Morsel Monday: A Sensuous Cigar Lesson

"A good Cuban cigar closes the door to the vulgarities of the world." Franz Liszt

Sunday evening inspired this Morsel Monday post.
First I will tell you a little about one of the most expensive cigars on the market and then the inspiration behind this post, enjoy!
The Gurkha Black Dragon, weighing in at $115,000 per chest or $1,150 per cigar, with only five hand-carved camel bone boxes of 100 to ever be produced, is one of the most expensive on the market to date.
A Honduran blend made from select fibers, it creates a rich cigar with a medium body, with a blend that includes extremely old and rare tobaccos collected from all over the world. To make it more accessible, a new version was released throughout the world in 2007.
The new blend contains similar flavor and uses similar tobaccos but does not cost nearly as much as its predecessor.
The new Black Dragon comes packaged in very attractive boxes, so they look almost as good as they taste.
Now, the inspiration for the MM post.
So, it is Sunday evening and Jonathan (my boyfriend I acquired quite by accident) and I are awaiting the lovely 60s vibe we enjoy each Sunday via Madmen.
I am in the kitchen retrieving Gougères from the oven (I can actually cook, can you believe it?) whilst Jonathan is relaxing on the sofa, arm stretched over the nape a la Don Draper, (I fear he gets too into the whole coolness role) when I hear the theme music from MM which I adore. I hurriedly make my way to the family room and take my seat.
When the first commercial comes into view, Jonathan pulls out a cigar and I watch like a schoolgirl with a crush as he step by step conducts a romantic ballet if you will, of lighting this cigar, something I had never paid attention to before.
As he took the cigar cutter and snipped the end, "just below the end of the cap" he said, he turned the cigar at about a 45 degree angle and he began the process of "pre-heating" the foot (foot, who knew?) of the cigar until it blackened a bit, rotating it just above the flame.
He then removed the label, placed the cigar in his mouth and began rotation whilst lighting the end until it became a cherry red in color.
He claims you check to make sure it is evenly lit and he did this by lightly blowing on the end of the cigar.
The whole time this is occurring I am internally telling myself, "This is just your boyfriend lighting a cigar, calm yourself!"
But for some reason it was rather..sensuous in nature.
Maybe it was the fluidity in which he did it, there was no hesitation and it looked as if it were Vivaldi's Autumn II, had it been in three dimensional form, a beautiful succession of elegant stokes and graceful movements.

Please do not misunderstand me, Jonathan is a lovely person, intelligent, an investment banker--he is an accomplished gentleman of many talents so I would never belittle those attributes but there was something about him lighting this cigar that held my attention, to the point the rest of the evening (after Madmen of course) was spent tucked safely underneath his arm while I listened to him drawing puffs from his Cohiba, crisp and crackling sounds consuming the foot of the cigar, while it released an elegant and fragrant presentation that wafted through the air whilst Vivaldi entertained in the semi-darkened room, lit only by a singular candle and the slight glow of this burning cigar.
It had been a simple yet gratifying evening..my favorite show (aside from Pretty Little Liars--do not ask me why), delectable hors 'd oeuvrves and a tutorial in lighting a cigar..compliments of my very own Madman!
So there you have it, the inspiration for MM.
We are supposed to go sailing with friends in a few weeks, I wonder how I will contain myself should he assist in raising the mast?
Cheers all!