Another Tat exclusive

[souldog]

WAYYYYYYYYYYYY too much time on your hands...

Speaking of having too much time on your hands:

:laugh:

Nah, Tom still takes the cake.

 

[tomthirtysix]

WAYYYYYYYYYYYY too much time on your hands...

Speaking of having too much time on your hands:

:laugh:

Nah, Tom still takes the cake.

You're just jealous of my MS Paint skillz.

 

[w00ts!te]

I agree with you on most of the points except the Opus one. A great way to tell the difference between a good opus and a shitty one is the color of the wrapper. The older cigars have that brick-red color to the wrapper where alot of the new opus's coming out have a greenish-macanudo-yellow color to them.

But I guess at the end of the day, to each his own.

 

[Bsneed51]

I agree with you on most of the points except the Opus one. A great way to tell the difference between a good opus and a shitty one is the color of the wrapper. The older cigars have that brick-red color to the wrapper where alot of the new opus's coming out have a greenish-macanudo-yellow color to them.

I'll have to keep my eyes open for that. Again, maybe I've just been lucky so far, but I also haven't smoked a lot of recent release Opus. I try to put a little cooler time on them, and smoke out of the older stock. I've smoked some from '08 lately that have been pretty damn good.

I guess I have never really smoked a lot of pre '06s either. Maybe I missed their "golden age" and ignorance is bliss.

 

[JackSchwartz]

I agree with you on most of the points except the Opus one. A great way to tell the difference between a good opus and a shitty one is the color of the wrapper. The older cigars have that brick-red color to the wrapper where alot of the new opus's coming out have a greenish-macanudo-yellow color to them.

But I guess at the end of the day, to each his own.

I totally agree with your observation on the wrapper colors. It seems like the last couple of years we've been getting boxes that are still as dark and rosado hued as older versions, however, there have been a lot more boxes that have more of a golden shade to them (you would almost think they were Connecticut shade wrappers). So you can still find new releases with that rosado wrapper, you just have to weed through a lot more boxes to find them.

 

[moki]

The best thing he can do right now is stop all production, go into hiding for a year or two and spend the entire time blending and staking out new fields (and releasing a few sneak peaks at what is coming to fruition). It is an investment but you either spend the 5-10 years growing/aging for the long haul compared to the scrap tobacco market where anything can happen. I may raise alot of crap for this but I think Arturo Fuente is doing the exact same thing. They haven't released a decent high end smoke (other than the TAA IMHO) in years. If you ever go talk to someone that knows cigars and is looking for Opus, they always ask for Opus prior to 06' because they have just gone to mass producing them. In about two years, I am predicting that Opus will be selling in the mags instead of B&Ms.

The opposite is true, actually. Fuente ramped *down* the production of Opus, specifically because they were concerned about maintaining the quality and integrity of the cigar.

They also use tobacco in Opus that are from many years ago to create current production Opus:

http://www.gartrader.com/forums/topic/79-fuente-fuente-opus-x/

Even prior to rolling, the tobacco is aged: current 2006 production Opus (which will be on sale in 2007) are made up of tobacco predominantly from the 1999 crop.

I agree with you on most of the points except the Opus one. A great way to tell the difference between a good opus and a shitty one is the color of the wrapper. The older cigars have that brick-red color to the wrapper where alot of the new opus's coming out have a greenish-macanudo-yellow color to them.

But I guess at the end of the day, to each his own.

I haven't found this to be true. The very old Opus I have, such as the ORs, have a very smooth sheen to them... remember that like most cigar manufacturers, cigars are color sorted before they are boxed. Therefor you'll find cigars of the same color wrapper in the same box. It doesn't necessarily say anything about that year's Opus (which indeed, uses relatively old tobacco anyway).

Every year, I see people saying that the current Opus are not as good as they used to be. Every year I also see people saying that this year's Opus are the best in recent memory.

I think the answer is clearly sample size (or lack thereof).

 

[ELittle]

The best thing he can do right now is stop all production, go into hiding for a year or two and spend the entire time blending and staking out new fields (and releasing a few sneak peaks at what is coming to fruition). It is an investment but you either spend the 5-10 years growing/aging for the long haul compared to the scrap tobacco market where anything can happen. I may raise alot of crap for this but I think Arturo Fuente is doing the exact same thing. They haven't released a decent high end smoke (other than the TAA IMHO) in years. If you ever go talk to someone that knows cigars and is looking for Opus, they always ask for Opus prior to 06' because they have just gone to mass producing them. In about two years, I am predicting that Opus will be selling in the mags instead of B&Ms.

The opposite is true, actually. Fuente ramped *down* the production of Opus, specifically because they were concerned about maintaining the quality and integrity of the cigar.

They also use tobacco in Opus that are from many years ago to create current production Opus:

http://www.gartrader.com/forums/topic/79-fuente-fuente-opus-x/

Even prior to rolling, the tobacco is aged: current 2006 production Opus (which will be on sale in 2007) are made up of tobacco predominantly from the 1999 crop.

I agree with you on most of the points except the Opus one. A great way to tell the difference between a good opus and a shitty one is the color of the wrapper. The older cigars have that brick-red color to the wrapper where alot of the new opus's coming out have a greenish-macanudo-yellow color to them.

But I guess at the end of the day, to each his own.

I haven't found this to be true. The very old Opus I have, such as the ORs, have a very smooth sheen to them... remember that like most cigar manufacturers, cigars are color sorted before they are boxed. Therefor you'll find cigars of the same color wrapper in the same box. It doesn't necessarily say anything about that year's Opus (which indeed, uses relatively old tobacco anyway).

Every year, I see people saying that the current Opus are not as good as they used to be. Every year I also see people saying that this year's Opus are the best in recent memory.

I think the answer is clearly sample size (or lack thereof).

No.

 

[insight]

The best thing he can do right now is stop all production, go into hiding for a year or two and spend the entire time blending and staking out new fields (and releasing a few sneak peaks at what is coming to fruition). It is an investment but you either spend the 5-10 years growing/aging for the long haul compared to the scrap tobacco market where anything can happen. I may raise alot of crap for this but I think Arturo Fuente is doing the exact same thing. They haven't released a decent high end smoke (other than the TAA IMHO) in years. If you ever go talk to someone that knows cigars and is looking for Opus, they always ask for Opus prior to 06' because they have just gone to mass producing them. In about two years, I am predicting that Opus will be selling in the mags instead of B&Ms.

The opposite is true, actually. Fuente ramped *down* the production of Opus, specifically because they were concerned about maintaining the quality and integrity of the cigar.

They also use tobacco in Opus that are from many years ago to create current production Opus:

http://www.gartrader.com/forums/topic/79-fuente-fuente-opus-x/

Even prior to rolling, the tobacco is aged: current 2006 production Opus (which will be on sale in 2007) are made up of tobacco predominantly from the 1999 crop.

I agree with you on most of the points except the Opus one. A great way to tell the difference between a good opus and a shitty one is the color of the wrapper. The older cigars have that brick-red color to the wrapper where alot of the new opus's coming out have a greenish-macanudo-yellow color to them.

But I guess at the end of the day, to each his own.

I haven't found this to be true. The very old Opus I have, such as the ORs, have a very smooth sheen to them... remember that like most cigar manufacturers, cigars are color sorted before they are boxed. Therefor you'll find cigars of the same color wrapper in the same box. It doesn't necessarily say anything about that year's Opus (which indeed, uses relatively old tobacco anyway).

Every year, I see people saying that the current Opus are not as good as they used to be. Every year I also see people saying that this year's Opus are the best in recent memory.

I think the answer is clearly sample size (or lack thereof).

All I see is blah blah blah. Why don't you stick to what you know and leave opus commentary to the experts?

 

[MoeCizlak]

You guys experiencing less than stellar Opus should do what I do: Smoke only Opus that come out of the boxes marked "1992". They are older and better. Anything younger than that I turn up my nose to.

 

[souldog]

You guys experiencing less than stellar Opus should do what I do: Smoke only Opus that come out of the boxes marked "1992". They are older and better. Anything younger than that I turn up my nose to.

I only smoke the ones with the sticky yellow cello. Thems taste like granola smoothies. :thumbs:

Wootsie, for being a poor college kid, you're sure a snob. "I only smoke brick-red 2006 Opus!" In 2006, you were still in high school! :laugh:

 

[w00ts!te]

To be honest, I don't smoke many but when I am going to pay the premium for an Opus, I will look for pre-06.

If they are trying to ramp down the quality, why are they starting to sell to magazines? Just doesn't add up. ???

 

[ELittle]

no.

 

[Backslide]

Speaking of Opus, I fired up one of my 2004 TAA's. It was so rancid that I chucked it after about 1". I've never been a fan, but damn do I try hard to like em.