Ziqui’s MRN Inspired Chinese Cigar – A Tasting in Havana
26 Mar
It was a pleasure to meet up again with my long-time friend Ziqui, a Havana resident for many years, and it was an honour for me and John to be invited to a tasting of unique cigars he specially commissioned inspired by the second fermentation of Chinese tea as described in Min Ron Nee’s “bible” on page 9.
It would be the second time I’d smoke in the company of a Chinese Ambassador to Cuba with Ziqui in Havana – having shared MRN vintage cigars with Amb. Zhang, the previous Ambassador, who was also a cigar enthusiast like the present one, Ambassador Chen.
Once again we met at Club Habana and enjoyed Ziqui’s hospitality and the best Pu-Erh tea flown in from China.
The cigar was rolled with Chinese tobacco, contained a tea leave and had a Dominican wrapper, it had perfect construction and draw and was surprisingly mild and aromatic, a very tasty and delicate 90 minute pleasure to smoke.
As Ziqui gave me a full sealed box of the cigars to send to my friend MRN, I’m looking forward to his opinion – he expressed surprise and interest when he learned that his comments on the fermentation of tea had inspired a fellow Chinese cigar enthusiast to create a cigar blend harmonizing this concept.
It was interesting enough for Chinese TV crews to film the event and interview the key players. A welcome promotion of cigars that Ziqui takes seriously in his own books on the subject as well as in conferences promoting the education on Cuban cigars as well as in his cigar lounge in Beijing for more than 10 years.
An excellent event that continued on a “diplomatic” course when Vicente, the Mexican consul in Havana arrived with two of his Embassy colleagues for another nice cigar, this time a Cuban, cafe, rum and a long chat.
He had been informed by our joint friend and secret knight Rick, aka Rico Suave from Austin, TX about my visit and so we spent another interesting 90 minutes in his company – El mundo del tabaco es pequeño y muy agradable.
Thank you very much Ziqui for the opportunity of tasting this highly interesting cigar !
Nino
The experience with the tea leave inside is interesting! Probably more symbolic than functional, very nice touch to the MRN homenaje. And of course a mild cigar with a very good tea is always a good pairing.