Still spring

Wow, two posts in one month! I should probably stop doing this.

Last week a law student friend finished all his studies and exams. To celebrate, a few of us had a guys' night out at a cigar lounge across the river in Gatineau. It may well be the only public place one can smoke indoors between Toronto and Montreal. Cigar lounges are the only establishments exempt from the indoor smoking policy.



It's a delightful little place with a nice view, complete with vintage leather chairs. A charming chamber to have a puff and a drink and to discuss the merits of the gold standard and such ballyhoo.

I read up on cigars to know what to buy, but I quickly realized it hardly mattered as the handful of cigars I've enjoyed hardly makes me an aficionado. Nonetheless, I decided upon a hand-rolled medium-flavoured Cuban.

I found a specialty cigar shop in Ottawa to check out my options. As it turned out, the options were plentiful but for the most part expensive. Buying one at a time (rather than a case of 25) doesn't help. Of course, neither does getting a parking ticket while you shop :(. Hopefully a cigar will never cost me that much again!

In the end I opted for a Montecristo No. 4. Apparently this is the world's most popular cigar, or at least close to it. I don't really see why; it smelled like cigar, not the "hints of chocolate and coffee and" bla bla bla. Perhaps the critics are just full of baloney. Or my palate has yet to be fine-tuned so a cigar won't just taste like any cigar to me... just like all red wines taste the same (gross). Unlike with wine, I'm willing to try to develop cigar-wise. I'll just have to get a humidor and a mustard-coloured tweed jacket to round out the hobby nicely.

Cheers and cheerio then!