How did you start smoking cigars?

[Kierkegaard]

It has been a while fine gents, hope all is well, work has kept me away from this forum for a while now. As I was reading your reviews, and a member's critique of them, I stumbled upon someone who said they didn't write reviews because they lacked the adjectives for describing the flavours they encountered.

This remark prompted the rememberence of a time when I, as I'm sure most of you, were too at a loss for words regarding your smoke, that is, the first time you smoked a cigar.

 

I had always loved the smell of tobacco, my father was and is a cigarette smoker, and a friend of my mothers would always smoke Cuban cigars for the time I've known her. I was always drawn to it. I remember my first time well, I must have been 11 or 12, and it was the year after my father went to Cuba, and he had certain tubos on display in various corners of our house or his office. Two cigars remain in memory, a Partagas Serie P no.2 and a simple Romeo y Julieta No.1. The smell was of course intoxicating, even though he didn't humidify them. It was actually even more intense. Of course, I didn't have the gall to smoke those cigars, my father being a rare cigar smoker and 1 pack a day cigarette smoker, they were clearly off limits. But when the question of his birthday present came up that year, I walked into a local cigar shop, with total insouciance and although the woman that worked there questioned my age, it was tacitly understood that she wanted to make sale, and I wanted a cigar, so any excuse would do. I just told her my father had sent me to buy him a Cohiba Robusto, and the aformentioned pyramide. The fact that I knew the types and vitolas impressed her, so she ended up giving me a discount. After my triumphant purchase there was only one problem, I couldn't smoke the cigar at home. But thankfully, this was back in the days when you could smoke anywhere, so after school one day I just went to a local café, bought myself an Oolong tea and just went for it. Nobody asked any questions. I remember how strong it smelled, I haven't really come upon that smell since then, I think it was from too much humidity. I lit it with some matches that just so happened to be on every table in that café. It tasted spicy and wonderful. It was actually the fullfilment of my expectation. Writing this I realize it was actually one of those moments of passage, from one age to another. I hadn't really considered it until now. I generally don't dwell on the past with much nostalgia, my life has been great, but longing for a time when nothing had come to fruition and all is potential is a human tendency. I don't wish that life, thus far, had gone different, but the anguish of time passing, does hit hard. Or at least the worry that all your time shall end and you'll never have accomplished anything, or at least had stopped to enjoy it. "It will all be over soon" seems to whisper in my mind. But it's just empty angst, I'm not worried. "What thou lovest well shall not be reft from thee, the rest is dross".

 

After about half I was a bit dizzy, but nothing too bad. I think I put the rest in the tubo, and smoked it later. It was another two or three after that years when I smoked another cigar, and started smoking a cigar week.

 

So, how old were you when you first smoked a cigar? What was it like? What got you into it? And what cigar was it?

 

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[HarveyBoulevard]

I have no idea what the first cigar was but I do remember when the first cigar was.  I met my now wife and business partner in law school in San Diego, California back in 2000.  Her parents lived up in the Bay Area in Pleasanton, California.  I smoked cigarettes back then and one day my now father-in-law offered me a cigar.  It was love at first puff.  It took a couple of years but I finally quit smoking cigarettes and got slightly deep in cigars (your welcome Rob).  I remember being in awe of his 'Eurocave' humidor full of Cuban Cigars.  They moved down to San Diego several years ago so I get to share my passion with him more now.  He doesn't smoke but about once a week now and I am an everyday kinda guy at this point.  It is fun brining him new sticks to try.

So, to answer your questions:  I was 25, it was great, my father-in-law, and I have no idea but I know it was Cuban.

[Chibearsv]

I was either 15 or 16.  My best friend - next door neighbor and I built a plywood cabin on an island we had on the other side of a pond that was in our back yards.  We'd camp out a lot on the weekends where it was safe enough near home but impossible for parents to get to us since we always took both canoes across the pond.  We drank whatever liquor and beer we could get our hands on and smoked plenty of weed.  I started working at a grocery store as a bag boy which also meant I did aisle cleanup after the store closed.  I swiped cigars, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, and pipe tobacco while sweeping up, so we tried them all.  I hated chewing tobacco and cigarettes (one drag ever in my life, thought I was going to die) but really liked the cigars.  First one was probably either a Swisher or Dutch Masters as I recall.  Been smoking cigars ever since and have upped my game significantly 😁

[Hammer Smokin']

a wedding. 

a RyJ (have no clue which one, or even if it was a cuban version of a RyJ)

[KCCubano]

A friend in college from Chicago used to steal cubans from his old mans humi. Mid 80s. Dont even recall what they were. That was of course after several bong sessions so who cares right? Great weed, great scotch, great cigars!  Great times! 

[Mickey D]

Short story. In 1983 I was about 25 years old, a guy I worked with smoked cheap cigars during work. I enjoyed the smell and decided to give it a try. Been enjoying cigars since. 

[karp]

1995.. first year in college, I bought a box of Monte no1’s from a classmate. Dry. Neglected. Smoked them too fast and they were hot and peppery. But they appealed to me nonetheless for some reason so would smoke different brands every now and then from that time forward.

[WLC]

My first one was at about 11 or 12 years old, most likely a swisher or Dutch masters. Our next door neighbor would fish 3 or 4 evening a week and I'd go with him when I got home from school. Bugs would be horrible most days but I noticed they never bothered him. He gave me one of his cigars to help keep the bugs from buzzing me.  Used to only smoke them when fishing or camping and went a bunch of years before I picked it back up about 2 or 3 years ago. 

[Deeg]

I had an older friend (I was probably in my mid 20's) in Chicago who originally was my manager at a bookstore and ended up being a buddy.  I admired this guy a lot (funniest cat I ever knew - actually performed at Second City for a while), he was a cigar smoker, and while I loathed cigarettes (still do) one day I asked him to pick one out for me.  He chose a Macanudo - which shows you how good his judgment was, because that's the perfect first cigar (especially as this was when they still used Jamaican tobacco).  Wound up being an occasional smoker when we hung out - segued into Fuente and Padron, and eventually started bringing back Cuban singles from Yitz' after frequent road trips to Toronto. 

[Meesterjojo]

About 30 years ago when I was 18 I used to party a lot. One guy that would show up to our parties was this older dude, around 30, named Bob. Bob enjoyed pint glasses filled with old smuggler scotch and cigars. 

I wanted to be that cool. So I developed a taste for scotch, which I somewhat refined in later years while living in NYC through the 90s at this place doing single malt nights every Monday over on 11th. Landmark tavern I think it was.

Anyway, the cigar thing fascinated me and so I went to the Dunhill store nearby. Grabbed myself a montecristo #2 and smoked it. Fell in love right there on the spot. Walked out with a PG petite corona and an Ashton #10. 

Came back next payday with a friend, we did manual labor for a sign company and we looked rough for the store. But we pooled our money to buy a box of montecristo #2s ($180 in 1992 if anyone's curious).

I knew back then that I couldn't afford cigars as a habit. They were far more addictive than drugs. I remember, distinctly, formulating this thought poolside with an Ashton #10 in my mouth.

Got my first roommate into cigars as well. We'd buy handrolls from a local cigar store when we couldn't afford stuff from Dunhill. 

Sadly, I got into healthcare and had to give them up. Turns out when hospitals subsidize your insurance they don't like you to smoke. Fortunately, that changed last year with this new job, and here I am. Now I can afford cigars, unfortunately the NC world has changed for the worse (all gimmicks and harsh cigars).

[NSXCIGAR]

I was 11 or 12 years old. Always wanted to try one. I saw in the Johnson Smith catalog they had giant novelty cigars. I remember it saying the tobacco was pretty good too, so I ordered one. 

The thing was about 58 x 9 inches. And I had no idea that you needed to cut a cigar! I'm looking at it thinking how can you draw through this thing if it's got a closed head? It wouldn't make any sense to make it that way if you just have to cut it anyway! Made sense to a 12 year old. Anyway, I couldn't figure out any other way, so I poked a hole in the head and it worked. 

And believe it or not, it didn't taste too bad. The tobacco really wasn't that bad after all! 

The first premium cigars I had I got when I was 13. I somehow got ahold of a Davidoff mail order catalog and I ordered a 5-pack of Zino Mouton Cadet #1. I rode my bike down to the post office and got a money order and sent it off with the order form. Came in about 2 weeks. Grabbed the package before my parents got home. 

I recall the cigars being not that great, but I think it may have been my inexperience. I didn't figure out retrohaling until a year or two later. 

[DanWil84]

In short:covid and not being able to spend my money otherwise.

The long story:

think I was about 18 i first got in touch with cigars. My parents brought me some from the DR. Man did I enjoy the cigars, little did I knew about storing, lighting and smoking and if they were even real, they weren't cuban I think. So the experience was for me at that time amazing, felt like a man, but in the cigar realm it would be subpar. I was at that time still in school, had other interest money wise and didn't buy them again. Smoked cigarettes a few years. After my 20th till 36th I got other things to do, work, my then girlfriend now wife, bought a house, got kids... Then covid hit. No travelling, no diners, no days to the zoo, no nothing. So I closed my eyes, thought about what to do with the extra money and saw me smoking a cigar when I was 18. What also helped I got a nice raise at work. So I shredded every bit of information on storing, lighting and smoking. Bought a large Systema 7L some boveda packs, cigars (of which my first CC's were a few HUHC and some Parti Aristocrats) and the rest it history.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn VOG-L29 met Tapatalk

[mbflash80]

in 2004 I was 29 years old and starting to make headway in my corporate job...a common occurrence at the industry conferences would be a bunch of guys smoking cigars into the wee hours and telling tall tales of their heroic accomplishments...a co-worker who has remained a friend to this day (even though our working relationship has long since passed) handed me a PSD4...I had no idea what it was or the significance of the cigar...but I instantly fell in love...and all these yeas and dollars later here we are...

[Nino]

19 hours ago, Kierkegaard said:

Writing this I realize it was actually one of those moments of passage, from one age to another. I hadn't really considered it until now. I generally don't dwell on the past with much nostalgia, my life has been great, but longing for a time when nothing had come to fruition and all is potential is a human tendency. I don't wish that life, thus far, had gone different, but the anguish of time passing, does hit hard. Or at least the worry that all your time shall end and you'll never have accomplished anything, or at least had stopped to enjoy it. "It will all be over soon" seems to whisper in my mind. But it's just empty angst, I'm not worried. "What thou lovest well shall not be reft from thee, the rest is dross".

 

 

Beautiful words and thoughts, thank you for that insight, I share your thoughts.

I was 14 and in Spain at some summer camp, won some contest and first prize was a cigar.

I had smoked cigs starting at age 7 or 8 so I was happy. Smoked the damm thing ( most prob a Farias I guess, might have been a Cuban, no idea ) for half an hour and spent the same amount of time in the toilet.

Left some impression as I was fond of cigars and would enjoy them in later years until today.

[zuhaib]

For me it was when I was about 15 year old, my aunt her husband made a bunch of money from the dot com boom and for his birthday order a bunch of Cuban cigars. I want to say it was an RyJ. Well he handed me one and I smoked me as I wanted to fit in with the guys. I did not puke but I am pretty sure I did not finish that cigar. Can’t tell you anything how it taste but It kicked off my interest in cigars and particularly Cuban cigar.


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[StogieSteve23]

Probably 13 or 14 years old I took a couple sticks from my dads humidor (he was and still is a very occasional smoker).  I think one was a Baccarat Churchill and the other a house rolled stick made by Oliva for a cigar shop that my buddies dad owned nearby. 
 

Fast forward to when I turned 16 and got my license. I needed a job. My dad asked if I’d like to go work at my friends fathers cigar shop.  I certainly did. Loved learned all about the business, different cigars/blends and how to properly enjoy one. Worked there for 4 years between high school and college summers back home. That’s where my love for good cigars really blossomed. None Cuban obviously, but a great start nonetheless. 

[ChuckMangione]

1 hour ago, StogieSteve23 said:

Probably 13 or 14 years old I took a couple sticks from my dads humidor (he was and still is a very occasional smoker).  I think one was a Baccarat Churchill and the other a house rolled stick made by Oliva for a cigar shop that my buddies dad owned nearby. 
 

Fast forward to when I turned 16 and got my license. I needed a job. My dad asked if I’d like to go work at my friends fathers cigar shop.  I certainly did. Loved learned all about the business, different cigars/blends and how to properly enjoy one. Worked there for 4 years between high school and college summers back home. That’s where my love for good cigars really blossomed. None Cuban obviously, but a great start nonetheless. 

Hell of a job to have at that age. Kudos 

I had my first cigar around 15 or 16 with some buddies and their dads. Had no idea what I was doing and we all got sick from them, but I was hooked. Smoked what I could afford all throughout college. Some of my favorite memories were grabbing crappy macanudos from the corner store and hanging out at one of our apartment pools off campus. Graduated and moved on to nicer sticks and eventually ended up gravitating to Cubans. My wallet hates me

[chris12381]

I was traveling by train from Providence to Boston with friends for a birthday celebration. The conductor welcomed me and my friends aboard and when we pulled out of the station, announced to the whole train that there was a birthday celebration had joined the train.

At some point, an older gentleman came up to me, asked if I was the "birthday boy", wished me good health and gave me a congratulatory birthday cigar.  This was the first cigar I would ever smoke. 

When we got home, I asked my dad if it was OK for me to smoke it.  He said it was fine, gave me matches and the same ashtray his father used when he smoked his cigars.  

 

I don't believe I lasted more than four puffs. 

[StogieSteve23]

1 hour ago, ChuckMangione said:

Hell of a job to have at that age. Kudos 

I had my first cigar around 15 or 16 with some buddies and their dads. Had no idea what I was doing and we all got sick from them, but I was hooked. Smoked what I could afford all throughout college. Some of my favorite memories were grabbing crappy macanudos from the corner store and hanging out at one of our apartment pools off campus. Graduated and moved on to nicer sticks and eventually ended up gravitating to Cubans. My wallet hates me

Hell of a job is right.  It was kind of an unwritten agreement between Brian (guy who owned the shop) and my father that I could smoke whenever I worked and more or less as many as I wanted.  I got a lot of good free sticks but also great discounts on boxes I wanted to buy.  His shop was about 10,000sqft (maybe more) of fully humidified space and only did box/bundle sales.  His storefront had their usual customers plus a members lounge area, but did a large deal of wholesale shipping.  

In college I always kept a humidor but didn't smoke as many cigars as before because a poor kid in college really doesn't have the funds or time to smoke a good cigar, but I enjoyed them when I could.  A few years after college I was reintroduced to cigars by a coworker and the rest is history.  Went down the Cuban rabbit hole big time after a friend of mine took a trip to the island in 2016 and brought back a mix of tubos for me (Epi 2, Short Churchill and D4s) without me knowing.  I smoked one of the D4s on the beach with him that weekend and was hooked.  The rest is history.

My wallet hates me too... 

[La_Tigre]

Went to Cuba…

[David in Denver]

Went to Havana more or less unsupervised in high school 🚀

[PigFish]

A kiss to the head Miss Cigar and a handshake of Mr. Match was about all it took!

-Piggy

[jay8354]

I blame it all on @Fuzz, it was and still is his fault for leading me on this path and all the other wallet emptying hobbies. 

[JohnS]

38 minutes ago, jay8354 said:

I blame it all on @Fuzz, it was and still is his fault for leading me on this path and all the other wallet emptying hobbies. 

[LordAnubis]

At uni we were leaving our rented house for end of the year and we had our final rent inspection. The landlord told us we would all not be getting our bond back. We argues the carpet was "discouloured" because we had spilled something and cleaned it, and if after the carpet were cleaned we would pay for the carpets, but he wasnt having any of it, apparently the condition is on the time of inspection. So on the last night we moved all our stuff out, we went to the local grocery store and bought 2 RyJ Tubos 2 each, we closed all doors and windows, and the 4 of us smoked 2 cigars each in the house and left. He apparently had to change curtains and repaint the house, and replaced the carpet. Been into it since then, started occasionally then became more into it as time went on.