Dagnabbit! Also, Happy birthday!

If my birthday weren't on a major international/universal holiday,* I'd forget it.**

While we were at the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers (IPCPR) trade show this past weekend,  I realized about a year had passed since I started  this blog. I vowed to check our start date. And then I forgot, because New Orleans is so hot your (my) brain turns (turned) to grits.***

So 305 posts later and 22 days late, happy birthday, little blog. 



Pretty much me, daily

*Christmas, bitches. I am quite the holiday treat. Best gift my parents ever received.****

**A lie, but also a great (and somewhat clichéd) lead line.

***Which are not delicious, by the way. Although at a breakfast during the show, we saw a sign that said "Artisinal Grits." This is NOT a thing. The very nature of grits--and the word "grits" for that matter--is the complete and total opposite of anything artisanal. This is your brain in New Orleans. Any questions?

 

****In other news, my newest obsession is what I'd like to do on my 50th birthday in 17 months--which is also 17 cigar giveaways from now. Things I know I won't be doing: getting a free meal at pretty much any restaurant that advertises free meals on your birthday and having everyone focus on me and nothing else. (Dammit, Jesus; it's my birthday too. Quit hogging the limelight.)

LFD Mysterioso: Ask and ye shall receive (with a valid credit card)

You can get anything on the mighty mighty internets (except that La Gloria Cubana Serie R Esteli).*

As you may remember, I fell in love with these:

The La Flor Dominicana 7 x 55 perfecto is about as lovely as a cigar can get, with its Connecticut Broadleaf Oscuro & Ecuadoran Connecticut (for the accents) wrapper. Created for the 2013 holiday season, the collectors edition popped onto my radar almost too late.  Almost, because I scored and ha ha ha yay!

I searched the internets long and far and wide and deep. Nothing. Just a lot of "Sold out" messages.  I had the sad. Then on facebook Saturday evening Broadway Cigars in Providence, RI said they had some, but customers were limited to two each. I figured I could run in and out of the store, purchasing two each time. (Of course I would be sure to change my disguise, like a kid anxious for the most candy on Halloween.)

All Sunday, while I sanded furniture, I kept thinking "I've got to get to Broadway!" even more desperately than an aging actor dreaming of The Great White Way. So Monday morning, bright and early (for me) we went! Huzzah!

I've only been to Broadway Cigars once before. That time, while Valentino and our friend Rob chatted with some guys watching a football game, I discussed one of my favorite plays, A Doll's House, with one of the smokers preparing for a lit class exam. I love the diversity of folks you find in a cigar lounge.

This time, we spent a bunch of time chatting with Brenda, who knows as much, if not more, about cigars and the cigar business as anyone I've ever met--from rep to journalist.  If I owned a cigar shop or lounge, I'd steal her away from Broadway in a nanosecond. True story.

Luckily, she didn't make us run in and out of the store, doing quick changes.  We made off with the last seven Mysterioso barberpoles (one box of five and two loose sticks) with one swipe of the credit card.

I own you now! (Gosh, aren't they gorgeous?)

Of course, all this was done with a plan. The two caballeros had a date at Habanos lounge that night for some serious debauchery. Well, as much as one can be while drinking high-end liquor and chatting with friends. So, yeah.

I'm terrible at keeping secrets, so the minute the second caballero came in, I got antsy and handed him one of the Mysteriosos (Mysteriosoii? Mysteriosoes?). Valentino and I thought it would be fun for the two of them to try the cigar together. Naturally, I had to be there in order to participate in my own special way--flirting and second-hand smoking.

There are no words...
How is it possible this much awesome can fit into one picture frame?

 

I have to admit, I did hold my breath when they each cut the cap.  It was so gorgeous!  Don't destroy it! But then we moved on to the next round of gorgeousness. Once the foot was toasted and they respectively began the experience, one of the fine gentlemen said, "One of the best smokes I've had in a long time." The other agreed.  Me too! (Well, you know what I mean.) As in the past, I sat between them so I could have a full assault of delicious. The smell of coffee and a little bit of citrus milled about in the air.  As I continue to learn about cigars, I'm distinguishing the different notes as it burns. Of course, then I go and research other reviews, to see if I'm even close.  Once again, not only was I close, I hit the bullseye! Check out Cigar Coop's review!

 

You can tell they want to get back to smoking more than anything.

Because they only come five in a box (and, in case you didn't know, the box costs many, many dollars--between 85-95 smackaroos), we figured this would be a cigar that would be rationed more than Spam during a war, especially since we only had five left! Five cigars, not five cans of Spam.** And the internets were not helping me find them...until!! Until!! I scored a couple boxes from Corona Cigars.  Wahoo! Have I mentioned how much I love the mighty, mighty internets?



*Case in point: That's where I got Valentino! (For only the cost of one month of match.com!)

**I suddenly have a hankering for pan-fried Spam. Yummmm.  (Pardon me while my white trash is showing.)

I love this picture because of reasons

 

Taken in NYC in 2012. Yes, it is a Padron 64 natural torpedo, the house favorite. Good guess!

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.

4th of July Second-hand Smoke!

Taken at Habanos Cigar Lounge in East Providence, RI,
accompanied by a Stella Artois (him) and margarita (me).

Apparently, this La Palina Goldie Lancero was one of the best smokes he's ever had. Definitely one of the beat second-hand smokes I've had the pleasure of mooching!

 

You may not know this about me, but I love a good story. And the La Palina Goldie line has an amaze-balls story.  One lady, Maria Sierra, rolls each and every one of the Goldie-line cigars. Every. Single. One.  There were 2500 boxes of these Lanceros created. There are ten cigars in each box. That means this one lady rolled 25,000 (yes, I used the calculator) this time around for you to enjoy. Well, you can't enjoy all of them because you'll have to fight the cigar masses to lay your hands on them. Released in May, these boxes, like the other Goldie limited releases, are going to go quickly.

 

Maria Sierra at work. [source]

But wait! There's more! Ms. Sierra is one of the first women trained to roll cigars in Cuba and she worked for 32 years at Villa El Laguito. Maria is a 95 rated, category 9 roller trained by Fidel Castro’s personal roller, Eduard Rivera Irizarri.  "[Sierra] retired from cigar making in Cuba in 2011, but returned to it after moving to Miami to be near her daughter." [source]

And!  "Goldie Drell Paley for whom this cigar is named after was the wife of Samuel Paley who founded the company in 1896. Bill Paley, the current owner is his grandson. The Goldie was created to celebrate the history and contributions of women in the cigar industry." [source]

 

Want to know more about this amazing lady? Check out this article from Reuters.

 

Deets:

Cigar: La Palina Goldie
Size: 7 x 40 (Lancero)
Wrapper: Ecuador Habano
Binder: Ecuador
Filler: Dominican Republic & Nicaragua
Strength: Medium-Full

 

Check out these other articles!

Woman-Made Cigar from Cigar Journal

The Lady's Cigar from World's Luxury Guide

 

And this video!