Back from the Abyss

Yeah, I know, another long absence. Some of you may know that, over the past few months, I've had some severe lower back issues. One neurosurgeon looked at my MRI in August and suggested not only surgery, but spinal fusion surgery. And for about the past three months, I've been eating Percosets like M&Ms, along with wearing a morphine patch. Needless to say, I've been in lala land. It ain't been pretty.

But yesterday, I underwent an amazing procedure, called a rhizotomy, to deaden the offending nerves. I won't go into the details, if you're interested, Google it. The good news is that it appears to be working, and I've already noticed a greatly-decreased need for opiate-based pain killers. So I can address this sorely-neglected blog once again.

Somehow, during the course of all this, I not only managed to keep my day job, but I also passed muster at Davidus Cigars, and am now working at their flagship Annapolis store. It's quite a place, 2500 square feet, and has what I'm told is the largest walk-in humidor in the state of Maryland.

But enough about me. Now that I'm largely free of that opium haze, I need to post some cigar reviews from our friend Dale Green.

Happy smoking, my friends!

Taking the Next Step

Well, my career as a professional tobacconist progressed once again. A week ago, I was offered a position with Davidus Cigars, to ultimately work at their new Annapolis store, which will open in October. Over the weekend, I worked both days in their Ellicott City store to get trained up on their systems and processes. I was mightily impressed.

It’s a good-sized store, well-laid out, and very well stocked. And, unlike a certain cigar shop in Gambrills which shall remain nameless, prices are reasonable and very competitive. Which may explain why I spent almost the entire time there on my feet, assisting customers. I only managed to smoke half a petit corona during the day, and even with that, had to keep relighting it as I kept getting distracted from my smoking by those pesky customers.

It was a good feeling, getting back into the environment of a real tobacconist, not an ego-centric hobby shop. Can’t wait until the Annapolis store opens … at 2,500 square feet, and with Davidus’s corporate weight behind it, it should dominate the local market.

Pink Slip

Well, it finally happened. I pushed Dave Williams too far, and about two weeks ago, he asked me to turn in my store keys and my humidor key. He never actually “fired” me, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get him to say the word. Probably afraid of a wrongful dismissal lawsuit. Given that he’s e-mailed the entire staff telling us that his ex-wife is suing him, I guess he’s getting a bit paranoid about incoming lawsuits. All in all, a good thing. I was tired of working there, tired of his lame BS, tired of paychecks bouncing. But I suppose my inner child didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me quit.

Oh, how I do go on. Time to “look on the bright side of life.” No sooner did I turn in my keys and clean out my humidor (damn, but I had a lot of good stuff stashed in there!) than I got a phone call from Bill Walton, a former colleague at Old Virginia Tobacco Company. It seems that Davidus Cigars, a chain with six shops primarily in the western part of Maryland, is expanding to Annapolis, and they’re looking for staff. The icing on the cake is that they’ve hired Frank Elam, formerly the regional sales rep for General Cigar, as the firm’s General Manager. Frank and I go way back. Bill gave me Frank’s cell phone number, I called, and before you know it, I’m scheduling an interview to work at Davidus’ new Annapolis store.

So last week I drove to Monrovia, MD, where the Davidus corporate headquarters is located, for an interview. A formal interview, by God!! It started with Frank and one of the owners, Steve Castro. About halfway through the interview, brother Dave Castro, the other owner, comes in. I can’t believe I sat in a formal interview, dressed in “business casual,” to do a part-time job in a smoke shop! I was there over an hour. On the way out, Steve Castro was kind enough to give me, along with his business card, a six-pack of quality smokes. Not a dog-rocket to be found. The only disappointment was that they had completely run out of their house brand, so I haven’t yet had a chance to sample that.

And I still don’t know if I’ve got a job there, as they do criminal and financial background checks on all prospective employees. Probably not a bad idea, as theft and shoplifting are major concerns in the retail tobacco business.

So, in the meantime, I am “between jobs.” After ten continuous years of retail tobacco work, it feels funny. I still stop at Titan when Jim or Mike is working. Nice shop, great concept, but horribly executed.

So, now that I’m past the trauma of getting my pink slip from Titan, and enduring some recurring lower back problems, maybe I can get around to posting some cigar reviews from my favorite CCT, Dale Green.

New Blog

Well, I'm in the process of moving this blog into its own domain, www.chesapeakesmoke.com, and it's not going as smoothly as I'd hoped. In exchange for having my very own URL, and not being a subset of the Google universe, I'm having a lot more work to do on graphic set-up. So I'm going to make posts to both site for the time being, until I can get the new site looking like I want it to.

Happy smoking, my friends!

Friendly Competition

As many of you know, I used to work at Old Virginia Tobacco company, and now do a part-time stint at Titan Cigar. I always used to make an effort to "check out the competition," see what other folks were doing, checking out their humidor to see what cigars they carried that we didn't.

I've been remiss lately in not casting my net much past the Annapolis area. Faders, Annapolis Cigar Company, and that was about it, aside from the occasional trip down to see my friends at OVTC.

Today, after a doctor's appointment and some other errands, I found myself tooling down Rte 2, heading south from Glen Burnie. And there, on the right, was a big sign screaming CIGARS out to me.

I whipped the wheel over, and the big Mercedes turned into the parking lot of what, quite frankly, looked like a crappy, run-down strip mall. Rte 2 up that way is cluttered with those eyesores, one strip mall after another.

But the sign that screamed CIGARS pulled me in like a tractor beam, and so it was that I walked into Broadleaf Tobacco. Excellent little shop there. Seth, the owner/manager, was very friendly and welcoming, and so was the shop. The front is a combination retail space and lounge, with plenty of comfy, overstuffed leather sofas and chairs, plus HD TV on a big flat screen. But a plasma TV does not a cigar store make, so I went back to check out the humidor. Seth has a great selection, well-maintained and, given the current state of tobacco taxation, fairly priced.

I walked out of the humidor with a couple sticks from La Flor de Dominicana. One, the Mysterio, a potent torpedo, and a Cameroon Cabinet. Never had their Cameroon Cabinet, so I asked Seth about it. He described it rapturously, and I felt I'd made a good call ... not that I'd ever had a bad cigar from Litto Gomez.

Time permitting, I'll be making the long trek up to Broadleaf more often. Good store, good staff, good environment ... it's all good! Check them out at http://www.broadleaftobacco.com/.

Happy smoking, my friends!

Nod to the Cigr Inspector

Well, our friends on Capitol Hill did it again. The FDA can now regulate cigarettes and "other tobacco products." This from the agency that can't protect our domestic food supply or do an adequate job of ensuring pharmaceutical products make it to market without lot of help from the drug lobby.

Sure, the main target there was the cigarette industry, but it's yet another tightening of the noose in our evolving Nanny State. You can't cook with trans-fats, it's against the law. Depending on what city you live in, you can't order foie gras in a restaurant. It's against the law.

So it was with great delight that I saw this link on the Cigar Inspector website (http://www.cigarinspector.com/other/smoke-lies-and-the-nanny-state-by-joe-jackson). Yes, the singer Joe Jackson, who was in his prime back in the early '80s. He's written an erudite essay on his views on everything from second-hand smoke to smoking bans. It's a hefty 20-page pdf file, but I heartily encourage you to download it, print it out, read it on the can or wherever. But read it, arm yourself for the next time some nanny-state anti-smoking nazi tries to lecture you about the evils of cigars.

Happy smoking, my friends!

Guest Review XIKAR Cigars

This is the first of what I hope will be many guest cigar reviews submitted by Chesapeake Smoke readers. The premier review is brought to us courtesy of Dale Green:

This is my first of hopefully many reviews for the Chesapeake Smoke, so for those who aren’t familiar with the Captain’s Blog, it is my review of luxury tobacco, craft beers, premium spirits, accoutrements, events, issues, and general musings. Allow me to take this opportunity to extend my thanks and appreciation to Mr. John Vanore, Certified Retail Tobacconist, and the host of Chesapeake Smoke. I tend to do many of my reviews in a verbally descriptive fashion as opposed to a “ five-star” or number rating system. One of the reasons for this is because taste is highly subjective and to give something a low rating, especially without explaining exactly why, can be misleading and insulting to the reader, and can even have a negative affect on a maker’s business and reputation.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a XIKAR event where I became the recipient of the first box of a new line of cigars developed by XIKAR and Jesus Fuego. XIKAR, manufacturers of some of the finest luxury tobacco accoutrements on the market, and Jesus Fuego, world famous Master Blender, have combined their skill and “love of the leaf” to create a new line of cigars called the XIKAR HC SERIES (Havana Collection).

There are three different cigars in this collection to choose from; Connecticut Shade, Criollo, and Habano Colorado which are currently available in the following vitolas:

Lonsdale (6 x 46)

Robusto (5 x 50)

Belicoso (6 x 52)

Toro (6.5 x 52)

Churchill (7 x 48) Habano Colorado only

Petite Corona (4.5 x 44) Habano Colorado only

The topic of this review will be the Connecticut Shade. According to XIKAR, it took five years to achieve the final blend of this cigar, which is “slightly stronger than the average Connecticut Shade cigar, while staying true to the character of a Connecticut.” It is made with an Equadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper, Sumatran binder, and Mexican, Costa Rican, and Nicaraguan fillers.

The claro wrapper was very attractive with a smooth and silky feel and no visible flaws. The body was appropriately firm with no soft spots and a very pleasant, slightly sweet aroma. I made a straight cut using a pair of XIKAR scissors and then tested the draw, which was excellent. It was very obvious already that this was an exceptionally well-made cigar. No surprises there…

The cigar lit effortlessly and burned without any problems. I did not have to re-light or burn the wrapper a single time. It started off very smooth and left a pleasant taste on the lips. The smoke was attractive with a nice bluish-grey color. The ash, which had a nice color as well, was firm and dense and held on until the cigar was half-way through before falling off on its own, another indication of quality. These smoking qualities remained exceptional throughout; however, as it progressed it began to develop a sort of bitter, unpleasant taste, which hung in the middle of the tongue. This taste kept up completely through the finish and remained for approximately 30 – 45 minutes after I had finished smoking. This surprised me because XIKAR and Jesus Fuego equal high quality so other factors must be taken into account. Could that cigar have been a fluke; had I eaten or drank something earlier which either lingered or altered the pH in my mouth; was it the environment (I was in a cigar club where many people were all smoking different selections at the same time)? It required a second and a third smoke on different days under more controlled conditions.

The second and third time the bitter, unpleasant taste was not present but all the exceptional qualities were. Once again a smooth start followed by a creamy mouth-feel. Part way through some spiciness was detected on the back of the tongue. As the cigar progressed, there was a little more spiciness, which continued on to a slightly peppery finish.

As stated by XIKAR, it was a little stronger than what you would expect from a traditional Connecticut Shade but not at all in an unpleasant way. While it wasn’t exactly what I prefer, it is important to remember that taste is highly subjective. A friend of mine who is a highly respected tobacconist thought it was great. The quality of this cigar was undeniable and I look forward to smoking the Criollo and the Habano Colorado so stand by. Overall, an enjoyable smoke.

I wish you Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

The Captain

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