When did you know

[NICig]

When did you know cigars were something you wanted to learn about/follow/enjoy/collect etc?
When in your cigar life did you first start picking up individual flavours, notes etc.

I am, admittedly, just embarking on my cigar journey but am struggling to pick up many flavours beyond "cigar"

Just curious

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[wayne_w]

Upon returning from a Cuban holiday..
I was hooked as soon as I smelt a cigar & drank good rum!
Previously a total non-smoker too!

[Emaresee]

As with many folk I picked up a cigar as part of the standard 'kit' when I started going to black tie events, and weddings...

But the moment I became really intrigued was walking into the walk in humi at Harrods (run by JJ Fox)... I took a taste of the air, looked around at a room full of open 25/50 cab boxes out on display and simply wanted to know more...

It used to be on the ground floor amongst the menswear - a statement of an age if ever there was one, and has since moved down to be near wines & spirits, but it was a little corner of calm in an otherwise manic madhouse of a building.

[Starkey]

For me it was a holiday in Cuba in my early teens, it left me with a curiosity about cigars and a yearning to smoke one. I smoked the odd one on holiday that you can buy from the stalls they set up in the hotel lobby's abroad but it wasn't until I finally smoked my first Cuban that it became a hobby. And that was a monte no4 tubo.

[ValeTudoGuy]

It was harrods for me too. I had been interested in pipes for a while due to finding my great grandads old pipe.

It was my first time in london and I was looking at the shoes, then I noticed the walk in in the corner, if I think back I can almost remember the smell of new shoe leather turning into a tobacco smell as I walked in.

I picked up a small handfull of sticks that day and smoked a few with my brother in law.

Some time later my brother came back from Dubai with a pretty big sellection for me and so I signed up here.

I started to really get great flavours when I was herfing with [MENTION=13372589]cigarmo[/MENTION], he would talk about Maple and Chocolate flavours and I would start to notice them.

He gave me a BHK 52 and it was so different to anything else I had smoked.... Then he introduced me to the Monte #2 and I started to realise how good cigars could be.

Some time after all this I realised I enjoyed small sticks and with some guidance from [MENTION=941]Simon Bolivar[/MENTION] and @Tippex I learned about smoking small sticks very gently. A member [MENTION=13372056]Sligub[/MENTION] gifted me a Bolivar Demi Tasse for a little series of reviews I was doing and it totally blew my socks off. Im still searching for something that tasty.

I came because of cigars and stayed because of the people.

[SHAMZ84]

I'm still quite new to this, I knew i liked cigars years ago when I was on a lads holiday and one of the lads nabbed there dads cigars for the trip... I was just a different feeling, when your 17 you feel like your a big man having a cigar around the pool in the nice heat since then I always associated cigars on holiday,

it wasn't until a recent trip Mexico when every night my brother in-law the other halfs and I would sit in the bar with a few cigars going round, i just really enjoyed it more than ever, so decided to bring some back started to actually enjoy them properly and take time to find out how to care for them and purchase different types of cigars. I still think my palate is still new to it, but its developing over the past 5 months.

I think as @ValeTodoGuy said, when you start smoking with more experienced smokers those "Cigar" taste you have, will realise they are something else.. Still yet to taste the fruity, tea like sensation some people have, but i'm sure it will come in time especially when you smoke with like minded people.

[jerryr]

For me it was a trip to Cuba's few years ago, sun rum and a cigar. Just seemed to go together

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[Simon Bolivar]

Interesting thread guys! Cheers VTG for the mention, I too have learnt a lot from members on here. I smoked cigars occasionally in my youth but there were the massed produced Hamlets & Castellas found in British pubs in the 70's & 80's. I got into Havana's after a trip to Spain with wife & daughter in circa 1995. I can't really recall what made me try my first but seeing them in the window of the Tabac in a large window humi (pre-walk-in Humi days), must have lured me to try one; which was probably a Monte No4. I bought a box of R&J Julietas home for fishing smokes & they lasted a while. Two yrs later we returned & I was a little more adventurous & bought some Hoyo Epi No2 &1's, Monte 4's & a few Cohiba Esplen, Exquisitos & a panatela which I had there with coffee & Spanish brandy & very nice it was too.
In further visits I bought boxes of No4's with a handful of mixed smokes & had a 50stix humi by then to put them in. Managed to persuade the wife I needed a larger one & added a 5 drawer humi. That's how it was when I joined Club Havana, pre- runner to this internet site & suddenly I was buying boxes of cigars & the game was a foot!
Now at the stage when I am trying not to grow my collection any more but still seeing stix I'd like. After a few years of hectic buying it's a tough habit to break!

[smokey joe]

When did you know

3 years ago i was in Las Vegas & smoked a cigar whilst at the mob museum. When I got back to the uk we had a short break in Bath & I sought out a B&M with the band of one of my favourite cigars to try and get more of them. That turned out to be a Trinidad Reyes and it grew from there.

[trying]

I had smoked occasional cigars for some years on social or special occasions but like all beginners probably never really appreciated them fully... its a journey. Then several years ago at a friends wedding his father gave me a lovely cuban and we stood and talked cigars for what seemed like ages... the knowledge and enthusiasm he warmly shared helped me to appreciate the cigar better... that's when I knew - it's still one of my favourites... that friendly conversation also fired my interest in all things cigar... after that I tried various and stocked a humidor and then another.... the journey goes on.

[Sean]

Basically i was on holiday and thought i was billy big bollocks buying one, once returning i started really looking into cigars and joined ukcf just about anyway deano rejected my first membership thinking i was a spammer [emoji23][emoji23] but since joining here i have met a lot of great people and learnt alot

[Simon Bolivar]

Deano eh? Actually Sean, despite the 6'000+ posts some of us are still wondering

[sheppsea]

Deano thought I was a spammer too when I joined (or maybe I'm just playing the long game... )

I have always been interested in cigars and smoked a couple but never took the plunge until I was on our honeymoon in Cuba, I only regret not taking more advantage while I was there. I keep trying to convince my wife to return before McDonalds etc start popping up everywhere, but am yet to win her over

[Simon G]

For me it started when I bought a few holiday sticks on my brothers stag do in Spain, had zero knowledge of cigars. Then, for my wedding the following year, i then researched and got into them from there on. Tried and tested loads, to see which I preferred. Very expensive venture
Now I know my faves, I'm gonna stick to them. And being a seasonal and special occasion smoker, my quota and collection has reduced considerably
all the best!

[oskihen]

Well it is a long road , remember vividly as a child watching my pops and grandfather's playing cards sharing a bottle and smoking cigars and pipes . Smoked from a young age 13 tbh (it was the seventies ) and naturally progressed to cigars . Mainly Henri winterman panatella in the pubs , then villager off my Dad. Remember my first Cuban about 15 years ago ryj at a BBQ. Bought the odd tubo from waitrose for the odd night out . But got really into it with the ease of the internet and shopping on line cgars etc... as sadly b&m s are as rare as the proverbial round my way . The rest is history 100's of cigars later and I'm still on the search lol


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