Any suggestions for a first smoke?

[MrMaduro]

Yeah I reckon that's my No. 1 Made a Fanny of Myself moment.....so far

It was a beauty! Top marks!

[Wigan]

Is it too soon to be funny to ask a mod to delete all my posts?

[ValeTudoGuy]

Now that's just poking the angry tiger with a stick. Lol

[MrMaduro]

Is it too soon to be funny to ask a mod to delete all my posts?

[jim_twin]

Is it too soon to be funny to ask a mod to delete all my posts?

[emoji13][emoji13][emoji13]

+1 on the the RyJ Short Churchill

[Wigan]

[emoji13][emoji13][emoji13]

+1 on the the RyJ Short Churchill

None of your are for breaking him in gently with these smokes are you?

If not a HUHC then how about a Trinny Reye?

[jim_twin]

None of your are for breaking him in gently with these smokes are you?

If not a HUHC then how about a Trinny Reye?

Was my first 'proper' Cuban cigar [emoji6] and It was good!

[TonyN]

i'm sure the tobacconist where your thinking of buying your cubans from will put you right.
If you explain your situation .

[groundhog]

Hello and
Pop along to the new members' thread and introduce yourself (Just so we can find out which Dale Askew you are )
I would go for one of the following:
HDM Epicure No2
ERDM Choix Supreme
Arturo Fuente Short Story
H Upmann Half Corona
Punch Petit Coronations

[groundhog]

Hi all,

In London this weekend and looking for your expert opinion on what cigar to choose for my first smoke, hopefully a memorable experience and one of many to come!

Thanks all
D


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Don't suppose by any chance you know someone called John Rankine?

[tommy]

Perhaps this is a good thread to post a complete beginner walkthrough! I'm at work at the no but Will try and put something together when I get home later.

Perhaps these guys Will be kind enough to start putting in some Info and we can edit it into a walkthrough later.

Have fun!

Marc

Good idea Marc, a beginners guide with some abbreviation help maybe. It's been mentioned before, not sure if it was ever done though. I'd be happy to start a list of abbreviations for everyone to add to.

[ValeTudoGuy]

Beginners guide:

The Cigar
Broadly speaking there are two kinds of Cigar, Cuban (CC) and Non Cuban (NC).
In general amongst cigar circles conversations are normally geared towards the enjoyment of high quality hand made cigars, please note that a cigar produced with tobacco hailing from one country will often be called a "Puro" though this term is often simply used as a default name for CC's.

Though the discussion of machine made offerings does take place and is not generally frowned upon.
Along with Cuba other counties with strong cigar production are The Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Though other countries do produce cigars also such as the USA, Indonesia, Holland and to a much lesser extent France, though this list is not exhaustive.
You can further split cigars into Hand made and Machine made varieties. Common machine made cigars that you may be aware of are King Edwards and Henri Winterman, without trying to offend or start a debate these types of cigars are generally considered of lower quality than Hand rolled Cigars. Once upon a time Cuba produced quite a few machine made cigars but this trend has slowed and this is now reserved for the small tinned "Club" and "Mini" Cubans. So in relation to Cuban cigars, if you are buying a full sized Cuban you are fairly safe in your assumption that you are buying a Hand made product made of 100% quality tobacco which is something that can't always be said for their machine made cousins.

Construction of cigars is split into stages and this can be broken down to the Filler, Binder and Wrapper.

Filler: The filler is the inner most bundle of tobacco that makes up the bulk of the cigar and can be described as Long or Short. In a long filler cigar the whole filler is made of intact rolled tobacco leaves where as in a short filler, it is made for cut up and re formed trimming.

Binder: This is the rough tobacco leaf that holds the filler together.

Wrapper: This is the high quality best looking smooth leaf that holds everything together. In some NC cigars this can be dyed to give a particular appearance or even flavoured. Though flavouring is a matter of personal preference flavoured cigars tend to not be appreciated by purists (Not always the case) yet flavoured cigars can account for the most expensive cigars available on the market.

Finally is the Cap, this is the section of the Wrapper that seals one end of the cigar, incidentally this is the end of the cigar which will need to be cut to put into your mouth. A cap can have multiple layers and a triple cap is often seen as a mark of a quality roller.

[ValeTudoGuy]

I'm going to shamelessly use Cigar Affection's poster to cover Cigar size, shape and colour.

[ValeTudoGuy]

Brands:
Currently produced Cuban cigar brands include:
Bolivar, Cohiba, Cuaba, Diplomaticos, El Rey del Mundo, Fonseca, H. Upmann, Hoyo De Monterray, Juan Lopez, La Gloria Cubana, Montecristo, Partagas, Por Larranaga, Punch, Quai D'Orsay, Rafael Gonzalez, Ramon Allones, Romeo Y Julieta, Sant Luis Rey, San Cristobel, Sancho Panza, Trinidad and Vagueros.

Currently Produced NC brands are almost too numerous to name but some common and well regarded ones are:
5 Vegas, Alec Bradley, A. Fuente, Ashton, Brick House, Camacho, CAO, Davidoff, Diesel, Don Pepin Garcia, Dunhill, Liga Privada, Macanudo, My Father, NUB/Oliva, Padila, Padron, Perdomo, Rocky Patel and Tatuaje.

[ValeTudoGuy]

Picking the Cigar:

Once you have chosen which brand and size of cigar you want to smoke, your going to want to pick a good example to actually light up.
To do this you going to want to check the cigar over.

Firstly visually inspect the cigar for any cracks or other types of damage. Next you will want to gently feel the cigar, lightly squeezing it along its length. Your looking for hollow areas or hard knots (Plugs) many good cigar retailers will help you find a good example and some will even replace a plugged cigar.

Storage:

Cigars need to be kept in a humidity controlled environment (Humidor) to keep them at their best. If you don't have one of these yet, don't buy too many cigars as they won't be at their best when you get to smoke them.

Keep cigars in the sealed bags the tobacconist will put them in for you, until your ready to smoke them. And don't be tempted to buy more than your going to smoke until your set up for storing them.

Aging:

In the world of CC's age is often considered an important aspect. With older cigars being considered to have improved in flavour. In fact Young CC's can often be described and being (Sick) and not prime for smoking.

NC's on the other hand are made to be smoked from day one and it is often argued that in general they don't improve with age.