Cigars: The Beginning

You start it because you think that it's cool. All your friends are doing it and it seems like the right thing to do. Maybe one day you were at your friends' house and find out that their parents had a box of cigars with a few of the good ones. You sneak one out and that's how it starts. At first, you deny it because you didn't purchase it, you can't be considered one of those people. Soon after you find yourself at the corner store; well buying just one doesn't mean anything. It's not like it's all the time. Before you know it you're in college, and your top desk drawer has that Ziploc bag. Oh, you know the one… It barely closes, and every time you open it you have to arrange it just right so as not to disturb the perfect arrangement to get that seal to sit just right. Soon you're missing classes, and your friends wonder where you are for an hour or so at a time. By graduation, there's a fully self-contained environment devoted to storage. But still, you deny it. Then one day, you find there's an entire community with the same affliction. Someone that knows your pain. Someone that you can relate to. Soon thereafter the denial turns to acceptance, and then, only then, can you embrace it. Well, at least that's how it started for me. I worked my way up from the bottom. Actually, some would say that I started at the top and then toppled down again to work my way back up. Personally, I don't feel that way. I say that I went back to the "top" and I wasn't impressed so I came back down. I know the lore of the Havana, and how supposedly they are the best. I don't believe what they say. I say throw out all the ratings. Once you've found something that you like, break it down. Where was that wrapper from? Where was that binder from? Where was that filler from? What seed did it come from? Once you mix and match and find what's right for you, who cares what others rate it as. Unless they are buying you that high rated stick. Personally, I'm still looking. I don't know what I like yet, and that's part of the fun. I've bought a lot of expensive sticks and a lot of less expensive sticks. It's not the cost of the stick that matters, its personal taste. I have a bunch of sticks in the humidor, and they'll all perish in a series of small fires at some point. My go-to stick right now is a certain .com Cameroon label house blend. I like it, so I smoke it.