The Original Key West Cigar Factory House Special

[Ringo]

I lived in the Florida Keys for a couple of years and in Miami for many more; I used to pick up a couple of these whenever I went to Key West. While I can't say that I ever got an unsmokable one, they were never much better than average. There is something fun about buying cigars directly from a roller, which is why I would buy them, but you can have aging issues. They might just roll them and put them out for sale because most people who are not knowledgable cigar smokers probably think that's really cool and great - fresh cigars! I have smoked freshly rolled cigars before, just to see what they are like. And they are not always bad, sometimes I enjoy it for change of pace. It's one of those things that you should not put down out of hand if you have not tried it. But as we all know, aging is the best way to get good cigars. Freshly rolled cigars are generally on the hot and harsh side and can have burn issues. Which describes your cigar to a t. Anyway I am not sure how many cigars they actually roll at the storefront in Key West, I think that most of them were contract rolled elsewhere. The last time that I was there I got the feeling that nobody working at the shop knew much about cigars, but that was in 1999 so perhaps much has changed.

BTW - speaking of effeminate guys running stores in Key West, which should not be much of a surprise, there is a great hot sauce store near where the cigar store is. If I recall correctly it is across the street and to the left of the cigar store, if you are in the cigar store looking out. It is inside a larger building with several small shops in it, at least it was in 1999. You go into that building and it's just about the last shop on the right side. They have a huge selection of hot sauces and you can taste whatever you want. The guys that ran the place then were effeminate, but they were very helpful as far as helping to figure out exactly which sauces you would like and they didn't rush you or try to sell you on anything. Which I always appreciate as a consumer. As an example to salespeople everywhere - I ended up buying MORE than I intended to, about double actually, because of their sincere and well thought out advice and recommendations.