Wow Gary thank you so much for the detail and time you put into your post. That's is exactly the info I was looking for. As luck my have it, if you buy 3 sets its $220 minus a $5 coupon I got when I signed up for the newsletter. $240 shipped for 3 sets and you guys are right I needed 2-3 to gauge for sure.
I really really appreciate your insight.
Perfect solution...you'll be glad you did! I'd really like to read your quick impressions of each cigar as a relative newcomer to some of these brands.
It's very cool to read what others think...and it's fascinating how different each person's pallet is. That's why as you travel around and meet fellow cigar smokers and talk about the different brands, you occasionally find a person that shares the same results to cigars you both smoke. Once you find those people, together you become each other's sounding board when you look for recommendations for new cigars. I have met a few in my travels and more times than not, when we recommend cigars to each other, it turns out to be right on the money.
Isy (Uptown Isy) is like that here for me. When he recommends a cigar to me, I'd say 95% of the time I like it too...yet we still occasionally disagree with certain smokes. Tom (BBS) and I share a relatively close taste in cigars, but he was indoctrinated into cigar smoking with the stronger Nicaraguan smokes and that still is his passion. But as BsOTL, I turn him on to different smokes (mostly broad spectrum taste profiles) and he sends me some cigars to try that I normally wouldn't think of smoking because he's confident that I will enjoy them. And then there are times we send cigars to each other that disappoint and we are looking for a validation of our impressions. Very cool stuff!!
How many times we read about how great a cigar is by one of the hundreds of online reviewers (most of which are self anointed "cigar tasting experts' with many months of cigar smoking experience) only to smoke a few and find it doesn't suit your tastes? That's why the social aspect of discussing cigars is so cool versus lighting up in our backyards alone on a consistent basis. And that's why a good & trusted online cigar forum is so important as well, finding 'like people' that share your taste point-of-view. That's why going to a herf is so cool, roaming around talking to dozens of cigar smokers in search of a 'taste brother'...there's nothing more fun within this passion of ours!
The flip side to this is when you have a close cigar smoking buddy who's tastes are completely different than yours. When I see that Jesus (MOBIG) really likes a cigar, good chance I won't buy it because I know he consistently likes very powerful cigars more than I do. His recommendations cause my stomach to twitch and my mouth to fill up with volumes of saliva. No bueno! Yet we still hang out and talk cigars like we're brothers because each of us has that different perspective on the same thing. It's through this communal interaction we get to know each other better and that's what cigar smoking is all about! Be social and making friends.
Good luck on your journey and get back to the group and tell us what your impressions are.
