My brother and I were smoking cigars in the lounge of a skeet/trap club with a few old (50-70) Italian men (my brother and I being young men). My brother asked a few of the guys what cigars they were smoking, and they all replied "No idea" (one shrugged and said "Cuban?"). My brother and I were also the only ones who had bands on their cigars.

As you get older, do you start caring less about what cigars you smoke, or are they just not "aficionados"?

If I had a stock of unbanded cigars but they were all good, I wouldn't much care what they were as long as I knew I was getting something good. I don't think it makes anyone more or less an "aficionado", which is a term I would never, ever use to describe myself, but just more comfortable with their cigars and not so concerned with brands in particular.

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"Beliefs are neat. Cherish them, but don't share them like they're the truth" Bill Hicks

In other countries sometimes it is considered rude to smoke a cigar with the band on it because some people like to show off with what they are smoking. So not having a band on it makes everyone equal.

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“What this country needs is a good five cent cigar.”
Thomas R. Marshall

“Happiness? A good cigar, a good meal, a good cigar and a good woman - or a bad woman; it depends on how much happiness you can handle.”
George F. Burns

They might not have been a certain brand. I know the lounge I go to has a young girl come in every week, and you can watch her roll cigars. They're available to buy for a couple of bucks. I'm not saying they were smoking anything like that, but I have seen unbanded cigars at a few places that don't belong to any certain brand.

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Only real men cut their cigars with the tusks of elephants.- Hugemoose

smokester:

In other countries sometimes it is considered rude to smoke a cigar with the band on it because some people like to show off with what they are smoking. So not having a band on it makes everyone equal.

It wasn't so much the fact that they didn't have a band on that surprised me, but the fact that they didn't know what they were smoking.

I'm gonna go with the assumption that they were stock cigars.
Thanks CCOM!

Not unusual. My next door neighbor seems to genuinely like a good smoke, and I see him out on his deck occasionally. One day I asked him what he was smoking and he had taken the band off, and actually didn't know. I asked him about his available stock, and he wasn't sure what he had. He goes to the bargain bin at the local B&M and simply doesn't care. I'm the same way about wine. I'll drink it occasionally. My wife usually buys it. If some wine connoisseur came up on me while I was out on my deck and asked me what I was drinking, I'd probably say "I have no idea" (and he or she may find that very odd).

MAJORdorMo:

smokester:

In other countries sometimes it is considered rude to smoke a cigar with the band on it because some people like to show off with what they are smoking. So not having a band on it makes everyone equal.

It wasn't so much the fact that they didn't have a band on that surprised me, but the fact that they didn't know what they were smoking.

I'm gonna go with the assumption that they were stock cigars.
Thanks CCOM!

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'll bet 100% they knew damn well what they were smoking. I have some 'older cigar friends' and my experience is they have attained a position and a disposition in life where what anyone thinks is totally unimportant to them and they view these types of questions as a source of amusemant...

Also, if they view you as very well-versed in the cigar world, they might be leery of sharing what they're smoking with you, for fear of judgment? Just a guess, unless they keep very big stocks in their humidors, in which case an unbanded cigar or two might easily go unknown.

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Ubi Cigar

betasynn:

Also, if they view you as very well-versed in the cigar world, they might be leery of sharing what they're smoking with you, for fear of judgment? Just a guess, unless they keep very big stocks in their humidors, in which case an unbanded cigar or two might easily go unknown.

Good Call, this is also a good possibility.

Ya know, i've have noticed that some people kinda judge people when someone else is puffin' an "infused" stick. Why is that? I sometimes enjoy a Java,Blondie or anything by Drew Estates. Not sure why some people do that.

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Never take sides with anyone against the Family again.......ever.

I personally do not like the Acids, tastes like licking a perfume bottle to me. Aside from the Java, I like that stick. HOWEVER, I respect them. They have brought a lot of people into the hobby that likely would have never gotten into it had their only initial option been a traditional cigar. I have a buddy that smoked nothing but Acids for quite some time, he's now graduated to traditional cigars but I doubt he would have gotten into it without Acid. Anyways my point is I never look down I someone who smokes Acids but to be perfectly honest subconciously I probably do think they are fairly new or in expeirenced, its an unfair assumption and one I should scratch from my head.

Just this weekend I converted a co-worker from drugstore dog rockets to handmade with a Java ...

Good smoke to start someone on.

Madurofan, I agree with you. I KNOW I have a stilted view toward people that smoke infused sticks. And to be able to admit it, that's pretty awesome. We all have our biases, and I think understanding them is as good as not having them. I also don't really like infused cigars, partially because I really like the tobacco taste, as underlying as it is. Infusion seems to wash it out.

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Ubi Cigar

betasynn:

Madurofan, I agree with you. I KNOW I have a stilted view toward people that smoke infused sticks. And to be able to admit it, that's pretty awesome. We all have our biases, and I think understanding them is as good as not having them. I also don't really like infused cigars, partially because I really like the tobacco taste, as underlying as it is. Infusion seems to wash it out.

Beta try a Tabak Especial --they seem to have a good mix of expresso and rich tobbaco flavor ...one of my favs....I also think , actually know, you can enjoy infused and 'regular' equally as I myself do ...