Chesapeake Smoke

As many of you know, I used to work at Old Virginia Tobacco company, and now do a part-time stint at Titan Cigar. I always used to make an effort to “check out the competition,” see what other folks were doing, checking out their humidor to see what cigars they carried that we didn’t.

I’ve been remiss lately in not casting my net much past the Annapolis area. Faders, Annapolis Cigar Company, and that was about it, aside from the occasional trip down to see my friends at OVTC.

Today, after a doctor’s appointment and some other errands, I found myself tooling down Rte 2, heading south from Glen Burnie. And there, on the right, was a big sign screaming CIGARS out to me.

I whipped the wheel over, and the big Mercedes turned into the parking lot of what, quite frankly, looked like a crappy, run-down strip mall. Rte 2 up that way is cluttered with those eyesores, one strip mall after another.

But the sign that screamed CIGARS pulled me in like a tractor beam, and so it was that I walked into Broadleaf Tobacco. Excellent little shop there. Seth, the owner/manager, was very friendly and welcoming, and so was the shop. The front is a combination retail space and lounge, with plenty of comfy, overstuffed leather sofas and chairs, plus HD TV on a big flat screen. But a plasma TV does not a cigar store make, so I went back to check out the humidor. Seth has a great selection, well-maintained and, given the current state of tobacco taxation, fairly priced.

I walked out of the humidor with a couple sticks from La Flor de Dominicana. One, the Mysterio, a potent torpedo, and a Cameroon Cabinet. Never had their Cameroon Cabinet, so I asked Seth about it. He described it rapturously, and I felt I’d made a good call … not that I’d ever had a bad cigar from Litto Gomez.

Time permitting, I’ll be making the long trek up to Broadleaf more often. Good store, good staff, good environment … it’s all good! Check them out at http://www.broadleaftobacco.com/.

Happy smoking, my friends!

Well, our friends on Capitol Hill did it again. The FDA can now regulate cigarettes and “other tobacco products.” This from the agency that can’t protect our domestic food supply or do an adequate job of ensuring pharmaceutical products make it to market without lot of help from the drug lobby.

Sure, the main target there was the cigarette industry, but it’s yet another tightening of the noose in our evolving Nanny State. You can’t cook with trans-fats, it’s against the law. Depending on what city you live in, you can’t order foie gras in a restaurant. It’s against the law.

So it was with great delight that I saw this link on the Cigar Inspector website (http://www.cigarinspector.com/other/smoke-lies-and-the-nanny-state-by-joe-jackson). Yes, the singer Joe Jackson, who was in his prime back in the early ’80s. He’s written an erudite essay on his views on everything from second-hand smoke to smoking bans. It’s a hefty 20-page pdf file, but I heartily encourage you to download it, print it out, read it on the can or wherever. But read it, arm yourself for the next time some nanny-state anti-smoking nazi tries to lecture you about the evils of cigars.

Happy smoking, my friends!