BlkCigarCzar is Back!!!

Well hello everybody, BlkCigarCzar is back in the blogging world after a healthy hiatus! Things have changed and so have I so enjoy a review on cigars and beer and kick back and learn a thing or two!

I'm starting off right away with a missed favorite of mines, an Avo 787!

Of all the cigars I could possibly start back blogging about, I have chosen the Avo 787! It is a cigar with a lot of complex earthy notes and just a enough spicy notes on the palate to always tease you to want another! It is a back to back cigar for the fairly experienced cigar smoker and it won't bite the less experienced too bad...unless you smoke it way too fast!

This cigar pairs up nicely with a cold glass of Blue Moon which is something I would have never done on my own but like I said, things are changing. So anybody who ever gets the chance to put these two together should enjoy a very good combo made for the a palate most deserving.

Avo 787 is a medium to full-bodied blend consisting of a mixture of Dominican grown Piloto Cubano, San Vicente, and Olor long fillers. The earthy and toasty notes on the aftertaste are pleasing without being overbearing. An Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper was added which is darker than a true Connecticut wrapper which brings out the spicy notes to the palate. Complex, yet satisfyingly smooth, Avo 787 is not as earthy in my opinion as the Avo 80Th which always seem to be "young" tasting to me and it was a major turn off even though this was a popular cigar.

Avo across the board pairs nicely with medium to full bodied red wines of all complexities however I would keep a bottle of water close when drinking a dry red wine as so not to get "cotton mouth" and the possibility of missing out on an exciting complex pairing of cigar and wine.

Pairing with a Blue Moon beer, a Belgian-style witbier brewed by Coors Brewery in Colorado was introduced in 1995 and was originally called Bellyslide Belgian White, it was created by Keith Villa, a brewer at Coor's Field's Sandlot Brewery (which is owned by the Molson Coors Brewing company).

I stumbled onto this pairing by accident a while back when the Avo 787 was fairly new on the market and I was already smoking the Avo when I was offered a Blue Moon. First sip was a little more wheaty than I prefer but it was tolerable and then a friend added the orange slice (eye brow raises) and then a draw on my cigar with a swallow of the Blue Moon was a match I could learn to like! Both had the right amount of "everything" for my palate and soon I was hooked! I don't get the chance often to bring these two back together but when I do it's always a treat in my mouth! So for those of you who like to pair cigars with beer, I suggest you try the Blue Moon with the Avo 787 and see if you agree that this is an accidental pairing that works!!!

So the BlkCigarCzar is back and doing some new things here and there and hopefully you will get to hear what I have to say about cigars I like.

I will review some, show you what I'm smoking from time to time, tweeting on Twitter and posting to Facebook

So feel free to stop by and show me some love and I promise I won't steer you wrong in the world of enjoying fine cigars!

Ciao!!!

Smoke Em' If You Got Em'!!!

Divided appeals court rules on Philly's 'blunt' ban

A Philadelphia ordinance banning the sale of cigars and single cigarettes used by illegal drug-takers was upheld Monday by a divided appeals court.

The Commonwealth Court majority validated a January 2007 ban on flavored tobacco products and on cigarettes sold individually or in pairs, making them likely to be used for drugs.

But the court said it was permissible for the city to prohibit retailers from selling certain tobacco drug paraphernalia, such as hollowed-out cigars known as "blunts."

The difference is that the blunt-sales ban requires proof the seller knows or should know the cigars would be used for taking drugs, the court said. The ordinance's provisions on flavored tobacco and single cigarettes does not include that language.

A Philadelphia judge had previously ruled the ordinance was unenforceable and pre-empted by Pennsylvania's Controlled Substance Act.

The ordinance maintained that a retailer "can be held liable even if it does not know that the sale of a single cigarette or flavored cigar will result in the buyer using the tobacco product to inhale illegal drugs," wrote Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt.

"By contrast, the Controlled Substance Act exempts persons from liability who do not know, or cannot reasonably know, that the tobacco item being sold would be used by the buyer to ingest illegal drugs," she wrote.

Commonwealth Court also ruled that the city can ban the sale of certain tobacco products within 500 feet of a church or school, regardless of how they are intended to be used. City lawyers said they were studying the opinion and had not decided whether to appeal.

Lawyers for the tobacco businesses that sued the city and its Licenses and Inspections commissioner said they were unfamiliar with details about the decision or did not return phone messages.

Judge Rochelle S. Friedman wrote that she would have sided with the Philadelphia judge and invalidated the entire ordinance. Judges Renee Cohn Jubelirer and Doris A. Smith-Ribner said they would have upheld all aspects of the city law.

This being said, banning of "blunt' and "wraps" is the first step to banning these items across the U.S. and it sets a precedence that everyone knows that most people buying these items are possibly going to be used to smoke illegal drugs.

It's only a matter of time before we see other cities or states for that matter to follow suit!

I guess it's time for folks to step up their game and start smoking real cigars I guess!!!

Churchill cigar sells for £4,500 at auction in Norfolk

The cigar was picked up by a Downing Street staff member

A half-smoked cigar, abandoned when Sir Winston Churchill dashed away to an urgent wartime Cabinet meeting, has sold at auction for £4,500.

The ex-prime minister's cigar, picked up by a member of the 10 Downing Street staff 69 years ago, had been expected to fetch up to £350.

The 9.5cm (3.74ins) cigar, embossed with the owner's name, was sold by Keys auctioneers in Aylsham, Norfolk.
It was bought by a private collector from Hertfordshire.

After picking up the stub, Downing Street valet Nellie Goble grabbed a sheet of 10 Downing Street notepaper and scribbled a note to a friend.
She wrote: "To Jack, with all good wishes from Nellie. Just a small souvenir to remind you at some future date of one of the greatest men that ever lived in England."

"Jack" treasured the letter and cigar until his death in 1987 when it passed to his daughter.
The woman kept it wrapped in the note in a drawer at her north Norfolk home.
In November, a butter dish used as an ashtray by Churchill at the London dining and debating club he co-founded was sold at Keys for £4,200, almost three times its estimate.

Tiger Woods Offered $100,000 From Cigar Company

Hello All My BOTL's, here is a some news on Tiger Woods Watch! Not everybody is jumping ship on Tiger Woods! Here is the story in part and my comments are in "Italics" read on and enjoy and I welcome your comments!!!

BlkCigarCzar

An Orlando-based cigar company has offered the world's top-ranked golfer an endorsement deal well below what he's used to: just $100,000. Some brands are running from Tiger Woods as a celebrity endorser but Orlando-based Corona Cigar Co. is running toward him.

As a celebrity "smokesperson" the brand is clearly looking for publicity. Owner Jeff Borysiewicz has said that the company doesn't condone anyone's alleged extramarital affairs but welcomes Woods as a potential endorser.

Woods has visited Corona in the company of Charles Parker before. Some of Woods' core endorsers including Accenture, Gillette and Gatorade have said they will review their association with the golfer and he won't be playing golf for a little while so perhaps he should take the deal for some running around money.

Corona Cigar Co.'s management said they basically are not worried about what Tiger's personal problems were and this gave the little guy a chance to have a big name endorser! Well it's great to see that not everyone has given up on Tiger. Many people were supportive of him when it looked like he could walk on water but now that he has done something that is more human like everybody starts buggin' out!

Tiger Woods fans are always going to be there until somebody an come out and beat him with ease like he has done to so many others! Now all I need is a picture of Tiger and President Obama smoking a cigar and my blog would be set! lol

Come on Mr. President and Tiger, I have a cigar on the house for you too! Padron 1926 45 year should be a great place to start!!! lol

Corona has never made a sponsorship offer before, so will this start a precedence for other cigar companies to go get high profile celebrities to promote their cigars? Cigar Aficionado magazine always has a celebrity of some type on their cover and Tiger has already been there too! (See Issue May/June 2008 - Tiger Woods)

Borysiewicz acknowledged Saturday that it would be "a real fairy tale" if Woods accepted his offer to be the face for the retailer's three cigar superstores and bars, but said he hoped Woods' business team would give it some serious consideration. He faxed a letter to the golfer's agent, Mark Steinberg, but has not heard back.

"There's a lot of synergy between smoking cigars and golfing," said Borysiewicz, who added that many of his customers enjoy both pastimes.

Woods himself has visited Corona Cigar, at least once in the company of his friend Charles Barkley, the former professional basketball player.

(Does Tiger Woods smoke cigars when he is with his friend Charles Barkley whom is a regular at my cigar shop here in Phoenix, AZ.?)

The champion golfer, who lives in Isleworth, also appeared on the June 2008 cover of the magazine Cigar Aficionado.

Woods get $100 million annually from endorsement contracts (Really Big Pimpin'!) and looks like he could become the world's first billionaire athlete.

Orlando Sentinel Full Story
By Anika Myers Palm, Orlando Sentinel

Cuban Company Wins Ruling on Cohiba Cigars

(CN) - A Cuban government-owned tobacco company won its 12-year legal battle to stop a U.S. cigar producer from using the Cohiba name and trademark in the United States. A federal judge in Manhattan once again backed up Cubatabaco, which accused General Cigar of "exploiting the reputation and goodwill of the Cuban Cohiba."

VS

By JONATHAN PERLOW

http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/12/16/Cuban_Company_Wins_Ruling_on_Cohiba_Cigars.htm

Cohibas are among the world's most famous and sought-after cigars, and were originally produced exclusively for Fidel Castro. U.S. District Judge Robert W. Sweet barred General Cigar from using the Cohiba name in the United States, but allowed it to keep using the name on its Dominican-made cigars, pending appeal. Judge Sweet said his most recent opinion was "nearly identical" to his previous finding that General Cigar Holdings had tried "to plagiarize the mark" and engaged in "intentional copying."

His decision was reversed by the 2nd Circuit, which dismissed the federal claims, saying the embargo between the two countries barred the Cuban company from acquiring property in the United States, including trademarks. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. But when New York's highest court clarified its position on what constituted unfair competition, Cubatabaco's state law case was back on. The New York Court of Appeals found that "bad faith" wasn't necessary to prove unfair competition by appropriation, only that "deliberate copying" had taken place.

Cubatabaco argued that on the cusp of the 1992 cigar boom, General Cigar selected the "Cohiba" name for a new line of premium cigars "in order to exploit the reputation and goodwill of the Cuban Cohiba," according to the ruling. Judge Sweet agreed, and said the U.S. company's choice was "in part to capitalize on the success of the Cuban Cohiba brand and especially the good ratings and notoriety that it had received in Cigar Aficionado," a magazine for cigar enthusiasts. The debut issue of the magazine proclaimed Cohibas to be Cuba's finest cigars, in an article called "The Legend of Cohiba."

Cubatabaco further claimed that the Cohiba name was protected under the Lanham Act by the "well-known marks" doctrine, even though the company held no U.S. trademarks. Judge Sweet agreed that this was the case, but said Cubatabaco's challenge of the Cuban Asset Control Regulations was obsolete after the state court's ruling. "The New York Court of Appeals held that plaintiff could be entitled to relief against use of its foreign mark if it could establish deliberate copying and secondary meaning, even though the plaintiff had no U.S. trademark rights," Sweet wrote. "For certain kinds of cases ... goodwill can, and does, cross state and national boundary lines."

Cigars and sex 'boost Cuba lives'

Cuba's high number of centenarians say their longevity is down to laying off alcohol, but indulging in coffee, cigars and sex.

The findings are the result of a study that looked into the lives of 54 out of the more than 100 centenarians who live in Villa Clara province.
More than 60% of them had parents who also lived to be over 100.
Cuba, with a population of 11.2 million, has about 3,000 people who have lived for more than a century.

The results of the study were reported to the National Geriatrics and Social Work workshop in Santa Clara town, the newspaper Juventud Rebelde said.
In the study, the lives of the centenarians were found to be disciplined, but not austere.
None was alcoholic, and they said they loved coffee and cigars, which they consumed in large quantity.

They had a healthy interest in a number of areas, including sex, said Dr Nancy Nepomuceno, who carried out the study.
Most of the centenarians were mentally alert, had a good lifestyle and did manual labour in rural areas.

Almost all ate a diet which included fish, eggs, milk, white meat and vegetables, cooked with little salt and natural seasonings.
The life expectancy in Cuba is 76, but in Villa Clara province, where the study was carried out, it is 78.

You gotta love Cuba!!!

BlkCigarCzar

Teed off: Golf course smoking bans anger golfers

Hello fellow cigar smokers! Here is a little story I found that I thought I should post in the recent light of Michael Jordan getting fined $100 for smoking on a public golf course in San Francisco. (Harding Park to be exact) It's Ironic that you can't smoke a cigar "outside" on a golf course...how much more outside can you get!!! OMG!!!

There is still plenty of cigar smoking going on and it's getting more popular everyday especially with the smoking bans popping up everywhere. As you read this story you can see that there is even a cigar vending machine with premium hand rolled cigars, so the courses don't want you to smoke cigars but there is a Humidor Vending Machine with them there to tease you? How fair is that!

The machines are not at every course but it's a cool idea and at most courses there is usually a place to buy cigars anyway! I say let a man have something to do that he enjoys on a Saturday afternoon with the boys, I mean what is next? No golf balls on the course because you might hit a bird or squirrel and mess up the local eco-system!!! It's outside in a park for Christ Sake!!! In my opinion not every course should be No smoking!!!

Smoke Em' If You Got Em"!!!

BlkCigarCzar

For the cigar-smoking golfer, 18 holes and a stogie rank with peanut butter and jelly or gin and tonic among life's ideal combinations.

For the cigar-smoking golfer, 18 holes and a stogie rank with peanut butter and jelly or gin and tonic among life's ideal combinations.
That's why recent efforts across the country to ban smoking on public golf courses are being greeted by those players like a triple bogey. In the balance between individual rights and public health, weekend duffers feel authorities have become unreasonable.

The city of Spokane just tried to ban smoking on its four public golf courses, only to be stymied by an outcry from players and smoking rights advocates.
"Golf and cigars go together like a hand in a glove," said Dale Taylor of Tacoma, president of the Cigar Association of Washington, a smokers' rights groups. "That may be the only time some people smoke."

Washington state is among the least hospitable places for smokers, with no smoking allowed in any public indoor space, or outside within 25 feet of a door or window. But the proposed smoking ban on public links has struck a nerve, in part because of the vastness of golf courses. Playing a typical 18-hole course, such as Downriver in Spokane, means traveling easily more than three miles.

"If I was just walking and somebody was 300 feet away, I'm bothering them?" avid smoker and golfer Greg Presley told the Spokane parks board during a public hearing. "We've got to have some common sense."

Evidence of the illnesses caused by second-hand smoke has led to widespread bans on indoor smoking nationwide in recent decades. The great outdoors is now at the forefront of campaigns led by smoking opponents, and hundreds of places ban it in outdoor restaurants, parks and beaches, said Annie Tegan, of the Seattle office of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, which seeks to limit smoking.

NYC City Cop Enjoy A Cigar During His Day

Because bans are enacted at the local and state levels, it is difficult to determine their exact number of them. Tegan knew of about a dozen communities that have banned smoking on public golf courses, including San Francisco, Glendale and Pasadena in California; Hawaii County, Hawaii; Bloomington, Minn.; Goshen, Ind.; Abilene, Texas; and Arvada, Colo.

The Hilo Municipal Golf Course is the only public course on the big island of Hawaii, and last year's ban on smoking in all public parks, beaches and other recreation facilities has not been popular, said assistant pro Sharol Ayai.
"There's big-time complaining," Ayai said. "The golfers will still smoke because most feel it is unfair. We all pay taxes."

Ayai said the ban, which does not apply to private golf clubs, has not had much impact on the number of rounds played at the course, in part because it is ignored.
Some communities that tried to ban smoking on golf courses, like Thousand Oaks, Calif., relented after complaints by golfers, whose fees support the facilities.

"You really have to stretch things to imagine you are offending anybody when you are outside smoking cigars," said Gordon Mott, executive editor of Cigar Aficionado magazine, which includes a monthly feature on smoking and golf.

Some non-smokers oppose outdoor smoking bans as intrusive government.
"It's a disgusting habit, but people have a right to make choices," Spokane resident Joel Bark told the local Parks Board during the public hearing. Miquel Jimenez Enjoy A Stick or Two

Patrick Reynolds of the Foundation for a Smokefree America acknowledged that moving the anti-smoking fight from indoors to outdoors was "cutting edge."
"But these are in fact reasonable laws," Reynolds, grandson of tobacco pioneer R.J. Reynolds, said. "Second-hand smoke causes lung cancer."

The bans also are aimed at reducing litter, he said. Smoking bans also have been imposed on spectators at pro golf tournaments. Last month, there was a no-smoking zone for the first time at the Masters. The U.S. Open in 2008 at Torrey Pines banned smoking by spectators because San Diego had banned smoking in its parks, beaches and public golf courses. But players were allowed to smoke.

With little advance notice, the Spokane parks board voted in March to ban smoking in all city parks, including golf courses. An existing law already prevented people from smoking near playgrounds, swimming pools or other parks facilities, so the board didn't think many would care when it decided to ban smoking entirely, parks spokeswoman Nancy Goodspeed said. They were wrong.

The outcry from smokers and libertarians was swift, and prompted the board in April to stay the ban on golf courses while it studies the issue further.
"We heard from everyone and their brother, on both sides," Goodspeed said.

The board will wait for people to calm down before taking up the issue of smoking on golf courses again, she said, adding that may be a year or more.
Presley, who said he has smoked and played golf for five decades, hopes it never comes up again.
"There's plenty of fresh air out there to share," Presley said. "Everyone pays taxes."

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
Associated Press Writer