Chesapeake Smoke

I should have posted this yesterday, but post-game euphoria got in the way.

For the first time in a long time, I sat in the lounge at Titan Cigar as a customer, not an employee. And I was able to remember just what a cool, relaxing place it is.

Except that yesterday was not relaxing. It was wildly exciting, as I sat and watched my Washington Capitals skate to a 5-3 spanking of the New York Rangers. I whooped, I cheered, I explained hockey to a total novice (and maybe made a convert in the process). And I burned a couple of stogies.

My first smoke was the much-hyped La Gloria Cubana Artisanos. I fired up a figurado, one of the two I’d picked up at Old Virginia Tobacco Co. Problems from the git-go. The darn thing didn’t want to light! I used up a bunch of butane trying to get half the foot lit. This is not a good sign, I thought. A nice medium-bodies smoke, but not exceptional. The flavor and aroma were not that much different from my old stand-by, La Gloria’s En Cedros. And given that the Cedros costs about six bucks, and this figurado set me back 13 bucks and change, the Artisano was not much of a bargain. On top of that, the burn was uneven, and I had to touch up a couple times before finishing it. Disappointing at best.

As I started to dig into my travel-dor for another smoke, halfway through the Caps’ scoring orgy in the second period, Titan regular customer Sean offered a Cubao lancero. I’m normally suspicious of small-ring-gauge cigars, but Sean raved about it, so I thanked him, clipped it and put fire to it.

Wow!! Loads of flavor, a nice draw, even burn and solid ash. A beauty to behold and a gem to smoke. I’d never had a Cubao before, and was immediately impressed. Later on, I checked out the Cigar Aficionado website, and saw that they gave it a 90 in their ratings and fairly gushed over its flavor. Please don’t mistake me for a CA whore, one of those people who are only interested in the top-rated cigars. But it’s nice to know that Marvin and his boys agree with me. And, for the record, my friends at Cigar Inspector (http://www.cigarinspector.com/cubao/cubao-no-3-lancero) seem to agree.

Tomorrow night, Game 7. Rockin’ the Red at Verizon Center. And maybe you’ll find me back at Titan, smoking my way through the game.