Old and New Found Gold
Posted By Elvis on May 27, 2007
Damn I’m getting old. Went out last night with some close friends to celebrate a large commission check at work. I of course, picked up the tab. I believe in karma and sharing good times with as many people as you can when things are going good. After being responsible and paying off this credit card and that insurance bill and even putting money down for my daugher’s next school year tuition I just felt I needed to drop some coin on some fun stuff too. And I think if you share the wealth when you have it, those people you shared it with might help you out someday when you’re not so fortunate. Like when I get throat cancer from smoking all these cigars.
After an average steak dinner and some decent wine we headed to the cigar lounge we speak of and revere here on this blog often…Robert’s. A month or more ago I had purchased a couple of very special sticks for this night because I thought they would sell out by this time…and they did. It was the Ashton Cabinet #1. A giant manly 9×52 inch monster:
I will not attempt to review this cigar here because I was suffering from allergies a bit and not able to fully appreciate it, but the times my palate was working it seemed to be a very mild and smooth smoke. Was it worth the $30 pricetag? I wouldn’t think so, but the implied rarity of this cigar and uniqueness was worth trying it. I would certainly not buy this again. I would go with a Fuente Canones or something if I ever was in the mood for a 9 inch stick.
The sad part of the night is that I thought a Saturday night at the cigar lounge would be hopping. I was looking forward to seeing some of the regulars and the owner and sharing the experience of my good fortune and this spendy Ashton with them. Now, don’t get me wrong…the company I was in with IronMeden and MidnightSabotage was good, but I was just hoping for a more festive atmosphere. I had forgotten that it was Memorial Day weekend and virtually everyone was out of town.
Anyway…back to being old. I probably had 4 glasses of red wine at the restaurant spread out over 2 hours. Plus of course , I ate an amazingly large dinner to soak it up with. Then at the cigar lounge I think I had 3 drinks of Chivas Regal on the rocks and a can of pop. When I got home I drank a ton of water. Man, was I hurting today. I didn’t have stomach issues…just an overall feeling of crappiness and headache, getting out of breath if I moved too quickly, etc. There really must be something to mixing booze and cigars that my body just can’t handle very well. So, here I make this promise…if I am smoking cigars, I am only going to have 4 drinks. That is my new limit. Be it beer, wine, hard stuff. 4 drinks, that’s it. I enjoy feeling loopy, but if I had to pick, I would rather smoke cigars all night than drink all night. And I now realize I can’t do both. So, 4 drinks. Someone hold me to that please.
On to a review. I recently blogged about the new CAO VR, which is the CAO Black cloaked in a dark brown wrapper. Well, the other new CAO I have been trying to get a box of is the CAO Gold….Maduro. Same idea here. Taking the pretty mild CAO Gold and putting a maduro wrapper on it. To my surprise, Ironmeden located one of these locally and presented it to me last night. I really wanted to smoke tonight, but still being hungover I certainly didn’t want anything too big or too bold so I lit this baby up tonight. What a pretty wrapper on this…again the chocolately dark brown color that looks like you just ought to take a bite out of it. The taste actually resembles what it looks like it should taste like. Creamy, pleasing aroma and just a cigar you could puff on all day and enjoy. This is the perfect cure for a hangover. It seemed to ease my various ailments right away as I sat on the porch with the windows open and the cool night air blowing in.
Here is CigarIntl.com review of the Gold Maduro and it appears I’m right on with my own assessment:
CAO Gold Maduro combines the mellow long-filler combination of Nicaraguan tobaccos used in the traditional Gold Series, but wraps it in a dark and toothy Brazilian Maduro leaf. The result is a chewy, medium-bodied flavor with hints of coffee delivered in a creamy, buttery fashion.
Honestly, being the huge CAO fan that I am, I don’t think I’ve ever actually had the normal Gold before, but after this experience I don’t feel the need to. This is just a great smoke and I’m not usually a fan of Natural wrappers anyway. As far as I need to know, this is what the CAO Gold should have been all along. I did have to relight this a few times, which is odd, but I am willing to write that off as just a bad stick. I will be looking for a box of these soon to add to my growing CAO collection and they are quite reasonable. I think cigaintl has them for $95, but I know I should be able to get them for between $60-$75 on cigarbid.com. Can’t wait!
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I’ll save myself some time here by not doing a whole review of this Ashton.
The cigar is impressive in size and we were told the box that the cigars came in have been sitting in the local reps humidor for 7 years. When I first lit the cigar it had a creamy smooth feel. About a 1/2 inch into the 9 inch beast I was getting a lot of spiciness. After about in inch it smooth out and the spiciness went away. It was a mild flavor cigar. Its an Ashton.
I did smoke this cigar pretty fast at the beginning. Most people who had smoked this cigar told us it was at least a 2 1/2 hour cigar. I’m a fast smoker when i’m out with friends. I did slow down about halfway through.
At the end the return to that spiciness came back. I’m not sure where that came from since it is a mild cigar, but it snuck up on me in the end and kinda got my head spinning.
It did burn even throughout this smoke and it had a easy draw for the size. I know Elvis had some draw problems at the start of his cigar.
Would I spend the $30 Elvis paid for them…no. This is more a novelty cigar like the Drew Estate Egg. Its fun to look at, but there really isn’t much there inside.
I also wanted to take time to thank Elvis for his generosity this past weekend. Thanks for the cigar and the great steak dinner. You are a great friend! Thanks!!