I’m flipping through the latest copy of the Cigars International catalog this morning, and I found a surprisingly honest review for Fat Cat cigars.

Remember this brand from the boom? At that time with the severe shortages, cigar smokers would resort to just about any cigar available on the shelf. Even despite those circumstances, it’s still amazing anyone actually bought a cigar with a name like this. Worse yet, the cigar itself was marginal – acrid tasting with a foul aroma and unappealing wrappers. No surprise then that a closeout just came my way. I guess it beats a machine-made… if only barely.

BTW, the “boom” refers to the big cigar boom from about 1992 to 1997. I started smoking them in 1995, but stuck with them even after the “boom” was over, much to my wallet’s relief.