My Papa used to smoke Dutch Masters. Why, I don't know. So my first exposure to cigars where through him. As a matter of fact he was the only person on either side of my family that smoked cigars. Everybody else enjoyed those addictive cancer sticks.
On my 18th birthday, I was cutting class with my godkid's dad. We went to the store and I bought a lottery ticket and I bought Dutch Master from the president line. It was horrible. I didn't know what my grandfather saw in these things and the taste said in my throat for three days.
I would Dutch Masters every few months. Then day I was in downtown S.F. and I went into a cigar shop on Market St. I don't remember what cigar it was, I do remember it was a pleasurable experience and the taste didn't stay in my throat for three days.
Fast foward to December 31st, 1999. I was on my way to watch the ball drop for the Millieum. I stopped in Nate Sherman and told the guy I wanted a cigar that wasn't harsh and kinda sweet. He gave me a Hampton. Funny thing about the Hampton, I actually tasted the hint of cinnimon. The as the cliche says is history.
If I'm paying $20 for a cigar, it better be "contraband."
Posts: 207 | Location: Villa Regis, The Empreyan Heights | Registered: January 10, 2006
My first Cigar was with my uncle Riley , in the summer of 55 I think, he was a Marsh Wheeling Smoker , chewed mail pouch & some times at the same time , I just never got into chew , but I loved the aroma of the cigars & the bands I was fascinated by the bands for so reason , so one day I took a "taste" hahahahaha, it has been nothing but cigars ever since , I switch to hand rolled in the late 60's early 70's , I had a box of Hoya 55's at my wedding in 1970,( & I still have some cigars left over from that day ) but as i recall I was still smoking the machine made's most of the time , Grenadiers were my go to smoke for years, then I started to collect cigars & at the high point of the crazyness I had about 11K cigars here at home, some in my locker at the cigar shop, some at work in my humidor there & some stashed at my brothers place since I didnt want my wife to know I had stuff stashed , he ended up smoking a lot of them , Dirty rotten little SOB !, BUY your own cigars , dammm I gave him the humidor, but he never needed to buy any smokes as I was always filling his humidor for him, ! dammm little Brothers ! , so now I sit here with 9 humidors & looking for number 10, I do have a cabnet for long term aging , but I only open it 2 or 3 times a year , just to rotae stock & check the water . So FAR, So Good ! Enjoy, Vince
S.N.O.B.1012 News from the dining room table, <br> " Pass the gravy please"</br> vince579@comcast.net
Posts: 1589 | Location: 159 Knobvue Drive, Freedom Pa 15042 | Registered: July 12, 2002
At first I smoked cigars while deployed in the military...we'd go to a bar in Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand, Korea, etc., have a drink, and light a cigar. I stopped smoking cigars for a time until I was down in Costa Rica...grabbed a couple of good RyJ Cubans and a bottle of port for volcano watching. Funny thing is I missed the entire 1990's "cigar boom"...maybe a good thing. And, I've never smoked anything else.
Posts: 203 | Location: New Mexico - The Land of Entrapment | Registered: May 12, 2006
Living in New York at the height of the cigar boom. There were plenty of cigar bars, and more importantly, plenty of women smoking cigars. I had never seen anything quite so alluring in my young life.
Alas, the era has passed. The city has been invaded by an army of puritans and women have discovered pilates.
_______________________
"Live every week like it's Shark Week."
Posts: 1476 | Location: New York/Denver | Registered: August 05, 2005
I started smoking cigars in high school, kids use to smoke cigarettes or the occasional green stuff, but I loved the cigar even just having it in my mouth just tasted so good. Well after that a few friends of mine wanted to see what the cigar was all about and started smoking them as well seems like all the guys I know smoke cigars now prety amazing. But I still enjoy them of course. I don't think I will ever stop.
I remember it like yesterday. I was on vacation in Vegas with a good friend of mine Big Sal. High stakes poker game at the Nugget. A very nice gentleman from Japan said try this and gave us very nice smoke it was a Monte # 2 and from there on fuhgeddaboudit it was lights out. A start if a beautiful thing.
I would be a billionaire if I was looking to be a selfish boss. That's not me.
Posts: 15 | Location: New York, NY | Registered: March 04, 2004
almost 2 years ago when i was 17, i smoked cigarettes, marlboro menthol 100's to be exact, and my dad's ex-wife's brother has a shop called wine barrel plus and he has a big walk in humidor room with an upstairs humidor above the main floor, and i asked him to pick me out a good cigar that has a really good taste to it and he brought me out an Avo Xo Maestoso Triputo tubos cigar and after that i couldn't get enough, so i smoked those Avo Xo's seldomly for a year and i found that there was a cigar bar about 15 minutes away from my house and that got me farther into cigar selection and taste
It seemed to me that a lot of the people here in the Miami area smoked cigars, so I would try a <gasp> Swisher Sweet once in a while. I just couldn't understand why people liked cigars so much.
One day a friend from Cuba gave me this little cedar-wrapped cigar with the words Romeo y Julieta on the band.
OH LORD it was wonderful!
Haven't looked back since.
----------------- Yes. I AM a pig.
Posts: 417 | Location: Spanaway, WA, USA | Registered: June 23, 2002
30 Years ago (when I was 9) playing Golf with my Dad, I used to carry around one of his Schwisher Sweets to keep the Gnats <sp> away. Later in my teens we would smoke the cheap-o cigars after getting drunk in the fields before the football games.
Fredzep
Posts: 12 | Location: Ashburn, VA | Registered: May 17, 2002
My Uncle George was the person who really got me interested. I had several other relatives who smoked cigars and a bunch that smoked cigarettes. My uncle took me under his wing after my dad passed away. My uncle smoked Dutch Masters Presidents. That's what I started with on and off when I was about 16. When I got into college, I was introduced to Te Amo's, which now I realize weren't much better than the Dutch Masters (IMO). Anyway, the rest is history.
"Happiness is a good martini, a good meal, a good cigar and a good woman, or a bad woman, depending on how much happiness you can stand" George Burns
Posts: 578 | Location: Lincoln Park, MI | Registered: March 21, 2004
It happened one evening at The Palm Steakhouse in Orlando back in the mid 90's. I, along with my wife and another couple (our friends of 12 years at the time) had just finished our feast of softball sized, butter soft filets and Nova Scotian Lobster with claws the size of a pro catchers mitt.
The husband of the other couple asked me if I would like to join him in the cigar bar, and proceeded to apologize to the fact that he realized he had never shared this grand and glorious, exhalted and highly revered experience with me in the entire time we had known each other. I kindly accepted the offer not knowing what a turning point in my life this would be.
He pulled out an Arturo Fuente (not sure of the series) and started to explain the proper technique, so as to maximize my smoking enjoyment.
As pulled the first draw, I realized that there was more meaning to life than I had ever known. The ever so faint hint of sweetness, combined with leather, and nutty finish! I figured for sure I had gone to heaven!
This is how it all started my quest for great cigars.
My wife, God love her, is very understanding of my penchant for the tabacco and contributes to my endeavour.
whenb I was in High School (25 yrs ago) I tried Robert Burns Cigars and didn't keep on with them. In college my roomates fiance brought us habana's from Canada. A few years ago a co-worker and I began having cigars when we travelled. I decided why shgould I only enjoy them once or twice a year. Now they relax me on the way home from work. (1 1/2 hr drive)
Good people sleep at night knowing there are rough men ready to do violence on their behalf
Posts: 1599 | Location: Connecticut | Registered: November 19, 2004
My husband brought me to cigars......we would hang out at Mort's (Cigar bar), when we dated and I would enjoy the 'Blues' music and enjoy a couple of drinks......he would hand over his cigar to me and ask me to try it. I liked the way they made me feel -- relaaaaaaxed. lol!
I have made it a rule never to smoke more that one cigar at a time. -- Mark Twain
Posts: 284 | Location: In the SouthWest! | Registered: December 10, 2005
We were having a band festival here at Troy and a friend of mine was visiting as the composer-in-residence. After a night's performance, we retired to a buddy's house and my composer friend offered me a 1066 Dark Knight. I refused a few times, as I had NEVER smoked a cigar before and was actually quite ambivilent about the whole thing. Anyway, I agreed to try it. He punched it and lit it for me and it was wonderful. The flavors and aromas were amazing, and it was not harsh at all. So I decided to learn more about cigars and now it's my favorite hobby, and even my wife is beginning to find the history and culture behind cigars interesting.
From the Deck....
Posts: 516 | Location: Troy, AL USA | Registered: February 08, 2004
My father was a cigar smoker. In the 1950's smoking in the car with the wife and kids in tow waan't considered a bad thing. I can still recall the aroma of his cigars today, but I've no clue as to what brand they might have been.
Actually, what brought me to cigars were pipes. Though I enjoyed smoking them, the pipes were raising havoc with my jaws, so I moved over to cigars back about 30 years ago. My first box was Antoni y Cleopatra.
Times have changed.
Bill
"There is no recession, my friends, no downturn, no hard times. The rich are wallowing in loot-and now they wanna make sure you don't come a-lookin' for your piece of the pie"...Michael Moore
Posts: 1292 | Location: boston ma | Registered: October 27, 2002
