Good Newbie Brands?

[tedrodgerscpa]

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showthr...ht=ship+canada

The Don Kikis and 5 Vegas are probably gonna be hard to come by unless you can get a trade with a southern neighbor...

[Kneo]

I just sent a couple RP Vintage 1990's your way, along with a few bodyguards. I have never shipped to Canada before so I hope they make it ok!

[CohibaMan]

Originally Posted by JonW

Another fantastic sampler is the "Mild and Mellow" sampler from CI.
I LOVED them all.

http://www.cigarsinternational.com/p...20and%20mellow

I just looked a CI and they dont say if they ship to Canada or not.
Try and place the order and see if it goes through.

I did and sadly they do not . Had some I really wanted to get off there. Though I might be heading to Toronto tomorrow so I might have to open a thread and ask about some good places to hit up.

[CohibaMan]

Originally Posted by Kneo

I just sent a couple RP Vintage 1990's your way, along with a few bodyguards. I have never shipped to Canada before so I hope they make it ok!

Ohhhh, hehehehe, oh my. You a King among Kings, I bow to your generosity.

[stfoley]

Some brands that come to mind:

5 Vegas
Indian Tabac
Punch
El Mejor
Spanish Galleon (it's definately a cheapie brand, but I like them).

I feel all of those offer something for the budding cigar smoker that's worth trying out.

[Snake Hips]

Originally Posted by WhatDidYouJustSee

Cool, thanks, but when you say "You should not have any trouble distinguishing betweent the NC and Cuban products", is there anything specific I should be looking for?

Namely the words "Habana, Cuba" and "Habanos, S.A." plastered all over the boxes, seals, tubes and bands

The Cuban origin of the cigars isn't really hidden at all. In fact, I doubt that in Australia you'd even come across the NC version of the brand name...

[dentonparrots]

I'ma newb too really, but from the dozen or so brands that I've tried I'd have a go at Punch's and Romeo Y Julietta, try them in Petit Carona size..works for me! I love the RyJ's...so creamy and chocolatey (if that's a real word!).

[pro2625]

5 vegas is still my favorite brand overall....

[CohibaMan]

Well after my disappointing online ordering adventure the gf and I took a trip to Toronto and visited some cigar shops. Some good, some bad. I know it costs way more to get stogies in shops here in Canada but I only got a few I swear! I've attached my final purchases at the end.

We stopped at about 10 of the 14 places I had printed off of YellowPages.ca. Most turned out to be convince stores with little/hidden selection. The actual shops we stopped in I'll go over below:


First: Casablanca Tobacconist; 4 King St W (though the entrance is on Bay St I believe)

Nice little shop, there seemed to be a fair selection in the walk in humi and a ok amount of accessories in the shop. The shop keeper seemed very uninterested with even being there and quite antisocial. We were there for about five minutes without a hello or offer of help even with us peering intently into the humi. Being the first stop of the day and both hungry for lunch we didn't ask to go in; so it is partially our fault we didn't get much service but he could have asked us. All in all not a bad experience, just uneventful.


Second: Metro Cigar; 712 Yonge St

A smaller shop with no walk in humi, but about 6 large cabinets with a fairly good selection for the space they had. There was a decent selections of desktop humi's and some other accessories. As we are looking through the glass of the various cabinets we pulled out my sheet of suggested cigars to see what we could find. The owner/employee, a middle aged east Indian man, came over to ask what we were doing with the sheet of paper. I told him we were looking for some cigars that had been suggested to us and he seemed quite content with the answer and told us if we needed any help to ask. Once the one other customer in the store left a couple minutes later he became quite angry, said we should have asked permission to look at the cabinets (they were closed and I assume locked, we hadn't tried to open them as we were only looking through the glass doors) and that he did not want us in the store. After some back and forth resulting in me showing him my shopping list we left completely unhappy with the service. I don't know if we violated some taboo but the owner/employee was a complete jackass and should not have acted that way to customers that had every intention of dropping some money there. Will NEVER return and advise others to avoid as well.


Third: Tabac; 526 Yonge St

Quite discouraged by this point we walked into a gem. Very uncluttered and very friendly staff. The walk in humi was nicely organized and had a decent selection, though not the largest of the day. Asking to go in the humi was no problem with the staff, even letting us in there alone to take our time. Once we had found a few we liked, some brands from the shopping lists though not the actual cigars of each brand on the list. The staff was knowledgeable of the brands and even recommended a couple cheaper ones for everyday smoking. Quite enjoyed the experience, decent prices and would recommend the place to everyone!


Forth: Tobacco Haven; 595 Bay St

Kind of a variety shop, but with a main focus on the smoking culture and quite a large shop at that. The humi at the back is long and thin with full glass walls making it easy to see what's in there without actually going in. Since we had picked up some stogies already at Tabac the selection while fairly decent did have anything that really jumped out at us. The staff was nice enough and quickly helped me when I asked about some items for the travel humi I'm going to be putting together. All in all a good place, worth a check out. Being across the street from the bus station makes it a quick trip before catching a bus.


Fifth: Sleuth & Statesman; 130 King St W

A smaller shop with a smaller walk in humi. They have quite a good selection of some certain cigars, the best we had seen all day but seemed to be lacking somewhat in overall brands. The staff member was quite helpful and seemed to have a good knowledge of the cigars they carried. (Side note: she wasn't wearing any upper undergarments and her shirt didn't totally close, though I swear that has nothing to do with my rating of the store. ) While we only picked up one stogie I would say this place is more then worth a stop, the prices seemed to be better then most places.


So this is my newbie shopping experience. I'm going to keep looking around online for ones that I wasn't able to get. Now what should I try first? I hope I got some good ones.