Montecristo No. 2 Review

Vitola: Torpedo (6.1" x 52RG)
Price: $12+ stick

Wrapper: Cuban, Habana
Binder: Cuban, Habana
Filler: Cuban, Habana

Aged in Humidor: One Month
(Smoked two. Gave one to a friend. The rest will age for an indefinite amount of time)

Set of Photos of the Montecristo No 2 Box

Set of Photos of the Montecristo No 2 Cigars

Appearance and Construction:

You look at this stick and there is nothing really fancy to it. The band is plain, no special coloring, just a dark red hinting on the brownish side with white trims, even the design is so simple. The band matches the wrapper so well, because the wrapper is in between a light and medium brown. It has a slightly oily wrapper. I squeeze the cigar and it is dense with almost perfection in moistness. The wrapper has a rustic and slightly uneven complexion but otherwise smooth with light veins.

Tasting Notes:

The initial scent of a cigar out of the box is of the factory it came from, it's of a deep stable aroma of a comparison to a strong tea leaf but it's of tobacco. The hint of that refined sweetness or amonia from fermentation is ever so light, a tiny, tad bit of it.

I'm going to be a slight hater on this cigar, because everywhere I go I read great reviews on it. I expected better. I start to light it in circular motion and I can see and smell the lightness of the fumes. The initial light gives forth a medium bodied draw of an earthy, toast-like, flavor. A little bit in, there's a light but dark hint of cocoa, spice and oak flavors, they mix well together. I liked the flavor and ease of the initial draw: it was not hard or too easy on the intake. It gave me high hopes from the first puffs.

I am on my first third. The initial flavors are still there, enjoying them. The cigar is burning steadily, unfortunately a little uneven. The filler is burning a little faster on one side, only a little bit, and burning without some of the wrapper. I have to touch it up. Other than that, the draw remained constantly well all the way through. The ash is now at it's one inch phase and drops, it doesn't hold for more than an inch. It's becoming stronger. I can start to taste the tobacco flavor more.

At mid-point I'm getting a strong leathery and smoked oak flavors along with the tobacco, those earlier flavors are less apparent. By the end, it still retained most of it's oak flavor mixing in with a deep earthy and sometimes a bit of a nice cocoa like flavor, all three phasing in and out. That's pretty much the cigar: smooth yet dark with a medium to strong body. I wish this cigar or at the very least the ones I smoked had more complex or rich flavors, instead it just turned out to be a mediocre stogie. Enjoyable but an average smoke, a bit overly praised.

My overall rating is a 88, for now

Romney or Obama

Debate 2:

One of the things that Mitt Romney said I paid more focus on than anything else is that he said during his tax plan is anyone with an annual income of $200,000 or less would no longer have to pay taxes on bank dividends, capital gain or interest off investments. I made notice to this statement because I fall into that category. Hmm, the senator wants to help me save a few bucks, how thoughtful. Knowing politicians, I wondered what the catch was. So, I did a Google search on comments to that from brighter minds than my own and this is what I fount:

Daily Kos - Romney Introduced His Biggest Trojan Horse Ever During Debate

I get dividends or interest from investments. Not much but still enough to make me take notice. Without doing anything and as long as I keep my money in the investment, I get $500 to $1000 annually for example on one of my investments. At the end of the year it gets taxed, depending on your income bracket you can pay a fungible 15% or higher (if your income bracket is higher) on that bank dividend, capital gain or interest off an investment. Now say the IRS taxes 15% of my $500, that means at the end of the year, I owe them $75, if they tax my $1000, I owe them $150. That $75 or $150 is such a negligible amount on an annual basis or compared to people on the grander scale who make their living from interest or dividends off investments.

Let us take New York City's Major Michael Bloomberg for example, his salary for being major of New York City is just $1.00 (no that's not a typo or a misplaced decimal). The $1.00 salary trend falls under many wealthy individuals like with the late Steve Jobs and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, just to add a name or two. The reason they only take one dollar salaries is because the bulk of what they earn do not come from salary but dividends or interest earned off their investments or capital gain. Their payout is way more than my $500 to $1000, now you're talking in the hundred thousands or millions. Mitt Romney's net worth is $250 million dollars, he can easily make the one dollar salary apply to him, thus he falls under the $200,000 or less bracket. He will then no longer have to pay taxes on his $250 million or money made off it. At the very least that's what he's trying to do for him and those on top. But guess who still does still have to pay taxes to aid the national debt?

Newton's Law of Motion

Newton's Law of Motion - A body in rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motion, unless imposed on.

On the night of Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 I was feeling a little light headed and feeling off, but other than that, I was fine. I became hungry that night, so I grabbed a ham and cheese sandwich that was in the fridge for a few days, bad mistake. By Thursday morning, I woke up with a stomach ache, light headache, heavy lost of energy (unable to get out of bed) and nausea. I think I caught a stomach virus. I stayed in bed all day Thursday. The same on Friday until the evening when I started feeling slightly better, strong enough to go to work on Saturday but still weak. Then guess what? I caught a cold: the sniffles, runny nose, coughing, a sore throat, feeling weak and off focus. It's now Monday, October 15th, 2012 and I am back to normal.

I think about life and death sometimes, maybe because I've seen the latter in my life a little more than I care to. The two days I lay there in agony and weakness I thought of my mortality. I think the only reason we work is to pay the bills for the things we get by with like our shelter, food, cars, etc... If not for working to have to pay for those, we would have more time to enjoy what's already a short lifespan much more. That is my mind set right now, I am working hard but my focus is not on finances, money is important because it is necessary to live but I'm not trying to make a billion before I die, that was my mind set at a younger age. Money plays a role in enjoying life because the things we enjoy cost. So hard work go hand and hand with enjoying life. But love and leisure doesn't come from a billion dollars, it might help provide more of it, but enjoying life is what you make and interpret of what revolves around you.

Cohiba Red Dot Robusto Cigar Review

Vitola: Robusto (5" x 49RG)
Price: $10 +/- stick

Wrapper: Cameroon
Binder: Indonesian
Filler: Dominican grown Cubano Piloto

Aged in Humidor: One Month


Appearance and Construction:

The Cohiba Red Dot in a Robusto size seems tiny, but sometimes I don't like fat and long ones because I don't like going over an hour smoking, no matter how good. Pleasure only last so long before it becomes ordinary. The wrapper appears to be a nice dark shade of brown. The cap and body are clean and smooth looking. The end of the cigar where you light it does not have a perfect filled oval layer of filler, there are three tiny nooks. There is also a white string like stem from a tobacco leaf amongst all the brown layers but I have seen this in other cigar endings, no biggie this may be just the stick I am smoking. It has a slightly oily shine to it. To me, it looks like someone took a stick of wood emptied it out, sanded it out to a uniform cylinder, filled it with tobacco filler, put a dark polish on it and lightly lacquered it. The cigar is firm and bounces back ever so slightly on squeezing the body. This appears to be a well built stick. Even the band is designed smoothly and stays on there well, it moves only ever so slightly.

Set of Photos of the Cohiba Red Dot Robusto

Tasting Notes:

On prelighting I get only a tad aroma of that sweet and earthy smell. I do this four times because I like the scent of a cigar as much as the smoking part. Each time I only get a light aroma, possibly because it has been sitting in my humidor only a month.

I light it up. In my opinion of the one I smoked, this is a mild to medium flavored cigar. The Cohiba Red Dot would be nice for an average day relaxing or lounging. The price range for these are for ten dollars, I think not worthy, maybe for a lower price. On initial light it starts off soft burning with light smoke. I easily detect tiny hints of spice and sweet earthy flavors. The mediocre tobacco flavor is there, sometimes just that, tobacco flavor, no sweet or complex flavors. It burns slowly with that light spice and sweet earthiness appearing and disappearing.

At the second of third stage is when it becomes slightly interesting and the flavor of sweet cinnamon on woodiness comes into play. This is when it becomes good. At this point I can see that this Cohiba Red Dot is nicely rolled because it is still burning at a very tranquil pace, the ash reaches the one inch phase and drops off, but it was like a white and grey tater tot with parts of it's shell lightly flaking off. It comes and goes, that hint of sweet cinnamon on wood flavor. I can also detect a nutty flavor, like hazelnut or almond. I would say this is the nicest part of the cigar and I float down stream with this aroma until the third stage where it's just mostly tobacco flavors and a hint of coffee. I smoke it all the way to the nub as I do often. The before and the aftermath smell of the cigar are good: a lightly sweetened earthy aroma.

I would rate this a 85 because I sure had worst and far better. This is a good kind of mild cigar. Maybe another in the future or a XV

 Set of Photos of the Cohiba Red Dot Robusto The End

 Photo of the Cohiba Red Dot Robusto against a background chilies in my yard

Comparison:

I can only slightly try and compare the original Cuban Cohiba to the Dominican Cubano Cohiba Red Dot. I tried to detect similar flavors that came from one to see if the same flavors were on the other but the similarities in flavor and construction were only so slightly present. Why? Because besides the name, I believe that's where it ends. They are two totally different brands, two totally different companies and totally different in growth and manufacturing. I have to say the Cohiba Esplendido cigars were of course much better than the Cohiba Red Dot cigars. I don't think the size had anything to do with it because the Esplendido is a Julieta No. 2 (Churchill) sized cigar and the Red Dot was a Robusto. Regardless of the size, say if the Red Dot had been a Churchill size, I think it would have been the same outcome. I think the darker wrapper of the Red Dot cigar versus the lighter tan of the Habanos S.A. cigar had a low significance on how the cigar smoked and how tasty it was or will be. If you look at the photos below, both have similar appearances.

The love affair of the Cuban Habanos S.A. brand comes from the flavor and a bit of how it smokes, in my opinion. Could it be due to the hype of an awesome object far away forbidden and harder to get because of the embargo, yes, that too. But then again other countries don't have this embargo with Cuba, it's just the U.S., so no, it's not hype. If you smoked one and then the other, you can then experience for yourself the complexity and how it smokes (draw, burn, ash, aroma...) differs quite a bit from one to the other.

You take the Cuban version, I assume like most people, all it's parts (filler, wrapper, binder, cap) are from Cuba and made (original seeding, harvesting, fermenting, blending and rolled) in Cuba by Cubans. Meaning usually but not always a product made by it's original people and crafted in the culture it originated from will have it's heritage and refinement through the years. Thus, even though cigar smokers want that product, the access to the product is not there due to the embargo or limitation. To meet that desire, they created Cohiba Red Dot, baring the same name and attempted to be crafted or marketed to be just like the Cuban version. Even with part of the filler with the Cubano seed, you're not getting the same thing. The parts come from the Dominican Republic, Africa, Indonesia... It's not the exact seeding, aging, blending or rolling. Due to legality of branding, it's just the same name, not the same product, no matter how much the attempt or marketing.

Set of Photos of the Cohiba Habanos S.A. compared with Cohiba Red Dot

Cohiba Esplendidos Cigar Review

I've been smoking cigars since I was as young as I could remember, 18. I do not consider myself an aficionado because I don't smoke them on a constant basis, just an enthusiast. My curiosity was why do usually honcho type figures do it. The icon is of an older gentlemen, usually, laid back with a sophisticated appearance. One example is Hannibal from The A-Team: "I love it when a plan comes together". At the young age of 18 without much money, I went to the local grocery store and picked up a Phillies Blunt for fifty cents. The Phillies Blunt price would eventually rise to seventy-five cents and recently a dollar, now some retailers dare sell it for one dollar and a quarter or more. The Phillies Blunt is a terrible cigar, even for a beginner because it puts a bad impression on what a decent cigar should be like. Though giving it a positive note, it is good for a beginner to compare. Secondly it's not that bad if you have nothing to compare it to. I have not had one in years but recalling the taste being coated with a sugary substance but then there's no flavor or aroma to it, just a bit on the stinky or bitter tobacco flavor, in a way just like a big cigarette.

Cigars are not meant to be cigarettes. In a essence they are meant to be a quality craft, like a good aged marble steak, aged wine or aged cheese. Some people will call it just smoking but no. Just like taking specific plants and making a salad, just like taking grapes and turning it into wine or killing a cow to make a porter house steak, a cigar is crafting tobacco leaves into flavor. That's the answer to my curiosity at a younger age. Cubans, the renown category or class of cigars hard to obtain because of the embargo the United States enacted toward Cuba for being a Communist government, yes there's more to it but this article is not about politics. Not only are Cuban cigars an obstacle and expensive to get but researching there are many imitations to the top Cuban cigar brands, specifically the Cohiba brand. Why? They say head honchos like Fidel Castro determined it to be a top notch blend, so if a head figure like Fidel Castro fount Cohiba(s) to be an ace, then the rest of Cuba and other nation's cigar smokers followed. It is just that bootleggers like that of music and designer wear make money off replicating the desired quality of the legit, on the negative aspect, ruining it for the consumers. Unlike music, which might have distorted sound quality, you can live with it and it's free. But think if you paid four thousand dollars for a fake Louis Vuitton bag worth thirty dollars, cigar smokers don't want to pay for dirt in their puff.

I did my research before I went and bought my Cohiba Espledidio cigars. I learned to look at the clarity and alignment of the label having the embossed golden Cohiba printed as well as the bold in script Habana, Cuba. I read to check for how many squared dots as well as where it is cut off. I checked for anything off about the band. I checked the cap: looked at it's construction and made sure it's a triple cap. I looked over the body and even peaked at the foot but never examined that portion in great detail. I smelt and squeezed one before I paid. I did not get these from the factory in Cuba directly. I did not even get to see the box itself. I bought a dozen. I got them from someone I know as an acquaintance whose mother lives in Cuba and he said he being family is allowed to visit on this account. I read there are only less than a handful of airlines or airports from the United States to Cuba and you need a specific type of visa for visiting, most travel outside the United States and then get a passport and visa and go from there. Analyzing my purchase, each one seems almost perfect: the wrapper has these neat, sort of hidden veins that blend in well, smooth, tan colored sheets of crafted tobacco leaf. The foot: the opening on the bottom where you light looks like an oval of layered tobacco. Based on many of the pictures online of fakes versus real, I determine that I have the legit shit. But only 95% so, there is still that 5% uncertainty that these master bootleggers have cloned the icon. So I smoke it:

Set of Photos of the Cohiba Esplendido Bands

More Photos Below...

Vitola: Julieta No. 2 - Churchill
Price: $30+ stick

Wrapper: Cuban, Vuelta Abajo or Habana
Binder: Cuban, Vuelta Abajo or Habana
Filler: Cuban, Vuelta Abajo or Habana

Aged in Humidor: One Month
(The remainder will age before smoking)


Tasting Notes:

Before even lighting it up, I could smell a light sweet aroma, not a melted or coated with sugar sweet. There are different kinds of sweet. This sweet aroma seems more refined, like from something aged and having it's naturals sugars release. I light it and it takes a moment but I start to detect a hint of woody (cedar like), earthy and cocoa flavor. It is really smooth smoking through and through. So far so good. Now I am on the second third of the Esplendido where the heart of the cigar is and I start to get the hint of a nutty taste mixing in with the cocoa taste, a sort of Nutella flavor, I get this note throughout the cigar and it is the best and dominant flavor I have tasted in any cigar. This is how the remainder of the cigar's flavor will be like with the occasional hint of spicy kick and the mentioned tasting notes in and out, all the way until there is thumb length left. The hint of earth or soil where the filler comes from changes sometimes from a medium to a deep flavor or a mix of flavors.

I had a cup of cheap coffee with it and after I smoked and sipped the coffee it washed away the quality flavors of the smoke, so I kept smoking and stopped drinking the cheap coffee. Remember these are medium to full flavor smokes. I think I would have done well to have gotten a Starbucks coffee, black (no sugar or creamer/milk), to accompany the Esplendido.

Appearance and Construction:

These Cohiba Esplendido cigars are packed on the dense side. In addition to the aforementioned: the foot of the cigar, the hole where you light up looks like waves of the edges of tobacco filler. The wrapper is tan with veins you can barely see, flawless, smooth, and with no blemishes. There was probably one in a dozen that had maybe a smidgen of a tear in the wrapper. The wrapper: a near perfect smoothness like a stripe on the American flag made of cloth, but it's Cuban. The triple cap seemed smooth and bound well. I had two, one on a quiet Sunday afternoon in my yard and another the day after, yeah the yearning for another the next day because the pleasure stuck on my mind.

This is a really good cigar, as many have pointed out, worthy of it's name and price. I fount the draw to be good once I got it going. The ash burnt like the pictures I have seen, kind of like Marge Simpsons hair, instead of blue, as if it were greying out. The cigar never went out on it's own, it clung on for about two inches until I moved and it fell off. I did not have the heart to dissect any of them for CSI purposes but when I was almost done and got to like about an inch and a half way burnt out, I started to tear the wrapper and binder, smelt the great aroma and fount the filler to be quality tobacco leaves, not dried up. The second one, I followed cigar etiquette and let it burn out on it's own. Even when I knew it was coming to an end or didn't want to smoke any more, I didn't want to stop, so I let it burn until almost the very tip. I would rate the Cohiba Esplendido a 92 from a semi-novice cigar smoker.

Set of Photos of the Cohiba Esplendido Caps

Set of Photos of the Cohiba Esplendido Below the Band 

Set of Photos of the Cohiba Esplendido The End

Jeremy Lin

In everything there is a positive side and a dark side.  Even Superman has his Kryptonite and Bizarro. -Andrew Szeto

When was the last time the New York Knicks won the NBA Championships? 1973.  When was the last time the Knicks won it's highest consecutive games, back in the 70's with 18 consecutive wins, about 40 years ago?  Jeremy Lin didn't do it himself but Lin-sanity definitely brought morale, teamwork and a boost for new and old fans by bringing the Knicks into the Playoffs (even though the Knicks lost in the early rounds of the Playoffs - I wrote this in February 2012 and just finishing off now in June, I'm now rooting for Oklahoma City Thunder).  The Knicks lost to the Hornets to not make eight consecutive wins during this season's win streak. With Stoudemire back from injuries and Carmelo Anthony coming back from his injury, the temperature of Lin-sanity fever might temper down a little. But the question is all this attention toward Jeremy Lin: racial hype or worthy praise?

An article from the Chicago Tribune by Jae-Ha Kim aided in adding viewpoints to this blog
http://www.jaehakim.com/lifestyles/issue-lifestyles/jeremy-lin-matters-to-kyle/

But before that article existed, Lin-anity was already scorching because of what that young talented Chinese rooted, Taiwanese, Asian point guard has done for the Knicks.  His less than one month career with the Knicks has elevated his status to a worthy level by scoring and bringing the Knicks out of the shadows as a losing team.  That ability to get those consecutive wins gave fans hope, he brought back the Knicks and their fans; not only did he bring hope back to the Knicks and their fans, his ethnicity added Asian fans (more so Chinese, but not only Asian fans, he made every ethnicity notice: potential).  All races were cheering, rooting and commenting on his talent.  But as someone who has his similar ethnicity would be even more proud, like a Black person seeing the first Barack Obama, but in a lower pinnacle of success. For those screaming this is on the lines of racism or stereotype, you should go back to the cabin in the woods and knit a sweater for me.  When one minority has reached success in an area dominated by a majority, there will always be fanfare.  There have been few Asian basketball players in the NBA getting such attention since Yao Ming. I'm not saying he is an inspiration and a role model to a New Yorker and Asian only, but especially so. There is a reason to be excited as both a New Yorker and Asian-American.

The first answer is yes he is hyped for being Asian, if you watch him play, he only scores slightly above 60%, he misses a good 40% of his field goals.  Though he is above average, there are many other players that play equally to his performance, yet they do not get as much attention. Comparing him to legends makes him a worthy statistic, it's still too early to tell if he's really that good. But then again, with those statistics and skill comparison, no he is not hyped.  He is a very good basketball player that came out of Harvard.

It is the combination of both hype and actual talent: the rarity of an Asian-American basketball player doing so well in a non-Asian-American field and he's doing it well for a team known to fail in the reflection of the Yankees and Giants.

The Etymology:

If you research his career, his performance was unseen until he was accepted by a coach that honed his skills.  He was undrafted after college and was cut from two teams for supposedly better, more expensive, players.  The metaphoric laugh is with Lin.  After he was traded from the Warriors, the Knicks and all the fans, Asian and even non-Asian alike, benefited from what was dormant.  In the stands you have Taiwanese flags waving and non-Asians wearing the number seventeen.  He's in all the newspapers. Well he was, before he got injured.  He is now living in one of Trump Towers high rise apartments.  I loved the way he and Carmelo Anthony got along.  Can't wait to see what he does next season, but for now it's team: Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden in the spotlight.


The Darker Side:

I don't care if people start labeling this topic as having a racial or stereotypical mentality. Facts are facts, history is history, and without them, lessons are not learned and changes not made.  Yes, Black people, no not just African-Americans, all people with black or darker skin are at the top of the list for racism.  Yes it's a bad thing and a topic people rather not touch on because it creates a metaphoric storm.  But for me I am always an open ear and open experience, my experience and anyone else, actually I thrive on culture.  Everyone has heard of racism toward Black people, it is not just America's top history lesson.  But have you considered racism toward all types of people?  Have you heard a White person or a person of Latin decent racially insult a Black person?  Have you ever heard of a Black person or Latin person racially insult a White person?  Have you ever heard a Black person or a Latin person racially mock an Asian person?  I have seen this, mostly growing up and less now.  I'm sure my father saw even worst.  Ironically when a race that has been through so much racial hardship, you would think that there would be no racism, but people remain uneducated.  Would you believe where I grew up, I had more African-Americans and Latins playing the racist card rather than from Caucasians.  Do you know how many times I have seen an uneducated young or even adult African-American say something racist?  I am not pointing fingers, there are racist Asians as well but I'm speaking of what's more widespread.  I don't think that was the idea of what Martin Luther King Jr had in mind when he was fighting for racial freedom or was it equality, not to fight through years of hate to have freedom to hate back but equality.  That's the importance of educating history: teaching that many took whips to the back, water from fire hoses beamed at them, having to sit in a classroom as the only minority being strong against being different, beatings ending up in the hospital or death and the segregation of not being allowed to drink from the same water fountain.

If you read the article I linked above: Jeremy Lin matters to Kyle, in it Jae-Ha Kim mentions a little about how she grew up in a more unaccustomed to race differences part and time of America.  She describes the lack of Asians in the media, how she was treated racially different and had to deal with racism.  She then also goes on to describe her son in a different, more open to the racial divide.  "What a difference a few decades make."  I have a total empathy for the short column because it goes similar for myself and many "Asians" growing up prior to the late 90s.  In the column, the response field only allowed a certain amount of characters and this is in part what I had in mind and responded with:

"In New York where I grew up, I rarely ever got called “chink” but was often taunted with a similar: “ching chong” then people would pull their eyes to the side slanted. I had similar taunts growing up also and it got stuck on my mind a little bit but I believe I arose out of it. I never felt emotional pain from it, just thought the insulters were idiots, but never liked it regardless. These “bullies” I think were more so in the ’80s or prior. They grouped all Asians the same thinking “we all ate cat or dogs”, I mean please, you have tourist seeing a small group of say 1000 or so out of a billion Asians who have done that and they think we all do. Your article is so right, in the 70s & 80s people didn’t see the good, just the poor “dirty” side of the population, never seeing the positive/potential side, so I guess they insult based on the “dirty” side they see. Times have changed in the past decades, there is less prejudice, let me emphasize: less. As Asians continue to adapt & expand more into media the future looks brighter..."

The last thing she wrote in that column is "I suspect he rose above it, which is what I hope my son will do, too, should the need arise."  I arose out of it, as well.  For those that can do this and become Jeremy Lin or Barak Obama or even just a role model without such potential gives the next generation a better hope, not just Asians, all races alike.

Yelp!

My friend said "No I don't yelp because it hurts my lung"...

The reason I haven't been posting lately is simply because I have been on www.yelp.com
Feel free to add me at: www.axdrew.yelp.com... if you use it.

No, I'm not abandoning this blog.