The CAO America, is it marketing hype or the hot cigar on the market? Check out the full review of the CAO America Potomac over at my site.

Done with my latest review, this time around it is the Pinetop Perkins Torpedo by Avalon Cigars. This is one of the cigars I picked up at the RTDA Tradeshow.

While at the RTDA I got my hands on the new Oscuro that will be added to the EO 601 line.

This Nicaraguan Puro is blended for United Tobacco Inc by the legendary Pepin Garcia. The Green Label Oscuro is latest addition to the EO 601 line released at 2007 RTDA Trade Show. Touted as the fullest bodied cigar of the EO 601 brand, it isn’t for the faint of heart.

A few photos from the 2007 RTDA Show up on Flickr.

I recently got my hands on a few of the EO 601 Habanos and took a moment to review one. I’m going to need some more humidor space that’s for sure.

In just two weeks, the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America will be hosting their 75th Annual Convention and Trade Show here in Houston. Cigar Jack, who is coming into town for the convention and myself will be posting the latest updates and pictures here on the blog.

I’m really looking forward to my first RTDA show and meeting those who will be there! From Cigar Jack to some of our website sponsors to the guys over at DogWatch Social Club and lastly, the Heavenly honeys and CAO girls.

If you are attending, please stop and say hello! I’ll be wearing one of our new colored BOTL T-shirts exclusively available at the BOTL Shop. See you here in Houston!

At least according to the American Cancer Society in Ohio. I didn’t know working in a cigar bar would expose me to smoke! Please save us Mr. Government!

I’m not exactly a cigar newbie, but I certainly am far cry from being an “old stogie” considering that I only had my first cigar about five years ago. I’ve smoked plenty of cigars in those few years, enough that it’s difficult for me to find a cigar I haven’t had before when shopping at a cigar store. I’ve also been smoking cigars long enough to understand and appreciate how aging can radically improve a cigar.

Or so I thought.

You see, not too long ago, a package appeared in my mailbox from Chuck, a bona-fide FOG in the cigar world — and in that package were five very nice, obviously aged cigars. I had several of those very sticks in my humidor, most with a year or two of humidor time on them, and comparing side by side, I could visibly tell these cigars from Chuck were significantly older.

Then I lit one up, and the difference practically jumped up and slapped me in the face! Sure, it was the same brand and vitola I’d had dozens of times before, and yes the signature flavors were there, but it was a completely different smoking experience; the flavors were less separate, seemingly more blended together

Imagine cooking a perfect steak and then pouring a bit of quality steak sauce on it; now imagine marinating that same steak first, prior to cooking it. It’s the same steak with the same general flavor profile, but the marinated steak’s flavors are married and balanced in a much more pleasing manner.

That’s how a well aged cigar tastes; same general flavor profile, but with a more married, balanced, and smooth delivery of those flavors.

I think I’m going to have to develop a whole new level of patience to start really aging my cigars. A couple of years is nice, but a lot of years is much nicer.

You’d have to be living under a rock not to know that over the past few decades, there’s been a massive shift in America’s attitude towards smoking — this is now an anti-smoking society. That’s because you’d also have to be living under a rock not to know that smoking has been determined to be a leading cause of several significant health problems, including lung cancer, emphysema, and heart disease. Every cigarette smoker I’ve ever known (including myself, back when I smoked them) understood that it was dangerous and potentially deadly. Other forms of smoking tobacco, including our beloved cigars, also expose the user to many of the same carcinogens. Granted, cigars do so at a much lower level, but still not what anyone would consider 100% safe. But as I’ve blogged about before, there is a significant difference between smoking a cigarette and smoking a cigar — enough that it really bothers me when cigar smokers are categorically lumped in with cigarette smokers.

The latest example of this came a few weeks ago when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced that on-screen tobacco smoking — including cigarettes, cigars, and pipes — would be considered in a film’s rating, and given certain circumstances could lead to an ‘R’ rating. In making such an assessment, the ratings board will ask three questions:

#1 - Is the smoking pervasive?
#2 - Does the film glamorize smoking?
#3 - Is there a historic or other mitigating context?

Furthermore, if a film is rated ‘R’ due to smoking, warning phrases such as “glamorized smoking” or “pervasive smoking” will be included in the ratings text, right up there with “nudity”, “explicit sexual content”, “language”, “drug use”, and “excessive violence”.

Some advocates of the smoking related ratings system believe that an “R” rating would prevent almost 200,000 adolescents from starting to smoke every year. I’m not so sure I believe that. I mean, each and every one of those 200,000 kids are already aware of the dangers of smoking, and if they are so inclined to start, I don’t believe an “R” rating is going to make much of a difference; after all, nearly half of all American movies already receive that “R” rating, and that doesn’t seem to stop kids — especially teens — from seeing those films. Of course, I don’t believe that Heavy Metal music makes kids violent, or that Rap music turns kids into gang bangers, either.

Consider the wildly popular PG-13 rated Spider-Man films. The comic book has been published since 1962, and Peter Parker’s boss, newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson, has had a cigar in his mouth for 45 years now. Can you imagine the character NOT smoking a cigar? I certainly can’t — and apparently neither could the movie producers, who naturally put one in his mouth.

But under the new ratings system, would that cigar smoking be considered “glamorous” or “pervasive”? Will Spider-Man 4 — which will likely contain no nudity, no explicit sexual content, no bad language, no drug use, no excessive violence, and likely no cigarette smoking — be given an “R” rating simply because J. Jonah Jameson smokes a cigar?

I hope not.

But then again, that’s because I know that cigars and cigarettes are vastly different kinds of tobacco products with vastly different kinds of use.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure the MPAA knows that.

Heres a little article on Canada.com about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent trip to Canada. While hew as up there he made a stop in a local cigar shop within the Westin Hotel in Ottawa. He picked up a Partagas (they don’t mention which one exactly) and was on his merry way. It doesn’t seem like he made any attempt to hide the fact that he was purchasing Cuban goods blocked by the embargo, as he was escorted by 10 police officers. Who exactly would be out to get him in Canada that he needed that much protection… I am not sure.