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curtis rosche
08-27-2010, 8:18 PM
i have recenlty dived into the world of occasional cigar smoking. there is a nice cigar shop with a rather large selection right off campus about 4 minute walk from my dorm.
being new at it i have no clue what i am looking at. rather than waste money on ones that are not good. can anyone make some suggestions as what to get? the range im looking for is under $20 a cigar.

this is only an occasional thing, and i like cigars, so please dont tell me about how bad they are for me

thanks

also, how easy would it be to make a small humidor

Mitchell Andrus
08-27-2010, 8:29 PM
You mention dorm... I'll assume you're in college. Man, I'd do anything to keep my mom or dad from crying at my funeral including passing on even an occasional cigar. But....if you're hell-bent to get advise, there are no doubt many other forums available with better advise than you'll likely get here.

Visit the American Cancer Society's site first.

I'm tempted to post a link to - Google images > oral cancer - below, but quite honestly the images turn even my stomach.

.

Chris Kennedy
08-27-2010, 9:10 PM
this is only an occasional thing, and i like cigars, so please dont tell me about how bad they are for me


I won't tell you how bad they are for you -- BECAUSE YOU APPARENTLY ALREADY KNOW AND ARE IGNORING THAT PART OF YOUR BRAIN. (If you give a disclaimer about the dangers, you are aware of them and you have made up your mind already to discount them.)

I feel a little bad because I bitched you out about your paper a while ago, and I don't want to always be the disciplinarian. That being said, as a part of going to college and gaining sophistication -- please, do something worthwhile. If you enjoy a good cigar (and by the way, setting a price point isn't going to convince anyone), by all means, enjoy it. I developed my taste for fine single malt scotch during college, and in my mind there is nothing better. Make certain that you are _reveling_ in the experience, that it is evoking new senses of pleasure, and that you are savoring and treasuring every moment and that you aren't just doing something seemingly sophisticated for the sake of being sophisticated.

Under normal circumstances, I would apologize for such a rant, but in this case, I won't. I am not saying you shouldn't do it, but be certain that it is something you not only enjoy, but have a passion for. You are risking your health -- make certain it is worth it.

Cheers,

Chris

Dan Hintz
08-27-2010, 10:14 PM
Curtis,

The best thing you can do is try a new one every time you go to the store. It's pointless for us to tell you which one we like (though I don't smoke, so the term "we" is used loosely here). After a while you will build up a list of what you do and don't like. Talk to the shop's proprietor... tell him which ones you liked and ones you didn't, see if they have anything in common (region of growth, preparation, age, etc.).

This is how I do wine... and we've found quite a few on both sides of the aisle. Some I thought I would like turned out to taste like cough medicine, and others I wouldn't normally try ended up being pretty tasty!

Mike Cruz
08-27-2010, 10:26 PM
Yeah, can't say that I will advocate the act, but I can throw stones, either. I too, enjoy the occasional cigar. Inhale? NEVER! Great way to turn green and violate the person next to me with projectile "whatever I just ate". Not to mention, at least cigarettes have filters...cigars don't. $20 a cigar? Wow, nice budget. You certainly don't have to spend that kind of dough to get a good cigar. As a matter of fact, once over about $5 per cigar, personal preference is more important than anything else. I've had $5 that I loved. I've had special hand rolled cigars in a shop that were, well let's just say they were priceless because they "couldn't" sell them, they didn't have the license, so they just gave them away hoping you would remember the name and buy them through legal means that tasted like turds...really, my dog's excrement had better aroma. I've also had cigars that cost over $30 each and was not impressed in the least. I wouldn't have been able to tell you it cost over $5.

Now, if we could figure out a way to smoke cigars through a filter as good as what we put in our shops...:rolleyes:

Pat Keefe
08-27-2010, 10:30 PM
Try Perdomo.

Yes they can be bad for you, but as an adult you are allowed to make decisions about what you do.

Ted Calver
08-27-2010, 10:45 PM
Ask your girl how much she likes cigar breath before you dive into the Cohibas.

Judd Owens
08-27-2010, 11:15 PM
I smoke about 3 a week. Like everybody has already said, we know they are bad for you, if you over do it. Just like anything, too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
Enough of that from me. I really enjoy the Arturo Fuente sungrown, in just about any size. Opus X is ok, but over rated and over priced, in my book. I have also been smoking Rocky Patel Old World Reserve in the lancero size. Seems to fit the flavor profile nicely. The new blend from fuente is a winner too, although I can't remember the name. If you're looking for a milder smoke, you can't beat a Monticristo #2. Any of them really, but the #2 is great 99% of the time. Romeo and Julietta Havana Reserve in the pyramid is good too. If you're looking for a full flavor, go for the CAO Brazilia, or even a Partagas Black. Also, Punch makes decent, moderately priced cigars. Gurka makes about 50 different blends, but only a few of them are worth bothering with, such as the black dragon. Padron makes good cigars, but can be pricey. Dunhill are great, but come with a premium too. Hope that's not an overload.
you can check out cigarpass.com for ALOT more info. I've not even started to scratch the surface of what you can dive into with this. And if you find that if's hitting your budget a little hard, you can always try a pipe, which instead of $4 a smoke, will be more like $4 a week to smoke two or three bowls a day. Also, there is an amazing amount of different kinds of pipe tobacco on the market.

curtis rosche
08-28-2010, 12:36 AM
Ask your girl how much she likes cigar breath before you dive into the Cohibas.


yeah, she doesnt like the smell, but i only see her on the weekend. she doesnt mind that i smoke them, as long as its not on the weekend

Greg Peterson
08-28-2010, 12:39 AM
I limit my smoking to about once a year on special occasions. I'll probably smoke one after the Packers/Dolphins game I'm going to this fall. That qualifies as a special occasion in my book.

Joe Chritz
08-28-2010, 5:18 AM
Of all the things I do, I seriously doubt the 20 or so cigars will be what kills me.

The advice to try new ones each time is good. I really like most of Arturo Fuente ones that I have had but I got spoiled by a special run limited batch.

No matter what anyone says the contraband cigars really are that good. Nothing else matches.

I gave up crack so I could smoke cigars. :eek:

Joe

Rich Engelhardt
08-28-2010, 6:24 AM
Yes - once in a while.

My advice,,,buy a gun instead.

:D
Since both are on about the same level of social (un) acceptance &...
Everybody's going to hate you and lecture you with all the ferver of a televangalist anyhow, so you might as well end up with something of value years from now - instead of ceremic dish full of ashes! ;)

Actually though - cigar ashes do have some WW'ing merit, so if you do choose to puff, save the ashes.

Jim King
08-28-2010, 6:38 AM
I love cigars but here they are made of local river tobaco and cost $3 for 50. We also have banana and cocona leaf cigars, they are good also.

Enjoy , after a nice marbled steak and wine.

Judd Owens
08-28-2010, 10:11 PM
I too think that trying something new every time you go down to the shop is a good idea, at least until you figure out what style you like the best, and when you like to smoke what. Also, i know the cheap prices of online retailers is tempting, but nothing beats the relationships you can build smoking down at the shop with the regulars. Stay away from Thompsons Cigar in particular, everything I hear is bad about them. One of my friends ordered a box of some of there economical smokes, and they were dry, dry, dry. The humidor he got with them bowed up and wouldn't even close. If you must give in to the price break, jrcigars.com is pretty good. I don't live too far away, so it's always the next day when i get the package, so they don't spend too long en route. I'll buy a box of decent smokes, then go to the b&m (brick and mortor) store to get the higher end. I did smoke some cuban cohibas a friend got for me in Canada, and yes, they were good, but some of the cigars coming from the dominican republic are just as good. I keep hearing that most of the really good rollers have left cuba, but maybe the other companies put that out. Who knows?

Bill Cunningham
08-28-2010, 11:16 PM
Being a Con-a-sewar of fine ceegars, When I was visiting the states as a teenager, I used to chew on wooden tipped havatampas and loved them.. now, now they could make a maggot puke..

Brian Brown
08-29-2010, 2:05 PM
I am not going to suggest you visit the American Cancer society site because Mitchell already did, and I am assuming that you won't. I won't tell you to visit the sites about oral cancer because ...... gross!!! I wouldn't want you puking. There will be enough people already puking from the smell. I will say however, that next door to me at work, a cigar shop just opened. They cater to a sophisticated crowd that enjoys an occasional cigar. They tell me that they like the taste and aroma of a good cigar. To each his own. My wife can't come to work anymore, because the smell makes her sick. My customers don't like to come around anymore, because they hate the smell. Apparently, only a sophisticated well educated crowd can understand and tolerate the stench. I don't seem to be sophisticated enough for the putrid stink. This shop has been open for 3 weeks now, and in that time I have developed a burning desire to have one simple question answered. Why is it that a shop that sells a product based on it's aroma, has spent so much time effort and money since it opened, installing huge ventilation fans to push the stink out, and into my space? Is the stink not what they are paying for in the first place???. Does anybody have a store front for rent cheap. I need cheap, as I will have to abandon the store I put so much money into remodeling, and start over in a new location, just because somebody came in later and opened a stink factory? Ok, I'll shut up now. Rant over. Enjoy your cigars Curtis, whichever loaded baby diaper you choose to burn.

David Weaver
08-29-2010, 2:52 PM
Holy gones, this crowd really wants to reiterate what everyone already knows.

I don't smoke them. When I was in college, I smoked a pipe from time to time (like once a month) and cheap cigars very seldom.

I liked swisher sweets and the cherry flavored shredded junk.

I realized I wasn't a real smoker when my rommate and I and another guy down the hall went and got "real" cigars at a smoke shop downtown, a budget level large cigar. Seemed like I smoked it for 20 minutes and only about a half inch or a little more burned off of it. I ended up throwing it out, realizing that I'm the equivalent of someone who only likes fruity wines (that's not my taste in wines, though - it's 180 degrees opposite of what I like - dry and red - the more dry and more red the better).

Anyhow, go to the shop, ask the guy who works there sincerely what you ought to try, and I'll bet he'll have some good honest recommendations. It's his job. Where we went, the guy could've steered us to the most expensive cigars there telling us the others were junk, but he didn't do that. I think the ones we got were about $2.50 per.

I doubt you'll find any reasonable information on mortality and morbidity for very infrequent smoking of anything. First off, the data likely isn't available, and second, it's very unpopular to tell anyone that doing a little bit of something that's bad when you do it a lot is OK.

Last chart I saw about smoking had the mortality multiplier at about 1.8 or 2.0 for *frequent* cigar and pipe smokers, just a tiny bit less than the 2.2 or so for smokers. What that means is that an insurance company using a table to price an insurance policy would double the death rate every year to get an approximation of expected mortality. Presumably, most of those deaths would come from cancer, COPD and probably heart disease related stuff. I have no clue how often you have to smoke to meet those charts - if it's in you're blood at any appreciable level, they will probably price your insurance product similarly to someone who hangs on cigars all day.

How often again are you looking to do it? In the absence of data, I'd keep it very infrequent and enjoy it when you do it if you do. Infrequency will be a lot better for your wallet too.

Ted Calver
08-29-2010, 3:25 PM
I smoked cigars and a pipe when I was in college in the sixties. They became part of the stress relief and I enjoyed them very much...particularly the pipe. Back in the day the girls didn't seem to mind aromatic pipe smoke but didn't much like the smell of the Dutch Master panatellas. I enjoyed the habit for ten years. The pipe affected the way my teeth grew and to this day I have a 'pipe notch' on the right side of my mouth that I have to explain to the dentist every time I go :) I quit cold turkey on the day my grandfather (the pipe smoker) died of mouth cancer. The only time I regressed was when I was 'subsistence' fishing in Alaska. I kept a cigar going all the time in case a game warden happened by and I needed the line to burn...a side benefit was that the smoke helped to keep the White Sox (vicious gnats) away. An occasional cigar won't kill you...but think about that mouth cancer thing before getting too hooked.

Charlie Reals
08-29-2010, 3:37 PM
Cigars to me have always been like wine, I have found I prefer the mid priced or cheap stuff. A friend lives just up the road from Steve who is in the cigar business, owns his own manufacturing business . I learned my lesson and don't do either one anymore but if you do oh well. Leave a big old stogie to burn down in an ash tray and get a whiff of it next morning. Talk about puke:eek:

Jim King
08-29-2010, 4:12 PM
Now guys it cant be all that bad or someone would blame cigars for the deficit and global warming or cooling whichever it is today.

Mike Cruz
08-29-2010, 4:38 PM
Brian, again, I enjoy an occasional cigar, but your situation would infuriate me to no end. I feel your pain. I think you have every right to be enraged. You may actually have a leg to stand on legally, too. Might want to look into it...

Charlie Reals
08-29-2010, 4:49 PM
+1 to mikes statement. I bet I could add more thought about the folks who opened the cigar shop but that might start something:).

Ron Conlon
08-29-2010, 6:03 PM
Love an occaisional cigar. Especially with a nice scotch. Having been banned from the house, garage and now the deck this summer, I believe my wife is trying to save my life by eliminating my smoking areas!
My recommendation is to try different styles as a starting point - claro, maduro, etc. These days I don't have the time available to commit to a long smoke, so I am smoking the Junior size of the Rocky Patel Vintage. The Vintage series (1990 and 1992) have been a good balanace of price and quality for me. I also enjoy the Fuente Hemingway cigars- usually get the Short Story size for the same reason.
For a real treat, go into Philly to Holt's cigars, then next door to Mahogany for a nice smoke & a drink.

David Weaver
08-29-2010, 6:16 PM
Now guys it cant be all that bad or someone would blame cigars for the deficit and global warming or cooling whichever it is today.

You can't reason against programmed information from the government, non-profits and social pressure.

With infrequent enjoyment, I'd bet that the odds don't change much vs. not smoking at all.

Mike Wilkins
08-30-2010, 10:16 AM
Yes, I enjoy a fine cigar, sometimes daily. As for a first time effort, try one of the Macanudo or Don Diego brands, which are mild-body smokes. Perdomo and Rocky Patel are really nice medium bodied smokes to try.
As for all you doomsday predictors out there, here is an interesting tidbit I read in relation to the dangers of cigars vs. cigarettes: you would have to smoke 20 cigars a day, every day for 20 years to get the same nicotene dose as one cigarette. And cigar smokers do not inhale.

David Weaver
08-30-2010, 10:36 AM
I think nicotine is the least of anyones' worries in a cigar or cigarette. However, there is more nicotine in cigars than cigarettes just by their sheer mass, no matter what part of the leaf they use. I don't know about pipe tobacco, it's probably the same story.

The rest of the stuff that's in cigars and pipe tobacco probably isn't a lot different than cigarette smoke, though, and you're still breathing in carbon monoxide and other stuff that occurs due to pyrolysis - things to avoid if you're not getting any excitement out of it.

But still, the risk to a very casual smoker isn't likely to be that high unless the effect of the toxins is logarithmic.

Dan Hintz
08-30-2010, 11:18 AM
you would have to smoke 20 cigars a day, every day for 20 years to get the same nicotene dose as one cigarette.
Too bad it's not the nicotine that causes any real physical damage (other than an addiction). The amount of "stuff" left in your lungs, mucus membranes, gums, etc. is downright appalling.

Luckily I don't care what you do with your body, as long as it doesn't affect mine...

Scott Shepherd
08-30-2010, 1:26 PM
I'm with Dan, it's your body, do what you want, but some don't agree with that, and that's fine too.

Having never been a smoker and having worked at the company that invented the cigarette machine, and spent years of my life actually building those machines as well as rebuilding them, I'd not be standing in line to start smoking. What I've seen on the business end of making them is like working at a hot dog factory :)

Cigars definitely are not the same as cigarettes from the make up side of it. SOOOOOO many additives on the cigarette end of it. I'm not sure there's even any tobacco left after all the garbage that's put into those. Cigars, much more pure, just roll the leaf and move on. I don't smoke those either, but I'd smoke those years before considering a cigarette.

Especially menthol. Wow.....nasty nasty stuff.

Zach England
08-30-2010, 2:05 PM
I usually like bubblegum, blueberry, northern lights, shiva haze, white widow and all of the hindu kush crosses.

We're talking about the same thing, right?

Ben Franz
08-31-2010, 12:36 AM
I don't smoke so I have no suggestions about cigars. Recently, I needed a small temperature/relative humidity gauge for a sausage curing chamber I'm building. I found what I needed at cheaphumidors.com and I'm sure you could find info and materials to make your own humidor there.

Joe Chritz
08-31-2010, 12:42 AM
I usually like bubblegum, blueberry, northern lights, shiva haze, white widow and all of the hindu kush crosses.

We're talking about the same thing, right?

Some how I'm thinking not so much. Be a shame to ruin a $40 cigar like that.

Joe

Rich Engelhardt
08-31-2010, 6:59 AM
I've decided not to post to any more threads where smoking is involved....

Matter of fact, I kinda wish the topic was treated like Global Warming....

Ron Conlon
09-03-2010, 12:11 PM
I don't smoke so I have no suggestions about cigars. Recently, I needed a small temperature/relative humidity gauge for a sausage curing chamber I'm building. I found what I needed at cheaphumidors.com and I'm sure you could find info and materials to make your own humidor there.

Prepare for the anti-sausage crowd comments...

Charlie Reals
09-03-2010, 12:43 PM
I don't smoke so I have no suggestions about cigars. Recently, I needed a small temperature/relative humidity gauge for a sausage curing chamber I'm building. I found what I needed at cheaphumidors.com and I'm sure you could find info and materials to make your own humidor there.
Ben, make sure it's accurate. The best linguica on the west coast ended in a hale of bulletts over a couple of degrees in curing.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sanleandrobytes.com%2Fattract ions%2Fsantos_linguisa.html&rct=j&q=santos%20linguisa&ei=fSSBTP37NYa4sQPfpaX3Bw&usg=AFQjCNHbKZS-hvrvkUFfri4hftFBkWGhfg&sig2=_CRcjeJhqF_9v19VEKxU9Q&cad=rja

That was a sad day.
I grew up eating Santos linguica and their sandwiches in the bar in front of the sausage factory. no one ever got sick. didn't mean a thread jack, just a memory jog for an old man lol

Rick Moyer
09-03-2010, 6:07 PM
i have recenlty dived into the world of occasional cigar smoking. there is a nice cigar shop with a rather large selection right off campus about 4 minute walk from my dorm.
being new at it i have no clue what i am looking at. rather than waste money on ones that are not good. can anyone make some suggestions as what to get? the range im looking for is under $20 a cigar.

this is only an occasional thing, and i like cigars, so please dont tell me about how bad they are for me

thanks

also, how easy would it be to make a small humidor

I guess no one bothered (or cared) to read this part!