Sunday 25 January 2009

Tested and Reviewed - Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars 2009 Edition


Author: Richard B. Perelman
2009 Edition
659 Pages

The book at hand this time is the Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars by Perelman. This concise but extensive cigar guide is an excellent introduction to cigars as well as a great reference list for non-Cuban cigars.

The Cyclopedia gives you a brief intro to the basics of cigars and smoking them as well as shapes, sizes and construction of cigars. In the introduction, you also get an overview on the developement ans status of the cigar markets - mainly in the U.S. market.


Then, the essence of the Cyclopedia: 1360 brands listed, with over 7500 models presented, hand made and machine made alike. All clearly stated and some background information on brands given at the same time. a great tool for reference, when you get a smoke of which you do not know anything or, as myself, double checking some details, if making a review and not wanting to make an ass of myself.


The only two down sides are the facts, that it does not fit my pocket with its over 650 pages, and that the Cyclopedia is broken in tiny bits by advertisements. That i totally understand though, since by looking at my pages, you can see, that my funding comes from that source too...

The Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars 2009 is a must buy for everyone who needs to check details on non-Cuban cigars or just likes to know as much about cigars as possible... Together with the Pocket Cyclopedia of Cuban Cigars, this book creates a very complete infromation package on qulaity cigars. I recommend.

To get your copy, ask your local cigar shop or visit http://www.cigarcyclopedia.com/

Cheers,

Mikko

Friday 9 January 2009

King of Smokes 2008 Awards

It is time for me to reveal the results on my revisit on all the cigars reviewed in 2008. To reflect a wider group of cigars, i have given awards in several gategories, divided according the country of origin. The King of Smokes 2008 title goes to the best cigar of the year regardless of origin. It is just simply the best cigar reviewed that year. All in all, 2008 was a good cigar year for me, but unfortunately i was not able to review all the cigars i smoked and wanted to review.

Anyway, here are the results:



King of Smokes 2008:

1. Cohiba Maduro 5 Genios
2. CAO Vision Prana
3. Cohiba Maduro 5 Secretos


Best Nigaraguan Cigars 2008:

1. CAO Vision Prana
2. CAO Cameroon Belicoso
3. Cumpay Robusto


Best Dominican Cigars 2008:

1. Arganese Nigaraguan Figurado
2. Devil's Weed Nicot
3. CuveƩ Rouge Churchill


Best Cuban Cigars 2008:

1. Cohiba Maduro 5 Genios
2. Cohiba Maduro 5 Secretos
3. Montecristo 4 Reserva


Best Cigars from the Rest of the World 2008:

1. Don Gabriel Lusitanos
2. -
3. -


Black Horse 2008 (positive surprise):

CAO Vision Prana (nigaragua)


Black Sheep 2008 (disappointment):

Arganese ML3 Robusto (dominican)


cheers,