What am I missing

[El Presidente]

I agree wit Colt and many of the lads. Expectation can cruel you in life. I have high expectations of myself, my family, my friends and that is where I pretty much finish. Even in that short list there will be times where reality falls short.

There is a great proverb "Watched Pot Never Boils" I find this with cigars, wine and other great consumambles that come with a high reputation. My approach has always been to regard them with minimal personal attention/expectation. If they are good enough they will capture my imagination. With a cigar that means (to me) that it will make me stop, prop and give it some serious attention because it has earned it...not for the band it carries or the expectation I had given it. My opinion is that far too many people have it arse way about when smoking a cigar....they fawn first and are let down when for whatever reason reality does not meet the high expectation.

For what its worth.....the more tranquilo you are....the better the cigar will be

[Danashan]

I completely agree that high expectation is a joy killer. Because CC is the forbidden fruit here in US, I did expect something special but didn't know what. I think I just got a little taste of that special something and it was NOTHING like what I expected, but IMO it is even better that way. I was really surprised by that HDM Epi 2 and it took me a while to understand what exactly am I experiencing.

I have reset my expectations to 0 now and I try to judge my experience only by one measure: did it provide enjoyment or not. If nothing else, I expect a great journey of discovery and I will try to enjoy the ride, at the very least.

I hope my writing makes sense.

[PigFish]

I agree wit Colt and many of the lads. Expectation can cruel you in life. I have high expectations of myself, my family, my friends and that is where I pretty much finish. Even in that short list there will be times where reality falls short.

There is a great proverb "Watched Pot Never Boils" I find this with cigars, wine and other great consumambles that come with a high reputation. My approach has always been to regard them with minimal personal attention/expectation. If they are good enough they will capture my imagination. With a cigar that means (to me) that it will make me stop, prop and give it some serious attention because it has earned it...not for the band it carries or the expectation I had given it. My opinion is that far too many people have it arse way about when smoking a cigar....they fawn first and are let down when for whatever reason reality does not meet the high expectation.

For what its worth.....the more tranquilo you are....the better the cigar will be

That was very well put, my friend. Of course it was Ross that put you on the right path... and that is not at all surprising. I will add a bit of my bias to this as well. Sometimes it is what you smoke and what you "pay" for that smoke that starts this cycle in the first place.

I love Cuban cigars! Why else, other than an occasional jab at some friends, would I bother to be here? They are magical in general if you are a cigar lover. Like firecrackers some are duds. Sometimes the biggest ones, the grandest ones, the ones touted as the grand finale have the least "powder" when you rip them apart to see what they are made of. I would urge anyone to avoid that trap. Start with the common CC, not the one with the most hype. If you have taste bud one in your gap you will see what the rest of us see.

Cigars themselves are an acquired taste. Did you like spirits and wine the first time you tried them? Perhaps you won't like them at all but they need be given a fair evaluation. If you choose not to pursue an honest evaluation... then like my friends above have noted, you saved yourself some serious coin and they still sell "hot apple" pies at McDonalds!

Lastly I would say to visit the reviews section and watch some of Bwana's video reviews. These are the real experiences of real people smoking cigars. We see something in them! An open mind gets you in and a closed one gets you back to the pasture with the CAO's! - the Pig

[gfoster]

I'm a complete cigar tyro, only having started a few months ago. However, maybe I can bring my own perspective.

I am still smoking everything I can try, up and down and across to try and discover what I like. I've had a few cubans and vastly more non-cubans (being a Yank and all). I've had underwhelming and incredible smokes on both sides of the fence. I have had some pretty hideous NC's but haven't had any truly bad CC's yet (maybe because my experience is so limited). I have to say that the worst NC's so far have been FAR worse than the worst CC's. I've had some really good NC's too, and the best NC's I've had are not any better or worse than the best CCs, they are just too different from each other to invite comparison (it'd be like trying to compare a bowl of fine pipe tobacco to a fine cigar... both are good but completely different experiences).

My favorite NC so far has been an Illusione Epernay (actually that's currently my favorite cigar ever, either CC or NC), and of the 5 or so cuban brands I've tried I can say that beyond a doubt so far the best CC I've tried has been a RASS. I was sitting outside with my feet propped up on my firepit table, with a fire going keeping me nice and toasty. I had a cup of fresh home-roasted coffee and had just finished my afternoon chores on a saturday. I lit up the RASS (which I know some people consider "blue collar") and after about halfway into it I had to just stop and stare at it. It had me by the balls, so to speak, and it was something that I just couldn't comprehend why or how it was so good. They may be "blue collar" but I'm a farmboy at heart and if that's blue collar, I'll take it in a heart beat. The RASS could easily be my "daily" smoke if I smoked daily, that is.

The CC's are much different than the NC's. I like them both, but they are worlds apart. A really good NC is every bit as good IMO (I know you curmudgeons are pooh poohing now), but it's also a completely different experience and different set of flavors from a really good CC. Enjoy them both for what they are and don't try and shoe horn them into preconceived expectations.

I can truthfully say that if I only were allowed to fill my humidor with one cuban cigar for the rest of my life, right now with my limited experience it would have to be the RASS. If they suddenly started shooting us yanks for having CCs though, I'd have a harder time picking a single NC for the rest of my life but I could probably come up with something.

-- Gary F.

[Wiley]

I am getting ready to get another sampler of mostly PC vitolas sometime on December. I guess I have started my journey to the CC world.

Still, I cannot imagine why would I give up my Padillas and Olivas.

Cheers

I am pretty close to certain that I could go back to boards I used to frequent some years back and find my own posts that read almost exactly like this. However, over time it began to dawn on me that I hadn't smoked any of the NCs in my cooler for years, so one Saturday, off into the yard debris they went!

[Colt45]

I am pretty close to certain that I could go back to boards I used to frequent some years back and find my own posts that read almost exactly like this. However, over time it began to dawn on me that I hadn't smoked any of the NCs in my cooler for years, so one Saturday, off into the yard debris they went!

Yes - one day it hits you that Havanas have snuck up on you when you weren't looking