A decade down the road.....What were you smoking in 2007? have your tastes changed?

[El Presidente]

2007....can you think back that far 

What were you smoking (it doesn't matter if Cubans of NC's)? What were you squirrelling away to smoke then or to age? If ageing, how did that pan out? I

What was your go to cigar/cigars in 2007? What was floating your boat? How does that compare to your go to cigar/cigars today?

Hard to believe a decade has passed. 

 

[BMWBen]

In 2007 I was 13 years old so I would think probably these 

I much prefer my CC's of today  

[Fuzz]

10 years ago I was regularly smoking Monte (2, 4 &  Tubos), Cohiba (Siglo VI & Robustos) and Zino Davidoff (Platinum Scepter Series Low Rider). I stopped smoking NCs about 8 yrs ago. Squirreled away HdM Des Dieux and Party SdC #3. I think we all know how it panned out for the Des Dieux. Also put away some LEs & REs to age. Most worked out, some fizzled.

Go to cigar brands nowadays are RA, PL & Partagas. HdM has dropped out because I can't get any more Des Dieux to age at the moment, and Cohiba is just too damn expensive.

[stogieluver]

I was chasing every stinking NC in the Cigar Aficionado top 25 trying to figure out what all the fuss was about.  I didn't become enlightened until five years later.  Oh, the horror of losing all those precious cigar smoking years.  I never found a NC that was box worthy, so I only bought a handful of singles every week.   

[Lotusguy]

I was smoking Gurkha Ancient Warriors... oh the horror!!

[planetary]

Not a cigar smoker back then, and was deep into pipe tobacco.  (Still am, to a degree!)  My favorites of the time included a bunch of GL Pease tobaccos, including the discontinued Renaissance and Bohemian Scandal.  Also enjoyed McClelland's Dark Star, Reiner's Long Golden Flake, Escudo, and McCranie's Red Ribbon.  Having been into that hobby for a length of time, I was able to enjoy reasonably-aged (5+ years) tins of those classics, and early release tins of the GL Pease.

Aging does good things to many kinds of pipe tobacco, especially mixtures with a high percentage of Virginia leaf.  In the last decade, a volume of my cellar has been approaching 20 years of age, and I've been sampling it periodically.  Some of the latakia mixtures are softening (which is to the taste of some, but not all), but the Virginia blends are achieving great peaks as they get into the period of aging where it takes long decades for them to mature further.  There have been examples through the 20th century of some tins with 40 or 50 years.  I hope to enjoy tins I own now as they approach such ages.

With all that said, since discovering really good Cuban cigars, I've not been smoking much else.  There is something alluring about the really top shelf stuff that isn't on offer anywhere else.

[airtrade]

Same thing. Grabbing singles every week from the local shop.

A lot of Fuente Anejo when available.

[polarbear]

Captain Black Cherry "Cigars"
Carlos Torano Maduo PC
Monte 4's

Of those 3, only one still has a place in my humidor

[Jefferson]

Well lets see.

I started smoking pipes and cigars in the early 80's. Fell in was a group of scalawags in the late 80's who smoked Cuban sticks as much as possible.

Back then guys would take hunting and fishing trips to Canada and sneak back in to the USA as many boxes as they could in their RV's. Yes they were expensive and you had little choice over what you got on your cut, but hey, we were smoking Cuban's!!!!

99-00-01 hit with all of the troubles and I quit buying till around 05 when I was told things had turned around. Back to the border smuggling racket I went.

Then by the later 2000's we discovered internet sales and its been full steam ahead ever since. I still smoke many of the same sticks I smoked in the 90's.

Montecristo, Hoyo, Partagas, RyJ, Bolivar.

Cuban's have changed a lot since the late 80's and there has been many ups and downs, but all in all they've been great and I still love them dearly.   

[HavanaSunday]

Back in 2007 I stockpiled Ashton VSGs and Opus X along with a few Padrons. As good as they were back then I was happy I put some away. Today they're smoking extremely well although I don't reach for Dominican or Nicaraguan cigars all too often. 

[MrGlass]

Hav-A-Tampa Jewels Vanilla were my "stick" of choice back in those days.  At $15 a pack they were fantastic value, and I only smoked them when we were having parties and drinking excessive amounts of cheap alcohol anyway.  

I'd say my tastes have changed.  

[PigFish]

... I just started smoking some of my '07's... What do you want to know??? -LOL

-Piggy

(Do you really want another rant about how much Tabacuba sucks for cancelling my best cigars?)

[BuzzArd]

About the only smokes i collected back then were Opus X.  The 07's are gone, and I just smoked up (and gave away one) of my last 08's and it was fantastic.   Super smooth, lots of lovely, thick smoke and a fantastic flavor without the "in your face" pepper of a cresh Opus.  Have 09-12 still in that cabinet humi, but the rest is mosty CC collected through the past 3-4 years.  Some are short term, some are for the long.  Hoping to be able to enjoy stock I've been buying lately 10, 20 and even 30 years from now should I make it that far....

[dvickery]

For more than 25 years now ... the closer a cigar is to a petit corona ... the better the chance I will smoke one on any given night . 

Derrek

[Habana Mike]

Funny, it's my 10th anniversary here just last month....closer to 20 years since I seriously started enjoying the hobby and the Habanos.

Back then I was smoking pretty much the same as now, though more of the specialty stuff lately as I went through a spree I've since gotten over.

Mainstay at the time was the Boli PC and CE by the 50 cab, miss both dearly.

Shame I have smoked through much of my earlier supply as at the time was only picking up the occasional box here and there, not stocking up as I should have been.....

[hjmclain22]

In 2007 the only cigars I purchased, if I did, were swishers, phillies and Garcia Vegas.  They were not kept for aging purposes.   

[Stogieninja]

In 2007, I was just getting started. Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve was my favorite. Tinderbox Wilshires and Javas too.

So yeah, I think it's safe to say my tastes have changed!


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[archosaur]

I had just started with the hobby, only NCs at that point...Fuente, Padron, Tatuaje, the usual suspects. I do remember liking the NC Hoyo Excalibur, wonder how I would feel about it now..?

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[SignalJoe]

In 07 my go to smokes were Bolivar and RyJ mainly Marevas and Robustos.  Much to the detriment of my checking account I have discovered that I enjoy the hallmark flavors of Cohiba.   Though I still enjoy the same formats I also appreciate larger ring gauges and Julieta N. 2's. 

[ErikB]

Same as now - but one cigar I remember very clearly : a SC Principe I was smoking when proposing to my wife


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[NSXCIGAR]

Lots of RASCC and El Principe, Partagas Aristocrats/MF/SP and occasionally Cohiba Exquisitos. I was on a smaller cigar kick for a while back then.

In 08-09 I revisited Monte, particularly the Especiales. But overall CC quality had been so spotty coming into 06-07 I was very happy to lock into the RASCC and El Principe which were extremely reliable at that time.

[GavLew79]

Cigarettes unfortunately. Benson and Hedges gold and when flush; Davidoffs. 

Quit in 2011. Found cigars. ?

[Cmelle]

In 07 i was 18 and had my first cigar which was an amazing Monte 2. That's the one that got me hooked. That's all i smoked, for a few years. Then the occasional partagas p2. I remember buying a lusitanias around 5 years ago for 85$. The Monte 2's were costing me 55$ here in Melbourne. Then i realized i loved cigars and if i wanted to keep smoking i needed to find a cheaper way. After a bit of research i found online buying. So around 3 years ago i started my own collection. Been smoking a good variety, but, i still find myself reaching for Monte 2's very often. They have a special place in my heart. 

[99call]

I enjoyed 07 immensely as I was cutting my teeth in terms of trying to understand what I liked.

I was buying lots of mixed bags from Switzerland from a great dealer. What I found really useful was that when I was buying the hand picked mixed singles, I was also buying bundles of JLP Cazadores. Now, I know a lot of people shun the JLP line, I shun everything but the Cazadores for the same reasons. (I will say now that I haven't smoked one for a good 7 years) but they were great as an accompaniment to other experiences, they had a good solid musty ceder earthy salty/sour twang and exhibited a much of what makes things like the 898 great, but obviously in a much more basic, raw and unchallenging way

Anyway when I was going through this process, it was brilliant to experience things like the QDO Imperiales, Choix Supreme etc etc as it really got me to start to understand the line between raw and refined, and body especially.

In 2017 I feel as if my tastes have retreated slightly from the savoury (mainly because of a box of Ramon Allones extra that tasted of oxo beef stock cubes). I find the Upmann Mag 50 a bit of a revelation as its sits (for me anyway) somewhere between the sweet and the savoury. I touch on mongrel, but a lot of decadent class a would count the Lusi in on that too

[LGC]

Tastes haven't changed. I'm now smoking the cigars purchased from that period. The major difference is that I was buying some cigars, and there was a slightly higher availability of choices for me to choose from...