my oh my did i enjoy a tasty smoke. while visiting family in houston, i knew that i could carve the rust off of the old cigar smoking machine, as my brother and i typically enjoy a few good smokes over the course of the week. this of course is no exception. i actually haven’t enjoyed a cigar in a while, which is a darn shame. sometimes i tend to forget, and if i am not around fellow cigar smokers then i slip further and further away from cigar universe.

but my twin brother always pulls me back in. not only does he enjoy a good smoke here and there, he of course has a few humidors filled with the tasty cigars – some are flavored, some are long, tall, short, round, stubby, etc. some are more discreet brands, others are more of the well known variety.

unlike me, he does a great job aging the fine cigars. so his are always in prime condition and ready to rock n roll. this was the first opportunity for a rocky patel cigar in quite some time for me. we put our hands and lighters on the ITC split decision, a master piece of a cigar. bar none, this cigar has to be one of the more gorgeous cigars on the market. a barber pole style is very attractive to begin with, but the ITC (indian tabac) combines a nice blend of habano and connecticut wrappers and an elegant rocky patel ITC emblem to give this cigar a soothing earthy look with a bit of flair. contrary to other negative reviews of this stogie, i personally thought it was very solid.

my pallet is not quite as sophisticated as those who are known as ‘aficionados’, but i have had enough cigars in my day to differentiate bad cigars from tasty cigars.

i particulary enjoy cigars that reveal deep flavors, almost mocha or nutty in flavor. a rich, yet smooth body – the ITC combines all of these flavors and packs it into a well positioned cigar. the snazzy array of wrappers create a fully enjoyable smoke. although the price tag around $10 is a bit steep, seek out these cigars when offered in discount cigar format online. if you can get them to around $5 a stick then you are in business.

smoking one with my brother, sipping on a solid local brew, and breathing in the warm yet crisp houston winter evening put this entire cigar experience into a top notch category. perhaps since the mood was right, this cigar tasted a bit better than the norm.

Announcing a new wine article posted on my wine web site – i had previously posted about Mattie’s Perch, so chose to write an article hailing it as a certified top cheap wine.

check out the article – and like all posts, take everything with a grain of salt – and if you happen to be a wine drinker, and don’t mind the occasional cheap $5 bottle, snag a cheap yet satisfying bottle. Trust me, not all $5 bottles are enjoyable, ha.

Make sure to check out a new detour protein bar site – while i was camping 2 weekends ago, other than living off of beer and lemon-lime drops, protein bars were the only other items of true sustenance that i put in my body that allowed me to continue breathing. we mixed some hot dogs and chicken in there for late dinners, but i never gave enough credit to the power of a protein bar.

so with my latest web site, playing off the ever so popular detour bar, i have launched my ode to protein bars.

If you are a beer guy like myself, you often find yourself selecting that perfect beer for the perfect event. Anything with the word “light” in it is not considered a beer in my repertoire, but every now and then a pilsner needs to make an appearance – typically a european pilsner, or a microbrewed pilsner, on a hot summer day – or a hefeweitzen with hints of orange peel can really hammer home the moment.

Same goes for wine – although i don’t really know that much about wine other than the types that are out there, my palette is not quite distinct for this genre. no problem for me, as beer is my passion. since i do like different wine styles however, and my palette is not too picky, i prefer to go with the cheap wines. oh yeah, find me the best bottle under $6 and now we’re talking. You can find a handful of Australian wines in the supermarket, typically reasonably priced. Add Mattie’s Perch to the list of ‘must try’ next time you are in the mood for a wine, but don’t feel that the extra money for a higher priced wine will validate a decision. Mattie’s Perch Chardonnay does the trick and is the best wine deal my girlfriend and i have come across to date.

My only issue with wines sometime is a lingering finish, that seems to morph after a taste that continues to draw itself out. in otherwords, a bad aftertaste is pretty much my only complaint with wines, which is my main qualification when determining whether i venture back to that cheap bottle again. to me, that incomplete taste is a lack of fine detail. granted, if you buy wines that have cool labels and are as cheap as possible then you may not get the best wine on the market, but you still can get a great bottle for the price. Mattie’s perch is a cheap wine, but is not cheap on flavor and character. There is a crisp flavor to it, slightly complex, and a rather smooth aftertaste. Many great wines taste great through out the sip to swallow, but if the aftertaste lingers too long and adapts during the process i will not venture back to that wine. Mattie’s Perch is not as tightly wound as more expensive wines on the market as far as the flavor goes, but the aftertaste mellows out, and delivers a very enjoyable finish from start to finish.

the first time we ever tried it was immediately following a $30 bottle we knocked out at the local wine bar – we were somewhat disappointed with the bottle, so on our way home we opted to buy one of the cheapest bottles possible. low and behold, the BP gas station on the corner delivered us a nice array of 7 wine bottles to choose from, with Mattie’s Perch having an animal on the logo (yes, i’m like an infant when picking wine, i’m easily distracted with animals and fun colors).

The wine was great, and when you combine the $4.99 price tag at the time, in comparison to the less than desirable $30 bottle it made Mattie’s taste like liquid gold with cherries on top. Next time you are at your local grocery store pondering a wine, give the Koala of Mattie’s Perch a try, you’ll agree that it is a great discount wine.

I just received my order of ACID cigars late yesterday, but am now getting a chance to sit down to reflect – for those of you who haven’t tried these tasty beauties, snag one – doesn’t matter the flavor or the size – Drew Estate does an amazing job with the components of the cigar, but they take it a step further by blending botanicals through an intense infusion. the sweet taste of these flavors enveloping the tasty fillers makes for a truly addictive smoke – and even though the term ACID was not created due to the intoxicating or addictive nature, this cigar certainly has elements that bring your brain back to the great cigar.

The best part about ordering 28 “wafe” cigars was not necessarily that I got them for about $3 a stick (a hair less than retail in local stores), and it wasn’t necessarily the free shipping, but it was the addition of a retail $50-$60 ACID sampler box, included for free during the one day special.

Truly amazing. Make sure to sign up for the updates, cigar deal of the week, cigar deal of the day, etc. with Famous Smoke Shop so you will not be left out in the cold when amazing cigar deals such as these pop up.

hola people,

a new site that i have been messing around with is finally live. to complement my love for relaxation is the perfect decor. since i am a big fan of exotic getaways, or anything that is out of the norm, i choose to decorate my house that way. specifically, i have a tiki theme rocking out in my living room, complete with a bar, tiki masks, exotic fake plants, bamboo items, and other items based around a tiki bar decor. check out the site and get ideas for your tiki world. make sure to keep checking the site for random updates and new great ideas.

yesterday afternoon my girlfriend and i celebrated closing a big real estate deal with a glass of wine, which ended up turning into two bottles on the patio of dean and deluca. i didn’t have a cigar with me in anticipation of the celebration, because i didn’t want to risk a jinx, much like talking about a no hitter while it’s happening in a baseball game.

only laziness kept us from swinging by the tinder box on the way to our wine celebration, so i snagged one up at the palm. i know i spent a few bucks more on that CAO Brazilia (6″x60″ Amazon) than if i had swung by the tinderbox, but oh well.

Of course with the excitement in the air, i believe any cigar would have tasted as good as a cuban cohiba, but this long CAO stick was perfect. Rich, mahogany notes throughout with a smooth and nutty flow to the cigar – we were drinking a nice sauvignon blanc, which surprisingly played well with the cigar. since i had to relight a few times outside and never got the ideal light i would have liked from at the onset due to the wind factor and not having a butane torch on me – so unfortunately towards the end of my smoke i resulted with the dreaded dirty flavor – the oils in the cigar dried out too quickly, so re-lighting only awakened the demons. oh well, i got a good 2/3rds of the way down as we were downing our second bottle on empty stomachs, so i had reached a good stopping point anyway.

definitely try the CAO Brazilia if you’re in need of a celebration cigar. considering this cigar is patterned after the love of life within brazilian culture, you shouldn’t be surprised to enjoy a party smoke like this.

I have launched a new site, still in its infancy – it is intended to give solid information about wine countries and tours of Wine Country across the United States, with a future focus of the blossoming north carolina wine country. It is also a web site designed to bring together many wine vendors so you have a one stop wine shop. As a cigar and micro-brew beer enthusiast, I’ve also learned to love pairing wines while smoking good cigars. I’m still learning, but the best combination by far is a good ruby port with a cigar after dinner.

A new site has been launched, dedicated to one of my favorite cigars companies out there on the market. CAO is a cutting edge, and state of the art company that defies traditional thought when crafting their intense line of cigars. Check out the site to learn more about their top cigars, and find the cheapest vendors online so you can snag some CAOs at discounted cigar prices.

i was in a huge mental debate with myself today, and i suppose i have come to no conclusion. but i got to thinking about how good cigars and songs can intertwine – kind of like when you hear a song, it instantly brings back some sort of memory – the good or the bad and of course even the ugly. i was wondering what songs spark the best cigar memories, or the mental capacity to enjoy the song just an ounce more. in a way like when you hear your favorite song at a bar 8 beers deep and you know you’ll be out dancing on the floor – but 2 beers deep you’d just be throwing your arms in the air. what songs invoke so much emotion to dance on the floor? even if not dancing like a buffoon on the dance floor, how can you combine pure enjoyment from both sources, the best cigars and music? i guess that depends on a few factors:

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