Would you like a Cigar?

[Brent in Az]

Texted with a friend yesterday, who is camping up in Pinetop for 5 days. He said it was pretty hot up there in the mountains.

 

[PARA45]

About to enjoy a Camacho Nicaraguan Barrel Aged cigar

 

[PARA45]

Enjoying a My Father La Gran Oferta after dinner

 

[Mort Hill]

Will forever associate the Oliva with O-Man!

A nice Series V Melanio Maduro while I start the hunt report from Zim.

 

[Brent in Az]

I have a new nickname for Uncle Mort.

"Puff Daddy".....lol.

183 cigars in 23 days. It takes me 6 months to smoke that many

 

[Uncle Sauce]

I have a new nickname for Uncle Mort.

"Puff Daddy".....lol.

183 cigars in 23 days. It takes me 6 months to smoke that many

Haha - That fits!

 

[BourbonTrail]

I have a new nickname for Uncle Mort.

"Puff Daddy".....lol.

183 cigars in 23 days. It takes me 6 months to smoke that many

Hell, it takes me 6 years

 

[Mort Hill]

Hell, it takes me 6 years

I am not proud of it, just the truth. And as far as the nick name, had much worse. If the shoe fits!

 

[Brent in Az]

I am not proud of it, just the truth. And as far as the nick name, had much worse. If the shoe fits!

We love ya Mort. I find that smoke-a-thon very impressive.

 

[BourbonTrail]

I am not proud of it, just the truth. And as far as the nick name, had much worse. If the shoe fits!

No judgement from me, it just makes me feel like a total lightweight. I can’t smoke more than 2-3 a day without getting nicotine poisoning.

 

[mdwest]

Attended an amazing Hooten & Young event at Javiers in Dallas tonight..

Javiers is a cool place… hunting themed cigar bar with several African mounts on the wall.. very reminiscent of a bar in an African safari lodge..

H&Y has got a seriously delicious stick getting ready to be released soon called “ma deuce” named after the M2 browning machine gun, the cigar is dimensionally similar to a .50 BMG round, is rolled like an actual cartridge, complete with case shoulder and a bullet… at first I thought “gimmick”… it’s not! Wonderfully delicious!

Even better, the cigar box looks like an ammo can…

For whatever reason I can’t get pics to upload from my phone.. I’ll post one tomorrow when I’m back at the laptop

 

[mdwest]

smoked a "Ma Deuce" while I was at the event, and sipped a couple of Old Fashioneds made with H&Y Whiskey.. then managed to leave with a few additional sticks in hand..

The Twenty Twenty was their OR for that year.. A nice box pressed robusto with a good bit of ligero rolled in.. I havent smoked one yet.. but I do love a robusto (by far my favorite vitola), I do love a box press, and I do love a nice, dark, oily cigar.. So Im guessing Im going to love the blend..

The Gothic Serpent (their first cigar) is still on of my favorite top 10 sticks of all time... Mad Deuce impressed me last night and might also be a favorite.. Im going to smoke the second one I brought home and will know more then..

If you havent tried them yet.. theyre not easy to find.. H&Y is a boutique manufactuer.. Theyve got sticks in select stores in Virginia, Florida, and I believe Texas now.. but they certainly arent everywhere.. Theyre a little on the spendy side.. but they are well worth the price of admission.. everyone should try them at least once..

I think Im going to take the 3 robustos with me to South Africa next month and smoke them as celebration sticks after successful hunts...

 

[Mort Hill]

I think Im going to take the 3 robustos with me to South Africa next month and smoke them as celebration sticks after successful hunts...

Well, you must let us know when you are successful so we have a good reason to smoke a celebratory cigar as well!

 

[Bill DeHaan]

I am curious to know how others handle the social situation of offering a cigar to a friend who does smoke cigars but not often and is not a discriminating cigar smoker? Do you have and then offer Less expensive cigars or accept the risk that one of your better sticks may end up barely smoked, unwanted and left for dead in the ash tray?

 

[BourbonTrail]

I am curious to know how others handle the social situation of offering a cigar to a friend who does smoke cigars but not often and is not a discriminating cigar smoker? Do you have and then offer Less expensive cigars or accept the risk that one of your better sticks may end up barely smoked, unwanted and left for dead in the ash tray?

Bill,

For me, it depends on the situation at hand:
- If it’s pre-planned and I know I am providing cigars, I ask them for what they like. If I get an answer, I pick that, but if I get the “whatever…” I buy a beginner stick in the sub $10 range.
- If it’s unplanned but likely (like a BBQ, etc), I have a couple beginner sticks on hand and dole them out.
- If it’s unplanned and I am caught off guard, I just fess up one and take the loss. At most you’re out $15 dollars.

One thing of note: I don’t smoke a high dollar cigar while they are having a cheapy, because that’s like drinking scotch and offering a beer. An exception is if I know they will hate it, and then I just caution them ahead of time.

Not sure if it helps, but my $0.02

 

[mdwest]

I am curious to know how others handle the social situation of offering a cigar to a friend who does smoke cigars but not often and is not a discriminating cigar smoker? Do you have and then offer Less expensive cigars or accept the risk that one of your better sticks may end up barely smoked, unwanted and left for dead in the ash tray?

I used to be a much more "social" cigar smoker and encountered this a lot..

For me the solution was an "it depends" sort of thing..

If the guy I was going to smoke with was just an occasional smoker, I generally keep a good number of common, reasonably lower cost, cigars that pretty much anyone would like on hand that I use as "daily" smokes.. Milder cigars, generally without a whole lot of ligero.. that are medium to full bodied, but with medium to mild strength.. Im not going to waste a $20, limited run, Anejo Shark on a guy that not only cant tell the difference, but also doesnt really care about the difference between an Opus X and a backwoods smoke.. but Im also not going to exclude him from an opportunity to have a cigar.. and I dont keep machine rolled cigars in my stash... so he might get something mild from an AJ Fernandez line, or one of the thousand series padrons, or a fuente curly head, etc..

If the guy I was going to smoke with didnt have a lot of cigar experience, but showed a genuine interest in cigars, I didnt mind grabbing a truly excellent cigar for him out of the humidor and letting him experience the difference in a truly premium smoke vs "common" cigar.. I'd be careful not to grab a full power stick that was going to have him laying on the floor sweating with a case of nicotine shakes... but would ask some questions about what they like, what they might know they dont like, etc.. and then pair them up with something that I think would hit the sweet spot in their profile.. whether that was a $6 or a $60 cigar..

What I never did was give people open access to my humidor... Ive downsized quite a bit over the last 18 months.. but for the decade prior I was using a 7'x6'x2' cabinet humidor and maintaining a stash of about 2500 cigars.. with things in there ranging from $3 a stick to $50+.. from super mild connie wrapped "breakfast/coffee" type cigars to full power Vitamin N bombs that would put even an experienced smoker on their butt if you didnt eat a large meal just before lighting up.. everything from wrappers so dark and oily they looked like fresh laid chocolate cake batter to so pale and dry they looked like someone put a dowel rod of white maple in a piece of cellophane..

What I didnt want was a guy who really likes "floral" grabbing a $40, limited edition, ligero packed oscuro from esteli thats full of cocoa and pepper notes and has 3x the nicotine he is expecting.. or a guy that likes "baking notes" and that has been ramping up their smoking a bit lately, grabbing a $25K cuban that is known to have a delicate flavor profile with nuanced notes of herbs and grass... All thats going to happen there is the smoker is going to have a less than positive experience.. and Im going to be out an expensive stick thats hard to replace (if replaceable at all)...

 

[BourbonTrail]

… that was going to have him laying on the floor sweating with a case of nicotine shakes...

This actually happened too me once. In college, the cigar shop owner decided to offer up something up more..robust… since I was a regular. He warned me. I heeded the warning and had a full steak and potatoes dinner before lighting up that oily nicotine bomb. It didn’t matter, half way into the stick I was on the floor of my dorm room with a fan blowing on my face trying not to hurl as the room spun around.

Still one of the best tasting cigars I have had.

 

[PARA45]

Well, I learned my lesson, and now I keep some mild premiums cigars on hand ($3-$5 per stick on sale). A friend who normally would join us for cigars stopped by, and we decided to sit outside for a smoke to celebrate the news that his son was getting married. Well, I pulled out some Padron 1964 Anniversario cigars. To my horror, he only smoked 1/2 of the cigar before throwing it in the ashtray. This was the last time I did this. Now, I have some Romeo's or Montecristos with Connecticut shade wrappers, and nothing too expensive to share with those who are not regular smokers.

I also always offer a cigar if I'm sitting in a group, and I ask if they don't mind me smoking a cigar. If they do, then I take my stash and find a quiet place to sit and enjoy the moment.

 

[Uncle Sauce]

I had about the same thing happen to me as @PARA45 - offered up a really nice $20 stick (can't remember what it was now) to a guy who didn't want to use my cutter and proceeded to murder it with a pocket knife and then tossed it after about 1/2 thru. I'm a bit wiser now...(I hope!) But crap happens...

@BourbonTrail summed it up nicely above!

 

[Bill DeHaan]

Fantastic advice ! Prepare a measured offering for any situation.
Uncle Sauce your story made bourbon shoot out my nose. That was wonderfully amusing. Having a guy carve up one of your fine sticks with a butter knife could have resulted in a reflexive butt-stroke with a DG rifle or other that was close at hand.