Smoke Inn Blog
While Enjoying a Cigar
For our last installment in the Cigars With series, we’re going to look at some of our favorite things to do while enjoying a cigar. Cigar smokers as a group are pretty diverse, but there’s definitely some hobbies and pastimes that many of us share. Who among us doesn’t enjoy savoring a stick while we’re engaged in another activity we love? We could probably write a book about all the things we like to do while savoring a cigar, but here are three of the highlights that we think most of our friends our there will vibe with.
Cigars and Golf
This one came to mind first for some reason. It’s not hard to picture yourself out on the course enjoying a cigar with friends. Golf is relaxing and it’s a time for socializing, joking around and dealmaking. Whether it’s 18 holes at Shinnecock Hills or TPC Sawgrass or just knocking a few in with your buddies at the local public course, this is just the kind of thing we spend the week looking forward to. Cigars just make a perfect addition to the mix. Golf is unhurried. So is enjoying a fine cigar.
Maybe part of what we love is the fact that these are two traditions that refuse to yield to the short attention span era of video game reflexes and 280-character Twitter manifestos. Enjoying a smoke on the golf course doesn’t look much different today than it did when our grandfathers did it. There aren’t really any rules here. You might consider the number of holes you’re playing and how long you want to smoke. Playing 18 holes gives you several hours to enjoy a longer cigar. Like we said, there’s no rush.
Our Picks for the Golf Course
The My Father No. 5 Toro is a superlative choice for the golf course. Medium strength with an Ecuadorian wrapper and Nicaraguan filler. Carefully aged and tended with love only 50,000 of these were made and it’s long one that will last. A classic rich smoke with the flavor of dark roasted coffee beans, earthy spice and a satisfying peppery finish.
The Montecristo Epic Vintage 12 Blue No. 2 Torpedo is a premium grade smoke that’s a bit bolder than the typical Montecristo. Handcrafted with an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, Dominican binder, and fillers of Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic harvested from a 2012 crop. It’s lasting flavor features aromatic florals, cedar and nutmeg.
Cigars and Fishing
If you live in South Florida like we do, there’s a great chance that you take advantage of the amazing fishing opportunities in our area. Even if you don’t, chances are if you like to fish, you’ve made cigars part of the experience before. It just fits. Having a cigar in your hand while you’re fishing is just about the most natural thing in the world. Again, we’re pairing two pastimes that refuse to be rushed. Maybe that’s part of why the combination seems so sublime. One of the most beloved cigar aficionados of all time, Ernest Hemingway, spent a great deal of his leisure time this way. Drawn to Cuba by the superb game fishing in the Gulf Stream, “Papa” first visited Cuba in 1932 for the annual marlin run for a two-week vacation which turned into two months.
Cigars and fishing just go well together whether you’re solo or with your team. Smoking a cigar is contemplative and introspective, like a meditation. Fishing and spending time on the water is much the same. Depending on where you’re fishing, smoking a cigar also grants you the fringe benefit of keeping pesky flying insects at bay. Win-win.
Our Cigar Picks for Angling
We think our new Los Statos Deluxe with its Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers is a great stick to enjoy with friends while fishing. This medium-bodied smoke offers robust flavors of earth, raw cocoa, French-press coffee, and dark cabinet spices.
Punch’s Cigar City Brewing Maduro is another fantastic choice for a cigar to bring on the fishing excursion. As an added benefit, Punch teamed up with Florida’s own Cigar City Brewing to develop this cigar specifically to pair with the excellent ales in Cigar City’s stable. It features a dark Honduran Habano maduro wrapper surrounding Honduran Habano leaves. Try it with the Maduro Brown Ale.
Cigars and Cards
A poker game with the boys just isn’t the same without the rich aroma of a fine cigar hanging in the air, is it? While it’s not always easy to enjoy a cigar in casino settings these days, there’s nothing stopping you from doing it in a private home or outdoors yet. To our minds, cigars and playing cards seem to go together about as well as everything else on the list. Even the famously tacky painting of the dogs playing poker has a cigar chomping bulldog in it.
If there’s a theme here, it may be that things which are best savored instead of rushed often go well together. Card games happen in their own time. Playing cards is also associated with prosperity and success, much like cigars. It’s another way to reward yourself for the hard work it took to get where you are today. It’s also a time to loosen up and chew the fat with your closest buds and that makes us think about enjoying a cigar too.
Our Cigar Picks for Card Sharking
We like the Punch Brotherhood – The People’s Champ for poker night. A new innovation from the legacy Cuban brand, it’s an enticing blend of Honduran Habano wrapper, Mexican San Andrés binder, and a diverse filler made of select tobaccos from the D.R., Brazil, and Nicaragua. Its medium body is defined by flavors of roasted nuts, leather, zesty cabinet spice with a discrete sweetness.
If you appreciate a girthy cigar, look no further than the Perdomo Inmenso Seventy Sungrown. This 70-gauge gordo is anything but discrete and rewards the smoker with zesty flavors of red pepper, fiery earth, cedar, and medium-roast coffee. If you don’t play cards half-way, this maybe the stick for you. If you favor a richer, deeper flavor, the Epicure Maduro variety with its black pepper, baker’s cocoa, mocha, and toasted oak notes delivers exactly that.
Smoke Inn is Your Cigar Shop
We hope you’ve gotten some pleasure out of our Cigars With series. Covering the broader aspects of the cigar aficionado lifestyle seemed like a no brainer to us. After all, we cigar smokers are invested in experiences. That’s what smoking is all about. Appreciating the finer details and taking your time to savor what’s good. Of course, that attitude and outlook carry over into other areas of our lives. It shows in what we choose to eat, drink and do with our free time. So, we close with this final chapter and move on to other conversations. Stay tuned for some hot takes on new products and words from our fellow smokers. We will also be writing about the annual PCA Convention and Trade Show in Las Vegas soon and you won’t want to miss that.
If you’re local or happen to be visiting South Florida, be sure to reward yourself with a visit to one of the country’s best cigar shops in person. We’d love to see you.
