How'd You Get Started?

A bunch of years ago my nephew started with cigars while in law school. After he came back to my area we would get together every now and then for a cigar. Seemed to be about 4-5 times a year. I would then bring a few on hunting trips, but still wasn't a regular smoker. About 3 years ago the wife and I took a trip to Cayman where I decided to have at least one every day...brought back some CC's on our return and started smoking about one a week on normal times, and usually one or two a day while camping, hunting, or vacationing.

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Originally Posted by cheaphumidors

When I was 16 I went to a friend's house party and had my first drink (Jack Daniels) and my first cigar (a Cuban). I LOVED the JD and HATED the cigar (no one told me not to inhale). Fastforward 7 years and I took a job at Cheap Humidors and started smoking flavored cigars at the local cigar lounge with the rest of the team. I assumed I would still hate regular cigars so I just stuck to the Tatiana and CAO Flavours lines. Then our main cigar guy left the company and the owner asked me to step in and do product testing/reviews. My first "real" cigar was an Oliveros Sun Grown. It was love at first puff.

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Any Gal (or even any Lady) whose first drink is Jack Daniiels has a bright future in the Starlight.

My first cigars were in high school. Couldn't even tell you what they were, I had a friend who's parents were always out of town so we would always have parties over there on the weekend. We would always raid the guy's dad's humidor and smoke cigars in a hot tub. So that was m intro to cigars but it was more of thinking I'm cool than being into cigars. My first serious introduction to cigars was at a coffee shop that was a block from my college apartment. It was called Cup O' Joe and they had coffee and beer on tap. I would go there to work on papers and projects because the coffee was good. They had Macanudo Tubos (the white ones) in an acrylic display at the bar and so I started smoking those every time I was there. I'm sure they were dry as f*ck but I didn't know better. From there I slowly got more and more interested. That my friends, is the rest of the story.

A buddy of mine was selling cigars to his clients in a factoring business back in 1995ish. I went to his office one day and he had this HUGE glass humidor with boxes and boxes of cigars. I inquired about his inventory of cigars as I was always intrigued by cigars since I was a youngster. My parents would check out at a restaurant back in the 60's and 70's and I would stare at the cigars at the register. Mmmmm White Owls, Roi Tans, Garcia y Vegas etc. Anyhow, he hooked me up with a handful of cigars. The first one I smoked was a CC Romeo y Julieta Churchill and have been smoking cigars for over 20 years.....

A couple years ago my wife got crazy into those box of the month things and I thought the idea was neat. Couldn't find many that interested me but came across one for cigars. Naturally they wouldn't ship to Canada but that got me thinking about cigars and reading into them, which led me to our old homestead and the hook was set. Credit card has never been the same...

I always enjoyed a rare cheap cigar but found a local shop that rolled their own for cheap. Never had one like it and bought a box unaware I required a humidor. Bought the humidor then frequented my local cigar bar and got lost in their selection which was on a whole new level. Never visited that local shop again.

I started smoking RG Duns and Tiparillos in vitro, okay, when I was 13 or 14. Smoked 'em on and off, mostly drug store cheapies, never on any kind of regular basis. Then about 5 years ago in grad school a fellow student indicated that cigars was one of his hobbies. I started picking his brain, trying a few here and there, got both feet on the slippery slope...

I've always been drawn to pipes. Always liked the smell of pipe smoke, plus there's just something about pipe smokers I like... can't really put my finger on it, never could but let's face it: we're pretty awesome :p ...but I digress. Anyway, I tried pipe smoking years back but all I knew about was Captain Black and other wet, goopy aromatics and cheap, deeply bent, briar pipes. It was a recipe for gurgle and tongue bite and 100s of matches per bowl... so I gave that up in favor of more maintenence free tobacco: enter cigars. Trouble is, Swisher Sweets taste like hell. Not only do they taste like hell, but you can taste that not-so-fresh hell in your mouh for 3 days. Backwoods are better but constantly leave bits of tobacco in your mouth. That sucks so I decided to do some research on better cigars. Enter Puff dot com and all you enablers who used to frequent there. Well I discovered better cigars and how to store and smoke them and all was well. That is, until I met the other enablers on the pipe side of things. There I discovered corn cob pipes that don't gurgle, tinned aromatics that aren't wet and goopy, English blends, VaPers, latakia, orientals, ropes, twists, flake, etc etc etc etc... plus good briar pipes, meerschaum, clay pipes etc etc... and how to, and how not to smoke a pipe. So yes, I still do enjoy a decent, long filler cigar but since pipes were always my 'first love' so to speak, I usually gravitate toward that side.

I started for a couple of reasons.

One, I have always loved the smell of a cigar (those were usually cheapo gas station cigars though) so it always appealed to me.
Secondly, I was going through a rough patch and needed something to de-compress and couldn't afford therapy. lol
The few cigarettes I tried were not enjoyable at all. I hated the taste and the smell.

I picked up a couple of cheapo cigars like Black and Milds and Swishers. I liked the smell, but they didn't taste good.

Then my brother gave me a Padron 2000 and the clouds parted and the angels sang and all was right.

Even though now I am more likely to reach for a pipe, I still love a cigar once or twice a week.

Also, even though I am in a much better place in life now, a cigar and glass of Scotch still helps me unwind after a long week and immediately makes the stress of the day disappear.

A friend of mine who I had known since 6th Grade was having a guy's baby shower (his wife was having her more traditional baby shower elsewhere) at his house, and he offered me a cigar.

I'd smoked one or two cigarettes in college (and found them lacking) so I wasn't a smoker, but decided to accept his gift. Plus, I couldn't let the father-to-be smoke alone!

I found it to be tasty, I was constantly reminded not to inhale by the third guy that joined us (who kept inhaling every other puff) and was hooked by how relaxing it was to enjoy a cigar for an hour (or more). I think that was two years ago.