Your First Cigar

[Petthefish]

So I was in the cigar store and we were talking about peoples first cigars they ever smoked. So here is my story.

I was 14 years old and grandpa caught me and my twin bother smoking cigarettes with some friends. He was very angry as he always told us never to start smoking (yet he smoked two packs a day). He sat us down on the back porch and gave us each a cigar and said we were going to have to smoke them and could not stop till we have smoked it past the band. Two hours later my brother was puking his guts up and I was sitting on the porch laughing at him enjoying my first cigar. It was a good cigar and I wish grandpa could remember the name of the company because I would love to smoke another one. At that point Grandpa realized that I liked the cigar and Told me “Just don’t inhale the dam things!” and not to smoke any of his cigars. Still to this day when I go down to California I sit on the front porch with Grandpa and light up a nice cigar and have a beer. He still laughs to this day at his failed attempt to make me stop smoking. I never picked up another cigarette I am not hooked on cigars lol rp

 

[Bu11dog]

Great story, can't top that.

End of July this year I was at a custom knife show. I drove a couple awesome makers down to the show. Met up with a guy who's a 3rd gen tobacconist. He hooked me up with one and gave me the quick 30 second lesson how to cut, smoke etc and said have fun. Been enjoying the journey ever since.

 

[LOCAL669]

Pretty funny story brother, I laughed a bit on that one!! Sounds like you and your Grandfather still enjoy cigars together and that a great scene.

My first smoke was a Macanudo some guy at work gave... from there on out cigars it was.

 

[Petthefish]

Pretty funny story brother, I laughed a bit on that one!! Sounds like you and your Grandfather still enjoy cigars together and that a great scene.

My first smoke was a Macanudo some guy at work gave... from there on out cigars it was.

Yup we still do it is so nice. I am sad I can not still enjoy cigars with my grandfather on my Dads side. But I will be down in California at the end of next month and grandpa and I will sit back on the porch and have a nice smoke rp

 

[heffror]

Great story and it is great that you can still have some quality time with your grandfather. I grew up with my father smoking La Gloria Cubanas (NC as I grew up just outside Boston). He smoked them in the house, his car, his work and just about everywhere else. I loved going to the tobacconist with him - the smells were fantastic, especially the pipe tobacco. Anyway, I permanently borrowed one from him in my early teens (early 80's) and have been smoking ever since.

 

[Dadster1960]

I'm really new to cigars. I travel a bit for my job, and one of the mandatory stopovers is Bermuda. I had never given cigar smoking a thought, although I'd had the occasional cigar here and there.

First trip, about three and a half years ago a colleague and I wandered into the executive conference room at the company housing - I almost always stay there - and found a huge humidor filled with all kind of cigars. We had been drinking a bit, and had gone in to get some beers and we decided to grab a cigar. There was all kinds of really nice sticks in there, but I was drawn to the Bolivares, which happened to be Belicosos Finos. He grabbed another stick, we cut them and we went outside by the pool, beer in one hand and cigar in the other. I've smoked cigarettes for a long time (until six or seven months ago) and this was a completely different experience, and I loved it. Next night I went back for more, and I smoked a Montecristo, can't say what it was, thick as my thumb, give or take six and a half inches, and the night after that for another, and the next night again.

When it was time to head home, one of my friends down there suggested taking some "for the trip" so I put a nice selection in empty water bottles and stuffed them in my luggage. I kept them in ziplocs and took a couple to my friend's house to share. And we started smoking them regularly. For couple of years I would stock in Bermuda every three months, and bring them home and put them away in baggies, and smoke with my friend on weekends, while playing pool or geeking. After a while I bought an inexpensive humidor, and one for him as a gift... and so it began.

We've smoked some that some of his friends recommended, he unburied a half a box of ten Montecristo #5s he had laying around for 30 years (we "revived" them in the humidor, but they weren't that great) and others, but the BBFs remain my favorite.

BTW, I have two humidors now, thinking about a cooledor.

 

[jorel]

My parents are visiting and my dad happened to ask me the same question "when did you start." He never liked any tobacco products, although his father was a pure Copenhagen man for 60+ years.

Anyway - about 10 years ago a work colleague and I would go out and he'd always have a cigar. when we'd get a drink (when you could do both in public) I would always make a scene and wave the smoke away, etc. He finally asked if I ever had one and, since I hadn't, he bought me my first Cohiba (I remember it being a Connecticut wrapper since we both lived in CT and he went on and on about it). Needless to say, i was hooked, although didn't really get into pursuing cigars on a regular basis until about 2 years ago. I have to say they really are good to help rewind at the end of a day, to enjoy with friends and even just to puff for the sake of puffing.

John

 

[rgunter08]

My first "smoke" was a swisher.. I kinda liked it at the time, since i had never tried smoking before. A few days later, me and my best friend went to the local gas station and picked up some Philly Blunts. We thought we were so cool because we were smoking "cigars". About a month after that, my best friend said, "lets go to that place in Plymouth called Angelinas, i hear they sell cigars." So we went there and we both got an Acid Kuba Deluxe and enjoyed that. We would go back about once a week, and eventually got outta the Drew Estates stuff. Every other day we would hang out at his house and smoke a cigar and watch some tv. Now we both have a passion for cigars, and enjoy smoking. Now that I look back on it, im kind of glad that my friend introduced me to smoking, even if it was a swisher. At this point my favorite cigar companies are Padron, Oliva, Carlos Torano, Rocky Patel, and Hoyo de Monterey. I would say those make me never want to smoke another Swisher.. lol.

 

[handyman dave]

I was about 8 or 9 years old. Dad smoked Garcia-Vegas and I decided that I would try one to see what was so good. I took a partly smoked one from the ashtray, went into the bathroom, opened the window thinking that it would take care of the smoke. I lit it and smoked and smoked. Mom happened to be going by the bathroom and smelled the smoke and knew immediately what was going on.

She tells the story even now that when, at her insistance, I opened the door, I looked so "pale and green" that she stifled a laugh and didn't even punish me.

No punishment necessary! My whole family laughs about it to this day and it has been nearly 50 years since that first experience with a cigar.

Needless to say, I didn't try another for several years ... and then it wasn't one of Dad's soggy old nubs!

Dad is gone now but was sickly for many years before his death. I am sad that I didn't get the chance to turn him on to some really good cigars before his health got so bad that he couldn't smoke them any more.

Moral: Share'em and smoke'em while you can if you got'em.

 

[Rebel Herfer]

I distinctly remember my first cigar. It was my freshman year at college, I was a Sigma Chi pledge, I was eighteen, and I had been invited to an alumni Smoker at Caesar's Palace. A very posh event filled with local distinguished alums to impress the pledges and to present us to the alums for approval, so I knew what was at stake. Mind you I had never smoked as I viewed my body a temple (boy did that get tossed out the window in the following 3 months) and played serious sports my entire life. After a lenghty round of introductions and chapter history the alums broke out the cigars, hence the purpose of the Smoker. The alum I was talking with pulls out a fist full of Macanudo Hampton Court tubos and hand one to each of the five of us. He gives a quick lesson in how to cut and light our gifts and off we go. Surprisingly I took to it like a duck to water, unlike three of my fellow pledges who were soon hacking and turning green. I felt like I had discovered the newest element on the Periodoc chart. Wow, how cool was I! It took a bit of getting used to at first, but since I didn't know how to inhale I was one step ahead of my brethren. I savored every bit of the HC and all I remember is it was soothing and full of some of the flavors I loved in wine: earth, woody tones, and meaty herbs. I had unleashed a new passion. Plus, did I mention how cool I thought I looked. The alum & I, along with one other pledge smoked ours to the nub. Impressed the alum gave us each a Boli #4 which remained my favorite for many years. Over the past twenty plus years I have smoked many cigars, forgotten the name of that alum, lost touch with Chris Mann (my fellow pledge), depledged Sigma Chi, and graduated, but I have never forgotten that night with my first cigar. Funny how a cigar brings back so many great memories. Thanks.

 

[chainer]

Some good stories here!

My first cigar? Hmm.. I think, excluding swishers, my first cigar was a Drew Estate something or other, with my best friend. My, how my tastes have changed

 

[Macion Grey]

Well, my first cigar (using the term loosely) was an impulse buy from a Smokemart inside a mall. It was some poxy 'Kentucky Style' dry cured piece of crap, but I liked it nonetheless. I then moved on to Old Port Colts and stuck with them for a couple of months, before a mate that had access to a humidor at his 5 Star employer gave me a RyJ Tubo no3 to try.

I remember it was a warm spring night, in my then tiny backyard (we are talking meters here) and I was so fascinated at how smooth the cigar was. I kept saying stuff like: This is sooo smooth, I can't believe I was smoking that other crap... etc etc. It was a couple of years before I got my own humidor, as I was just smoking when I went to the cigar lounges. I even let my humidor go dry after having a no smoking period of 6 months. To this day I am not sure why that happened.

Anyway, back on the wagon now... couldn't stay away any longer.

 

[Beck]

My first cigar was a Romeo y Julieta Churchill en Tubo. There is a tradition (less than 5 years old, but a tradition nonetheless) at West Point, where the plebes (freshmen) provide cigars for everyone at their dinner table for the Christmas banquet. My good friend and I wanted to get something a little bit nicer than what they sell at the PX, so we called up my father and asked him to get us in touch with his friend Zee (who at the time just opened Bull and Bear Tobacco in IL). We didn't really know what to order, so she sent us a box of Romeo y Julieta. Everyone at the table was pleasantly surprised, and after dinner we went out in front of the mess hall to smoke. There, we joined almost the entire Corps of Cadets (about 4000 people), and I enjoyed my first cigar. It was one of the best nights I have had at the academy. My first cigar was a great experience, and every December I look forward to continuing the tradition with my family here at school.