[Sca-cooks] Semi-topical query re one of The Hundred: Cigars

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Mon Sep 8 17:38:53 PDT 2008


On Sep 8, 2008, at 8:00 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Adamantius asked:
>
> <<< I'm going out on a limb here. I was interested to see some of the
> comments on one of the objects mentioned among the Hundred Foods/
> Gustatory Experiences one should have in his/her lifetime. The item?
> Cigars. >>>
>
> Well, I've never smoked cigars, but here is an "second hand  
> opinion", yes pun intended.  I prefer the smell of pipe tobacco more  
> than cigars and cigarettes. I'm not sure why the types smell  
> different, but they do.  Perhaps the higher quality stuff goes into  
> the pipe and then the cigar tobacco.  But then I prefer the smell of  
> marijuana to most of the tobacco I've smelled.

Pipe tobacco is often scented with some pretty weird stuff; little  
kids always love Grandpa's Cherry Scented Captain Black until they  
actually try it for real; my own experience is that cigar tobacco (at  
least the tobacco used for good, high-end cigars) is about a billion  
times higher in quality (such as such things are adjudged) than the  
floor-sweepings some people will put into a pipe.

Of course, I have distant memories of working with a guy who smoked a  
brand called Parodi (IIRC), which were short, tapered, thick and  
black, looking and smelling more like a burning kitty-litter-box  
artifact than a cigar.

There are actually some wildly popular, allegedly high-quality scented/ 
flavored cigars out there; the Acid and Cao brands come to mind. I  
tried two different versions of the Acid line, and thought they were  
pretty vile. One was rolled from tobacco that had been cured in a room  
with open containers of various volatile flavor and scent essential  
oils, and to top it off, they appeared to have dipped the mouth end in  
some sort of [artificial] sugar syrup. Smiling, damned villains! Both  
were pretty unpleasant, the more so because they each probably cost  
maybe $8 or so, which I would definitely not spend if I had known they  
would be so hideous.

> <<< A virtual smack on the head to those who tell me "Cubans," which  
> is
> approximately as meaningless as telling me you like any wine as long
> as it's French. Cuban what??? Why? >>>
>
> Well, I'll still say a "Cuban".  Why? Yes, I know that there are  
> different grades and conditions in which they are grown, even on  
> such a small island.  But I would choose a "Cuban" because I  
> consider the current administration's efforts to strengthen rather  
> than loosen the embargo of Cuba to be pandering to a small minority  
> in southern Florida and ineffective anyway.  My opinion is that  
> opening trade with Cuba will do more to change the island than forty  
> years of blockade have.


I agree, more or less, especially when you consider that _most_ of the  
reasons for the embargo essentially no longer exist.

However, that wasn't what I was asking; I was trying to talk about  
specific qualities people liked, and was hoping for more than "I like  
the expensive, hard-to-get kind..."

Adamantius, who meets with all sorts of strange practices on the trade  
routes...




"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter




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