What was the "Cigar Boom"

[Wurm]

I've been over here in Germany since 1985... So I guess I missed it.

Anyone feel like explaining what the boom was all about?

 

[rangerdoug]

About the mid 90's the cigar craze went into full force with everyone wanting to be cool and smoke cigars. This included the Hollywood crowd as well as political crowds as well. Women really came into the picture making it look sexy. Then the makers themselves became crazed with making the best cigar to smoke that was not cuban. Fuente was making there mark, OPUS-X became the cigar to have. Some of the old brands had to do some revamping and new one's like the acid cigar came into the picture late 90's so everyone needed to smoke one. Once the year 2000 came is started to peak out and since then smoking ban's are being put in place and smoking cigars is becoming that nasty habit again. During the craze it was great but also drove the prices to high, now prices have come down again not as low as when I could buy a good $3 dollar cigar that now goes for $6-$7 now. This is just off the top of my head at the moment. Getting ready for work so I will try and think about this today.

Doug

 

[Wurm]

Thanks Doug,

So cigar smoking became a fad and drove prices through the roof. lol I think I still have a pet rock around here somewhere.

 

[Mr Peat]

Didnt part of the boom have who made the biggest cigar as well? I hit in the middle of the Boom.

 

[Devil Doc]

The Cigar Boom, I remember it well. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. For those of us who measure our cigar smoking experience in decades, rather than months, it was a time of high prices, shortages, and lousy tobacco ending up in our previously wonderful companions. Cigar shops no longer could acquire our favorite brands and we had to be content with marks such as La Crème de Cuba, Cremosa Cubana, and Fighting Cock. Yuck! Eventually it ended. Those 20 something’s ,who smoked for style rather than the sacrament , who fueled the Boom, eventually left the hobby, leaving the cigar industry with large inventories of poor cigars. You’ll still find many of those Cigar Boom brands on special. Avoid them like the plague.

Doc.

 

[Zeebra]

Some say we are going through a slight mini-boom right now. It explains how idiots like myself can start smoking cigars.

 

[smokelaw1]

Some say we are going through a slight mini-boom right now. It explains how idiots like myself can start smoking cigars.

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Isn't mini-boom an oxymoron? Like a slight tornado? Slight devastation?
Jumbo shrimp?

j/k...I have heard similar, that there are more people looking for the best cigars now than there have been for a few years.

 

[Wurm]

The Cigar Boom, I remember it well. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. For those of us who measure our cigar smoking experience in decades, rather than months, it was a time of high prices, shortages, and lousy tobacco ending up in our previously wonderful companions. Cigar shops no longer could acquire our favorite brands and we had to be content with marks such as La Crème de Cuba, Cremosa Cubana, and Fighting Cock. Yuck! Eventually it ended. Those 20 something’s ,who smoked for style rather than the sacrament , who fueled the Boom, eventually left the hobby, leaving the cigar industry with large inventories of poor cigars. You’ll still find many of those Cigar Boom brands on special. Avoid them like the plague.

Doc.

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I'm so glad that cigar smoking has for the most part always been a staple instead of a trend over here in Europe. Double D and I have been smoking cigars since we've known each other, and quite a bit of time before. It sounds like we should be happy the "Boom" past us over.

 

[Ginseng]

I have to admit I came into this during the boom. I was a young professional, advancing well and making good money. My wife and I lived "the good life" for a while. Then we slowed down, started looking for the meaning of life. Now we have a young daughter and live a good life. Still smoking cigars though.

Shawn,
Cigars became a status symbol, drove demand insane outrunning supply resulting in people paying high prices for junk rather than what they'd been smoking for years. What Devil Doc didn't mention, and few do, were the social and craft issues that this resulted down there in Honduras and the Dominican Republic. In particular, profiteers came down to these countries with fistfuls of money and enticed career rollers to leave the companies that they'd been working for for years. Sometimes for double or triple what they'd been paid to roll these "junk" brands. After the bust, many tried to go back to their former factories and some were turned away. There was bad blood and resentment aplenty. Lives were changed.

So, the people who rolled our cigars experienced their own cigar boom and bust. Only, theirs involved a little more than smoking them.

Wilkey

 

[Mr Peat]

Thats a good point and I never really thought about it Ginseng. Even after going to Honduras, i can say this. That would have been bad. I dont think I would have enjoyed Honduras as much as I did if I went during the boom and fall. I talked to a couple of cigar guys that did get lured away but they are set now.

 

[Mrepp]

Interesting info, wasn’t there a boom back in the days of Sanatra too? I seem to remember my grandfather saying that they where a hot topic then too. As for a mini boom now I’m actually going to agree, I think a lot of the younger generations I see like mine are a lot less discriminating agents smoking.

 

[BkCloud114]

The Cigar Boom, I remember it well. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. For those of us who measure our cigar smoking experience in decades, rather than months, it was a time of high prices, shortages, and lousy tobacco ending up in our previously wonderful companions. Cigar shops no longer could acquire our favorite brands and we had to be content with marks such as La Crème de Cuba, Cremosa Cubana, and Fighting Cock. Yuck! Eventually it ended. Those 20 something’s ,who smoked for style rather than the sacrament , who fueled the Boom, eventually left the hobby, leaving the cigar industry with large inventories of poor cigars. You’ll still find many of those Cigar Boom brands on special. Avoid them like the plague.

Doc.

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Those are all brands carried by Thompsons & Cigars International.... LOL

 

[Zeebra]

I have to admit I came into this during the boom. I was a young professional, advancing well and making good money. My wife and I lived "the good life" for a while. Then we slowed down, started looking for the meaning of life. Now we have a young daughter and live a good life. Still smoking cigars though.

Shawn,
Cigars became a status symbol, drove demand insane outrunning supply resulting in people paying high prices for junk rather than what they'd been smoking for years. What Devil Doc didn't mention, and few do, were the social and craft issues that this resulted down there in Honduras and the Dominican Republic. In particular, profiteers came down to these countries with fistfuls of money and enticed career rollers to leave the companies that they'd been working for for years. Sometimes for double or triple what they'd been paid to roll these "junk" brands. After the bust, many tried to go back to their former factories and some were turned away. There was bad blood and resentment aplenty. Lives were changed.

So, the people who rolled our cigars experienced their own cigar boom and bust. Only, theirs involved a little more than smoking them.

Wilkey

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One day i'd like to find a topic that Wilkey has absolutely no background information on. :laugh:

 

[Nathan Rahl]

I have to admit I came into this during the boom. I was a young professional, advancing well and making good money. My wife and I lived "the good life" for a while. Then we slowed down, started looking for the meaning of life. Now we have a young daughter and live a good life. Still smoking cigars though.

Shawn,
Cigars became a status symbol, drove demand insane outrunning supply resulting in people paying high prices for junk rather than what they'd been smoking for years. What Devil Doc didn't mention, and few do, were the social and craft issues that this resulted down there in Honduras and the Dominican Republic. In particular, profiteers came down to these countries with fistfuls of money and enticed career rollers to leave the companies that they'd been working for for years. Sometimes for double or triple what they'd been paid to roll these "junk" brands. After the bust, many tried to go back to their former factories and some were turned away. There was bad  blood and resentment aplenty. Lives were changed.

So, the people who rolled our cigars experienced their own cigar boom and bust. Only, theirs involved a little more than smoking them.

Wilkey

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One day i'd like to find a topic that Wilkey has absolutely no background information on. :laugh:

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I think that may be humanly impossible.

I only started smoking because I liked them. Not because it was cool or whatever. Google provides quite a few good links on the cigar boom if you do a search.

 

[Wurm]

I only started smoking because I liked them. Not because it was cool or whatever. Google provides quite a few good links on the cigar boom if you do a search.

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I like you started smoking cigars because I like them and that was back in the 80s with Cuesta Reys being the first (and still one of) my favorites, I could have googled it (and probably will later) but with the huge amount of cigar experience here at CP, I thought I'd rather hear it from the "horses mouth" first.

 

[AVB]

He doesn't say anything in the Scotch or Bourbon reviews.

One day i'd like to find a topic that Wilkey has absolutely no background information on. :laugh:

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[smokelaw1]

So, Wilkey,

In the mating patterns of the High-Browed North African Swallow, what is your explanation for the decreasing diameter of the gliding circles often exhibited by females after finding a mate, but beofre laying the eggs?

Explain that one, tough guy. ;-)

 

[Zeebra]

So, Wilkey,

In the mating patterns of the High-Browed North African Swallow, what is your explanation for the decreasing diameter of the gliding circles often exhibited by females after finding a mate, but beofre laying the eggs?

Explain that one, tough guy. ;-)

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Yes, then I'd like Wilkey to explain how magnets work.

 

[smokelaw1]

Mine will be tougher. I made the whole thing up. Shhhh..don't tell Wilkey.

 

[Wurm]

So, Wilkey,

In the mating patterns of the High-Browed North African Swallow, what is your explanation for the decreasing diameter of the gliding circles often exhibited by females after finding a mate, but beofre laying the eggs?

Explain that one, tough guy.  ;-)

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Yes, then I'd like Wilkey to explain how magnets work.

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LMAO! I'm sure he could, but no one on the planet earth knows more about screwing around with magnets than Dan from Dan's Data .com