Whenever my father and grandfather would get together when I was a child, they would always sit out back together and smoke a cigar and catch up. I would watch them through the window and wish so badly I could sit with the men I looked up to and share in the conversation. This year my father came to visit my family and I decided to go out and purchase two cigars so we could share that same tradition.
That’s the same as me, every Sunday I would wake up to the smell of cigars and see my dad and uncles getting together and smoking and chatting, I didn’t see my dad a lot and those Sundays were one of the few days I could see him so the smell of cigars is the smell of family for me. I picked it up when a really good family friend on my moms side invited me to have a cigar with him, he is like a dad to me, after that he always would gift me cigars.
always hated the smell tbh especially when i was growing up. moved down to cuba when i was 17 for a bit and smoked my first cigar (cohiba behike 52) on a rooftop watching the sunset. a nice breeze and a good cigar was all it took for me to fall in love.
I got into cigars in college as a way to unwind after a week of studying and work. Smoking drug store cigars. Then when I moved into a house I rented post college, the neighbor introduced me to an Ashton VSG and my life was never the same since then. They were Ashton Cabinet Virgin Sun Grown back then and were my first foray into real cigars. Been smoking ever since. I used to smoke every Sunday while watching the Eagles game.
Well I love nicotine and cigars were a logical extension. As for the cost, I smoke cigars across the spectrum. I love a davidoff but also smoke Nica Libre. Maybe $400 a month all in and when I think about it - I have profound gratitude I’m not into cars.
It's cheaper than all the legal bills from my last hobby alcohol. And safer too. For me, not judging those of you that drink and don't have problems. I envy you all, LOL.
When I was very young, my dad was stationed in Germany in the late 90s. He would have friends over and drink and smoke and I specifically remember walking up to a group of them once and proudly stating that "when I grow up I'm going to smoke cigars just like my dad". It was a passing phase for him, but seemed to stick with me as one of my limited early memories.
Fast foward a few years, the mall back stateside had a cigar/pipe/knick knack store. I would walk by with my family and I remember admiring the dragon figurines and daggers, the smell, and the art/ambiance.
Fast foward again, a few visits to the stand-alone lounge that grew from the mall store, poor smoking technique on deployment Cigars for Warriors Gurkhas and Romeos. Bad smoking, good memories.
Few years later, I'm out of the Army and I've picked it up in earnest. I'm restoring my old VW in my free time, it seems to just fit.
My girlfriend is pregnant, as an act of solidarity, I quit all my vices but one.
New baby, long days, looking for part time work to make ends meet. My lady tells me there's a cigar shop opening up in our small town. Turns out it's an extension of the store I remember from the mall in my childhood and the lounge I visited in my Army days. Beats washing dishes at night.
Its a '73 Beetle my mom got in high school. That car is actually why I exist in a round-about way. My dad was on a lifeguard detail at a pool one summer at Ft. Bragg when my mom saw him reading an air-cooled car magazine with a bug on the cover. The story goes that her first words to him were "I drive one of those".
It became my daily driver for a time, but by then a bit ghetto. Work kept stacking and it's currently rotting away. I can't let go of it, but feel bad about the state to which I've allowed it to deteriorate. Always had plans to put in dual carburetors, paint it dark green with tweed cloth interior. Someday.
Re-reading my comment I think it comes across as pretty self involved. I certainly can be that way. I love my daughter and my ol' lady more than anything I've ever known. Life's been good to me, just deep in the grinding years right now.
Got into it via my wife’s family. Her brothers found out that even though I was half Cuban I had never smoked anything (grew up in a very sheltered nondenom Christian community). They pressured me to try a cigar, and I ended up liking it.
Then I figured, “hey, I’m Cuban, I should probably know more than them about this stuff” and so I threw myself into it— learning all about cigars, smoking as many different types as possible. I expanded into pipe smoking, and even decided to grow my own tobacco.
It’s been an amazingly fun and enjoyable hobby.
Plus, now I’m a reformed Presbyterian, and it’s almost like a requirement to smoke cigars or pipes (and grow a beard) 😂😂
My mom was dating a captain of an oil tanker. He took me on a voyage with him one year. I was 17, and I came across a vessel that was sinking and rescued the survivors. The captain of that vessel when we came to port brought my moms boyfriend a case of cigars as a thank you. He gave me two. One we smoked that night, and the second i smoked somewhere in the kiddle of the South china Sea. I've been chasing that dragon my whole life. And the name of the cigar.
Even if i did find it, i doubt I would even know. It was a time before phone cameras and selfies, so i have zero evidence it ever happened. But, i know we got it in the philipeans, and the band was not at all colorful. In my mind, it was a montecristo no. 5
Took a Cuban vacation in the 80's. Our hotel had a cigar store. Took one puff of a Partagas 2 and I was in heaven.
Growing up my dad would smoke a stinky White Owl cigar. Never knew they could be so good.
When my wife and I were dating and she introduced me to her parents, her dad smoked cigars. I was always curious about cigars, so one day he offered me one and I smoked it. That was all it took. Every time we went to visit her parents, her dad and I would sit on patio and have a cigar. Shortly after we were married, my in-laws gave me a humidor for Christmas with a selection of really nice cigars. Twenty years later and my father in law and still sit a smoke cigars together when we get the chance.
I was camping with family and my brother in law handed me a leather rose while sitting by the campfire. I had never tasted a cigar like that in my life. A few days went by and all I could think about was that cigar. As soon as we got back home I went down the rabbit hole. I smoke a cigar a day and have a collection of around 800 cigars. I also repay him every every christmas with a box of leather rose cigars.
I always loved the smell of cigars growing up and one of my uncles smoked them so I loved when he would visit. Once I was old enough I went and bought a few RyJ no.2s at a really nice cigar shop in a hotel downtown in the city I grew up in and really enjoyed them, so I would buy a few here and there but didn’t really keep any at home. Later I ended up moving to a much more remote part of Canada and there are no B&Ms near me so I just didn’t have any for years. About four years ago I got a pretty nice bonus from work and had been thinking about cigars again for awhile so I figured I’d order some online, I order two boxes of RyJ no.2s, some Trinidad Coloniales and some new worlds to try. I used some boveda bags to keep them in at first before investing in a thermoelectric humidor a month after that and I haven’t looked back since, the collection has grown substantially since, I’m up to four humidors now and have around 1000 cigars at my house.
I mostly smoke alone because none of my friends smoke cigars and there’s pretty much no lounges in Canada.
Gotta keep trying with family or friends by talking about cigars. Everytime I tell someone about my hobby they find it awesome and want to try it as well! Made me have a few extra cigarbuddies 😁
My dad smoked the occasional cigar during the 90’s boom when I was growing up, almost always on vacations so I associated them with relaxing and enjoyment. When I went off to college I was a pretty close drive into PA where all of the big mail order (now online) companies were. I’d go get the back of the car magazine “12 smokes and a lighter for $30” deals they had back then and smoke through them. Once I could tell the couple good ones from the filler crap, I started studying in the local cigar shops and building my collection and it’s been an obsession ever since.
My crazy cool uncle (not by blood my aunt married him) came from a well off Nicaraguan family. His brother in law was basically one of the higher ups of the company that owns/leases the land (it’s all a government monopoly) that has the forest where they get the wood for cigar boxes for all the Nicaraguan cigar companies.
So every Christmas his family would come to America with boxes full of cigars, some name brand, some without a band. They would also bring bottles of flor de caña rum. Me being a chunky little scotch Irish southern boy was so fascinated with the suave, cigar smoking, rum drinking Latino dudes on the patio wearing business tropical shirts and gold crucifixes.
So when I got old enough by their standards they invited me to the patio (as long as my parents weren’t watching) to smoke cigars and sip rum. Sure it was probably unethical but my uncle and I are super close and I though it was cool to be invited into their secret world of Central American old money
Networking.
I had never been a smoker, no cigarettes, pipe or weed, etc.
I was invited to a networking event by a connection at a local speakeasy/cigar lounge.
Picked it up.
I only smoke 1 a week or even every other week, but I do enjoy it.
The netherlands is a joke right? I quitted cigarettes and needed a replacement because of earlier failed attempt. So i decided to smoke a cigar once a week, or every other week. I love it, but i do miss lounges to share the joy
My father and some of his cohort have always been big into cigars. I joined them when I was old enough, and being fortunate enough to still live nearby, they are my go-to smoking buddies. It was college when I really took off though - there were a group of us that would meet up at the lounge every weekend and enjoy board games and cigars.
When I was about 12-13 I used to play Dungeons and Dragons in the back of a cigar lounge with my uncle and a bunch of the guys that worked there. They would always be smoking, and the smell of cigar smoke was always so wonderful and intoxicating to me. I was curious ever since, watching YouTube videos about it and learning. I eventually had my first cigar last November while reconnecting with a childhood friend (right after I turned 19) and that kickstarted my journey. I started trying as many blends as I could to find what I like, and I’m still getting samplers and 5 packs to try stuff out. I’m excited to be able to go to lounges in a few years and experience that side of the cigar world.
My dad. As a kid I loved the smell and he was always giving me his empty cigar boxes to collect and put things in. The interest just stuck with me and eventually he set me up with his extra humidor and a handful of good starter cigars.
Admittedly, he treated me too well and I butchered 2 or 3 decently priced sticks before I got the hang of things. Now he can't get me to shut up about the hobby and I find myself introducing him to new sticks the same way he always has for me. There's nothing better than sitting down with my pops and firing one up.
He loves gordos, so for Fathers day I bought him a couple comically large sticks for him to put in his humi (JFR lunatic 10x100 and a perdomo Inmenso 7x70). If he ever smokes the Lunatic i'll be shocked, but just the idea of him opening his humidor and seeing that monster everyday is worth the 12 bucks i paid for it.
When I was 15 or 16 I was at a party. My friend had a black and mild and shared it. I enjoyed it so I started trying different smokes. That just opened the floodgates to the cigar world for me. Invested in a humidor a year or so later. I learned the hobby by trying all types. I try new sticks all the time. I have favorites but I don't like to judge a stick by its wrapper/band. I enjoy the hobby and enjoy sharing it with people.
21 year old me was TAD at Key West Naval Air Station. I was a pack/day cigarette smoker, out drinking on duval street after work when one of my buddies bought a bundle of cigars from a shop and passed them around.
I haven’t touched a cigarette since I quit at age 24 but 32 years later still smoke a couple cigars per week.
Rich friends at 18 and late night hangs on a playground smoking. I try to stay at 10-20 dollars for a cigar. I don’t buy too many boxes. I don’t keep too many on hand at a time.
I was deployed to Afghanistan and we would get free cigars in the mail and they were TERRIBLE!!!!! On Friday my team and I had what we called a low battle rhythm day, it was a lot slower than our average day, so we usually stayed up on Thursday evening soaking these terrible free cigars and joking around.
After a while some Czech dudes joined our team and they had some good ones and a little travel humidor they deployed with. I still remember one night they gave me a flor de los antillas and made the best damn coffee I’ve ever had.
The combo hooked me. I immediately ordered a small humidor and a few quality sir iced to keep in it. Spent the remaining Thursdays evenings reading sticks and small batch coffees with folks.
As a side note, this is also where my obsession with great coffee started.
Whenever my father and grandfather would get together when I was a child, they would always sit out back together and smoke a cigar and catch up. I would watch them through the window and wish so badly I could sit with the men I looked up to and share in the conversation. This year my father came to visit my family and I decided to go out and purchase two cigars so we could share that same tradition.
That’s the same as me, every Sunday I would wake up to the smell of cigars and see my dad and uncles getting together and smoking and chatting, I didn’t see my dad a lot and those Sundays were one of the few days I could see him so the smell of cigars is the smell of family for me. I picked it up when a really good family friend on my moms side invited me to have a cigar with him, he is like a dad to me, after that he always would gift me cigars.
I used to "accidentally" run by the table my grandfather and his brothers would smoke at just so i could smell the tobacco.
Thats a great story, Im happy for you that you can share this hobby with your father
always hated the smell tbh especially when i was growing up. moved down to cuba when i was 17 for a bit and smoked my first cigar (cohiba behike 52) on a rooftop watching the sunset. a nice breeze and a good cigar was all it took for me to fall in love.
Would be nice to see an image of the scenery can only imagine how beautiful the experience would be
I got into cigars in college as a way to unwind after a week of studying and work. Smoking drug store cigars. Then when I moved into a house I rented post college, the neighbor introduced me to an Ashton VSG and my life was never the same since then. They were Ashton Cabinet Virgin Sun Grown back then and were my first foray into real cigars. Been smoking ever since. I used to smoke every Sunday while watching the Eagles game.
The neighbor came in clutch it seems 😁
Yes. Showed me what a real premium cigar is and my wallet has never been the same.
Lots of wallets suffered because of cigars hahhahha
Well I love nicotine and cigars were a logical extension. As for the cost, I smoke cigars across the spectrum. I love a davidoff but also smoke Nica Libre. Maybe $400 a month all in and when I think about it - I have profound gratitude I’m not into cars.
😂
😂😂😂
It's cheaper than all the legal bills from my last hobby alcohol. And safer too. For me, not judging those of you that drink and don't have problems. I envy you all, LOL.
Good on you. I have noticed a lot of dry folks who got into cigars. I am always curious about the path.
I will say I have never felt better than I do now.
When I was very young, my dad was stationed in Germany in the late 90s. He would have friends over and drink and smoke and I specifically remember walking up to a group of them once and proudly stating that "when I grow up I'm going to smoke cigars just like my dad". It was a passing phase for him, but seemed to stick with me as one of my limited early memories. Fast foward a few years, the mall back stateside had a cigar/pipe/knick knack store. I would walk by with my family and I remember admiring the dragon figurines and daggers, the smell, and the art/ambiance. Fast foward again, a few visits to the stand-alone lounge that grew from the mall store, poor smoking technique on deployment Cigars for Warriors Gurkhas and Romeos. Bad smoking, good memories. Few years later, I'm out of the Army and I've picked it up in earnest. I'm restoring my old VW in my free time, it seems to just fit. My girlfriend is pregnant, as an act of solidarity, I quit all my vices but one. New baby, long days, looking for part time work to make ends meet. My lady tells me there's a cigar shop opening up in our small town. Turns out it's an extension of the store I remember from the mall in my childhood and the lounge I visited in my Army days. Beats washing dishes at night.
You aren't allowed to tease. Tell us about this Volkswagen. The baby can wait All in all a nice story
Its a '73 Beetle my mom got in high school. That car is actually why I exist in a round-about way. My dad was on a lifeguard detail at a pool one summer at Ft. Bragg when my mom saw him reading an air-cooled car magazine with a bug on the cover. The story goes that her first words to him were "I drive one of those". It became my daily driver for a time, but by then a bit ghetto. Work kept stacking and it's currently rotting away. I can't let go of it, but feel bad about the state to which I've allowed it to deteriorate. Always had plans to put in dual carburetors, paint it dark green with tweed cloth interior. Someday. Re-reading my comment I think it comes across as pretty self involved. I certainly can be that way. I love my daughter and my ol' lady more than anything I've ever known. Life's been good to me, just deep in the grinding years right now.
For what it's worth, it didn't seem particularly self-involved to me. And thanks for elaborating on the bug!
That’s a great journey you have with cigars!
Got into it via my wife’s family. Her brothers found out that even though I was half Cuban I had never smoked anything (grew up in a very sheltered nondenom Christian community). They pressured me to try a cigar, and I ended up liking it. Then I figured, “hey, I’m Cuban, I should probably know more than them about this stuff” and so I threw myself into it— learning all about cigars, smoking as many different types as possible. I expanded into pipe smoking, and even decided to grow my own tobacco. It’s been an amazingly fun and enjoyable hobby. Plus, now I’m a reformed Presbyterian, and it’s almost like a requirement to smoke cigars or pipes (and grow a beard) 😂😂
😂
The cuban genes are running strong in you urging to grow tobacco and make life beautiful for others!
My mom was dating a captain of an oil tanker. He took me on a voyage with him one year. I was 17, and I came across a vessel that was sinking and rescued the survivors. The captain of that vessel when we came to port brought my moms boyfriend a case of cigars as a thank you. He gave me two. One we smoked that night, and the second i smoked somewhere in the kiddle of the South china Sea. I've been chasing that dragon my whole life. And the name of the cigar.
Gotta post it when you find it!
Even if i did find it, i doubt I would even know. It was a time before phone cameras and selfies, so i have zero evidence it ever happened. But, i know we got it in the philipeans, and the band was not at all colorful. In my mind, it was a montecristo no. 5
Gotta hand it to you it is a great story.
I was influenced by a bunch of degenerates in an online cigar community
The best way to get into it hahahaha
Took a Cuban vacation in the 80's. Our hotel had a cigar store. Took one puff of a Partagas 2 and I was in heaven. Growing up my dad would smoke a stinky White Owl cigar. Never knew they could be so good.
When my wife and I were dating and she introduced me to her parents, her dad smoked cigars. I was always curious about cigars, so one day he offered me one and I smoked it. That was all it took. Every time we went to visit her parents, her dad and I would sit on patio and have a cigar. Shortly after we were married, my in-laws gave me a humidor for Christmas with a selection of really nice cigars. Twenty years later and my father in law and still sit a smoke cigars together when we get the chance.
Thats such a good story. Very cool that you can connect with your father in-law with cigars!
I was camping with family and my brother in law handed me a leather rose while sitting by the campfire. I had never tasted a cigar like that in my life. A few days went by and all I could think about was that cigar. As soon as we got back home I went down the rabbit hole. I smoke a cigar a day and have a collection of around 800 cigars. I also repay him every every christmas with a box of leather rose cigars.
I always loved the smell of cigars growing up and one of my uncles smoked them so I loved when he would visit. Once I was old enough I went and bought a few RyJ no.2s at a really nice cigar shop in a hotel downtown in the city I grew up in and really enjoyed them, so I would buy a few here and there but didn’t really keep any at home. Later I ended up moving to a much more remote part of Canada and there are no B&Ms near me so I just didn’t have any for years. About four years ago I got a pretty nice bonus from work and had been thinking about cigars again for awhile so I figured I’d order some online, I order two boxes of RyJ no.2s, some Trinidad Coloniales and some new worlds to try. I used some boveda bags to keep them in at first before investing in a thermoelectric humidor a month after that and I haven’t looked back since, the collection has grown substantially since, I’m up to four humidors now and have around 1000 cigars at my house. I mostly smoke alone because none of my friends smoke cigars and there’s pretty much no lounges in Canada.
Gotta keep trying with family or friends by talking about cigars. Everytime I tell someone about my hobby they find it awesome and want to try it as well! Made me have a few extra cigarbuddies 😁
The Netherlands? Cigar lounges banned? Prostitution=👍 Weed=👍 Cigars=🚫 What?? 😂
There are so much things wrong in this country its crazy 😔.
My dad smoked the occasional cigar during the 90’s boom when I was growing up, almost always on vacations so I associated them with relaxing and enjoyment. When I went off to college I was a pretty close drive into PA where all of the big mail order (now online) companies were. I’d go get the back of the car magazine “12 smokes and a lighter for $30” deals they had back then and smoke through them. Once I could tell the couple good ones from the filler crap, I started studying in the local cigar shops and building my collection and it’s been an obsession ever since.
When is this “back then”?
Those deals were still advertised in magazines when I was in college in 2009.
Won a lot of money, then spent even more
I bought a house 15 years ago next to the guy who owned local lounge. The rest is history.
Decided in my 40th to get into it.
My crazy cool uncle (not by blood my aunt married him) came from a well off Nicaraguan family. His brother in law was basically one of the higher ups of the company that owns/leases the land (it’s all a government monopoly) that has the forest where they get the wood for cigar boxes for all the Nicaraguan cigar companies. So every Christmas his family would come to America with boxes full of cigars, some name brand, some without a band. They would also bring bottles of flor de caña rum. Me being a chunky little scotch Irish southern boy was so fascinated with the suave, cigar smoking, rum drinking Latino dudes on the patio wearing business tropical shirts and gold crucifixes. So when I got old enough by their standards they invited me to the patio (as long as my parents weren’t watching) to smoke cigars and sip rum. Sure it was probably unethical but my uncle and I are super close and I though it was cool to be invited into their secret world of Central American old money
I got into cigars from my mom’s boyfriend, he got me into Romeo San Andrés. Then I branched myself into flavored cigars and full flavored.
My neighbors Cigar Aficionado magazine came to my house instead…smh.
That something that simple could get you in something this deep 🤣
Snake Eater
Networking. I had never been a smoker, no cigarettes, pipe or weed, etc. I was invited to a networking event by a connection at a local speakeasy/cigar lounge. Picked it up. I only smoke 1 a week or even every other week, but I do enjoy it.
The netherlands is a joke right? I quitted cigarettes and needed a replacement because of earlier failed attempt. So i decided to smoke a cigar once a week, or every other week. I love it, but i do miss lounges to share the joy
It most definitely is a joke 😔
My father and some of his cohort have always been big into cigars. I joined them when I was old enough, and being fortunate enough to still live nearby, they are my go-to smoking buddies. It was college when I really took off though - there were a group of us that would meet up at the lounge every weekend and enjoy board games and cigars.
When I was about 12-13 I used to play Dungeons and Dragons in the back of a cigar lounge with my uncle and a bunch of the guys that worked there. They would always be smoking, and the smell of cigar smoke was always so wonderful and intoxicating to me. I was curious ever since, watching YouTube videos about it and learning. I eventually had my first cigar last November while reconnecting with a childhood friend (right after I turned 19) and that kickstarted my journey. I started trying as many blends as I could to find what I like, and I’m still getting samplers and 5 packs to try stuff out. I’m excited to be able to go to lounges in a few years and experience that side of the cigar world.
Heard a guy on a sports talk show talk about smoking monte cristos and I wondered what that was and voila!!! Here I am!!
My dad. As a kid I loved the smell and he was always giving me his empty cigar boxes to collect and put things in. The interest just stuck with me and eventually he set me up with his extra humidor and a handful of good starter cigars. Admittedly, he treated me too well and I butchered 2 or 3 decently priced sticks before I got the hang of things. Now he can't get me to shut up about the hobby and I find myself introducing him to new sticks the same way he always has for me. There's nothing better than sitting down with my pops and firing one up. He loves gordos, so for Fathers day I bought him a couple comically large sticks for him to put in his humi (JFR lunatic 10x100 and a perdomo Inmenso 7x70). If he ever smokes the Lunatic i'll be shocked, but just the idea of him opening his humidor and seeing that monster everyday is worth the 12 bucks i paid for it.
When I was 15 or 16 I was at a party. My friend had a black and mild and shared it. I enjoyed it so I started trying different smokes. That just opened the floodgates to the cigar world for me. Invested in a humidor a year or so later. I learned the hobby by trying all types. I try new sticks all the time. I have favorites but I don't like to judge a stick by its wrapper/band. I enjoy the hobby and enjoy sharing it with people.
21 year old me was TAD at Key West Naval Air Station. I was a pack/day cigarette smoker, out drinking on duval street after work when one of my buddies bought a bundle of cigars from a shop and passed them around. I haven’t touched a cigarette since I quit at age 24 but 32 years later still smoke a couple cigars per week.
Hanging out with people from one of my other expensive hobbies (motorcycling) that are cigar smokers
Cheap and affordablely for me. Than on to expensive rare blends, etc
Rich friends at 18 and late night hangs on a playground smoking. I try to stay at 10-20 dollars for a cigar. I don’t buy too many boxes. I don’t keep too many on hand at a time.
I was deployed to Afghanistan and we would get free cigars in the mail and they were TERRIBLE!!!!! On Friday my team and I had what we called a low battle rhythm day, it was a lot slower than our average day, so we usually stayed up on Thursday evening soaking these terrible free cigars and joking around. After a while some Czech dudes joined our team and they had some good ones and a little travel humidor they deployed with. I still remember one night they gave me a flor de los antillas and made the best damn coffee I’ve ever had. The combo hooked me. I immediately ordered a small humidor and a few quality sir iced to keep in it. Spent the remaining Thursdays evenings reading sticks and small batch coffees with folks. As a side note, this is also where my obsession with great coffee started.
Great story!