September is now over and the days are starting to cool off nicely, so hopefully we'll see more outdoor cigar events in the making. One of the highlights of September was the CAO Cigar Tasting Event at Metropolitan Cigars in Ybor City, sponsored by Cigar City magazine, where we not only got to partake of CAO Gold cigars, but also enjoyed an excellent sampling of classic Cuban cuisine accompanied by refreshing Presidente beers, as well as the presence of the Caliente girls sizzling things up. Plenty of seating in the breezeway and two tents with dominoes tables provided ample space to sit back and relax, enjoying our cigars. Among the plethora of events we managed to catch in September, this was the one I enjoyed the most.

 

On my last trip to Tarpon Springs I found a delightful cigar shop at 25 Dodecanese Blvd. and decided to stop by for a cup of Cuban coffee and a nice cigar. The shop is the home of "Serafin De Cuba" cigars, and they hand roll their own cigars on location. We stayed there for over an hour chatting with Don Ramon Serafin Jr. about cigars and about Cuba. His son Arnaldo wasn't there that day, but I did get to talk to him on the phone and will be back soon to meet him in person and blow some smoke. Next time you're in the area stop by and say hi to the Serafins, you'll be glad you did!

After a night of hobnobbing with famous cigar makers and well known sales reps, saying hello to old friends and acquaintances and meeting new ones, I headed back home, thankfully driven by my fiancé, as the plethora of samplings of wines and spirits enjoyed through the night had taken its toll.

The next day I looked back on the experience and wondered, was it worth it? And for that, I don’t mean to qualify the monetary value since we were there to show our support for the cause of freedom to smoke our cigars and say no to the oppressive Pleasure Police that continuously tightens the knot from one state to the next, and hopefully our money will go to support that cause, not to pay for the party expenses.

But I can’t help but compare it to last year’s Thompson’s event. Both events were plagued by similar limitations:  neither one planned effectively for the rain; likewise, they both suffered of space limitations and poor ventilation. In both cases the heat was quite present, although Thompson’s was by far the worst heat wise. In both cases, these aggravations could have been alleviated with a little forward thinking but neither one manage to accomplish that.

As a reminder of what we were fighting for, we were only allowed to smoke outside the penthouse club area, where most of the covered area was already taking by the musical entertainment and liquor sampling tables, so it was either get wet or forget about smoking. Fortunately, in between raining intervals I managed to smoke one cigar (a Perdomo). Mercifully, the rain was light and not soaking.

Another faux pas of the event organizers was not to provide loudspeakers on the outside area where most of the people smoking were hanging out. Obviously all 350+ guests couldn’t fit on the inside so we could only hear bits and pieces of what was going on in there. If there were any rousing speeches or calls to arms to defend our smoking rights, I must have missed them. Still, I enjoyed myself and my one regret is that it did turned out into the rally I was hoping for to get us all in the fighting spirit. Let’s hope our contribution will count and the Cigar Rights of America will put our money to good use defending our freedom instead.

Keep On Smokin’ In The Free World!