Smoking/Vaping/& Etc Lounge

So Cigar Obsession did a review of this stick and said it smokes like a $15-$20 stick.

I guess I know what my next box will be come the end of summer when I have room for it. If it lives up to the review then this is a fantastic deal.

Pulled out one of my Camacho Check Sixes today and hot damn. This is a fantastic stick. They’re a limited edition made back in 2016, some of the tobacco in it is from 2000 and 1998 so they are of course incredibly smooth. Nutty, woody, sweet, pepper, a touch of anise and caramel at times along with a light cocoa, and there’s also a dried(?) fruit note I can’t quite put my finger on. If you can find a box I highly recommend picking one up since they’re worth close to MSRP imo. I will warn you should have a pretty developed palate since after 4 years the flavors are a bit muted, but if you can appreciate it then it’s an easy purchase decision.

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Always a classic, Partaga Serie D No. 4

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I’ll be smoking his big brother the E No. 2 next week because both birthday and tax day are then.


And now for a long cigar review:

lit up an Ashton VSG Robusto

Watched some Cigar Obsession videos to get an idea of what to expect from Ashton before buying this sampler and what I found was they’re all chock full of transitions so this one might get long.

First draw and you’re already inundated with flavor. Heavy cedar with a light vanilla, finish turns more towards cocoa, fire-cured like wood, and a pepper note hiding deep in the background. Super smooth smoke. First thought that popped into my mind was “This is a Hemingway” but it’s more complex than that. Perfect draw and tons of smoke output to be expected from a >$10 stick.

Maybe 10 minutes in, possibly less and we already have a transition. That Hemingway-like core is still there, vanilla dropped out, cocoa is very in the back, pepper is gone, but a cinnamon note comes up to fill the void. And it goes from a more, smokey like texture to creamy.

Next transition, we go back to the smoky, peppery type flavors rather than the creamy notes. Core is the same. Cinnamon is gone, but now there’s a musty note coming into the mix along with a brown sugar.

Just now starting the 2nd third we have the pepper spice kicking up a bit, core is shifted a bit to a very nice and pretty intense hardwood sawdust. Still a nice brown sugar sweetness tying things together, still musty, vanilla and cinnamon hiding there in the background. There’s also a lingering cocoa very late in the finish. And I did need to touch-up on one side at this point.

Now the pepper is still ramping up, getting tough for me to retrohale as much as I like (which is how I get nearly all the flavors). The brown sugar has shifted to a cane sugar, cinnamon is gone, vanilla is up a tad. And we’ve shifted back to the creamy from the musty. And I got just a light and fleeting dash of a root beer flavor in the draw.

Here just before getting into the final third (god damn this is getting long) the sawdust and pepper are down, sawdust core shifting back to the original core flavors. Creamyness is back down, and a nice leather is ramping up as the most prominent note just under the core. Sugar has dropped down, almost out.

Reaching the band point and we have the leather dropped, sawdust is back, pepper is back and the profile is now a nice balance of the musty and creamy that have been battling all stick long. Strength is also up from the solid medium it’s been at to a medium-full if not full.

In this final bit the flavors are becoming more muted as is normal with most cigars. Pepper spice is down but the flavor is still there, sawdust is down to a kindling-type flavor, that core is still there, leather is picking up a bit, earth now coming into the mix. Strength is now solidly full.


Holy shit that’s a long review…

tl;dr: Woody, creamy and musty, similar to a Hemingway but amped up with much, much more complexity.

Seemingly every draw on this was its own unique experience. Definitely one you want to sit down with and analyze. Excellence right from lightup to the finger-burning nub (and I even had to relight it once in the final third). Only complaint really is the slight burn issues, I just had to touch it up 2 or 3 times. Burn time was otherworldly at either just over or under 2 hours out of a freaking robusto. Easily worth every penny at msrp, possibly even still worth at a bit over. Absolutely magnificent cigar.

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Having a Sindus Black Works lancero, so far it’s strong and spicy. Very nice.

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Smoke for today, about a third in now and it’s really good so far

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Forgot to post here I’m into vape again. Just got a few Aqua flavors, one being Oasis menthol and the other being an ice version of pure. The latter of which I find amazing. Also have new coils which are 30-90w but are best at 60-80w so ofc I pick the best one between those lol

Still have cigars but lately have only been doing the Privada Club so just been getting those lately. Will post when I get to some of them.

Very happy with this cigar, now about half done with the Espinosa Cuban Link and it’s a fairly interesting, mild to medium blend. Bread, tobacco and some other notes make it a pleasant, if somewhat strong cigar.

Edit; amazing burn on the cigar and also really interesting flavors

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Pigked up this fatboi the other day. Kinda pissed though. 200watt body, 80 watt sub ohm.

Pigked up a cleito max to replace my 120

70 watt

What the fuck is happening whered everythitg go

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Having an old favorite

Lucky Strikes are back apparently, though only in filtered form

What do you mean “back”? Did they stop making them?

gross

for years they haven’t been mass produced because R.J. Reynolds thought that lucky strike would overlap with the other brands they own (mainly, Camel).
So you could still sometimes find the unfiltered lucky strikes but it was rare at best. Oddly overseas they are still super popular.
But now, it seems like they are relaunching the brand with the filtered cigarettes, doing a $1 off coupon etc like some of the other new brands that have come out recently. Seems like they are taking the euro-style filtered reds and golds and selling them here now.
Had one of them, it’s not as good as the unfiltered but still pretty good and for $7.80 a pack (before the $1 off coupon) (where here marlboro’s are usually 8-9 a pack) they aren’t bad at all.

It’s been a few years since I bought a pack of cigarettes but I’m sure they have been sold here since forever. Although I don’t remember any without filter.
Could get red, blue (formerly silver), menthol (double click, something in the filter that you need to break in order to get the menthol taste) and “natural” ones. They used to make some limited series like Fire Leaf or Madura.

How they would overlap with Camel I don’t know. They taste different. Camel always had a rougher smoke.

Also: since when do you smoke cigarettes? I thought you’re just in the cigar enjoyer club?
From personal experience I’d say cigarettes are more about getting relieve from an addiction than enjoying the taste.

i like trying different tobaccos, cigarette wise lucky strikes are the only ones i actually like flavor wise and only really the unfiltered ones. these filtered ones are alright but not the same. Still a lot better than the normal marlboro and so on though.
as far as nicotine use goes especially on night shift but even on days a full 12 hour day is hard to get through without caffeine and nicotine so i have all the things now :stuck_out_tongue: but on my off days i dont have much nicotine, if any.

How do you even smoke unfiltered cigarettes without getting all the tobacco in your mouth?

you do get tobacco in your mouth but but it’s not terribly hard to minimize it. Packing the cigarettes before you open them (the tapping thing you see people do with new packs) helps, as well as learning how to smoke it without getting as much tobacco on your lips. But without the filter you get a much better flavor out of lucky strikes. I have no idea if the only other brand currently that does unfiltered (camel red unfiltered) would be better or worse without a filter since I don’t really have camel reds ever but lucky strikes are.

I might try the loose Lucky Strikes tobacco next time I go to my local Trafik (kiosk for magazines and tobacco wares).
Used to only smoke Drum tobacco (the dark blue pouch) for a while since my go-to brands (first Horizon, then American Spirit) were discontinued (plus I had some issues with them sometimes where the sealed tobacco smelled kinda acidic, like tomatoes, when I opened them; I always got them replaced for free at my usual Trafik), then Javanse which was kinda like a softer Drum but had the same issue as the others regarding the smell.
Then just Drum and recently only the yellow Manitou (the latter is like regular tobacco without additives).

I find that the thickness of the filter makes a difference when it comes to taste and that some taste better with thin filter.