Tomorrow is my last day.

So Friday will be my last day at www.pipesandcigars.com. I'm gonna miss it quite a bit. I've met some extremely wonderful people in my time here. The gang here is extremely dedicated. They are a fun loving bunch of hooligans. Everyone is always laughing and making jokes, yet we all get our work done. I have to say it is one of the best work settings that I have ever been around.

Through my time here I got to learn a lot about the tobacco industry. I now know a lot more about pipe tobacco than I ever thought I would. I have also learned a lot about the cigar industry. I feel I have grown a lot as a cigar smoker. Trying stuff that I never would had if I continued on the path I was traveling along before this job.

I also met some great people in the industry. Even got to meet some of the big guys like Marvin Samel, Avo, and Nick Perdomo. Its been a "Cigar Geek's" (my boss likes to call me that) dream. I want to give a shout out to Scott Bendett for giving me a job when I needed it the most. I truly appreciate all that you have done for me.

So now that I am leaving, my cigar smoking will go down quite a bit. I think my girlfriend will be doing the happy dance about that fact. I will still have them from time to time, just not as frequent. So with that I think I should smoke as many as I can get. Its only fitting right? So yesterday I smoked a couple. I had a Perdomo Exhibicion Corojo. I like Perdomo cigars. I like them a lot, but am I crazy that I think almost all of his stuff tastes the same? I know there are differences in each line. But these taste like the Patriarch which I think are very similar to the Lot 23 which I also think are very similar to the Habano line, and so on. I don't know. The only line that I don't like is the Gran Cru Maduro. I hated it as you can see in one of my earlier blog entries. The Exhibicion was good. The construction was awesome. The amount of smoke that came out of that cigar was very impressive. Very decent flavor. They are a good everyday type cigar. That's kinda how I feel about all Perdomo cigars. Good not great. I'm just waiting for one to absolutely blow me away.

The other cigar that I had yesterday was a Rocky Patel Edge Corojo. Think I was on a Corojo kick yesterday. I have to say that my cigar of choice from Rocky Patel is the Sun Grown with the Edge Maduro closely behind it. The Edge Corojo has never really got my juices flowing. I smoked it quickly at the end of the day. It was better than I remember. Once again it had flavor that you come to expect with a corojo. It was quite enjoyable. I'm gonna have to reconsider these again.

So now that my last day is almost here I have to celebrate. So I'm asking you, How should I celebrate? Good cigar? Nice dinner? Leave a comment letting me know what you think I should do. My next blog will be about what I ended up doing.

Thanks for checking me out and as always:

Smoke a good one!

Andy aka agctribefan

Trying a few new ones!

Well I finally got a new job. I loved where I currently work, but it is time for me to move on. I need to make good on my incredibly expensive degree. I'm really excited to be working in a manufacturing setting again.

That being said, I have been celebrating this week with some new blends from the IPCPR trade show. The first one I tried out was called "My Uzi Weighs A Ton." Its the newest creation from Jonathan Drew and Joya de Nicaragua. This thing was a massive 5 x 60 beast. This is the smallest in the line. I have to say that this thing really caught me by surprise. I absolutely loved it. Draw was nice. When I first lit it up an amazing flavor hit me with some very very slight sweet notes. But it was not strong at all. I was expecting a swift kick in the face. Did not get that at all. So I thought at least. Here I was smoking away and got to about half way down when I realized that my hands were starting to sweat. I was sitting in the air-conditioned lounge thinking to myself "man is it getting warm in here?" I started to get the sweats, so I decided to get up and walk around. Not the best of ideas. This thing is totally kicking my ass. So much that one of my co-workers comes out and tells me I look like crap. It ramped up quickly. I was amazed. I consider myself to be a full strength smoker, and this was the first cigar to get a reaction like this. I'm not gonna lie, I kinda liked it. The cigar had sneaked up on me.

I also went camping over the weekend and got to smoke two cigars by a fire. Is there really anything better than smoking a nice cigar in front of a campfire? I smoked a Rocky Patel Vintage 2003. It was like the other vintages. Great construction, nice prelit aroma, and remarkably under whelming. Don't get me wrong, its a decent cigar, just not my cup of tea. I think I would have to try it again sometime to really give a good review of it. It just seemed like it was very similar to everything else done by Rocky.

The other cigar that I had on the camping trip was given to me by my good friend Mike Uhren. Mike is an extremely talented artist that speciallizes in cigar art. His website is http://www.mikeuhren.com. Please check it out. Well back to the cigar. He gave me a Liga Privada MF-13. All I have to say is WOW! This stick was amazing. Take the #9 and smooth it out even more, and you have the MF-13. When these come out I will do everything I can to hoard these. The flavors are amazing. The burn was laser tight. Its another one that builds in strength and has complex transitions of flavor. If you are lucky enough to have one of these right now, smoke it. You will not be disappointed.

There are a few others that I tried but I will save those for another time. The Casa Fernandez Aganorsa leaf was really nice. The 601 La Bomba was incredibly strong. The newest CAO was one that I will be seeking out.

So Please tell me what you think. Leave comments and as always:

Smoke a good one!

Andy aka AGCtribefan