According to the report, the government purchased a Falcon 900 model, manufactured in 2003, at a cost of approximately $10 million.

Is there any greater comedy than the Cuban government and its decision making? Spending $10M on a private jet for Diaz-Canel is so ludicrous I thought I was reading an Onion article.

Here's a YouTube link from the same source.

A new price list published this week in Spain shows that around 365 SKUs have increased from their 2024 prices—nearly the entire Cuban cigar portfolio—with an average increase of 5 percent.

The most notable increase affects the Cohiba Behike BHK line, a flagship series from Habanos S.A. Its three cigars have increased by 21-22 percent and are now priced per cigar at:
Behike BHK 52 — €230 ($238.20)
Behike BHK 54 — €290 ($300.35)
Behike BHK 56 — €320 ($331.40)

With these new increases, the price of a single BHK is roughly the same as the cost of a box of 10 of the same cigar when it debuted in 2010.

Halfwheel did a great job analyzing this. It's important to note that Spanish taxes are often lower than what we'd see elsewhere, so that has to factor in to the "hey wait a second, this isn't accurate, I'm paying $28 for a Partagás D4" moments you'll inevitably have while reading the linked article.

This is not surprising news, though it is shocking. A box of Montecristo No. 2 is hovering around $900US at online retailers, increasing to likely $950 in '25. Incomprehensible versus the $250-300 price they were only 5 years ago.

Habanos wants to do a billion dollars in revenue annually and probably will look to sell itself once it achieves this. I'd bet they get damn close in '25 and achieve it sufficiently in '26.

New LL out today featuring the Davidoff Winston Churchill The Late Hour Robusto paired with Aberlour 18. We review Cigar Aficionado’s latest Top 25, we debate how The Late Hour has changed over the years and we discover how Davidoff is trying to redefine a cigar’s age statement.

WSJ with one of its better recent opinion pieces on last week's Miami Herald leak of internal Cuban government banking information.

More likely, the Cuban status quo, in which dire privation dominates daily life, has become too foul even for some members of the ruling elite. There’s also this: The military may own GAESA on paper, but the Castro family and its allies are widely believed to be the company’s beneficiaries. Greedy rich Cubans treat GAESA as their property.

Internal pressure is what's needed to fuel change, but it all still seems impossible to me, given the many stories over the last 60 years of another potential uprising.

In a recent report to the United Nations, the Cuban Foreign Ministry blamed the U.S. embargo for depriving the government of the $250 million it needs each year to maintain the electrical grid and the $129 million it needs to provide medical supplies annually to its hospitals. Yet one of GAESA’s companies, Gaviota, which is in the hotel business, “is sitting on about $4.3 billion in its bank accounts,” according the documents.

Unimaginable greed and corruption.

New LL out today featuring the Cohiba Espléndidos paired with champagne and cognac for our NYE extravaganza. We review our best and worst cigars and pairings of the year, I was given a wild listener gift, we share BHK58/59 rumors and facts, we answer an email on podcast origin stories and more.

Happy New Year and thank you for the support throughout 2024.

Lounge Lizards Best of 2024 is out and it came in just shy of five hours of content. We had a great year and I think the program has matured and settled in nicely. There are a lot of memorable moments for me but Chef Ricky joining the panel as our eighth lizard is tops. Thank you for your support this year!

Despite 90s rock radio legends CREED getting back together last year, Alter Bridge, born out of CREED's ashes in the early aughts, remains some of Tremonti and Co.'s best work. "Words Darker Than Their Wings" is a song off their AB III album that rarely sees live performances - I believe less than five ever - due to the demanding lead vocal run at the end. This performance with the Parallax Orchestra in London is a testament to the power of a great modern rock song.

YT: Alter Bridge: "Words Darker Than Their Wings Live at Royal Albert Hall"

I was really praying that CA was going to choose a Cuban Trinidad for Cigar of the Year - which would set us up for about six months of fantastic content after the ridiculous "Year of Trinidad", but alas this year belongs to another big advertiser.

My Father The Judge in Grand Robusto is a surprising choice - not because it's My Father, but because of some of the other cigars the Garcia family makes that perform better and are 'higher end'. Choosing this is the equivalent to choosing a fairly pedestrian cigar from Fuente's Hemingway series - as opposed to an Opus X or a Don Carlos. With that being said, I find the Hemingway series to often perform more consistently than Opus X.

I've ordered these cigars for review and we'll release that episode in the first few weeks of the new year.

New LL out today featuring Bolívar New Gold Medal and Don Fulano 20th Anniversary Tequila Añejo. We discussed a recent Bond Roberts auction milestone, how we think Cuba has changed how it blends new releases (see 'LESS LIGERO', below) and Senator answers a listener email on wine.

I bought a box of NGM as soon as we stopped recording.

The best Cuban cigars have historically required age – generally three to five years in a well-kept humidor – to turn into something beyond ‘smokeable’. Through plant maturation, fermentation and curing - let’s simplify it to ‘time’ - ammonia and other undesired flavors/aromas begin to diminish, while amino acids and simple sugars accumulate¹. Through 500+ years of tobacco production, these processes have constantly evolved to improve harvest and flavor.

In Cuba, I believe something is changing. New releases are more tolerable and less harsh when smoked young, there is a lesser presence of ammonia (even in the last third of a cigar, when combustion is highest and closest to the draw point) and the cigars are burning well. If we weren't discussing Cuba, I would chalk it up to manufacturer’s patience - allowing the tobacco whatever time it needs to produce the flavor profile the marca is looking for. In Cuba, however, time is a scarce resource. Tabacuba does not have the ability to be patient; they’re working on a just-in-time-hopefully manufacturing schedule with a high-pressure distribution partner in Habanos S.A.. With this in mind, I believe the Cuban Tobacco Research Institute and its master blenders are purposefully using less ligero in modern blends to allow for quicker smokeability among consumers.

The recent pricing changes in the Habanos S.A. catalog - with some cigars seeing 400%-500% increases in just 18 months - puts the consumer in a difficult value delta: patience vs. price. Why, if I'm paying $120 for a Cohiba Espléndidos, should I have to rest it at home in my humidor for three to five years to get the proper smoking experience? When the same cigar was $20, the value delta was an accepted part of the deal. Now, a non-whale consumer will likely think very seriously about this purchase.

For the people who make blending decisions in Cuba, this must be part of the new conversation. How can newly-created Cuban cigars be made ready-to-smoke within months of boxing? How can we eliminate the normal period of youth, harshness, the bitterness/sourness of ammonia in the cigar? How can we reduce the strength of a new cigar? If the answer cannot be “more time”, then the answer must be “less ligero”.

We know, for example, that the Cohiba Atabey (a.k.a. BHK59 releasing in March 2026) has no ligero in the blend. While I believe it was designed this way to stand out from the rest of the catalog, I can’t help but posit if readiness-to-smoke factored into the blending decisions.

I believe Cuba is deliberately moving away from creating ligero-heavy blends in newly-blended cigars to sell consumers a cigar that is ready to be smoked today. We've discussed this on the podcast while reviewing the following regular production cigars: La Gloria Cubana Turquinos (Ep. 84, Rating 8.8); Rafael Gonzalez Coronas de Lonsdales (Ep. 105, Rating 8.0); Ramon Allones Allones No. 3 (Ep. 109, Rating 8.6); Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure No. 3 (Ep. 147, Rating 9.2); Quai d'Orsay No. 52 (Ep. 157, Rating 9.6).

Throughout the reviews, we noted a few common characteristics:

• The cigar was young – most only a few months old.

• The cigar was from the original production run of publicly released cigars.

• The cigar was often a departure from its sister cigars inside the same marca - at times we struggled to find flavor and strength parallels at all.

• The cigars all performed drastically better than any of us expected them to at their age.

In the first two years of producing the podcast, I would avoid bringing a cigar for review that was less than a couple years old, as regular production staple cigars in the Cuban catalog do not perform at the high level that most of these new releases did.

I do want to cast a skeptical eye on one conspiracy theory that I’ve seen floated on the internet (and have heard from others in the non-Cuban cigar industry): Cuba is using Dominican, Honduran, Nicaraguan or other non-Cuban tobacco in its cigars. I do not believe this to be true at any scale. Purchasing tobacco from another country requires money, which the Cuban government desperately doesn’t have. Countries are refusing to even finance fuel – a necessity for providing humans with basic needs in Cuba and crucial to the tobacco manufacturing process – and are certainly not giving Cuba credit to quietly purchase raw tobacco.

It's also important to acknowledge the incredible run that Cuban cigars have been on post-COVID. Across all lines, Cuban tobacco has been smoking brilliantly. I believe, in five to ten years, this period will be looked upon as some of the best years of Cuban tobacco - then immediately contradicted by the egregious pricing changes that have been forced upon consumers. Such is the comical contradiction of Cuban cigars - when everything goes wrong, somehow they still find a way to produce magic in tobacco.

Another effect of these decisions: does blending Cuban cigars with less ligero produce a cigar that is going to 'age' poorly or more rapidly - perhaps reaching its flavor and performance peaks years ahead of its predecessors? Does this change reflect an updated approach to buying and collecting new-release Cuban cigars? Should we be looking to smoke our new-release cigars sooner?

I don't yet have the answers to any of these questions but I do know my willingness to smoke younger Cuban cigars has increased dramatically.

¹ I'm no scientist. I learned this from T.C. Tso's "Production, Physiology and Biochemistry of Tobacco Plants"

I was fortunate to see Gilmour live in November at Madison Square Garden. It far exceeded my expectations, as the show was designed around his new album - and purposely left out a lot of classic 70s Floyd. Today, he's released a live version of The Piper's Call:

'The Piper's Call Live Around The World’ was recorded at The Brighton Centre, Circus Maximus in Rome, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles and Madison Square Garden in New York to form one seamless track recorded throughout the 'Luck and Strange' tour.

YT: The Piper's Call - Live Around the World

New LL out today featuring HVC Selección No. 1 in Esenciales with Baker’s 7 Year Single Barrel Bourbon. We discussed a new custom cigar program from JC Newman, Chef Ricky guided us through some great holiday food plans and Senator brings in a new game called "The Bam Price is Right".

It’s probably my favorite episode we’ve recorded to date.

I think I’ll get this framed for my office. I guess Cigar Aficionado has been so beat up on social media (and podcasts, perhaps) about choosing the Top 25 Cigars each year by ad revenue, relationships, and quid pro quo that they felt the need to publish a full-page missive assuring everyone that they're the "most trusted name in publishing" because they “taste blind”. After I had a good laugh for about twenty minutes, I had to sit down and share.

Only Marvin R. Shanken (who also happens to be Marvin R. Shanken's biggest fan) would publish a self-congratulatory message with the blindfolded Lady Justice sipping a glass of red wine – telling us of their "commitment to integrity" when reviewing cigars and spirits.

At the end of the day, we can only guess what's really going on over there, but I will tell you – I unequivocally believe that there is no situation in which the review panel of Cigar Aficionado is smoking 70-80 cigars each issue down to the last third. It's not happening. It's a light, a few puffs, and then some lightly written fluff about flavor notes. I'd also like to point out how the #1 cigar of each year features a rotating cast of manufacturers and origins. No manufacturer has ever won Cigar of the Year two years in a row or even in alternating years. If the Top 25 is as blind as they say it is, I find that to be mathematically near impossible.

Shanken and his crew believe that we are all a bunch of idiots and the revenue from us, their loyal readers, isn’t worth their time. So much so that a couple years ago, Marvin R. Shanken was the surprise guest at his own Big Smoke Festival - surprising his editors. Talk about entertainment!

The ship has sailed – and a winedrunk Lady Liberty is going to be hanging in my office next week.

(This is the first in a series of music shares I plan to do most Fridays moving forward. Please email me with any comments/suggestions.)

King Crimson's trio of records in the early 1980s are among my favorites: "Discipline", “Beat”, and "Three of a Perfect Pair". On Sunday, I will be at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre for BEAT - a unique tribute show to 80s Crimson featuring two of the members of the ’80s lineup - Tony Levin and Adrian Belew. They're joined by guitar legend Steve Vai and Danny Carey from TOOL.

There's a distinct play in the music of 80s Crimson that marries accessible catchy melodies with intricate musicianship - and innovative technical choices incorporating electronic drums and then-groundbreaking guitar effects.

YouTube: kC 1984 performance of “Three of a Perfect Pair” in Japan.

$4,795

Bacardi, which was exiled from Cuba after the country's Communist revolution, said that the Cuban government unlawfully seized the Havana Club name and assets from Jose Arechabala SA in 1960. Bacardi bought Jose Arechabala's brand and started selling Havana Club rum in the United States in 1995. Cubaexport first registered its U.S. "Havana Club" trademark in 1976.

This legal fight between Bacardi and Cuba began twenty years ago and has ended with the floodgates opening for even more confusion with authentic Cuban cigars and marks. Will General Cigar be releasing a Cohiba BHK or Partagás Serie line in the US market soon? They'd probably be wise to - including lifting bands, boxes and other marks from the Cuban counterparts since they're no longer protected. Why not?

Ex-US, however, Habanos S.A. has been very successful defending its trademarks. In April, a German court banned the use of the words "Cuba" and "Habano" in non-Cuban tobacco product descriptions¹. While Germany is only a piece of the European market, it would be a costly venture to distinguish product packaging and marketing for Germany alone - making this decision far-reaching.

¹ https://www.habanos.com/en/news/german-federal-court-of-justice-confirms-in-final-judgment-that-appellations-such-as-cuba-and-habana-are-inadmissible-for-cigars-of-other-origins/

New LL out today featuring our sixth Short Smoke Special. We smoke the Cuban Quintero Favoritas and the Nicaraguan Padrón 1926 Serie No. 35 in Maduro, both paired with Bonanza Cabernet Sauvignon.

We debate if New World cigar manufacturers have gotten an easy pass on their recent price increases and we answer a listener email on memories with our favorite discontinued cigars - plus a bunch of other stuff.

The 25th Habanos Festival has been announced and will be held February 24-28, 2025 in Havana. I went to this festival in 2023 for the first and probably last time. You can hear why here.

There is a lot of speculation around the pending release of Cohiba's BHK58¹ and BHK59². There have been several news reports, photos of unbanded cigars and much social speculation regarding the release. Given how much has been said elsewhere on the internet, I spoke with a few friends and confirmed current plans.

BHK58 will be released to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of Behike this March and the BHK59 (or the Atabey, as it's actually known) will now be released in 2026 to celebrate Cohiba's 60th Anniversary.

Originally, the plan was to release BHK59 in 2025 - and BHK58 was not to see any wide international release.³ I am not sure why plans changed in the last few months, as Atabey was in heavy production. I am certain the BHK58 blend has changed from its original profile, which was tested extensively years ago and then canceled due to its departure from what Tabacuba views as the core BHK profile. Simply put, it was too strong. I have read reports of COVID disrupting release plans, but that may have coincidentally aligned with their dislike of the blend at the time.

BHK59 - or the Atabey - is a short and fat 59 ring gauge piramide at its foot by 5 ⅝”, with a cut mouthfeel of closer to a 48/50. Like the other BHK, it features a pigtail. Its most unique feature is the absence of ligero in the blend - it’s primarily filled with medio tiempo. It’s a very unique cigar that will certainly polarize Cuban cigar consumers with its odd shape and size.

The decision to launch BHK58 is also concerning due to the known lack of quality wrapper in Cuba - a longstanding issue at this point. I'd expect BHK58 to be very limited in its availability once released - probably even more limited than the BHK52/BHK54/BHK56 currently in production. I'd also expect the cigar to be in the $450US price range MSRP.

58 x 7”, which will make it the largest cigar in the Cuban cigar catalog, caters to the recent larger ring gauge preferences of cigar smokers. While I vehemently disagree, the market says bigger is better.

Unfortunately, it looks the Atabey will have to wait - unless Habanos S.A. changes its mind again before February.

¹ Report on BHK58

² Report on BHK59

³ The yearslong speculation surrounding BHK58 stems from its production and visibility in Cuban factories, which I would assume was contracted by private big whale clients in China and the Middle East. The original testing period for launch only lasted around fifteen months. Allegedly it was included in special/auction humidors over time, but this remains unconfirmed.

It's been almost 500 days since I last posted - an absolute whirlwind of fifteen months. I was mostly focused on the terminal illness and eventual death of my mother in April, but also recognized an element of ongoing self-discovery during the grieving process. Grief is an odd experience. I was in a deep fog while she was sick, driving to and from my home state of Pennsylvania several times a week while trying to be present and available to both my family and my business. My primary sense of 'normalcy' during this time was the podcast, which allowed me the ability to disconnect from reality, focus on the impossible perfection I chase in both production and flow, as well as the opportunity to smoke a cigar and create some positive fog with my closest friends.

The ritual of recording the podcast is significant to me. It's an appointment on the calendar that I would dare not miss - and its weight (weight that we've put on ourselves) imparts a sense of seriousness and importance - yet it remains the highlight of each week. During my mom's gradual decline, knowing the recording appointment was on the calendar was a beacon of light. The constant flow of listener emails was a crutch that reminded me that my contribution to the cigar world was in some way meaningful. This is far beyond my wildest imagination of possibilities when we started recording in late 2021.

I was talking with a fellow lizard a few days ago about our decision to be anonymous. Most of the people in my life don't even know I smoke cigars; almost none know that I have a cigar podcast. It's created a useful dynamic of solitude inside this thing that we've built. Folks who can and want to appreciate it do, and those that would otherwise have no interest don't need to know that it exists. Anonymity was a casual choice, but it’s been a wonderfully powerful gift. It has also eliminated the ego, as 'fame' and money have nothing to do with our product, nor our continuing to want to produce it. We get together and record the podcast because we want to, not because we have to. I obsess about it because I want to, not because I have to. I think there's real power in the pressure coming from inside, as opposed to outside. External pressure would never have allowed the Type-A personalities in the group to reach three years of weekly releases, nor would it have allowed us to keep our friendships intact. For the eight members*, it remains as it was day one - a passion project that we enjoy. With or without the mics, we are doing the same thing every time we are together, safe for formally rating what we're smoking or drinking. This accidental ritual became something important enough for listeners around the world to tune into each week, but for me, it became important and powerful enough to relieve me of stress and worry during the darkest of days. For that, I am very thankful.

I am now returning to publish here as frequently as I can, and I hope my writing and curation improve in a way that - when reflecting in many years' time - I am proud to revisit. I also hope this site provides some value to you.

Thank you for your support of us and of me.

*We welcomed Chef Ricky, our resident agave expert - as our eighth lizard this summer - one of our best decisions yet.

New LL out today. We return to lanceros (after 38 weeks, take it easy) with a Honduran puro, we answer some listener email and Pagoda called the police on himself. Hilarious story and an absolutely brilliant cigar.

Got some unfortunate life stuff happening (my health is fine, others in my life not so much) and it has prevented me from being as available for things like this new website as I'd like to be.

My excess available time and energy is currently focused on the Lounge Lizards podcast.

Once the proverbial smoke clears I will return here. Please do check back often.

New LL is out today - the fourth and final episode recapping our Cuba trip in March. We discuss our favorite cigar shops and lounges in Havana and our experiences at the Habanos Festival '23 and Amigos de Partagás '22.

“With payrolls made and everything, the bank does not accept payment through the cards because they don’t have money; the railroad is not an isolated situation,” he says referring to the unusual spontaneous strike organized on Tuesday by Artemis railway workers, in protest against the non-payment of their salaries in the last two months.

Has the financial picture reached a breaking point? On top of no food, there is no liquid money and savings accounts have become inaccessible. Powerful look into the looming chaos from Havana Times.

New LL is out today featuring one of our longest episodes yet, focused on the Davidoff Millennium Lancero Limited Edition 2023 (click for prior blog post/details) and paired with twelve year aged Caol Ila single malt scotch.

We discuss the history of Caol Ila, we reveal how we all met, a listener email takes Rooster to task, and Senator gives me an all-time gift (see below).

We continue our packaging discussion with this absolute lunacy. This $4,000 humidor from Atabey holds 60 cigars - five from each vitola they produce - pricing each cigar at roughly $67. We reviewed one of them, the Brujos, on LL Episode 49 and it scored a 5.8. I haven't reached for an Atabey since and don't plan to until we review another one. Cigar was worth $10 at most.

I'm not usually wooed by packaging, but this series of Spanish releases is excellent.

According to CA, this is the fifth release in limited-edition series that pays tribute to famous bullfighters throughout history. This year’s edition honors José Luis Mazzantini y Eguía, a bullfighter from the 1800s.

They're regular production M2s, so I'll be paying an additional 40% for the fun box.

New LL episode is out today, featuring the third part of our Cuba trip recap - focused on our visit to La Corona Factory in Havana, the manufacturing powerhouse of Cuban cigar production. We reveal what we learned during our private factory tour and we discuss the famous origin story of the Cohiba Lancero.

The final episode of this series will be out in two weeks.

On Wednesday, a hail storm destroyed the entirety of the spring Florida Sun Grown tobacco crop. This crop was the first of two plantings this year.

We knew this was coming, but the increases were completely rolled out in the last few days. I changed the title of CA's article, as it is really an increase across almost all marcas and vitolas in the Habanos catalog. Most increases were between 5-10%, with the standout unicorns like Behike rising another 45-50% depending on the region. HSA should be ashamed of themselves, but instead will probably raise them another one or two times this year.

You've got to love Carlito's imagination - straight out of Willy Wonka. Hope to visit it once construction is complete.

H. Upmann Magnum Finite — 5 1/8 (130mm) x 53 (Singulares)
Ramón Allones Absolutos — 6 3/8 (162mm) x 47 (Cazadores Especiales)
Trinidad Cablidos — 6 1/8 (156mm) x 49 (Nuevos)

Three new ELs for 2023 have been announced, with the Trinidad and Upmann being previously unused sizes.

Halfwheel says these were originally intended to be 2022 ELs, but were pushed back a year. I'm assuming they'll be released in late 2024 or early 2025. Prices will be obscene.

New LL out today, featuring the Drew Estate Herrera Esteli Norteño Lonsdale with The Macallan Sherry Oak 12 Years Old. We discuss the story behind the Norteño cigar line, we enter a YouTube vortex on nomad van life, we answer a listener email on sourcing cigars and we shared our favorite warm weather smokes.

Our Lizards in Cuba series continue next week.

Posting the photo here as it's absolutely a stunning presentation. Hopefully the performance of the cigar matches (or beats) the quality of the packaging, as I have a box of these for us to review sometime later this year.

Good to see newer releases appearing at retail, as Habanos S.A. has had difficulty bringing new releases to market - and many like the Cohiba Novedosos still haven't seen the light of day. (By the way, if you think you have a box of Cohiba Novedosos, you don't. They have not yet been brought to market in any capacity. We were told they have made less than 10 boxes ever at El Laguito.)

The other recent Partagás release, the 2020 EL 'Legados', was a big dud for me. The new Línea Maestra line launched at Habanos Festival '23 remains to be seen. I'm letting them rest a bit before I try them.

At 3 1/2 inches long by 55 ring gauge, the stout little smoke consists of a Cameroon wrapper around Dominican tobacco.

If you listen to the podcast, you know how much we love the Don Carlos Eye of the Shark from Arturo Fuente - one of the 🐐 new world cigars. This is a sister cigar to that, apparently.

The size is a problem. 3.5" x 55 is the exact opposite of what most smokers I am familiar with want to see in a cigar.

It's a "PCA Exclusive" until it's not - probably next year.

New LL episode is out today, featuring the second part of our Cuba trip recap - focused on our visit to El Laguito, the home of Cohiba and the Mecca of Cuban cigars.

We also do our deepest dive ever on sourcing, blending and rolling tobacco from our time with the production manager of Laguito. The guys also surprised me for my birthday.

We had a fantastic time at Laguito and we learned a ton. I hope you enjoy this episode.

A very well written article by Nicholas Foulkes, who does a YouTube series with his son Max, about his experience at the Habanos Festival last month. I met Nick briefly at the Bolívar event on Wednesday evening.

Foulkes also spoke with Habanos S.A. co-pres Maritza Gonzalez, Marino Murillo from Tabacuba, Davidoff of London's Eddie Sahakian and Hunter and Frankau's Jemma Freeman.

Even so, the official press conference is upbeat about the (Cuban Tobacco Industry) situation, stating that revenue of $545 million from cigar sales was up 2 percent last year over 2021. Something may be lost in translation. It doesn’t help that the event is held in conference hall 4 while translators have been sent to hall 3, but I come away from the briefing with the feeling that Hurricane Ian, which had destroyed 80 percent of the curing barns in Pinar del Río and which was described as the worst in living memory, is being played down . . . maybe not as an unalloyed benefit for the cigar industry but as the perfect opportunity for Cuban people to unite and overcome a natural disaster with Stakhanovite fervor. Nor is the opportunity lost for officials to blame the U.S. embargo, now over 60 years old and showing no signs of abating, for the difficulty in acquiring agricultural supplies.

Classic HSA drivel.

Part 4 of our Lizards in Cuba recap on the Lounge Lizards podcast will be released this time next month and I will discuss my time at the Festival events - especially the gala dinner.

I was surprised to learn that ND did not allow for cigar lounges prior to the Governor signing HB1229 this week. Non-coastal states are trending in the right direction.

New LL episode is out today, featuring Caldwell Cigar Company's Long Live the Queen in Queen’s Sword w/ D'Usse Cognac VSOP. We discuss Caldwell Cigar Co.'s recent setback, Jay Z’s involvement in the Cognac pairing, the Masters Tournament and we are irritated trying find baseball on TV.

Our Lizards in Cuba series continue next week.

The new Allones No. 3 is coming to Switzerland this month. At 5 1/2 inches by 52 ring gauge, the Allones No. 3 is referred to as Noblezas in Cuban cigar factories and will be available in Switzerland starting April 18.

Good to see a new regular production vitola from Ramón Allones. We saw these being made when we were in Cuba last month and they’ve been slowly trickling into the retail chain for the last few months. At ~$19/cigar, the price could be worse. Nice to see a moderately priced new release. I’ll always believe a good cigar is worth $20 if it can give me a solid 90 minutes of enjoyment. Ramón is a storied marca with some fantastic cigars. RASS is one of the 🐐 daily go-to's.

Why CA can’t seem to figure out how to put the accent on the ‘o’ in Ramón?

If you’re a listener of the podcast, you know how much we love the Davidoff Millennium Series. As we started into our block of “long skinnies” on the pod, we heard of a discontinued lancero that Davidoff used to produce in the line. They should’ve canceled the toro instead.

Fast forward three months and they have now re-released this blend in Lancero. $29/cigar isn’t cheap, but if it’s anything like the Piramides (52 x 6⅛”) flavor, it’s going to be superb. Lizards and I will do a review on this one soon.

I love these graphics from them too:

Edit: I’ve had a few emails about the smoking time listed as 35-45min on their graphic, which is definitely a typo. I would think they meant 1hr 35-45min.

PCA and local tobacconists successfully lobbied Idaho legislators to cap cigar tax at 50 cents/cigar. Now time for California, New York and others to understand the difference between 7-Eleven flavored 'cigars' targeting kids and premium hand-made cigars found at a curated cigar shop.

All the while I feel stupid because I guess anywhere else in the world, a simple human being like me would have access to (scabies) cream. Luckily, I managed to get an already used tube of Ketoconazole from a very good friend who is going to try and get me some more. It seems my patient, stoic and assertive attitude has helped me a little. But the phrase: “God tightens the noose but doesn’t strangle you,” keeps coming to my mind and I can’t help but think that he’s really going at it, especially in this medical superpower without medicines.

Anti-fungal cream, among many other basic medicines, are very difficult to find in Cuba, the "Medical Superpower".

I was fortunate to see the great Bruce Hornsby last Sunday in Tarrytown, New York. Playing solo on piano, the night was intentional but relaxed and merged his handful of hits with mostly deeper stuff and covers.

Bruce, like me, loves the music and genius of Keith Jarrett and incorporates Keith’s music into his sets - including the 1976 Sun Bear Theme, performed live in Kyoto. It’s one of my favorites, especially when merged with Henley/Hornsby’s classic “The End of the Innocence”. Watch those two videos over a cigar.

Keith is no longer able to play live and Bruce takes me closer to a mid-‘70s Keith performance (and in some ways further) than I ever thought possible. Incredibly impactful night for me, which is not common at concerts these days.

Pinar del Río is facing perhaps the worst tobacco harvest in history, according to a report by Granma, the Cuban state-run newspaper.

First red flag.

Despite the adversity, tobacco grower Hector Luís Prieto has been fortunate. “I have recovered 100 percent, thanks to a lot of work and support. The quality this year is muy bueno,” he says, adding that the quantity on his farm was about normal and that all of his barns have been rebuilt. 

Second red flag.

Can anyone justify the Cuban government/Habanos S.A. using Hurricane Ian as propaganda? CA quotes a Cuban government newspaper, then they call a farmer on the ground who says that he's recovered 100% and his crop is "muy bueno" this year (despite everything that happened in Ian). 🤔

There are massive infrastructure issues in PDR and the farmers no doubt have incredible issues, but HSA will be using this hurricane to justify increases and shortages for as long as possible - probably until the next hurricane.

New LL episode is out today, featuring the first part of our Cuba trip recap. This week we focus on the three first-timers' (Pagoda, Rooster, Senator) first impressions, our food/restaurant experiences, taking in the amazing culture and music and going, accurately, using the US OFAC general license: 'In Support of the Cuban People'.

This series will continue every two weeks (Cuban eps. only) for the next two months.

Photo courtesy of Bam. MDO4 outside the Partagás Shop in Havana.

Two new regionals including an extremely overpriced $84 Diplomaticos - same size as the Hoyo Rio Seco (Aramosos, 56x5.5").

New episode is out today. Features Don Pepin Blue in Lancero, Basil Hayden's Bourbon and we do a deep dive on storage, humidity and much more.

This cigar was excellent - the bourbon, not so much. Lot of topics covered in this episode!

New LL episode today features H. Upmann Robustos Añejados and 14 year aged The Balvenie Caribbean Cask Single Malt Scotch. We discuss how a cigar’s construction can affect performance, we debate Cuban quality control and value, and we reveal a post-pod lizard indulgence.