The Best and Worst cigar EXPERIENCES you have had

[Guest rob]

What specific moment / event come to mind when you think of the best and worst cigar experiences you have had?

I'm not talking about your best and worst cigars here... I'm talking about your fondest memories. The cigar you had may have heightened the experience or ruined it.

The best and fondest experience I have had was Christmas day 2 years ago. It was a blistering hot day and me and my missus got home from lunch with my family and sat in our backyard under a mature Golden Ash. Her with a glass of chilled chardonney, me with a beer. The cigar was a 2003 Upmann Sir Winston. I'm not sure what made this more memorable than any other day where we do the exact same thing... but I do recall that the Sir Winny was amazing and relaxed me in a way I have seldom experienced before or since.

The worst experience was an evening after dinner about 9 years ago. I went outside and smoked a Tony Borhani Bahia Gold. By half way through I knew I was going to be sick. 10 mins later I was getting that feeling of nausia and cold shivers.... a few moments later I was hurling my guts up over the toilet. The rest of the night was not good.

Your turn.

[JoshMP]

Not really sure about great experiences i have had with cigars involved that weren't thanks to the cigar. I attended a function put on by my local cigar merchant celebrating the God of Fire Double Corona. This was certainly a great, enjoyable experience. There's something really nice about 200+ people all enjoying the same cigar at the same time.

One experience REALLY stands out as a bad one though:

Each year my work goes on a trip out to sea to a local island tourist spot. We boat out there, moor in a nice area and swim, play cricket etc. On the way out I was totally fine (and i'm not one for sea sickness normally anyway).

Whilst moored I smoked a Hoyo Regalos EL from a box i scored when they were first released. The cigar was sub-par, putting it nicely, and i didn't think much about it. On the way back to the mainland thinks got VERY hairy though. Not only was i horrendously sea sick but the sickness continued unabated for three days ending with me in hospital deliriously listening to a doctor say "it really does seem like an extended case of sea sickness".

Not sure how much of that I can attribute to the cigar but I haven't been able to smoke one since without feeling a little ill.

[dicko]

best memory probably was when me and my best mate had a couple of cigars down by the swan river, talking crap, a good moment of male solidarity. had some loose parties where cigars have come out too but can't beat a quiet sunday arvo on the verandah just kicking back

worst experience is when you are trying to enjoy a cigar and a more 'enlightened' individual decides to tell you about the negative health effects of what you are doing.

[Colt45]

Aside from poor cigars, I can't really recall a truly bad cigar related experience. I think my most memorable though, centered around an '03 Bolivar Corona

Gigantes. Smoking out on my deck, I completely lost track of time and space. Finally, I looked up and realized where I was. For a moment, I really thought

the cigar had been spiked. It was as a photograph with a very short depth of field - the cigar in focus, but everything around it blurred. I've never forgotten

that feeling.

[bassman]

Best- smoking a Taboada super robusto in Havana's Parque Centrale an hour after he rolled at La Corona.

Worst- realizing the cigars in the bottom row of my Monte DC EL box were fake! A smart way to sell fakes. Real ones on top so you don't send them back right away.

[Habanos2000]

Good - Celebrating the birth of my second son with a Davidoff Special "T". (didn't have any cubans on me at the time)

Bad - mistakenly putting the lit end of the cigar in my mouth. Alcohol intake had NOTHING to do with that.

[ucla695]

I don’t think I have a single best cigar moment/event, but the ones that rank at the top have always been when I’ve smoked with close friends and family. I don’t necessarily remember what I smoked on those occasions, but there’s something about enjoying the camaraderie of friends/family over a cigar and a drink or two.

The worst experience still stands out in my head. I was interning at a law office one summer and there was an associate who loved cigars. For his birthday, the office chipped in and bought him a box of his favorite, locally rolled cigars. I asked him about the cigars and he was so impassionate about them that he piqued my curiosity. The next day, I picked up a couple from the roller and smoked them with a buddy. I was new to cigars and, more importantly, nicotine. I was not ready for what followed. After smoking the cigar really quickly, a bad case of nicotine sickness kicked in. I just remember laying on the couch trying to stop the room from spinning. Horrible…

[JMacSr]

Best experience was a couple of weeks ago when my brother and I could finally celebrate our New Orleans Saints finally winning a Super Bowl. Our cigars were A.Fuente King T, as no CCs were available to us at that moment.

Worst experiences include recently I lit up in a bar surrounded by people smoking cigarettes and get told by the bartender, "I'm sorry, we don't allow cigar smoking in here" then having to sit there and finish the $20 US scotch that I had already paid for.

[LeafLover]

I bet former president Bill Clinton's best and worst experience with a cigar is one and the same.

Kidding aside, I've had plenty of good experiences and is hard to single out one. But, let me tell you about my worst>>>>>

Worst experience was not with one habano, but with a number of habanos, and did not involve smoking a habano. In my office I had a desktop humi filled with great habanos, aged, and faves that I have readily available should I want to smoke one with a client or just to get away from work hell. Well, for some reason, on a Friday, I left the humi on the floor under my desk. A flood in my office occurred the next day on Saturday after one of my employees clocked out. When I arrived on Monday morning, I walked into my office flooded with 3 inches high of water. I walked to the bathroom and found the source. Then I remembered my humi. I went to grab my humi under my desk and the wood was warped and split..... and, all the habanos was soaked! I mean soaked! I laid all of them out on my desk arranged neatly, not one touching the other. I sat in my chair just staring at the cigars for a half an hour while my employees scurried around moving desks, files, computers, etc. In retrospect, I must have looked crazy. It was a very sad day. A day I will never forget. It was hard to say goodbye to them.

Even to this day, the $6800 disaster clean up bill pales in comparison to how I felt losing those babies that day. Is that sick or what?!

[ImTripN2]

My best cigar moment was last summer. We had friends for BBQ and drinks, and had built a fire in the backyard pit. It was one of those perfect soft summer nights, smell of alfalfa, honeysuckle and lilac in the air. We had a great dinner with a few pitchers of mojitos ( we grow mint and berries, and the raspberry mojitos are the best!) Anyway, the friends had gone home, and the mrs went to bed, so I went back in and got a CoRo (I think) and just lounged in the grass by the fire, smoked a superb stick, and watched the heavens! Pitch black night in the country... satellites, shooting stars, and just a bazillion beautiful stars.

[BobLobLaw]

Interesting question.

Best - Bolivar Petite Corona smoked on a summer night in 08. Heavy, still quiet night. Took my pup outside and let him run around while I smoked quietly and walked around. City lights and the Sears tower just overhead as we walked around the park for about an hour. That cigar was just amazing. So much richness, and thick creamy chocolate smoke. Like a Padron, but with much more flavor. I had to stop and sit it was so good. Since then I have smoked from that box sparingly (POS MAY 07 from Czar) and that experience was what opened my eyes to the wonders of small gauge cigars. Most of my purchases since then have been PC, Lonsdales, Lanceros, etc . . . Loving it

Worst - My college had a little cigar shop that had a longstanding relationship with Fuente. Not only did they receive Opus regularly they charge like $.25 over MSRP. So not knowing anything other then the prestige Opus was really the first cigars I had the pleasure of trying. Mid July golfing with friends, started around 7 am, minimal breakfast. Few smuggled beers on the course. Lit up an Opus Churchill size around 11 am. This is also back in the time when carrying ones bag was the norm, no way we were paying for a golf cart. So lugging my bag with an empty stomach, sweating and 90 degree thick humid air. In the last third I just felt miserable. Luckily only 2 holes to go, made it through only to puke my guts out hanging outside my buddies car. Fast food and a soda made all the difference in the world, but man that was miserable.

[riderpride]

I'm not sure about the best, but the worst was during this years Super Bowl (perhaps only due to the recency effect); it was my first El Morro. It offered little to no flavour, and did nothing but take away from the experience.

[ucla695]

Interesting question.

Best - Bolivar Petite Corona smoked on a summer night in 08. Heavy, still quiet night. Took my pup outside and let him run around while I smoked quietly and walked around. City lights and the Sears tower just overhead as we walked around the park for about an hour. That cigar was just amazing. So much richness, and thick creamy chocolate smoke. Like a Padron, but with much more flavor. I had to stop and sit it was so good. Since then I have smoked from that box sparingly (POS MAY 07 from Czar) and that experience was what opened my eyes to the wonders of small gauge cigars. Most of my purchases since then have been PC, Lonsdales, Lanceros, etc . . . Loving it

I have the same box code and they're also smoking extremely well!

[jacksfull]

My best cigar experience was also my first Cuban, though it wasn't quite the quality of the cigar itself that made it so special. It was the company and the circumstance.

I was in Hong Kong for my first time, in 1985, on a group trip with my parents. After a fantastic dinner at Hugo's, a "cigar girl" came around with a tray offering complimentary Cuban cigars. I started to waive her off thinking that my Mom would rather not sit in a cloud of smoke to sip her cordial, but to my surprise she said, "Go ahead, why don't you two have a cigar together."

What a production ensued! Each cigar was carefully unwrapped and clipped for us. Then we were asked if we'd like them dipped in brandy before the girl lovingly placed a cigar in each of our mouths. She expertly toasted and lit each one for us. The whole prep and lighting process must have taken about 10 minutes... not that I minded, she was awfully cute.

Dad was a five-or-six-a-day cigar man, and we kids were used to constantly hearing my Mom gripe about the smell. For the first time I could remember, my Mom sat and smiled through it all without even making a face when the smoke blew her way.

I don't remember what brand those cigars were, but being cello-wrapped, and complimentary, I'm sure they were just MM's. Regardless, for that moment it seemed there could be no finer cigar to be had on heaven or earth. Dad and I smoked, and drank, and talked together like two old chums just having a buddy-to-buddy chat.

My worst cigar memory, or to be more accurate, most bittersweet, would be having a smoke in Dad's memory with some of his old cronies after his funeral. Not coincidentally, I told the story of sharing a cigar with him in Hong Kong then too. There was no need to water our cigars. The tears that flowed did that for all.

I've been back to HK several times since that first trip, but not in a few years. I'll have to get back to that remarkable town again sometime soon just to have dinner and a Cuban for dear old Dad! He'd like that. I'm told the Hyatt Regency hotel in Kowloon, where Hugo's was, has been torn down now. I guess I'll have to "settle" for Dad's other favorite restaurant there instead, Jimmy's Kitchen... if it's still around.

[Onsto]

Good - Celebrating the birth of my second son with a Davidoff Special "T". (didn't have any cubans on me at the time)

Bad - mistakenly putting the lit end of the cigar in my mouth. Alcohol intake had NOTHING to do with that.

Awesome! I once spent a couple of very confused minutes as a drunk student trying to light the filter of a marlboro...

Best experience - when I finished my Finals at University (July 2000) I had a Monte Millenium Edition Robusto from the ceramic jar at Tranters' in Oxford (as a student could only afford one). I had promised myself that same cigar for about 3 months and it lived up to expectations. Can't really remember how it tasted, just that the relaxation after a gruelling period was enhanced by sitting in the college gardens with my friends on a gorgeous Summer day, drinking and smoking.

Worst - my wife arranged for us to visit one of her colleagues houses for brunch. Knowing her husband smoked cigars (though not having met him before) I volunteered to take a couple over for an after brunch smoke on their deck. He requested a Davidoff Special T (which our local tobacconist in Vancouver didn't have, so I got him the Special R). Since I was paying exhorbitant non-Czars prices anyway I picked up a single Monte Sublime while there so that I could try one. Turns out that we didn't really get on - I'd spent $30 or so on a cigar that he didn't want (and repeatedly told me how much BETTER the Special T was while smoking it), and I couldn't really relax in his rather irritating company so didn't enjoy the cigar or the experience one bit. Ended up smoking about 2/3 of the cigar way too fast (<45 minutes) just so that I could get out of there.

[Buch0]

My best cigar experience was also my first Cuban, though it wasn't quite the quality of the cigar itself that made it so special. It was the company and the circumstance.

I was in Hong Kong for my first time, in 1985, on a group trip with my parents. After a fantastic dinner at Hugo's, a "cigar girl" came around with a tray offering complimentary Cuban cigars. I started to waive her off thinking that my Mom would rather not sit in a cloud of smoke to sip her cordial, but to my surprise she said, "Go ahead, why don't you two have a cigar together."

What a production ensued! Each cigar was carefully unwrapped and clipped for us. Then we were asked if we'd like them dipped in brandy before the girl lovingly placed a cigar in each of our mouths. She expertly toasted and lit each one for us. The whole prep and lighting process must have taken about 10 minutes... not that I minded, she was awfully cute.

Dad was a five-or-six-a-day cigar man, and we kids were used to constantly hearing my Mom gripe about the smell. For the first time I could remember my Mom sat and smiled through it all without even making a face when the smoke blew her way.

I don't remember what brand those cigars were, but being cello-wrapped, and complimentary, I'm sure they were just MM's. Regardless, for that moment it seemed there could be no finer cigar to be had on heaven or earth. Dad and I smoked, and drank, and talked together like two old chums just having a buddy-to-buddy chat.

My worst cigar memory, or to be more accurate, most bittersweet, would be having a smoke in Dad's memory with some of his old cronies after his funeral. Not coincidentally, I told the story of sharing a cigar with him in Hong Kong then too. There was no need to water our cigars. The tears that flowed did that for all.

I've been back to HK several times since that first trip, but not in a few years. I'll have to get back to that remarkable town again sometime soon just to have dinner and a Cuban for dear old Dad! He'd like that. I'm told the Hyatt Regency hotel in Kowloon, where Hugo's was, has been torn down now. I guess I'll have to "settle" for Dad's other favorite restaurant there instead, Jimmy's Kitchen... if it's still around.

Gave me goosebumps reading that post mate, thank you for sharing that with us and may your father rest in peace. I can only imagine how many times you have relived that moment in your head over the years while smoking a cigar in solitude. Really is touching to see how a cigar can create such a moment as that, one that will not only bring a tear to the eye of those who were involved, but also to those lucky enough to hear about it.

My most memorable experience was probably a recent one I had probably around 12 months ago. It had a been a rough lead up to this moment, both work wise and relationship wise if I remember correctly. I had a few critical decisions made around that time and it wasn't the most golden part of my life but on this particular afternoon everything fell into place. The cigar was a Diplo 4 (which is to this day is still my favourite cigar), but I remember sitting on our balcony on the late summers afternoon naively hoping that this cigar was going to put things in perspective for me.

It felt like only seconds after torching this beauty that everything besides my being and my cigar had been completely wiped off the face of that earth, similar to Colts experience he stated earlier. I remember feeling like the flood gates had opened on my mind and everything that had been bothering me until that point was pouring out into oblivion, for after this cigar my mind was clear for weeks. I focused on nothing besides the cigar itself and gave the odd glance to the sun setting on the horizon for the entire time of the smoke. To this day I cant explain how such nirvana occurred but it was the closest thing to heaven I have experienced in my life. When the cigar was in the final third I remember coming to and having to check the time and where I was, the world could have been burning down around me and I wouldn't have cared.

When I finally nubbed the cigar I felt like I had laid a great mate or family member to rest, it really did feel like this Diplo had been with me through thick and thin and that the experience it had just provided me with would assist me far into the future. I guess it was just one of those life experiences where everything falls into place, every question feels like it has been answered and every start was coming to an end. One of the more memorable moments of my life without a doubt.

My only really bad experience would be the moment I think about this type of thing not happening again somewhere down the track..

[bunburyist]

... I guess I'll have to "settle" for Dad's other favorite restaurant there instead, Jimmy's Kitchen... if it's still around.

Jimmy's is still here mate, one in Kowloon and one on the Island

[jacksfull]

Gave me goosebumps reading that post mate, thank you for sharing that with us and may your father rest in peace. I can only imagine how many times you have relived that moment in your head over the years while smoking a cigar in solitude. Really is touching to see how a cigar can create such a moment as that, one that will not only bring a tear to the eye of those who were involved, but also to those lucky enough to hear about it.

My most memorable experience was probably a recent one I had probably around 12 months ago. It had a been a rough lead up to this moment, both work wise and relationship wise if I remember correctly. I had a few critical decisions made around that time and it wasn't the most golden part of my life but on this particular afternoon everything fell into place. The cigar was a Diplo 4 (which is to this day is still my favourite cigar), but I remember sitting on our balcony on the late summers afternoon naively hoping that this cigar was going to put things in perspective for me.

It felt like only seconds after torching this beauty that everything besides my being and my cigar had been completely wiped off the face of that earth, similar to Colts experience he stated earlier. I remember feeling like the flood gates had opened on my mind and everything that had been bothering me until that point was pouring out into oblivion, for after this cigar my mind was clear for weeks. I focused on nothing besides the cigar itself and gave the odd glance to the sun setting on the horizon for the entire time of the smoke. To this day I cant explain how such nirvana occurred but it was the closest thing to heaven I have experienced in my life. When the cigar was in the final third I remember coming to and having to check the time and where I was, the world could have been burning down around me and I wouldn't have cared.

When I finally nubbed the cigar I felt like I had laid a great mate or family member to rest, it really did feel like this Diplo had been with me through thick and thin and that the experience it had just provided me with would assist me far into the future. I guess it was just one of those life experiences where everything falls into place, every question feels like it has been answered and every start was coming to an end. One of the more memorable moments of my life without a doubt.

My only really bad experience would be the moment I think about this type of thing not happening again somewhere down the track..

My thanks to you too! I've been hoping for something to bring clarity to current tribulations. Beautiful description of the perfect cigar moment doing just that. I think I'd better order a box of those Diplo 4's!

[jacksfull]

Jimmy's is still here mate, one in Kowloon and one on the Island

Glad to hear it! Thanks! I've always been treated well there... if I remember correctly the Matre d' at the Kowloon location is (was?) a fellow named Andrew. Great fellow! Great food! Very "old school." I often dream of those pickled shallots they put out, not to mention the buttered steak and lovely NZ lamb.

[jacksfull]

Baldrick: But sir, I've been in your family for generations.

Blackadder: Yes, and so has syphilis, now get out.

BTW, love the Blackadder quote! What on earth got into Rowan Atkinson afterwards? Never enjoyed him nearly as much playing the hapless Mr. Bean and such.

Piggy wiggy woo !!!

[Kangaroo495]

Best experience - arriving in Havana at 10pm after a gruelling 12 hour flight, getting to the casa, changing clothes and immediately going and getting wasted at the first bar we found. Smoked a Monte 2. Still sticks in my mind as the BEST cigar I ever smoked.

Worst - smoked a Monte4 in minus 23 Celsius the other week while cooking a BBQ. The cigar was terrible.