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How/when/why did you start enjoying cigars.

nickiamnickiam Posts: 608 ✭✭
in General Discussion
Not sure if there has already been a thread like this, but i thought it would be interesting. I started a little over a year ago in Afghanistan. My buddy and i were bored (no more aircraft to TI) and he had a couple probably fake Cohibas he had got from the Norwegians. It was 100+ degrees and all we had was a bic lighter, but just taking the time to enjoy a little down time and ponder the craftsmanship and skill it takes to make them sold me.

These days i enjoy just about any cigar i can get my hands on. Its about taking the time to just slow down and just be.
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Comments

  • big chunksbig chunks Posts: 1,607 ✭
    My fascination started when I went to Cancun a few years ago and bought some CC from a la casa de habanos, enjoyed my first few cigars there with two of my best friends when I got home I was interested in cigars but didn't buy any until last January and haven't looked back since. A great way to relax and get lost in thoughts. Next up SCOTCH!!
  • 0patience0patience Posts: 10,665 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I enjoyed cigars years back just out of high school when I was single. We would have poker games at my place once a week and we'd all go down to the local newstand and buy cigars. Romeo y Julietas were the choice cigar for us young bucks, beings as there wasn't much else available.

    Years later, about 12 years ago, I was going to quit chewing tobacco and I thought cigars might curb the nicotine withdrawls. Ended up doing both. LOL!

    My wife considers my cigar breaks as my 1-2 hour vacation away from everything.
    In Fumo Pax
    Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.

    Wylaff said:
    Atmospheric pressure and crap.
  • jliujliu Posts: 7,735 ✭✭✭✭
    In China. yup.
  • SmokindaddySmokindaddy Posts: 1,107 ✭
    12 years ago, a buddy and I walked into a B&M just for fun. Thinking we were cool we bought a couple of baccarats, went back to my parents house, shoved towls under the door of my room, ordered WWF pay per view and lit up. We have come a hell of a long way since then LOL
  • RhamlinRhamlin Posts: 9,022 ✭✭✭✭✭
    In my early 20s I smoked Swishers. Didn't even know there was such a thing as premiums. Eventually grew out of them and never have them a thought again till just over a year ago when I was buying a bottle of scotch and got to thinking how cool it looks in the movies when the men would drink and smoke cigars. So I walked in their humi and picked out the darkest sticks they had and fell in love with the combo. Now I won't hardly have a scotch unless I gots me a cegar to go with it.
  • HaybletHayblet Posts: 2,429 ✭✭✭
    Drunken post!: I started f*ck like 17 years ago in Ybor City with my dad smoking Montecristo's as my family was doing a craft show or something of that nature at the time, um... I'm not 100% sure it was a Monte, but I clearly remember it being Tubed and we smoked on the way home in my dad's Contential or however it's spelled on a nice Mid Spring Florida Sunday night, soon as I was 18 I found a B&M downtown in Sarasota and bought a couple Cohiba's and some other super dark cigars as I just liked how they worked, flash forward through years of drug abuse smoking Black n Milds n other sh** machine mades to 2009 a Cigar.com catalog shows up at my doorstep completely unwarrented and my love for this Leaf reblossomed and here I am a man with an insane "collection" of 500+ sticks and loving every moment of it.
    I lurked for probably 3 months before finally getting the gumption to post, Did my first Trade with JoeyJoe where I sent Gurkha Empire 3's for some Tabak Cafe Con Leche and I've never looked back, I've helped so many people get on the Good Trader's list, most recently Ken Light repaying me for that by sending a much needed Cigar Jar, some Ramon Bueso's and a couple AJ sticks along with it. I love this forum and if the powers that be let me, will post here till the day I die or this forum does.

    TLDR (too long didn't read): I love this forum and damn I love cigars.
  • webmostwebmost Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
    About three weeks shy of a year ago, I was going motorcycle camping down the Blue Ridge Parkway with some guys, and it occurred to me it might be a sociable thing to pass around some cigars in the evening, to enjoy around the bonfire while passing the hip flask and swapping lies. I went to our local fine cigar store and told the cigar geek what I had in mind. Told him I didn't want to blow a bundle on cigars which might just get pitched into the fire, that I was a raw noob, what I liked to drink and eat, and what I remembered Grandpa used to smoke. He hooked me up with a $20 bundle of 20 Factory Throwouts # 59 Claros.

    They hooked me.
    “It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    my father and father-in-law were both a little into cigars. i liked the way they smelled. so i started to smoke them. this was maybe 2005. i found the old ccom forum about that time.
    Kuzi's Forum Links Page
  • ToombesToombes Posts: 4,506 ✭✭✭
    A buddy got me hooked while I was in college and living in Tampa, FL. He took me to Ybor City one weekend where I paid a ridiculous amount for the most incredible cigar I've yet to have. It was a custom rolled Churchill that had been infused with Louis XIII cognac, similar to the Gurkha HMR. Pretty sure it may have been a CC, since it was being sold out of an abandoned warehouse by an old Cuban immigrant. Anyway, that's what got me started. I took a break from them for many years and started enjoying the leaf again roughly five yrs ago. The wife doesn't like it when a box shows up at the PO, but then I remind her about the money she spends on Entertainment Weekly...
  • WaterDemonWaterDemon Posts: 269 ✭
    Started about 5 years ago(19yrs old, I know, I'm young). Friends and I were bored at my volunteer fire house when one of the guys smoked a cigar and stunk up the whole apparatus bay. So me being a smart ass drove down the street and picked up a Punch. I believe it was an uppercut. Anyway, I never smoked anything, or dipped before. I caught a buzz like no other and smoked it to the nub. My plan was to make fun of him in a joking way, but back fired after a few puffs. I still smoke with the guy every once in awhile when I can hang around at the volly house. Good times. lol
  • SleevePlzSleevePlz Posts: 6,249 ✭✭✭✭
    My first cigar was actually a Cuban. The year was 2007. I had spent the last three weeks in Geneva, Switzerland working on my Masters Degree. On the last evening, we had a little barbeque/party to celebrate our time there. The director of the place we were staying at gifted one of the professors a handful of Cuban cigars. He didn't want to try to bring them back to the US, so he smoked one and gave the rest out to a few of us guys. The band was already removed, so I have no idea which brand it was, but it was amazing. When I got home, I still knew absolutely nothing about cigars. It literally took me a couple years to get around to reading up and discovering that you could buy them online. I, of course, made the rookie mistake of making my first purchase from "that T" site. Yeah, the service sucked so bad, I didn't need all of you to inform me of how bad they are. Eventually, I found this forum. I went from keeping less than 10 cigars at a time, to now looking into making a wineador.
    LLA - Lancero Lovers of America
  • jswaykosjswaykos Posts: 53
    I had my very first cigar at a friend's 18th birthday party and loved how it tasted and smelled. Didn't have another until my freshman year in college when one of the RAs sponsored a 'cigar night' and had a local B&M come to our dorm and set up a tasting and some cheap deals. Again, I was reminded of the pleasing flavors and smells! That summer, I got a job as a caddy, and a few of the caddies smoked a cigar before their rounds. Again, that smell! Now that I had some money I bought some for my self and joined the older caddies in smoking them before my round. I bought a few more, which led to a few more, and the rest is history.
  • jsnakejsnake Posts: 5,979 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill and a gas station cigar when I was in the Army.

    Got serious after smoking a Cuban with my father-in-law.
  • Lee.mcglynnLee.mcglynn Posts: 5,960 ✭✭✭✭
    Got really into everything about cigar smoking around 5yrs ago after my old lady had business trips across seas and kept bringing me back Cubans. From there came the aging and hoarding lol
    Money can't buy taste
  • The3StogiesThe3Stogies Posts: 2,652 ✭✭✭✭
    Got a cigar.com mag in the mail somehow about 2 years ago. After getting a few more I was interested and checked out the website. Started reading the newsletters then checked out the forum. Had been trying to quit cigs for a while, but I love tobacco so I figured this could be a better alternative. Got a little humi, seasoned it, ordered some 5-Vegas Classic and MOW Virtue. First was the Classic, but the first always is.
    So I guess I got started because of you guys, thank you. Learned so much in the short time I've been here but Kuzi'z probably forgotten more that I'll ever know.
    nickiam:


    These days i enjoy just about any cigar i can get my hands on. Its about taking the time to just slow down and just be.

    Well said bro
  • JHeweyJHewey Posts: 2,421 ✭✭✭
    I started a year ago (well June 6th) saw one of my friends post on fb he was smoking a cigar, peaked my interest. Came on cigar.com ordered a couple cigars. First one I ever smoked was an illusione 68. Joined the forum and its been downhill since.
  • Bklyn78Bklyn78 Posts: 65
    Working for the post office I've seen a bunch of different cigar catalogs. After reading all the different blends I wanted to try something. My nephew for christmas got me a few cubans when I went to Canada. I got a few samples and a small humi soon after. After many mistakes and a few years later I come home my wife comes outside with my cigar and her wine and we enjoy a nice evening together
  • beatnicbeatnic Posts: 4,133 ✭
    To quit cigarettes. 2years brothers. 2 years without one of those nasty A_ss, chemical-laced, flavorless, coffin nails!
  • LasabarLasabar Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭
    I started in College. I was working for Best Buy and the security guard happened to be a cigar rep for a brand I don't remember and he took me to the best lounge i've ever been in (to this day, I still go there mainly) and took me on a tour and showed me some good cigars to get)

    Unfortunately I let the small 20 count humi dry up and I only smoked about 5 cigars out of it. I tried to reclaim the cigars about a year, year and a half later and it was game over. I then jumped to a 150 count humi and the cigar.com cigar of the month club and a sampler or two and went back to the cigar shop.

    That's how I got on these forums was the cigar of the month club had the best beginning deal and had the best monthly cigars I could find... Then I logged in here to the forums and, well the rest is an awkward history.
  • LukoLuko Posts: 2,003 ✭✭
    About 12-15 years ago, my dad was smoking cheap cigars and I wanted to get him a nice present, so I bought him a box so Ashton's without knowing anything about cigars, that's just what the guy in the shop recommended. I ended up smoking them all with my dad and loved every minute of it. But I onlyn smoked premiums intermittently for about 10or so years after that. Then I stumbled on ccom. Signed up for cotmc and really got hooked. My wife bought me a little 50 count, which is all I have and it's usually about half full, still trying new sticks every week.
  • allsmokedupallsmokedup Posts: 751 ✭✭
    On the way overseas about 2 years ago I picked up a 5 pack of Cohiba Perlas to share with my relatives as my cousin was getting married. Well, all I can say is that I've been trying to find that elusive taste that I got that first time ever since.
  • RBeckomRBeckom Posts: 2,191 ✭✭✭
    A fine idea for A thread. This reading gives plenty of insight into the lives of total strangers as if they are close friends. This my friends is the definition of brotherhood.
  • duckshooterduckshooter Posts: 45
    I'd actually been interested in cigars for quite a while and those little samplers in magazines would always catch my eye. I never bought any because I knew nothing about them but it seemed to me respectable men should always have a decent liquor selection and a humidor near by. At least that is how a lot of tv and movies portrayed things as I was growng up. A year ago after three long years of work I achieved a Masters degree and decided for my own graduation gift I was going to get a humidor. I had done enough research to know that even if I never smoked a cigar as long as I maintained the humidor they would just continue to age. In a little over a year I haven't smoked much but continue to absorb information like a sponge.
  • illinoisgolf99illinoisgolf99 Posts: 1,507 ✭
    Great thread for the community here. I'm 23 years old and have been enjoying cigars for 5 years. At the tender age of 18 (well technically 17) a good friend of mine invited me to go on vacation with him and his family to Ft. Myers, FL. We went down there, rented a beach house, and just relaxed. I remember it vividly, we were walking down the boardwalk downtown and spotted a little B&M. We stopped in and I immediately loved the smell, so I asked the guy working there what he recommended for someone who was new to cigars and didn't smoke cigarettes or anything before. He got up and showed me a few mild-medium connies and I decided to go with a Cusano 18 connecticut churchill. My friend and I went back to the beach house, sat outside on the deck, watched the ocean, and lit up our cigars. It's been a love affair ever since, and I don't intend on stopping now.
  • RBeckomRBeckom Posts: 2,191 ✭✭✭
    beatnic:
    To quit cigarettes. 2years brothers. 2 years without one of those nasty A_ss, chemical-laced, flavorless, coffin nails!



    Congratulations.
    I too have quit smoking cigarettes and know the epic battle that it is.
    Ten years for me.
  • JSXJSX Posts: 5
    Around November last year I was sitting by a fire with a good friend of mine sipping whiskey, and he offered me a cigar. I didn't even know he smoked anything at the time. I use to smoke cigs and chew tobacco but had given both up for the last 20 years. I fell in love with the first one and soon found myself trying to find cigar shops while on the road for work and I would pick one up to smoke on the way home. Like every thing I find an interest in, I started searching the net for information and soon found ccom, ordered up a sampler and have been enjoying the hobby ever since. The other half wasn't too excited about my newfound passion, but she actually bought me a humidor for my birthday in January and I have been trying to stock it ever since. I don't post a lot, but the camaraderie between the BOTL here is really cool. Thanks guys, I have learned a lot here so far.
  • bigfnstevebigfnsteve Posts: 1,435 ✭✭✭
    I`ve been into the hobby seriously for about two years. Smoked several Cohibas prior to that while on vacation when I was out of country. I even had a manager give a "taster" pack about 9 years ago. He included some domican, Nicaraguan and Honduran sticks. I dont remember much outside of the Nicaraguan standing out to me. cigars have always intrigued me but didn`t start becoming a student of the leaf until August 2010. Bought an Alec Bradley sampler which I stored at my brothers place as I didnt have a humidor yet. Christmas came around and my bro was tired of me bugging him to store sticks so he bought me a 100 count and well its evolved into 2-3 sticks a day and if I get below 400 sticks I get scared.
    Then discovered this place awhile back and you bastards have well shown me the light. I know I`ve said it before but the culture of generosity and care here is astounding.
    Alright enough touchy fealy bs... some of you will need new mail boxes shortly.
  • catfishbluezzcatfishbluezz Posts: 7,000 ✭✭✭
    Used to drink, used to smoke...used to smoke. I stopped a few years ago, all my buddies still do. I had always enjoyed a fine cigar, but not until I was introduced to a Padron did i really get hooked two years ago. Then it became...buy a couple, smoke 1-2 when my buddies are getting smashed to pass the time. Then I realized....hey this is awesome after sitting here for 6 months...I need more...and more...and then I found Ccom. My peak I was at 4 humi's as of....last month lol. Unfortunately, I need to get down to two and four boxes of cubans and aging smokes at Jason's house until years end. The only thing I regret, is not buying a box of UHC and shorty's immediately and starting a wineador. All of those are high on my priority list by years end.
  • gaberoxgaberox Posts: 824 ✭
    This is a wierd one for me even before I knew of cigar culture and before id ever had a real cigar I knew I liked em and would mention it to my fiance i wanted to try cigars. Then We moved to Tampa and it was all over from there. I discovered ybor city the Tampa humidor and the rest is history. Destiny you might say. Although I will say I was more passionate for cigars when I lived in Tampa compared to my current locale.
  • JZerbyJZerby Posts: 122
    About 2 years ago, some friends of ours had their second baby, and he decided, just to be funny, to give out cigars. No one he knew smoked or anything. And he never had before either. So he hands my wife and I this box with like 20 different shades of brown cigars and says, "The darker ones are supposedly stronger than the lighter ones" so I grabbed a darker one and my wife grabbed one too just cuz he said he wouldnt know what to do with them later.

    They sat on top of the microwave for like a month and then my wife wanted to go have a cigarette as she does sometimes. I hated the stuff but we were having some issues and I decided to join her and grabbed one of those cigars. I cut the point off with a pair of child's safety scissors and lit it. Took a drag and it tasted like the smoke from the campfires from my childhood. It was really harsh though, obviously, so I put it out pretty quickly but said I could probably enjoy that.

    A few months later, I got curious and picked up a swisher at a gas station. It smelled good and tasted MUCH better than the dry stick I'd had before. I started reading about cigars, came across cigar.com and saw that I could get better cigars for about the same price as I was spending on all those random swishers that were really pretty gross. Ordered a CCom sampler and found it absolutely relaxing and enjoyable. Then my wife told me I should quit. So I did. Then, at the beginning of this year, she told me if I wanted to have a cigar now and then, it was okay, especially since she has that cigarette now and then. So I ordered a 50 ct humi, a box of Ccom Purple labels and some other random sticks and now I have a humi full of Man O Wars and other name brands and am starting a coolerdor to house some boxes of some of my faves I can't get locally. Love every minute of it and the wife and I still have the smoke together every now and then.

    Life is good!
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