Ration And Rotation

My daily cigar ration consists of two cigars, a smaller vitola, say a RASCC, RyJ Nr 2 or MC Nr 4 before/after lunch and a larger vitola before/after dinner.

Unless of course I’m in Havana or in warmer climate.

Here I will post on the cigar rotation which keeps the cigar ration attractive.

To be able to rotate cigars and therefore have an attractive selection you should own a wide variety of boxes, preferably with some age on them.

Now, I am not a cigar collector, I am a cigar smoker, but I learned to build a collection from early on which I have been profiting from and will continue to do so for some more years, if health allows.

The collecting ( or hoarding ) part is to provide me with cigars that I like to keep and age for a minimum of five years before opening – mostly longer than that – if I can keep my hands off the boxes …

So I just selected some boxes from my storage lockers again for rotation that I consider to be specially interesting for the next few months.

I do that regularly as I consider that the main point of collecting cigars is, I repeat myself : having a varied selection of aged smokes.

These will be my cigars for the next few months :

Ramon Allones Specially Selected from JUN 2004 VHN

San Cristobal DeLa Habana La Fuerza from JUL 2001 EAR

Vegas Robaina Unicos from MAR 2004 LLN

Bolivar Belicosos Finos from JUN 2006 OSU

H.Upmann Magnum 46 from JUN 2003 HKV

Having smoked the first few cigars from each box I must say : fantastic smoking.

The RASS is Colorado wrapper and perfectly box pressed. Rich and creamy, slightly peppery. Even Tina at the Irish Pub liked the creaminess of this cigar.

The VR is intense, I had not expected it to be this perfect. Would have it anytime again and happy to have some boxes left.

The BBF has slight plume on the wrapper and is deliciously rich while kicking some serious ass. Still full of tannins, wonder if it’s too early for it to emerge out of the Cabinet.

The H.Upmann Mag 46 has been stellar, a very pleasant surprise

box of pepper and spices, so far the best rounded stick from the lot.

The SCDLH was smoked on Christmas Day after lunch, very mild, woody, guess the remaining boxes will be the first to go .. don’t see much potential left here. A fine morning or “easy” cigar to me.

Now to a very fresh release which to me has been best cigar hands down these last few months and indeed in 2013 :  the Partagas Lusitania Gran Reserva which I started smoking in Havana and have so far smoked half a dozen samples: absolutely brilliant cigar in each and every stick so far.

I am happy to have a few bundles in my lockers already and further supply will be provided next month.

I cannot fathom its aging potential but I’d love to be around in 15 to 20 years to rotate the last ones along with the Montecristo 520 …

Happy Rotation into 2014 !!

Nino