Question for all the FOGs around
- Thread starter squaresoft
- Start date
icehog3
Outlaw Hockey Biker
I do remember in the late 1990s, a major magazine (GQ, maybe?) did an article on the world's best cheap cigar. Don Mateo. I had been smoking machine made crap since the late '80s, so a buddy and I split a mazo of 20.
They were disgusting.
They were disgusting.
icehog3
Outlaw Hockey Biker
That's a more recent band, they were even simpler back in the '90's.
Fairly bland? Well, that's a huge improvement over their taste 20 years ago when they were "significantly rancid".
hdroadglide
BoM x 2, BoY 2011
i think i've probably written this somewhere before, but i recall my first smoking of a cigar back when i was about 12. snuck one of my uncle's dutch masters out of my grandmother's house and smoked it while i hid outside. i was amazed that it didn't make me sick, as that is what i had always been told. through high school and college i was into the A&C grenadiers and later the backwoods pouches. then the world changed when i met my wife to be. her family owned a tobacco store in the netherlands. i was introduced to dry cured sumatran sticks that were very different than anything we had here. i would occasionally get a cuban back during the 70's which could blow your head off. but the R&J cazadore was one of my favorites.
i eventually started buying at local b&m's, finding whatever was the strongest. at that time is was mostly honduran sticks and i would go through boxes of them. when the boom came around, it was very interesting. there was still a search for that powerful stick, but you had to wade through so much crap because every scrap, and i mean scrap, of tobacco from anywhere was getting rolled and sold by a new brand. it's really interesting to go back and find old issues of CA and look at the ads. see how many of the brands in there are no longer around!
eventually, the interweb slowly came into existence, and i found out there were brands out there that weren't necessarily made by the major companies. i'm not really sure how i first heard about tatuaje, but through their extremely limited website at that time, i called the dozen or so shops that carried their cigars, only to find they were rarely in stock. i think pete was probably the first owner that i was able to talk to at length, because most people weren't that familiar with the brand, and had no idea who HE was. that was 10+ years ago and i have since met several brand owners and have been the guest of both drew estates and my father cigars on trips to nicaragua. it is something that any serious cigar smoker must do. to see all of the people involved from seed to final product is amazing.
of course the other thing that i always like to relate, is the first time i went to a botl herf long ago. it was in san diego. there were a lot fewer members then. and it took some convincing for my family to understand that i wanted to fly to san diego and meet up with a bunch of "online" guys whom i had never actually met, and stay at a location that i didn't know the whereabouts of. what could possibly go wrong???? well, nothing did go wrong. i found the most welcoming happy group of guys i could possibly imagine. all walks of life were included. and during that whole long weekend i did not hear one cross word uttered. pretty amazing! most of the names aren't around any more. although a few are. here's some names you may not have heard of.... electric sheep, halon, smokem94, greg, gibbleguts, dpricenator, volusianator, boppa wasch, moro. it was one of the finest times i've had. really taught me a lot about botl and the brotherhood.
i eventually started buying at local b&m's, finding whatever was the strongest. at that time is was mostly honduran sticks and i would go through boxes of them. when the boom came around, it was very interesting. there was still a search for that powerful stick, but you had to wade through so much crap because every scrap, and i mean scrap, of tobacco from anywhere was getting rolled and sold by a new brand. it's really interesting to go back and find old issues of CA and look at the ads. see how many of the brands in there are no longer around!
eventually, the interweb slowly came into existence, and i found out there were brands out there that weren't necessarily made by the major companies. i'm not really sure how i first heard about tatuaje, but through their extremely limited website at that time, i called the dozen or so shops that carried their cigars, only to find they were rarely in stock. i think pete was probably the first owner that i was able to talk to at length, because most people weren't that familiar with the brand, and had no idea who HE was. that was 10+ years ago and i have since met several brand owners and have been the guest of both drew estates and my father cigars on trips to nicaragua. it is something that any serious cigar smoker must do. to see all of the people involved from seed to final product is amazing.
of course the other thing that i always like to relate, is the first time i went to a botl herf long ago. it was in san diego. there were a lot fewer members then. and it took some convincing for my family to understand that i wanted to fly to san diego and meet up with a bunch of "online" guys whom i had never actually met, and stay at a location that i didn't know the whereabouts of. what could possibly go wrong???? well, nothing did go wrong. i found the most welcoming happy group of guys i could possibly imagine. all walks of life were included. and during that whole long weekend i did not hear one cross word uttered. pretty amazing! most of the names aren't around any more. although a few are. here's some names you may not have heard of.... electric sheep, halon, smokem94, greg, gibbleguts, dpricenator, volusianator, boppa wasch, moro. it was one of the finest times i've had. really taught me a lot about botl and the brotherhood.
icehog3
Outlaw Hockey Biker
@hdroadglide , I miss a bunch of those guys....
hdroadglide
BoM x 2, BoY 2011
yup. good bunch!
Cigary43
Just Another Ashhole
Its interesting that the stories are eerily similar in regards to content of us FOG's and how we were influenced by our Dads and Grandfathers or friends of the family. I'll take these kinds of hand me downs any day as opposed to other things that get thrown away...the memories are significant with cigars I shared with my Grandpa, Dad and my son and friends. The other thing about this hobby that just astounds me is the communal nature of those who have never met...but will send $5 to $100's of cigars to another that live 1,000 miles away just because they want to share that bond! Who does this...I see family that aren't this generous but when it comes to cigars...have you seen any other hobby that inspires such sharing and good will?
squaresoft
It's dangerous to go alone, take this.
Yeah it's an interesting culture that I haven't really experienced anywhere else aside from cigars and beer. I'm just thinking that true enthusiast just want to make other people as enthusiastic as they are about a thing, and everything is better together.
its like, i have buddies that smoke cigarettes all the time, and will occasionally smoke a cigar with me if i offer or ask me for one when i light one up. im gonna hook them up every time, and ever time i try to explain the flavors that theoretically should be in the cigar and what they think it tastes like and how they should slow down their pace to make it taste better etc.
its hard to just give someone a cigar for me, i have to tell them about wrappers and similar brands and very different ones and other sticks they might like...all that stuff.
its like, i have buddies that smoke cigarettes all the time, and will occasionally smoke a cigar with me if i offer or ask me for one when i light one up. im gonna hook them up every time, and ever time i try to explain the flavors that theoretically should be in the cigar and what they think it tastes like and how they should slow down their pace to make it taste better etc.
its hard to just give someone a cigar for me, i have to tell them about wrappers and similar brands and very different ones and other sticks they might like...all that stuff.
Last edited:
I remember one of my grandfather cronies would give us his cigar boxes back in the 50s to store pencils n such. I loved the smell of those boxes. Probably what set in on the path
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
bwhite220
Brandon | BotM Jan 2038
Amen!
Yes indeed. And dialing numbers that started with letters.Pfft, you wanna talk old? Who used phone party lines??
btw, thanks for sharing FoGs
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Cigary43
Just Another Ashhole
Or when attendants at gas stations would come out and check oil clean your windows and fill your tank.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
icehog3
Outlaw Hockey Biker
Or when you could smoke on an airplane, and in a hospital?