Store Review: Smoke Shop

With Barry suffering from allergies and his cigar reviews not slated to return until Monday I figured I would chip in with a review of a great cigar lounge located in Jerusalem, Israel.

My background has allowed me to travel the world for work and pleasure, so wherever I go make sure to find a place to smoke. Like Barry, cigars are an important part of my day. It allows you to spend time with friends and make new acquaintances no matter where you are.

One such place is the Smoke Shop located in Jerusalem at the Alrov Mamilla. It’s fine selection of Habana Cigars, Non Cuban Cigars and various tobacco products are the best in Jerusalem. The lounge is comfort defined where you can sip some fine cognac and brandies while enjoying a cigar of your choice in a nice comfortable leather chair.

The owners Amir & Eli are friendly, accommodating and full of knowledge. When asked the difference between an habano cigar another Amir puts in best, “One is like a beautiful blonde beautiful and appealing, the Cuban is an ugly fine surprise.” The crowd is diverse with world travelers, the IDF and journalists so if you get to the middle east be sure to stop by and let them know you heard about them from acigarsmoker.com

Cigar Review: Tatuaje Cojonu 2003

Can you believe that summer is over? Granted there are still 25 days or so at the time of this posting, but with Labor Day a few days away the end is here. All in all it hasn’t been a horrible summer, although with Hurricane Gustav threatening New Orleans it could get bad again in terms of gasoline prices if another catastrophe hits. To all my readers from the Bayou I wish you and your family safe passage during the coming days.

As I arrived at the beach this morning, it had a different feel to it from the look of the sand, to the appearance of the water. There is a cold look to it, emptiness. The people going to and from have been reduced as well making the area appear desolate.

My cigar this morning was gifted to me a few months ago, and since I was told it was among the better Tatuaje branded cigars I decided to hold off on it specifically until this weekend.

The Skinny:

Cigar: Tatuaje Cojonu 2003
Origin: Miami
Size: 6.5 x 52 (Toro)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua

Pre-smoke: Like most cigars from Tatuaje they are exquisitely rolled right down to the triple cap. The double band of today’s stick gave the cigar a Cuban appearance. The cigar itself had a few too many veins, but it was glistening with oils. The wrapper of the cigar revealed some cedar notes, while the foot offered similar wood notes. I cut the cigar with my idiot proof hippotech cutter was shocked to see some very red tobacco up near the cap. It actually had the appearance of paprika which was very strange. The pre-light draw offered notes of wood and spices.

Smoke: The cigar was medium to full bodied and the initial third of the cigar offered notes of pepper, earth and leather. As I approached the second third of the cigar pepper was the dominant note with some subtle coffee and earth notes in the background. The final third was earth and pepper. Despite the gorgeous looking roll, the cigar had some major burn issues that needed to be touched up numerous times.

Overall: Maybe I just have some Pete Johnson overload going on, but I was less than impressed with the Tatuaje Cojonu. While the notes were typical of his smokes it lacked a lot of depth and I was rather bored smoking it about two thirds of the way through.

Rating: 87
Price: $15.00

What an expensive week….

What an expensive week. I promised myself the last 7 days and the next 5 days I would not spend any money what so ever. From time to time I go on spending spree’s and the one week I could not afford to do so I did. I lost one of my 3 jobs this week due the paranoia of someone. Granted that one job was only 1/5th of my income, but with the rising price of gasoline I wanted to give myself a week worth of saving. Especially since today gas at my local station for premium was 4.26 a gallon. Since I drive a Cadillac, I have to use the premium with the northstar engine.

So it all began to unwind for me on Thursday. I decided to take a ride up to Atlantic Cigars’ New York location for a Nub event. Sam Leccia was there, the creator of the Nub and he happened to be a nice guy. Probably the nicest guy I’ve met in the industry to date. So that day I bought a box of Nubs Cameroon 464s.

Then I got home and decided I needed to order some clothing. So I went to my favorite retailer on-line and proceeded to order 200.00 in clothes. 4 shirts, and 1 pair of jeans. One day down and 300.00 in the hole.

Friday came and I decided I needed to get another humidor. So I called up my local cigar shop and I scored. I got a Diamond Crown humidor for the price of the Diamond Crown element. 80.00 and I walked away or at least I should of. Shocked that I was getting such a deal from my buddy, I had to walk into his humidor. I scored the cigars in the picture…

• Arturo Fuente Work Of Art Mado (3)
• Arture Fuente Anejo (2)
• The Edge (2)

So that was an additional 50.00. for a 2 day total of 430.00. I was going to go down to the country club this weekend and sit out on the deck and smoke, but I guess I will wait til next weekend and recover what I spent this week. The glenfiddich 15 year old can wait.