{"id":2534,"date":"2026-09-15T10:08:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T14:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/?p=2534"},"modified":"2026-09-15T10:08:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T14:08:48","slug":"a-final-cigar-before-i-hit-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/a-final-cigar-before-i-hit-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"A Final Cigar Before I Hit The Road!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-2369\" src=\"https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/HRC-1030x687.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"618\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/HRC-1030x687.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/HRC-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/HRC-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/HRC.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I hadn\u2019t planned on writing anything this week, but I just smoked a really wonderful cigar. It was called an Optimate, but don\u2019t confuse it with the machine-made short filler Optimo brand that you see in supermarkets or drugs stores\u2026 this was a real quality cigar.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-2535\" src=\"https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image1-091526-1030x787.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"618\" height=\"472\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image1-091526-1030x787.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image1-091526-300x229.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image1-091526-768x587.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image1-091526.jpg 1430w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I looked up the company that made them and they were in business in Syracuse, New York over a hundred years ago, but thanks to Boveda and the fact that I forgot I had this box of cigars for maybe forty years, they are in absolutely perfect shape and smoked like a dream with a perfect burn. You couldn\u2019t tell that cigar wasn\u2019t made yesterday. Here\u2026 take a look at it:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-2536\" src=\"https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image2-091526-1030x964.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"618\" height=\"578\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image2-091526-1030x964.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image2-091526-300x281.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image2-091526-768x719.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image2-091526.jpg 1430w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I get a little sad every time I smoke one of these old-time brands from my cigar museum because I know they\u2019re irreplaceable. Does this mean that someday I will actually have to go into a cigar store and buy cigars??<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>My memory ain\u2019t what it used to be, but I seem to remember that the only time I actually bought a box of cigars in the United States was maybe 8 or 10 years ago when I was going to play a round of golf at my friend Larry Laoretti\u2019s golf course and I had forgotten to have some sent from the factory, so I stopped in a store in Palm Beach and bought a box of, of\u2026 maybe it was a Gurkha? Well, whatever.<\/p>\n<p>For those of you who don\u2019t recognize Laoretti\u2019s name, Larry beat Nicklaus in the Senior U.S. Open coming down the 18<sup>th<\/sup> fairway with a giant cigar stuck in his face! Yeah\u2026 it was a long time ago, but you can still see it live on YouTube. Just ask Claude (the A.I. thing) and it\u2019ll zip you right over to the finishing hole. This AI stuff is incredible. You could ask it anything and it knows! And not only does it know, it knows almost instantly. It\u2019s freakin\u2019 scary! So scary that I actually pay all my income tax without trying any funny business. So scary that I\u2019m afraid to type how incredibly disgusted I am with the politics in our nation because the bad guys could be watching. Oops\u2026. I guess I just typed it!<\/p>\n<p>F%CK It, I\u2019m heading to Kansas where the only thing anyone is interested in is the weather!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I hadn\u2019t planned on writing anything this week, but I just smoked a really wonderful cigar. It was called an Optimate, but don\u2019t confuse it with the machine-made short filler Optimo brand that you see in supermarkets or drugs stores\u2026 this was a real quality cigar. I looked up the company that made them and &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,160],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Final Cigar Before I Hit The Road! - Smoke Inn Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lew Rothman enjoys a perfectly preserved century-old Optimate cigar, reflects on irreplaceable smokes, old memories, AI, politics, and hitting the road.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smokeinn.com\/blog\/a-final-cigar-before-i-hit-the-road\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Final Cigar Before I Hit The Road! 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