Vitola: Robusto- 5” x 50 ring gauge
- ~$22
- Traded with a friend
It has been an unusual Sunday and it hasn’t even reached noon yet. So I decided to do more of a stream of consciousness approach to today’s write-up.
Several weeks ago the shop received a box of the Don Carlos Personal Reserve Robustos from the Arturo Fuente Cigar company. These cigars are very rare and said to be Carlos, Sr.’s personal favorite blend. They celebrate “The Man’s 80th” as inscribed on the box and come in a black box with a pair of white gloves…presumably so your butler can wear gloves to retrieve a cigar for you…I don’t know. Anyway, we called up one of our customers who is always on the lookout for rare and unusual stuff and he jumped for the box.
A week of so later he was in the shop again and I happened to pick up a couple of La Palina Goldie Laguito Especials from the remaining stock. He asked if one was for him since I had raved about it and he had never had one. I told him I’d buy him one in trade for a Don Carlos Personal Reserve…and that’s how I got the stick I’m smoking today.
Yesterday our eldest cat…Tiger…about 16 or so years old…pretty much collapsed and became unresponsive while I was at work. The vets were all closed for the weekend, but we knew it was the end as he had been going downhill for a bit. He died in the night as expected. Instead of my normal “sleep in until I feel like getting up on Sunday”…which my wife assures me is perfectly acceptable after working 40 hours in 4 days, including 12 hours on Saturday…I had to get up around 8 to get working on digging a grave for our precious boy before it got too hot.
I got help from my wife and step-son in getting the grave excavated and filled back…and since I was already dirty and dressed for it, I hit the yard with the lawn mower for about an hour. That’s a big step, too, since this represents the first circuit of lawn mowing I’ve done since my ankle break several months ago. I look at it as physical therapy…and a savings of $50 by not having to ask someone else to come cut my grass.
So by noon, I’ve slept only 5 hours, had a big breakfast, dug a grave for a beloved pet, and put in some truly exhausting (and a bit painful) yard work. Time for a cigar…I had coffee I hadn’t drunk at breakfast so I figured I’d finish that along with the Don Carlos.
Coop says the Don Carlos Personal Reserve is Dominican filler and binder with a Cameroon wrapper. That’s the same makeup as the regular release Don Carlos…but I’m sure this leaf is longer aged or something. Fuente not being a company prone to handing out much information about their cigars…we may never know.
The band on the DCPR is pretty exquisite. It is a spin-off of the regular Don Carlos band with some color inversion and a whole mess of extra gold foil and embossing. A secondary band has “Carlos A. Fuente” as a signature with “Personal Reserve” below that. The wrapper leaf was a toasted caramel color with an aroma that mixed earth and hay. The foot was a cleaner sweet hay aroma mostly. The cold draw was excellent and tasted of hay, honey, and cedar.
The DCPR started off with classic Dominican notes of graham, earth, and hay with a touch of honey sweetness. The retrohale had lots of cedar and a great Cameroon pepper spice burn. The pairing with my black (sweetened) coffee was excellent. It’s been a while since I’ve had a Don Carlos; while this version is definitely a step (or two or three) above the regular release, it did remind me of how good that cigar is.
The DCPR continued on refined, smooth and extremely tasty. The pepper notes picked up in the second third and again toward the end, when the fire made it’s way to my palate and lips instead of just my nose.
It was a good overall pairing with the last of my morning’s coffee. I meant to spend the time smoking and sipping coffee while reading a book (I’m working on the second Travis McGee novel from John D. McDonald right now, Nightmare in Pink). Instead I spent almost an hour and a half looking through old photos on my laptop, starting by looking for the best photos I have of Tiger…then ending up “favoriting” a bunch of great pics of the rest of the cat family…a couple of others of which have passed on in recent years. I showed my wife the favorites folder when I got done and it made us both happy and sad at the same time.
This past Saturday was also the memorial service for my brother-in-law, Jimmy Hagge, out in California. We weren’t able to make it, but I want to remember him, as well. He was a devoted father, good husband, and hard worker. Sadly, he didn’t get to retire early and move to Missouri to live on the lake, fishing every day. If you are inclined to pray, please do so for his wife and kids who have survived him.
Spend time with your loved ones…and your loved pets…whenever you can. Whether it’s your spouse, your kids, or the furry ones…make good memories so you can look back in joy when it’s time to burn a cigar and send up a smoke offering in their name.
Losses like that of Jimmy last week…my friend, Jon, last year around this time…make me think about how I’m living and how to do it better, which brings me to a few lines from a song on the latest Switchfoot album:
I want to sing with all my heart a lifelong song
Even if some notes come out right and some come out wrong
‘Cause I can’t take none of that through the door
I’m living for more than just a funeral
I want to burn brighter than the dawn
Life is short I want to live it well
One life, one story to tell
And just a few pics to remember Tiger by:
Prayers for your family David. Sorry about the loss of your brother-in-law and your cat. Around here our dogs are an important part of our family. When you love a person or a pet the sense of loss causes pain that is very real. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.
Sorry to hear about your loss Buddy, your brother in law’s family will be in my prayers. We have also had to lose a pet, and it is horrible. You have to remember the good times and how they made your day better. God speed my friend.