i'd like to buy a cigar...

any recommended cigars? i'd like something that lasts long enough so i can sit back and enjoy it.
i've never smoked a cigar before, only cigarettes... i just want to try something new.

 

omfg

 

try a white owl they have a fine selection of high quality cigars

 

i'd suggest several possibilities for a first cigar...you want something mild most likely, and you want something of good quality so you might have to spend a few bucks for A cigar if you're not buying by the box.

my first suggestion is a macanudo. this brand is credited with being THE best selling cigar in the united states. its your quintessential mild cigar, almost like breathing clouds. while it is very mild in flavor and weak on nicotine strength, it is still very pleasant tasting. i'd recommend two sizes the most: duke of devon (its a corona, somewhat short with a narrow width) or the hyde park (whats called a robusto, somewhat short with a wide ring gauge). its pleasant in flavor and aroma, and very very mild.

i'd also suggest the casa torano line from carlos torano. its pretty mild, but not as mild as a macanudo. they don't make a corona, and i would suggest a toro size for this. it is longer, at six inches rather than around five, and is a wide ring gauge. it will be a larger cigar and may be uncomfortable in the hand at first compared to a cigarette, but it will smoke cool and for a long time. it is a bit narrower than the robusto size, and so while still long and wide it will be less uncomfortable in your hand than the robusto.

i'd also suggest the CAO corona. CAO is a pretty good brand all around and the gold is their mildest, although not their best, line. still, it is a pleasant and very accessible cigar, and a few bucks cheaper than a macanudo is likely to be.

of all these i'd say the casa torano is my favorite, followed by the macanudo. cao gold is good, but i'm more impressed by their full bodied lines. macanudos will be found in ANY good tobacco shop in the united states, and CAO gold is very common, too. the casa torano may be a bit less common, it is around here, but it has a good bit more flavor than macanudos while maintaining a nice and definitively mild character.

there are other good choices out there, especially if youre no stranger to full bodied tobaccos. remember that its a very different kind of smoking than cigarettes. TAKE YOUR TIME and dont puff too fast or too hard, or the cigar will get particularly hot and harsh, and will burn unevenly. do not inhale, but puff and hold the smoke in your mouth...roll it around, and savor the smoke before blowing it out. you dont get nicotine quickly, but cigars are large and contain a lot of tobacco. you will get nicotine from a cigar simply by absorbing it through your mouth, like you can absorb nicotine from chewing tobacco.

be patient and careful with the cigar, and make sure you light it EVENLY when you light it, or it can lead to a perpetually uneven burn. first toast the foot of the cigar by applying flame. once it is toasted, roll the cigar between your lips puffing gently while lighting the cigar. get it even, move the lighter around a bit while you puff to light it. the best thing to light it with is a strip of spanish cedar, but wooden matches are great, too. next best thing is a torch lighter, and failing that wooden matches. bic type lighters work, but if you puff with them too much they can alter the flavor a bit (torch lighters burn up a larger portion of the butane, and colibri fuel contains less impurities)

happy smoking, hope you enjoy it

and remember to not be shy and talk to the tobacconist. any tobacconist worth his salt knows both the cigars and the pipe tobaccos they carry in their stores, if not the cigarettes. he should also have good opinions on what a nice mild cigar might be that would be in a size suitable to a newby to cigars.

hope this helps!

 

Wooowww

 

nesta, you're quite the connoisseur! :tongue:

so.... you're not supposed to inhale? haha, oops. i've smoked maybe four cigars in my life (cheap strawberry- or watermelon-flavored ones, oh yes) and i've always inhaled. is it extremely unhealthy or something to inhale, or just not proper cigar etiquette?

 

ouch inhaling cigars is not good imo
nesta you smoke loose tobacco also?
ive been smoking this vanilla stuff i cant remember what its called cause my friend took the package
damn short term memory

 

there is a ton of tobacco in a cigar and it is usually fairly high in nicotine (thus you can actually get a nicotine buzz off of a strong cigar even without inhaling)

you dont generally inhale because most high quality cigars are both longer and much wider than most machine made low-cost cigars found in gas stations and such. they contain far more tobacco and often far stronger tobacco. the wider cigars and longer cigars burn cooler and offer more tobacco per puff, and have a very high nicotine content. it allows you to get nicotine without inhaling - and inhaling not only gives a huge dose of nicotine, the flavor is lost and even ruined, and the smoke is very harsh and unpleasant to inhale.

quality cigars are rolled by hand. their wrappers are actual tobacco leaves, instead of a paper made from pulverized leaf, stem, and so on. you'll see veins in the wrapper of most handrolled cigars. they're often wider, but not always. a highly desirable cigar will always be whats called a long-filler cigar. this means the cigar is filled only with whole tobacco leaves rolled into the cigar, not scraps of cut tobacco. when rolling such cigars, the ends have to be trimmed to get the cigar to the exact size for the shape. they are usually pressed in molds to make them even more exact. many factories collect the trimmings from first rate cigars to use in cheaper, more affordable cigars made from whats called short filler, or cut tobacco. some are machine made, some are handrolled. they are often a collection of tobaccos from various blends and may not go well together. some cheaper cigars feature whole leaves mixed with cuttings, and these are called mixed filler or sandwich cigars - they are a little better, and often tastier. there are some smokable short and mixed filler cigars, but do your homework first.

the reason most good cigars are handrolled is because for them to smoke cool and for a long time and to really get a nice smoke out of it, it has to be wider (in cigar terms you'd say the 42-54 ring gauge, and occasionally bigger...for comparison, a philles blunt is a 42 ring gauge, a white owl sport is 5.5X42, meaning its five and a half inches with a forty-two ring gauge. forty two is pretty slim for a cigar, and is the smallest many cigar smokers will smoke. coronas are on a decline currently as many modern smokers want wider cigars with a cooler smoke. a lot of it is fat-cat image ego-stroking, though, and really there are some great smaller smokes. a lot of machismo exists in the cigar world, and many people seek out cigars with a 56, 58, even a 60 ring gauge. ridiculously huge cigars.

the reason handrolled cigars tend to be wide is that 42-52 offers some of the best flavor. cooler than slimmer cigars, longer lasting, more rich intricacies in the taste due to a larger number of leaves, and so on. larger cigars, to an extent, are better tasting than slimmer cigars.

machines make perfect cigars almost every time, but humans mess up more often. however one thing skilled cigar rollers have over machines is the ability to roll large cigars from quality product. almost all machine made cigars are short filler, though i think some mixed filler machine mades exist. furthermore 42 is about the limit for how wide a machine made cigar can be made and come out with consistantly perfect contruction. short filler machine made cigars have great construction and draw, but are often very small and made with second rate materials. the short filler cigars burn a lot hotter and harsher, and the lower quality tobacco also has a less pleasing taste. this is the reason so many of these types of cigars are flavored. and its not at all unheard of to find foreign objects in these cigars. hell, i've even found a feather in one of the cheaper brands of handrolled dominican cigars. they ran about 50 cents a pack for big cigars when you buy by the bundle, and i got it in a grab bag. cheap! the feather wasnt even in the middle, its not like i dissected something i intended to smoke...it was sticking out the end.

anyway, good cigars are great, but you need to smoke them properly and do your research and try to get something that will be pleasing to your palate. having only smoked cigarettes before, a mild or mild-medium bodied cigar will be your best bet, and a slimmer cigar will be easier for you to handle.

 

Nesta, wow you really know your stuff man. I was thinking of opening up a Tobacco shop when I'm older, you sound like the person to go to for information on buying good brands of cigars for stock .

Have you ever tried Acid cigars? I love em for some reason, there's way better out there but me and my dad share a few every so often and I always seem to go back to them over other brands.

 

my recommendation? split your cigar and fill it with weed.

 

acid is a good change of pace, but i prefer more traditional cigars.

acid has good construction and some unusual shapes. always burn well, in my experience. like some other brands from the drew estate company, acid features a lot of exotic tobaccos from around the world. i can't recall which cigar it is, but at least one of the drew estate lines even features himalayan tobbaco. acids are not traditional cigars, neither are they normal flavored cigars.

flavored cigars have a seperate component, the flavoring, added to the tobacco. acid cigars are "infused" in that they are exposed to the various flavoring agents and basically absorb their properties.

i particularly like the acid blondie, the kuba kuba, and the one. the natural line by drew estate has some good cigars, too, and there are some good traditional cigars they make as well. i highly recommend la vieja habana - the early years, and the normal run of the mill la vieja habana is a good quality, very very affordable mixed filler cigar for the beginning smoker looking to fill his or her humidor.

i really am not a good person to talk to about opening a tobacco shop - i know a lot of cigars cause i've tried a lot, and i love to smoke. but i dont know the business and dont know quite so much about how distribution works....and there are a lot of really great smokes i've not tried. but i am passionate about cigars...possibly even moreso than i am about beer! the things i like about the two is that they are legal, and while not my substances of choice i am free to experiment and try different things at my leisure and its far easier to become familiar with a wide range of tobaccos or beers. marijuana is illegal, and unless your in the know, a medical user, a grower, or live somewhere its really easy to get and fairly tolerated, then its harder to be a "coinesseur" and learn about the different types.

i'm no expert, i just am enthusiastic about what i like.

 

and if you like the acids, give your dad a few bucks and ask him to buy you a pack of c-notes at the shop. they are nice, sweet, aromatic cigarillos made by acid. be patient, as they are very thin and burn hot if you hurry them. the draw is very easy, so they can burn even hotter still. but the tobacco is good, and they taste great, and since they're so small you get several shorter smokes for the price of one big cigar (i think there are 5 or 6 in a pack that costs like 7 bucks or something)

 

I will do just that then, a friend of mine told me about these before I believe he said they're handrolled aswell, so now that I've heard it from two different folks, I gotta try them. Was kidding about the tobacco shop, just saying you seem to know alot about different styles of cigars, I see what you mean though.. maybe someday is weed is ever legalized, you can just run down to your local smoke shop and try out different flavors, and quality's of mj cigars:spliff:

 

indeed.

the c-notes aren't as good as a kuba kuba or blondie or one...not close, in my opinion, but they're tastey and if you're patient with them they're a pleasant smoke, and you get several for the price of one big cigar. not a bad deal, really!

 

Nesta, I have not bought a cigar in the past 3 years, at
least. Used to be heavy into them but I tend to change
my interests fairly often.
I most definitley am not looking to get back in :tongue:
but for old times sake, do you know if Cohiba is still around?
I remember there was a beef about them a few years ago,
and last I heard they were being taken off the market, or
at least changed, either in title or content or something,
cant remember.

 

there are a minimum of three brands out there with the name cohiba.

there is the cuban cohiba, one of the most famous cuban brands currently and widely considered a standard for cigar excellence, i've not tried it myself but have also heard it described as "overpriced" and "overrated," and it seems many prefer the cuban montecristos and bolivars, as well as the romeo y julietas.

then there is a dominican cohiba, with a completely different logo. it is put out by general cigar if i'm not mistaken, and is also considered a top-notch smoke by many enthusiasts, and is one of the most sought-out legal cigars in the united states. it is also fairly overpriced but very nice if you can find a really good deal on it (i got a few recently in a mixed sampler pack from an online smokeshop....5 cohiba robustos, 5 griffin's fuerte robustos, 50 bucks...at 5 dollars each, these aren't exactly a steal, but 5 dollars is far better than the prices in the stores for the cohibas, which would easily run 9 or 10. 5 is more of a fair price. i actually got them for the griffins fuertes, which while slightly smaller i think are the better cigar.

finally there is another dominican brand called cohiba which features nearly identical bands to their cuban counterparts, only they are among the worst cigars out there in terms of flavor, construction, draw, and so on. truly terrible. yet people buy them and they make a decent amount of money, as some vendors, apparently without the drawback of a conscience, sell them to newbies who dont know any better.

there are a lot of counterfeit cigars on the market, too, especially trying to be passed off as cubans.

the cuban cohiba band and a fake:


the good dominican cohiba:


the bad dominican cohiba:


i've heard in the past of issues with the names and labels. i guess (from what i understand) the cohibas produced by general cigar are those that hold the trademark in the us. the lousy ones hold the trademark in the dominican republic. the general cigar cohibas would technically not be allowed to be sold in the dominican republic, i suppose. technically the lousy ones would not be allowed to be sold in the us. i know they both are carried in the us regardless, legally or otherwise.

if there have been issues between general cigar and the cuban brand, it must be the reason the general cigar cohibas bear labelling indicating that they are NOT cuban cigars and are in no way affiliated with the cuban brand.

actually, i have one of my cohibas left. if you particularly care for those, i could send it to you. i like them, but they aren't my favorites. i could also send you a different cigar, if you'd like to just have one to smoke sometime.

 

The Domincan is the one I've had most, and I
actually liked it :tongue:
But what is good and bad but opinion anyway?
Yea man, if you dont mind sending me one let
me know, I'd love to try it!

 

well, my local smoke shop is rather decent, but the owner didn't seem to be very knowledgeable.
i decided to be a little ballsy and went for the casa torano. the big one
i actually really enjoyed it! very nice flavor to it...
thanks for the help. you are quite the enthusiast nesta!

 

no problem, glad you enjoyed it davey

which dominican relayer? the red dot, or the yellow banded one?

the yellow banded ones i bought once or twice when i first started smoking, and found them to burn very fast with a very light, hot draw...they were probably short filler. they cost about three bucks each, but were not packaged like other cigars were in the store.

i found them very mild and airy.

later i bought a bundle online, thinking they were good cigars, but having already read that they "were terrible" and so on and so forth. i'd had one good experience with it, and i saw they were inexpensive, so i risked it.

i got 20 cigars, and didnt smoke an entire single cigar. they smelled like shit, looked like shit, they tasted like shit before lighting, and once lit they tasted worse. to really put the icing on the cake they were rolled unbelievably poorly and had the tightest draw i've almost ever had...you could pull and pull with no smoke coming out. it was like trying to smoke wet newspapers and moss.

the good one i had must have been a fluke or there must be more than one of the dominican yellow banded brands. either way it is generally considered by most folks to be subpar at very best and overpriced across the board, even though they aren't particularly expensive to begin with. regardless of how good or bad an individual cigar may be, i kind of have a thing against them simply for trying so hard to look nearly indistinguishable from a famous cuban brand to the casual observer - this cigar is nowhere close to the same league, and gets virtually all of its sales from people who dont know better.

but then there has to be a market or theyd have gone out of business by now. good and bad really are opinions only, but its not just my opinion - most people who have smoked it whose thoughts i've seen posted online have had some bad experiences.

but if you like someone, no ones to tell you its bad. just that i dont like it one bit myself

 

and yeah, if you would like me to send you a cigar, all i need is a destination for it. contact me with the info if you'd like it, but i understand reservations about giving away that kind of info.

i might actually go pick up a different one i particularly like thats tubed. the tube will help ensure it stays fresh outside a humidor for a decent stretch of time, so you dont really even need to smoke it right away. do you prefer smaller or larger cigars?