I LOVE Cigars...

Hello, my name is C Moth, and I'm a Cigar-a-holic.

 

I love them. I truely do.

 

Now, don't be confused here. Most of you can't see the fruit for all of the leaves on the tree. There are a lot of products claiming to be cigars. I will attempt to explain the diferences.

 

Swisher Sweets and products like them are NOT cigars. Oh they look like cigars, they call themselves cigars or "cigarellos" but all they can ever be is a huge cigarette. Paper wrappers? WTF?!? Cigars don't have a paper wrapper. Paper binder? Bullshit!!

 

Further explaination. Most cigars are made the following way: Aged tobacco leaves from specific tobacco plants are trimmed and cut to remove the larger stems. They are grouped and rolled (full leaf filler is called 'long filler', "short filler" is usually recovered trimmings from full leaves and is used to make lower valued cigars)). A seperate whole leaf (and it can be from a diferent tobacco plant in a diferent region is used to bind the rolled filler. Then a really nice full leaf is trimmed and cut and then rolled around the bound filler. They will generally use specific types of obacco that is bread to be one of the three types. The cigar producers will select and blend a variety of leaf in order to achieve diferent flavors and aromas as well as strengths. Cigars range from mild, medium and strong (Some cigars can be stout enough to give yu a heavy buzz).

 

I won't go into any more detail. If you really want to know completely accurate information go to a few cigar related sites and check it out. Cigaraficionado.com is a good one.

 

I'm not promoting cigar smoking. I love it, others don't. I don't smoke around people unless I know for sure that they don't mind or are avid cigar smokers themselves. To do otherwise is not only rude and inconsiderate, but also does a dis-service to cigar smokers in general by promoting stereotypes.

 

I'm sure some of you have read this and thought, "what's the diference. Smoking is smoking". Well, yes and no. True, all smoking products are burned and the reulting smoke drawn in to the systems. The primary diference is in the the way they are smoked and the treatments given to the tobaccoes. Premium major market cigars are primarily untreated by anything. The tobacco is harvested, bundeled and aged in specific temperatures and humidity levels until they have aged enough (anywhere from 1 to as many as 10 to 12 years) to get the proper flavors and aromas. They are a natural product and virtually nicotene free. The nicotine level actually goes down as tobacco ages. Cigarette companies commit blasphemy by breading extremely high levels of nicotene in their tobacco and then chemically treating it to preserve it for packaged shelf life. In short, cigarette tobacco is garbage. You might as well suck on smog. The biggest thing I have against cigarette tobacco and those who produce them is the lying they must do and continue to do. Cigarette smoking is about addiction and how they can keep people alive longer to stay addicted. The only reason people continue to smoke cigarettes is because they need the nicotine. The longer they smoke the more nicotine they need to get the same stimulating effect. That's why cigarette smokers go through withdrawal symptoms when they try to quit.

 

Cigar and Pipe tobacco are only treated with the occasinal flavored additive during their aging process and during the final aging after rolling in order to make specific flavored cigars. These flavored additives are for the most part natural flavorings. chemical additives would completely ruin a cigar and probably result in a riot by the faithful. You see, cigr smokers are a dedicated lot. Sitting around with cigar smokers and listening to them talk about their favorite cigars is a little like sitting around a bunch of football fns and listening to them discuss their favorite teams. We are passionate about our cigars.

 

As far as I'm concerned you should only purchase a cigar from a legitimate retail cigar specific store with it's own humidor. As I've said previously the over-the-counter "cigars" are bairly worthy of the title garbage. the one exception to that rule are Backwoods cigars. These are true cigars. 100% un-fucked-with  cigar tobacco rolled into what s know as a cheroot shape or a rough hand-roll. They look rough-cut nad they are but they are oh-so-good. They also have an aroma that is more like a pipe than a premium cigar because the tobaco for both is similar. Either way, my wife does not complain of the smell.

 

When I was growing up i was not the least bit interested in smoking. Both of my parents smoked, my mom smoked cigarette and my dad smoked a pipe and the occasional cigar (when I was very young). I remember my dad's pipe being the one thing I always considered his signature. It was always hanging from his mouth, whether burning or not. He quit smoking when his Doctr recommended it, not because he feared cancer but because it was elevating his heart-rate. My dad was able to quit cold turkey. After all, he primarily smoked tobaccos that were relatively low in nicotine. My mom still smokes despite several half-earted attempts to quit. My Grandmother's smoked cigarettes, my Grandfather on my dad's side smoked cigarettes and Swisher-Sweets.

 

When I hit 21 I decided to try smoking cigars. I had tried a Swisher like Grandpa used to smoke and was disgusted. I decided that if I wanted to give cigars a fair shake, I would go to a reputable cigar retailer and try one ender optimum conditions. I read up on the subject and armed with the information chose my first cigar, a H. Upmann Churchill. I even studied the proper way to cut and light a cigar (yes, you can fuck up a perfectly good cigar by messing up cutting off the end-cap and by lighting it incorrectly with the wrong type of flame). I had also been surprised initially to learn that you not only shouldn't inhale cigar smoke (only about 1 percent of cigar smokers inhale the smoke) but that it was actually deemed detrimental to the flavors of subsequent draws (not to mention unhealthy. Cigars may not have a lot of the same cancer causing agents BUT it's never a good idea to inhale smoke from any source).

 

You will NEVER catching me smoking a cigarette. I believe that they are a serious health threat to anyone who smokes them and if the Government were actually more concerned for our health and safety as they say then the would ban the product. Ofcourse, the amount of money made by tobacco products is HUGE and the tobacco lobbies pay them a great deal of money.

 

It bothers me when others lump cigar and pipe smokers in with the cigarette smokers. There is a HUGE diference.

 

I LOVE cigars (and pipes). I only smoke a cigar every once in a great while but I will continue to do so for a long time.