; many much more people bumped into and hidden from.  Would I go back? I would, with a Xanax at the ready, just in case I start to get eeked and freaked out. You should come with us! I have enough for everyone! Wheee!

 

*Oh Vermont, I love your lovely earrings that lovingly grace my lovely ears. And New Hampshire? The maple candy? I want to marry it. Is that legal in your state?

**Which I have taken to calling "Mr. X" because I think it sounds very mysterious.

***I can't make this stuff up! How serendipitous!*****

****I don't know why the font is messed up here. Move on, please.

*****This is one of my favorite words of all time.