The fine folks that brought us the Orange County Beer Festival last year were kind enough not to make us wait an entire year for a repeat. The event was both magnificent and munificent last year, and in my review I suggested that any self-respecting beer drinker west of the Mississippi should plan on attending OC Beer Fest 2010 at Irvine Lake.
Last year’s Beerfest was held on a very hot August 30, so I’m hoping the new date of May 15, 2010 (that’s a Saturday) will make the experience a little cooler. There will likely be around 50 breweries represented, all giving unlimited pours (four ounces at a time), so be sure to arrange for transportation so you don’t have to skip any of the samples. Last year they offered a $15 designated driver ticket price.
Admission is $40, and you can buy tickets here. If you wait until a little closer to the event date, you can probably pick up some discount tickets for $25. Just don’t wait too long, because it will probably sell out.
I have not yet persuaded the American Psychiatric Association to include this disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, better known as the DSM-IV, but I am pushing for inclusion of a disorder I have named Competitive Compassion Disorder, or CCD.
You see the classic example of CCD every time you go to a large shopping mall, especially around Christmas time. You are forced to park miles from the mall, while dozens of handicapped parking spaces near every entrance go unused. That many handicapped spots make no sense whatsoever, but long ago in some legislative session a conversation took place that went something like this:
“I am a compassionate person who cares about the handicapped, and I therefore propose that we pass a law that reserves a parking spot close to the entrance so they will not need to travel so far in their wheelchairs.”
“I too am compassionate, but more so than you. I propose that we force businesses to reserve two handicapped spots near the entrance.”
“Your suggestions are sound, gentle persons, but you do not have the level of compassion that I possess, or you would see that a mere two parking spots is not nearly sufficient. I propose that every business be forced to set aside five percent of the available parking spaces for the wheelchair bound.”
“Your compassion is impressive indeed, kind sir, but if you possessed my much higher level of compassion you would understand that handicapped persons are not limited to those in wheelchairs. I propose that doctors be permitted to declare that anyone is handicapped, and that ten percent of all spaces should be reserved for their use, and that anyone that uses such a spot who is not handicapped, should be assessed a large fine.”
And so it went.
CCD was in full effect last year when Congress decided that the Food and Drug Administration would regulate tobacco products. In passing the new law, Congress added many CCD provisions, including a regulation that made it illegal for tobacco companies to use any color or graphics in their advertising. You see, Joe Camel was voluntarily discarded years ago since it was decided a cool camel in a leather jacket would encourage young boys to smoke. But the legislators are more compassionate than that, and decided that any pictures or color might have the same effect. U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley in Kentucky ruled late Monday that those marketing restrictions violate the tobacco companies’ free speech rights.
In a fun twist, now that the FDA is regulating cigarettes, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. had also argued that it must be permitted to say that its cigarettes are “FDA Approved.” The FDA screamed, but Judge McKinley ruled the FDA must let companies say it has approved their products. Congress; can you say “hoisted on your own petard?”
Thankfully, when thumbing through a copy of Cigar Aficionado, we will still be able to see the beautiful cigars in the ads, and will not be limited to black and white text.
Great minds think alike. Back in June, I wrote of the perfect convergence of beer and smoke when I teamed an Out of Bounds Stout, by Avery Brewing, with a God of Fire Robusto by Don Carlos. I rated the Out of Bounds Stout a 9.6 on The Morris Scale — the highest ranking ever for a stout. I declared it my new favorite stout.
In the US Open Beer Championship, as reported on BeerInfo.com, the Out of Bounds Stout ranked number one out of all the stouts tasted. Here is the complete list of the top ten stouts (but what happened to number 4?):
1. Out of Bounds Stout, Avery Brewing – Colorado
2. August Schell Stout, August Schell Brewing – Minnesota
3. Milk of Amnesia, Maui Brewing – Hawaii
5. Sweetwater Happy Ending, Sweetwater Brewing – Georgia
6. Pikes Stout, Pikes Place Brewing – Washington
7. Zonkers Stout, Snake River Brewing – Wyoming
8. Obsidian Stout, Deschutes Brewing – Oregon
9. Sierra Nevada Stout, Sierra Nevada Brewing – California
10. Shakespeare Stout, Rogue Ales – Oregon
A Cuban government-owned tobacco company won its 12-year legal battle to stop a U.S. cigar producer from using the Cohiba name and trademark in the United States. A federal judge in Manhattan once again backed up Cubatabaco, which accused General Cigar of “exploiting the reputation and goodwill of the Cuban Cohiba.”
Cohibas are among the world’s most famous and sought-after cigars, and were originally produced exclusively for Fidel Castro.
U.S. District Judge Robert W. Sweet barred General Cigar from using the Cohiba name in the United States, but allowed it to keep using the name on its Dominican-made cigars, pending appeal. Judge Sweet said his most recent opinion was “nearly identical” to his previous finding that General Cigar Holdings had tried “to plagiarize the mark” and engaged in “intentional copying.”
Cuba had to work for this victory. The judge’s original decision was reversed by the 2nd Circuit, which dismissed the federal claims, saying the embargo between the two countries barred the Cuban company from acquiring property in the United States, including trademarks. The U.S. Supreme Court then declined to hear the case.
But when New York’s highest court clarified its position on what constituted unfair competition, Cubatabaco’s state law case was back on. The New York Court of Appeals found that “bad faith” wasn’t necessary to prove unfair competition by appropriation, only that “deliberate copying” had taken place. Cubatabaco argued that on the cusp of the 1992 cigar boom, General Cigar selected the “Cohiba” name for a new line of premium cigars “in order to exploit the reputation and goodwill of the Cuban Cohiba,” according to the ruling.
Judge Sweet agreed, and said the U.S. company’s choice was “in part to capitalize on the success of the Cuban Cohiba brand and especially the good ratings and notoriety that it had received in Cigar Aficionado,” a magazine for cigar enthusiasts. The debut issue of the magazine proclaimed Cohibas to be Cuba’s finest cigars, in an article called “The Legend of Cohiba.” Cubatabaco further claimed that the Cohiba name was protected under the Lanham Act by the “well-known marks” doctrine, even though the company held no U.S. trademarks.
Judge Sweet agreed that this was the case, but said Cubatabaco’s challenge of the Cuban Asset Control Regulations was obsolete after the state court’s ruling. ”The New York Court of Appeals held that plaintiff could be entitled to relief against use of its foreign mark if it could establish deliberate copying and secondary meaning, even though the plaintiff had no U.S. trademark rights,” Sweet wrote. ”For certain kinds of cases … goodwill can, and does, cross state and national boundary lines.”
Enjoying a great night with some friends at the Winery at The District in Tustin.
The Winery has a great cigar-friendly patio with Monday night football on the big screen. With my Glenmorangie Scotch I enjoyed an Alec Bradley Harvest Selection 1997 and a CAO America.
Typing on my iPhone so I’ll keep it short. Both very good cigars, but not great. A little mild for my taste. Although I have to say, the CAO is growing on me the more I smoke it.
Here are other more detailed reviews of the Alec Bradley and CAO America. And check out the 2007 YouTube video introducing the CAO America. I had no idea it was as American as baseball and apple pie.
Trying a new app on iPhone that’s supposed to post to my blog. We’ll see how this goes.
I’m at the 8Eightyeight Lounge in Fullerton. Frankie the manager talked me to a Gurkha Evil, but he’s going to owe me one for this travesty. Harsh just turned into slightly less harsh, and it won’t stay lit worth a damn. It’s evil all right, but not in a good way. A 6.0 on The Morris Scale.
Go here for an extensive review of the Gurkha Evil (this reviewer liked it a whole lot more than I did).
Thinking of going to one of the Big Smoke events sponsored by Cigar Aficionado? A few days ago I attended The Big Smoke in Las Vegas, and here are my impressions. I attended only the night portion of the event, not the day seminars or whatever it is they do, so keep that in mind. That portion could be much better organized than what I experienced, but let me walk you through the experience of the evening function.
I arrived about 15 minutes after the hall opened, which I later discovered was a good idea. Most waited in line with a thousand others as their tickets were taken, but there is no advantage to going through that process. So, first tip, arrive late.
When you enter, you are given the usual trade show bag for all the cigars and other goodies you will be receiving, along with a ticket book. You then go to each of the 25 or so booths in the hall and present your ticket for a cigar. Other booths are for booze, cigar accessories and the like, and usually offer a sample. (If you click on the picture below, and zoom in on the map, you can see all the vendors that were present.) Inexplicably, the number of the coupon was not posted on most of the booths, so as each person approached with his book, he’d have to ask which coupon he needed, and then dig for it. Thankfully most of the booths quickly spotted the problem and put up impromptu signs displaying the coupon number. Some of the smarter attendees split up the coupons among their group, with one person taking all the number one to five coupons to those booths, another taking six to ten, etc.
This treasure hunt is unnecessary and should be eliminated. In theory, the point is to force you to go to each booth to collect your cigar, where you can then meet the company representative and hear their spiel or ask them questions. In practice, that doesn’t happen. Instead, lines form at every booth and taking the time to talk about the cigar would be rude to all the people behind you. I had my cigar angel with me, so she received cigars and marriage proposals with none of the line nonsense, but most were not so lucky.
Making matters worse, people like Rocky Patel very nicely make themselves available for pictures, but no differentiation was made between the photo line and the cigar line. I did a quick poll of the people waiting in the hour-long Rocky Patel line, and with no slight to the star power of Rocky, most just wanted their cigar. If you knew how to work the system, you could get your cigar and be on your way, but the people in line didn’t know that. Strangely, while everyone else was waiting an hour in line to be photographed with Tom Ozgener, the President of CAO, my cigar angel somehow had me up front, shaking his hand and smiling for the camera in two minutes flat. I guess what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Tip two: Bring your own cigar angel. Everyone bends over backwards to help an angel.
Here’s the way it should work (take note Cigar Aficionado). You enter the hall and are handed a bag already filled with all the sample cigars. You then take a leisurely stroll around the hall, talking to any cigar representatives you choose. You could meet the representatives and discuss the cigars, without delaying anyone. I’m sure the counter-argument from the cigar vendors will be that with the coupon system, people are getting only the cigars they want, so none are “wasted”, but if you are so unsure of your product that you don’t want to include it in a bag that is being handed to die-hard cigar fans, you have issues.
The event is three hours long, and I estimate it would take an hour to an hour and a half to hit all the booths and collect your cigars with no assistance. After that amount of time, with their cigars in hand, people starting drifting from the hall and it became less crowded. I didn’t stay to the bitter end, but I imagine if you did so, you would then have a better ability to visit the booths in a more leisurely manner. Tip three: After arriving late, stay late. The YouTube video above was apparently shot late in the show, because there is no line at the Oliva booth.
I made the mistake of eating not long before the event, thinking that the food would be limited to small samples at the end of long lines. That was not true. Food, good but not great, was provided buffet style, and there were a number of food stations with free samples from local restaurants (most or all of them at the Venetian/Pallazo). Tip four: Be hungry. There was also no shortage of free drinks, with a number of distilleries offering samples.
Bottom line? Am I glad I went to The Big Smoke? Yes, for the experience. Would I do it again? No, not unless I read that they have changed the system in the way I’ve suggested. But to me, the experience was more than what went on at the Big Smoke. Rather, Las Vegas becomes a cigar town and you see your cigar-smoking brethren everywhere. The two cigar lounges I visited – Casa Fuente at the Forum Shops at Caesars and Rhumbar at the Mirage next door – were packed with other cigar afficionados. (I’ll review these places later.) I didn’t want to risk taking a lighter on the flight to Vegas, so once there I stepped into a Davidoff shop at the Pallazo and found Tim Ozgener holding an impromptu cigar seminar. I bought a shirt at Tommy Bahama’s and received a free commemorative Big Smoke ashtray. I had a great weekend in Vegas, and may well return when the Big Smoke is in town just for the cigar friendly transformation, but I’ll skip the event and spend the $240 on cigars of my own choosing.
I picked up a cigar made by Maker’s Mark in celebration of their 10th anniversary. I didn’t know Maker’s Mark made cigars, and since their bourbon has been around since 1933, I don’t know what 10th anniversary they are celebrating (even their website offers no clue). But they make a fine bourbon, so I bought the cigar on faith.
The toro (6″ x 50) comes in a glass tube, sealed with the trademark Maker’s Mark wax, but in silver instead of red, to mark the 10th anniversary (of making cigars, perhaps?). The binder and filler are from the Dominican Republic, with a Connecticut wrapper. They don’t use the words “infused” or “flavored,” rather they state the cigar is “aromatically seasoned” with Maker’s Mark bourbon.
This randomly selected cigar turned out to be a very pleasant smoke. Very creamy taste, with a perfect burn and construction. I found only middling reviews of the other “non-anniversary” Maker’s Mark cigars, but they must have stepped up their game for this addition, because this was nice. Sadly, cigar snobs will be put off at the notion that this is a “flavored” cigar, and as a result will miss a real treat. Most of us enjoy a cigar with some complexity, and seek to identify the subtle flavors of spice, chocolate, leather, etc. So it is with this medium-bodied cigar, with not so much a taste of bourbon, as a mellowing presence of bourbon. Do an end-run around your cigar ego if necessary and try one of these surprisingly good cigars. An 8.9 on The Morris Scale.
A friend once told me that fake Cuban cigars are so rampant, that even when he travels to Havana, most of the Cuban cigars he is offered in the streets are fakes (real Cuban cigars most likely, but with fake labels.) When you get alleged Cubans on-line or when your favorite cigar store sells you one from their secret stash (not that that would ever happen), there’s a very good chance you are getting an impostor.
As proof, a South Florida multi-million dollar phony cigar operation went up in smoke this week when it was raided by law enforcement officials after a five-month investigation. At least one man was arrested and another taken into custody after the raid on two Hialeah warehouses that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said were some of the biggest counterfeit cigar operations in the country.
Among the items confiscated were fake cigar boxes, made so well they look better than the original in some cases, a pallet full of phony cigar labels, and a half-million dollar printer used to make the labels and cigar tubes. Indeed, some of the “counterfeit” labels were not counterfeits at all, but were labels from the actual factory; probably stolen according to law enforcement. In other words, short of a DNA test on the tobacco, there is really no way to know if that Cuban you are smoking is from the real maker.
Two cigar smokers have taken their love for cigars and turned it into a business. The relatives just released the Cigar Stub, an accessory that lets you smoke your stogie till the very end without getting your fingers burned. The Cigar Stub is manufucatured in Miami and is made out of aluminum and stainless steel. It retails for $39 and is available in three colors: silver, black and gunmetal. Find it at the www.thecigarstub.com. Everything old is new again.
