First Cigar

So last Wednesday night I had my first cigar ever. The adventure began when I got to school this year and my roomate had a half smoked cigar that he was planning on finishing, and he asked me if I wanted to smoke one with him. Now I hate cigarettes, and when people smoke them outside our dorm window I get pissed, but I've always liked the way the cigars smelled, so I said sure I would try one with him.

I went to one of the local smoke shops around here which was called Just Smokes. The place was definitely not a cigar shop as they only had like 5 different kinds of cigars in a glass case and the lady that helped me had no idea about anything (I asked her if they had any mild cigars as I assumed that would be the best bet with it being my first one, she had no idea what any of the cigars were). So I ended up picking up a Casino Gold (later finding out online that it WAS in fact a mild cigar, so good news there) and a cutter.

First impressions after smoking the cigar were that I couldn't really taste much of anything. Occasionally it would taste kind of earthy, but other then that I couldn't taste it. It mostly just felt like my mouth was slowly burning before I blew the smoke out. Now I don't know if this is because it was a mild cigar, my first cigar and my pallet is not accustomed to it, or if it was just a bad cigar. Having never smoked any others I have nothing to compare it to. However, it did burn very even, the draw seemed decent (again, having nothing to compare to, it's hard to say) and the ash probably got to around an inch and a half before I knocked it off (I never let it get as far as it could and just fall off itself, didn't think about it). Overall I had a great time, and I will definitely smoke another one, though I am going to try to find a better place to buy them around here... or maybe just order some off cigar.com...

The highlight of the night however was the photographs. Photography is my main hobby and pretty much my favorite thing to do, so we took a bunch of photo's. This is my favorite photo from the night.

First Cigar

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Comments

phobicsquirrel

Great to hear that you had your first cigar. There are so many out there it's a bit overwhelming. One of the things that I found out a couple of years ago is that for me I take about 3 puffs per minute as that is just enough and it seems to help with that hot sensation you mentioned. I suggest getting some recommendations from here then try them out. Theres a thread about favorites, you should check it out. BTW, nice photo, I love the smoke over the black

j0z3r

Nice photo.

Congrats on your first cigar, if you liked it, then there will be many more to come, I can assure you of that much.

If you're looking to stick with something mild but with good flavor, I'd recommend trying a 5 Vegas Gold or a Cuasno 18 Double Connecticut... Both are, in my opinion, excellent cigars that are pretty easy on the wallet as well.

rusirius

Joe made some great recommendations, and I'll also throw out the RP Edge Lite... A REALLY smooth and creamy mild... You might also try something a little stronger... You'll find more depth to the flavor and I personally find them more enjoyable...

Now as for tasting... One of the mistakes I think a lot of new cigar smokers make is not using their nose... Plug your nose up and pay a visit to the fridge... Things just don't have much of a taste at all do they? The same applies with cigars... You don't want to inhale the smoke, but you still need to use your nose to taste it... Some people find it really easy, others take a little practice, but basically once you draw the smoke into your mouth, take a couple breaths while it's in there and then blow some of it out through your nose... Some people seem to struggle with that concept, and it's hard to explain, but once you do it you'll find it really easy... Basically just take a breath (with the smoke still sealed in your mouth of course) and then exhale but at the same time you exhale open up the back of your throat and allow the smoke to go out with it...

Generally speaking you want about half the smoke going out your nose and the other half out your mouth...

If you REALLY have a hard time doing this, the other thing you can do that some find a little easier is to just open your mouth and allow a very small amout of the smoke to drift up into your nose while you're inhaling... Just be careful doing this since in this case you ARE inhaling the smoke so you want to make sure it's just a very small amount.

Once you use your nose you'll find that the real "flavor" comes through and you'll start picking up on all those tastes that you were completely missing before...

DiasFlak

5 vegas classic or if you want full on flavor get an acid i like the acid nasty its a lil stronger but doesnt have flavor on the wrapper just in the smoke! but congrats and welcome to the good life!

rdnstn

Congrats on your first cigar and welcome to the board. You are in for a ride... and a real treat too.

Try a bunch of different cigars to see what you prefer taste wise. If you want to start with something mild, try La Flor de Oliva. It is decent, relatively inexpensive and fairly mild.

ChrisCookz

Yeah I'm sure there will be more in the future. Actually the suggested 5 Vegas Gold and the Cusano 18 Connecticut were both on my list of cigars to try. I would much rather buy them in person though, and I know of at least one more possible shop in town that I will have to check out, otherwise I will have to order them off here probably.

In addition to new cigars to try I need to get a lighter (does it matter if it's a cheap bic lighter or something better like a zippo?) and a small humidor, probably a 20 count. I know you guys suggest getting at least a 100 count or something but I'm living in a dorm right now and I definitely don't have money to fill a 100 count humidor, probably not even a 20 lol. I know that cigars are generally better if you let them sit for a while, and I'm thinking that letting them sit just out and about probably isn't the best idea. So what would be a good / cheaper brand of humidor to look into just to get started with? Would you suggest buying one online or in a shop?

And I'll definitely try the nose thing next time, as well as the other bits of advice and stuff. It's all pretty exciting, but a bit overwhelming with the tons of cigars out there. For example, do cigars taste any different if they are rolled in a different style even though the filler and stuff are the same? It seems weird to me that they possibly could even though it's made out of the same stuff...

j0z3r

Lighter: Do Not, I repeat, DO NOT, use a zippo on a cigar. The stench of the fuel will contaminate the taste of your cigar. A bic lighter will work if that's what you have to work with. Anything butane powered, nothing with smelly, liquid fuel.

Humidor: A decent, workable humidor can be found on this very website for $29.95. It is the cigar.com house humidor, a 20 count and is very decent. Another idea is to go to the grocery store or a Target/Walmart type of store and get yourself a decent sized Tupperware, or equivalent, container. This will give you the tight seal you need to keep your cigars from drying out and effectively dying and will thereafter be referred to as the Tupperdor. Another important note is some sort of humidification device to keep your cigars humidified... in the short term, this can be accomplished by using the water pillows that come with any cigars ccom sends you. Alternatively, a foam humidifier can be purchased rather cheap and you can actually make your own if you were to find a how-to guide.

Ok, I've covered some of the basics here. Throw out some more questions if you've got them. Myself and the rest of the forum members are generally more than happy to help out a newcomer.

Joe

Vidarien

j0z3r:
Another important note is some sort of humidification device to keep your cigars humidified... in the short term, this can be accomplished by using the water pillows that come with any cigars ccom sends you.
Joe

I love those pillows, they do a great job in maintaining RH during shipping, and i keep the bags around sealed anyway because they last so long, even after ive transferred the sticks to my humi. They're nice for travel containers for short couple hour trips. I used to use old sealed tubes from my B&M, but i lost them...i should go pick up a few sticks just for the sake of getting those glass tubes back.

Oh, back on point, id suggest if you use a tupperdor..or even a humidor with an analog hygrometer, you buy a cheap digital hygrometer from radio shack or online, painfully low or high RH (anything outside of 60-80) will make your cigar quite bad. The correct range is much tighter, but..the difference isnt as pronounced to a new smoker. I remember once i had an RP 1990 from a friend that was sitting at 40% RH for 4 days (I wasnt aware of it at the time), and the thing was terrible, had to snuff it midstick. I asked him where he stored the thing and he said he had left it on his counter by mistake because his humi was full.

Finally, a cool cigar is a happy cigar, heat is its enemy...despite needing heat to smoke it. Make it a drawn out experience with smaller draws and bigger intervals between draws, it will burn cooler...wont be as harsh/bitter, more flavor will come through, and your mouth wont feel as though its burning. (I'm suspecting this is why your mouth is burning based on clicking the photo you linked, because you had so much smoke coming off that thing that i'm betting it was scorching from too hard/too fast draws. Unless of course all that smoke was enhanced as some photo editing or whatnot)

kuzi16

ChrisCookz:
does it matter if it's a cheap bic lighter or something better like a zippo

the bic is better. Butane is better than a zippo style any day. A torch lighter is better than a bic. some will say that cedar matches are better than a lighter. i think they take too long but thats just me.

ChrisCookz:
I know you guys suggest getting at least a 100 count or something

100 ct? no i would never suggest that.
300ct.
no seriously, buy as large as you can afford right now. push the envelope. you will thank yourself later. if you dont want to spend the money right now because you feel that funds may run short, use tupperware.

ChrisCookz:
do cigars taste any different if they are rolled in a different style even though the filler and stuff are the same?

yes. we'll discuss this later.

rdnstn

Where are you located Chris? Maybe we can help you out a little more if you let us know.

BTW, nice photo, you should make that your avatar for the board.

zoom6zoom

Do Not, I repeat, DO NOT, use a zippo on a cigar.

Unless it's a Zippo Blu... they are a butane lighter.

We're not kidding about the size... take a look at the picture thread. First post. That's a 300 ct humi and I filled it in the blink of an eye. (and you can get it for just over $100, so it's not that expensive - PM me for more info) Two other posters in that thread have the same humi and theirs are stuffed. Remember also, if you tend toward larger sticks, that number will be short by 25%, minimum.

ChrisCookz

rdnstn:
Where are you located Chris? Maybe we can help you out a little more if you let us know.

BTW, nice photo, you should make that your avatar for the board.

I'm originally from Connecticut, but I'm currently going to school in Indiana (Purdue University) so I'm here 8 months out of the year.

zoom6zoom:
Do Not, I repeat, DO NOT, use a zippo on a cigar.
Unless it's a Zippo Blu... they are a butane lighter.

We're not kidding about the size... take a look at the picture thread. First post. That's a 300 ct humi and I filled it in the blink of an eye. Two other posters in that thread have the same humi and theirs are stuffed. Remember also, if you tend toward larger sticks, that number will be short by 25%, minimum.

Yeah I was looking at the Blu's but they're a bit much for right now. I'll just stick with the bic. My roomate has a regular zippo (which is what we used before) but I won't use it again. And I understand that a 300 count would be the best to get, but I definitely can't fill it. Even if you get $2 cigars that's $600 in cigars (not including the $ for the humi itself). And for not having a job while I'm at school I can't swing $600 in cigars so I KNOW I won't be filling it lol.

rusirius

zoom6zoom:
Do Not, I repeat, DO NOT, use a zippo on a cigar.
Unless it's a Zippo Blu... they are a butane lighter.

We're not kidding about the size... take a look at the picture thread. First post. That's a 300 ct humi and I filled it in the blink of an eye. Two other posters in that thread have the same humi and theirs are stuffed. Remember also, if you tend toward larger sticks, that number will be short by 25%, minimum.

Exactly... Don't think a 100 ct humi will hold 100 sticks... That humi in my picture in that thread is a 100ct... I've got MAYBE 40+ sticks in there and it's way more packed than I'd like it to be... I've got another 300ct humi on the way and another 150ct humi arriving the day after... (monday and tuesday hopefully)... That just to shed the load off a couple of my "tuppordors"...

If you're not worried about looks, go with a coolerdor... Will give you plenty of room, but it'll be fairly cheap compared to some other options... Whatever you do stay away from the cheap ebay stuff... There's several companies on there (one in particular) that sell humis that look almost exactly like some of the higher end models that the better sites sell... They're anything but though... They're cheap and actually lined with maple instead of spanish cedar (despite what they say)...

Basically just like all things, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is...

urbino

ChrisCookz:
And I understand that a 300 count would be the best to get, but I definitely can't fill it. Even if you get $2 cigars that's $600 in cigars (not including the $ for the humi itself). And for not having a job while I'm at school I can't swing $600 in cigars so I KNOW I won't be filling it lol.

Take note of what sirius said, Chris. Unless all you smoke is coronas, you will never get anything close to 300 cigars in a "300-ct." humidor. Humidor sizing, from what I've read, is based on old Cuban sizes, which tended to be much smaller than modern sizes. Add to that the fact that you shouldn't fill a humi more than about 2/3 full (to maintain good circulation), and you begin to see the problem.

Realistically, in a 300-ct. humi, you're going to be able to store something closer to 100 cigars than 300 cigars.

zoom6zoom

Well, you don't have to fill it... although it will probably happen faster than you think. I didn't fill mine by onesies, twosies, it's the great deals and samplers here on ccom and a few other favored sites. I don't buy $2 cigars, I buy $7 to $10 dollar cigars and pay $2 each (or so) for them. I also keep telling myself I don't need to buy any for a while... yeah, that works....

kuzi16

urbino:
Add to that the fact that you shouldn't fill a humi more than about 2/3 full (to maintain good circulation...

well i shot that one to hell.

i would feel ok with a bit more than 2/3 of the way full. in fact. I would feel ok up to 3/4 or maybe a bit more... 4/5 of the way. If you open your humi once every two days (i do once a day) good air circulation becomes less of a problem.

Vidarien

zoom6zoom:
Well, you don't have to fill it... although it will probably happen faster than you think. I didn't fill mine by onesies, twosies, it's the great deals and samplers here on ccom and a few other favored sites. I don't buy $2 cigars, I buy $7 to $10 dollar cigars and pay $2 each (or so) for them. I also keep telling myself I don't need to buy any for a while... yeah, that works....

I think zoom makes an important point. More often than not a lot of the purchases are specials. Specials are what make the cigar world go round

ChrisCookz

Thanks for the advice guys :-). I'll probably get something bigger then a 20, but definitely not a 300 (yet).