“Smoked Up” No.26

Posted by Shawn

July 2, 2013

Last week was one of the best weeks of my life. I spend the whole week with my girlfriend and our daughter in Atlanta and Chattanooga. It was a combonation trip of vacation and my birthday trip that started early Tuesday on my birthday. We went to World of Coke & The Georgia Aquarium. The Aquarium is huge! How huge? Lets put it this way, there are whale sharks in there!

Then on Wednesday, we went to Lake Winnepesaukah Amusement ParkÂ which was a blast for the little one. IÂ didn’t think she would ride much, but IÂ was wrong… way wrong!Â If she was a little taller, she could have rode the “adult” rides that she wanted to go on. I guessÂ she gets that from me.

On Thursday, we road the The Lookout Mountain Incline Railway to Lookout Mountain which was anÂ interesting way to get up the mountain. After that, we went to Rock City and Ruby Falls. Both are something one should do once in their lifetimes.

I did get to make a stop at both Burns Tobacconist Downtown and East locations. Those stores are very well stocked and make the list of the nicest shops I have been in. I visited the downtown location first and itÂ is somewhat “upscale” yet very “chill”. The humidor is very well stocked with newÂ and old favorites.Â You can smoke inside and watch tv, or sit outside and smoke on the patio (like I did with a Primer Mundo Clase Reserva Toro). After that, I went over to Burns East and met up with a few twitter friends at an Oliva event. This shop has two separate humidors and each is almost overflowing full of cigars! Both Burns are a TAA shop, so expect to find a few hard-to-find cigars in each location.

Then, Friday we departed Chattanooga and traveled back to Atlanta. On the way, I loaded up on some craft beer from “Beverage World“. That place has one of the best selections of craft beer I have personally seen. That evening, we went to the Braves game where they retired Chipper Jones’s jersey and beat the Diamondbacks 3-0. That stadium was almost full to capacity; there were more people there than in my home town! We all had a great time at the game, met new people, had a few beers and watched the fireworks after the game.

Saturday, we went toÂ Lenox SquareÂ Mall and relaxed mostly. I did get to venture over to Buckhead Cigars and grabbed a few handfuls of cigars. I got to meet up with Gary from Perfecto Cigar Holder. We talked aboutÂ cigars, life in general & how his product came to be. I have been using it in the last two reviews I have done. Look for a product review here in the next week or so. I also got something any carnivore should try at least once in their lifetime…. Thick Cut Bacon from Kevin Rathburns restaurant. He has many locations in Atlanta area, but this treat was brought to me by a good friend in Atlanta who knew how much I liked the bacon. This bacon will be on my death meal list.

Sunday, we were going to head home, but ended up at Stone Mountain Park. That is a pretty nice park for walking/hiking, fishing, picnicking, bike ridingÂ and other small attractions. There, we rode “The Ducks” and took a trainÂ rideÂ around the mountain among other things. The weather was looking sketchy, so they shut down the skyride. With that being said, we didn’t get to the top of the mountain.

With all those activities, I didn’t get to smoke many cigars. The ones I did smoke, I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to specific flavors etc… I was more enjoying the whole experience of the cigar.Â So, my Cigar Views will be minimal this week.

Cigar Views

Tres Reynas Torpedo This was my first 3 Reynas and absolutely loved it. The draw was milkshake thick, great long tight ashes, awesome flavors. I bought this one and a robusto. I bet, here very soon will be kicking myself in the pants for not buying more than one of each. As soon as my wallet recoops from this trip, I think IÂ will round up some more.Â This is a great match-up between the Quesada and Garcia families. Its got the darker flavors of many Quesada cigars but not the pepper punch that the Garcias are famous for. I would really like to see a few more companies get together and do this more often.

AVO LE 10 I got a box of these in early 2011 and make it a thing to smoke one every year on my birthday and this year was no different.Â I didn’t get to savor this smoke on my birthday, butÂ two days afterwards in the hotel parking lot with a Samuel Smith Organic Chocolate Stout beer. Both the cigar and the beer were great, but not a good pairing. The cigar has not lost much, if any, of its power or flavor. It does seem to be a little more smoother, but over all a great cigar! One of my favorite AVO yearly Limited Edition Cigars.