A first for me. A reader sent me a few cigars including this 1901 Capitolio. He bought a sealed box of 50. He said he has smoked half of them.
Not sure what I’m supposed to do with it as it is damn near petrified. He shipped it in a sandwich bag with a wet paper towel inside.
Still, quite something to hold a cigar in your hand that someone rolled 119 years ago.
Here’s the thing…the guy told me that he can reconstitute the cigars with two months time spent in a bag with a wet towel. This is his photo below. But honestly, after 119 years, who knows what the cigars have been subject to. I don’t believe I would take the chance of my lungs inhaling something toxic or downright nasty.
Some perspective…the cigar hit the store shelves the same year President William McKinley was assassinated and Teddy Roosevelt became president.
Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS
Cigar Reviews by Phil 'Katman' Kohn 
It was awfully kind of this gentleman to send you this stick, but I would not tempt fate and ever put my lips to the end of that fascinating relic. Not after everything you’ve been through and are still walking through. I’m surprised the cigar did not explode on its trip through the mail. Guess they made them tough way back when. Kinda like you. Get well Katman.
The cigar band is also from 1901?
Nice piece of work for those times…
Hope your recovery continues! If I was reconstituting a dried cigar, I’d do it at the intended humidity. No reason to overshoot.
Hell I’ll smoke it lmao.can’t be any worse then the 6×60 torano I smoked last week!
What a thoughtful gift–a cigar rolled the year you were born…
I did a quick search, and Capitolio is (not surprisingly) the Capitol building in Havana. Also learned that a decade or so later the cigar factory doing business in the shadow of the the Capitolio, and offering a Capitolio cigar was something called Romeo y Julieta.
Whar you have there might well be a pre- RyJ RyJ.
Anyone know more?
Now that’s funny…and informative too.