We celebrated a staff member's birthday recently, and that ignites an annual debate about which rare cigar is worthy of the occasion. Our current collection of hard-to-find smokes made the discussion very heated, but in the end, there was really only one answer: the Arturo Fuente Big Bad Mother #&@%*$ (BBMF).

Carlos Fuente, Jr. (his friends call him “Carlito”) has the enviable job of asking his rollers to make cigars in any shape that strikes his fancy. He has had cigars made in the shape of a football (reportedly for Dan Marino) and a baseball bat. The BBMF is an odd combination: salamone shape with a "mop-top" head and a perfecto foot.

The BBMF is rare, but it's not impossible to find. We picked up our first batch at the Casa Fuente store in Las Vegas, and then picked up more from retailers whenever we found them. It is only slightly more obtainable than some of the other Carlito inventions like "The Hummer", "Brain Hemmhorage", and "Chili Pepper".

The lucky BBMF birthday smoke was a little over 6" long with a ring gauge of 64 at the widest point. Not only was it an incredibly enjoyable smoke, it lasted over 2 hours. When you consider the cost per hour, it actually wasn't that expensive ;-)

Now we scour the planet for next year's birthday cigar...