I thought this would be on topic as well. It is an essay I wrote about a year ago and posted on CF, after recieving one hell of a bomb that included one of those holy grails of cigars, an Opus X. I think it does a good job of explaining many of the points of above and is on topic. So keep in mind, this is form a year ago, not last night LOL.
What cigars are all about – from a Newbie
One of the things about cigar smoking that I enjoy is the contemplative, relaxed and euphoric mood a good cigar normally puts me into. It’s one of those quiet moments in my life, that I can take a step back and just let it all go – the stress, the run of the mill, the boredom, the problems, the expectations and the bull****.
My first fine cigar was about 3 years ago. I had got back from an assignment with a temporary job I had with Southern Company and had a pocket full of cash and wanted to celebrate. Not being a drinker that much anymore I was still an eater so my Melly and I got dressed up, drove the 40 minutes into Birmingham, where we now live and went shopping before going and getting our big meal. In the mall there I came across a curio/cigar store and looked inside the humidor. It was my first time in one. Before that as a teen and a couple of times in early adulthood I had the occasional conveyance store pack – you know swishers.
I inhaled deeply and was amazed at the fragrances I smelled. I decided then that I wanted to try one – but which one? Melly smiled and said that an old friend of hers smoked cigars and that she had heard the best was the Opus X. Sure enough, there was a box of them in this walk-in humidor. If, memory serves me correctly it was an Ops X Fuente Funete. The price: $20. Yes, I now realize that is well above MSRP but at the time with money burning a hole in my pocket and this desire to try it I forked it over without a thought and bought a lighter.
In the car I realized I had no way of cutting the end of the thing so carefully I bite the very tip of it off and lit it up. Heaven… matter of fact within a few minutes I was having Melly drive because I was spinning off this cigar. That was my last one for about 2 years. The expense of cigars was simply not in my budget or time.
About a year ago I got a hankering for another cigar. The first cigar I bought this time? Another Opus X – this one a Chateau Reserve. Matter of fact I even got the box since this was the last cigar in it. I was hooked and soon started buying several cigars at once and trying them all. My first cigars that I had come to like were Por Larranaga’s and CAO Anniversaries. I picked up the CA cigar guide and several copies of the magazine – which I still have to this day.
As things happen I got into some financial trouble and so closed the humidor after my last cigar in it and tucked it away. With these concerns the cigar hobby had to be put aside again, just as it was barely beginning. About 3 months ago, after a move into the city of Birmingham and getting stabilized financially again I decided it was time to pick the hobby back up again. So slowly I started buying cigars – cheaper ones this time, around $3-$7 a stick. I’ve discovered some good cigars in this range – ones which despite some people’s best efforts I still like: the Onyx Reserve, CAO Brazilla’s, Punch Rothschild double Maduro (recommended by someone on this site matter of fact). I also got involved in 2 cigar communities here online (actually more than that but only 2 I am active in).
In one of these communities, I found a very friendly but not overly close community dedicated more to JR Alts and something called a Comanchee than anything else. Oh you see the premium sticks and all but not nearly like you do here. Yet it is a good place for me in a way – matter of fact I have several on that site who actually read and enjoy “my” newbie reviews of the cigars I am trying out. So for now it is a good place.
The other place though is more “home”, though I am still a newbie here, it is becoming a home for me. I have met some wonderful and great people here. At work I have a little poster that quotes Mark Twain:
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really Great make you feel that you, too, can become Great.”
It was here that I started to realize that this wasn’t just a saying but an actuality. People here with little effort on my part really reached out the hand of friendship and we have been getting to know each other ever since. I would even call some of them my friends and the others the same given a little more time for us to get to know each other even better. Many of them haven’t even sent me a cigar nor I sent one to them, which is the point I am slowly getting to.
It was cigars and my enjoyment of those cigars which brought me here, but it is the people and the friendships I have developed over the last couple of months, am currently developing and will develop that keeps me here and keeps me coming back. Oh the cigars are nice and nothing brings a smile to my face faster on some days when after a day’s work I come home to a box sitting there for me to open. But a bigger smile happens when I get online and talk to my friends here and we talk about anything and everything. There is a couple people here I talk PC gaming with, another person introduced me to homemade cajun food, another one shared his experiences in Cuba with me, while yet another one shares his life in Italy with me. Another friend of mine – we whine about how terrible life is to each other, while at the same time discussing the next best cigar we’ve tried and yet another has corrupted me to jazz music.
For the first time in 3 years since I lit that first Opus X I am finally understanding and internalizing what cigar smoking is about or perhaps I should say for the benefit of some: can be about. On an individual note it’s about living life in a slower lane, taking time to recognize and enjoy your surroundings, and enjoying people, enjoying life itself instead of it passing you by day to day. It’s about people from different backgrounds, different interests, different lifestyles and sitting back enjoying the company. It’s about relationships that turn into best pals, networks of people, helping out fellow mankind (as with the auctions). It’s about lighting a cigar and silently thanking and thinking for at least a moment about the person who sent it to you, or gave it to you. It’s about walking into a shop, smelling the fragrances and seeking out that next best cigar – or perhaps revisit an old standby. It’s about getting together with friends in real life and new acquaintances and enjoying each other’s company, with no expectations, no rush, no time limit, and just chill. Learning yourself and learning about others.
This web site, this – community, has helped me recognize all this and indeed as a newbie I am still very much learning. I know this was a long and sappy post but I feel I owed it to you all. Many of you have participated in my education about what cigar smoking is really about: not the cigars themselves, not the gifts you receive, but finding peace and relationships within an ever busy world. Several of you we haven’t even met or been introduced to me but I have been watching, listening and learning from you just the same.
And with that I now have to run along and light up an Opus X for what really will be the first time – the first time I understand what is really behind this mystic band and what is really behind the smoke. If I have any wish it would be to you the reader light up your own cigar and perhaps think on this post – if for just a minute.
Until later,
Sam
Epilouge from today as I post this here on CP. To this day, I will usually only smoke an Opus X in conjunction with me in a serious, contemplative mood on or around a special occassion.
. Anyway you guys pretty much said it all :thumbs:
