My 500th post contest...

oldsoulrevival

So I was thinking about what I want to do for my 500th post that came up about a week ago. Instead of a bomb or pass, I am going to have a contest.

It's pretty simple: I am curious who has my favorite smoking ritual. Post a picture, or make a video that shows/demonstrates, or write a short story about, what makes smoking so great for you. It can be a perfect nights smoke, your every day routine, a fantasy smoke youve had come true, etc. After a week or two, I will choose my favorite and they will get a package. I'll also post my own take on the topic at the end, once I've picked a winner

I stole this idea from the cigarobsession review blog (always wondered if the guy is part of cigar.com) I love his generally nonbiased reviews of cigars, and I thought it was a great idea...so props to him.

Be creative, be whimsical, be original, enjoy your smoke, and good luck.

oldsoulrevival

Note: Please make sure to post responses in this thread, not in a PM. Thanks!

SleevePlz

I was actually already thinking of an idea to post to his contest. I, too, love his reviews. Very straightforward and informative. No focus on a numerical score.

bigharpoon

Bryan is a member of Ccom, he's kaelaria.

I don't have a ritual to my smoking, I'll have to drum up a fantasy ritual and post that. Congrats on 500!

Rhamlin

Hmm, First I spend about 15 minutes looking in my humi trying to decide which one to pick. Then what I want to drink with it be it soda, water, beer or scotch. Then I grab a book or magazine and my iPhone.( I play a stupid gangster game on it). Go out on the front porch lay out my gear spend a few minutes checking out my stick and smelling it before I finally cut it. Pick up my lighter and gently toast it and take me a good whiff or two then finally light it up. Sit backand slowly let those first couple draws ease out thru the nose. Then sit back and let my troubles melt away for an hour or two and just enjoy the evening or catch up on my reading. Pretty boring I know but it just fits.

Direwolf

congrats on passin the 500 dude

Imgembo

congrats on five hundered. My ritual consists of spending a few minutes picking my smoke. Usealy if i am deciding between one i have never had i pick three and look up reviews on each. I then decied my drink of choice. Water, whiskey or wine. Recently i have been on a whine kick so thats what i choose. I grab a bottle of my favorite econo wine ( five rivers merlot and or cab) take every thing out to the deck. depending on my schedule i take home home work or my lap top with me. If i plan on realy enjoying it i take nothing but my cutter and lighter and matches. chew on the cigar a bit, cut it toast the foot with a ligher a little and then fire it up with matches. Sit back and relax.

KingoftheCove

Smoking cigars, for me, is a special occasion, or "treat" so to speak, as I only smoke Friday evening, Saturdays and Sundays. During the week I decide on 3 to 5 cigars that will be torched over the weekend.
On Friday morning, my "weekend sticks" are removed from their various resting places, and moved to my small "smoking" humi, which is kept at a lower RH, sort of a mild "dry-box" if you will. The anticipation builds.
Below is a pic of me enjoying a one year old Brick House Churchill (quite a good cigar by the way) on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I was rewarding myself for conquering an intermittent electrical/starter problem on my vintage Dodge motorhome. After replacing the starter, re-doing all the wiring, hours of testing, crawling under, and out from under, the motorhome like 50+ times, I felt like I had been in a fight!
That Brick House was great, and a wonderful way to start relaxing for the rest of the day.

evenstill

I always have raw (unpasteurized & unhomogenized) whole milk with Perrier and some rum (something like Pecan Street Rum maybe).  Something else I do that is somewhat unusual is to cut the cigar in a double-V cut.  I don't seem to be able to post pictures so I'm going to email/PM one to you Richard and maybe you could post it up for me or something? If not, not worries . . . at least you'll get to see it. Anyway, good luck everybody. :-) ~ evenstill

oldsoulrevival

evenstill:

I always have raw (unpasteurized & unhomogenized) whole milk with Perrier and some rum (something like Pecan Street Rum maybe).  Something else I do that is somewhat unusual is to cut the cigar in a double-V cut.  I don't seem to be able to post pictures so I'm going to email/PM one to you Richard and maybe you could post it up for me or something? If not, not worries . . . at least you'll get to see it. Anyway, good luck everybody. :-) ~ evenstill

I saw your picture post on cigarobsession. Very cool ... Although, I despise milk (it grosses me out lol). Can I ask, why do you drink milk? I wouldn't think tobacco and dairy go together too well (except maybe cheese).

oldsoulrevival

KingoftheCove:

Smoking cigars, for me, is a special occasion, or "treat" so to speak, as I only smoke Friday evening, Saturdays and Sundays. During the week I decide on 3 to 5 cigars that will be torched over the weekend.
On Friday morning, my "weekend sticks" are removed from their various resting places, and moved to my small "smoking" humi, which is kept at a lower RH, sort of a mild "dry-box" if you will. The anticipation builds.
Below is a pic of me enjoying a one year old Brick House Churchill (quite a good cigar by the way) on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I was rewarding myself for conquering an intermittent electrical/starter problem on my vintage Dodge motorhome. After replacing the starter, re-doing all the wiring, hours of testing, crawling under, and out from under, the motorhome like 50+ times, I felt like I had been in a fight!
That Brick House was great, and a wonderful way to start relaxing for the rest of the day.

Never thought of pulling some sticks out to a lower humidity. I actually like my sticks to be at a little lower RH, but in general I store all of them a little higher than I like. Cool idea!

oldsoulrevival

Imgembo:

congrats on five hundered. My ritual consists of spending a few minutes picking my smoke. Usealy if i am deciding between one i have never had i pick three and look up reviews on each. I then decied my drink of choice. Water, whiskey or wine. Recently i have been on a whine kick so thats what i choose. I grab a bottle of my favorite econo wine ( five rivers merlot and or cab) take every thing out to the deck. depending on my schedule i take home home work or my lap top with me. If i plan on realy enjoying it i take nothing but my cutter and lighter and matches. chew on the cigar a bit, cut it toast the foot with a ligher a little and then fire it up with matches. Sit back and relax.

Very similar routine to mine.

oldsoulrevival

Rhamlin:

Hmm, First I spend about 15 minutes looking in my humi trying to decide which one to pick. Then what I want to drink with it be it soda, water, beer or scotch. Then I grab a book or magazine and my iPhone.( I play a stupid gangster game on it). Go out on the front porch lay out my gear spend a few minutes checking out my stick and smelling it before I finally cut it. Pick up my lighter and gently toast it and take me a good whiff or two then finally light it up. Sit backand slowly let those first couple draws ease out thru the nose. Then sit back and let my troubles melt away for an hour or two and just enjoy the evening or catch up on my reading. Pretty boring I know but it just fits.

Boring? Sounds like a great time to me. Of course, I enjoy my nights spent with friends and crazy focus on the cigar and analyzing it, but sometimes (most of the time), I just like to relax.

oldsoulrevival

Keep them coming... here is my usual/ideal routine

I usually make plans with my brother or best buddy to get together and smoke, drink, catch up, etc. We choose whose house to go to, and we make plans for dinner. Sometimes we will get Reubens (there are some great delis around us), but other times we will take the time to make a banging dinner (usually something Italian). We don't half ass it, either... we make the sauce, bring out some good dinner wine, make some fresh veggies, etc.

After dinner, we decided what we are drinking (beer, wine, or scotch... lately it's been a lot of wine), and then we choose what cigar we are having. If we have multiples, we try to smoke the same thing, but if not, we all choose something we think we'll enjoy. We start a fire outside, we make an effort to not use fire starters or anything -- we just built it from kindling, a match, twigs, and then logs. Once its going, we smell, look at, cut up, and fire up the cigars, and the next couple of hours just slide on by. We usually refill our drinks once or twice, and keep on adding logs to the fire. It's basically 3 or 4 hours spent with the best guys I know, admiring the cigar, talking about life, and figuring out the world.
After we smoke, we go in for some water and snacks -- usually really nice cheese and crackers. If hockey or something good is on, we will drink some more wine while we snack, and relax a while longer. It's simple, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Toombes

First of all, congrats on 500! I hope we can convince you to hang around for another 5,000.
My routine is pretty simple. After first getting an OK from SWMBO to waste an hour or so, I dig through the trunkidor until something catches my eye. After molesting the stick with my eyes and taking a good pre-light sniff, I clip it with my CC Perfect Cut and let it sit for a few minutes while I rummage through the fridge or cabinets for my drink of the evening. This will usually consist of water, tea, soda, Guiness or some other form of alcoholic libation. After setting up the lawn chair on the porch and emptying the flower pot I use for an ashtray it's time to light up and enjoy the evening, which is typically interrupted several times with screams of, "DADDY!" or "Honey, could you come here for a second?"...
Yeah, that's pretty much it.

evenstill

oldsoulrevival:

I saw your picture post on cigarobsession. Very cool ... Although, I despise milk (it grosses me out lol). Can I ask, why do you drink milk? I wouldn't think tobacco and dairy go together too well (except maybe cheese).

Thanks! I took the same photo during the day in sunlight and it turned out really nice but Bryan said I couldn't enter it because I just typed CigarObsession onto the picture instead of having some pertaining to CO actually IN the picture so I ran out and used the last of the daylight (sun had actually already set) to snap the one you saw. Not as nice of a picture but you get the routine. Actually the first one I entered was a photo collage showing all the separate elements of my routine and then showing them together but Bryan said no collages either. As for the milk, ever since I was a teenager my cousins, brother, most of my friends, and I always drank milk AFTER smoking cigars. It really seems to have a positive affect on the lingering flavor of the cigar and the lingering flavor makes the milk taste really great too. My cousins usually drink chocolate milk (which I like too) while I avoid the extra sugar and usually stick with whole milk (never skim). I actually read a scientific article once that talked about how the milk affects taste receptors and flavor when smoking and it was a positive thing although I can't seem to find the article now, otherwise I'd link to it for you. Anyway, milk seems to work really well to cleanse and refine my palate and bring out some nice flavors in the cigars when sipped SPARINGLY during smoking . . . maybe it has something to do with the fat molecules or something. Anyway, that's my experience. Maybe try some whole milk after smoking a cigar sometime and then another time some chocolate milk after smoking a cigar and see what you think. :-) Cheers, ~ evenstill

The Sniper

Congratulations on reaching 500, and here's to 500 more! :-)

aeon_spiral@yahoo.com

Toombes:

First of all, congrats on 500! I hope we can convince you to hang around for another 5,000.
My routine is pretty simple. After first getting an OK from SWMBO to waste an hour or so, I dig through the trunkidor until something catches my eye. After molesting the stick with my eyes and taking a good pre-light sniff, I clip it with my CC Perfect Cut and let it sit for a few minutes while I rummage through the fridge or cabinets for my drink of the evening. This will usually consist of water, tea, soda, Guiness or some other form of alcoholic libation. After setting up the lawn chair on the porch and emptying the flower pot I use for an ashtray it's time to light up and enjoy the evening, which is typically interrupted several times with screams of, "DADDY!" or "Honey, could you come here for a second?"...
Yeah, that's pretty much it.

almost exactlly my routine but add the interruption of Hey honey the dogs crawling under the fence again!!...smh

evenstill

Hey Richard, have you tried some milk (chocolate or otherwise) during or after a smoke yet? I'm interested to hear your own take on this cigar ritual topic . . . . . have you picked a winner? :-) ~ evenstill