The Velvet Cigar

Posted By ironmeden on October 31, 2008

So it’s been 10 years for a lot of cigar brands this year. So I thought I’d think back to where I was 10 years ago.

It’s 1998 and I’m working for United States Satellite Broadcasting, U.S.S.B for short. The company was the premium side of DirecTV. USSB had the premium networks such as HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and The Movie Channel, Starz was already on the DirecTV satellites. It was a great job, I got paid good money to basically watch movies for 8 hours. Granted there was more to it then watching TV, the employees were there for quality control of the signals coming into the facility and going out to the consumer. We also aired special events such as boxing, soccer and Cricket. I really got into Cricket during my time there, a whole game can last 8 hours!

I was a single guy and had a few girlfriends earlier in the year. I took my first plane ride in 15 years to Mississippi to visit my sister who was married to a Navy guy stationed in Biloxi. The first half of the year was pretty normal. Then in June we got a new female employee at U.S.S.B. There were only a few ladies who worked in our area, the ones that worked there were either married or had long term relationships, but this one came in single. She wasn’t the best looking women around, but compared to the other ladies there, she was cute enough to draw the attention of many guys, including myself.

My intention wasn’t to ever go out with her. I’ve had a few work relationships before and when the romance ended, the whole working thing didn’t really go well after that. I thought I had learned my lesson. So I didn’t persue her, she pursued me. After I had told a few co workers who were interested in taking her out that I was not a threat, because at the time I was going out with a few different women, but nothing serious, I was doing a lot online dating meetings, God Bless AOL.

So about 3 weeks into her employment she emailed me about going out to a movie for my birthday. I really hesitated about going out with her, but I ended up accepting the date. We went out and had a great time. After that we started hanging out, but not really dating. At the same time there were 2 other guys also making their moves, but our relationship was hidden.

At times were would get close and have a great night out, then I would get a call a few days later from her saying that she didn’t want to purse a dating relationship. I was like fine, so I stopped hanging out with her. Then about a week later she would invite me over for dinner and wine and movies. WTF I thought, so we started hanging out again and get close and again she would do the same thing. When she did it to me for the 3rd time….yea i’m an idiot…I pretty much cut it off. This was in November at this point. Then Christmas time came around and she wanted to exchange gifts and we started again to talk. I thought maybe this time it may work out….yea i’m an idiot….I got her a big stuffed bear and I purchased a nice diamond necklace that I was going to put around the bears neck. It wasn’t an expensive necklace, less then $100. As it got closer to the exchange date, which was after Christmas I thought to myself that I would give her the bear without the necklace. At this point I had moved on to another job within the company so I was in a different building from where she worked. I also was going to see if that was the last time I would see her. I planned on giving her the gift and pretty much walk away from the relationship. My thought was that if you let it go and she doesn’t come back it wasn’t worth it, if she comes back then it was worth it.

I made the point not to contact her again just to see if she would make any attempt to continue, but she didn’t. Which was fine, I did care for her a lot, but you can only take so much. I found out later that she had filed sexual harassment charges against those other 2 guys that were pursuing her. She was basically a big tease. She would lead them on to a certain point and say there were coming on to strong. She really knew how to work the system and men!

Perdomo Champagne 10th Anniversary Epicure

This Halloween night I decided to hang out at Vino and Stogies. They just got a new shipment of Perdomos. Bob who own’s Vino’s said that the Champagne is part of the 10th Anniversary release from Perdomo and it should be a re blended cigar, but I couldn’t find anything online saying that it was blended like the Maduro.

The wrapper is a triple fermented Connecticut. The filler consists of cuban seed Nicaraguan leaves.

The band has the same color as the previous release of Perdomo Champagne, but attached to it at the bottom it has the 10th Anniversary notation. The size i’m smoking is the Epicure, I’m not too sure about the name of this size, sounds like something I should be using to shave my bikini line.

I punched the head of the cigar and lit it with my Xikar lighter.

First impressions were positive, nice smooth draw with a strong toast flavor. It was very creamy, but it had a slight bite to it, it wasn’t a mild cigar. The wrapper had 2 long veins running up the side of the cigar.

At the 1/4 point the cigar opened up and was getting some nutty flavors. It was still creamy, almost buttery. It was also starting to burn a little off. I had to relight the wrapper to make a correction.

The halfway point it started to have a problem with staying lit. Even though the cigar had a nice draw it was difficult to keep lit. I would put it down for a minute and I would have to relight. Also when I was drawing on the cigar, I noticed the ash was very flakey. Little pieces of ash would keep flying off the cigar.

The 3/4 mark found me relighting it again. At the end of the cigar was getting a slight chalky taste. It also was burning a little hot.

Overall this cigar is pretty good, even with the relights. If you are looking for a Connecticut wrapper with a fuller flavor then I recommend this cigar. I give it a 3.5 out of 5.

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Categories: Conneticut, Nicaragua
Tags: 10th Anniversary, champagne, connecticut, epicure, nicaraguan, perdomo