Smoke Break

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Decided to bust out something special today, a Partagas Lusitania, perhaps the most famous of the Cuban double coronas, this thing is almost comically long, and known as a full flavored powerhouse. The pre light draw felt a little tight, but once I got it lit it actually feels pretty good on the draw, just enough resistance to burn slow and even.



Better angle of the cigar itself for scale on how long this thing is:



Cuban cigars are really a hit or miss proposition, the Cubans have access to some of the greatest tobacco in the world, but the cash strapped and incompetent government that controls the factories means that quality control is often lacking and the tobacco usually isn't properly aged, so you often have to sit on them for a few years after purchase and hope you don't get one that's impossibly plugged, but when they're on they really are the best in the world.

I'm about 3/4 of an inch into this Lusi, and so far so good, it's a little milder than I expected, but I suspect it will gain strength as the burn gets closer to the cut end, we shall see. Typically these take 2-3 hours to smoke, so I'm in for the ride now, I'll post updates if it does anything unexpected.

About 1/3 in, the cigar is evolving nicely, perfect burn and a smooth draw. Little bit of wrapper cracking just below the band, but not effecting the smoke so far, I'd call it medium-strong, with some nice spice on the retro-hale. So far, I'm enjoying this, but not sure I'd pony up for a box vs the Partagas Shorts I usually smoke, those things are little flavor bombs, and much more economical than this beast.

Smoked that sucker down to the nub, it was pretty good, but again, I'm not sure it was 4 times better than the Partagas Shorts I usually enjoy from this marca, maybe if I can get my hands on an aged one in the future, I'll change my mind. I do tend to prefer the short and narrow vitolas when it comes to Cubans, so that might also just be my personal taste contributing to my opinion.

Don't those things give you cancer?

Cigars not so much, I checked with my insurance when I started smoking them, and what they said was that it wouldn't affect my rate if I smoked less than 2 per day, which is honestly more than I could afford to smoke anyway. You don't inhale cigars, you puff them, so the risk is for throat or tongue cancer rather than lung cancer as with cigarettes, but even then the risk is minimal if you don't chain smoke them regularly. I trust my insurance company on this because they'd jack my rates up if they could, so if they're telling me less than 2 per day isn't enough of a risk to change my rate, I believe them.

Glad it didn’t explode halfway.

Heh, I can't afford 60's vintage Cuban's, when the CIA might have included that kind of payload.

I’ve only smoked a Cuban once.A friend gave me one.It was tasty and did last forever.Sorry I don’t remember the brand.Wouldn't mind another one with some really good coffee.