Guest blog from Puff.com member Peter aka ouirknotamuzd

I don’t know about youse Folks….but I love it when a cellophane wrapper turns yellow.

Cigars are organic…they take in air..they respond happily to a good climate..and, like people, they produce gas (kinda like Me on Chili and Beer night). These gasses occur more often than not because cigar manufacturers ship out their product right after they’ve been rolled and the tobacco is still very young.

As with wines and beers, tobacco ferments…its sugars in the leaves are constantly converting its oils and resins into the flavor components that make cigars so tasty. And as with all fermentation processes, gasses are expelled….gasses like ammonia and sulfur and so forth and so on….hence, that “barnyard” smell you sometimes pick up from the foot of a cigar during inspection…..I look forward to that smell..it tells me that fermentation is under way and it’s a good time to fire one up to see what kind of flavors are developing.

When a cigar manufacturer put a cello wrapper on a newly made smoke…..it’s crystal clear…..and that certainly doesn’t stop the fermentation process…the wrapper and binder and filler tobaccos just keep on converting the sugars and expelling gases, and as the gas leaves the cigar, it leaves a residue on the cellophane…and over longer periods of time..the wrapper itself turns a yellowish tinge….leaving a message that the cigar inside has been aging and fermenting beautifully and is ready to be herfinated.

Sooooo..as far as I’m concerned…leaving the cello on when you put yer smokes in yer humidor or tupperdor or coolerdor for resting or aging serves many good purposes…..not only does it protect the wrapper from damage, but the color of the cello itself can give you a clear indication of how long it’s been in storage in a warehouse humidor, or a B&M walk-in humidor, or even yer own storage unit.

Personal example:
A couple of weeks ago, I received some cigars after winning them in an online auction…..one was a 5-pack of Punch Uppercut robustos….another was a 5-pack of Partagas Black Magnificos…..I knew that they were going to go into storage after their long journey, but I wanted to check the cellophane on one of each of the smokes I got to see what it would tell me( I apologize for not having any visual aids to show you the cello, but I don’t own a digital camera cuz I spend most of my disposable income on cigars) I lie the cellos on a sheet of blank white printer paper to get a clear picture.

(***editor’s note: this is an example)

The Results:
Punch Uppercut robusto: The cellophane was clear as crystal…this tells me that this sucker was probably just rolled and wrapped and hasn’t had much aging…so in it goes into one of my plastic long-term storage containers for some serious aging…..2-3 months minimum.

Partagas Black Magnifico: This cellophane had a beautiful yellow film on the wrapper..clearly, this bad boy did some serious time in a humidified warehouse before I got them….at least a year…so I’m confident that they are primed and ready for Herfination…..I can put all 5 in one of my humis now and smoke ‘em whenever the mood hits me

Now, I’m sure after someone reads this, they’ll think to themselves..”Okay…checking the cello is all well and good….but not all cigars are shipped out wrapped in cello….what then,huh?”

Fair enough question….there are at least 2 ways I know to tell if a cigar has some age on it if there no cello:

Test #1 The Band Test: if the cigar has a band on it……and you can slide the band easily up and down the cigar, then the excess moisture has left the cigar during it’s fermentation phase, meaning it’s got some age on it and is ready for Herfination.

Test #2 The Smoke Test: you take a cigar….light it up…and if you like the taste of it….it’s ready to smoke

If any of youse Folks have anything to add…please do…..we’re all here to learn and share our passion……and I’ll try to add some visual aids if I decide to post again in the future.

Live Long and Prosper….and smoke Cigars.

***Thanks so much Pete!

(Let this play while you read this blog entry ok?)

Seems that smoking cigars and drinking scotch come to a surprise to my gentlemen co-guests when are out for the evening or in a place where such activities are allowed. After the ice is broken, if there is interest, we can even discuss the cigars further, as I am quite knowledgeable on the subject. It is my newest passion and I have learned so much about it I joined discussion forums and stared one of my own, www.hisandherf.com. The topic seems to stop at “Cuban cigars are the ultimate”, or “how do you know they are not fake?” Once I begin to delve deeper, the crowd becomes bored and moves on to other topics. So much for cigar talk.

The cigar smoking woman, for the most part, is still such a rarity and novelty that it is a sex symbol. Having a lady in front of a group of men with a phallic object in her ringed fingers, especially if she is dressed nicely, drives them nuts. She could be reciting The Iliad, performing brain surgery and giving birth, simultaneously, but the focus would be on her lips and that cigar.

Let’s get past this phenomenon and know that there are organizations for women who love the leaf as I do. The International Women’s Cigar Society is a not-for-profit educational and service organization dedicated to serving all women in the cigar industry from manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, and consumers. Should I be surprised that these forums do not have sections showing photos of hot men, guns or their latest cars, or better yet, complaints about how their husbands won’t let them smoke in the house?? On the forums where I do participate among men, they are very nice to me. But on one I am the only lady and on the other, the womens’ thread has been idle since the middle of 2010.

Also found

http://www.cigarwoman.com

http://www.cigars4women.com/

http://www.womencigarsmokers.com/

Note: This did not include the hot “Vixen”, nudity cigar/women sites. You can look those up on your own.

My only hope is this. In the age of diminished interest/laws/access and economic spending on cigars, companies should recognize the market of women who like to smoke and be very generous to us. Treat us like gold. If we smoke, then we will join our men friends and save a dying market.

Call me SOTL, Sister of the leaf. Amen!

“Came out of a monkey’s butt!”

One of the most enjoyable things about dealing in rare anything, especially on the internet, is the folklore that you hear about the items. And the more expensive the delicacy, the weirder the stories become. Rocketfuelcoffee.com Kopi Luwak, civet poo coffee that is made legendary in the movie, The Bucket List, has to be my favorite:

Now as you can imagine, as a saleswoman of this elusive bean, I have heard it all… Monkey, weasel, (enter any small animal here) poo, cat littler and then the “I will just sift through my cat litter box and sell it for $1000 a pound”. OK, more power to ya buddy.

Next to Kopi Luwak, the next myth we coffee peeps have to endure on a daily basis is the use of the word Espresso Bean. I for one do not get my undies in a bunch over this one as my roaster George sells an espresso bag of 3 robusto beans in a blend. His customers like it. On Coffeeforums.com, where I am a moderator, however, there are members who are absolutely frothing their crema over it! Here’s why. Espresso is a process, not a bean. You can make espresso out of just about any bean. How well it works and what the results are is a matter of taste. There. Make up your own mind.

Here are some others that are unsubstantiated, but fun to read:

MYTH: God created whole gourmet coffee beans and man to be equals.
FACT: I find many people less intelligent than coffee beans, they don’t brew as well either!

MYTH: Specialty arabica coffees have higher caffeine content than store bought coffees.

FACT: Actually, arabica coffee beans have about half the caffeine content of the lessor robusta bean coffee
.
MYTH: Espresso shots have large amounts of caffeine.
FACT: A 6 ounce cup of arabica bean coffee has more caffeine than an espresso shot.

MYTH: Darker roast coffee has higher caffeine content.
FACT: The darker you go with roasting, the less caffeine is left. You are burning it away with the rest of the bean.

MYTH: Coffee consumption makes you smarter!
FACT: Boy would I be smart! Actually, coffee consumption lets you do stupid things faster with more energy. (2 stupid things = 1 smart thing)

MYTH: Coffee left on a burner all day is better.
FACT: Coffee should be in a pump pot or carafe, if not in you, within 7 minutes of completion of brewing or you’re cooking it! May as well go to a convenience store, grab a Styrofoam cup, and grit your teeth.

MYTH: Coffee tastes best when it is hot enough to take the skin off of your tongue.
FACT: Coffee actually shows all it’s complexities and flavor at around 145-165 degrees F., which allows you to enjoy your coffee without burns.

MYTH: Decaffeinated coffee tastes just like caffeinated coffee!
FACT: The cry of the truly desperate. Does a meatless burger patty taste like a burger made with real meat? I think not!

Take that, Mith-ster!

Expensive cigar bands are brilliant knock-offs!

Recently I found a fantastic cigar discussion/trading forum called Onlinehumidor.com. Judging by the avatars and jokes around the place, which some were hilarious but old, very few x chromosomes hang out there. It only took an hour for me to learn some very important information about the inventory in my collection and the past dealings I had fortunately NOT completed online. This was cigar info central and I was lucky to be a member I can tell you that.

Despite the sexist, bland header in this site, the cigar knowledge and depth is wonderful. And you can buy and trade cigars with folks that welcome you like you are family. Here is another part though that is worth every penny (it is free) – you can read online squabbles and fights and just sit back and watch it play out until they get suspended. What a hoot! Oops, back to the topic at hand, fake cigars, or for that matter, fake anything of value.

On the internet, kijiji, craigslist, eBay, or anywhere where there are buyers or sellers for that matter,  it is a common practice to sell fake anything. Watches, cigars, coffee, diamonds. Since the product is sold to customers who are looking for a deal and yearn for a product at a better price, caveat emptor, stars in your eyes, whatever, snake oil salesmen prevail. And when a product is under embargo like a Cuban cigar or is rare like an Opus X cigar, a predator has the advantage. Only by joining a forum like onlinehumidor.com can you get the real scoop, but you have to be pretty educated to get there. Catch-22!

Here it is my second day and I am reading all about this ne’er-do-well devil seller that all should avoid like the plague, selling cigars on eBay. Don’t folks know what a joke this is? Can’t they see they are getting ripped off? What are they, moronic idiots? HELLO. I almost bought a box of his cigars but decided I did not want to lay out the dough for a whole box. We even talked off line. Nice fellow too. Moron in the eye of the beholder perhaps? So let’s just say FAKE is dangerous, not knowing the best price comes with experience and getting ripped off as little as possible.

Looking at the samples of fake cigar bands I have presented here, you can see that someone goes to a lot of trouble to produce serious copies of the real luxury cigars, so the effort must be worth it. And chasing these fakes, including counting the rows of white dots on a Cohiba label instead of fighting communism in Cuba is top of mind to someone too. Big business.

Same principal happens with coffee. Watch out for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee when it has the word BLEND on the label.

Only 100% pure Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, with certification should call itself as such, same as 100% pure Hawaiian Kona. The word BLEND is a dangerous one that we use with coffee, and be very careful what you are paying for.

My purchases online are now accompanied by a phone call to the proprietor and I like to see feedback comments about the product. A Facebook or Twitter link to see real human contact and discussion about what is going about the products to heighten my confidence in the genuine authenticity of the cigars makes me more comfortable. Just because we deal online does not mean we have to remove the human element.

Cheers!

I have been pondering the blessed and wonderful world I live in and the fruits of my days. A Cuban cigar, a glass of Single Malt here, a lunch at a log cabin there. Such excess I know, but collecting knowledge along the way. Not just puffing on the leaves of expensive smoke and the beans of vanity, but great stuff that perhaps folks would like to read about? On Facebook everyday, I trade stories and photos of who is smoking what that day, so I am not alone.

I am really on the fence about this one. What about folks who have nothing? What about second hand smoke and alcoholics who curse my name? Vegetarians and decaf drinkers? If I gush about these things I love who will read my drivel anyway?

The headquarters of “My Amazing World”  would be this gingerbread log home, Auberge Gertrude in the Grey Highlands near Georgian Bay, Ontario. Pretty hot cost of admission I’d say. Then there is the Canadian ability to buy and smoke Cuban cigars. I have a couple of hundred Facebook friends who share this passion with me and show photos of what we light up throughout the day. I call this “Cigar Porn”.

Also on my list, which I call the “$25 list” – incredible things you buy for this amount – can be topics for discussion. Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, coincidentally a product I sell from my company Rocketfuelcoffee.com (no coincidence at all!) , a fabulous ribeye steak from Scotch Mountain Meats, a glass of incredible Single Malt Scotch of your choosing or a pretty good bottle of red wine if you are clever. Get it?

OK, enough advertising, back to the topic at hand. Am I the one to talk about smoking cigars at the bottom of Blue Mountain while everyone else is skiing (I did that on Sunday), tasting Kopi Luwak Cat Poop coffee or going ice fishing? How about buying deer pelts on eBay or antique quilts at auction in Owen Sound? I think I am!

So keep watching as the subject matter broadens around here and of course, always served with fantastic coffee in the cup.

Cheers!

(Information about cigar ash and pictures…)

As I mentioned in other posts…I am on a quest to find a cigar with construction that will blow me away. I’ve had my fair share of contenders which you can see pictured in this post but I enjoy the process of searching for this perfect ash.

by Mike Crimmins in Coffee Reviews Dailyshotofcoffee.com

I tried a lot of amazing coffees in 2010. There’s a lot more that are worthy of being on this list that didn’t make the final cut, but there’s only so much room. It was a tough decision on which to include and which didn’t make the list. However, without any further ado, I give you the top ten coffees reviewed on Daily Shot Of Coffee in 2010.

Tanzania Peaberry from King David Coffee Roasters
An amazing price for an exceptional coffee. The Tanzania Peaberry is a light roast was extra smooth and a delicious strawberry flavor.

Ethiopian Sidamo from Jim’s Organic Coffee
I had a lot of amazing coffees from Ethiopia this year. This one was a light roast with an excellent blueberry taste.

Panama Elida Estate Natural From Kuma Coffee Roasters
Not only is this coffee direct trade, but it had an aroma and flavor that I can still smell and taste.

Komodo Blue Dragon From Rocketfuel Coffee
This a coffee for the fans of darker coffees. It had a sweet aroma with hints of chocolate and a smokey-chocolate taste.

Guatemala Finca Liquidambar From Velton’s Coffee
From the first sip to the last, this coffee was full of life. It had a delicious nutty-cherry flavor that I’m now craving again.

Sidamo From Barista On Duty
I tried a lot of world class coffees from Barista On Duty this year, if I had to pick just one the Sidamo was my favorite.

El Socorro Y Anexos From Rocketfuel Coffee
The price tag is steep ($45 for half a pound or $80 for a full pound), but this is a must try coffee.

Organic Guatemala from Kickapoo Coffee
Who knew that coffee from a can could be so good?

Single Origin Peaberry from Doi Chaang Coffee
My first of hopefully many coffees from Thailand.

Jamaican Blue Mountain from CC Specialty Coffee
A lot of coffees don’t live up to the hype, this one definitely did.

Great choices Mike, as always! Thank you!

Lisa Rotenberg, Silver Level Poweseller, 2004

When I was in the graphic design business, up until 1995, we really felt we were a different class of folk. We thought we knew what good design was, in clothing, furniture, architecture, typography and industrial design. Our car, food and even our cologne spoke to the common people about how clever and we were. I had great mentors. One set me completely straight one day when I crossed the line from designer to account director when he told me in his car outside a presentation at Colgate:

“Lisa, sales is sales, the rest is romance.”

Wake up call#1. And it was a good one. The next one came when I opened an art gallery and started selling my magnificent children, the hand created paintings I had loved and had to part with. Guess what. That is the easy part. Tons of folks do that. It is the selling that is the hard part or dare I say talent. Wake up call #2.

My next career change led me to eBay, where I sold antique sterling silver. I befriended some wonderful dealers who also mentored me and I attended some eBay LIVE conventions as a Powerseller. Powersellers are those eBay members who meet sales targets every month for months on end. Bronze, silver, gold – titanium, you get the picture. Only the antique market fell out when the ANTIQUE ROAD SHOW came out and every son and daughter emptied out their attic and wanted to get rich. The market was flooded and add to that when I started the US dollar traded at 45-50% Canadian. When I got out it was pretty much at par. By the time I was done, we saw pretty much dealers selling to dealers, in box lots. Same was seen at live auctions where we got our supply to sell, as well as estate sales. Dealers to dealers just move product around the plate. No profit for anyone. Lesson #3.

Now back to my original question: What did the the eBay seller say to the Coffee bean retailer? The same seller to seller talk that excludes the customer. Recently I have been noticing a lot of talk in forums about water quality and coffee that is barely understandable to me and I have been in the coffee business for a few years. I know the talk is often about filtration systems in the retail environment, but more and more sales are going to be online or in store for home use and the selling pitch, in my opinion is per cup of highest quality coffee by the pound. There was no mention about tap water (or at least just disgust) that a consumer might use in their home. My customers are online. How do I know what they use? The use of tap water in Canada or the US was looked at like it was filled with worms, bacteria and chemicals. Give me a break. I use tap water and I have lived to the ripe old age of 49. It will be Scotch and cigars that do me in.

I learn so much from these coffee mentors and I am eternally grateful, but somehow we have to include the customer in the equation. The lowly customer who we want to bring to the table who might be drinking instant coffee or mass retail coffee right now. There are only so many coffee gourmands in the world prepared to pay $3 a cup, so we better spread our net wider, no? And our coffee is worth the effort! So we have to let them know they can drink our incredible coffee at home with tap water, not bottled water and they will love it at any price. If Tim Hortons can get $1.50 for a cup and I sell Jamaican Blue Mountain for $25 a pound (90 cents a cup) why not?

Cheers!

When Illustration and Coffee Come Together Perfectly!

Three years ago when I wanted to open a coffee company, there were two sides to the business that really excited me. As a coffee lover, the idea of sourcing specialty coffee and rare beans was intriguing, fascinating and made us salivate. As a graphic designer who spent years specializing in consumer packaging, this would have been a dream project, and here I would have the opportunity to have free reign on an entire line of products. Just WOW.

To visit the www.lisarotenberg.com artwork site shows original artwork for the owner and designer for www.rocketfuelcoffee.com. I am not sure if too many artist/illustrators can say that have opened online rare coffee companies, but many entrepreneurs change careers and bring wonderful skills with them. This is the magic of entrepreneurship is you ask me… and chameleons make for very inspirational and interesting business mentors!

Just One Night, Lisa Rotenberg

When it comes to holiday images, since the beginning of my painting career 15 years ago, I have been a success. The image below has been reproduced thousands of times on cards, mugs, coasters, magnets and key chains. At one point this image was even available as an edible chocolate bar! My folk art style, sense of color and humor, matched with Canadiana themes make for the perfect non-denominational holiday wishes. It’s a timeless no brainer.

Your Turn This Year

Starting last year, www.rocketfuelcoffee.com took this idea and brought it to the coffee labels with a Holiday Blend. Our Global Warming coffee, which is a blend of Jamaican Blue Mountain, Hawaiian Kona and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is a hands down favorite coffee. So delicious and a great price too at $12/half pound. As a gift with a special edition label, perfect! So our customers can have a choice or give a pair, we came up with 2 designs. As well, we called one, “Welcome Home“. This is to inspire gifting in the real estate business as well as use for house warming gifting over the holidays.

Rocketfuelcoffee.com is working on extending sales activity with these wonderful holiday coffees as fundraising products for schools, charities or anyone else looking to sell items and raise money. A concept called Raiserbean.com is in the works, and input is welcome. At $10-12 per unit for a wonderful bag of coffee there is room to earn money for your organization, so contact us at lisa@rocketfuelcoffee.com!