The Badger

My friend Peter "The Badger" Wallace came to visit last week.  He loves his badgers.  A bit more than us normal folk but each to their own, and I suppose we all have our own obsessions.  His just happens to be badgers.  And cycling.  He's a bit retro tour-de-France obsessed too.  All good.

To celebrate, I went for one of the Ramon Allones Superiores that was bought at Casa del Habano in Luxembourg.  The man who suggested them knew I'd like them and he wasn't wrong.  A powerful cigar, full and strong, and for around €8, I'd have to say great value too.

The badger brought his sister Fionnuala with him.  Joe and Sandy arrived over too and it was nice to catch up as we've not seen each other in ages.

Peter said he fancied a cigar so after giving him the obligatory tour-de-humidor, he selected one of the small Montecristo that sit in the depths.  Perfect for a quick smoke out in freezing air.  I took one of the same and we had a nice 10 minutes in the garden. 


The following afternoons cigar was another Ramon Allones but this time I went for one of the edicion Limitada 2011.  I loved this cigar when I had it a few months ago and although I did enjoy this one, it wasn't as great as I remembered.  I found myself comparing it to the superiore so maybe that was my mistake.

That was it for last weekend cigars.  The weathers taken a turn for the worse and it gets pretty cold sitting out in the garden for an hour, cigar gloves or otherwise.  To make things a bit more comfortable, the wife bought me a scarf to go with the gloves.  I call it a cigarf, obviously.

Ronan (a Brother-in-law) arrived back from Australia early in order to surprise everybody for Christmas, which was nice.  It was very kind and thoughtful of him to bring me an early Christmas present.  A three pack of Romeo y Julieta No.2, which are an old favourite, and a box of five cigars from the Philippines, which I never knew existed if I'm honest.  That's the cigars, not the Philippines.

I took one of the Filipino cigars out on Thursday night to go with a lovely Californian Zin we picked up earlier in the day.  I admit that I wasn't expecting much from the cigar, but it did look nice.  A solid feel with a good colour and decent construction.  A little bit veiny but nothing major.

It actually turned out to be good and I enjoyed it very much.  The only problem was that I was freezing which ruined the enjoyment a little, but a very cold thumbs up for Filipino tobacco.

My thoughts are with the people killed, lost and left homeless by the storm and flash floods in the Philippines recently.

RA Superiore

Filipino