Can anyone reccomend a good cigar for a newb?
 

I'm going to a thing this weekend and I don't want to be the only asshole that shows up without a cigar, and I don't feel like lugging the hukkah over there.

I guess I'm looking for something that doesn't smell like burning cat shit when it's lit and won't require a second mortgage, and isn't a black-n-mild :giggle:

I like Balmoral Corona.

I like CAO cigars.

They're smallish, flavorful and dont suck. Some people might call you a pussy though for not smoking a "real" cigar but oh well. I dont really like putting something all phallic shaped in my mouth.

Plus i'm a cigarette smoker which makes it really hard to appreciate cigars.

just roll up a rillo :giggle:

Anything rolled upon the thighs of a virgin.

I'm interested in this as well... hopefully a few guru's will impart their knowledge.

Macanudo is a brand which is available just about everywhere, and they make several cigars which are in the $5 and under range. I'm sure that the purists will decry this suggestion as being the Budweiser of the cigar world, and I can't claim to be a cigar guru, but they are relatively mild and easy to keep lit.

A note on cigar construction. For the most part, any given brand will offer numerous cigars of various shapes and sizes, and the difference is exactly that- shape and size. Unless otherwise stated, the materials will tend to be the same for all offerings from any given brand. IOW- Coca Cola is available in 12oz cans, 12oz bottles, 750ml bottles, 1L bottles, 2L bottles, and 5 gallon corny kegs. Internally, they all contain the same liquid.

I used to smoke a lot of different cigars and even started a spreadsheet to keep track of the ones I liked. Here is a cut/paste from the spreadsheet with ranking from 1-10 on how much I liked the cigar. I never did keep up with the spreadsheet so there isn't much on it and a lot of it is from the Thompson mail order catalog but I thought it would post it anyway. The interesting thing is that some of the cigars that I have ranked low were much better when I tried them a year or so later (after they aged more) I have about 200-300 cigars right now in my humidor (maybe 100 different brands/sticks) with most of them aged for close to 10 years now. I've stopped buying different stuff and rarely smoke them. Now the only cigar I smoke is the super cheap "RBPL1 (candella) J&R Famous" from J&R (mail order and outlet place in Statesville, NC). They are only about $0.50 each and not a bad cigar. Compared to something like the Ashton Cabinet #2 which costs you $20 or so at a store when you only buy one they aren't that bad. Once I found the Holy Grail (a good $.50 cigar and a good $5 bottle of wine) I stopped trying different things and only smoke/drink those. The wine is several different brands (I'll get the names for you guys if you want to know) of a White Merlot you can find in the big grocery stores around the Charleston, SC area. Anyway, go to a real cigar store and tell the guy behind the counter that you want something really mild that doesn't cost over $5. He'll put you on to something that smokes good. Buy two of them and smoke one the day before going to your party or whatever you are going to. Showing up with something expensive that tastes like shit will ruin the moment. Also, like wine snobs, there are a lot of cigar snobs out there and they will put down anything you smoke.

Yep, you got me thinking and I am going to smoke a nice cigar this from my collection this week (I only burn maybe 10 a year now).



CAO L'Anniversaire 10
Gloria Pamera 10
Quo Vadis 10
Quo Vadis (Vanilla) 10
Thompson 9
Thompson 9
Fuente Gran Reserva 8
Don Tomas - Special Edition 8
Davidoff (Special R) 8
Macanudo Maduro 8
Romeo Y Julieta (Cuban) #1 8
Romeo Y Julieta 8
Partagas 8
Ashton Cabinet #2 8
Punch 8
la flor dominicana - especial 8
Avo #1 8
Alcazar Maduro 8
Dolce Vita 8
Fonseca 8
Carlos Torano - Signature 7
Avo XO 7
Balmoral (Royal Selection) 7
Carlos Torano - Reserva Selecta 7
Breton - Legend 7
Perdomo Reserve La Tradicion Cabinet 7
Vega Fina 7
Havana Honey 7
Flor De Selva 6
Belmondo 6
Bacchus 6
Breve 5
la gloria cubana 5
Vanilla Delight 2
Ortiz 2
Bering Casino 1
Breve (aged) 8
La Tradicion cabinet series (aged) 8
Gloria Pamera 3
Quo Vadis not flavored (aged) 8
Ortiz 8
Jamacan Heritage 7

cohiba 5.45
pinar 2000 9.2

geezus:eek5:

"only a few" lol, I know nothing about cigars, and didnt even know there are THAT MANY let alone this list being only a "few":giggle:

I really like CAO and Don Tomas...but keep in mind WHAT cigar you chose. If you are new to cigars I would choose something light and airy, fun to smoke without leaving you feeling strange.

Mac was going to be my suggestion as well. Easy enough to find, not that expensive, and good.

What Rob said. You can buy great sub $2 sticks and shitty $20 sticks. The cigar snobs prefer the shitty $20 sticks. I usually try samplers from cigarsinternational. Sometimes I'll do their "buck-a-stick" selection, sometimes I'll get their daily emails special which usually has some of the better known brands. Heck, favorite "expensive" cigar right now is a $3.50/stick Perdomo Reserve Golf Eagle.

Frank

If you are looking for a light easy smoke, I would recommend something from Dunhill or Davidoff. Both have less spice or bite and lean more towards a silky finish.

I see a few Dominican brands in that list. Let me know if I can be of service.

I also recommend Don Diego Playboy.

I've only had two cigars ever. the first one I forget but since it was harsh and nasty, that's fine. the second was a montecristo seen below. very smokable even for a noob like me.

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-...518732_522.jpg

ahh canada.

I was on the cigar boom bandwagon in the mid-late 1990s like everybody else, but have tapered off my smoking considerably since then. Still have a pretty good stash in my humidors though. I have a journal where I've kept tasting notes, but I think it's still packed in a random box from when we moved this summer.

I gravitated mostly towards robustos since they can give you big bore flavor but don't take forever to smoke, so most of my impressions of a brand were based on that size (if they made a robusto). I recall not being impressed by CAO or Carlos Toraño, but that was ten years ago. JP likened Macanudo to Budweiser, but IMO it's more like Coors Light (the water of beers) in its total lack of flavor. Nothing wrong with them if that's what you like (they are well made), but if I'm taking 45 minutes to an hour out of my day for a cigar, I'm lighting up something with a bit more to it. Brands that I was almost universally happy with included A. Fuente, La Flor Dominicana, Padron, and Avo. Some of my favorites were El Rico Habano's Habano Club and Joya de Nicaragua's Consul, but I haven't had any recent production ones so don't know if they're still as good as I remember. Romeo y Julieta, Mayorga, Puros Indios are mostly good, and not expensive.

One bit of general advice if you're totally new to cigars is to go with a natural wrapper (light-medium brown) rather than a maduro (dark brown) for your first couple smokes. The maduro wrapper imparts a flavor that can make the cigar seem harsh if you're not used to it. It's like a really hoppy beer- good if you like that, but palette-wrecking bad if you don't.

Also, 99.999% of all "Cohibas" in cigar shops in the USA and nearby border towns are fakes, and not very good ones at that. If the salesman tries to sell you one, he's either A) ignorant or B) assuming you're a schmuck.

My old humidor was the size of a large shoebox (like you would buy cowboy boots in). I've since moved to a coolerdor - a large Igloo cooler that I modified. Like I said, I have several hundred cigars (lots and lots of different ones, just not a few boxes of 50 of the same). It was an old hobby of mine but I have moved on to other things. I rarely smoke now.

As Siggy said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". But that thing is a penis <G>...

Don't forget a good accompaning beverage.

http://wardsweb.org/misc/cohiba_glen.jpg

or even smoother without the peat

http://wardsweb.org/misc/bushmills.jpg