As a bit of housekeeping, my name is Mark.
I'm a 29 year old husband, proud new dad to a daughter, banker, and a huge computer nerd. And while I no longer have exorbitant amounts time to prance around the World of Warcraft and slay digital internet dragons (even though I do find myself any chance I get), I find I have a hole to fill with other things I enjoy doing, most notably and relevant to this blog, talking about stogies...and possibly about wine, coffee, and other pairing spirits. But lets start with cigars. I do plan to do reviews, and possibly one in the very near future, but I'd first prefer to enlighten my hopefully captive audience on what inspired me to start this blog in the first place, because without a little information, who would want to listen to a random internet stranger?
You'll notice I did not title my entry here Cigar 101. No, there's far too many of those already. I figure everyone who smokes cigars already knows how to, or if they don't, there's thankfully already a plethora of other fantastic web-based guides and how-to videos on YouTube to cover that for me. I think this is a more over-reaching topic. Cigar etiquette has been done so much, just the thought of rehashing things most people already know is tiring. Cigaring, to me, is is the why, not so much the how. Why we do what we do, why we enjoy what we enjoy, and why we should never let anyone tell us differently. It's the adventure in it.
To begin, most newcomers to cigar smoking are well aware of Drew Estate and their ACID line, and to a lesser extent the Liga Privadas, Undercrowns, and the more traditional blends. Stay with me though, this is not an ACID or Drew Estate promotional blog. I'm not being paid to say good or bad things. But, flavored stogies have been a part of the domestic cigar scene probably, I'd gather, since World War I (ACIDs are not a cigar line I'd call "flavored", but we'll get into that in a little bit). Research on the topic hasn't turned up any evidence in my favor, its just a feeling I have.
At any rate, ever since, most traditional cigar smokers (read: older cigar smokers) tend to not entertain the notion of flavors in their sticks. Why, you ask? (You probably didn't because statistically speaking, you don't like flavored sticks either) Well, there's no solid answer for a stigma. Smoke what you like, I say, but the notion is there in current cigar culture. You can walk up to almost any tobacconist and ask them for the flavored sticks. You might get a grunt, you might not, but the sticks are generally stored away in a separate humidor (for perfectly good reasons), and the selection is generally pretty limited. The shop will be filled with boxes upon boxes of traditional cigars. Good...bad...they'll have a ton of them. But those nasty flavored cigars? Maybe a box of each of whatever they carry and that's it. Some shops even carry just the tubos or tinned cigarillos brands to minimize the risk of flavor crossover.
Anyway, starting in 1998, a man named Jonathan Drew wanted to change the cigar game and change that stigma. He started off with a little traditional line called La Vieja Habana, but quickly the ACID and Natural blends followed. Using fermented pipe tobaccos, the Naturals were unique in that they weren't like a Black & Mild, but those pipe flavors were incorporated into traditional cigar tobacco blends. The ACIDs? Woo boy. You could get into an argument saying this to a tobacconist, but they aren't flavored. Not artificially at least, and not a saliva-soluble flavor so you won't "taste" cherry or vanilla or whatever else. An aromatic blend, ACIDs are made using tobacco leaves cured in rooms filled with things of floral and herbal nature be it hibiscus and rose, or maybe chamomile and lavender. The blends are completely secret. Some even have their caps dipped in a natural sweetener (I'm thinking sucralose-water), and that gives the blends a "sweet" flavor. Pleasing to some, not to others. The point being is that the cigars are infused with a flavor that is exposed in the aromatic smoke.
And like a wildfire, ACIDs caught on quick with the newer, younger cigar generation. They aren't advertized to kids like flavored cigarettes, but they are a draw to the newer, younger smokers...the ones that would have normally picked up a kretek or djarum clove cigarette. What can I say...younger people tend to want to be hip and unique...and in the newer cigar world, ACIDs are hip and unique. But because of the unfair stigma that flavored cigars have, even though ACIDs were initially unfairly placed in that category, does that mean they're bad cigars? Not in the least. Drew Estate actually has an impeccable quality control. Using choice aged tobaccos, expert rolling technique, and draw-machine (so the occasional poorly rolled stogies don't even get boxed), I've yet to hear of a real "plugging" issue in any Drew Estate stick. And as far as I've experienced, they burn perfectly, so they age well too. A premium "flavored" hand-rolled cigar? You bet. Do I smoke some of them? Yes. Do I like all of them? No.
Now...all of this does have a point. I'm not just on a flavored cigar soapbox here. The inspirational path to "Why We Smoke" is not fully explained yet.
The other day I was involved in an online conversation, on SomethingAwful.com, a "comedy" forum on which I post, that stemmed from myself pointing out a certain hot sauce in another posters picture. The hot sauce in question was Tabasco. Being from New Orleans, I promptly gave the poster a thumbs up for using something local and familiar to me. Shortly thereafter, a comment was made denoting how Tabasco was vinegar infused crap. Agreed. But, to my observation, wrong or not, the assumption was made that perhaps we liked vinegar infused crap. Whether the poster that commented that intended it or not, the bug was planted in my head. And I thought, if we did like vinegar infused crap, what's wrong with that? Maybe I looooove vinegar. How does this relate to cigars? Why, the conversation happened in SomethingAwful's cigar thread. Ba dum tish...I guess. To bring that in perspective, though, most of the posters in this particular thread also share the same previously mentioned flavored cigar stigma.
Shortly after the conversation happened...someone else posted the following:
"It's so ridiculous to me when people get all passionate and hate on some
hot sauces and declare their own personal favorite to be the Only
Objective Best.
All hot sauces have their place. Sriracha has its place. Valentina has
its place. TapatÃo has its place. Texas Pete has its place. Frank's
has its place. Chipotle Tabasco has its place. That bottle of vinegar
with the little green chilis floating in it has its place. Bourbon
Street Bad has its place. And I love them all. ALL OF THEM, I SAY, AND
MORE!"
"But Mark," you whine, "this is a cigar blog. Why are you talking about hot sauces? I don't get it."
I'm getting there, alright. So...the hot-sauces-equality comment spurred around in my brain and the thought came to me...shouldn't this apply to cigars as well? Now, I'm not about to go out and try to change this forum thread's flavored cigar stigma...but the passion to write about it was ignited. Why are some so vehemently against flavored cigars? So much so they go out of their way to espouse their belief that they're terrible and should not be smoked. Intentional or not, these opinions affected me. I stopped smoking the ACIDs that I liked...perhaps I'm stupid for that. Who really gives a crap if I like ACIDs or not? If I want to burn my money on terrible cigars I'm more than welcome to, right? Darn tootin'. But the damage was done. I quickly switched to more traditional domestic blends and began to develop a traditional cigar palette. Woody, earthy, leathery. I began to be able to taste the more nuanced characteristics, and I began to enjoy traditional cigars so much more. I started seeing ACIDs and the contrasting artificially flavored cigars as a blight upon all CigarEarth.
So my uncle gave me an ACID sampler box for Christmas. WELL THANKS. *harumph* I resolved to smoke them and grimace in the stink bomb aromatics that I used to like, but human nature doing its thing didn't need to influence me further. The thought "oh boy more ACIDs" made me feel ashamed. Here's a generous gift and all I could do is frown on the thought of smoking more of them, even if I hadn't tried them all yet. But see...that thought process was artificial. I liked some of the ACIDs. I just didn't want to admit it to myself. And then a few days later, the hot sauce conversation happened. A true mind blown moment I guess. And now I look at that ACID sampler tin with eager anticipation. I know I won't like all of them, but my eyes were opened. Who really cares? I smoke what I smoke because I want to enjoy what I smoke.
And that's precisely why we smoke, and why cigar smoking is so different than smoking a cigarette. When a cigar smoker smokes a cigar, it's for the enjoyment. Be it the cigar itself...or the conversation its enhancing...or the drink its complimenting. Cigarettes are for the addicted. Cigars are for the connoisseurs, the relaxed, the one who can stop and smell the roses...even if those roses are infused in the cigar you have in your mouth. Never let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn't smoke, flavored, unflavored, or otherwise. Ever. Smoke because you like to smoke and then go out and smoke what you like to smoke. Smoke what tastes good to you because life is way too short to worry about all that silly stigma bullshit.
Cigaring indeed, I think. Keep smoking and thanks for reading.
-mgvsquared
