What Cigar Are You Smoking? 2025

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BenMN

Lifer
Jun 21, 2023
3,299
52,590
St. Paul, MN
It's clear you have good taste, and not only that, you practice it several times throughout the day. With the daily rush, it's difficult to do that more than once a day. For me, it has usually been twice a week.

From what you've described, I imagine you age your cigars? I age mine as well. I have Bolivars from 2010 and some others from back in the 90s, but I save those for celebrations.

Here is the photo of my modest reserve. Hello from Brazil, and have a great weekend.
Great looking setup.

Is it individual units inside a larger, temperature controlled wineador-type enclosure?
 
It's clear you have good taste, and not only that, you practice it several times throughout the day. With the daily rush, it's difficult to do that more than once a day. For me, it has usually been twice a week.

From what you've described, I imagine you age your cigars? I age mine as well. I have Bolivars from 2010 and some others from back in the 90s, but I save those for celebrations.

Here is the photo of my modest reserve. Hello from Brazil, and have a great weekend.
Thank you. I have good reason to smoke from the best of my humi at this point. I do age different cigars for different lengths of time (depending on country of origin and size). Some are ceremonial, ie: i still have a single cigar from the first full box i ever bought. It must be about 22 years old now. The oldest cigars in my collection are a 1945 Spinoza Chio ("Clear Havana") and Los Statos Deluxe from 1986. Both were gifts from a friend on a cigar forum years ago (i think 2006 or 2007). I also have some rarer stuff and lanceros that have been aged long term. Other than that, there are several domestics that i buy and smoke within a relatively short period of time.

I built a tower style humidor when i was a younger, more ambitious man. An elderly neighbor was moving and had an old oak shelving unit that she didn't want to bring, so i took it to my woodshop (which back then was my garage), pulled all the shelves, drilled them out in the rear for air flow, picked up some 4/4" raw Spanish cedar plank and remilled it into 3/8" thick slices. Used those to line the interior. Resurfaced all the shelves and permanently reinstalled. Picked up some trim wood, piano hinges, cabinet closure clasps and a handle to match the stain. Sanded everything down, used some glass from a window job i did years before and built the door. Wired it for an internal plug (for humidifier) and moved my collection from what was then 3 coolidors into the new humi. Still running it to this day.

Cabinet Humi.JPG
 

BenMN

Lifer
Jun 21, 2023
3,299
52,590
St. Paul, MN
Joya Cuatro Cinco Petite Corona

1000011554.jpg
2nd one from the 10- box, resting since April.

What an excellent little cigar. There are clear and persistent woody notes from the oak barrel aging of some (all?) of the filler. Tonight is also the first time I've experienced that charred meat note I sometimes see reviewers mention. Lovely

Surprised to see Dominican binder on the website description

The inside of the band

1000011555.jpg
 
F

forciori

Guest
Great looking setup.

Is it individual units inside a larger, temperature controlled wineador-type enclosure?
Precisely. Some people put cedar drawers inside, but the temperature and humidity fluctuations are sharp when the humidor is opened, so I prefer to keep them in cabinet boxes. It's not just for that reason, of course; I also prefer the more concentrated influence of the cabinet's wood, as it also provides some oxygenation.

I control the humidity with Boveda packs — 65% in the cabinets. Inside the main humidor, there is a 320g pack. In the upper part of the humidor, I keep a "dry box" at 62% — I prefer this for immediate consumption. I select some cigars from the humidor and place them in that dry box about 15 days beforehand. It works well.

I have some reliable Xikar hygrometers and others (not so much) to send me data via Wi-Fi. This way, I can monitor the environment when I'm away from home or traveling. It's a modest and improvised setup, but it serves its purpose.
 
Nice showing. How'd that X smoke?

Man, when they're right they are so right

Very true. Fortunately, i had plenty of time to enjoy it. What would normally be agonizingly slow traffic became "focus on the Opus" hour. It was a great smoke. Not sure how old this one was, never wrote the date down on it. I'm hit and miss with that on the cigar cellos, but it'd be interesting to see some of the dates now on the older boxes in there with mixed things that have been saved forever. I can say it's at least a few years old as it's been a while since i've bought one fresh. (Used to have good connections in a couple local cigar shops.)
 
F

forciori

Guest
Great looking setup.

Is it individual units inside a larger, temperature controlled wineador-type enclosure?
A single brief opening of the humidor and I already get an ascending graph. The condensation process slightly increases the humidity, and it will only stabilize by tomorrow. Since I open it infrequently, the fluctuations are modest. It's my perfectionism, I know, but I don't know how to be any other way.
 

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F

forciori

Guest
Thank you. I have good reason to smoke from the best of my humi at this point. I do age different cigars for different lengths of time (depending on country of origin and size). Some are ceremonial, ie: i still have a single cigar from the first full box i ever bought. It must be about 22 years old now. The oldest cigars in my collection are a 1945 Spinoza Chio ("Clear Havana") and Los Statos Deluxe from 1986. Both were gifts from a friend on a cigar forum years ago (i think 2006 or 2007). I also have some rarer stuff and lanceros that have been aged long term. Other than that, there are several domestics that i buy and smoke within a relatively short period of time.

I built a tower style humidor when i was a younger, more ambitious man. An elderly neighbor was moving and had an old oak shelving unit that she didn't want to bring, so i took it to my woodshop (which back then was my garage), pulled all the shelves, drilled them out in the rear for air flow, picked up some 4/4" raw Spanish cedar plank and remilled it into 3/8" thick slices. Used those to line the interior. Resurfaced all the shelves and permanently reinstalled. Picked up some trim wood, piano hinges, cabinet closure clasps and a handle to match the stain. Sanded everything down, used some glass from a window job i did years before and built the door. Wired it for an internal plug (for humidifier) and moved my collection from what was then 3 coolidors into the new humi. Still running it to this day.

View attachment 412605
Incredible! You've given me a good reason to have sweet dreams tonight.

It's a good thing I emphasized that I had a modest setup, so this wouldn't be so humiliating. ;)

Jokes aside, that is a beautiful collection and a gorgeous humidor cabinet.
 

Speak Easy

Lifer
Jan 12, 2024
4,371
49,194
45
Western Oklahoma
I haven't smoked an El Rey in a long time. How was it?
First half of the stick was meh, second half developed a little better. Not great, but good for knocking around. Good enough I’’ll try some of their other offerings for the right price.

Currently smoking a Punch Gran Puro Nicaragua. These are a better stick. More bang for your buck. I had a Classico a couple days ago that wasn’t half bad either. IMG_1623.jpeg