A note for Aficionados everywhere

In my ever increasing bitterness towards Cigar Aficionado (and let me mention at this time that I have almost every single issue), I would like to make note that in the most recent issue there are exactly NINE pages devoted to cigars. Now granted, I've excluded the ratings pages, and the "moments to remember" pages - those don't change month to month. Nine pages. Two pages devoted to "Smoking in America," six pages on the Oliva family and one page on some cigar briefcase. And I'm giving that last one a little credit where it might not be earned; the one page article is about the briefcase after all, not cigars. But it is a cigar accessory, so I'm sneaking it in. I also excluded the 2 or so paragraphs where cigars are mentioned in the Phil Ivey and Bon Jovi drummer stories. Those are barely worth mentioning.

Now I'm not one to expect every page to be about cigars. I appreciate the occasional story about golf, fine wine and food, travel, etc. I just think that the magazine might as well drop the "Cigar" part of "Cigar Aficionado" at this point. They've already shrunk the font on the cover for the word "cigar" to a minuscule size anyway. Over the last year, I think Aficionado has had more pages devoted cumulatively towards golf, watches, private planes, luxury yachts, and other "high life" goodies that they have towards cigars.

I'm not going to stop my subscription, mind you, but if you want to read a great cigar magazine, I suggest either Cigar Snob or Cigar Press. The only disappointing thing about Cigar Snob is that it's based out of Florida, and thus most of the stories tend to be Florida related. But it's informative and fun, none the less, and has a 90% devotion to cigars, with 10% to "others" tossed in, versus the opposite numbers for the Big Magazine.

Rant over. Carry on.

Casa Disappointment

The cigar of the year, 2008 that is, was the Casa Magna Colorado. First, I was a huge fan, not only of the cigar itself, but of the fact that the same cigars (specifically, the same manufacturers) weren't constantly winning. After all, this blog was partially born out of the disdain of constant accolades given to a certain 2 or 3 non-Cuban cigar makers, by Cigar Aficionado. Any reasonable person reading CA with any regularity knows what I'm talking about. More over, anyone picking up three consecutive copies might jump to the conclusion that the Padrons, the Fuentes and Pepin Garcia aren't capable of producing anything less than a masterpiece. Again, don't get me wrong, these are indeed some of the finest cigar makers out there. Add to that the heavy hitters of the boutique world like Rocky Patel, Litto Gomez, and Jesus Fuego, and you've got a fairly formidable group. What of the Davidoffs of the world? If I were to pick up any given Cigar Aficionado, and go strictly by rating, I'm not sure I'd ever try a Davidoff or an Avo, as they typically round out the bottom of the ratings.

But I digress; I have had the pleasure of smoking about a dozen Casa Magnas in the past 12 months. Typically I go for a robusto, but that isn't always the case. Wednesday, while enjoying cigars, cocktails and dinner at Churchill Bar with a good friend, I jumped into a Casa Magna robusto with fevered anticipation. I typically smoke fairly spicy cigars, usually Dominicans, so the rich and more subtle flavors of this Nicaraguan Puro was going to be a well deserved change. In fact, I had smoked a La Flor Dominicana Ligero earlier, and had almost second guessed my following it with less-spicy Casa Magna.

I know what a good Casa Magna is supposed to taste like. I know what qualities are going to flood my palate; leather, cocoa, cream and coffee. It's every bit possible that those flavors were there, but I wouldn't know. Not that night. Instead, I experienced one of my favorite verb descriptors for smoking this type of cigar; it was like sucking a golf ball through a garden hose! Think about it, and you've got the mental image. Fortunately for me, our waitress gifted me with one of my favorite cigars - a Camacho Diploma - and all was good with the world again.