I had a good day today. When I went out to take my morning walk, there was a lovely young adult black rat snake sitting by my doorstep. I was quite delighted and decided to invite him (it turned out to be a male) to be a necklace accessory for awhile. It generally takes a few minutes of gentle persuasion to convince a completely wild snake to relax for handling or picture taking, but it's a much quicker job barehanded with rat snakes than with specimens that require sterner safety measures. I'm glad he's living here, and I'll be knocking on my neighbor's doors to warn them off of hurting him. Though given that this one was a male, it's hard to say where is actual home territory may be. Hopefully it's right here, as it would be nice to visit with him again.

The rest of the stroll was also productive in a good way, with a shirt full of mulberries and some wild onion greens to eat with freshly home baked black bread for breakfast. A day that started as pleasantly as this one had to be topped off by a good cigar, so this evening I fired up the Tatuaje I brought home from Empire the other day. Accompanying the smoke was some fresh roasted Sumatra Mandheling, ice water and "Sailor Jerry" spiced rum. Of these drinks, only the coffee was a good match.

The opening notes were of new wood and fresh leather, with some subtle coffee undertones. There was nothing subtle about the cigar as a whole, however. It was rough and raw, with a harsh ashy bite. The burn was uneven, with the outside burning more easily than the tight core. There were periodic tantalizing hints of espresso, leather and wood, but they were largely overpowered by the overall roughness and out-of-balance harshness of this stick. It finished with some disappointingly sour notes.

I tasted far more potential here than immediately enjoyable smokability. To be fair, there is considerable potential. There is substantial raw power in this stick, and I wouldn't mind sitting on some of these for a few years to see how they mature.
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I agree with you on this. I think some rest will do these good. Not sure if years are going to help but a month or two may smooth things out on this one.. Nice review.
Now going to look up what a black rat snake looks like:-)
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This stick tasted *fresh*. As in, way too fresh. Maybe it's just my palate, but I don't think they're ready to smoke and enjoy at this stage at all, and it's like committing infanticide to do them in that early.

I may see about resting one for a few months, but if I was going to lay some of these down, my inclination would be to go at least a year, and for my personal palate, more like three to five years. I think this stick could stand up to that.


My camera gear is in ghod-knows-which-box since I just moved. I did take a few crappy cell phone pics after I'd gotten him gentled down enough for my non-herpetological-expert boyfriend to hold, because he was just too cute. For those of you who freak out about snakes, a successful "snake whispering" takes about five minutes on average, and then most of them are fine with gentle handling and being posed for photos. Maybe ten or fifteen minutes if the snake is venomous; the hook and tail method takes longer. Google "elaphe obsoleta" and you'll see the lovely visitor who graced us with his presence.
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