An indepth look at perceptions and how they alter our daily activities.

Been a while since I posted something, anything here, and most of that is due to my laziness.  Although this subject has been in the back of my mind for quite some time, and I thought it's about time to get it out there into the general populace.  Yes, as you might infer from the title, it's about perceptions, and to me this has so much weight on it that I even added a poll to the blog page up top.

This started out a while ago for me, way back when in 2007 when I ran into a cigar manufacturer of certain infamy named Paul Magier.  He was the one who supposedly bought that large stockpile of pre-embargo cuban tobacco sitting untouched, and produced the Pinar line of cigars.  Very controversial, even to this day.  He even created a tobacco leaf that was supposedly grown in a swamp and used in a cigar called the Magus, dubbed the "Iron fist in a velvet glove".  In addition to that, also created one of the most interesting and delicious cigars I've ever tasted called the Lucky 8 mainly catered to the cigar smoking community in China.  However there are also reports that he has done some unethical activities in the past, such as schilling his cigars, paying people to say his cigars are great on a few cigar boards instead of letting the products speak for themselves. 

Personally, I'm more of a objective person, and I really don't care about his morals, only the cigars he makes, and I personally do like the Lucky 8 line.  And no, Paul didn't pay me to write this up.

Another person who recently arose in the infamy circle is the now gossiped about Gene Arganese.  I met Gene a few times, was invited once to his mansion in the Dominican Republic to spend a few days smoking his cigars, toured his tobacco fields and factory in Santiago.  Personally, when Gene started up the company, I didn't know what to make of his cigars, too many variations in his lines, and was very unimpressed at his cigars.  However, a few years ago he unleashed two new blends which I thought to be very good, the CL3 and ML3.  Yes, the CL3 is now a staple in my smoking rotation, I love that cigar, and plan to do some reviews on it sometime in the immediate future here.  However, Gene is a quirky guy, and has done some things that might put his character in question, but I'm not a person to base their products on the owner's morals and am more interested in the objects themselves that would benefit my life.

These are just two examples of people make cigars, and their reputations hindering the growth of their companies in certain ways because of pride from the consumer. 

I'll even give another interesting example, Cuban Cigars.  I've experienced quite a few in my time, either through traveling abroad and other various routes of procurement, and they are just like any other cigar, some taste good, some taste great, and some were just horrendous leading to the question of "Why would they make this in the first place?". 

However, this is where the humourous irony comes into play, when someone buys a Cuban Cigar, the money ultimately goes to support a regime that oppresses its people where even a simple product such as milk is not available because the country doesn't have enough power to support refrigerators, where most people don't even receive enough food in their daily rations, and border on overpopulation.  (Overpopulation is determined in this case when there is not enough food to feed everyone living in a certain vicinity while still providing the daily minimum nutritional requirements.) 

But cigar smokers tend to fall into two categories, "Cubans are the best, I must smoke more" and "I spent my life fighting Communism and won't start supporting them now".  Ideas based on objectivity such as mine are few and too far in between.  Some of the most delicious cigars I've smoked from that country are the Mexican Regional Release "Edmundo Dantes" from the Montecristo line, and the fairly new H. Upmann Mag 50, and contrary to the popular household name of Cohiba, I don't like them.  Funny, as this particular line was created under Castro's direction, in the lancero format, was used as diplomatic gifts for ambassadors visiting Cuba, and is the epitome of the Cuban Cigar "twang".  I suppose the forbidden fruit mentality takes a large role in the hype, much to the same as the limited release cigars such as the Fuente Fuente Opus X, Anejos, etc.

Yes, I used to chase the limited release forbidden fruit kool-aid as well, but have since opened my eyes when things that matter such as quality control, taste, construction, and value became a bigger part of my criteria for smoking.  Don't misunderstand me as you read through this diatribe, I still do enjoy the occasional Sancho Panza Molinos, Hoyo de Monterrey Des Dieux, Fuente Anejo, but I refuse to let these cigars blind myself to all the other obscure cigars out there.  I liked the Tatuajes for a while, but those fell short, Pepin's cigars have changed despite what anyone else tells me, he makes magic with Corojo and Criollo, but can't do justice to a Connecticut wrapper, and his best cigar to me is still the Habana Leon.  In my personal preference I have yet to find a Dominican cigar that holds up the CL3, and despite the myriad Nicaraguan cigars out there, one of my favourites from that country is the El Cobre, and to this day still remains in my staple rotation.

In the midst of the chase for the rare releases, and hard to find, hard to get cigar world, many of us cigar smokers are blinded by appearances, hype, disillusioned vestigial reputations that no longer apply to this modern cigar smoking world.  25 years ago Cuban cigars were the best, 12 years ago Dominican Puros were a milestone, 3 years ago a Padron perfecto was the shit.  I'm weary and wary of these gimmicks and superficial packaging attempts to lure me into the cult mindset, think back to a quote I read some where about a cigar is sometimes just a cigar, and just want to smoke a cigar that satisfies despite it's ambiguous origins.  How about you?