Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Drink it or smoke it, for those of us in the description business, this one is gold.

At CoffeeFest, the weekend coffee trade show Mecca, which happens this weekend in Chicago, I was given a wonderful mouse pad with the above graphic on it. It was to assist me in my coffee vocabulary when writing ad copy or reviews for Rocketfuelcoffee.com, my then budding coffee company in 2008. An education in a rainbow pie, this tells you everything you need to know about every kind of coffee there is in the world, and what you can expect to taste in your cup.

Fast forward 3 years later and my coffee website has a partner, www.hisandherf.com, a site devoted to the love and smell. taste and smoking of cigars. But damn if that rainbow pie of glorious words does not apply! Look up there in my humidor ^. A range of smokes, tangy, nippy, chocolatey, smokey, ashy… you get the picture. So this is a short blog today. Just a gift of the flavor wheel.

Enjoy!

Coffee and Cigar Forums are so much alike it is kind of scary.

As the owner of an online coffee company, and the lover of fine cigars and Scotch, I love hanging around online forums for several reasons. The information you can learn about the specialized topics is bottomless from the generous members. Ask a question and within minutes you will get answers, and the kindness of strangers cannot be underestimated. As a resource for finding rare cigars, coffee or just about anything, if you show yourself to be a fair trader, you can obtain wonderful items at great prices.

onlinehumidor.com

There are many forums for both coffee and cigars, probably just about anything really. I am sure plumbing suppliers and taxidermists have their forums too and a simple Google search will get you in the door. Your first task is to give yourself a forum name. Mine is canadianbeaver. If you use the same across many forums, you will get to cross reference yourself and become better known. On coffee sites I am coffeeloverlisa, because I started on those forums first and I was less saucy then.

coffeeforums.com

My motive for joining these forums was quite simple. To sell Rocketfuelcoffee.com. Links, advice, promo deals for members, you name it. I am a moderator on coffeeforums.com and the folks there are terrific. My passion for cigars made me think that those forum members might like Rocketfuelcoffee too. Turns out on almost all cigar forums there is a coffee section. Wait though, turns out there on these cigar forums there are also sections for “Hotties”, guns and dirty jokes. Coffee forums? Not so much. And by the way, the dirty jokes section is hilarious.

puff.com

Some forums are definitely more geared towards some activities than others. For instance, I find onlinehumidor.com to be the go to place for sourcing cigars but they will not tolerate any BS, negotiating or poor behavior. Like all of these sites, they quickly will add you to their public “scumbag” list and freely share this information. Fighting seems like a common activity too. If you think that women cat fight, you should see these guys! Owners/moderators ban participants for 7-14 days quickly and ask for donations to participate. For the access to the information and trade privilege, I coughed up on day one. No problem.

cigarweekly.com

Other forums, like Cigarweekly.com, add other great features such as an online magazine. You do not need to be a forum member to access this feature. All forums include reviews of cigars, as do coffee forums for coffees. This is a great way to get advice on new products and how to enjoy your favorite cigar or bean!

There is one thing that we Canadians have to know about the above mentioned cigar forums. They are American based and do not tolerate talking about how to ship Cuban products to the USA, trading Cuban sticks to the USA or anything like that. Your posts will vanish and you will get a nasty e-mail from the moderators. Interestingly enough though, they buy and sell Cuban cigars to each other. The acronyms are CC (Cuban Cigar) among others and you take any such info to private message. Internet activity can be monitored by anyone and the rules are very strict. As well, if you buy cigars from a fellow forum member, do not ask for packages to be marked gift or other fraudulent requests on the forum. You will end up in the doghouse.

Coffee forums such as

http://www.home-barista.com/forums/

http://coffeegeek.com/forums

http://www.coffeecrew.com/ourforum

are also fantastic places to learn about coffees through members. Check them out and enjoy a cup while reading.

Cheers!

CIGAR AFICIONADO QUIZ

1. What is ligero?
2. Name the three major growing regions of Nicaragua.
3. What is a puro?
4. Who makes the cigar called The Edge?
5. What is a chavetta?
6. What is a torcedore?
7. Describe the difference between binder and filler.
8. Put these tobacco terms in the proper order: fermentation, priming, aging, curing.
9. Whats the difference between Connecticut shade and Connecticut broadleaf?
10. Which of the following is not an actual cigar: Flying Pig, Taco, Loco Chivo, Pussycat, The Chisel.
11. What is a Salomone?
12. How many Edicion Limitada cigars does Cuba release in a typical year?
13. Name a cigar with a suggested retail price of $25 or more.
14. Describe a cigars wrapper.
15. Where is Danli?
16. Which country makes the most premium cigars?
17. What year did Cigar Aficionado make its debut?
18. What is Cigar Aficionados signature cigar show?
19. Name three types of cigar cutters.
20. Which of the following are proper methods of lighting a cigar: wooden match, Zippo lighter, paper match, cedar spill, butane lighter.
21. Is tobacco for premium cigars grown in the United States?
22. What is a Cuban sandwich cigar?
23. Whats the difference between a dress box and a cabinet?
24. Name three people who have appeared on the cover of Cigar Aficionado in the past 12 months.
25. What company distributes Cuban cigars throughout the world?

So let’s go back to 1979 when a paint brush was not a button on a computer and you had to go through some real hoops to impress some big folks at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Canada to get in. And by big, I mean a lady named Joan Burt, who was a meanie of a lady who was the head of Environmental Design and a piece of human architecture herself. Threatening was not the word. Terrifying was more like it.

I am currently teaching at The College, first year. Unlike now, where neophytes take their courses based on their area of expertise, all first years took Foundation Studies: 2-d Design, 3-d Design, Colour Theory, Drawing, Symbol, a couple of others I cannot remember. This was over thirty yeas ago!

Two Dimensional design consisted of creating a series of acrylic canvases for an older fellow named James Cridland who had little patience for students who did not understand his humour but was a very nice man. He had a huge farm of dairy cows north of the city and came in several days of the week to train us.

Move ahead thirty years… I have become a successful graphic designer, illustrator, account director, wife and mom, and somewhat of a vintage art collector. We enter the BUNGALOW shop in Toronto’s Kensington Market and find this lovely painting on the wall, marked 1960′s graphic whatever.

NO NO NO I say, that’s from my class, Jim Cridland, OCA, 2-D design, 1979-ish. Matthew says, “You have to be kidding”. The owner pulls it down from the wall, and not only am I right, but I even know the artist, none other than Kim Yakota, who I worked with for years.

This is the painting. That is me in the class. These are the markings on the back, and that is the logo of the Art College way back when. The painting graces our dining room wall and we were thrilled to purchase it for $200.

“…and then she served, get this, store-bought, national brand coffee!”

Recently I had the pleasure of reading an entire series of articles by the wonderful authors at Cigars International, an online quality cigar retailer. This took me the better part of a whole morning, about two pots of coffee and a whole cigar on my back porch. It was so compelling that I felt I had to write them and thank them, since I am not a customer yet. Seems they do not ship easily to Canada, as is the case with most of the American cigar retailers online. Oh well.

The amazing thing is, the depth of detail is so similar to the obsessive behavior to that of those of us in the coffee world, that we should just set up coffee and cigar shops everywhere and it is actually shocking to me that this is not already so. At my local cigar shrine they do sell stale, Cuban coffee, but the identical product is for sale on the counter at the variety shop where you can buy milk, cigarettes and lottery tickets next store.

In one of the articles at Cigar International, a topic that particularly caught my eye discussed cigar bands. Should smokers leave them on or remove them when smoking their stogies?

• One country does still take a rather strong view with respect to the band – the British. They still consider it “bad form” to advertise the brand you are smoking – as you wouldn’t want to embarrass another gentleman smoking an inferior brand. No matter whether you decide to remove the band before, during, or not at all be prepared to support your choice.

Coffee drinkers and roasters are exactly the same. and not just about the beans! About the grinder, the water, the brewer, anything that you can think of that comes in contact with the sacred liquid or process.  But one difference I have found in these two groups is the conversation that comes up in the room when the product rolls out:

^Coffee & Tea Show Canada after dinner 2010^
Some of the greatest coffee minds in the world talk about coffee
I understand about 30% of what they said but they seemed happy

^Sitting with fellow cigar smokers who just smoke for 4 hours^
Marty is the owner of the Chez Tabac Cuban cigar shop. Talk was not technical,
but it was hilarious. Will go back tomorrow.

Seems both cigars and coffee have the ability to make folks sit still and contemplate the goings on the the world, but cigars, like alcohol, have the limitations of government intervention. So we cannot enjoy them inside like a coffee shop, only on an outdoor patio or rooftop. Just a whiff of this will get a group started for a whole afternoon of social cigar talk! Or an election, a nasty neighbor, a change in the weather that may move the patio action out of commission.

On the coffee side, fair trade is a popular issue, but those in the know, know that this is debatable topic that is more fashion than passion. Companies in the U.S. like Inteligentsia Coffee are working with their own process called Direct Trade to afford a more modern approach to help communities and farmers. The same level of conversation is happening on the cigar topics of Cuban cigar as God, since most of the finest cigar makers left Cuba in the early 1960′s just before the embargo*.

• Most Cuban families that owned or operated the cigar industry fled, with the remainder fleeing when President Kennedy initiated the embargo in 1961 which prohibited the sale of Cuban cigars (among other items) in the USA. Just before signing the embargo, Kennedy had his press secretary Pierre Salinger procure 1000 of his favorite Cuban cigars (H. Upmann Petit Coronas). Production and quality took a nosedive, with many plantations that formerly grew tobacco turning to other staples of life such as sugar or rice. Today, the Cuban cigar industry is merely a shadow of what it once was.

And if we really want the best social gossip about a cigar, well there is always, Monica L.

“Came out of a monkey’s butt!”

One of the most enjoyable things about dealing in rare anything, especially on the internet, is the folklore that you hear about the items. And the more expensive the delicacy, the weirder the stories become. Rocketfuelcoffee.com Kopi Luwak, civet poo coffee that is made legendary in the movie, The Bucket List, has to be my favorite:

Now as you can imagine, as a saleswoman of this elusive bean, I have heard it all… Monkey, weasel, (enter any small animal here) poo, cat littler and then the “I will just sift through my cat litter box and sell it for $1000 a pound”. OK, more power to ya buddy.

Next to Kopi Luwak, the next myth we coffee peeps have to endure on a daily basis is the use of the word Espresso Bean. I for one do not get my undies in a bunch over this one as my roaster George sells an espresso bag of 3 robusto beans in a blend. His customers like it. On Coffeeforums.com, where I am a moderator, however, there are members who are absolutely frothing their crema over it! Here’s why. Espresso is a process, not a bean. You can make espresso out of just about any bean. How well it works and what the results are is a matter of taste. There. Make up your own mind.

Here are some others that are unsubstantiated, but fun to read:

MYTH: God created whole gourmet coffee beans and man to be equals.
FACT: I find many people less intelligent than coffee beans, they don’t brew as well either!

MYTH: Specialty arabica coffees have higher caffeine content than store bought coffees.

FACT: Actually, arabica coffee beans have about half the caffeine content of the lessor robusta bean coffee
.
MYTH: Espresso shots have large amounts of caffeine.
FACT: A 6 ounce cup of arabica bean coffee has more caffeine than an espresso shot.

MYTH: Darker roast coffee has higher caffeine content.
FACT: The darker you go with roasting, the less caffeine is left. You are burning it away with the rest of the bean.

MYTH: Coffee consumption makes you smarter!
FACT: Boy would I be smart! Actually, coffee consumption lets you do stupid things faster with more energy. (2 stupid things = 1 smart thing)

MYTH: Coffee left on a burner all day is better.
FACT: Coffee should be in a pump pot or carafe, if not in you, within 7 minutes of completion of brewing or you’re cooking it! May as well go to a convenience store, grab a Styrofoam cup, and grit your teeth.

MYTH: Coffee tastes best when it is hot enough to take the skin off of your tongue.
FACT: Coffee actually shows all it’s complexities and flavor at around 145-165 degrees F., which allows you to enjoy your coffee without burns.

MYTH: Decaffeinated coffee tastes just like caffeinated coffee!
FACT: The cry of the truly desperate. Does a meatless burger patty taste like a burger made with real meat? I think not!

Take that, Mith-ster!

Expensive cigar bands are brilliant knock-offs!

Recently I found a fantastic cigar discussion/trading forum called Onlinehumidor.com. Judging by the avatars and jokes around the place, which some were hilarious but old, very few x chromosomes hang out there. It only took an hour for me to learn some very important information about the inventory in my collection and the past dealings I had fortunately NOT completed online. This was cigar info central and I was lucky to be a member I can tell you that.

Despite the sexist, bland header in this site, the cigar knowledge and depth is wonderful. And you can buy and trade cigars with folks that welcome you like you are family. Here is another part though that is worth every penny (it is free) – you can read online squabbles and fights and just sit back and watch it play out until they get suspended. What a hoot! Oops, back to the topic at hand, fake cigars, or for that matter, fake anything of value.

On the internet, kijiji, craigslist, eBay, or anywhere where there are buyers or sellers for that matter,  it is a common practice to sell fake anything. Watches, cigars, coffee, diamonds. Since the product is sold to customers who are looking for a deal and yearn for a product at a better price, caveat emptor, stars in your eyes, whatever, snake oil salesmen prevail. And when a product is under embargo like a Cuban cigar or is rare like an Opus X cigar, a predator has the advantage. Only by joining a forum like onlinehumidor.com can you get the real scoop, but you have to be pretty educated to get there. Catch-22!

Here it is my second day and I am reading all about this ne’er-do-well devil seller that all should avoid like the plague, selling cigars on eBay. Don’t folks know what a joke this is? Can’t they see they are getting ripped off? What are they, moronic idiots? HELLO. I almost bought a box of his cigars but decided I did not want to lay out the dough for a whole box. We even talked off line. Nice fellow too. Moron in the eye of the beholder perhaps? So let’s just say FAKE is dangerous, not knowing the best price comes with experience and getting ripped off as little as possible.

Looking at the samples of fake cigar bands I have presented here, you can see that someone goes to a lot of trouble to produce serious copies of the real luxury cigars, so the effort must be worth it. And chasing these fakes, including counting the rows of white dots on a Cohiba label instead of fighting communism in Cuba is top of mind to someone too. Big business.

Same principal happens with coffee. Watch out for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee when it has the word BLEND on the label.

Only 100% pure Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, with certification should call itself as such, same as 100% pure Hawaiian Kona. The word BLEND is a dangerous one that we use with coffee, and be very careful what you are paying for.

My purchases online are now accompanied by a phone call to the proprietor and I like to see feedback comments about the product. A Facebook or Twitter link to see real human contact and discussion about what is going about the products to heighten my confidence in the genuine authenticity of the cigars makes me more comfortable. Just because we deal online does not mean we have to remove the human element.

Cheers!

Every day I participate on several online forums, learning the latest about coffee and cigars. The wealth of knowledge out there is incredible and the members of these forums are generous to a fault – usually. But take advantage of this generosity and you will be thrown to the wolves like lambs to the slaughter.

Today I was fortunate enough to find a wonderful post on a cigar forum site, www.friendsofhabanos.com, where not only have I participated online but met members in person several times at a herf, or gathering to smoke fine cigars. This post tells of the delicious pairing of salty foods and cigars. The author was kind enough to allow me to post it here. Enjoy!

Here is a setting for you. A warm night, a clear sky, some birds raiding the feeder and perhaps Pinot Noir in a couple of glasses on the back porch. Any porch as I am not fussy, as long as it outside. No wait. Single malt scotch with a bit of water. Or coffee. Someone cut the grass nearby so there is that smell of chlorophyll in the air.

Crack open humidor number one, the ones with Dominican robustos in it this time because we smoked Cubans yesterday. Hey if we smoked Cubans every night we would go bankrupt. We trade for great cigars online and whoever says only Cubans are great does not know what they are talking about, just like one kind of wine is no good or you can only get great steak from one butcher. All of these things require the same amount of attention. At this level, it is easy to feel threatened, as alpha behavior abounds and thrives on making the vulnerable feel like they have no place in the smoking lounge, which is nonsense.

Well guess what. This female is neither an alpha or an expert, but can discuss all of the above intelligently. Perhaps the difference between men and women who indulge in these excesses (that is what they are), is women share with those who join the circle and men circle the wagons? Just my observation of course and sure I could be wrong. Also an observation. Women can be wrong. Men? Meh.

Back to the issue at hand, the cigar. Cigars require patience and knowledge. The choice of stick, storage, humidity, cutting, lighting, smoking, even how you put it out when you are done. I have been schooled in each step and criticized along the way, kind of like on Kung Fu. Remember? Take this pebble from my hand. To be mentored by one who had the generosity of spirit to share this knowledge is the true lesson here. Cigar smokers send each other surprise gifts and their sharing is unbelievable.  There is even a name for it: Bomb.

And who said cigars are bad for you?

(Information about cigar ash and pictures…)

As I mentioned in other posts…I am on a quest to find a cigar with construction that will blow me away. I’ve had my fair share of contenders which you can see pictured in this post but I enjoy the process of searching for this perfect ash.