Where we'll be: It's all an Illusione

Actually, for realz.  On Monday, March 9, (yes, in 2015--although funny story: Yesterday I wrote the year as 2012. Last week, I put a due date as 10/3. I'm obviously having time/space continuum issues.*)

Dammit. I hate when my sentences get side-tracked.  

On Monday, March 9, we'll be at the Mr. J's Havana cigar dinner at Millonzi's in West Warwick, RI. The featured cigar? Illusione!

 

Illusione Rep Edgar Deckmange will be on hand to chat about...well, probably anything, now that I think about it.

You should come. I guarantee a few things:

1. The food will be fab.
2. The company will be even better.**
3. You will get a couple of cigars--and they'll make you super happy. (Not sure which ones, though.)
4. You will not regret going.***
5. You will not get to meet Will, because he'll be on a Caribbean cruise.

Will is here.

Want to know more? Read this interview from Cigar Insider with Dion Giolito. "The company, which is only a few years old [in 2008], was founded by Dion Giolito. According its website, the idea behind Illusione is to recreate the flavor of Nicaraguan cigars from the period before the Sandinistas took over in 1979. Illusiones are a Nicuraguan puro made in Honduras." 

And if you've learned nothing so far, you must have caught that Valentino is a number one fan of Nicaraguan cigars.

Okay, not this bad...

I see a box of Illusiones in our future...

*Star Trek reference in honor or the late, great Leonard Nimoy.

**And I'm not even talking about our hero and myself.

***And if you do, I will buy you a pony.****

****This I do not guarantee.

Mommy, Where do Liga Privada wrappers come from? Or: Another amazingly fun place and time with amazingly fun people!!

The other day, we went here:

Hahahaha. No, I did not take this picture. [source]

Organized by the nice folks at the Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum, we attended the 4th Annual Cigar BBQ where the Two Cabelleros and the Three Musketeers got together for an awesome time! (And me, of course.)

Birds of a feather...oh. Wait. Not a feather among them!

Before we got to the food and cigar portion of the show, we were lucky enough to take a tour of a working tobacco farm. Steve Jarmoc (below) explained the broadleaf and Havana growing process, from seed to sticks. I want to tell you all about that serious coolness soon, but right now let's focus on this event, okay?

See the tobacco over this nice man's head?
Pretty good chance that's going to make Drew Estate cigar wrappers.* Just sayin'...

A little bit creepy and a lotta bit cool.

During the drying process.

Two sides of the same leaf.
So, in turning over a new leaf--you get something completely different! 

Yeah. That happened. Cabellero #2 and his broadleaf chapeau.**

Would you like some T*** and tobacco?

Then we headed back to the museum, where the amazing Karin Mills Tranghese, owner of Cigar Room II generously, generously, generously gave each of the attendees an awesome goodie bag of two cigars, a cutter, and matches. (Naturally, Valentino walked away with mine as well; I guess that's just as well, since he paid for my ticket.)

Karin and the Caballeros.  What a great band name!

Nat Hayden's Real Pit BBQ provided some delicious food, which gave us energy to roam the grounds, checking out the antique farm equipment and cool museum displays--and smoke/second-hand smoke cigars!!

I'd say how sad I am that I have to wait a whole year to hang out with these folks again, but BUT!! A bunch of us are heading to this event:

You should join us!!

*::cough:: Liga Privada ::cough::

**That's French for "fancy-ass hat."

***That's what I call Valentino. Maybe if you're nice, you can, too. It requires a letter of request and three references. Or give him a cigar. A good one.

Three Men and a Little Lady

Yesterday, after a craptacular day capped off with a loooong-ass teaching stint, which Valentino valiantly suffered through with me because he is THAT awesome, I begged* to go to Habanos for a drink.**

Friends already occupied the bar, cigars in hand and Nathalie held down the fort and held up the conversation. (She's awesome. She's the lady in this scenario, by the way.) We nestled in and everything seemed just a little bit better. But like the Girl of Empty Promises that I am, I could neither muster the energy to drink more than ginger ale, nor hold an actual conversation. My brain. She was fried.

Know what? It's nice when you walk into a place and people are genuinely happy to see you. That really helps perk up the day, even if it is 10:30 p.m.

Valentino lit up a Rocky Patel Decade, which has been a favorite for a couple years, since we happened upon a box of lanceros at Mr. J's Havana. (They don't have any more, so don't ask. We made off with the rest, as we are wont to do.) This time he lit a box-pressed 5 x 50, which had a bit of nuttiness, although that certainly could have been my frame of mind (also a little on the nutty side). Or both. A woodiness and creaminess also filled our airspace, a perfect reminder of non-sucky days.
 

From the I-stink-at-taking-pictures files. The one on the right is what it's supposed to look like. [source]

To my left, Eric (Hi, Eric!), who said he'd found this La Sirena Merlion (Sea Lion) perfecto (5.5 x 47) lurking in his humidor...

Of course it didn't look exactly like this when he took it from the humidor.

...and he pulled the Sea Lion up for air (and the lit it on fire, which is where the metaphor dies and the cigar comes to life).


I know what you're thinking: Stop being awesome, La Sirena!



It was a dark and stormy cigar, starting off in the medium range, and then as the storm blew in, becoming more and more full, with pepper and oakiness. (Is that a word? Yes.) But within that all lurked little rays of sunshiny sweetness, floral notes as the rain swept across the garden. I swear I have not been drinking.

According to CI, this cigar is "A fusion of two of the best in the business - La Aurora (Guillermo Leon) and La Sirena (Don Pepin) – this half-mermaid half-lion handmade is all substance. Carefully crafted in the esteemed La Aurora factory in the Dominican, Merlion brings smooth, uber-complex flavors in spades."

They continue, "It all starts with a feisty, yet silky smooth Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper. This lovely leaf hugs a Brazilian Sumatra binder, housing an impressive long-filler bouquet of Dominican Corojo, Dominican Criollo 98', Nicaraguan ligero, and finally Brazilian Mata Fina. An adventurous blend no doubt, each brand's influence is evident, as the Merlion asserts a bold, well-balanced array of rich medium to full-bodied smoke."

I thought about getting Valentino a box, but 1. We're in dangerously low on humidor space and 2. I know he would never smoke any of them because the box and its contents are so cool. 

But wait! There's more!

This was my first Saint Luis Rey. I asked him to please be gentle.

Shawn, a fan of the fuller cigars, (Hi, Shawn!) worked on a Saint Luis Rey Reserva Especial, a 6 x 50 Toro. Talk about dark and stormy! Although I wasn't sitting next to him, I noticed some spiciness wafting my way...  Want more details about the smoke? Take a look here! And I'll try to get closer next time I'm in the vicinity of one of these beauties.

According to the website, "The origins of this cigar’s name are cloaked in mystery. One theory is that a Thornton Wilder play, 'The Bridge of San Luis Rey,' was the inspiration behind this smoke’s moniker. Another is that it was named after the town of San Luis in the Vuelta Abajo tobacco region in Cuba, where these cigars were originally rolled.

"Now handmade in Honduras, these exquisite cigars achieve their renowned full flavor and aroma through a unique blend of Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Peruvian long filler tobaccos, a Nicaraguan binder, and a dark, rich Nicaraguan wrapper."


And now, on to the little one:

Contraband!!!
(Distributed to all who helped de-suckify the day!
A small price to pay. Thank you!)

We just happened to be in Jamaica in January and we just happened to happen upon (after extensive research) La Casa del Habano. In the flurry of purchasing, I may happened to have thrown these on the counter. I swear I had every intention of laying out cold hard American Express for them, but Valentino accidentally paid for them himself. My intentions were true! My speed and accuracy at pulling a credit card out of my bag...not so much. I blame the cognac the shop proprietor forced*** upon us. 

So, crappyish day over, ending on a pleasing note...like a cigar you're not sure you like in the beginning but you give it a chance because what other choice do you have?**** And at the end, you acquiesce, "That wasn't so bad."

Word.*****

*Actual conversation: "Can we go to Habanos?" "Sure."

**I do not ever question why high school teachers drink, and if they don't, they 1. should or 2. are much better people than I will ever be. Probably both.

***Actual conversation: "Would you like some cognac?" "Yes, please."

****Valentino refuses refuses to quit a cigar. Only once, in all the time cigars and I have been around simultaneously, has he thrown down the stick, cursing it and its evil taste to the end of time. No, I am not going to tell you what it was. That's not how we roll here. We're a kind lot.

*****Whenever I try to sound cool, using the kids' crazy lingo (from this century or last), my dear-hearted son says, "Please don't ever say that again." I expect a text from him in 3...2...

James Gandolfini: On relaxation

Patron saint of cigar smokers, James Gandolfini, passed away a bit over a year ago. In case you missed it, here is a memoriam from Cigar Aficionado. (Full disclosure--he was my celebrity crush, my hall pass. Dammit!!)

In "The Sopranos: Mob Rule" from the March/April 2001 edition of Cigar Aficionado, Gandolfini "admits to a fondness for cigars, but again he declines to be specific. 'I very much love cigars,' he says. 'I went to Spain with a friend about eight or nine years ago, and that's where I discovered them. I hadn't really smoked them much before, but I found them incredibly relaxing. Now I'll smoke maybe three or four a week. I'll sit in the same place and not move for 45 minutes. It's a ritual I really enjoy.'"

That's the cool thing about cigars and cigar smokers. I've noticed in my years of second-hand smoking that it's impossible to light up and not be noticeably more relaxed. If we could see the cigar smoker's thought bubble, it would start with, "Ahhhh..." Or maybe, "Fuck, yeah..." depending on his or her mood. Having also been around cigarette smokers for a good part of my life, I've never witnessed this relaxation on lighting up. Generally, they try to get through the smoke as quickly as possible, whereas the cigar smokers let the taste and the experience linger.

Valentino and I were on a Caribbean cruise not too long ago (and yet it seems like a million years ago) and as we walked the length of the deck to get to the cigar-smoking area (THAT is a rant for another day), we passed the cigarette smokers who were puffing furiously, begging the nicotine to get into their systems so they could muster up the energy to spend quality time with their families. I smiled at them (because--cruise and Caribbean!) and they, as a general rule, scowled at best, ignored us at worst. Or maybe that should be the other way around.  Regardless, not one of them looked happy. Not. One.

When we arrived at the cigar-smoking holy ground, and we scanned the area for a place to sit, a man took the cigar out of his mouth, waved us over, said, "Please, come join me!" (Hi, Robert Payton!) While there's lots more to say about the trip and the cigars, and the friends we made, the point here can be summed up by our walk back to our Crown Loft Suite on the Allure of the Seas: cigarette smokers, some different, some the same probably, loitering on the starboard side, not talking to each other, just getting through their seven-minute smokes before returning to the fun.

For us, part of the cruise's fun WAS the smoke (or the second-hand smoke, in my case) and the smokers.

Meet the House Specialist...

...the man who smokes!

...the man with the big cigar!

...the man who reads the posts and just stares at me (I'd like to think he's staring because he's in awe of my genius, but the stare is usually accompanied by a comment like, "You're writing about Spanx in a cigar blog?)

...the man who takes one for the team and smokes all these delicious cigars so I can second-hand smoke them.  (The sacrifices you guys make in the name of love...just staggering.)

It's Valentino!

When did you first start smoking cigars?
Jeez, it had to be in the late 80s.

Do you remember what kind it was?
The Baccarat.  My first box purchase ever. I hated it. I asked the guy at Thomson, or maybe CI, for a recommendation. ::here in the interview is a lot of hand flailing, as the Italians do::  I think I have the box! I don't even remember the flavor. I was new to smoking and I just didn't think they were very good. But then again I didn't know what was not good back then. Oh, plus price. It was definitely a price-conscious purchase back then.

The actual box o' pain and disappointment.

We should give them another try!
::painedlook::

Or not.
I really started smoking cigars on golf trips for my work.*  One of the perks were all these free, amazing cigars, and meeting all these great guys who smoked. That's when I really started getting into the whole culture. My go-to back then was Macanudo.

[*I know what you're thinking. Whhhhaaaaa? Where can I get that job? Exactly. --ed]

Say I bought you a box of cigars and, by the way, it's beautifully wrapped because you know that's one of my mad skillz. Before you open the package, what brand and type of cigar are you hoping for? (Not Cubans, because there's no way I could get those without you knowing, since I'd have to ask you to get my passport out of the safe, and then you'd see the flight to and hotel at a place with a La Casa del Habano nearby, and... So, no Cubans. What else?)
'64 Padron Pyramid. Or the Torpedo.  To quote comedian Brian Regan, "They're BOTH favorites."

I would pretend not to see the charges if you wanted to go to a LCDH.

Because you're nice like that. So I'm smuggling Montecristo #2s into the country?
It's not like you haven't done it before.

Whatever, dude. Next question: What do you like most about the cigar community?
Camraderie. How nice everybody is.  You come in, everybody says, "Hello." Not like a regular bar, where people keep to themselves and smoke their cigarettes, hanging in their cliques. In a cigar bar or with a group of cigar smokers hanging around together, you feel like everybody is on the same level. No one is sitting there thinking that they're better than anyone else.  And everyone talks to each other about the cigars they're smoking, which leads to other conversations, and very quickly, friendship.

And everyone's willing to share. Need a lighter or a cutter? Here you go.  And on more than one occasion, someone has mentioned that they have never tried a certain cigar and they're quickly gifted with one.

You handed over one of the beloved Monte #2s once, to someone you didn't even know that well, although we did see him pretty regularly at events sponsored by our tobacconist.
Well, he said he'd never had one.

Of course. You look like you need a smoke.  What are we having? How about a Monte... Just kidding. Kuba Kuba? I'm dying for something sweet.
::stares in that way that makes a girl's Spanx fall off (which is no easy task)::

Ciao!

At LCDH in Falmouth, Jamaica.