Hello everybody, New smoker here

[sascha]

I used to smoke cigars years ago, mostly smoke Davidoff 2000 and a few others but stopped about 10 years agosince I never had time to sit and relax.
Long story short, a friend of mine gave me a cigar, something he had made for him, I had it a while before I smoked it, but once I lit it, my passion came back and I really enjoyed the smoke a lot, the last time I was so relaxed was when I used to smoke hookah, but without that sugar sweet flavor. It just really tasted great. I finally ended up quitting cigarettes, I smoked a pack a day but just couldn't do that anymore, so I am looking for a better taste in my life.hehe. now I am lucky enough to have a great tobacco/cigar shop in the strip mall where I work. I walked in and asked for something to ease me into cigars, so I ended up with the Romeo y Julietta's reserva real and I enjoyed them very much. But browsing this forum I see you guys smoke everything but the RyJ's I smoke, so I got thinking that you guys know what you are doing.
Now here is my dilemma, I HAVE NO IDEA what I am smoking, or what else I should try, I had a Cuban Cohiba (which one I don't remember, I'll have to start tracking them better) and liked it, but for $26 for a fairly short cigar I just wanted to find a few alternatives I could try. I would love to have a few options
for lets say "during the week smokes in the range from $5-10 and weekend smokes from $10-30. And of course the special occasion cigar where price isn't really an issue if it's a good one.

Another thing, I bought a humidor, entry level, but soid wood and spanish cedar , good seal and I added a Diamondcrown unit in it to keep humidity stable.
Since I am an avid woodworker, I see a cabinet humidor like Avallo in my near future, I just bought 90 board feet of african mahogany for some furniture I am building, I am sure I'll have enough left for a nice 36x20x20 cabinet, just need to by some spanish cedar and get one of RonC's accumonitors.

here a few more questions:

how long should I keep a cigar in the humidor before I smoke it after I buy it.
right now I have a box of the RyJ's a few Padrons, a Padron 1964 anniversary, a A. Fuente Hemmingway and a 858. then a few more Davidoff's and a few Punch. again, I think besides the 1964 and the Hemmingway, the ones I have will probably be my during the week smokes, but how can I get a better Idea of what's out there. I downloaded a few lists of things to try, yes, I do want to try the Fuente Fuente Opus X and also a 1926 Padron, but my guy didn't have them right now.
He also get CC but I wouldn't even know where to start there, then once I get them, how long should they stay in my humidor before I could smoke them.


lets just say I am confused, but excited.
I just finished a Hoyo de Monterrey Excalibur, I liked it a lot, but could I do better.........


pleas help a new guy, get me a few ideas and especially a few sites where I could buy great cigars, I already tried cigarbid.com and I have no idea about the cigars that are auctioned off.



HELP please.


and once I get into building a humidor cabinet, I will post about my progress.


thanx so much for your help and I hope to become a small part of what seems to be a really nice group of people..

Sascha

 

[kirscovitch]

greetings and welcome to botl! if you cant find good information about cigars here, you aint gonna find it anywhere.

as far a cigars to try..... dont even know where to begin. some of my favorites are the Punch Rare Corojo's, Onyx Reserve, La Aroma de Cuba, and any of the Ashton lineup. Partagas are also a good smoke, imho. exspecially the Spanish Rosado.
and for how long do you let a cigar rest in your humidor?? as long as you can stand it!! ive boughten a stick in a shop and smoked it on the ride home and i have some that have been sitting for almost a year. in my opinion, if the shop has their humidor set up right, theres no reason you couldnt smoke it immediatly.

 

[goin' fer smoke]

Granted I too am a newbie.. one of my fav's is the Romeo y Julieta Maduro Reserve's..
course now after that Bahia maduro ... mmm damn now I want another....


Oh welcome!!!

:welcome:

 

[michaelbrehm]

Sascha great introduction

Hello and :welcome:

 

[jmatkins]

Welcome to BOTL.

 

[AZsteelman]

Cool, another West coast playa! Welcome!

 

[tobby4]

Welcome...

Good questions, if you check out some of the stickies on top of the different forums there is a ton of info up there..

One of your biggest questions on what to smoke is a hard one, just because people smoke what they like.. I may hate every cigar in your humidor that you love, thats just how it goes... Getting back into it I would say smoke everything that you possibly can and find a flavor profile that you like and go from there....

 

[Jwrussell]

Sascha, welcome to BOTL. You've obviously done some browsing around before posting and know what you are looking for.

Here's a few suggestions for you. First and foremost. Forget the whole Cuban thing for now. If you paid $26 for a short Cohiba you WAY overpaid and I don't care how nice your Brick and Morter guy is, he doesn't have real Cubans. Not if he's offered them to you in passing and you haven't known him for years. Cubans can be had but their is a large counterfeit business in them and they are still illegal in this country. Stepped up enforcement recently has made them even more dangerous to purchase or posses. For now, focus on the myriad of wonderful NC smokes out there and expanding, or more to the point, learning your tastes when it comes to cigars.

You have some good smokes to start with already but let me expand your horizons to a couple of what I consider the best NC lines out there: CAO and Torano. Both have very broad lines of smokes and I've yet to have a bad one from either line. If you find you like Maduro smokes then be sure to try the Torano Signature line. Some of the best Maduros out there IMHO. The Exodus line is also very good (I prefer the Gold over the Silver but it's all a matter of taste). In the CAO line be sure to try Criollo, and for a bit more kick in a natural smoke the Black (available at CigarsInternational). Both are great natural wrapper cigars. For something darker in the maduro-ish world be sure to try out the Brazilia, an absolutely wonderful cigar. And don't forget the Gurkha line as they also turn out some wonderful cigars.

By no means is that everything, but you could spend a couple years or more just exploring those three lines and I doubt you would be disappointed.

There's nothing at all wrong with the smokes CBid auctions, just be sure you are actually getting a deal. CBid is run by CigarsInternational.com so that's always a good place to start if you want to check the real cost. Also check out JR Cigars. Both of those stores tend to have good deals. CigarsInternational tends to lean a little more towards the mixed cigar deals where JR tends to stay more in full boxes. JR also tends to offer some very good bargain cigars. There are those that swear by their "Ultimates" and "Alternatives". There are some other great stores out there but I can't remember them off the top of my head right now (ah, remembered one: smokeall.com, great service).

As to how long to leave your cigars in your humidor before smoking them. Wow, that's a toughy. There are tons of opinions on this. In general, if you are purchasing from an online shop and having cigars shipped, give them a week or two (if you can stand it) before breaking into them. This will allow them to settle to the RH you keep your smokes at. Same for a B&M store, but less of an issue so long as the B&M keeps there smokes at a decent RH. If they keep them wet, you'll need to give them time to dry some, and vice versa. Beyond that, it is generally agreed that most cigars will improve with age (time in the humidor), but in general we are talking years here, not a couple of months. This is less of an issue with most non-cuban cigars as the tobacco used in them is aged much longer than that of cuban cigars and in some cases the cigars themselves are aged before being shipped out so they are smokeable right away and the changes with age are much less dramatic.

Here's the bottom line: smoke what you like, and like what you smoke. If you do some searching you will actually find some references to non-cuban RyJ smokes. I don't smoke them anymore because they are more mild than I enjoy, but I remember them being a very good solid smoke (well, some of them). In fact, if you do a search you'll probably find at least two reviews from me on RyJ cigars.

Last bit of advice. Take things slow. This hobby is about relaxation and enjoyment. Try not to get too wrapped up in the other crap. :thumbsup:

 

[caudio51]

Great intro and Jason covered a ton of it! Nice post :thumbsup:

Don't be afraid to ask any questions

 

[RX2010]

:welcome:

the fuente and padron lines are a good place to start, along with some of the gurkha's, they're my favorites

 

[MichiganM]

:welcome:

I think Jason covered just about everything. I second the nomination for Padron, a great company. Plenty of great smokes out there, learn your favorites through time.

 

[acaffey]

Welcome. Padrons, Perdomos, the list goes on and on....

 

[ezrider]

Welcome to BOTLeace:

 

[rpb67]

Hello and welcome to Botl .

 

[tubaman]

Welcome!!!

 

[Electric Sheep]

Sascha,

First of all, Welcome to BOTL...definately looks like you've been doing some reading before posting, very nice work. One of the best introduction threads I've read.

Like Jason suggested, I'd avoid CCs for the time being. For now, keep going to your local b&m and keep trying ne and different things. If you are the type, I'd recommend keeping tasting notes on each cigar you try (like a personal review, if you will) in order to help you remember what you like and what you don't.

Welcome aboard, buddy! Glad to have you as part of the community, come on and jump in with the rest of us.

:waving:

 

[Headbanger]

First, don't forget to breathe.

What JW and others have said what I would say to you. So stick around and get involved. Very nice introduction sascha and :welcome:

 

[CWS]

Great intro. Welcome to BOTL. Check out all the threads. Lots of good tasing advice.

 

[sascha]

I just wrote a reply and it's gone?? uhmmm, I'll try again

 

[sascha]

another try of original reply

So I posted my intro late last night, around 3 am I guess, went to bed and when I woke up I thought it's time to check it. to my :jitb: ( surprise ) you guys were already busy helping a new guy, 2 pages of welcome, you guys must have been busy :computer: when I was sleeping.

Thank you to all the notes so far, thanx for taking some of the pressure off.
As to the Cubans, I agree, I'll wait, the good news is, they are real, I have known the guy for almost 12 years and he didn't offer them to me at all, I got referred to them so I got access the the "back room". All in all, just good to know they are there if I ever get a craving.

but for now, I will browse some of the sites you mentioned, I think if I could find a site that has many of the ones you mentioned, I could order a little package of 2-3 each to smoke one and save one..

I think it'll be at least 3 months before I'll have my cabinet, but then I can start aging some of them.

As far as hobbies go, I have an addictive personality, my other hobbies are woodworking and digital photography and saltwater aquariums and now I am getting hooked on this.

Soon I will have a little space set up on my photo sharing site.
http://www.pbase.com/saschagast

Stay tuned for my progress and thanx again for the great help so far.
I am a member on photography boards and it is soooo refreshing not to run into people argueing about their gear. you guys seem like a great bunch sharing a passion, I'll fit right in.

so now where's my :smokingbo