All of a sudden, cigars that I have always loved, are dropping from my rotation. It's not that they are any different, I guess I changed. After the quality of my birthday sticks, all cigars pale in comparison. I mean, think about this, I normally , before my birthday, smoked Perdomos "The Cigar", as my everyday cigar, also a few other lesser known, and closeouts. I was perfectly happy with a Perdomo Squared, or maybe a CAO, or A.Fuentes, for a treat. Those days are gone now. Over the past few days, I have tried to ween myself off of the PAMs, OPUS_X, Gurkhas, A.Fuentes sungrowns Hemis' and such. Yesterday I tried to smoke a perdomo fresh rolled wheel, that had been in my Humi, a little over a year, and was not satisfied at all. It had mystereously transformed from the wonderful thing I smoked 2 Months ago, into something I scooped off the patio this morning. The cigar I am smoking, as I type this, a Puros Indios ""Special-Aged"" Piramide, just isn't doing it for me. I keep thinking about that ISOM Monte #2 sitting just a few feet away in the humi. Last night, I tried to smoke another old favorite, a 5 vegas double corona, Might as well been sucking on a soda straw, got no flavor whatsoever, I used to love those things, so I pulled a Padron Churchill Maddie out, and was satisfied with a very nice smoke, still wasn't a PAM64 though.
I know that it is me that has changed, and not the cigars, but I would rather blame the cigars than myself. I know that all of the cigars, I have been smoking over the past 2 days, are very good premium cigars, but when you have been smoking nothing but Super Premiums, they all taste like dog rockets.
My advice to other recipients, still treat them like the super premiums they are smoke them as a treat, not everyday. It is very hard to go back.
Later
Dave (A.K.A. Homebrew)