Stogie Commentary: My Cigar is Mightier than My Pen

I recently downloaded another cigar database that offers all sorts of ways to categorize and characterize my smokes. It’s really quite impressive. And I’d be quite impressed by anyone who filled one out and kept it up to date. Even as I was opening the program for the first time, I knew I never would use it.

Oh, I’d like to. I think the information would be great to have. But the most I can muster is a half-hearted effort to write down the purchase date on a label and stick it to the cellophane. Even with that simple task, I’m probably just above the Mendoza line.

I got some insight into my “I’m such a dismal failure at properly indexing my cigars” condition last night when I pulled a Dominican Montecristo from my humidor. (It looked like a Robusto; I, of course, had recorded no information on that.) This was one to which I had affixed a date: May 2006. As I picked it up and admired the lovely brown wrapper, I began to wonder what a year in the box had wrought, so I took it out to the deck and lit up.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It burned slowly and absolutely straight. The smoke was luscious, the tastes varying throughout. Was it better than a Montecristo fresh from the box? Or one with six months – or two years – aging? To be honest, I don’t know. When I started smoking cigars, I took fairly extensive notes on each one that I smoked. Perhaps if I dug those little notebooks out I’d find a page or so on a Monte that I might be able to compare to that recent one.

But I’ve realized I’m not really interested in keeping all those records because, frankly, it seems just a little too much like work. Don’t get me wrong. I’m fascinated by such topics and will read and listen to other people’s cigar experiences almost endlessly. And when I’m reviewing cigars for StogieGuys.com, I do take careful notes.

When I’m just smoking for myself, though, I’d rather simply concentrate on that. The only records I maintain these days — and rather halfheartedly at that — are two expanding lists: favorites and those I want to try.

How about you? What sort of records, if any, do you keep? Are there diligent recorders of database data among our readers, or smokers as lackadaisical as I?

-George E

Tags: cigars