How I got into cigars

A few years ago I was at my accountants office and during their recent redecoration, they had added a small bar area which they were proud to show me. Obviously it must have seemed like a good idea at the time for a pretty wasted corner next to their boardroom, but I doubt it gets used very much. Being polite and showing feigned interest, they showed it to me. On closer inspection I noticed they had some cigars in a small glass humidor, upon asking I was informed it was the business of one of their clients. With their usual generosity, notably unusual for accountants, I was offered one, it had no band on it, so I had and have no idea what it was, but I happily and politely accepted it. It was a week or so later that I was sitting in my garden after dinner that my wife asked me about the cigar I had bought home, which was sitting alone in a drawer. So I got out this huge brown stick, and knowing absolutely nothing about cigar smoking I realised relatively quickly that I would need to make a hole in the puffing end. So I found a match in a drawer where the birthday candles are kept and I stuck the non striking end of the match in the non lighting end of the cigar, made a hole with it and then used the other end to light it. 

Surprisingly I loved it, I loved the feeling of it in my hand, I loved the strong spicy taste. When I was a very young man I had tried a cigar but I recall it was bitter, now it tasted spicy and deep and intense. I think perhaps it’s similar to olives, in that, when we are very young, out taste receptors can’t enjoy such strong flavours but as we age our taste buds like, or perhaps need, something stronger to be stimulated. I also found it was strangely relaxing. One cannot rush a cigar. It’s not like a cigarette where you crave the nicotine and need to draw deeply. It’s a completely different experience. A relaxing chilled experience. Like drinking a whiskey sitting in a wing back chair in a gentlemen’s club. 

I also felt that I needed something in my day or week that gave me a ‘full stop’! An alternative to a drink when I got home, or a cigarette after dinner. It’s a pause, a time to reflect or meditate. Indeed, for me, it’s also a great time to smoke a lovely cigar whilst writing a blog. I write, I consider, I puff, I delete, I puff some more, I rewrite. 

However, probably far more importantly than whether I like it is the fact that my wife did. Indeed she even took a few puffs too. There is a nostalgia for many of us associated with the smell of a cigar. Most of us had uncles who smoked and when we were young everyone smoked in their homes, and often whilst standing over children, but certainly the smell lingered to the morning when we came down for breakfast before school. As we all know if your wife likes something that you do that is huge advantage. 

So I was emotionally hooked and I soon found myself visiting amazing shops such as J.J. Fox in amazing places such as St James’s St in Mayfair. 

I also loved the fact that I knew nothing and it gave me a whole new world ahead of me where I could learn something new. A whole new exciting world to know!

In fact I got so enthralled that within a few years I set up my own website to share what I have discovered and experienced to enhance others lives too and give you something that your wife, for a change, actually approves of!

I don’t visit cigar shops anymore and I discovered that unlike cigarettes I don’t want just one brand, I smoke like I used to drink, not the binging part but the ability to try different cigars and compare them and as I have now a selected and well defined range of cigars on my website, that I love to smoke, I can pick one whenever the mood takes me and I need a full stop.

Check out our cigars here!