Romeo Y Julieta Torpedo 78.08

What is it with torpedo's that have a hard draw. The taste of this cigar was ok, but even cutting the foot at an angle did not help the draw on this cigar. It maintained its flavor throughout the smoke and was a nice looking cigar. Stogieguys.com had this to say:

Once lit, the wrapper combines with Dominican, Nicaraguan, and Peruvian filler to create tasty nut and coffee flavors. Like many Maduros, this is an earthy smoke; unlike many Maduros, it’s light-bodied with a short finish. So, if you’re looking for a powerhouse, this isn’t your cigar.
My experience with Romeo y Julietas had me expecting a well-constructed cigar, and I was not disappointed. The burn remains even, the gorgeous white ash holds firm, and the foot manages to stay lit – even when left unattended for periods of five minutes or more.
I should mention, however, that this is a tightly-packed cigar, and the draw can be a bit difficult.
At about $5.50 apiece, this cigar is a good value. Despite a salty disposition and a firm draw, the Romeo y Julieta Reserve Maduro Robusto has a lot to offer.

Zino Platinum 85.08

I was actually expecting more from this Zino given the Davidoff reputation. I thought it was a good smoke, but nothing that would make me want to run out and stock up on these. It was well made and smoked ok, but I could not tell any specific tastes given that this is labeled as a stout cigar.

This is what cigar.com has to say, however they do sell these:

It does not get any nicer then the Zino Platinum Scepter. The cigar was made for cigar enthusiasts who only smoke the best and most unique cigars.
Blended by master blender Hanky Kellner and rolled at the famous Tabadom Factory, there is nothing missing from this cigar. A Connecticut shade grown Ecuadorian wrapper covers a mix of Peruvian and Domincan fillers that are aged over four years.
As soon as you light up a Platinum Scepter a burst of flavor explodes on the palate. While the cigar is smooth, it is one of the most complex cigars made in the Dominican Republic. It is medium bodied yet full flavored. This combination creates a pleasant aroma without the harsh or long finish that some cigars are plagued with. The Zino Platinum Scepter is the best and only way to spoil yourself on those cigars that warrant only the finest cigars.

VigilantE Sun Grown 81.74

I picked up a box of 25 of these that cigars international had a sale on for $32.00. For the price these were not a bad cigar, just not a lot of flavor. However, I think they will need at least a year of aging to let them mellow out a little and let the flavors blend in.

Origin: Honduras

Size: 6.25 x 50

Wrapper: NicaraguanBinder: Ecuador

Filler: Nicaragua / Honduran Sun Grown
The VigilantE is blended by Rocky Patel and is aged 5 years.

My Brother Pete at London Cigar Store

It is great to have the whole family involved in the love of a fine smoke.

JFK cigars story from about.com

Cuban H Upmann Petit Upmann Cigars.

Here is the full story behind President John F. Kennedy's love for Cuban Petit Upmanns and the signing of the Cuban Trade Embargo, according to an email message received from Dick DiMeola in response to cigar.com review of the H Upmann Corona Major cigar:"I retired as COO of Consolidated Cigar Corp., predecessor to Altadis USA, in 1998, having been in the cigar business since 1956 (I still dabble in it). In my early years, I worked for Faber, Coe & Gregg, Inc., the country's premier importer and distributor of Cuban cigars, among others. What you say about JFK's love of H. Upmann is true, and it is also true that an aide purchased 1200 H. Upmanns for Kennedy just prior to his signing the Cuban Embargo in 1962. That aide was his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, who confirmed the story in a speech at a Cigar Association of America annual meeting, I believe it was in 1987, at which I was present. But the cigar was not the Petit Corona, which in that era was 5" x 41r and retailed for 40¢, it was the Petit Upmann, which was a machine made cigar, 3 3/4" x 32r that retailed for 25¢."
As an aside, although the H. Upmann Petit Upmann is the size mentioned by Salinger, I was in charge of inventory control for FC&G at the time and we did not import that cigar under that name. It was sold in the U.S. under the frontmark, Demi Tasse. Perhaps Salinger was confused because it was called Petit Upmann in England, Cuba and the rest of the world."

After Obama win, goodbye to Cuban embargo?

–Bernd Debusmann is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own–
By Bernd Debusmann
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If votes in the United Nations serve as a gauge of global opinion, 98.9 percent of the world opposes the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, a measure imposed 46 years ago to isolate the communist-ruled island and bring down its leaders.
It failed on both counts. As far as international opinion is concerned, the country that is isolated is the United States, not Cuba. In the latest of 17 successive U.N. General Assembly resolutions on lifting the embargo, Washington mustered only two allies — Israel and Palau, a Pacific island nation difficult to find on a map. It has a population of 21,000.
The Marshall Islands (pop. 63,000), which had voted with the United States from 2000 to 2007, unexpectedly and without public explanation broke ranks this year and abstained in the vote, a non-binding resolution taken a week before the U.S. presidential election.
The count — 185 countries in favor of lifting the embargo, three against — speaks volumes about a bankrupt policy stuck in the Cold War era.
Will that kind of America versus the world line-up change under Barack Obama? Not necessarily. The man who made history on Nov. 4 by becoming the first black to be elected president of the United States has promised to “ease” sanctions if Cuba took “significant steps toward democracy, beginning with freeing all political prisoners”.
He has not said what it would take for the United States to end the embargo, kept in place by 10 successive U.S. presidents, both Democrats and Republicans.
During the Cold War, when Cuba was a heavily-armed outpost of the Soviet empire just 90 miles (145 km) from Florida, a majority of Americans agreed with a hard line on a Communist government that violates human rights and holds political prisoners. That attitude has been changing since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
According to a Zogby poll taken a week before the election, 60 percent of Americans believe that Washington should revise its policies towards Cuba. In particular, 68 percent thought Americans should be allowed to travel to the island and 62 percent said U.S. companies should be allowed to trade with it.
If that happens, it won’t be soon.
Latin America in general and Cuba in particular are not likely to figure high on the agenda of a new president who is inheriting two wars and the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. American presidents tend to promise greater attention to southern neighbors but usually do not follow through.
“I’m not so idealistic as to think that the embargo will be lifted immediately,” Cuban dissident and writer Jorge Olivera told Reuters Havana correspondent Jeff Franks.
“But I expect better times as much for the United States as for Cuba. I don’t want to die without seeing an end to this conflict that began when I was born.”
Worth noting: Under a 1996 law, the president needs congressional approval to lift the embargo or to recognize any government that includes Fidel Castro, who officially stepped down in February, or his brother Raul, who took over from him.
STATIC AND COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE
In the past, the most fervent opposition to ending the embargo — the effects of which have punished the population for the actions of a leadership it did not elect — has come from the Cuban-American community in South Florida. But even this is changing.
“U.S. policy towards Cuba is at best static and at worst counter-productive, a source of increasing frustration to many Cuban Americans,” Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), wrote late in October in a Washington Post opinion column that endorsed Obama.
CANF was set up in 1981 by Mas’s father, Jorge Mas Canosa, with the express aim of overthrowing the government of Fidel Castro. For years, the group exerted enormous influence on Washington policy makers — as well as on presidential candidates keenly aware that winning the White House without winning Florida is a very difficult undertaking. Obama won the state comfortably.
Cuban exiles, numbering around 650,000, account for just over a quarter of the total population of the greater Miami area. In the past, the Republican Party took the loyalty of most of them for granted — Cuban Americans have traditionally voted four to one for Republicans.
The three Miami-based Cuban American Republicans who serve in the House of Representatives — all supporters of the embargo — were re-elected. Their votes against changes Obama might propose once he takes office on Jan. 20 can be taken for granted.
Some of the most pointed criticism of the embargo has come not from Democrats but from conservative businessmen who resent the fact that American business has been kept out of Cuba while most of the world is engaged there.
In the words of Tom Donohue, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: “All you have to do is go over to Cuba and watch how the Spanish, the French, the Latin Americans and everybody else on the globe are building resorts or trying to invest, and we are sitting here with a 50-year-old policy that doesn’t work.”
The prime beneficiaries from an end to the embargo would be American agricultural exporters. “But just about every industry could benefit,” according to Donohue, “for the simple reason that there is such pent-up demand. Look at the cars they are running — Jack Kennedy was in office when half of them were sent down there.”

Cigar.com article on Habano leaves

If you have not subscribed to the newsletters on cigar.com you need to. They always have interesting information. Below is info from their newsletter:

Looking back on my experience in this industry, both as a hobbyist and as a career, I have come to many conclusions about cigars. One of my biggest revelations, due mostly in part to marketing, is how things in this industry appear far more complicated than they really are. Let’s look at Habano seeds, for example. Nearly 50 years ago, Carlos Torano brought some of the first Cuban seeds to the Dominican Republic after the Cuban Embargo was set into place. These seeds were true ‘Pelo de Oro’ and today, you read about literally dozens of different types of Cuban seeds and tobaccos. I think it is high time to set the facts straight on Cuban-seed tobacco and hopefully clear the air on this confusing subject. During the mid 20th century and coincidentally, relatively around the same time as the Cuban Embargo, plants grown in Cuba and in other parts of the world from Cuban seeds became increasingly susceptible to disease; you may have heard of these nasty killers, known as “Black Shank” and “Blue Mold.” By the 1970s, Cuban seeds had spread all over Latin and South America and issues with sick plants began to spiral as farmers would lose entire crops in a matter of days, once signs of disease set in. The increased severity led to initiatives by agronomists in Cuba and all over the world to begin development of new, genetically engineered seeds, which had a natural resistance to known diseases that effect tobacco plants. In the interim, research was also being done on pesticides and fertilizers that helped combat these crop killers. While many purists stuck to their Pelo de Oro seeds, new technological advancements were making way for genetically enhanced seeds that not only proved more resistant to disease, but also yielded larger leaves and healthier plants. By the turn of the 21st Century, there were dozens of varieties of Cuban seeds from H2000, Criollo, Criollo ‘98, Corojo, Corojo ‘99 and a host of lesser-known variations. Suddenly, Cuban-seed tobacco was no longer simply “Habano;” it had taken the form of “super seeds” with complex names and was being sold to farmers in tobacco growing nations throughout the world. In fact, today a market exists strictly for the sale and distribution of tobacco seeds, which is quite profitable. While the obvious advantages of these brave new seeds were welcomed as they increased yield for farmers, cigar enthusiasts were inundated as brands touted their new “Habano XYZ” as the best Cuban wrapper on the market. The public was quickly made to believe that the flavor and appearance of these leaves were vastly different from one another. After nearly 10 years, the results were finally in and the differences between these “varieties” were negligible. In fact, the market is finally going back and reclaiming the word “Habano.” I, for one, could not be happier. The bottom line is this folks – Habano-seed is Habano-seed. People talk about Corojo, Criollo and use fancy numbers, when at the end of the day, I don’t know a single individual that can truly look at or smoke a leaf of these “different” tobaccos and actually tell the difference. On my many visits to Nestor Plasencia’s tobacco facilities (Nestor Plasencia is the largest grower of Cuban-seed premium tobacco in the world) throughout Latin America, the workers and managers routinely, simply refer to the materials as “Habano” and nothing more. So, "what matters when I am looking at Habano leaf" you ask? Like any other seed, the region it is grown plays the biggest role. From the key regions of Nicaragua, Honduras, Columbia, Panama, and Ecuador, the flavor and appearance are largely dependent on the climate and soil. It is not simply limited by country either, as many tobacco growing nations have several regions. In fact, between Nicaragua and Honduras alone there is Jalapa, Esteli, Somoto, Pueblo Nuevo, Ometepe, Condega, Jalapa, Copan, Talanga and San Agustin, just to name a few. These specific areas impart a certain fingerprint on Habano-seed leaves and their unique characteristics can be both seen and tasted.

Age of your Cuban cigar box

http://www.nationalcigarmuseum.com/Dating/Dating_Cuban_Boxes.html
This site was mentioned on Ebay so I thought I would share it with you.