WOW :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
That's an interesting question and reading through the responses it's pretty obvious we've all got opinions
I've had some great smokes and I think a lot of what makes them so damn good is the event that lead up to me lighting them in the first place (although I'd be completely devoid of any sense of taste if I couldn't distinguish tannic taste from creamy or spice from flat). But I think my favorite smokes have been:
1. CoRo I smoked after dinner when I got engaged to my wife in Paris in '04.
2. Opus X Lancero I smoked after running in the July 4th 10k last year.
3. Taboada Sublime handed to me by Senor Taboada on my first visit to TJ last summer (and this one gave me the worst ass-kicking I ever got from a cigar... man, it was strong)
4. Punch Rare Corojo Rothschild before I went into the Rose Bowl to watch Texas stomp USC (Vince Young was on fire)
5. Monte Edmundo I had a bunch of these and shared one with Gary one night on a trip back east... incredible smoke.
There's a bunch more others that I think about when I'm having a cigar. They're sort of like benchmarks for me to the cigar I'm enjoying at the moment. I remember back to what I tasted, what I liked (and didn't like), construction, smoke volume, color, flavour, etc... Unfortunately some cigars do stand out because they were awful, but only a few of those have crossed my path. My first PAN was horrible, but my second was delicious, for example.
The other side of the coin are the cigars that I have resting right now that I'm expecting to be the best ever. Of course it's tough to gauge exactly when some of the singles are going to be in their prime (or when I am for that matter), but at least in other cases I have boxes from which to sample to determine when those 'gars are smoking their best.
Great question and some equally fantastic answers. Thanks.
