Tuesday 25 December 2007

Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year!


Happy Holidays and New Year 2008 to you all!

I am enjoying this time of year tremendously! It is all about Family and Friends... And that you all are indeed. Thank you all for reading my humble opinions during the past year! I really appreciate it! I hope you'll keep reading my blog and take part into the conversation.

I truly hope you got great cigars for Chistmas presents and that you had the opportunity to smoke some in between the festivities. I myself am going to enjoy some of these beauties in the picture as soon as i get to the Ahjo Club.

Saturday 15 December 2007

Review - Cohiba Siglo VI - 95/100


The Cohiba Siglo VI is a True Cuban Cigar.

It has many times been ranked as one of the best cigars in the world by multiple publications. It has scored high on the Cigar Aficionado as well as the European Cigar Cult Journal. On the other hand, the Siglo VI has also been criticized for its changing quality in rolling. The wide range of opinions is a result of the huge demand on Cohiba cigars and through that a large scale of production in a few different factories in Cuba. The more there are people rolling these cigars, the more their quality changes from one cigar to another. That is probably a fact, that cannot be erased with the present day resources.

Anyway, whatever the conditions of production, cigars should be reviewed and scored as finished goods. There should not be any additional variables in the somewhat difficult task of scoring a cigar as fair and objectilely as possible.


To the point:

The Canonazo sized Siglo VI is a perfect cigar. It represents the Cohiba brand to the fullest in all aspects. My experience of the rolling and construction have not been anything else than great. It has a beautiful oily wrapper and its aroma is something stunning. The cigar lights up perfectly and produces beautiful firm white ash and smoke. The burn is even and cool enough to support all the flavors from the three times fermented tobacco.

The overall flavor is creamy and smooth from the beginning all the way to the end. Wrapped inside the creamy frame is a whole bunch of different flavors. First, when you light up the cigar, you notice a balanced taste of tobacco from the Vuelta Abajo district. It soon gives room to a spicy and somewhat coffee-like flavor, that seems to suite my palate perfectly.

The next thing that you'll notice as you smoke the Siglo VI further, are the fragile hints of cedar and vanilla, that rise occasionally from behind the spicy body. When closing down the end, the flavors grow stronger and give away a woody finish.

I would consider the Cohiba Siglo VI to be a full bodied Cuban Classic, that defines the Cohiba la Línea 1492 family and pretty much underlines what smoking quality cigars is all about.

Origin: Cuba

Construction 19/20
Appearance 19/20
Smoke/Ash 9/10
Burn 19/20
Draw 20/20
Aroma 9/10 (9,10,9)

TOTAL POINTS 95/100

Sunday 9 December 2007

Future for Cigar Aficionados and the Cigar Business?

This is a time for some serious words.

As Finland along with the other European countries, has played a card of wide smoking bans in restaurants and other public places, private clubs and smoking lounges are the only possible way to ensure positive future prospects for the cigar business and the pleasures of quality cigars.

This has been aso addressed by the Cigar Cult Journal magazine (editorial 1/2008) and the Editors-in-Chief & Aficionados, Dr. Helmut Romé and Reinhold C. Widmayer. This is in brief, what they have said:

"In some cases ther will be an absolute smoking prohibiton in the restaurant business and in other cases the desired separation into smokers and non-smokers areas will become a reality.

However, there is no reason to fall into resignation. Nothing is achieved through moaning and complaining. What is now at stake is the use of available area of personal freedom for the fine smoke. Since pleasure smokers of cigars, unlike cigarette freaks, will not have the desire or even be able to smoke a petit corona outdoors in freezing temperatures, as this contradicts the very idea of pleasure provided by the cigar, smoking for pleasure in cigar lounges and private clubs will have to be further encouraged.

Those thinking ahead in the gastronomy and hotel trade are already readjusting step-by-step to the new smoking conditions. However, the matter cannot ramain merely with individual adjustments. The tobacconists are also being called on this respect to become involved in the developement of new legal possibilities for pleasure smoking.

Cigar smoking in the future will almost exclusively take place in these spheres. The more lounges and clubs which are existing, the more important it will become for the tobacconists to target these areas of smoking freedom with their marketing efforts.

Along these lines, the demand for cigars and pipe tobacco can again be normalized or quite possibly increased. The creating of areas of freedom forthe fine smoke is the key to the future of the specialized trade, since the people will certainly continue smoking cigars or pipes. The problem is the restriction of the possibilities which have existed up until this point to enjoy them. Only a progressive strategy can step-by-step overcome the current restriction of smoking possibilities. And this within a legal framework.

Fine smoking will also survive these times, as has already been successfully demonstrated repeatedly during the varied history of smoking."


For that, I call for tobacconists, hotels, clubs and aficionados to take action together towards enabling the future of the cigar business and pleasures of fine smoke. I am all available and ready to create genuine cooperation between products, places and customers to establish opportunities for doing business and enjoying quality cigars. Just give me the sign!

I am asking the help from all of my affiliates and friends, advertisers and readers, strangers and acquintances. Please, help me in this quest for establishing places where supply and demand can cross ways and where the individual right for the fine smoke is cherished.

Contact me, e-mail me, call me or grab me by my sleeve wen you see me and tell me what you think we can do together for our future.

Respect,

Mikko Eriksson
a Concerned Aficionado
admin of http://www.worldofcigars.blogspot.com/