I've been smoking cigars since 1969 working in a steel mill when I was just 18 and tried them for the first time, oddly I DO NOT like cigarettes and like ~95% of cigar smokers DO NOT INHALE, that's bad for you!
The
best advise I ever got in back 1992 from my local tobaccoist was get rid of the "junk" cigars, the drug store ones that you read on the box "contains tobacco with non-tobacco products added". What are "non-tobacco products"?
Or even the 100% tobacco machine made cigars that use the scraps (stems, cut pieces, whatever) the good cigar companies throw out, stick with the
PREMIUMS!
Easy note, if your cigar already has a hole in one end, it's machine made.
Remember premiums must have 3 things:
1. 100% tobacco.
2. Long leaf filler, not cuts.
3. Hand made.....not just hand rolled over machine packed fillers.
A good premium Churchill or Double Corona will last 45 to 75 or more minutes, cheap cigars burn out FAST.
*But premiums don't have to be $4 or more, you can find some "buck-a-stick", maybe even a few less around, one of my favorites from J&R Cigar NO fancy box either:
LEW'S SMOKER 10'S CIGARS
Handmade NIC
Wrapper: ECCT Binder: HON Filler: NIC/HON/DR
Medium Bodied
*Value priced at under a buck a smoke
(NOTE: THAT WAS 2008, with the new steep taxes they are about $1.40 to $1.80 each now), Lew's Smokers are proof positive that you don't have to spend a fortune for a solid, well-constructed cigar. Handmade with long-filler black tobaccos from four nations, this is a medium-bodied, flavorful cigar that could be sold for four times more, no problem. Of course, with Lew's name on it there is no way he would ever allow that to happen.
J&R Cigars are the largest sellers in the world, you Carolina guys (and gals) can visit their stores there.