Oh, and another thing...

While I'm on the track of things that make me happy, I have another one. If you don't love a good cigar, stop wasting your time and go back to downloading porn.

There is another place in Bismarck that is always a stop for me. There are actually two of them of the same name on either side of town, Captain Jack's. It's a huge liqour store. Now, I don't go in there to buy alcohol. Mostly because they have a great walk-in humidor at both locations. They are usually well stocked with some great cigars and their prices are really good, generally a buck or two lower per stick than anywhere else short of the internet.

Two things make me happy about both locations. The store on the south side has pre-embargo cubans (at least they did last time I was there). Now a pre-embargo cuban is not the rarest thing in the world but they certainly aren't fallen from the sky either. Being pre-embargo means that they would have been brought into the US legally prior to the 1963 cuban embargo. That's a long ass time. But, the great thing about cigars is that as long as they are kept in good care andat around 70 degrees and 70 percent humidity, they will damn near last forever. Now, trouble with a cigar is that the longer they are aged the milder they get. With most cigars made from other regions this would be a bad thing. For a cuban cigar, not so much.

To say that Cuban soil is rich would be a gross understatement. It is damn near close to perfect conditions for growing the best cigar grade tobacco possible. That is why that prior to the embargo ALL cigars were made with varying grades of Cuban tobacco. Even the now complete shit White Owl brand were once pretty decent cigars thanks to this (or so my dad tells me anyway).

The results of near perfect conditions is that the strength of the tobacco grown in Cuba is incredible.

So back to the present. The Pre-embargo cigars that they had were Gurhkas. Not the ones currently available, those are an off-shoot label. During the mass exodus from Cuba when Castro took power, a lot of the cigar manufacturers and their families fled to other Central and South American countries. That's why there are former Cuban labels now made in Honduras, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, etc.

There are quite a few counterfeits out there masquerading as Cuban cigars. The good ones are usually premium brands that are relabeled with either authentic or counterfeit Cuban brand labels. The only way to know for sure besides using some gene-chemistry is by having some experience smoking actual Cuban cigars. So, I was skeptical that these were actually pre-embargo cigars. That is until I smoked it. What I bought was a fairly large and robust cigar, about a 50 ring gauge, a large churchill type. I paid $35 for it, pricey even during the cigar boom. But, I was on vacation and a little extravegance is forgivable.

I've smoked Cuban cigars before and if there is any one huge diference between Cuban tobacco and any other location is that you can taste the soil in them. I'm not kidding, they have an earthy texture and background that is unmistakable. An unapologetic actor being interviewed in Cigar Afficonado magazine once said, "you can taste the manure". A little graphic but some truth. He didn't mean that it tastes like shit, he meant that you can taste the nutrient rich soil. The Cubans still use base manure to fertilize and stay away from expensive fertilizers and pest-control products.

So, even though I was expecting to get ripped off (see, there's that cynicism again) I was happy as hell when I lit it up and took that first draw. It was very mild but it had that unmistakable earthy background that only comes from one place. It was a VERY enjoyable smoke that I savored through about an hour and a half. I wouldn't buy another one, not at that price but for a one time purchase, I got my money's worth. My travel budy who also bought one agreed with me. He was fairly new to cigar smoking and he got a little buzzed, something he wasn't accustomed to with such a mild cigar.

Now for the second thing I like about both locations, they have a good stock of A. Fuente cigars. They don't make junk. Kind of like Rocky Patel, they have been sticklers for perfection from the womb. Obsessed with quality. I've never had one of their "Opus X" line but I understand that it's as close as you can possible get to a Cuban grade cigar from a non-Cuban maker.

But, one of my favorites is not from their higher end cigar lines. I speak of the unsung hero of cigar-land, the Arturo Fuente Curly Head. It's not labeled, more like a factory second in a premium box. I believe they use the long-filler trimmings from some of their higher end cigars for the filler. Whatever the case, it's an amazing cigar for the price. That price at present in Captain Jack's is $2.99 a stick. They are a rough looking cigar and the end is pinched and the cap is twisted like they used to do it WAY back in the day. The ring gauge is close to a 42 to 44 with an 8" length, similar to a lonsdale.

Even though they look rough they are one of the smoothest smokes to be had and have a great balanced flavor with a sweet aftertaste. I usually pick up 5 of them when I'm in Bismarck and I keep intending to buy a box or two from an online vendor but usually forget. They are cheap enough to purchase by the box and good enough to be an everyday smoke.

Happy blue smoke for everybody.