I want to rip my tongue out. Wash my mouth out with perfume and baking soda. Scrape it with sandpaper, because rinsing and brushing with baking soda alone barely helped. The odor and taste in my mouth seeping into my nostrils and lungs is wretching. Why oh why, did I do this to myself?
It is three in the morning and I am awake. Sleep should return. Instead, I lay there barely moving trying to not think about my oral cavities. Eating a two-day old dead shark would be better than this.
A thought creeps into my mind. An idea for a story. Now I have to get up and write before the ideas are forgotten.
Last evening's after dinner cocktail hour was a delightful experience. The cruise ship's bartender was attentive, offering and suggesting a variety of new cocktails of his own mixtures and tinctures. The elderly gentleman sitting to my left at the bar was smoking a cuban cigar exuding a pleasant and sensuous leather, spice, and leafy fragrance. We spent unclocked time to discuss our travels, and described our favorite cruise ships. The conversation turned to cigars as I recalled having smoked cigarillos in my early 20s and a short stint with chewing tobacco.
I was enticed to try a smoke again. The bartender offered a selection of thin cigars with a pairing of Madeira.
The combined flavors were...O-a-h-h! Soothing, delightful, creamy, sensuous. It was everything connecting my presence, body and soul with a soft flight, unearthly light feeling floating on cloud 9.
The evening was so enjoyable, before I realized the hours gone by, we ended the evening around one in the morning.
I should have left the last third of the smoke extinguish peacefully in the ashtray.
Recently I have learned that lower quality smokes will usually result in the bad after taste that I experienced. But to be safe, after smoking a cigar one should cleanse the palate with citrus, especially lemon to soften and reduce or elliminate any objectionable odors.
With that caveat the experience of pairing cigar and Madeira is worth a second try.