The Cigar that changed your life

[HumidorJuan]

Hey everyone,

What was the first cigar experience that it all went click for you?

 

I was in first year university, first trash apartment, firsts for a number of adult priviledges while forgetting all the responsabilities and found myself in what i call in retrospect, a "shitty time of my life". Windsor, Ontario has kept a few cigar shops since the 90's and a few days before my experience, with no knowledge or experience smoking, I impulse purchased a Monte 2.  

It was right at the end of the university school year, spring was still soaking wet but it smelled warm and familiar, and earlier that afternoon I got my grades and realized that all my hard earned work had paid off and I would not be graduating. Not be graduating from an accounting degree that my parents essentially forced my introverted, pliable, high school mind to do. I loathed it so badly that by the end I just stopped going, and like a lame duck, just ignored the emails and phone calls from the school, and ignored the fact that eventually all will be revealed to my father.  

On this one particular Saturday Night, we decided to attend a party on the riverfront (Windsor, Ontario is right at the border of Detroit, Michigan), and we were young enough for the nights to still feel long. Discarded red cups with half a sip of warm beer dripping onto the countertop filled with bottles and abandoned chip bags and cigerette ash. hammered sardine can situations of too many people in a room, marred carpets from the shoes that cut across the lawn, and I just couldn't get my mind straight about what I was gonna do about anything.  We carried on until suddenly that shock of dull grey daylight told us all to go home, and I decided to walk to the river and finally smoke this cigar i've had in my pocket all along.  I grab a bench overlooking the Detroit river and bite the torpedo end off of the monte 2, I light it haphazardly with maybe 8 smushed matches, one eye shut with god knows what look on my face and go thru the big huffs and flame ups and scortched gnarled beginning that occurs when you've been up all night drinking and now your smoking a cigar for the first time ever.  I catch my breath and remember tasting what was not unlike the smell of old furniture and i smoke it agressively again, agressively and than again but more chill and drawn out and than I just take this perfect, controlled sip that filled my mouth with the taste of the best, warmest, fluffiest chocolate milk I've ever had tasted and my vision came back into focus, and i came back to the surface from the drink and just listened to the birds and the river move and the distant morning commute and I realize how tense I had been for so long. And I thought about what I'd say to my Dad, and I thought about how great it will be to not work a job I hate, and I caught myself in a moment of clarity. I caught myself cherishing the weight of this cigar in my hand, and the state of mind it brought to me. And everything worked out fine. 

[MD Puffer]

[joeypots]

HDM DC in 1998.  My first Cuban cigars came from a friend who brought them to me from Canada. I had no understanding of storage or care of the cigars, I just smoked them as soon as I got them. Then one day I smoked said DC and the world shifted. It was on and I was in love. It took me about a year to figure out how to source the cigars on the internet and I quickly lost interest in any but Cuban cigars

[Colt45]

That's a great story (not your situation at the time). I guess for me, it all kind of crept up on me. Why start smoking cigars to begin with? But anyway. I've had some real eye opening cigars from all over the cigar producing world. Some not so great, and everything in between. They're all part and parcel to my individual cigar story.

It has been, and continues to be a learning experience.....

[Cigar_83]

On 4/13/2019 at 2:53 AM, MaxwellM said:

Hey everyone,

What was the first cigar experience that it all went click for you?

 

I was in first year university, first trash apartment, firsts for a number of adult priviledges while forgetting all the responsabilities and found myself in what i call in retrospect, a "shitty time of my life". Windsor, Ontario has kept a few cigar shops since the 90's and a few days before my experience, with no knowledge or experience smoking, I impulse purchased a Monte 2.  

It was right at the end of the university school year, spring was still soaking wet but it smelled warm and familiar, and earlier that afternoon I got my grades and realized that all my hard earned work had paid off and I would not be graduating. Not be graduating from an accounting degree that my parents essentially forced my introverted, pliable, high school mind to do. I loathed it so badly that by the end I just stopped going, and like a lame duck, just ignored the emails and phone calls from the school, and ignored the fact that eventually all will be revealed to my father.  

On this one particular Saturday Night, we decided to attend a party on the riverfront (Windsor, Ontario is right at the border of Detroit, Michigan), and we were young enough for the nights to still feel long. Discarded red cups with half a sip of warm beer dripping onto the countertop filled with bottles and abandoned chip bags and cigerette ash. hammered sardine can situations of too many people in a room, marred carpets from the shoes that cut across the lawn, and I just couldn't get my mind straight about what I was gonna do about anything.  We carried on until suddenly that shock of dull grey daylight told us all to go home, and I decided to walk to the river and finally smoke this cigar i've had in my pocket all along.  I grab a bench overlooking the Detroit river and bite the torpedo end off of the monte 2, I light it haphazardly with maybe 8 smushed matches, one eye shut with god knows what look on my face and go thru the big huffs and flame ups and scortched gnarled beginning that occurs when you've been up all night drinking and now your smoking a cigar for the first time ever.  I catch my breath and remember tasting what was not unlike the smell of old furniture and i smoke it agressively again, agressively and than again but more chill and drawn out and than I just take this perfect, controlled sip that filled my mouth with the taste of the best, warmest, fluffiest chocolate milk I've ever had tasted and my vision came back into focus, and i came back to the surface from the drink and just listened to the birds and the river move and the distant morning commute and I realize how tense I had been for so long. And I thought about what I'd say to my Dad, and I thought about how great it will be to not work a job I hate, and I caught myself in a moment of clarity. I caught myself cherishing the weight of this cigar in my hand, and the state of mind it brought to me. And everything worked out fine. 

Great story, but now I am curious to know what field of study or work did you gravitate towards? Can I guess journalism? 

For me, the cigar was a Por L, sweet notes that just tasted like heaven to me! since then I have been on a cigar mission. 

[BrightonCorgi]

Bolivar Royal Corona's I bought at Hajenus in 1995.  First introduction to picking my own Cuban cigars and they just blew me away.  Wish they still made them like that!

[cgarner]

For me it occurred in 2009 on a trip to Costa Rica.  Picked up a 10er of Monte #2 and Bolivar gold medals from the LCDH.  Since then I stumbled across this forum and it has been a happy marriage ever since.

[HumidorJuan]

@Cigar_83 I ended up in the music business 

[Cigar_83]

[mention=33586]Cigar_83[/mention] I ended up in the music business 

Not even close guess wise lol. Good stuff, congrats!!

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[cfc1016]

My first habanos. 1991 HDM DC in 1996. Never turned back to NCs after that.

[Puros Y Vino]

My first cigars ever were thanks to @ebhead At a couple of parties at his place.  I had them back in 2009 IIRC.  The very first an NC.  JDN Antanao.  I enjoyed it a lot.  My second was a RyJ Churchill.  That blew my mind.  This experience was what I had envisioned in my mind. Having never been a smoker, I became intrigued by cigars years before on a Caribbean cruise.  There was a channel looping on the TV that showed a 2 hour documentary on cigars.  I watched it a couple of times trying to get to sleep. I found it fascinating and though that one day, I'd give it a try.  Glad I did.   

[Jbhunter223]

I started out with NC like most here in the states.  One day my dad brought home a bunch of fakes from a buddy at work who’s family “lives in Cuba”.  That’s where is started on Cubans for me, I read everything I could find on Cubans. Eventually bought a box of Bolivar PC’s, smoked a bunch and learned the hard way they need to rest after shipping. It was that experience with nasty fakes that got me so obsessed with getting the real thing.  

[cmbarton]

I started smoking cigars when I was 17 or 18 but it was almost 20 years before I had my first CC.  I went to Havana in the Summer of 2017 and smoked more than I could count on that trip.  My first CC was probably RyJ, but the one that knocked my socks off was a HU Royal Robusto.  I savored all ten that came in that box, and no box of HURR since then matched the flavor and intensity.  But it was the gateway CC that made me give up NC once and for all.  Never looked back!

[HDGSN]

A 2004 CoRo. The “life-changing” aspect was I decided then to only buy Cubans, to buy an Aristocrat and to spend more money than I would have ever imagined. Funny thing is I have not had a CoRo since.

[Born Habano]

My parents gifted me a box of RyJ Churchills from Cuba for my 40th birthday.  They had my aunt buy them in Havana.  First time I'd smoked a legit/well cared for Cuban.  Haven't smoked anything but since with a very few exceptions.  That was in 2000.

[Euripidespants]

1982 davidoff chateau haut brion I smoked after my daughter was born in 2000 ...in a one bedroom apartment. Couldn’t afford a cigar like that at the time being a 22 yo recent college grad. Cigar was gifted to me in a “trade” with someone off the internet. (I sent him a 98 boli royal corona for a mystery cigar). Knew he had a helluva collection but didn’t expect that. I mentioned in a forum that the 5 pack of 98 boli Coronas I got were great...he said he hadn’t had one yet so I sent him one along with a Fuente. His handle name was poker. If you’re out there poker can’t thank you enough. He sent me the Davi along with a 155th partagas Solomon.

Smoked it late morning with a cup of coffee. Still my number one cigar experience. After the birth of my first child, strong realization that if I want good times like this I need to get serious and work my ass off. Also helped feeling that there are great selfless ppl in the world that just love the satisfaction of being nice and overly generous to others they don’t really know. 

The partagas 155 was excellent too.

 

[cookj1]

I grabbed a Bances Tubo from the local Esso store back in ‘90.  That brought me into the cigar world.  But in 2011 it was a Davidoff Mille series 1000 Cuban in London that changed my world.  If all cigars were like this, I wish them all on you.  It was the holy grail to me.

[HumidorJuan]

16 hours ago, Euripidespants said:

1982 davidoff chateau haut brion I smoked after my daughter was born in 2000 ...in a one bedroom apartment. Couldn’t afford a cigar like that at the time being a 22 yo recent college grad. Cigar was gifted to me in a “trade” with someone off the internet. (I sent him a 98 boli royal corona for a mystery cigar). Knew he had a helluva collection but didn’t expect that. I mentioned in a forum that the 5 pack of 98 boli Coronas I got were great...he said he hadn’t had one yet so I sent him one along with a Fuente. His handle name was poker. If you’re out there poker can’t thank you enough. He sent me the Davi along with a 155th partagas Solomon.

Smoked it late morning with a cup of coffee. Still my number one cigar experience. After the birth of my first child, strong realization that if I want good times like this I need to get serious and work my ass off. Also helped feeling that there are great selfless ppl in the world that just love the satisfaction of being nice and overly generous to others they don’t really know. 

The partagas 155 was excellent too.

 

I totally get that.  My cigar preferences have gone outside of my net worth, and it’s a good motivation to hustle and make more money to enjoy the finer things life has to offer.  

[Kingme29]

I had a girlfriend in college who's father was a banker.  He had attended a golf tournament and a colleague of his was a cuban cigar enthusiast.  My girlfriends dad didn't partake but had heard that I was a fan.  Truth be told, I had just begun smoking "cigars" and had a small humidor chock full of ACID Blondies and other flavored dreck.  He was kind enough to send the cigar along with his daughter when she next visited.  I smoked it that night at the top of the steps leading to my apartment.  My mind went blank, i was enveloped in a haze of nicotine, beautiful fragrant smoke and flavors that were complex, slightly spicy, warm and chocolatey.  I was absolutely hooked from that day forward trying to reproduce that magical first, but as we all know, those firsts are often impossible to repeat.  I found out months later after meeting the gentleman that gifted me the cigar that my first cuban cigar had been a Montecristo No. 2 circa mid 1970's.  Hell of an introduction!

 

[Derboesekoenig]

8 hours ago, Kingme29 said:

I had a girlfriend in college who's father was a banker.  He had attended a golf tournament and a colleague of his was a cuban cigar enthusiast.  My girlfriends dad didn't partake but had heard that I was a fan.  Truth be told, I had just begun smoking "cigars" and had a small humidor chock full of ACID Blondies and other flavored dreck.  He was kind enough to send the cigar along with his daughter when she next visited.  I smoked it that night at the top of the steps leading to my apartment.  My mind went blank, i was enveloped in a haze of nicotine, beautiful fragrant smoke and flavors that were complex, slightly spicy, warm and chocolatey.  I was absolutely hooked from that day forward trying to reproduce that magical first, but as we all know, those firsts are often impossible to repeat.  I found out months later after meeting the gentleman that gifted me the cigar that my first cuban cigar had been a Montecristo No. 2 circa mid 1970's.  Hell of an introduction!

 

Going to be pretty difficult to top that one! Ha sorry to get off topic, but how do fresh Monte2s compare?? Very curious

I would say I've had many experiences with cigars that have changed my outlook. Partagas Lusitania comes to mind. A fresh one too. Otherwise, my first LGC Md.4 was definitely eye-opening as well. Since that day, I've tried to collect all the LGC releases. Wish they weren't all regionals

 

[BoliDan]

On 4/13/2019 at 12:53 AM, MaxwellM said:

Hey everyone,

What was the first cigar experience that it all went click for you?

 

I was in first year university, first trash apartment, firsts for a number of adult priviledges while forgetting all the responsabilities and found myself in what i call in retrospect, a "shitty time of my life". Windsor, Ontario has kept a few cigar shops since the 90's and a few days before my experience, with no knowledge or experience smoking, I impulse purchased a Monte 2.  

It was right at the end of the university school year, spring was still soaking wet but it smelled warm and familiar, and earlier that afternoon I got my grades and realized that all my hard earned work had paid off and I would not be graduating. Not be graduating from an accounting degree that my parents essentially forced my introverted, pliable, high school mind to do. I loathed it so badly that by the end I just stopped going, and like a lame duck, just ignored the emails and phone calls from the school, and ignored the fact that eventually all will be revealed to my father.  

On this one particular Saturday Night, we decided to attend a party on the riverfront (Windsor, Ontario is right at the border of Detroit, Michigan), and we were young enough for the nights to still feel long. Discarded red cups with half a sip of warm beer dripping onto the countertop filled with bottles and abandoned chip bags and cigerette ash. hammered sardine can situations of too many people in a room, marred carpets from the shoes that cut across the lawn, and I just couldn't get my mind straight about what I was gonna do about anything.  We carried on until suddenly that shock of dull grey daylight told us all to go home, and I decided to walk to the river and finally smoke this cigar i've had in my pocket all along.  I grab a bench overlooking the Detroit river and bite the torpedo end off of the monte 2, I light it haphazardly with maybe 8 smushed matches, one eye shut with god knows what look on my face and go thru the big huffs and flame ups and scortched gnarled beginning that occurs when you've been up all night drinking and now your smoking a cigar for the first time ever.  I catch my breath and remember tasting what was not unlike the smell of old furniture and i smoke it agressively again, agressively and than again but more chill and drawn out and than I just take this perfect, controlled sip that filled my mouth with the taste of the best, warmest, fluffiest chocolate milk I've ever had tasted and my vision came back into focus, and i came back to the surface from the drink and just listened to the birds and the river move and the distant morning commute and I realize how tense I had been for so long. And I thought about what I'd say to my Dad, and I thought about how great it will be to not work a job I hate, and I caught myself in a moment of clarity. I caught myself cherishing the weight of this cigar in my hand, and the state of mind it brought to me. And everything worked out fine. 

Good story. I was also talked in to a business degree at first. We were reviewing the financials of Walmart, and I wanted to stab my eyes out with a spoon. I changed my major to social science and now I manage technology systems, and love it... At least now I know not pit that pressure on my son. 

 

I dont have a moment that it clicked. I've always liked cigars, I started smoking more when my son was born, because I could not go anywhere but needed some time to myself. When he turned 1, I had 6 boxes of Cubans and a bunch of divers of favorite NCs.