Who first introduced you to premium cigars?

[SmokeyJoe]

This has been talked about in different threads, but there are so many new Gorillas that have joined CS over the last few months that I would be interested in knowing their story.

Additionally, I'm sure the newer apes would enjoy the stories from a lot of the FOGs in the jungle.

For me, a fellow BOTL here in the jungle (BudPrince) introduced me to premium cigars back in '95 / '96 during the boom years. Didn't quite get the bug, but began to have an appreciation for the handrolled, all tobacco, cigars.

Then during the Summer of 2006, my wife came back from a trip to Honduras. On a whim, she picked me up a box of six locally made Honduran Heritage churchills. Loved them! I found CS while searching for info on how to take care of the remaining cigars... and fell headlong down the slope!

A huge coolerdor and hundreds of cigars later - plus lighters, cutters, ashtrays, boveda packs, humidors, cigar bags, jugs of distilled water, cigar magazines, et al - and I am DEEP into this wonderful hobby.

What about you guys? How did you get started?

[ScottishSmoker]

Easy...I started smoking premium cigars on my 18th birthday on the recommendation of two of my high school teachers...the rest of the kids in my class were drunkies and I never got the point of drinking myself stupid in the off chance that I might get to sleep with one of the many sl_ts in my class...any way, I went to the only cigar shop I could find and ended up with a pair of Montecristo (NC) #2s...I didn't know what I was in for, but I was happy with the results. That was over seven years ago. I only got introduced to ClubStogie through another member, Bobb...he and I used to work together at a small B&M that now employs 4 ClubStogie members....Thanks Bobb, and what a great Idea for a thread!

[Jaseguin]

My bestest buddy sam AKA guitarman (frenchy chef). He hooked me into smoking cigars and chillin by the fire all night. The first cigar i had (and this is really stupid) was a grape flavored phillie. mmmmmm mmmmmmm it was good HAHA. after my buddy showed me the way to greater i mean much greater cigars i was hooked. shit he was my hook up. but now i smoke some good stuff maybe not as fancy but when i smoke a nice Rocky Patel Decade sipping on a glass of even williams single barrel i feel great. Thank you buddy for showing me the good side of life.

[gamayrouge]

CA Forums. After reading a CA magazine a couple months back that was left at the airport I hopped on the forums and decided to pick up a box of Davidoff Short Perfectos. I also found out about CS on there so thanks to them!

As for ISOMs, I'd have to blame bobarian.

[Harpo]

My dad. He's always kept a desktop humi of Montecristo No.4's in the house.

[bi11fish]

I was brought into the fold by a friend in Mexico. Solano in his previous life was a ISOM pimp in Cabo. He has a vast knowledge of the forbidden fruit. He started me with a Fonseca Cosacos. Imagine Cold drink, Tropical Breeze, and CC's. Kind of like first Love always try to get that feeling again.

[CHRONO14]

I guess my story isn't as good as some of those. I kind of just fell into it. I have a friend that was smoking some cheapie cigars that I liked the smell of at the time (Black and Milds) and decided it was time for me to try a cigar. I went to the local Binny's and bought a Kuba Kuba for my first and fell in love with cigars. I quickly moved on from that to Romeo y Juleitas and the rest is history. I haven't had to many ISOM's maybe three or four total but my first was when I was in Miami relaxing outside and drinking.

[dwhitacre]

Desperation! If necessity is the mother of invention, then desperation is the father of trying to find a good cigar after two lousy dog-rockets. My first was a Thompson and the next was counterfeit Montecristo.

I don't know why, I just believed there had to be something better out there. I started sheepishly walking into cigarette stores which I don't consider my B&M. One in town even sells p0rn and devices, as well as cigars and cigarettes. I bought some premiums thinking that the price was way too much but was pleasantly surprised by how good a real cigar tastes. Then I discovered my B&M, a small shop but very helpful and well stocked. You know you are in there a lot when they know you by name.

But the real help came at my first two Herfs - Ratters, Bobarian, gamayrouge, weak_link, Kondour, and jjefrey really set me on the right path(ology). Thanks BABOTL!!!

Thanks for the Thread!!!

[chupacabrah]

I had always been interested in cigars. many people would smell someone smoking one and comment about how it smelled bad, I always like that smell even as a kid.

Some guy where I used to work had a kid and gave me a cigar. I threw it away because I didn't smoke, and didnt know anything about it.

fast forward to April of 2007. My fiance and I went to Key West, Fl for a week vacation. I see a small cigar shop after walking around all day and seeing lots of people smoking cigars...naturally I go in. I have NO idea what I'm looking for, so I ask the little cuban guy, and he directs me a bit, but it probably didn't make much sense to me at the time. I bought 3 or 4 cigars --camacho black label something, and 2 key west cigars....and something else that I have no idea what it was. The camacho was the best of the group. I smoked 2 the first day, felt kind of sick, and then one a day after that. got a few more to bring home and share with a friend.

Then I didn't smoke for a long time, but that friend and I talked about how we'd like to have a nice desktop humi with a few smokes in it.

Susan and I go to hang out with that friend, his gf, and his gf's parents one night. sitting around, drinking....and my buddy's gf's dad breaks out the stogies. he's a regular smoker, probably smokes 6 a day on the weekends. so we light them up.

after that, I forgot all about cigars, worrying about other things. the baby coming, etc.

then one day coming home, i saw the cigar store really close to my house. so I went in and got 3. great smokes. I also did some internet searching, and found cigars.about.com or something, which led me to famous smoke shop. I then jumped the gun and read a bunch of reviews on that website, and bought a box...of Garcia y Vega gran coronas. not so great smokes.

THEN i was searching some more trying to look into handrolled stuff, and came across craigchilds blog by accident. read a bunch on that, learned a lot, then saw where he referenced "CS" and "the devil site" or "Cbid".

...it was all downhill from there.

I joined here. Had my daughter, got bombed which stocked my 50 count humi. then I got a cooler. found txmatt's cheap smokes thread. and now my cooler is almost full, and i've got a bunch of open bids on the devil site right now which i probably shouldnt have open

that's my story

[Chewer D]

A bunch of my friends and I take a trip down to Durham, NC every year to watch a Duke basketball game. Since we are from Michigan it's hard to see them on TV sometimes and we just decided that we would go watch a game every year. One of the guys on the trip was a big cigar enthusiast, so we would make a stop at the local B&M when we're down there and pick up smokes. Needless to say, we weren't going to let him smoke them alone, so we all started buying them and smoking them down there and on the way home. Most of us have now taken to smoking cigars regularly and we all get together on occasion and play cards, drink beer and smoke cigars. It is truly one of my treasures in life.

[fizguy]

This is no joke and almost embarassing:

I found one in my classroom (I'm a high school teacher). For all I know it was stuffed with a different type of weed but I smoked it with no ill effect. I had always been intrigued with cigar smoking, I figured God just dropped one in my lap to get the ball rolling.

Next it was off to the local liquor store which had a small humi. I bought a punch royal coronation because the tube looked cool. Then I went to a real B&M where an exodus silver and a Maria Guerrero were recommended.

Then I found CI.

Then cbid............

[Bear]

For me it was my dad. He didn't bother starting me off with the light stuff, he pushed me straight down the slope starting with Cubans.
At the time, I wasn't really "in to it" (I was a cigarette smoker) and didn't really appreciate it. It's only been in the past few years that I've begun to really enjoy cigars (quit cigarettes 3 years ago). Now, with the help of my new friends at Club Stogie, I now consider myself a bit more of a collector and definitely more into the whole cigar experience.

[Tredegar]

Both of my grandfathers smoked cigars. I can remember my grandpa Ralph always had a cigar handy. From what you guys have said, now I know why he always had the mini snickers bars next to his recliner. That still doesn't explain why he had a flask with him also.

Opa Hans (he's German), was more of a pipe smoker. I do remember the look on his face when he got a really nice sampler of cigars. I don't remember if they were Cubans but you could definitely tell he was a happy camper.

Fast forward 20+ years, both grandpas have passed and I am finally getting married. At 43, it was either poop or get off the pot. Weddings, being a chick thing, really don't impress me. So I tell my dad that he's buying cigars. He agrees.

Now let me sidetrack a little bit. It just so happens that my sister, who lived in Roxboro, NC at the time, her husband dies in a fishing accident a week before my marriage. So I go ahead and fly up to North Carolina for some words of encouragement. My dad picks me up at the airport and says that we are going to JR Cigars in Burlington, NC. I sort of had heard about this place because this is the only location that my dad gets his pipe tobacco from. We head out there and I hit the humidor. What a humidor!! I see hundreds, maybe thousands, of different cigars and settle on a few to try. My dad buys a couple of boxes of JR brand cigars. (He's a cheapskate at heart).

We get to my sisters house and I decide to try the Punch Rothschild first. It really impressed me. The next night I had the Casa Blanca. Now this cigar did not impress me in the least. The next night I had the H. Upmann. Again, an unimpressive cigar. But it did get me liking cigars.

Family emergency over, I head to Milwaukee for the matrimonial festivities. I only have one or two cigars around that time, and the ones that I did have, the JR Cigars, really were not anything special. Marriage over, and my wife moves down to Louisiana to be with me.

About a month into the marriage I remembered how good the Punch Rothschilds were and decide to get some more. I order a box from JR Cigar and, well, the rest is history......

But, for me, a cigar always has represented one of two scenarios. The first of being an old, fat guy smoking cheap stinkies. The other is to tell the world that I have arrived. Because when you do have a good cigar, you really have arrived.

[kjjm4]

I kind of introduced myself. I used to smoke cheap stuff while drinking back in my college days, and my interest in premiums grew out of that. I bought a Montecristo no 3 at a local B&M, and the rest is history.

[ShaulWolf]

Heh, I don't have a particular person to thank (or blame) for introducing me to cigars, but more like my school. There's a tradition at The Citadel that every Thanksgiving the knobs (freshmen) have to make a headdress or hat for their senior mentors. Along with making hats every knob volunteers (voluntold) to get a cigar for their senior, as well as get a cigar for a junior, sophmore, and themselves. The cigar that goes to the senior is supposed to be the best they can find, one that's good for the junior, a decent one for the sophmore, and whatever they want for themselves.

I remember asking about the different cigars at The Smoking Lamp and was suggest getting something from Ashton for my senior, so I got him an Ashton VSG and another one for myself. Got some various other cigars for the others, but can't remember what. Now I can't remember exactly what I tasted or too much about that particular cigar, but I do remember that after I finished coughing my lungs out from forgetting not to inhale that I was grinning ear to ear, very relaxed, and enjoying hanging out with the upperclassmen. It was one of the few times we were actually able to hang out together instead of us standing at attention with someone in our face.