I'll start of with the WHY Cubans....as I, for a long time, thought they were over-rated. I'm sure many can attest to that, I wasn't shy about that opinion. And that opinion was formed after smoking ones acquired in trades/box passes etc. No idea of their origin, legitimacy or whatever. Not saying they were fakes whatsover...but 75% of them had crappy draws, and flavors were just meh. Also I was going for the LEs (i.e. Bolivar 09 Petit Beli, and Upmann Mag 48 etc.)....which come to find out, I really still don't care for.
Then I started acquiring some of my own...and I'm not sure if the quality/construction of cc's has improved over recent years or what...although that seems to be the case if you do some research (as I have done far too much of). 2008, 2009, 2010...all theoretically been great years for cuban tobacco.....and from everything I've smoked (many from those 3 years), I haven't had one that just plain sucked yet. Quite the opposite. Loved em'.
To sum up my feelings.... i'm going to borrow a thought...as I read this a while back and thought, hey, that's pretty much my thoughts verbatim...
I started off smoking NCs but there were several things I really disliked,
-the marketing
-new cigars out every month
-they left a bad taste in my mouth (literally)
-the ones I enjoyed were pricey
-too much pepper (don peppers as someone said on here lol)
-taste too much like ash
I switched to smoking habanos exclusively a year and a half ago (though I was smoking them intermittently) and have not had an NC since. CCs just have a wonderfully organic natural flavor to me, complex, lovely aging potential plus the fact that they never lose value (last factor I'm not too concerned with but it's nice to know). I never wake up with a bad taste in my mouth, cigars don't taste like ash and quite often have incredibly interesting flavor profiles that taste delicious.
As for likes dislikes....unlike many, I don't care for the Bolivar profile....but since you're a Maduro lover FGM i'd highly recommend you starting there. They've got a strong core IMO of chocolate/earth that should be right up your ally.
KPP wrote: