A Quote:

"What up everybody so glad you're here.  It's Coolio with the flow back in your ear. This ain't a fantastic voyage But I'm still on a mission, to see if I can Get your attention. Now I wants to drop some information.  Just a little additive to your education..."     Artis Leon Ivey Jr.  

So  I think I'll start this post with the dip sh*t of the day, I mean seriously what mental midget (and I mean no offense to any mental midget that might be reading this post) parks a Ferrari, under a tree, with the top down.  

It is safe to say it was the Valet's fault... 

BREAKING NEWS

Food Porn! Flat Iron Steak, with a Pomme Frites, and a fried quail egg from Zinc Bistro in Scottsdale and some kinds of roasted tomato puree (Frances version of ketchup?)

Last week was odd. I mean seriously odd!  The weather forecast called for Dust and Wind.  What they didn't forecast was the rain! Which actually when it rained it rained mud!  I mean seriously look at the photo! I mean seriously, that car is white car, that is NEVER dirty!  It was like the seven plagues

Needless to say,  per my wife's instuctions, I pressed onto Jen and Kirks house for dinner where I enjoyed a Four Kick Sublime. It Bums me out that the Wes Thornton was in town for a solid week and I was unable to connect with him. Oh well next time bro! However this cigar did have a bit of earthiness to it! That is, or was, due to the blowing dust!

Yes those are ducks, three of them,  Jen raised them and yes the produce eggs.

It is safe to say that the cigar below is probably the best cigar that no one has ever heard of! From Regius Cigars it is currently available in maybe 25 stores in the United States and Fine Ash Cigar Lounge is the only one in the PHX that has them in their humidor.  I have had  this in two vitolas the Corona and the Lord Madsen, both I would describe at light to medium bodied that is full of surprises, including notes of coffee.  The best part about this cigar is the price point which is in the $7 range.

Eric Parkinson, of Smoke Boutique Cigars,  hosts an event, he will post a secret word to either his facebook page or his twitter page. The secret word, get you a prize.  The afternoon before a My Fathers Event, I ran into into Eric and I mumbled the secret word or phrase, which was Hot Pockets.  Eric reached into his "coolidor" and handed me this...

The Esteban Carreras 211...

For those of you that don't  the number 211 is actually a number used in police code for Robbery.    This cigar is actually the same blends as the Davidoff Millenium!  Light to medium bodied, the cigar is very smooth and well balanced. but not overly complex.  Still I would buy more!

BREAKING NEWS

My beautiful wife Rhea is featured not once but twice in the April-June issue of  Hobby Lobby's Stamping, Stationery, and Scrapbooking Magazine.  Yup thats right I am a proud husband.

To see more of her work visit her blog Passionate Paper Creations 

Last year sometime I started to hear some rumblings about this line of Cigars that come from Texas and in my opinion RoMa Craft is the best thing to come out of Texas since ZZ Top and COTA. RoMa Craft Tobac is the Brain Child of Skip Martin and Michael Rosales.  Last Year I stumbled upon them at Big Sticks Cigars in Mesa AZ where I fell in very much in lust with the Intemperance.

Sam Lopez has brought them into Fine Ash Cigars here on the West Side.

As part of the launch they were joined by, the Ro in RoMa Craft,  Michael Rosales. I really enjoyed the Intemperance BA XXI (Brazil Arapiraca) and the EC XVIII (Ecuador Connecticut) and yesterday I started with the Intemperance EC XVIII perfecto.  I would describe this cigar as full bodied flavors with a light-medium strength to it.  If that makes sense.

This evening we had our monthly meetup of the West Valley Cigar Club. I made one mistake tonight.  I brought only one cigar to enjoy.  It was the RoMa Craft Aquataine Cranium Gran Toro.  This cigar is medium to full bodied, and is very complex.  It paired extremely well with a Guinness. Check that I made two mistake, I left my eyeglass screw driver at home too! I would have gotten a lot more out of the cigar has I brought that bad boy with me. Thank you Michael I really enjoyed this cigar

So what's up next, I have no idea...Taking it one day at a time and one cigar at a time. As my wife says #PeaceOut..

Until next time #KeepATightAsh

If You Ever Have A Chance...

to partake in something from Davidoff Cigars called a Tongue Tasting.  Don't delay do it!  This event, held at Ambassador Fine Cigars West, was hands down the best event I had ever been to.

Jeffrey Stone, the National Brand Ambassador for Davidoff,  took us on a journey as to what goes into the blending process, the history and the philosophy of a Davidoff Cigar.

Here's how it worked.  Each attendee received 5 cigars.  The Cigar's were labeled  No. 1, No.2, No. 3, and Complete, the fifth cigar we would find out about later.

Right off the bat, we learned that the parts of the tongue sense or taste different things. The tip sweetness, the sides salt, the sides towards the back of the tongue will pick up acidic tastes, and the back of the tongue will taste bitterness (see chart below).

And the goal of a  Davidoff Cigar is to hit all those area's of the tongue.

With that we cut, using a double guillotine, and toasted Cigar #1.  The blends here accounts for 20% of the final blend.  Fairly quickly we picked out some saltiness, a bit of acidity, and some bitterness.  About 1" into the cigars we put it down and cut and toasted Cigar #2. which accounts for 40% of the final blend.

Cigar #2, the saltiness in the first cigar was no longer present, but the acidity and the bitterness remained.  As with Cigar #1 after we smoked about 1" we put this Cigar down, cut and toasted Cigar #3, which accounts for the remaining 40% of the final blend.

Cigar #3 the saltiness, from Cigar #1 was no longer present, and the acidity and the bitterness that appeared in all three cigars was gone too!  all that remained with the sweetness at the front of the tongue. This Cigar was also the strongest of the three.

OK this was cool,  so it was time to cut and toast Cigar #4 or the Compete Cigar.  Instead of cutting it with a guillotine, we used a punch.  In this cigar the Sweetness, the Saltiness,the Acidity, and Bitterness worked together to create a very well balanced, somewhat complex, cigar.  After the first inch, or so, we applied the Guillotine cutter to the cigar, and the experience on palliate changed.

The fourth cigar was paired with a Knappogue Castle 12 yr old Irish Whiskey. which shared many of the same characteristics of the "Complete Cigar"

We learned that the Complete Cigar was the actually the Grand Cru #3. The Grand Cru #3 uses a combination of  Olor, San Vicente, and Piloto Cubano tobaccos to achieve this flavors.  In fact Cigar #1 was from Olor tobacco, Cigar #2 was San Vicente tobacco, and Cigar #3 was Piloto Cubano tobacco. 

Ah the fifth cigar, was unbanded, and came pre-punched.

Here is what we know. The cigar was the same blend as the Grand Cru #3 but the wrapper was different. The wrapper was a sun grown Yamasa leaf.  The same leaf that is used as the wrapper in the Davidoff Puro d Oro. Sadly this particular blend is not going into production! Why?  That is question for Hendrink, Henky, Kelner, the mastermind behind the Davidoff blend.

As I said if you ever have the opportunity to partake in a Davidoff Tongue Tasting.. Do It. It is well worth the time, and any nominal fee, you invest.

Until Next Time

#KeepATightAsh