But do you remember your very first cigar? I sure do. It was at a relative’s wedding, fifteen years ago, back in the day when celebrating with a fine cigar didn’t make you feel like a god damned pariah. My friend brought some Partagas #10’s – big-ass smokes that I fell in love with upon the very first puff. At that moment I became a newbie, a lover of  the leaf and like most other BOTL’s I went nuts with my newfound love.

I know a couple of newbies now, and I have to laugh at their crazed fervor with their new leafy love affair. I look at them and think, “damn, was I that insane when I started?” And the answer is a definite YES! I was bad. I tend to go overboard with anything new I’m into, but I went completely bonkers with cigars.

I remember the very next day getting my hands on several issues of Cigar Aficionado and reading them from cover to cover. I was beyond intrigued and I felt like Christopher Columbus, fascinated with this new world I had discovered. Lots of people/relatives I knew smoked them since I was a kid, but now it was the mid-nineties and the cigar boom was growing like mad. Cigar shops were popping up everywhere and even gas stations, and local delis were offering premium smokes. There were many new companies on the market and plenty to choose from, so I immersed myself into this new hobby and learned and experimented at a lightening fast pace.