Cigar 101
We asked, you told us . . .
What Five Cigars Should Everyone Try?
If you were asked by a novice cigar smoker this question, what five cigars would you tell them to try? What reasons would you choose those cigars?
Howdy, Brawny!
You ask a very good question.
I was 10 years old when I started a tobacco habit. I picked up chewin. At 11, I started pipe smokin, an 13 with cigars. Back then (early 70's) I was limited to what I could get at the PX, and later at the local drug or grocery store, when Pop retired from the Marines. I Chewed Levi Garrett (still do) smoked Borkum Riff Whiskey pipe tobacco, and Garcia Vega English Corona cigars.
At 15, I visited my first honest-to-god tobacco shop. I was treated like an adult, which impressed me. I later found out that the guys there were impressed that a high school freshman (In 1976) was interested in pipes, an NOT to smoke weed in them, as well as a good cigar or two.
I went to work there as a senior in high school. The most important thing they taught me was to ask the customer some general questions regarding their taste in food an drink, activity and current smoking habits. From these answers, you could base some recommendations, for either cigars, pipes, or both.
From there, I worked in tobacco shops off an on up to my mid thirties. That don't make me an expert, but I am strongly experienced.
For the majority of men, I usually had them start with Dominican cigars. If they didn't smoke at all, I would have them try Macanudo as one of the first. It has a tight draw / low smoke output, to not overwhelm them. Typically, nothing smaller than a 44 ring, nor shorter than 6 inches, to give them as much smoke color an coolness as possible. Others would be Partegas, Upmann, Arturo Fuente an perhaps a mild Honduran like Santa Rosa. The trick being to keep the sizes an shapes the same, to eliminate that variable.
So...
Classic Churchill sizes in standard run, not premium (unless requested) from
Macanudo
Partegas
Upmann
Arturo Fuente
Santa Rosa
From this selection, when the customer returns, find out which he enjoyed the most, and go from there.
Since the cigar boom, and my bein out of the biz for nearly ten years now, there are a myriad of new cigars that I'm not privy to.
BEAR