So...I'm a couple days away from being 19(have to be 19 to buy tobacco in Alabama) and I'm curious to know what some good cigars are to try. I don't want a black and mild or a small blunt type. I want a real cigar, something quality. Any suggestions?
Are you looking to spend alot of money on one or a cheap decent cigar? Garciavegas (Spelling?) are pretty good thats what i used to smoke alot, good size, nice taste. Roughly 4 bucks a pack of 4 or so i forget exaclly other than that i have no idea hehe I havent smoked a cigar in along time. I moved to pipe tabaco a while ago
^he said he wanted a real cigar white owls are nice to roll blunts with but id rather go with something a bit more. just go to a tobacco shop and get like a 5-10$ cigar. dont buy from like a gas station though id go to a real smoke shop so theyll be fresh. i live close to a really expensive cigar shop. they have cheaper ones too but their selection is amazing. the cigars are kept in this huge humidor room its great and the guys in there talk to me about amsterdam and shit and about mary jane. EDIT: i just rememebered there's this kind of cigar that are my personal favorite for a combination of quality and price they are called CAO moontrance i think and they come in like a nice box of 10 i think for about 15 bucks. theyre not full sized cigars but perfect sized for me at least they definitely do the trick (theyre like regualr cigars only a little skinnier and considerably shorter) last the perfect amount of time and they taste great imo.
Don't really know any high class cigar shop brands, but if your going for the gas station approach, get white owl peach's.
Personally, as a cigar smoker, I think it's a waste of money to buy expensive cigars. The huge increase in price isn't anywhere near being worth the slightly improved quality of the cigar. Very rarely I get a little extra unexpected cash and I buy myself a few really nice cigars, but most of the time I just buy a box of Swisher Kings or something similar. $4 for 10 Honey Swisher Kings. (5 in a box, buy one box get one free most of the time) $5+ for a single hand-rolled imported cigar. You're paying astronomically more money for a very small difference in the quality of the cigar. If you're just starting to smoke cigars you won't even notice the difference between the cheap machine-rolled ones and the fancy hand-rolled imports. Remember, just because something is more expensive doesn't alwasy mean it's better...let alone worth the extra cost.
Yeah, if you have a good cigar shop in your area ask for a Gurkha Regent Robusto. It's got a Havana 2000 wrapper which delivers a real full and robust bodied taste. They use a blend of some of the finest tobaccos in the world. Expect to pay around $10. They're a full strength ring size 0 and 4.5 inches if you're interest in the specs. A good first smoke. Edit: Make sure you understand how to properly cut a cigar to truely enjoy your experience.
Please do go into more detail on that one. We also have a Smokies around here that is the big tobacco place, with the walk in humidor and whatnot. May have to go check that out
OH man i forgot about that shitty law(i was passing thru on the way to FL and i couldnt get me a stogie) anyways, just do what feanor and indy said, go into a nice cigar shop and ask to go into the humidor, the people who work there usually kno their stuff. Most of what you find in these shops will be fine, but it takes a while to really refine your tastes to the better cigars and pick out good ones. Like feanor said as the prices rise they really arent going to keep getting much better. My first cigar was a cuban and hence ruined my taste for cheap ones. Macanudo are ok for a cheap cigar, i personally like Cohibas, and Dunhills alot (around $7-14 range) ADD: make sure you have a cigar cutter, or let someone else cut if for you, if cut sloppily the tobacco can fall out into your mouth or unravel and such. there are also two different cuts, a Vcut and a regular cut. A Vcut will allow less smoke into your mouth(have to suck harder) which is recommended for those who do not smoke that often(cigars) and are not that seasoned with them. A full cut will allow alot more smoke into your mouth(which i prefer) which gives the most flavor
I always liked the vcut better. It offers you more surface area without exposing your tongue to loose tobacco. It also allows you to draw more air through the cigar. You have to be a bit careful though, because if you stick a vcutter too deeply into the cigar the draw will be too good, and the cigar will smoke too hot. A guillotines generally the best option for a larger guage cigar though.
can cost anything.. the cigar shop here gives you a free one if you spent more than like $10, or they can be hindreds
It depends on what you want. You can pick up a cheap guillotine for just a couple bucks, which will be fine for your first time. I've also seen lately the guillotines and vcutters integrated into one unit. I've not seen a cheap version though. Basically you can spend anywhere from a couple bucks into the hundreds. Edit: Skittles beat me to it.
A vcut will tend to concentrate the smoke on the center of the palate more than a straight cut, giving you a better sense of the true flavor. It's pretty much the same as people who smoke cigars with tapered heads.....they do so because they like how the narrowing ring concentrates the smoke against the palate. Regardless of how you choose to cut it, when cutting a cigar you are looking to see just how far the cap (this is the round of tobacco used to seal the head) extends down the barrel. The best cut is one above this cap line, which will open up 75%-85% of the cigar's surface. You want as large an open cut as possible to allow for an easy draw, but you do not want to cut beneath the cap line, as the cigar may start to unravel. Wherever the caps stops you should regard as your limit as to how far down you should cut. I suggest people cut less at first, smoke the cigar for awhile and, if you decide you wish for a more open draw, just recut. An easy way to get a perfect cut from most double-bladed guillotine cutters is to lay it flat on a table, place the cigar in it straight up, and snip. This method makes it easy to not only get a straight cut, but with most cutters it nips just the right amount of the head off your cigar. A tip to keep your cigar burning evenly is to rotate the slow-burning side to the bottom. I know this seems odd, but the bottom side will burn faster because the oxygen needed to feed the flame isn't being displaced by the smoke. One thing I've noticed is that most people will tell you about 70% is the ideal relative humidity for cigar storage. Many cigars are too wet at this level and draw poorly and taste sour. Keep your cigars closer to 65% for a more enjoyable experience. Cigars will be just fine anywhere between 60% and 72%. Though when I was smoking them I had the best luck keeping them around around 65-66%.
yeah Wykid, i like cohibas just fine. haha and acid I agree with what you said Indy. My dad has a humidor and he tends to keep it at a lower level like you said. Cigars have such a glorious taste i wish i could smoke all the time(without risk of health crap) Indy do you happen to subscribe to Cigar Afficianados? if not, i personally think that it is a pretty good read.
I don't hold the subscription anymore TokinBlue, but I did carry it for quite some time when I was smoking. It's a great mag, and I picked up a tremendous amount of useful knowledge from it. Edit: I also smoked a pipe for quite some time, and Pipes and Tobbacos magazine was another excellent subscription I had. There is nothing more relaxing than a nice bowl of "Dunhill Early Morning Pipe", that was my favorite blend. : sigh : I miss that habit.