How did you get into cigars

[snooky]

For me i only had one cigar a year when on my hols with a brandy . Then i got into collecting watches genuine and good replicas so i looked up RepGeek and they have a very good cigar section, well , got the bug and the rest is history , also never smoked fags, hate addictions.
How did you start ?

[PoohBore]

I've always hated cigarettes with a passion but I've liked the smell of pipe tobacco and pipe and cigar smoke.

Went on holiday this time last year to Cuba and by the time I came home I'd smoked a few cigars. Over the last year I've been trying out various single cigars to work out what I like and took full advantage when my parents went back to cuba last month

[daverave999]

Smoked fags since I was 13 and had the odd Hamlet or Classic and thought they were gross.

My mate got me a couple of Cubans (might be fakes...) for the Christmas just gone and I started looking into how best to store them. My interest was piqued, and it went from there really.

Incidentally since some time in February I've had less than ten cigarettes. I had my first one last week in over two months. I just don't really like them any more. Different attitude to smoking now with cigars.

[matt257]

In all honesty, I bought a cigar because I thought it would make me look "cool". I smoked it and got hooked, the rest is history :D

[Lascaux]

Incidentally since some time in February I've had less than ten cigarettes. I had my first one last week in over two months. I just don't really like them any more. Different attitude to smoking now with cigars.

i occassionaly smoked fags for a couple of years, roll ups tho with good tobacco, but now im smoking cigars, cigarettes taste absolutely vile, even roll ups using good tobacco. i also prefer the nicotine hit from cigars over fags, much smoother and subtler.

[Robusto]

The sexy smell drew me in. The sexy taste kept me there.

As a 14/15 year old, I found it exciting to go into paper shops and buy packs of five Castellas and smoke them like a badass schoolboy. I used to keep the cigars in a Monopoly box on top of my wardrobe along with my Mayfairs. (Not the cigarettes).

I think that why the cigars-and-sex thing is pronounced in my mind because of the naughtiness lol of smoking in my teenage years.

I did cigarettes a bit for a couple of years but they are vile. I agree with you guys.

I like the size of cigars, and I love showing off with them.
Pointing. Gesticulating. Carrying them in your gob.
It's silly theatre, really.
But I love all that.:smoke:

[Bender]

I also hate cigarettes with a passion. The 2nd hand smoke just gags me. Cigar smoke doesn't bother me, oddly enough.

I received a cigar catalouge in the mail a long time ago and I sifted thru it reading the descriptions they sounded yummy so I bit and the rest is history...

Then of course I always wanted to taste the forbidden fruit of Cubans.... :849:

[Kdot]

I detest cigarettes, they just smell and taste foul. However I always liked the smell of cigars (similar to the way i like the smell of petrol and burnt matches, but don't think ill start sniffing those any time soon!) and would enjoy the odd puro at a wedding, etc.

The story goes like this, A friend gave me a cigar as a substitute for another forbidden smoke which I decided to give up :) I liked it and started buying a few sticks over the counter at asda or Vicky wines. A few weeks later I was given a selection of cubanos for my 23rd bday and its been on since then.

[yankeefan]

i smoked cigarettes for about 10 or 15 yrs gave those up gained about 20 or 30 pounds then got hooked on cigars while on my honeymoon .8 yrs to be exact

[jpmoore]

I had a house mate at Uni that came from gibraltar every time he travelled home he brought back a box we spend many a night drinking, smoking and playing cards. 10 years later i am still smoking them :smoke:

[Lou3]

While living in Tokyo, I read an article about Cuban cigars and realized I had better try one before returning to the US. I picked up a few Cubans and non-Cubans so I could get the overall cigar experience. By the time I finished the batch, I was shopping for a humidor.

[Deano]

Bit of a repeat thread, but no matter, we'll all enjoy repeating!

Dad's side always smoked cigars, one uncle in particuar. However, it was really my recent trip to Cuba (last year) which caught my fascination - really on return, when I had a box of cigars, got addicted to the smell and subsquently amazing history of the cigar. Then I set up these forums!

[Stevieboy]

Smoked fags until I hit 30 them stopped when I got married and we decided on a family.

A few years later whilst shopping in Bargain Books I found a wonderful book by Marvin Shanken that opened my eyes to the beautiful world of cigars. I read it cover to cover but didn't trust myself enough to smoke a cigar in case I was substituting them for fags. Three years later I took the plunge and bought a 9 stick sampler from C.Gars and the rest is history. I remember I smoked the sampler in order of strength...it was the 3rd cigar, a RyJ panatella that hooked me

[pligster]

Used to smoke cigarettes 20 a day for 20 years. went on hols to Cuba found out wife was pregnant switched to cigars and hey presto! must be nearly 5 years since as I now have a daughter aged 4!:smoke:

[Kubano]

My aunt gave me a box of RyJ Churchills and Monte #5 12years ago, and have been hooked ever since.

[nicwing]

I read that quick and thought you said when you were 12 years old.

Great auntie!

[The Smoker]

I like reading these stories. :tongue: I smoked cigarettes from age 13, Marlboro or Camel - mostly because I had seen people smoke in the movies :redface: Eventually got fed up with the rising costs & chemical stench - switched to roll-ups for some years. Then I was introduced to my first high quality cigar by the security guard at an office I worked in (aged 17) a tubed Bolivar!!! It was great, but too expensive for me to maintain a regular habit.

I started working from home in 2004 and switched to pipe-smoking full time, after I accidently discovered the joys of tobacco aging! And also because I would smoke more and couldn't be bothered to roll the damn things every 5mins!

Now I can afford to smoke what I want, so I'm planning to build up a collection of habanas!! My favourites are the Bolivar Royal Corona and the Cohiba Robusto - but there are many that I haven't tried.

[HabanoSy]

After several years of watching my father thoroughly relaxed whilst savouring a fine Havana it persuaded me eventually to try my first cigar. That first step has led us to share and enjoy many memorable and enhanced occasions, what was once a pleasant pastime for me has now become a passion...

[Dixie1982]

I come from a family of cigarette smokers, and my wife smokes ciggs as well, I have always despised them, but I did enjoy social smoking, but hated cigs so much i'd buy cafe creme or similar just to have a smoke.

Then a couple of years ago before a night of drinking and poker playing a buddy suggested we go and buy a Montecristo, off we went to the Cigar specialist. So unsure of what to look for and not wanting to browse too long I asked for a 'Montecristo Number 1' and was shocked to find only a couple of pound change from a twenty... Needless to say, i never looked back, and the smoking ban in pubs has only caused me to smoke more, as I would now find a nice heated patio, and spend the night outside, maybe smoking 3 good cubans over the space of several hours. Thankfully, online ordering and dollar exchange rates means that they are a damn site cheaper than £17 each.

Roll on Saturday!

[yiorgos]

It was 5 years ago, I had quit the fags a couple of months and craving like mad! In one of the poker nights Mark, a cousin-in-law, had brought a few Cohiba robustos with him. He offered me one and I took it, having promised that I wont throw it away and it wont go to waste...that was it, I was hooked.

It took me a few months smoking JLPs, Quinteros, Guantanameras and all kinds of dog rockets, till I got to know what I liked.

[Robusto]

Guantanameras are well dodgy, aren't they?! :biggrin1:

[snooky]

Guantanameras are well dodgy, aren't they?! :biggrin1:
Very true you get what you pay for, i couldnt give em away.

[celsis]

Very true you get what you pay for, i couldnt give em away.


Neither could I!!! I tried to offload them to my mate's dad who smoked one then refused the rest. And he's a guy who smokes Hamlets!!!

[yankeefan]

i have to say guantanamera is my least fave cigar. i bought 10 or 15 a few years ago and i could not stand them. :eviltongue:

[jdawg]

When I was a child, I just loved the smell of cigars. My childhood friend's dad smoked cigars regularly. I went with my friend and his dad often to the cigar shop. I loved the smell of spanish cedar and cigars when entering into a walk-in humidor. That is a smell I still love today. :p

While in the military, I was stationed in Tampa, Florida. I went to Ybor City with some friends. I was absolutely fascinated with watching cigars be hand made in front of me. Of course, I had to buy some. Shortly after that day, I went back and bought more cigars along with my first humidor. It was a small 25ct. one, which I still have today. I have been hooked ever since. :biggrin1:

Though I no longer live in Tampa, I always remember those days fondly. It is sad to see how the government's smoking bans and ridiculous tobacco taxes are destroying a once lively industry in that city. :mad:

[trader1974]

I never was a cigarette smoker either. Upon graduating college I moved from Kentucky to California back in the mid-90's, a fellow there that I worked with introduced me to cigars and I've been into them since.:biggrin1:

[Simon-JG-hr]

My first ever introduction to cigars was at a rugby match. I can only have been about ten years old, stood in the Shed at Kingsholm watching Gloucester play Llanelli. Two elderly Welsh guys (supporting Llanelli) were smoking cigars (almost non-stop for the three hours they were stood there). There are two abiding memories of that experience - the first being that I was coughing and spluttering for about a week... the second was the fantastic aroma of the smoke, nothing like the putrid smell of a cigarette.

I started about two and a half years ago when I joined the Royal Navy. At BRNC it was often said that the first six weeks weren't a great opportunity to stop smoking (due to the pressure). A number of guys would have some cigarettes for leadership exercises on Dartmoor (got to have something to do when your wet through and 'on watch' at 2am)... I thought I'd grab a few cheapish tubed cigars - a pack of five Henri Wintermans half coronas, if I remember correctly.

They served their purpose, so I hunted around online for some 'proper' cigars and bought a small selection from CGars. These were very nice and hence the love affair started. I find it quite like having a mistress - I usually flirt with her and have a bit of fun on holiday (nothing beats an evening cigar on the deck of a chalet in a ski resort or a on a yacht), but try not to draw attention to her when at home - for cost reasons as much as anything...

[Robusto]

I find it - (smoking cigars) quite like having a mistress - I usually flirt with her and have a bit of fun on holiday (nothing beats an evening cigar on the deck of a chalet in a ski resort or a on a yacht), but try not to draw attention to her when at home - for cost reasons as much as anything...

I have to say I find my relationship with cigars is just about the same as yours, Sir. I find many aspects of cigar smoking - the looking, the smelling. the touching for starters - very arousing.

The smell when you enter a packed walk-in humidor is sex sex sex.

All this before the aroma hits you!

Cigar Porn is a very apt phrase.

Since feeling so comfortable in my mind at smoking publicly these days, I feel like a pole dancer on display.

Now there's a thought...

Curiously enough, apart from my Father's cigars, there was a master at the school I went to - strictly non-smoking - who used to light up a cigar when he was cheering rugby teams on from the touchline. It will have been a Castella... but in an environment which cut your limbs off if you were caught smoking, this was a delicious moment if you were either watching or playing team rugby.

Well it was for me.

I can pinpoint certain big moments in my life to cigars and their beautiful aroma. :cowboyic9::smoke:

[cj121]

Guantanameras are well dodgy, aren't they?! :biggrin1:

Got to admit, when I returned from the motherland in Jan, I brought a selection box for giveaways. Didn't manage to give any away and smoked the lot! Out of a selection of five vitolas, only one was 'enjoyable' (clear tubed Churchill typish, from memory) I found it a rough n ready stick if that makes sense, but one that still tasted better than none at all.

[Robusto]

In France with a party of kids, I whipped off secretly to a tabac to buy some cigars.

I now confess I bought a pack of BIG Villigers which I'd read about.

There were only a few wizened small Havanas in the store which had been there for donkey's years and which weren't worth buying.

I'd just like to say the BIG Villigers were absolutely vile.

I say THEY. I tried one and that was enough. After five minutes, I thought I was going to hurl.

Watch the Premier League-ers mock LMFAO! :hail:

[deltawhisky]

It's a long story, but I will try to make it a short one. The first influence on me - and a couple of friends who have since taken the leaf - is The Chap magazine. Yes, I know it is a curious reason. For any of you who have not picked up a copy, the magazine seems to be a playful, perhaps satirical reflection on Britain's halcyon days of culture, when men wore good jumpers, and smoked pipes and other unadulterated leaf.

I took a look at a couple of the editions, and went to the local tobacconist. I first of all bought a pipe, and - remember, I had never smoked proper before - some Dunhill 965. The smell made me wretch, and it was a problem trying to cover up the fumes from my family -- who still to this day do not know I have ever taken the leaf.

From then on, I had a love for the look of cigars, the look of the people smoking them, and the smell. I bought a pack of Cafe Cremes, and liked them. The rest is history. I have gone from cigarillos to Cubans, back to European Dannemans and over to Dominicans. I smoke once or twice a week - and will stop writing here. It is bad being a cigar exile, especially with the immediate family in close reach!

[snooky]

Delta dont hide it, the lure of the leaf , the mellow and magnificence of the Maduro is stronger than all of us,its time to tell them and come out of the closset. Best wishes.

[Robusto]

What would be your family's reaction if they found out, Delt?

[G-man]

My Dad when I was a child smoked CC and thought it would be cute so he gave me a machine made to keep in my yap. Ah father and son both with stoogies in mouth.
The reaction that we got !:cool:
In 1992 I started collecting and really enjoying the leaf for all its differant flavor profiles. Now that I have hooked up with U Mates I am learning more about CC.
The 1st thing I have learned is a cigar doesn't have to be large ring guage to be
enjoyable. My BOTL here in America can't understand how I can now enjoy as they say (pencils) For this I thank all From across the big Pond!:849:

[deltawhisky]

It's the same with a lot of my mates, to be perfectly honest. It breaks the convention - the whole taking the leaf thing. They wouldn't be *tooo* impressed! I mean, really they wouldn't. But that makes cigar exile more of an adventure. A good pal of mine is in exactly the same situation - we were in fact talking about it last night over a drink. His people don't know - so he has a collection of mild smokes for the evening, just before going home -- and a collection of stronger smokes for the daytime if we are ever on a day out.

Not to mention those blessed days after the summer examinations, when we were both sitting outside my humble abode at university, having a proper smoke -- with not a concerned eye in sight!

Best, Delta



What would be your family's reaction if they found out, Delt?