Who first introduced you to premium cigars?

My older brother really enjoyed smoking pipe tobacco. I loved the smell and warmth of it. I picked up a pipe and enjoyed it but always had my eyes on the cigars at the tobacco store. Finally picked up some sort of macanudo and enjoyed it. Didn't pick up another cigar for a long time then one day meeting a friend he said he wanted to run by the shop. We both ended up getting cigars (i got another macanudo) and smoking them and it was a really great experience. Been smoking them consistantly since then and have succombed to cigarbid.
 
My wife (GF at the time) attempted to push me down the slope several years ago. There was (still is) a little shop that only sold cigars that were rolled by the owner. She tried to get me to go in, but at the time I wasn't interested ( I am now, and have been several times). She did convince me to get some at a shop in Sea Port Village (San Diego). They were some kind of Don Diego tubos. They were all right, but still not my thing.

Several years later, my BIL starts handing out cigars every so often when we go to visit. They only live a couple miles away, and we visit quite often. I started buying my own, and soon I was filling my cooleridor, and happily hurtling down the slope. He isn't quite over the edge, but he is looking at humidors. He pushed me down, so I'm gonna have to return the favor :D

My wife is glad that I started smoking cigars, she absolutely loves how I smell after smoking, but she always reminds me that she tried to get me started a long time ago.
 
I kind of got myself started out of interest from seeing friends and relatives enjoy cigars in my high school days, and through growing up. But during my exploration there were two people influential in giving me good cigars to try and helping me find my palate, two old friends Marianne and then Debbie. Yes, it was the ladies. lol
 
Ever since I was little I was fascinated by cigars. I was not introduced to them by a person. I looked around online and read about the different cigars, then went into a B&M and purchased some without asking for advice. It was not for a while before I started talking to people about cigars.
 
When I signed up for CS last year, all I kept reading was Padron...Padron...Padron. Went out thinking how much better can these be then the Don Elias' I've been smoking?! Needless to say its been all down hill since. Damn you CS! If it wasn't for you I'd still only be spending $50 for 50 cigars instead of $50 for 5.
 
Shabalula said:
My wife (GF at the time) attempted to push me down the slope several years ago. There was (still is) a little shop that only sold cigars that were rolled by the owner. She tried to get me to go in, but at the time I wasn't interested ( I am now, and have been several times). She did convince me to get some at a shop in Sea Port Village (San Diego). They were some kind of Don Diego tubos. They were all right, but still not my thing.

Several years later, my BIL starts handing out cigars every so often when we go to visit. They only live a couple miles away, and we visit quite often. I started buying my own, and soon I was filling my cooleridor, and happily hurtling down the slope. He isn't quite over the edge, but he is looking at humidors. He pushed me down, so I'm gonna have to return the favor :D

My wife is glad that I started smoking cigars, she absolutely loves how I smell after smoking, but she always reminds me that she tried to get me started a long time ago.
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You, my friend, are a lucky man, and almost always the exception to the rule. DO NOT let her go! My wife complains all the time about the smell of my smokes,and my smoking jacket :(
Scott
 
I guess my dad did in a round about way. While he doesn't smoke cigars he would take me to the cigar shop to look at lighters and pens. It was some time later that I was in there and just decided to buy a cigar. I looked lost and one of the older guys at the shop took the time to show me around and pick out some that I should try.
 
Premium Cigars: I would have to say I was introduced to premium cigars by the fine people on this site, within the last month. After trying a few cigars, I decided to look around online to see what was out there, and what the difference was between the dollar cigars and the $20 cigars; through that research I found this site...I know everyone warns the noobs of how slippery the slope is...but I'm starting to see just how slippery it can really be:ss


Cigars in general: I work as a tour guide at a cave in the San Antonio area, and as a tip after a tour one day, one of the guests gave me a Thompson cigar. It was pretty terrible, but it got me hooked...damn I felt cool smoking that thing:w
 
Poriggity said:
You, my friend, are a lucky man, and almost always the exception to the rule. DO NOT let her go! My wife complains all the time about the smell of my smokes,and my smoking jacket :(
Scott
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Thanks, I am lucky. She even encourages me to go to a cigar lounge near us; I'm soooo spoiled :D
 
It was the Playboy Advisor, around 1975. Until then I had been smoking everything, cigarettes and Tiparillos, and pipes and any old thing. It all seemed about the same to me, but then I read in The Playboy Advisor that all the "beautiful people" were smoking cigars, and the bvery best was a brand called Royal Jamaica.a They even had a little picture of Hugh Hefner smoking one, surrounded by babes all watching him smoke. When I wen down to a cigar store I was Shocked! Shocked! by the price. But I was a guy in his twenties, starting to make a good buck and still single, so I bought some. WOW! Were they different from the crap I had been smoking! While I continued smoking cigarettes for decades after, I have always had a cigar or two, almost every day, ever since. Once I discovered the internet and the deals available there, I have been a collector of fine cigars. And I haven't bought a pack of cigarettes in over ten years (although I might bum one from time to time).
 
Shabalula said:
My wife (GF at the time) attempted to push me down the slope several years ago...

...My wife is glad that I started smoking cigars, she absolutely loves how I smell after smoking, but she always reminds me that she tried to get me started a long time ago.
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That is amazing... quite a lady! :ss
 
I was on my first missions trip in Thailand and picked up a five pack of machine made cubans for about $2.50. Me and the guys in the team held onto em until we got KL Maylasia. Sat on top of the roof of the church and looked out over the Petronus towers and had my first smoke. Bot my second pack at the duty free store in the Hong Kong airport. have smoked in over 12 countries and counting and know i smoke the good stuff A.K.A. VSGs
 
Back in the 90's right before the cigar boom era. My Dad and uncles always smoked cigars when I was growing up so they were not at all foreign to me.

I was 22 when I had a "real" cigar..it was a Bacarrat Churchill...(if you want to call that real). After all, it was handrolled and I smoked it in a cigar bar with some co-workers.

After that, all is history...hard to believe its been 15 years or so.
 
When I was 19 I was doing laundry with my roommates and we decided we needed booze because it was going to take some time. So as we're walking out of the laundromat to get some booze there's this little hole in the wall cigar shop. We stop in. I'd never smoked anything but hookah and a couple Black and Milds :)pu). So my roommate gets a double corona and I got one too. ****ed me up. After smoking for a while I come to realize that the thing was super mild.

The little hole in the wall? Habanos Torres. Before his rolling room was built. Been smoking ever since.
 
Hmmm, I'd say a very awesome gentleman who went by the name of Atuck, he's from another forum that I used to frequent(but now banned from due to my stupidity and immaturity and by not following the simple rules, mainly not realizing that it was a not just a forum but a community), he is one of the nicest, most generous person I have ever dealt with. Sadly, I never had the chance to pay him back for his generousity. But I have been paying it forward in his honor.
 
smokeyscotch said:
I think my granddad had the most influence on me. When he smoked a cigar, it looked as if the cigar tasted like honey. I guess just the way he carried himself made it appear that way. I didn't get into buying my own till college in 1991. I lost a large collection to a roommate, and got back into the hobby seriously about 1 1/2 years ago.
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Like the description of your granddad's enjoyment. Glad you are a BOTL. :ss
 
Found this old thread... enjoyed reading through it again.

Thought there might be some others who wanted to chime in and give props the the fine BOTL/SOTLs that first turned them on to premium smokes. :ss
 
A friend introduced me when I was in Vegas last year. We bought a sampler pack of Diablos (now discontinued)
I smoked it in about 30 minutes (not knowing any better.) And also had several Patron Silver margaritas. The guy next to us at the bar had just won $150K in Blackjack and was buying our drinks and lunch. Needless to say I didn't make it to dinner that night. This pretty much describes me: :al:pu
But it was a fun day regardless.
 
Believe it or not but my wife introduced me to it! I started right off with premiums. We took a trip to Cancun and one day we were in a store that had a nice humi cabinet and she suggested we pickup some cigars. I hadn't smoked anything since I quit cigarettes like 10 or more years back but was fine with the idea of cigars since you generally don't inhale them. We picked out some nice Romeo Y Julietta's and a Cuban one - forgot the name. She apparently had smoked a few in her late teens/early 20's so she was somewhat exposed to them before. We smoked them on our room balcony and really enjoyed the Romeo ones. A month or two after that trip I was in Hoboken and was passing a cigar shop and thought to take a look inside. I picked up 2 or so cigars and had them over 2-3 weeks. Being the last one I'd had had started drying out, after buying a few more the thought occured it was time for a humi so my $14 cigars wouldn't dry out! Then it moved to having 1 a week - on the weekend. Now I sometimes have one during the week and sometimes two on the weekend which seems to suit me fine without feeling like I'm overdoing it.



Rev.
 
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