cigars

Well, I like Laphroaig whiskey with say… a Camacho Triple Maduro or Diesel Shorty or maybe a Cain FF. Any number of options, all with nuances.

i agree with stogie here … i havent had a scotch with more peat than laphroig. i think you would want a medium to full bodied stick to go.with it. i might go with rocky patel edge sumatra myself.

Being in the US cubans are hard to get. Had a few, but with all the fakes sold, it is likely none were real. Wasn’t impressed, the best one that was the most likely real one was only fair. I tend to prefer Nicaraguan cigars. Especially Tatuaje black label and the little red label puro they came out with recently, Veracu or something like that. Can’t afford them as often as I like, but I’d rather have good pipe tobacco than a fair cigar so I’ll spend the money for good cigars when I can and smoke my pipe more regular. Illusion used to be good, but the last 2 I had really sucked. Went mushy at the end, soft and spongy and had an uneven burn. Only tasted right for the first inch or so. Won’t be buying them again.

I used to smoke Indonesian cigars, mostly the non-premium brands, before I got back into smoking a pipe. Even the non-premium brands are hand-rolled, labor is cheap here. I’ve occasionally splashed out on good Cubans, just to find out what the fuss is about, but I really believe the market for cigars is like the market for diamonds: it’s an artificially created luxury good, with supply strictly limited so that demand pushes the price up. I just don’t see any rational reason why a pound of good Cornell and Diehl pipe tobacco costs the same price as a cigar butt from Havana. Sorry, I’d keep my mouth shut on a pipe-and-cigar forum, but on snuffhouse, that’s what I really think.

@stogie and @dasr The peatiest scotch I’ve found was a Lagavulin 15 year. Been a while though so Laphorig may have increased or Lagavulin may have gone down. I’ve been dry for 4 years and it was a few years before that when I had money to spend on single malts.

@stapf, Thanks for the heads up… I have never tried Lagavulin. Will definitely keep my eyes open… CHEERS…

@stogie and @dasr The peatiest scotch I’ve found was a Lagavulin 15 year. Been a while though so Laphorig may have increased or Lagavulin may have gone down. I’ve been dry for 4 years and it was a few years before that when I had money to spend on single malts.

So true! Too peaty for me sadly, headache ahoy! Most of the ‘island’ single malts have a strong peaty vibe… I can’t drink whiskey any more… sad really, I really used to enjoy them. Oddly cognac seems fine with me - Go figure eh :slight_smile:

i agree with stogie here … i havent had a scotch with more peat than laphroig…

Try Lagavulin it has a stronger peat flavour than Laphroid IMO. The two distillaries are virtually next door neighbours so use the same water but Lagavulin must be produced in a different way to give the smokey peaty flavour.

Ardbeg is more peaty than Lagavulin and Laphroid, in fact Ardbeg 10, is a hairy wild man

Caol Ila and Talisker are also nice. My favorite is Laphroaig 10 year though. Highland Park is also a good scotch. It has a nice balance between smoke and sweetness.

@Jakartaboy I totally agree with your statement about the expensive cigars . It’s been my main reason to start smoking pipe tobacco as well…cigar smoking is nice and really tastefull don’t get me wrong ! but it’s become a little bit hyped up.And as with all things ‘fashionable’ they become over-priced eventually … I’d rather try several nice well balanced pipe-tobacco’s than pay a day’s wages on two fine cigars… but that’s just my humble opinion. As for the indonesian cigars; did you ever smoke a brand called 'adipati '?? They’re available overhere and I allways keep a box or two (for the difference in sizes) in stock …they may not be the best in quality but they do taste very fine !? Greetings from holland, Dutch

@Dutch, yes, Adipati are pretty readily available here. Pretty cheap, must be about 20 cents each. I’ve smoked them, they are okay, but I like some of the other cheap brands better. One of middle sized Panther cigars is my favourite. These days you also get a few premium local brands, up to and beyond five bucks each. One such is Tambo, which is fantastic. They are really going for the export market, they only sell locally through a handful of shops in Jakarta and Bali. They also do a pipe tobacco called Tambolaka, which must be the strongest pipe tobacco I’ve ever tried, including some of the ropes. Bit too strong and pungent for me, and I usually think I like that kind of tobacco.

Tambolaka is very strong ? I heard of the brand before-think 4noggins had it… Tambo I never heard of before-thanks for the info :slight_smile:

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Tambolaka had a bit of a cult following on some of the pipe forums. Frankly, I think it was partly because it was quite difficult to get hold of, before 4noggins started stocking it. Rarity gave it value. Still, it’s worth trying. It really is quite different from any other genre of pipe tobacco that I’ve tried. I’m happy to see Indonesia produce an interesting pipe tobacco, but it wouldn’t be a daily smoke for me.

Same happened with the B.Sobrani I guess :wink: nowhere to be found leeds to a cult like status. Am reading all I can find about Tambo - both in cigars as in pipe-Tobacco. It makes for quite a difficult read ; Tambo , Tambolaka , “Vooroogst” are all used in different revieuws… I’m not to complain though:a good cigar and a good read make a perfect day to me ! thanks for the info @JakartaBoy By the way is it easy to come by most tobacco’s there where you live then ? I find that Holland is not the easiest of places when one wants to broaden ones tastes …

By the way is it easy to come by most tobacco’s there where you live then ? I find that Holland is not the easiest of places when one wants to broaden ones tastes …

No, it’s a pretty terrible place to buy tobacco. Mostly, I have to have it shipped in. Even then, the customs can be very erratic about how they apply the rules: I’ve had a kilo of tobacco shipped in without anyone raising any questions or even applying any duty, but other times I’ve had the lot confiscated. I’ve formed an alliance with a guy who has an importers licence, for a reasonable fee, he’ll import bulk tobacco for me, anything listed on 4noggins. Unfortunately, he’s not interested in broadening his supplier base, so I can’t get snuff through him. Most shipments have gone through without trouble, but the last time, I had an official looking letter asking me to “present a chemical analysis” for the substance I was importing. The customs officer was a nice, mother-like lady, so I went and played oriental deference with her for half an hour (“Of course, I respect your right to make a determination on this issue, and I will have to accept it. However …”). In the end, she released the shipment with no further questions, 6 x 25gm of Toque Quit in the bag.

Well …I can not offcourse offer you whole kilograms of Tobacco but if you’re in need of some typical dutch stuff -be it pipe Tobacco or cigars or snuff (which oeverhere is no problem to purchase) please let me know, I’ll be more than happy to send to you whatever you are looking for. I’ll be happy to trade as well, for some indonsian brand of Tobacco :slight_smile: In the past I have had more succes with importing Tobacco when it was coming from a civilian adress instead of a companies '. Right about now a baseball coach overhere sends me Red Man as it is outlawed in my country - hurray for chewing basealplayers! (we even sell,as I recently discovered bringing a visit to a nearby tobacconist, snuff inside a little porcelain… windmill …Please I beg you, do not make me buy that ?? :wink:

@jakartaboy Nice storie about the motherly customs lady btw !! Loved the confucian-like discussion technique :slight_smile:

nope guys cigars are more expensive to make then pipe tobaccos.

@bob, you may be right, but hundreds of times more expensive? I’m sorry, but all the evidence I’ve seen is that for most luxury goods, actual production costs contribute only very slightly to retail sales prices. The rest is marketing and controlled supply and demand dynamics. So, tell me, why does it cost 500 hundred times more to produce a hand-rolled Cuban cigar than a hand-rolled Indonesian cigar? The real weakness of the cheap Indonesian cigars is that they generally get stored badly. I’ve seen them in cardboard boxes in local markets where the temperature is 30 celsius and the humidity is 80%. A guy I know in Surabaya, a city in East Java and a total tobacco enthusiast (actually, he established one of the oldest snuff forums on the internet, one of the Yahoo groups, but it’s pretty inactive these days) has cigars made especially for him, to his own specs, to avoid the issue of bad storage. They still only cost a dollar or less each.

The wrapper leafs alone are one of the most expensive and labor intensive types of tobacco. The higher end the cigars that price goes even further up. Then of course the hand made part is big. Also a Cuban there is only so much room in cuba to grow cigar tobacco which means the people selling the leaf have to make a profit on less product. Then finally the one everyone forgets. Every single product you sell is another product you don’t. Same with shipping. So a cigar that will sit in valuable retail space for a longer time is going to have a higher percentage of overhead then one that is cheap and sells quickly. Why do you think that snuff so much more in American brick and mortar store then from mister snuff? The turn over. Every box of snuff is how many cigarettes not on display that will move rapidly over something that will sit there for a while.