how do you pick a good cigar?
 

nothing is more intimdating to me than walking into a nice cigar store. WTF? where do you start? not like you can grab a sampler platter. so what do you do? i dont want to ask stupid questions....

gonna go camping this weekend...

cliff

Easy, look at the price :p

Before the mid-90s cigar boom, you actually could go by the price more or less. Since then, there are many high priced cigars that are more marketing than quality.

When I was just starting out, I would take $20-30, buy a half dozen different ones and try them out. I had a couple of friends who were into it with me, so we'd smoke, drink, watch the game, play cards, etc. and learn what was good and what wasn't.

Some old standbys to try (at least they were back when I went to cigar stores):

Ashton (nice and light--good for beginners)
Davidoff (oooh, fancy! but actually light and easy to smoke)
La Gloria Cubana (really good Robusto)
Arturo Fuente (nice, middle of the road)
Partagas (a very different flavor--you'll love it or hate it)

In general, avoid the Cuban knockoffs--Cohiba, Montecristo, etc--when you get a chance, get a real Cohiba and you'll see what all the fuss is about.

Why, out of your intern's.....:eek:
:D

www.JRCIGARS.com They sell everything from the best to rum soaked crooks, and will tell you the difference.

I use this site to help a bit... go to 'cigar ratings'

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/Home/

I'm smoking Dominican 'Cohiba' Robusto's right now... they are cheap and a pretty nice smoke... RallyJon is correct, the Cuban Cohiba's are usually pretty special... one of the perks, I guess, of living north of the 49th parallel is the availability of Cuban cigars... too bad I can't afford many of them :)

Hey Cliff,
Have you smoked cigars before? If you have and had any particular impressions, I could definitely point you toward some gars that would fit your preferences. FWIW, I belong to a private cigar BBS and am very enthusiastic about cigars. As a matter of fact, at present I have about 2000 of them.
JRCigars is indeed a great resource and vendor, they have decent prices on a wide variety of cigars. Last time I checked their site won't sell singles (as opposed to boxes) but if you call their number they will sell single cigars to you.
If you've never smoked cigars before, I would recommend something very light and approachable. The Ashton brand mentioned above would fit the bill (but avoid the sun grown!) although they're fairly pricey. Macanudo is a very popular light brand, currently the best seller in the US. I would particularly recommend the Macanudo Portofino, which is has the added advantage of coming in a tube. That's pretty handy since I'm guessing you don't have a humidor to store your cigars properly. Macanudos are way too light for my tastes, but they're a nice place to start and will not knock you over.
I'm always happy to share my expertise in all things cigar, so let me know if there's any more questions I could answer.

Excuse my cigar ignorance but what does "Cristales" an "Guantanamera"
relate to in the cigar world?

Cristales generally means it's in a glass tube. I have never heard the second term, which is saying something. Where did you come across it?

Ahh, it's in a clear plastic tube shoulda guessed that part.

A guy I know brought some back from a carribean vacation, told me to give it a try but I'm not really a cigar smoker and probably couldn't tell one from the next. It also says "Habana" and "Cuba" on it.

Honestly, since there is a US base in Guantonimo, I just figured it was a correct spelling of that place and that it was a cheap G.I. special, which is the main reason I never tried it.

Gotta second what Tshabet said, Macanudo Portofino is a very very nice cigar for the occasional smoker. I smoke maybe 4 cigars a year and always enjoy the Macanudo.

I've been buying from JR's for at least 15 years. The best prices and quality period. They do sell 5-packs that sell for 8-20 bucks. The best way to go for a newbie.

Tonight I had a Bolivar fuerte that was heavenly. I just went out to the car to get my briefcase and just sat and enjoyed the delicious somewhat peppery tobac aroma. MMMMmmmm...

Bolivars are great as are El Rey del Mundo, Remidios, Maria Mancini, any Arturo Fuente, Montecruz negra cubana and for sure try the Montecruz little cigars. What a great little smoke.

These are all rather full flavored smokes, a necessity now that cigars don't seem to be ages as long as they used to. These cigar brands are generally aged long enough before they're sold, and JR holds them a bit too.

Check out their website and browse around. Oh yeah, and Padrons are awesome as well. You can get those at Thompsons cigars online.

Cheers.

Guantanamera is a real Havana, Cuban brand. I had one just last Saturday with my neighbour after a nice dinner.....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1100065870.jpg

But I digress, and nearly forgot that JFK banned the sale of real Cubans in the USofA. If you can smuggle them in, the real Cohiba (not the dominican knock-offs) is the ticket:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1100065168.jpg

Seriously though, the only way to see what you like is to read some reviews, and start out with the lighter brands recommended by previous posters. Develop your taste.

LeRoux

I'd agree there. I've got a Cohiba 'A' that I've been sitting on for about 3 yrs now. I smoked one from the same box then and it was really good. I think it's a 11'' x 46 or so. About a 2 1/2 hour smoke session.

FKING YUPPIES.......Try a REAL Cigar....Partagas Black Label Pyriamide....that will knock your fking head back and spin it around a couple of times...

Only Neopyte Pussies and Fools smoke Cuban COHIBAS....a Cuban Romeo & Julietta Churchill thats the way to go...

Damn, Tabs: sounds like you've been smoking CRACK.

Anyway, I was in Canada about three years ago, and considered bringing in some Cubans for my dear old pop. "Yeah, right!" said Mr. Immigration man.

I'd smoke 'em if I had the time, but I barely have enough minutes to get in a friggin' Camel unfiltered. :mad:

The one time I sort of got into it was with an old friend who liked to go to yuppie cigar bars in Beverly Hills where a guy has his own humidor. It was sort of cool, smoking, getting a port buzz, etc. Then I realized there was nothing but men in there watching other men smoke their cigars.

So...

I never went back...

Romeo & Juliettas - now we're talking!

Woodman,
Love those Padrons! I'm sitting on a box of the 3000 Maduro right now, wish I could afford to spring for a box of the Anniversario Maduro, those are some TASTY smokes!

LeRoux,
Thanks for the heads up on that brand....can't say I'm aquainted with them. I'm not generally as wild about Cuban cigars as their reputation would dictate, although there are certainly exceptions. H. Upmann Sir Winston, Partagas series D No. 4, Montecristo 2 and 4, and the Quai D'orsay Panatela definitely have places in my humidor. One "sleeper" cuban brand I really enjoy is Sancho Panza, even their machine made cigars are good!

Another thing you can do, assuming you have a good cigar store near by is just talk to the manager of the store. Most of them are really into cigars and can recommend some decent cigars.

Tabs you lost me there. I've been smoking cigars for over 30 years and generally have over 300 in my humidor. Tastes vary but I've never seen anyone knock a Cohiba Lancero which is the finest cigar I've ever smoked. Today allthough there are still some fine Cuban brands, you can get very fine cigars legally in the USA. IMHO Arturo Fuentes Hemingways are great cigars & priced from $5 to $11, when you can find them. Trinidad, Diamond Crown Maximus and Padron Anniversarios are some of my favorites on the upper end of the price range. CAO Brazillia, Carlos Torano 1916 are good but neet some time in the box (1-3 months) to get really good. A very fine everyday cigar that can be had for $4 - $5 bucks is Aroma de Cuba. I think they are made by Ashton & with a few weeks in the box are fine cigars that are medium bodied & would be a good choice for a beginner. If a beginner wants to spend more money, try a Zino Platinum Chubby or any Davidoff would be a great choice.

Beware of Cubans. There are many more fakes than real ones. If you don't know the source & trust his knowledge of cigars, leave them alone.

Cliff,

Whatever cigar you get be sure and read a poem by Kipling called, "The Betrothed."

"And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke."

Classic.

:)

I had the good fortune, while living in the Netherlands, to befriend an older gentleman named deGraaff, whose family has been cigar makers and tobacconists for generations. He's still got a place in Den Haag if you're ever there... deGraaff made cigars for Churchill during WWII and was the first european reseller to be certified by Cubatobacco (the Cuban parastatal). Over many hours and many excellent cigars he taught me quite a bit about cigars ... but all of that is going to boil down to what you like. If you know which tobaccos are used as filler/binder/wrapper in the cigar you like, you can try to find others with similar composition.

Everybody's gonna have their favorite brands. On the Cuban front, I like Sancho Panza and El Rey Del Mundo. Cuban R$J are good too. Once, in the Bahamas I got my hands on one (they only sold one to a customer) of the cigars Castro smoked, and I can't remember the name -- I have the cigar band at home -- it was one of the best I'd ever smoked, and it was long, with a much smaller ring gauge than I was used to smoking -- a Gran Corona, I think.

I follow a few guidelines -

First and foremost -- humidity. You should feel every cigar before you buy it, pinching it gently along its length-- it should give and feel tender, w/o the wrapper (meaning the outermost skin of the cigar) cracking. If the wrapper cracks, the inside is probably very dry, and thatsanogood. The "best" cigar in the world will taste like burning donkey fur if it's dry. Many places keep their humidors at ~75% humidity. I've tried to keep mine over 80. More on that in a second.

Second -- as you're feeling the cigar, you don't want to feel any "knots" in the filler. They will impede the draw, and could make the cigar go out. You should feel the veins in the leaves, but not "knots." You can also feel if the cigar has been filled with cuttings, rather than whole leaf. A lot of counterfeit cuban cigars actually have Cuban tobacco in them -- the Ligero and Gran Corona leaves unharvested by the legitimate tobacco makers are "stolen" at night and diced (rather than cured and rolled) and stuffed into "cigars."

So that's for all cigars of all types (except cigarillos and other "small" cigars that are better dry). Now, choosing a cigar itself.

Third -- ring gauge. A "thicker" cigar will burn more slowly, making the smoke more aromatic -- less pungent. Here's where the humidity comes in as well. A "properly" humidified cigar will also burn more slowly and taste better. Keep ash on the end of the cigar, as that impedes oxygen, making the tobacco smoulder rather than burn -- longer, better tasting smoke, whatever the ring gauge.

Fourth -- Aroma. You can get a feel for how you'll like a cigar by smelling it. -- not just the wrapper, but the "open" end too. Give yourself a good few seconds between cigars, tho.

Fifth -- length. This is the duration of the cigar itself, really. But the "smoke" does not become proportionately longer with length (unless you have a bulletproof palette). The upstream part of the cigar acts as a filter for all the smoke you've pulled through. As you burn the cigar down, more "crap" accumulates upstream, so when you pass the halfway point and start smoking tobacco that's been covered in the smoke of consumed "downstream" tobacco the cigar will usually begin to become more and more bitter, acrid and just plain foul in some cases.
So count on getting 60-70% out of a cigar's length for an enjoyable smoke.

The "Bitter Enders" out there will no doubt disagree, but if I've paid $15+ for a cigar, it's to maximize the enjoyment of a cigar, not to maximize its consumption -- b/c at a point, the cigar will "turn on you."

So the same blend of leaf can taste great as a Panatela or Cadete but awful (to you) as a Piramide or Double Corona -- the leaves will burn much differently. Start in the Hermoso/Robusto size and work your way up and down within the label or similar flavor range (your tobacconist should know) to see how these things affect the smoke. But moist -- always moist.

There's a LOT more to this, but this should get you rolling {snicker}.

Now ask me what time it is and I'll tell you about how Big Ben was built. :D

JP

JP, that cigar was called a "Trinidad," the replacement brand for Cohiba, once Cohiba got too popular. The old creep auctions them off in London for $14,000 a box to pay for Cuban medical relief.

That's it -- thanks.

JP

I have been a fan of cigars ever since the Clinton Administration.

Cramer! Were you in Matt's Grill night before last? I am in town for one more night, but was soooo sure it was you; it was too busy to go over and see if it was you.

JP, The cigar is a Trinidad Fundadore. It replaced the Cohiba Lancero as the head commie's cigar of choice. I used to have a hook & got Lanceros for $225 a box. Now it's up to $475-$500. Too rich for me. I've only smoked one & it's not in the same class as the Lancero IMHO. In fact I've bought dome Dominican Fundadores & liked them better than the Cubans.

Mule -

Thanks. Yeah, the guy at the shop explained it in much the same way Cramer did -- it replaced the "too popular" Cohiba.

I've not been such a fan of Cohibas, I'd stick with the Sancho Panzas over the Cohibas any time. It's just that the Sanchos are harder to get b/c they're not "too popular."

I'd written in my disquisition above a para. about the Cubans fleeing Cuba taking their tobacco seed stock with them. So a lot of Dominican and other "non-Cuban" cigar makers are using Cuban tobacco, grown elsewhere. Now, a given leaf grown in a hoyo in Cuba will have different characteristics than the same leaf grown on a slope in the DR (soil, sun, drainage, wind, etc.). But there's nothing to say that such a leaf will necessarily be "better" in Cuba. So there are some damned fine non-Cuban "Cuban" cigars out there, and they can use the brand names they'd been using before they were stolen in the name of the People's Glorious Revolucion.

JP

That's like saying that French or Italian grape vines transplanted to California won't necessarily be "better". They will definitely taste completely different, however.

"Cuban seed" is the biggest marketing scam out there for overpriced Dominican cigars.

Maybe I'm a pussy and I like weak cigars, but I've had a Romeo and Julietta and I didn't like it at all. That was my first and only Cuban, but I found out that they sell Cohibas at Tabacchi stores here. One guy was telling me how they are the best cigars and now you guys... 40 euro for 5-4" (not 100% sure) and I've been meaning to get some. I've smoked Arango Sportsmans and I liked them a lot. I also really like Tatiana cigars. Does it make me even more of a pussy if I like flavored cigars/cigarillos?

Cheers,
Serge

Jon -
I definitely agree on the 2nd point. I'm about 50% on the first point. They won't necessarily taste completely different -- remember that the same tobacco farmers that grew the stuff in Cuba used certain regions, certain terroir, for reasons. These experts can find similar terroir in other areas (though obviously the soil is not going to be a spot-on match). All I meant to say was that a good, hearty leaf, grown under different circumstances can still produce excellent tobacco, and may (may) result in equal or superior cigars -- once curing, blending, rolling, etc. are all factored in to the mix too.

If you don't have good leaf to start with, you're pretty much dead in the water.

Serge -- one of my favorite all-time smokes are cigarillos soaked in Niebaum-Coppola red wine. Unfortunately, AFAIK, they're only available at the vineyard. Mmmmmm I miss those.

So maybe we're equally pussified.

JP

Fking Yuppies...A Real Man will smoke a Partagas Black Label Pymirade...thats a cigar that will knock your head back and spin it around a couple of times

Cuban Cohibas are for Neophyte Pussies or Fools, a better choich would be the Cuban Romeo and Jullietta Churchill....but I stoped spending all that high flautin loot on cigars now I just go up to the Paiute Indiand reservation and buy Domienco Presidentes 9 x 50.. in a bundle for $1.60 each.....it's a good long filler cigar...

NOw if you should happen to be stupid enought to think that I havn't been around the block a least once with regards to cigars..I will flat out tell you the best cigar ever made was the Partagas 150....it had it all...

And OPS....You definately ain't Readers Digest material...

Cliff,
If you still want to look past the machismo and possible/certain dizziness from a potent cigar, try either a Dunhill label cigar or a great mild Dominican called Licenciado (yellow ring).

I don't know who makes them for Dunhill but for the most part they are on the lighter side.

Lately, I haven't been able to find a steady source for Licenciados. Maybe you'll have more luck.

Arturo Fuetes..pbbbt...over rated....

Excalber #1 Maduros...yeah...a mans cigar...

Private Stock... are Davidoff/Avao seconds...nice cigar

Come on Tabs, Partagas 150 were great. Got a box of 'em at JR's on a trip thru N. Carolina. They had 2 floor displays of 'em for $200 a box & boxes of 50 for $400. Thompson was trying to sell individual sticks for $30. Good cigar. Maybe a touch better than a Hemmingway. Maybe! No Lancero. No way. No Montechristo #2 either. Next time you see whoever told you that Fuentes are overrated, slap him. That's ridiculous.

Partagas black label is not that stout of a cigar. Get a Cuban Montechristo A & call me when you wake up. Or try a LaFlor Dominicana double ligero Chisel.

Michael, I was not last evening, nor have I been for the last 36 months, in Matts Grill. But as the joint is frequented by handsome loudmouths I can certainly see how you got that impression. :)

All this furor over Cigars. Did any of you epicurians attend The Big Smoke this year? Tickets were $150, and I picked up enough good cigars to last for a few months. Some excellent stuff, some dog-rockets.

Monte #2 and Hemmingway.... mmmmm.

I was going to rec. Dunhill and Davidoff (esp. the Zino Platinum Chubby Especial!!), but those are personal preferences, not how he should pick one himself.

Tabby, you compliment me the further distance you put between me and RD. :D

JP

The Big Smoke is highly recommended. Great food, great liqour & (if you work it right) over $200 worth of cigars for $150.

Never been to the big smoke, but have done the RTDA twice. Now THAT is a lot of free gars!
BTW, John, "dog rocket" is definitely part of my lingo. Did any of you guys ever frequent and cigar BBS?