Ok I've been catching grief from my family and friends for a long time now. I'm 24 and I smoke 3-5 cigars per day. I have two stocked display humidors in my office. Everyone says I act like I'm 50 because I'm almost always enjoying a good cigar.

My question is when did most of you start smoking cigars? I started when I was 18 or 19. Is that unusual? I don't have any friends my age who smoke but then again none of my friends like wine or politics either.

I smoked my first cigar during the summer between my sophomore and junior years in HS ... that cigar and the can of beer that was in my other hand combined to get me and 2 other guys dropped from the varsity wrestling team when the coach caught us drinking and smoking in a public park ...

Betcha that CW will be among the next few respondents to this post ... he's the same age you are and a cigar smoker ... but I'll let him tell you that ... LOL

Liked cigars in college but didn't get really serious about them until I was around 37.

27 and a cigar smoker here but then again I only started this year. I catch some of the same flack. But then again I was always an anti cigarette guy (still am really) so I catch stuff for that as well

Although having the occasional smoke earlier on, I didn't really get into it until I was a senior in college, when a group of us became fairly regular pipe and cigar smokers. That was almost 20 years ago, and I've flip-flopped between pipes and cigars ever since. These days it's pretty much just cigars.

I am sixty and have been smoking cigars since college. More in the last 7-8 years though. My first cigar was at age 13 when my neighborhood friends and I took some of my dads Roi-tans up a tree in the backyard at night. We didn't consider that the tree lit up like a Christmas tree everytime we took a puff. Been pretty much hooked since then. More specific to your question, I know several men in their low twenties that smoke on a regular basis.

I started pipe and cigar smoking when I was around 19-20. I preferred the taste and length of smoke to cigarettes.

I never smoked regularly. I started smoking cigars about 7-8 years ago at different settings: fishing, camping, gambling, golfing.

Lately,in the last five years, since I was 36 or so, I started liking cigars regularly. Thats when I started building a collection and improving my taste in better cigars.

I think it has been an older guy thing since the 40's or 50's. Smoking a cigar takes time and planning. Not a lot of younger people have the time or patience to sit back and have a smoke that takes a better part of an hour. (Or, in the case of a Hemingway, a day).

If you are a younger person with the luxury of time to relax, then you are truly lucky. I rarely did, I don't really now but I make time and places to have a cigar.

Honestly, smoking cigars is something that you have to give and take. Many places are closed to smoking, many scenarios aren't conducive to lighting up a cigar: (like work places, some social events, while playing many sports, visiting other people's homes, kids events etc.).

Having a good long cigar takes time and planning if you don't want to put it out. I guess time used to be the older person's domain.

I'll be 23 next week, and have just started smoking cigars regularly in the past two months or so.

I may smoke a cheapie in the car, but the good ones are smoked either here on my favorite chair, or down at my favorite bar.

All the local cigar shops seem to have lounges, but I haven't tried one of those yet. I guess I'm afraid I'll make a newbie mistake around people who actually know what they're doing. 😉

Santyth ...

Go to the store, buy a good smoke and sit down ... watch some of the other people there and take some cues from them ... then, cut and light your cigar carefully and completely ... then, if you take about a puff per minute and really savor it, even the most veteran among your observers won't guess you're a near-newbie ... unless you stick the flame end in your mouth ...

Steve, my friend did that and got a mouthful of ash. Talk about nasty.

Started smoking them in the Navy as we kept a humidor in the Ward Room on CVA!!!! I have smoked cigars off and on over the years but regularily 8 to 15 per week for last 10 or 12 years!

Charlie

Mr. Soprano, I'm 21 and smoke about 1 a day. I started smoking occasionally when I was in high school and more regularly about a year or so ago. I also take a lot of sh*$ for smoking at my age.

I feel your pain MrSoprano. I'm only 18 and I smoke cigars. I catch a little crap from friends, but some are actually interested about them, and love when i educate them about the intricacies of maintaining a humidor, or what various wrappers will do to the taste of a cigar.

I'm 25 and started when I was 16. Didn't own a humidor until two years ago, but now I have 4 plus a 100qt cooler. I smoke 10-20 a week and don't catch too much crap for it, but I also don't give a **** what people think.

I think us youngins on the board are old souls, I know I am. Most of my friends don't have an appreciation for cigars, wine, or politics either, they don't know what they're missing!!

What Defcon said.....only I'm 28

I'm fortunate in the fact that I own a business and I get to work in an internet related field all day. So sitting at my desk I can enjoy a good cigar and still be productive at the same time. I have done my share of factory work though so I know what it's like to not have 5 mins to do anything.

35 now... I hated people smoking cigaretes around me when I was growing up. Started smoking cigars 2 years ago after a ISOM RyJ I was hooked. Clark

MrSoprano,

I am in the same boat, I am 21 at Texas A&M. Every time my friends and I go out to a club/bar and I light up i get "ITS GRANDPA DAN" "SMOKEIN OLD MAN DAN" EX.. after about a sem. of that i dont care. While i watch them get drunk off reddog or keystone i just crack up. HEY keep this in mind while it will drive some laddies away it brings other laddies around wanting to see what that cigar smells like and a good time to start up the drink tab. SO I GUESS F*CK the ones that give you a hard time and have fun with the ones that like your intrests also.



GIG'em

Dan

I smoked my first cigar at the age of 23 with the birth of my daughter. It was a Carlos Torano, to say I was hooked would be an understatement. But do to the lack of funds a newborn creats I was unable to pursue my new interest. Then a new job 8 years ago finally allowed me to jump in with two feet. One of my first cigars the second time around remains one of my favorites. Bahia Trinidad Belicoso ......mmmm
I digress, even though my friends know that i smoke cigars they act as if I have committed some foul crime if I fire up in front of them. My reply is always the same "I am smoking this for my pleasure not yours". I am also glad that they are missing it. Sometimes even the nicest people like to be a little selfish.

tony

Don't worry, Mr. S.

I started smoking cigars one year ago at 42. Everyone told me I acted like I was 50 too.

I just sighed and told 'em, "close enough".