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How did you get into cigars?

Thanatos0320Thanatos0320 Posts: 577 ✭✭✭
Just curious on how all of you got started on cigars, and what was your first cigar that got you started?

I had never smoked before in my life, and then one day when I was 18 or 19 I really wanted a cigar. Prior to this, I thought cigars for guys in their 80s and that cigars were weird. Anyway, I smoked my first cigar which was a Romeo y Julieta 1875. It was a nice smooth smoke for me, not too strong and not too mild. After that, I never looked back.

Comments

  • CharlieHeisCharlieHeis Posts: 8,144 ✭✭✭✭✭
    A friend brought over some Swisher Sweet Outlaws, the raggedy end ones that looked like something out of a Clint Eastwood western. Then a local place opened up a smoke shop with a walk in humidor. We were hooked for a while until they closed down. I took a ten plus year hiatus until I smoked a few on occasion from a cousin and uncle at family gatherings. Decided I should invest in a humidor, found this forum, and the here we are.
  • MadMan5117MadMan5117 Posts: 1
    My first cigar was with some Army buddies when I was stationed at Ft. Hood in the 70's. Then I took about 30 years off with no cigars. Early 2000s I was working with some sales and marketing guys who would smoke cigars on road trips, so I joined them. And a few months ago, kind of out of nowhere I decided what I really needed was a good cigar. It turns out that my daughter in the Air Force enjoys one from time to time, so we smoke when she comes home now. I can't explain why - it just seems to fit this stage of my life. 
  • GaryThompsonGaryThompson Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Very nice. Welcome to the fun house @MadMan5117 .
  • Captain_CallCaptain_Call Posts: 1,553 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I was the youngest in my high school class and friends with one of the oldest. So he bought us some acids every so often. I thought that was the best thing ever and then I dropped it for a few years. Around about 2012 I was on a work crew out of state with a guy that smoked. He invited me along on a trip to a shop and I figured it was better than sitting in the hotel. I went along and got into the habit of hitting a shop on the weekends wherever we were. It was at one of these shops I met Roman...
  • Significant3Significant3 Posts: 2,405 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I was introduced to cigars in 1995 at a cigar/dinner party at a restaurant that I was a bartender at. My first cigar was a Macanudo Hyde Park. It was awesome and I have been hooked since. I could only afford 2-3 cigars a week way back then. Now, for like the last 10 years, it’s 5-10 a week.
  • ForMudForMud Posts: 2,336 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It had to be in the mid 80's, I bought a box of rum soaked from Thomson Cigars. I saw a flyer in a magazine. Thought they were great so I blasted right though them in about a month. Then I bought another one ( Still have one of the boxes ) Well I didn't have a clue about rh and these got pretty dry after about six months, so I quit smoking them.
    Flash forward to Feb of this year and I figured I'd try them again.....Now with the www.interweb thingy, I stumbled on this this site and the form and ordered me up a couple of samplers and a humidor and have been loving it ever since.     
  • Diver43Diver43 Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭
    A good friend has smoked cigars since young. During a visit we woukd sit by the pool and he would cut a Short Story for me.
    Started buying my own, then after a while signed up here. Couple years later and its today.
    Logistics cannot win a war, but its absence or inadequacy can cause defeat. FM100-5
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,405 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2018
    I loved reading Mark Twain, and Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes).  Cigars were a big part of the writings of both, and Swisher Sweets were 5 cents.  I had 5 cents, and was 15, therefore old enough.  From there it was a progression to King Edwards, Marsh Wheelings, Robert Burns and so forth until I learned the difference in hand rolled.  
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • MarkwellMarkwell Posts: 1,616 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Been smoking cigs since middle school. Cigars sounded like another fun, delinquent thing to do. Smoked quite a few black and milds and dutches before discovering premium cigars at 16. One of my good friends at the railroad I volunteered for was very into Cubans and English smokes. He got me started. Now I send him sticks lol.
    “Happiness? A good cigar, a good meal, a good cigar and a good woman – or a bad woman; it depends on how much happiness you can handle.” – George Burns
  • 0patience0patience Posts: 10,665 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2018
    We'll doc, it all started when I bought a mobile home out of high school and we had card nights at my house. Someone brought cigars. 
    It was only a once in a while thing. 

    A few years later, I was doing some work and some Marines brought some. And I couldn't very well offend them by saying no.

    Then my family fishing in Alaska, my step dad kept a box of RyJ on the boat for me, when we were running back in from the Bering Sea. He'd smoke his pipe and I'd have a cigar. Still remember the small of the ocean and tobacco smoke filling the wheel house.

    For a long time, cigars got forgotten and then my son was born, stopped at the local news stand and bought a box. And when that box was given away or smoked, it became forgotten again until the second boy was born. 
    Again, another box.
    Same thing. Smoked, given away and forgotten.

    One day, I received a cigar catalog in the mail and there were hundreds of different cigars. Ones I'd never heard of. And it started all over again.

    Then, the internet and the wonders that it afforded. Things like the devil site. Looking back at my account there, it says I registered in 2000. LOL!
    In Fumo Pax
    Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.

    Wylaff said:
    Atmospheric pressure and crap.
  • Bob_LukenBob_Luken Posts: 10,004 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I have a follow up question for you Mark. @Thanatos0320 Do you know exactly what it was that prompted you to "want" a cigar all of a sudden after always thinking that cigars were for 80 year old guys? Did you see a pro team celebrating a victory with cigars? Did you see some guys at the golf course enjoying cigars? Do you remember specifically what it was that prompted you to want your first cigar?

    Here's a few similar threads, some from way back, answering the same question. I enjoyed reading through some of the replies and discussion here on your thread and in the older ones too. I'm not sure if I ever posted my "how I got started" story. If I don't find it I'll post it here. 

    https://forum.cigar.com/discussion/157815/how-did-yall-get-into-it/p1

    https://forum.cigar.com/discussion/682846/how-or-why-did-you-start-smoking-cigars-whats-your-story

    https://forum.cigar.com/discussion/895705/how-did-you-start-smoking

    https://forum.cigar.com/discussion/516270/how-when-why-did-you-start-enjoying-cigars




  • ForMudForMud Posts: 2,336 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I was thinking a little more about this today. When I was growing up my father always smoked his pipe...Captain Black Gold....I loved that smell. It always seemed to relax him....Maybe that had something to do with it.    
  • Thanatos0320Thanatos0320 Posts: 577 ✭✭✭
    Bob_Luken said:
    I have a follow up question for you Mark. @Thanatos0320 Do you know exactly what it was that prompted you to "want" a cigar all of a sudden after always thinking that cigars were for 80 year old guys? Did you see a pro team celebrating a victory with cigars? Did you see some guys at the golf course enjoying cigars? Do you remember specifically what it was that prompted you to want your first cigar?

    Here's a few similar threads, some from way back, answering the same question. I enjoyed reading through some of the replies and discussion here on your thread and in the older ones too. I'm not sure if I ever posted my "how I got started" story. If I don't find it I'll post it here. 

    https://forum.cigar.com/discussion/157815/how-did-yall-get-into-it/p1

    https://forum.cigar.com/discussion/682846/how-or-why-did-you-start-smoking-cigars-whats-your-story

    https://forum.cigar.com/discussion/895705/how-did-you-start-smoking

    https://forum.cigar.com/discussion/516270/how-when-why-did-you-start-enjoying-cigars




    Growing up, I only saw old men smoking cigars. My neighbors at my grandparents and old farts at the golf course were there only people who I ever saw smoke cigars, so they shaped my views. 

    As for what made me want a cigar, I still have no clue. I think it was December 2008, and I was searching for a gift for my ex-girlfriend's dad. She told me he liked cigars, so I got him a cohiba, but while I was in the humidor, I really wanted a cigar- it was just a random urge- so I got a Romeo y Julieta per the advice of the worker. The only other time I had a random urge to do something was when I first started playing golf. Anyway, since I have an addictive personality, I went and about about 20ish cigars to try over the next week. I got hooked on cameroons, habanos, ligero, the tabak especial dulce, and the dirt torpedo. I don't like infused cigars now, but I still love cameroons,habanos, and ligero... 
  • 0patience0patience Posts: 10,665 ✭✭✭✭✭
    At what point did you discover Cameroon wrappers?
    Years ago, I found I liked AF cigars. So I started to look into why I liked them.
    Since the cameroon wrapper seemed to be the primary flavor, I started looking at other cigars that had the cameroon wrapper. 
    And when the internet took off, I discovered a wealth of info on the cameroon wrapper and then, discovered the Torano 1916.
    The 1916 became my go to cigar, as the price was quite low and tasted great. 
    From there, I started to search out other cameroon cigars.
    Some have been great, some not so great. 
    In Fumo Pax
    Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.

    Wylaff said:
    Atmospheric pressure and crap.
  • Bob_LukenBob_Luken Posts: 10,004 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Bob_Luken said:
    Do you remember specifically what it was that prompted you to want your first cigar?
    .........  while I was in the humidor, I really wanted a cigar- it was just a random urge........



    Random? LOL

    people word GIF




  • Bob_LukenBob_Luken Posts: 10,004 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I was in San Antonio in 2011 and walked by this cigar shop in an indoor mall somewhere within walking distance of the river-walk section of town and they had rolling tables up front near the window. I went in to check it out. The rollers were not there that day but I spoke with the owner and he recommended a few of their cigars and I bought a handful and smoked a few on the balcony of the hotel overlooking the river-walk. That's where it all started for me. I had had a few cigars over the years but I got very enthusiastic after that visit to the cigar shop in San Antonio.  
  • Stopped in New Orleans for a few days before going on a cruise from their with some friends. Buddy insisted we hit the cigar factory there and talked me into buying a couple of torpedoes.  Still haven't found anything that compares and I've tried a few dozen kinds of sticks since! 
  • YankeeManYankeeMan Posts: 2,654 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I had smoked gas station cigars for years, White Owls, Phillies, Garcia Vega.  When my youngest son came back from college, he brought me a hand rolled cigar he had gotten from shop around his school.  The rest is history.

    I started with a 20 cigar humidor because that's all I would ever need.  Yeah!  My wife then go me a 150 cigar humidor for Christmas, that is now my ageing humidor.

    Then another 100 for my smoking cigars and I still use the 20 count for my infused cigars.  Last Christmas was a 250 count from my wife.

    I had thought about a coolidor, but our closed space is limited and we don't have a basement.  Besides, I kind of like the look of the humidors around the house.
  • Sketch6995Sketch6995 Posts: 4,495 ✭✭✭✭✭
    When I was 10 my parents caught me smoking a cigarette.
    As punishment they've made me smoke the rest of the pack and then 3 cigars back-to-back in an effort to make me puke.
    Well the puke never happened because I was just too stubborn and kept swallowing it down,   I was not going to give them the satisfaction.
    But I really liked that 1st cigar lol.
    The higher.......the fewer.  ( Alexander Rozhenko)

     What you can't forgive......you will become.
  • Sketch6995Sketch6995 Posts: 4,495 ✭✭✭✭✭
    peter4jc said:
    ^^^ was it an Opus X? 
    It was 1975, and I recall there was a hole from one end to the other.  Some kind of machine rolled cheapie.
    The higher.......the fewer.  ( Alexander Rozhenko)

     What you can't forgive......you will become.
  • ForMudForMud Posts: 2,336 ✭✭✭✭✭
    My father tried the same thing. He told me if I wanted to smoke he would buy the pack, but I had to smoke them all at once. He said the same thing about beer, he'll buy the 6 pack.......Once I turn 18 I asked him for the 6 pack. 37 years later he's still holding out on me. Became and inside joke between us.  
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