West Houston Smoke&Powder Crawl XV Review Part 5
- From: AGCIAS <AGCIAS@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:04:25 -0700 (PDT)
.... continued from yesterday.
Our first tobacconist on the Crawl was Cigars of the World. We have
stopped here a few times before and keep coming back because it is
such a great place. CotW has to be the friendliest place on the Crawl
in recent years. Not that the other shops are not extremely friendly,
but CW just goes overboard with conviviality and comradary. After
seeing the Crawlers settled, and shaking off the few raindrops that
had caught me just as I entered, I dove into the humidor.
For some reason (this was an accident) all the tobacconists on the
Crawl had incredible selections of high-end cigars. Maybe it is just
that good tobacconists have good smokes.
I made my way through the humidor (this is where I usually get my
Rocky Patel Olde World Reserves) and grabbed handsful of Gurkhas I had
not tried before and a Don Pepin Lancero for DJ. And because I was
such a big spender (under $25 bucks) I also got a Pre-Embargo 1960 DC
handed to me by Justin -- which I will certainly smoke and review
sometime.
Once all had arrived and settled, and we had all made our ways out of
the humidor with our finds, Justin began handing out raffle tickets.
And, sure enough, Charles won a BEATIFUL Estiban Carreras Cigar Case
CotW had put up for a prize.
About this time, all settling into our chairs -- oh, I have to tell
you that, when I mentioned CotW to DJ, her response was “You mean the
place with the comfy chairs?” -- that someone, I believe it was Mark
and forgive me if I got it wrong, approached DJ and insisted she try a
CAO Moontrance. Now Dark William/Bill/DW had introduced her to these
years ago. Though flavored, this is a wellmade and blended smoke and
not at all the traditional flavored cigar. She loved them. Sadly the
quality after the first few months took a nosedive and the people at
CAO were so unrelentingly nasty when she called to warn them of this
that she dropped the brand and never looked back. But Mark pressed a
couple on her, from back in the ealy days, and she lit one up and
found that it was just as good as those first few boxes. Once again,
you meet such absolutely great people at cigar events.
Anyway, not to be outdone, Mark (and I am sure this time) insisted
that I dive into his traveldor and pick a cigar to trade for one of
the mediocher sticks I had; repeatedly urging me to not take that one
but to go on to the next layer. Finally I think I ended up with a RyJ
DC, I cigar I do love but for some reason never buy. I gave him a RP
Olde World Reserve Lancero, buying up by an order of magnitude
although these are good smokes and I happen to know that someone
“traded” him for it as I had the DC.
Rocky Patel was to have dropped off some smokes for us at CotW, but
there was some mixup and these never showed. But we had plenty of
Crawl cigars anyway. Speaking of which, I pulled out a Crawl Cigar,
an EQ 601 Habana Robusto. The 601 Rabito Habanos Robusto took fire
easily and proceeded to burn down. It had a moderately veined wrapper
showing some oil, and with a glossy smooth feel under the fingers.
There was a light tobacco and some citrus in the aroma pre-light. The
draw was good but just a little tight, construction appeared good at
the head and foot and the feel was firm throughout. The cigar had
sharp flavors, amounts of black pepper, hot wood and burnt citrus.
The draw, though starting slightly tight, became very good, with a
relatively straight burn leaving an even grey, slightly loose ash.
The sharp edge disappeared as smoked, leaving the cigar still very
full-flavored.
Odd thing about this Crawl. Or, “Yet another odd thing….” People
regularly swap and give away cigars. But this year, maybe inspired to
Mark, who kept going up to Crawlers and saying, “Dig through here (his
quintuple-decked traveldor) and pick something and leave
something,”EVERYBODY was handing off cigars to each other. Heck, that
is a good part of why we were there. I want everyone to have a chance
to try the cigars I like. I don't see why everybody shouldn't do the
same.
Continued tomorrow...
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