Any cigar smokers on CP?

[Shogun]

Being my birthday today I received a box of these and my favorite Scotch! Anybody else here enjoy a nice cigar? Happy 4th!

[scho63]

Originally Posted by frozenchief

Update:

I got a KingChii humidor and so far, it is doing a really good job. I got a 43L, the smallest size that controls humidity as well as temperature. It says that it will hold 300 cigars but I have about 100 and I don't see how I have room for another 75 let alone another 200. On the other hand, having about 150 -175 cigars should be plenty. I am trying to give my cigars a few months' humidor time before smoking them so they can settle down and flavors can meld and I've purchased some cigars with the express intent of keeping them for a year or more.

I'll PM you when I get back home to suggest cigars and places to order online.

[MatriculatingHank]

https://www.cigarpage.com/

Trust me. Best cigars at best prices

[Pinchshot]

I like cigarbid.com

[scho63]

Fox Cigar Bar is sweet.

And yes, I am a practicing alcoholic.

[frozenchief]

Originally Posted by scho63

Fox Cigar Bar is sweet.

And yes, I am a practicing alcoholic.

I don't need to practice.

And if I'm in Scottsdale, I'll drop you a line and we can smoke.

[wheeler08]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Went to a little shop in the Dominican Republic last fall and had an incredible experience just learning better how to smoke the damn things.

Went over the proper way to 'retrohale' the drag for just an incredible amount of flavor. We experimented with various sidecars and without question, without exception, the answer was dark black coffee as the best complement to a good cigar.

Different leaves, styles, shapes, which part of the plant the respective component parts of the cigar come from. How best to light them, how best to 'clean' them (i.e. you put a flame on the end and blow out to clear it and improve your drag; usually once or maybe twice per cigar). Best ways to cut them to keep them from unwrapping - stuff that is about half intuitive (but good to understand the 'why' of) and half stuff that really is enlightening.

I always enjoyed cigars well enough, but this took all that to the next level and made me really appreciate them the way I started appreciating scotch after several years of drinking it. Now it's really not that hard for me to determine a real preference.

So hey, if any of you go to Punta Cana, stop by Vivaldi Cigars. I promise that as you're pulling up to this dude's apartment he's not actually going to cut your liver out. And his dog is super friendly. And that guy will just hang out and talk cigars with you for 5 hours and let you smoke his stuff. Really fascinating Dutch expat that is friendly as all hell and really knows what he's talking about. We ended up dropping a couple hundred bucks on cigars before we left but they're damn good. My Don Lucas Dominicans are good but these are definitely better.

I read somewhere else about black coffee. Just seems odd to me to be drinking coffee with a cigar. I have to have whiskey. One of my employees got me smoking cigars a couple of years ago when he brought me some Cubans back from Costa Rica. So that's really all I knew for awhile. Then one year for Christmas he got me a small cheap humidor with a sampler of cigars. Some I liked, some I didn't. I'm an occasional smoker, with no real clue as to what I'm doing. Usually hit up a cigar bar on every vacation and try something new. Was just in Pigeon Forge in February and walked into a shop. Heard a guy say that he was newer to cigars and was looking for something mild. Owner recommended his best seller, Drew Estate Deadwood Fat Bottom Betty. So I said I'll take one too. It was the first cigar I'd ever had that had a taste too it. I googled it and it's not flavored technically but it's sweet. I ended up ordering a box of them the other day. Found out my neighbor just got into smoking as well and I'm going to give him one.

[scho63]

Coffee without sugar allows your palette to reset while you smoke the cigar and experience the different flavor stages of a cigar. The foot and first 1/4. Then the next 1/4 and the building of flavors. The 3rd quarter normally will start changing flavor notes followed by the last 1/4 that can have real intense flavors.

When I have a whiskey it sometimes mutes some of the more intense flavors of the cigar.

For me, nothing beats a cup of coffee with half and half no sugar.

Many of the newer cigar smokers love Acid or other flavored cigars. I don't smoke those and stick to the pure, more full bodied cigars.

I do have some mild to medium that I smoke in the morning or first if I have 3-5 for the day.

If you haven't done retrohaling yet you should practice first without the cigar and then try with the cigar. It takes practice and the tendency at first is to try too hard to push the smoke from your mouth through your nose. It should be a smooth transition when you close your mouth and continue exhaling through your nose.

If you really like cigars, try smoking a few back to back to see the differences. Some may have a metallic taste, some peppery, or leathery, or cherry or grass/earth.

Going from a Henry Clay War Hawk to a Rocky Patel Decade to an Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua should taste like 3 different cigars and not just 3 cigars in a row.

When smoking a cigar be careful not to speed smoke it and burn it up too fast and miss the flavors. It's OK and acceptable to have to relight a cigar more than once when smoking it.

When lighting a cigar keep the flame as far away as possible to achieve an even light and not burn the wrapper around the sides.

Don't keep flicking the ash! You knock some of the lit portions off, it develops poor uneven burn and you need to relight excessively. I can smoke an aged PG cigar and develop a 3"- 4" ash before sliding the ash off on the side of the ashtray.

Make sure to buy a proper torch lighter, a V-cutter, a blade cutter, and a 4-in-1 tool that has a large and small punch, a draw tool for tight or poor rolled cigars and a nubber that allows you to smoke the last 10% of the cigar without burning your fingers.

Learn how to correctly cut a cigar so that you don't cut off too much and have too much air and no flavor. Torpeedo, Belicoso, or Salamones are good sizes to control your cut, about halfway down the taper of the cigar.

Large 60 or larger ring sizes work best with a V-cut or a large punch. Sometimes a double punch next to each other will work.

Box pressed also work well with a v-cut.

Small rings do best with a small punch or v cut across the cap. Don't cut below the cap.

Box humidors must be Spanish cedar, should have a distilled water sponge or humidification, a digital hygrometer, and NO GLASS WINDOW. The glass window allows humidity to escape and it gets worse over time. Buy Boveda humidity packs to help you control humidity. 68%-72% are all acceptable.

Do not take your cigars out of the cellophane to store them and try to store like cigars by like cigars.

Buy and try cigars to find what makes your palette happy. One man's favorite is another man's clunker.

Some great cigars: Oliva Series V Melanio torpeedo, E.P. Carillo Encore valientes, Rocky Patel Sun Grown Maduro churchill, Alec Bradley Prensado robusto, Hoyo de Monterrey Excaliber epicure, Padron 1964 Anniversary #9, Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua, Liga Privada #9, La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor duque, San Cristobal Revelation toro, Montecristo 1935 Anniversary.

Lastly, save your cheap mild cigars for the golf course or fishing on boat. Smoke cigars in order of mild to full bodied. Some cigars like the La Flor Domenica Double Ligero will knock you on your ass with no food. It's a powerhouse so smoke after a nice meal.

Hope that helps and Happy Smoking!

[scho63]

Last week back in Virginia, my client gifted me these after dinner.

Cuban Montecristo and a rare Jefferson's Ocean bourbon.

[scho63]

Some random cigar photos.

1. A day of smoking five premium cigars.
2. and 3. Cuban Partagas Series P #2 gifted to me by my cousin.
4. PG Cigar long ash. PG's are spectacular.
5. Me smoking a Mexican made Te Amo Maduro in 1989 at my new house me and a buddy bought.

[Holladay]

Should you poke said cigar in your wifes' face or pull a Bill Clinton?

[trndobrd]

First really mild spring evening. Monte Platinum and Makers Private Select on the deck.

[scho63]

Originally Posted by trndobrd

First really mild spring evening. Monte Platinum and Makers Private Select on the deck.

I like Monte Platinum Series. Nice choice.

Try the Montecristo 1935 Anniversary Nicaragua series. Excellent and on sale big time at Cigar Page. Just bought a 2nd box of 10 for $89 after last week cost me $129 not on sale.

My second electric Newair 250 count humidor arrived last Monday and I conditioned and acclimated it. I got my latest shipment of 90 cigars Thursday. My current inventory is 220 cigars and I just ordered another 25 from Cigars International and 75 from Cigar Page for arrival on Wednesday. That will be 320 cigars across two humidors. Bought a lot of 5 packs from the Cigar Aficionado's list that I never tried. The Trinidad Espritu No 1 and the Ozgener Family Bospherus 55 are new for me.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Watching my wife smoke for 38 years and now tied to an oxygen machine until she dies makes me want nothing to do with any ****ing thing that causes lung damage!

[scho63]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

Watching my wife smoke for 38 years and now tied to an oxygen machine until she dies makes me want nothing to do with any ****ing thing that causes lung damage!

Sorry to hear. Cigarettes so evil.

My Mom, Dad, two grandfathers and my maternal grandmother all had cancer from smoking cigarettes. 4 of 5 died from cancer, grandmother lost a breast.

Cigarettes have chemicals sprayed on them, cigars do not

People inhale cigarettes and pot, cigar smokers do not.

Never smoked cigarettes or did chew but cigars since 17 or 18.

My lung issues came from my blood clot breaking off. 4 pulmonary embolisms that are all gone. No scarring. Scary shit.

[scho63]

Smoking a Alec Bradley Kintsugi Gordo for the first time. Not bad.

Not as good as the Prensado but also not as strong.