Name: Buffalo Ten Natural Toro

Country: Dominican Republic

Shape: Box-Pressed

Size: Toro (6 inches x 50)

Strength: Medium

This isn’t the cigar you want to light on your birthday, but it’s a cigar worth smoking. Great value for its price. I’d pair with with all sorts of coffee drinks, spirits, and beer. The Buffalo Ten Natural Toro is an everyday cigar.

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Branding: I like the name Buffalo Ten. It sounds like an affordable cigar one would smoke with a strong drink, and it is.

Construction: Can be better, but it’s good compared to the price you’re paying for a stick.

Pre-light: Nothing special.

Cut: Straight cut.

Burn: Even burn.

Duration: 90 minutes. I took my time with it.

Draw: Good.

Smoke: It produced a decent amount of smoke.

Ash: Okay.

Flavor: Woody, earthy, with hints of black pepper.

Name: Cimarron Maduro Doble Toro

Country: Dominican Republic

Shape: Parejo

Size: Double Toro (6 inches x 60)

Strength: Medium to Full

An affordable cigar. It’s a good smoke to burn on a casual night out. I paired it with Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition, and there was nothing to complain about.

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Branding: Basic. Nothing appealing or inviting. I just picked it up because I wanted to try something new.

Construction: Good. It held well until the last draw.

Pre-light: Cocoa and capsicum.

Cut: Straight cut, as almost always.

Burn: I liked the burn. Even. Not too slow, not too fast.

Duration: 120 minutes.

Draw: Good.

Smoke: It produced a good amount of smoke.

Ash: Good.

Flavor: Notes of toast, chocolate, earth, and cinnamon.

Name: La Flor Dominicana La Nox

Country: Dominican Republic

Shape: Parejo

Size: (6 1/2 inches x 50)

Strength: Medium

In The Sickness unto Death, Kierkegaard says, “The biggest danger, that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. is bound to be noticed.”

And I’m afraid of that — of losing myself —
because I want to live my life to the fullest.
I want to actualize my potential
to finally become myself.
I want to be myself every day.

Some people live their lives without noticing that they are not there anymore, that they are no longer themselves. They live on autopilot mode and (unconsciously) give up thinking altogether. No more introspection… no more contemplation… no more aspiration… They live without living, without thinking, without being.

And I’m afraid of that
because I only get to live once,
and I don’t want to lose myself.
I don’t want to lose myself.

And that’s one of the reasons I smoke cigars.
Cigars make me think.
They enable introspection, contemplation, and more,
much, much more.