How did you get into cigars

[nicwing]

I read that quick and thought you said when you were 12 years old.

Great auntie!

[The Smoker]

I like reading these stories. I smoked cigarettes from age 13, Marlboro or Camel - mostly because I had seen people smoke in the movies Eventually got fed up with the rising costs & chemical stench - switched to roll-ups for some years. Then I was introduced to my first high quality cigar by the security guard at an office I worked in (aged 17) a tubed Bolivar!!! It was great, but too expensive for me to maintain a regular habit.

I started working from home in 2004 and switched to pipe-smoking full time, after I accidently discovered the joys of tobacco aging! And also because I would smoke more and couldn't be bothered to roll the damn things every 5mins!

Now I can afford to smoke what I want, so I'm planning to build up a collection of habanas!! My favourites are the Bolivar Royal Corona and the Cohiba Robusto - but there are many that I haven't tried.

[HabanoSy]

After several years of watching my father thoroughly relaxed whilst savouring a fine Havana it persuaded me eventually to try my first cigar. That first step has led us to share and enjoy many memorable and enhanced occasions, what was once a pleasant pastime for me has now become a passion...

[Dixie1982]

I come from a family of cigarette smokers, and my wife smokes ciggs as well, I have always despised them, but I did enjoy social smoking, but hated cigs so much i'd buy cafe creme or similar just to have a smoke.

Then a couple of years ago before a night of drinking and poker playing a buddy suggested we go and buy a Montecristo, off we went to the Cigar specialist. So unsure of what to look for and not wanting to browse too long I asked for a 'Montecristo Number 1' and was shocked to find only a couple of pound change from a twenty... Needless to say, i never looked back, and the smoking ban in pubs has only caused me to smoke more, as I would now find a nice heated patio, and spend the night outside, maybe smoking 3 good cubans over the space of several hours. Thankfully, online ordering and dollar exchange rates means that they are a damn site cheaper than ?17 each.

Roll on Saturday!

[yiorgos]

It was 5 years ago, I had quit the fags a couple of months and craving like mad! In one of the poker nights Mark, a cousin-in-law, had brought a few Cohiba robustos with him. He offered me one and I took it, having promised that I wont throw it away and it wont go to waste...that was it, I was hooked.

It took me a few months smoking JLPs, Quinteros, Guantanameras and all kinds of dog rockets, till I got to know what I liked.

[Robusto]

Guantanameras are well dodgy, aren't they?!

[snooky]

Guantanameras are well dodgy, aren't they?!

Very true you get what you pay for, i couldnt give em away.

[celsis]

Very true you get what you pay for, i couldnt give em away.

Neither could I!!! I tried to offload them to my mate's dad who smoked one then refused the rest. And he's a guy who smokes Hamlets!!!

[yankeefan]

i have to say guantanamera is my least fave cigar. i bought 10 or 15 a few years ago and i could not stand them.

[jdawg]

When I was a child, I just loved the smell of cigars. My childhood friend's dad smoked cigars regularly. I went with my friend and his dad often to the cigar shop. I loved the smell of spanish cedar and cigars when entering into a walk-in humidor. That is a smell I still love today.

While in the military, I was stationed in Tampa, Florida. I went to Ybor City with some friends. I was absolutely fascinated with watching cigars be hand made in front of me. Of course, I had to buy some. Shortly after that day, I went back and bought more cigars along with my first humidor. It was a small 25ct. one, which I still have today. I have been hooked ever since.

Though I no longer live in Tampa, I always remember those days fondly. It is sad to see how the government's smoking bans and ridiculous tobacco taxes are destroying a once lively industry in that city.

[trader1974]

I never was a cigarette smoker either. Upon graduating college I moved from Kentucky to California back in the mid-90's, a fellow there that I worked with introduced me to cigars and I've been into them since.

[Simon-JG-hr]

My first ever introduction to cigars was at a rugby match. I can only have been about ten years old, stood in the Shed at Kingsholm watching Gloucester play Llanelli. Two elderly Welsh guys (supporting Llanelli) were smoking cigars (almost non-stop for the three hours they were stood there). There are two abiding memories of that experience - the first being that I was coughing and spluttering for about a week... the second was the fantastic aroma of the smoke, nothing like the putrid smell of a cigarette.

I started about two and a half years ago when I joined the Royal Navy. At BRNC it was often said that the first six weeks weren't a great opportunity to stop smoking (due to the pressure). A number of guys would have some cigarettes for leadership exercises on Dartmoor (got to have something to do when your wet through and 'on watch' at 2am)... I thought I'd grab a few cheapish tubed cigars - a pack of five Henri Wintermans half coronas, if I remember correctly.

They served their purpose, so I hunted around online for some 'proper' cigars and bought a small selection from CGars. These were very nice and hence the love affair started. I find it quite like having a mistress - I usually flirt with her and have a bit of fun on holiday (nothing beats an evening cigar on the deck of a chalet in a ski resort or a on a yacht), but try not to draw attention to her when at home - for cost reasons as much as anything...

[Robusto]

I find it - (smoking cigars) quite like having a mistress - I usually flirt with her and have a bit of fun on holiday (nothing beats an evening cigar on the deck of a chalet in a ski resort or a on a yacht), but try not to draw attention to her when at home - for cost reasons as much as anything...

I have to say I find my relationship with cigars is just about the same as yours, Sir. I find many aspects of cigar smoking - the looking, the smelling. the touching for starters - very arousing.

The smell when you enter a packed walk-in humidor is sex sex sex.

All this before the aroma hits you!

Cigar Porn is a very apt phrase.

Since feeling so comfortable in my mind at smoking publicly these days, I feel like a pole dancer on display.

Now there's a thought...

Curiously enough, apart from my Father's cigars, there was a master at the school I went to - strictly non-smoking - who used to light up a cigar when he was cheering rugby teams on from the touchline. It will have been a Castella... but in an environment which cut your limbs off if you were caught smoking, this was a delicious moment if you were either watching or playing team rugby.

Well it was for me.

I can pinpoint certain big moments in my life to cigars and their beautiful aroma.

[cj121]

Guantanameras are well dodgy, aren't they?!

Got to admit, when I returned from the motherland in Jan, I brought a selection box for giveaways. Didn't manage to give any away and smoked the lot! Out of a selection of five vitolas, only one was 'enjoyable' (clear tubed Churchill typish, from memory) I found it a rough n ready stick if that makes sense, but one that still tasted better than none at all.

[Robusto]

In France with a party of kids, I whipped off secretly to a tabac to buy some cigars.

I now confess I bought a pack of BIG Villigers which I'd read about.

There were only a few wizened small Havanas in the store which had been there for donkey's years and which weren't worth buying.

I'd just like to say the BIG Villigers were absolutely vile.

I say THEY. I tried one and that was enough. After five minutes, I thought I was going to hurl.

Watch the Premier League-ers mock LMFAO!