Cigar Help

I just came back from vacation where I made a spur of the moment purchase. How can I keep these fresh without buying a humidor. I only bought a box of 10. Mrs Abbott was standing right there, she watched me buy them without batting an eye.

 

Put the loose cigars or the box with the cigars in the bag?

 

Only fat-fuck turistas smoke Cohibas.

 

Ask Bill.

 

Now you tell me? I deluded myself into liking them. Oh well.

 

Someone posted an excerpt from a travel piece recently in which someone wrote that "fat-fuck turistas" smoke Cohibas. I'd never heard of Cohibas until then. Imagine that Cohibas in Cuba is kind of like beelining to Wrigley Field when you visit Chicago for the first time.

I don't know shit about cigars, by the way.

 

Cohibas are a nice cigar, but they do have a certain "cachet" in part because they're expensive, and they're famous enough so that people who don't know cigars buy them, because they've heard they're good. (If you buy them on the street in Havana, they're likely other cigars with counterfeit bands on them, like fake LV bags in New York.) I just like certain cheaper cigars more. But cigars are like wine. Different people like different things, and people who smoke cigars usually have a variety of them, different tastes and sizes, because it's a rare bird who always wants to smoke the same thing.

EDIT: Did you go to Cuba, 'yab?

 

No. Went to Dominican Republic. My dad was a huge cigar smoker but I had rarely indulged. They were selling cigars at the resort. A guy lights one and gives it to me to smoke. I liked it a lot. Maybe I should have been more alert to Dominican cigars, but Cohiba was The brand of cuban cigars. So I bought a box. Even though I negotiated 30% off the price, I’m sure I over paid. Still, a very nice cigar.

 

It seems like with any kind of hobby like this, there's a progression people go through where they begin by wanting to buy the most expensive and/or well-known brand, but after a while take pride in finding bargains that are just as good. (And save a few bucks in the process.)

You start off drinking Jim Beam bourbon. You've heard of it!

You move onto Woodford Reserve. It's kind of expensive. And elegantly packaged!

You marry Old Forrester.

 

I believe the Cohibas sold in DR are made in the DR from Dominican tobacco—so they can be sold in and imported legally to the US. You have to buy them in Cuba (or Canada, say) for them to be made of Cuban tobacco. A Cuban Cohiba in a store up here is, like, $40 for the cheapest one, going up to hundreds of dollars. The same cigar might cost you a few bucks in Cuba. Usually about 10 percent of the Canadian price.

I used to go down to Havana for a long weekend, buy my limit in cigars (two boxes) and make money on the trip. So "overpaid" is a relative term.

The bottom line is, do you like them? Yes? Then great.

 

Have you had this: Aberlour A’bunadh?
IS this pouser scotch or just the good stuff?