Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Went to a little shop in the Dominican Republic last fall and had an incredible experience just learning better how to smoke the damn things.
Went over the proper way to 'retrohale' the drag for just an incredible amount of flavor. We experimented with various sidecars and without question, without exception, the answer was dark black coffee as the best complement to a good cigar.
Different leaves, styles, shapes, which part of the plant the respective component parts of the cigar come from. How best to light them, how best to 'clean' them (i.e. you put a flame on the end and blow out to clear it and improve your drag; usually once or maybe twice per cigar). Best ways to cut them to keep them from unwrapping - stuff that is about half intuitive (but good to understand the 'why' of) and half stuff that really is enlightening.
I always enjoyed cigars well enough, but this took all that to the next level and made me really appreciate them the way I started appreciating scotch after several years of drinking it. Now it's really not that hard for me to determine a real preference.
So hey, if any of you go to Punta Cana, stop by Vivaldi Cigars. I promise that as you're pulling up to this dude's apartment he's not actually going to cut your liver out. And his dog is super friendly. And that guy will just hang out and talk cigars with you for 5 hours and let you smoke his stuff. Really fascinating Dutch expat that is friendly as all hell and really knows what he's talking about. We ended up dropping a couple hundred bucks on cigars before we left but they're damn good. My Don Lucas Dominicans are good but these are definitely better.
I read somewhere else about black coffee. Just seems odd to me to be drinking coffee with a cigar. I have to have whiskey. One of my employees got me smoking cigars a couple of years ago when he brought me some Cubans back from Costa Rica. So that's really all I knew for awhile. Then one year for Christmas he got me a small cheap humidor with a sampler of cigars. Some I liked, some I didn't. I'm an occasional smoker, with no real clue as to what I'm doing. Usually hit up a cigar bar on every vacation and try something new. Was just in Pigeon Forge in February and walked into a shop. Heard a guy say that he was newer to cigars and was looking for something mild. Owner recommended his best seller, Drew Estate Deadwood Fat Bottom Betty. So I said I'll take one too. It was the first cigar I'd ever had that had a taste too it. I googled it and it's not flavored technically but it's sweet. I ended up ordering a box of them the other day. Found out my neighbor just got into smoking as well and I'm going to give him one.
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Coffee without sugar allows your palette to reset while you smoke the cigar and experience the different flavor stages of a cigar. The foot and first 1/4. Then the next 1/4 and the building of flavors. The 3rd quarter normally will start changing flavor notes followed by the last 1/4 that can have real intense flavors.
When I have a whiskey it sometimes mutes some of the more intense flavors of the cigar.
For me, nothing beats a cup of coffee with half and half no sugar.
Many of the newer cigar smokers love Acid or other flavored cigars. I don't smoke those and stick to the pure, more full bodied cigars.
I do have some mild to medium that I smoke in the morning or first if I have 3-5 for the day.
If you haven't done retrohaling yet you should practice first without the cigar and then try with the cigar. It takes practice and the tendency at first is to try too hard to push the smoke from your mouth through your nose. It should be a smooth transition when you close your mouth and continue exhaling through your nose.
If you really like cigars, try smoking a few back to back to see the differences. Some may have a metallic taste, some peppery, or leathery, or cherry or grass/earth.
Going from a Henry Clay War Hawk to a Rocky Patel Decade to an Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua should taste like 3 different cigars and not just 3 cigars in a row.
When smoking a cigar be careful not to speed smoke it and burn it up too fast and miss the flavors. It's OK and acceptable to have to relight a cigar more than once when smoking it.
When lighting a cigar keep the flame as far away as possible to achieve an even light and not burn the wrapper around the sides.
Don't keep flicking the ash! You knock some of the lit portions off, it develops poor uneven burn and you need to relight excessively. I can smoke an aged PG cigar and develop a 3"- 4" ash before sliding the ash off on the side of the ashtray.
Make sure to buy a proper torch lighter, a V-cutter, a blade cutter, and a 4-in-1 tool that has a large and small punch, a draw tool for tight or poor rolled cigars and a nubber that allows you to smoke the last 10% of the cigar without burning your fingers.
Learn how to correctly cut a cigar so that you don't cut off too much and have too much air and no flavor. Torpeedo, Belicoso, or Salamones are good sizes to control your cut, about halfway down the taper of the cigar.
Large 60 or larger ring sizes work best with a V-cut or a large punch. Sometimes a double punch next to each other will work.
Box pressed also work well with a v-cut.
Small rings do best with a small punch or v cut across the cap. Don't cut below the cap.
Box humidors must be Spanish cedar, should have a distilled water sponge or humidification, a digital hygrometer, and NO GLASS WINDOW. The glass window allows humidity to escape and it gets worse over time. Buy Boveda humidity packs to help you control humidity. 68%-72% are all acceptable.
Do not take your cigars out of the cellophane to store them and try to store like cigars by like cigars.
Buy and try cigars to find what makes your palette happy. One man's favorite is another man's clunker.
Some great cigars: Oliva Series V Melanio torpeedo, E.P. Carillo Encore valientes, Rocky Patel Sun Grown Maduro churchill, Alec Bradley Prensado robusto, Hoyo de Monterrey Excaliber epicure, Padron 1964 Anniversary #9, Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua, Liga Privada #9, La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor duque, San Cristobal Revelation toro, Montecristo 1935 Anniversary.
Lastly, save your cheap mild cigars for the golf course or fishing on boat. Smoke cigars in order of mild to full bodied. Some cigars like the La Flor Domenica Double Ligero will knock you on your ass with no food. It's a powerhouse so smoke after a nice meal.
Hope that helps and Happy Smoking!
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Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin:
Watching my wife smoke for 38 years and now tied to an oxygen machine until she dies makes me want nothing to do with any fucking thing that causes lung damage!
Sorry to hear. Cigarettes so evil.
My Mom, Dad, two grandfathers and my maternal grandmother all had cancer from smoking cigarettes. 4 of 5 died from cancer, grandmother lost a breast.
Cigarettes have chemicals sprayed on them, cigars do not
People inhale cigarettes and pot, cigar smokers do not.
Never smoked cigarettes or did chew but cigars since 17 or 18.
My lung issues came from my blood clot breaking off. 4 pulmonary embolisms that are all gone. No scarring. Scary shit.
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