The Cigar Journey Doldrums

[JohnS]

If you know your history you may be familiar with the notion that once upon a time the world conducted its trade via sail boats, various European nations advocated colonialism to maintain economic supremacy and power, and a region east of South Africa and west of Australia in the Indian Ocean was noted for marooning boats for weeks due to a lack of winds.

In the same way, I wonder if you are familiar with the journey that cigar enthusiasts undertake when they discover the joys of smoking fine Habanos cigars, replete with flavours in spite of a myriad of construction issues we commonly encounter along the way. The journey goes somewhat like this...

1. You discover the other-worldly wonder of smoking Habanos cigars and you contemplate deeply why you haven't discovered this before in your life.
2. You determine that you will smoke every possible marca and vitola you can to build your knowledge of the hobby.
3. You soon begin to discover favourites and so you develop a 'rotation' of these (perhaps 5 to 7 cigars) that you regularly begin to smoke.
4. You make an exponential commitment to buy up as many Habanos cigars as you can in a very short time period.
5. You become a member of a forum like this one and your read everything that is relevant to any issue you are encountering that hinders your enjoyment of Habanos cigars at times.
6. You read such a voluminous amount of information from sources such as El Pres, Ken Gargett, Alex Groom at Cuban Cigar website, PigFish, Trevor Leask, NSXCigar, Bijan, 99call, myself et al. that you wonder what these guys are like in real life.
7. You traverse potential problems in your personal life, mostly likely with your spouse, as to why cigars keep arriving at your house via the mail system in your country.
8. You have an intimate awareness of your bank account details and credit cards.
9. You constantly think of the next purchase you need because right now it's something you find hard to acquire because of worldwide demand and/or short supply.
10. You reach a point in your journey where you are satisfied with your collection and you only seek to add to it when necessary, or at least much less than when you started your journey in smoking Habanos cigars.
11. You find it hard to learn new things from smoking new releases because you spent so much time and energy in this hobby that you need to slow down to contemplate and reflect on how things have changed since you've first started.

I could add more, but this point 11 is relevant for me because just like learning a new language where one routinely reaches a plateau in their learning, or when one seeks to improve in a hobby, pastime or pursuit of interest they find they need the same amount to time and energy to improve their learning by fractional increases along the way (for example, learning the piano to grade 3 or 4 is quite common; it's when you go to grade 6, 7 or 8 that you require every bit of focus and motivation to get a little more improvement that it gets really hard).

I suppose the points I've described above are easily relatable to a great many of you. For me, I'd like to thank those of you who have reached out to me to request a continuation of my Smoking blog in 2022. I am honestly finding it harder, but your support and encouragement has been beneficial in giving me the motivation I need to continue.

You can access the 2022 reviews here...

Again, I extend my heartfelt thanks and gratitude! 👍

[PrairieSmoke]

Very relatable. Well written @JohnS!

[Nevrknow]

Dammit! I knew we were related. This proves it! 😂

[Sup3r6]

#7 is all too common for me. Well written John.

[joeypots]

12. You discover that Habanos cigars get really good at about five years of age so you buy a box of aged cigars. The aged cigars are so good that you buy another box of cigars because you decide to save the aged cigars for special smokes. Hence 8 and 9.

[Bijan]

Thanks John. I think I have gone through all those steps. And due to the COVID pandemic I feel that I have made this journey in record time.

[Chibearsv]

John, there's always going to be demands for your skilled reviews since we've enjoyed reading them so much - at least I have.  I enjoy your reviews so much because you describe the smoking experience more than just the flavors of a cigar.  I certainly wouldn't begrudge you a hiatus so you can tend to either more pressing needs or simply take a mental break. 

Your post here certainly hits home for me as well.  I'm finding now that I enjoy the cigar so much more if I just smoke it while reading a book or watching tv or just listening to some tunes.  Truth is, I just enjoy smoking good cigars and I don't really need to spend a lot of time deciding why.  There's definitely some mental lifting that comes with trying to review a cigar rather than just enjoying it. 

If you need a break to get out of the doldrums, have at it. 

Cheers brother!

[Chas.Alpha]

I still think publishing your reviews should have been one of the stretch goals of A. Groom’s Go fund me... 🤔

[Rhinoww]

John as always your posts are very relatable. I could go on and on but let me just say your post resonates. 
If you need a break, take a short one and get refreshed my friend.
We all look forward to your company regardless of the manner of our interactions. 

[Fuzz]

16 hours ago, joeypots said:

12. You discover that Habanos cigars get really good at about five years of age so you buy a box of aged cigars. The aged cigars are so good that you buy another box of cigars because you decide to save the aged cigars for special smokes. Hence 8 and 9.

Corrected for you....

12.

     a. You discover that Habanos cigars get really good at about five years of age so you buy a box of aged cigars. The aged cigars are so good that you try to buy another box of cigars because you decide to save the aged cigars for special smokes.....

     b. They are now discontinued.

 

[Edicion]

Excellent write up. Many will feel it's spot on!

Can I add 4.b : You have bought so many boxes that you lose track of what you are expecting and when a box arrives you are so happy because you had forgotten about these beauties. Alternative ending, you think why did I have to order a 7th box of D4s and then you remember they are on top of their game this year and it's a great "investment" after all.

[Philc2001]

I can tell; you all have the sickness... haha!

Good synopsis of the journey John.

[Connoisseur Kim]

As a big fan of your CC reviews, it's good to see more CC reviews from @JohnS! 😄

[asudevil08]

Haha glad to see we're amongst friends here.  #7 resonated with me as during Covid my wife, from her desk, would see the mailman walking up the front walk and just assume, as pavlovs dog, that there were cigars being delivered and "where could you possibly put any more of these things?"

Keep up the reviews - it definitely helps to keep us on our own journey when we hit those moments of feeling blasé.  

[Rhinoww]

19 hours ago, asudevil08 said:

Haha glad to see we're amongst friends here.  #7 resonated with me as during Covid my wife, from her desk, would see the mailman walking up the front walk and just assume, as pavlovs dog, that there were cigars being delivered and "where could you possibly put any more of these things?"

Keep up the reviews - it definitely helps to keep us on our own journey when we hit those moments of feeling blasé.  

And now you are really glad you stocked up on the early end of Covid I’m betting.