First Real Cigar and Cigar Experience?

[El Presidente]

Twenty Four years of age and in my first serious job in a Finance Company. In a classic "brown nose" move I hired a luxury houseboat cruiser for the weekend, invited my manager and a few of the top state senior managers.

I signed for the boat, arranged the beer, wine and spirits + food and headed out for a glorious weekend on the Gold Coast Broadwater. I purchased a 1/2 dozen Montecristo No 4 which were dry as all buggery but I was to know no better.

I lit one of the Monte 4 on the first night after dinner and a 1/2 bottle of rum. I was in the zone. The managers were pissed and laughing, everything going swimmingly. My jokes were on the button and my Finance career on the fast track.

Then the headspins commenced and I started to totter. It got hot all of a sudden and in a slight panic I lunged for the railing...but missed .

I recovered my poise over the rest of the weekend and almost got back whatever little credibility I had to commence with. That was just before I helped out a yacht which was stranded on a sand bar. I reversed and they threw me a rope which I tied around the rear railing of the cruiser while taking up the strain.

Yes..you guessed it...the rear railing of the 300,000 cruiser snapped off and landed in the ocean. I had a Monte 4 in my mouth at the time

The weekend ended up costing me a bomb and the story of the weekend stills get told around the corridors of my now Senior Banking mates.

I don't have any Monte 4's in my home humidor ;-)

[Maverick]

Rob,

My first was a Montecristo 1, smoked two years ago. I didnt damage any luxury cruisers so I cant really compete with your efforts.

So you would recomend hiring a luxury boat to further my career???

Ross...

[ALB]

Well Prez,

After finishing my last exam to complete my BSc at Auckland Uni., 4 of us headed to our favourite pub (The Globe), for a mid-afternoon jar (or 10) to celebrate 4 years of drinking excessively, sponging lecture notes off others & passing each others assignments off as our own.:-D

As we settled in to toast the end of our varsity days (we thought), we all agreed that this was a moment which required more than just the standard ale to celebrate this time. One of the guys, Hamish, was a bar-tender who knew the staff, & suggested perhaps a cigar would add a better touch.

So out came 4 tubes with R y. Julieta # 3 inside, & with very minimal knowledge or appreciation, we snipped off the ends, blazed up & proceeded to turn our corner of the pub into a smoky haze more fitting for a UB40 concert.

Best of all was the fact that 1 of the business suits in the pub came over, & instead of complaining about the smoke we were producing, asked what the occasion was, nodded & said nice one, headed to the bar without another word & returned with a tray of scotches (JW blue label) for us. He gave us a toast, a few words of advice & then off to whatever he did for a crust.

Wasn't the best smoke I've had but a very satisfying moment to share with some good mates, & a great intro. to the wonderful world of Habanos.

[n2advnture]

My first "real" cigar experience was a little over 10 years ago on my honeymoon in Mexico. I did some "research" before heading down. Going through customs on the way into Mexico was weird. They had a red/green traffic light. You pressed a button and if the light turned red, you got your bags searched. If it lit green, you could walk right through.

Once in Mexico, I purchased some smokes from an LCDH, enough for 2/day for the week. Before heading home, I grabbed 2 boxes - Monte #2s & Cohiba Robustos (typical, right?).

When we started to enter the US customs, I started to get nervous but not too bad. There was a HUGE line, mostly comprised of non-Americans. As we got about 25 people away from the agents, one looks up and points at my wife and I and motions for us to come to him. Now I start to get really nervous....

Once we reach the agent, he looks us up and down and says "go ahead". No search at all and we didn't have to wait in line.

That's what got me hooked on what has become an obsession and a lifestyle.

[Curmudgeon]

First cigar: I was in high school, in about 1983 and my parents were away for the weekend. I went to the corner convenience store and bought some awful thing in a plastic tube. I sat on the back patio, lit it up, and turned green almost immediately. I think I must have inhaled.

First handmade: I was in grad school, in Chicago, in 1991 and my parents were far away. I went to the local tobacconist and bought a Jose Llopis -- a Panamanian handmade -- in cello. I smoked that in my apartment and actually kind of like it. It started me on my way. :-)

First Havana: I was visiting Victoria, Canada, in 1992, and I had long since stopped caring whether my parents wanted me to smoke. I bought a Por Larranaga, which I now figure -- by its $5 price -- what must have been a machine made. I smoked it in the near freezing weather as my (then) girlfriend and I walked around Victoria. It was strong and I liked it!

First handmade Havana: I was in Vancouver, Canada, later on the above-mentioned Victoria trip, and I bought three Rafael Gonzales Coronas Extra for the princely sum of about $40. I was then hooked!

[herfkid]

I'd had about 10 or so cigars befor last May, including one Cuban cigar, which I noted to be somewhat tastier than other cigars I had smoked, but as it came at the end of a day where we tasted 13 bourbons, 6 single-malts, and 3 ryes ... I wasn't in a position to notice a whole lot of subtlety.

Then, last year, a gaggle of us gathered at a friend's house for a few days of smoky, beery debauchery. He had laid in a goodly supply of excellent cigars from, well, a friendly place, as well as two fridges full of excellent beer and a dedicated tap line.

When I arrived, a CoRo was thrust into my hands with the words "this one's pretty good," and off I went. It kicked my butt, it did.

Later in the weekend, I relaxed more with a Trinidad Coloniales, which made me sit up and pay attention. Totally, utterly hooked (as an infrequent smoker) at that point.

[JMH]

It was nye a few years ago when I was 16. My mate that had new years that year has a clear view of the harbour bridge. Sometime that night my cigar smoking mate & I took off down to the beach (it's a waterfront house that has a small beach which is inaccessible to anyone but the people at his place) sat down, light up, and watched what was happening on and around the bridge at the time.

My cigar was a RyJ Petit Corona, which when compared to the Henri Wintermans that comprised my entire smoking experience up to that point, was pure heaven, even with the butchered cut I made with a regular pair of scissors

I don't think that I'll ever forget that experience. I still love the RyJ line.

[Ben]

Very long story short

15 years old

Air Training Corps Bivouac

CO = Retired RAAF Wing Commander (Big Cigar Smoker)

Prize for 1st in Orienteering. One of his precious Vintage R&J Churchill's

I came 1st.

Twas love at first toke :-D

[Maverick]

» Very long story short

»

» 15 years old

» Air Training Corps Bivouac

» CO = Retired RAAF Wing Commander (Big Cigar Smoker)

» Prize for 1st in Orienteering. One of his precious Vintage R&J

» Churchill's

» I came 1st.

» Twas love at first toke :-D

Ben,

I was on many an RATC Biv and didnt get the chance to smoke cigars.

All I got was threats of day long marches in full gear.

Ross...

[habanablue]

1st dodgy experience: I was 17 and in year12, parents were on holidays and of course staged one mutha of a house party...valuables locked in my sisters room if you know what I mean. Dad left some 'Hav-A Tampas' sitting next to his liquor cabinet and of course htey were lit up at midnight to celebrate.

1st Tubo: at a pub with a mate didn;t even have a cutter, bit hte ends off and sat at the bar..we thought we were pretty cool....

1st Hand made: A Monte 4 in much same was as first Tubo however by this stage had acquired a cutter!

cheers!

[sadsammy]

My first Havana made was an RnJ No3. I just completed a multi-pitch ice climb in the Rockies. Sitting there in the ice and snow, decked out in steel and nylon, it was my little indulgence, short and sweet.

[Tampa1257]

My first experience smoking a cigar of any type happened in the fall of 1981. I was stationed in Germany with the 2nd Bal, 64th Armor. We had just completed a Divisional Gunnery exercise and several of us that had done rather well decided to celebrate “In Style” at the Officer Ball. We climbed into a car and went downtown to a local Tobacconist, none of us had ever smoked a cigar before and at this point we all had extremely basic language skills. It must have been a hoot for the gentleman working that day, we were all over the humidor looking and trying to figure out what Havana would be the one to break our “Cherry” with. We must have asked a ton of questions, most of which the answers were uncomprensable to us, but it was finally decided that we all thought that this big fat Pirámide looking monster would be cool to smoke. So off we go, 6 of us with Montecristo No.2’s in hand! No cutters, we bit off the tip, sure we were bad to the bone! That cigar absolutely turned the lights on for me! Never before had a tobacco product given me as much pleasure as that cigar had done! I don’t know about the others, but I knew there and then that I was “hooked”, and I continued to go down to the cigar store every weekend we were not out on maneuvers.

I wish I knew then what I know now, I would have stocked up a hell of a lot of cigars! But youth is ignorant and bliss right? The really rough part came when I returned to the USA and found out that I could not find a Havana at my local cigar shop! That really sucked!

Now, 25 years later, I still enjoy a Havana on a daily basis, sometimes more than one a day! Life is good!