Some things in life should never be rushed.
A good wine needs time to mature. Whisky proudly displays the years it has spent in barrel. What about a fine cigar? It may take years to grow, ferment, age and finally reach the moment for which it was made. And the time spent quietly smoking it gives us that special relaxing pleasure we all like so much.
In a world obsessed with speed, this isn’t a small virtue.
Perhaps that is why I enjoy this so much. A world of taste where one takes time: to talk, to listen, to judge and finally maybe to disagree, perhaps, but still enjoying a shared pleasure together.
As a physician, I have spent much of my professional life observing how precious balance can be. As a lover of life, I have learned that balance cannot mean removing every pleasure from it. Quite the opposite. It means knowing when to slow down, sometimes just to sit back and enjoy.
Our cigar world is not without challenges. Regulation becomes stricter, traditions are questioned and, at times, common sense seems to lose ground to prohibition. Yet cigar culture continues to bring people together. Starting with the team of enthusiasts that tasted, reported and made it possible to present these pages to you.
This may be only the second international edition of AromaG, but the magazine itself is far from new. For fourteen years, AromaG has been published in Dutch and French, gradually earning its place within the cigar world. This edition is therefore not a new beginning, but a new chapter in a story written with passion over many years.
Its pages are once again filled with people who understand the value of time: growers, rollers, blenders, manufacturers and aficionados devoted to something that cannot be hurried.
Pair this magazine with a cigar and your reading will come alive.
Then pour yourself something worthwhile, light your cigar and take your time with this new edition of AromaG.
Some pleasures are simply better when they last.
