Back in the day....

[VirginIslander]

so whats everyone's defining moment when they said "hey, I want to start smoking cigars"?

Reason I'm posting is because I often wonder why I kept with it when in the beginning I was so terrible at it, every single one was bitter and I only bought good shit, so it was expensive to boot. I had no one knowledgable around to 'show me the light' (no pun intended) and, like moro, its a self taught thing. Every time I had a question, I would email Gary Korb at famous smoke...I'm pretty sure he hates me now.

But back in the day (you know, 9 months ago) my GFs parents were here and her dad is a casual cigar smoker. We were on St. John for the day. We were walking around Cruz Bay when these drunk guys came up and offered us 2 cubans (to have, not to buy). He took one and I said 'no thanks'.

A couple weeks later I wondered what a cigar was like. I went into the local 'B&M' (I have a hard time calling it that) and bought the box of Cohibas that had 3 cigars and a xikar cutter. The next night I went out on the deck, jammed my bic into the end until I saw red, and started puffing. It tasted like arse, but damn it, I enjoyed it (for some reason)!

I kept buying, trying, failing and learning and while I still have a tremendous amount more to learn, I am here in the ranks of some of the best people I could ever hope to know, and enjoying some damn fine cigars!

"and thats..the rest of the story"

how about you?

 

[unfairtoast]

It was after I graduated high school, my buddies and I decided that we were going to smoke a cigar. So we went to the gas station and bought some Optimo Peach flavored cigars. I enjoyed smoking it, but wondered what a tobacco cigar without flavor tasted like. So I went to the B&M and bought a cheap giant cigar (at the time I thought bigger was better) and I smoked it. It tasted like cardboard, but I enjoyed it.

 

[Gordy]

Growing up i always had a wierd fasination with the way a cigar shop with a nice variety of cigars looked. I remember being a child and telling friends and family that
"when im older i want to have a nice display of cigars at my house". In highschool i would try black and milds or optimos but i never really got anything out of it. I was sort of begining to give up on cigars when one day i went fishing with my cuzin out in the San Francisco Bay and he actually had a few "real" Cigars that he had purchased or traded for off of this site. He offered me one and i accepted having no idea what i was getting myself into. I tried keeping up with him, taking drags when he would and soon i had the craziest buzz ive ever experienced. I thought for a second i was going to vomit but once i relaxed i began enjoying it. I finished the cigar and told myself that Felipe Gregorio Petit Perfecto cigar would definately not be my last. From that day on Ive been telling myself I would occasionally try new cigars and now that i have joined this site and met some great people Im having no regrets. I have much to learn of course but i only see it going uphill from here. Now im working on the nice display ive always wanted.

Gordyeace:

 

[mfromwhere]

For me it was growing up seeing my dad smoke.
He always had a box of Jamaica Royal Cigars on his dresser.
A few times a year he would go out on the back porch, grab a cigar, a newspaper, and a pencil for doing crosswords.

When I was in high school we went camping and he offered me a cigar and a glass of scotch and I thought it was the coolest thing to be smoking and drinking with my dad.

It wasn't until JDP moved down to LA that I actually learned what a good cigar was and started smoking cigars on more than just special occasions.

Now we play 18 holes and light up a cigar almost every Friday.
Not too shabby...

 

[cusccrstud21]

for me, I've always enjoyed being around my dad while he was smoking a cigar. I've always loved the aroma that cigars put off when they're being smoked, one of the best smells in the world!

I had my first cigar 2 years ago on the way back to a buddy's home over a long weekend. We stopped at a gas station and each got a Phillies blunt with the sweet tip (no flavors though). Then I started smoking BackWoods a lot and then I got into the premium hand-rolled cigars...never looked back!

 

[strife]

I guess it's because of the caliber of people that have smoked cigars, finding a common bond with a list as diverse as George Burns, Babe Ruth, Winston Churchill, Bill Cosby, Red Auerbach, Mark Twain, Monica Lewinsky, et al. was enough to pique my interest.

 

[ECPrevatte]

I'm bored so why not.

Well my brother bought me a Rocky Patel sampler before I was actual legal age. I was skeptical, but ended up enjoying it. I still keep the box with the date on it. I remember I totally messed up the cigar lighting it.

 

[bballbaby]

I'll be honest and tell the truth...

I spent the day in down town Columbus, Ohio while my brother was working. It was a typical winter day with one exception...I was trippin'. Somehow I found myself in a very nice cigar shop and I purchased my very first cigar...a Royal Jamaican. it was a lancero sized maduro. I loved it. I went back to that shop numerous times that day and made several more purchases, including an Arturo Fuente Canones. I have no idea why i got that cigar, other thatn the fact that it was HUGE!!! Anyhow, it was a fun day and apparantely a memorable day too, since i still remember it.

BTW, I was much younger then. Those days are long behind me.

 

[pfm721]

I started smoking in college. I went over to a friends condo for a poker game and the table was set up on the balcony. When we were about to get started he offered me a drink and said I could grab whatever I wanted out of the humidor. I thought why the hell not and grabbed an Onyx Robusto out of the humidor. That was my first smoke and I liked it. Now I can't even think about smoking an Onyx for some reason.

 

[Soundwave13]

Gale - that's hilarious - I remember snaggin a few old Backwoods from my Dad so I could 'replace' the filler... I discovered that I actually liked them without replacing...

Years later a friend handed me a cc RyJ & I was off to the races... At that time I was smoking milder stuff: avo, griffin, macanudo, etc... My first box was a gift - Zino Traditions that are not made anymore. I loved them!

It wasn't until years later when I quit smoking cigs that I feel I truly became a BOTL...

 

[dpricenator]

I liked cigars as a young man, but would only buy one for the occasion. If we were out and there was a shop I would pick on up. Then a bit more recently ( 2 years ago ) A bunch of guys, from the office, and I went over to a little smoke shop in Irvine after lunch. We had all had a good week and decided to treat ourselves. about 6 of us went inthe humidor all at once, and the shop keeper, Edgar, almost fainted thinking we were all going to steal something. Then he and his shop girl, OMG this little chick was hot...and I don't really care for the little chicks. And she knew about cigars. I picked out a Oliva G Robusto I believe the cheapest cigar in the humi at the time at $4.50. A little box presssed thing. A couple guys ran over to a liquor store and bought a bottle of Johnny Black. The shop girl cut and lit our smokes while Edgar poured us all a drink. We then sat around on his leather couches and chairs watching Scarface. I ended up buying another small Oliva as I was done before everyone else and thier huge cigars. Well we had liquor left over, and edgar put our names on the bottle and said he would store it for us, so next week was a given. And it went from there.

I remember this one guy Don, who is the really loud sales guy in the office. If you've ever worked in a sales office you know the type I'm talking about. He'll tell you how he slammed this sale or told this lady off or whatever...blowhard. Well he saw the Gurkha Beast and since it was $30 he figured he had to have that one. IIt cost more that any other cigar he had in the humi. There were alot of gurkhas in his humi, and all were way too expensive. Ha If I only knew then what Iknow now. Anyway, he had not eaten anything before we went. Between 2 glasses of scotch and a huge strong cigar, he turned green, and was sick for the rest of the day. I still call him BEAST to this day.

 

[Craig Mac]

I guess for me it was the fact that all my golf buddies were quiting smoking cigarettes and everytime we went to play they would stop by a Cigar store and pick up a couple. I had smoked gas station Cigars for years every now and then but wasn't really "in to it". One day 5-6 years back, I decided to go in and buy one and after that I would get one occasionally but still wasn't "in to it". About 2 years ago my boss bought a few La Gloria Cubana's for us to smoke on the course and that was actually the first cigar I remember truely enjoying. Then last April while in Myrtle Beach we went to the Tinderbox to stock up for the week and while in the humidor one of my friends really sparked my interest in Cigars while we were discussing various brands and it got me to appreciate Cigars more than just something to smoke on the golf course. It was all downhill from there.

 

[Hardcore]

I was working landscaping & this older Italian guy would always smoke Avantis. I gave one a shot & was hooked on them for the summer. After that I would grab a cigar every couple of months at a local newspaper shop that has a few sticks. I hated most of them. But I'd smoke the RyJ Bully (I think I liked the tube) & the Rocky 90 & 92. The shop owner gave me a free Acid to try. I think it was KubaKuba. I hated it but I did try some other Acids after that. A few of my friends had picked up smoking cigars so I'd have one with them when we hung out. I was big into Tatiana Groovy Blues for a few months. Then I got out of flavored smokes & found a couple of b&m's. With that & AJ to help steer me in the right direction & show me what a good smoke was I ended up the Tat whore that I am today.

 

[Danilo]

I have Cuban neighbors, and one of them turned out to be one of my better friends trough high school and still to this day. Well, he smokes cigars, and has for about the last 4-5 years (even when we were in high school). He'd always offer me one, or have me try his... but it was usually an acid, and it turns out that kept me from wanting cigars (too much flavor i guess) one day his mothers husband offered me a CC, straight from the mother land a few years old (5 years +) and it was pretty great to say the least. From then on I would usually smoke with them at their parties (quite often these parties), and it was usually a nice CC... And with time I ended up wanting to own my own, and ended up on here...

 

[Moro]

I was 15, and desperate to rebel to the authority. Mema had quit cigarrettes and me dad, a doctor, dissaproves tobacco use. I had tried cigarrettes; but they tasted like shite to me; and since a year before I had tried a pipe for the first time, which I enjoyed much more but had found too hard to learn to bother, I decided to give cigars a chance. Me first one was a LIEB. The 2nd was a CoRo and after that I had a major phase of smoking only the latter. Back then I only bought a cigar to smoke it the same day; yet two years later, on a trip to Cuba, I bought me first box which also got me to buy me first humidor. I had no one to teach me but the internet, so it was mostly trial and error for me.

 

[hdroadglide]

my first experience was a little over 40 years ago. i had an uncle that smoked dutch masters. i was probably about 12 at the time and he let me try it as a joke. after that, when they'd come to visit, i'd sneak one out of his stash and smoke it outside behind the garage. never made me sick surprisingly.
when i got married, 30 plus years ago, my wifes family owned a cigar store in holland. they would send me boxes of little dry cured sumatran cigars, and ther rest is history............

 

[BrandonJ]

Wish I had a nice long story to go along with my foray into cigar smoking, but it was just watching my dad smoke them growing up, I guess I just wanted to emulate him.