Fourtotheflush:

I think the best part about this country is that you can
Call a liberal an @$$hole
Call a conservative a Shithead
Without getting censored or blown away
So if your in the middle does that make you a shitty naval?

That is awesome! Couldn't agree more.

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I don't wanna hold a job down if its just to make ends meet. I prefer rapid rise and faster falls, I wanna die the American dream.
~~ Josh Martinez

kuzi16:

madurofan:

kuzi16:

walnut and fig glazed sea bass

Holy crap that sounds good. Can I get that recipe?

i have to finish making that up first.

Thats the difference between a cook and a chef right? You are creating recipes, I cook what someone else came up with.

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I don't wanna hold a job down if its just to make ends meet. I prefer rapid rise and faster falls, I wanna die the American dream.
~~ Josh Martinez

madurofan:

kuzi16:

madurofan:

kuzi16:

walnut and fig glazed sea bass

Holy crap that sounds good. Can I get that recipe?

i have to finish making that up first.

Thats the difference between a cook and a chef right? You are creating recipes, I cook what someone else came up with.

im almost 100% sure that a chef has to have some sort of formal schooling. I dont. I still call myself a cook. ... but im working on that.

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Kuzi's cigar catalog blending 101 developing your palate

Yea you're prolly right but still. I enjoy cooking but still use recipes for the most part, just kinda tweak it what I want or to fit the wife's pickiness. Of course she's eating a whole lot more than she did when I met her.

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I don't wanna hold a job down if its just to make ends meet. I prefer rapid rise and faster falls, I wanna die the American dream.
~~ Josh Martinez

madurofan:

Yea you're prolly right but still. I enjoy cooking but still use recipes for the most part, just kinda tweak it what I want or to fit the wife's pickiness. Of course she's eating a whole lot more than she did when I met her.

Welcome to marriage...

LMAO! Sorry, I knew what you meant, but just had to throw that in there!

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Luko:

Just keep in mind if you do, you're pissing off a dude who shaves with a sword.

rusirius:

madurofan:

Yea you're prolly right but still. I enjoy cooking but still use recipes for the most part, just kinda tweak it what I want or to fit the wife's pickiness. Of course she's eating a whole lot more than she did when I met her.

Welcome to marriage...

LMAO! Sorry, I knew what you meant, but just had to throw that in there!

LMAO, well this may be true, shhh, I didn't say that.

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I don't wanna hold a job down if its just to make ends meet. I prefer rapid rise and faster falls, I wanna die the American dream.
~~ Josh Martinez

9-23-08 been in humi since 10-19-06

Don Tomas Clasico Corona Grande (6.5 x 44) Tubo
Wrapper: Honduran
Filler: Honduran, Nicaraguan.

The tube this cigar is in is a painted bright yellow and metal. It is lined with cedar and has never been opened since before I picked it up in the walk in humidor where I bought it. The cigar itself is a medium brown and has a woody spicy smell to it. Cut with a punch. The draw is woody and spicy and a bit on the tight side. It has an oily feeling to it on the lips.

The light is quick and the first few puffs are a sharp cedar with almost no finish at all. The aroma this cigar lets off is very cedar. It reminds me on a woodworking shop. When the finish does come though, it’s a bit too leather for the other flavors in the cigar to work well with it.

Just before the first ash fell (1 ½ inches) the cigar balances out a bit. The cedar mellows some and the leather becomes a bit sweeter. The tiniest note of white pepper is noticed on the back of the palate. The aroma is still cedar and the burn is a razors edge.

At the half way point the sweetness has faded away some and what is left is cedar and leather but not much else. I find those flavors good but, on the whole, the cigar is a bit flat in flavor.

The cigar winds down by warming up a bit. This brings on a hint of harshness but nothing to be too worried about.

This is a cigar that is left over from my “pre-travel-humidor” days. I would buy cigars in tubes to take backpacking for protection of the stick. This cigar was cheap and protected and it was good enough.
…And that’s exactly what it is.

Burn to the band
Burn time: 1h 30m

Burn: 10
Draw: 8
Taste: 8
Aftertaste: 8
Construction: 9
Appearance: 9
Feel: 7

Overall: 8.4
3 smoke rings -- an average cigar

Recommended to:
Those who like cedar in the smoke but that’s all
Those who need a tubo to go back packing with.

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Kuzi's cigar catalog blending 101 developing your palate

9-25-08 been in humi since 11-19-07

Padilla Hybrid Robusto (5x50)
Wrapper: Hybrid Cuban seed/Connecticut seed Ecuadorian Sungrown
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan, Dominican, Peruvian

As I pull the cigar out of the cellophane the smell wafts up to my nose. It’s a rich smell. I don’t even need to hold it under my nose to smell it. The smell is barnyard and a bit of dried fruit minus the sweet. The lick on the triple cap is very oily on the tongue. There is a hint of leather and sweet.

The draw unlit is coco and slightly tight.

The beginning is sweet coffee. The sweet is the initial flavor on the draw and it’s almost sugar in nature. The aftertaste is a bit grassy. The grass soon fades to a coffee after taste.

The first ash fell at about an inch but it was an accidental ash.

At about the halfway point the taste has not changed that much. It isn’t complex at all but the flavors there aren’t expressly bad, it’s not great either. The burn is uneven but no corrective lights are needed.

As the cigar approaches the end of its life a strange bitter taste shows up.

This cigar is a bit of a let down given the pre-light. I expected more out of this cigar and brand.

Burn to the band. Time: 1h 15 min
Burn: 9
Draw: 8
Taste: 7.5
Aftertaste: 7
Construction: 9
Appearance: 8
Feel: 7

Overall: 7.9
3 smoke rings -- an average cigar … just barely

Recommended to:
Give you your friends who don’t care what they smoke.

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Kuzi's cigar catalog blending 101 developing your palate

Ouch, sorry that this one wasn't so good.
What caused the accidental ash?

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Work called! They said if you dont come in on Friday, dont bother to come in on Monday! - Whoo hoo four day weekend!

Fourtotheflush:

What caused the accidental ash?

just my own hands not moving how i intended them to move. the arm of the chair got in the way. the cigar wasnt hurt by that though.



...it was already lacking when it left the factory.

again, just one opinion on one day.

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Kuzi's cigar catalog blending 101 developing your palate

it sounds like you gave this cigar too much credit and hype to start out with, the wrapper sounds awesome but its only a small part of the whole cigar. i think you should leave another one of these in your humi for a while and come back to it in a year and see how it plays out for you i think you might suprise yourself. you seemed so excited by the prelight that i dont think you gave the rest of the cigar a fair chance

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-living the good life-

BigDan.:

it sounds like you gave this cigar too much credit and hype to start out with, the wrapper sounds awesome but its only a small part of the whole cigar. i think you should leave another one of these in your humi for a while and come back to it in a year and see how it plays out for you i think you might suprise yourself. you seemed so excited by the prelight that i dont think you gave the rest of the cigar a fair chance

there is relativly little hype to this cigar. I approached this cigar as i do every other one: with an open mind.
usually when the prelight is that good the cigar follows through... at least a little.

as far as leaving it in the humi for a while...this one had been there for almost a year as it was. Since its a medium body cigar i doubt that more time would do it any good.

its not like this is a very expensive cigar either. if i remember correctly, when i got it they were runnin $2.75 - $3.50 a stick. for that price "an average cigar" is what id expect.

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Kuzi's cigar catalog blending 101 developing your palate

Also Dan aging a cigar will not necessarily make it better. Aging allows the tobacco to marry and for the most part all you're getting from it is removing any harshness from the cigar. If the flavors aren't what you like or its lacking complexity its unlikely aging will change this. If you thought the cigar was harsh or one flavor was too dominant or something along those lines, that is where aging will improve a cigar.

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I don't wanna hold a job down if its just to make ends meet. I prefer rapid rise and faster falls, I wanna die the American dream.
~~ Josh Martinez

10-21-08 been in humi since 6-23-08

Vigilante by Rocky Patel
Petite Corona Corojo (4.5 x 44)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Honduran, Nicaraguan, Peruvian.

The band on this cigar is wide bright and very eye catching. The cigar itself is smooth and brown with only one or two veins in it. The smell is very classic tobacco. Licking the cap brings a taste that is a fairly sweet and oily with a hint on pepper. A punch cut and draw test expose the draw is a bit tight but has a coco and coffee thing going on.

The first puffs are earthy and leathery. There is a bit of that autumn taste that I associate with a corojo wrapper and a mild sweetness. Within the first inch a mild cinnamon develops. It isn’t a hot cinnamon, but rather a raw mild cinnamon that would be good on applesauce, with a mild sweetness. I find the smoke to have a bit of a desiccant and the aftertaste has a fair amount of bitter to it.

Shortly after the first ash falls a strange bubble thing develops on the side of the cigar. It doesn’t poke out far and the burn is still good but it’s definitely protruding out on one spot. I’ve never seen this before.

At the half way point the flavor is about the same. A crack has developed off of the bubble. It isn’t falling apart but it does show there are some issues going on.

The bitter seems to be getting worse though I have slowed my pace of smoking. The bubble and the crack seem to be caused by an expanding binder. The binder itself is not cracked but rather “unfolding”. It seems that this is clearly a construction issue rather than a humidity issue or some other storage/damage issue. The foot is clearly wider than the head of the cigar and is expanding to the point of I can hear it cracking when I draw.

Even through all of this the burn has remained decent. It may be expanding and cracking but its all burning at the same rate.

With an inch or so left the bitter has left but is replaced by an ash taste. The good can no longer compete with the bad. Time to put it down.

Burn time 55 min

Burn: 9
Draw: 8
Taste: 7
Aftertaste: 6
Construction: 6
Appearance: 9
Feel: 7

Overall: 7.4
2 smoke rings -- a flawed cigar


I chose a 2 of six smoke rings because there was a flaw in the cigar; not in the concept but in how this particular cigar smokes. It was very clear that it was a construction issue. I would be interested in hearing from those of you who have smoked this cigar and liked it.

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Kuzi's cigar catalog blending 101 developing your palate

I have only smoked the maduro and its an average cigar. Burn issues are common with it as that bitter finish. Its odd to me that it can come into your mouth sweet and leave bitter but thats what happens with this cigar. The Robusto doesn't have the bitter problem but it does still have burn issues.

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I don't wanna hold a job down if its just to make ends meet. I prefer rapid rise and faster falls, I wanna die the American dream.
~~ Josh Martinez