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If you are out there looking for that beginner cigar,

my first question to you is like what kind

of spirits do you drink?

if you don't drink what kind of coffee do you drink?

And what are you looking for in as far as flavor?

Like are you looking for some flavors to come through

and just stick to the basics.

You know, you got leather, cocoa

you got spice and creaminess.

You know, you just kind of have this like.

- Yeah, what are some of the key flavors that you

get when you're talking about cigars?

Woody notes.

- Yes.

- Creaminess, spice pepper.

- Yeah. - Can be in the same category.

Earthy.

- Yep.

- Chocolate. - Yep.

- Coffee could kind of fit in that same wheelhouse.

You've got kind of herbal floral flavors

that'd be a little smaller window

but those are some of the key notes

that you find when you're looking at flavor profiles.

Especially like we've talked about that Cigar Sense

and their flavor wheel.

You know, nuts is another one.

There's a lot of nuance

and a lot of variety within the like nutty category.

And I think Rob mentioned beverages.

The same applies to the foods that you like to eat.

You know, if you're a type of individual that eats

cheese pizza, Fettuccine Alfredo, macaroni and cheese,

chicken fingers, you know all of those,

what I would think of as like really basic,

kind of mild, maybe even bordering on bland a little bit

you might wanna branch out every once in a while

into something that's got a little bit of spice to it

or it's got a little bit of, you know, punch.

Like Rob and I have become really big fans.

We were on our trip with Nick Hammond, our good buddy

from England and we stopped in on our way home

at a pizza place, a Neapolitan-style brick oven pizza joint.

And none of the pizzas on the menu

were really appealing to me.

So I made one that I really like that's a favorite of mine.

Anchovies, feta cheese, red onion, green olives.

So you get a lot of these pungent,

word I really love is piquant, like you know

kind of tart, sour, briny flavors.

But when it's done right, none of the things overpower

because that feta kind of melds into the background.

You get some saltiness and then you get

the creamy cheese underneath and the tomatoes.

- Yeah.

- And the breadiness of the crust-it gives this great round

like wheel of flavor and it's fantastic.

Now is everybody gonna order that?

No, because I think anchovies are generally

fairly off-putting

for most people, but what you don't realize is

that they're a flavor that sort of melds

into the background if the balance is right.

- But you could easily substitute green olives

for that you know, kind of salty flavor

if you're not that strong.

Just looking up quick, you know, best cigars for beginners.

And again, I see a lot of these kind of more mild

looking cigars.

- Right?

- The darkest one on there is the La Aroma de Cuba.

- Raw, raw, raw, raw.

- Woo. - It's like saying rural.

- But the wrapper on that is Broadleaf. Connecticut,

Connecticut Broadleaf.

But it's so good.

So well-balanced.

- Yep.

- And it just like, you know eight bucks a stick,

it's a pretty good cigar.

- They've got the Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real.

- Right.

I just overall you gotta focus more on what are you used to,

what are you looking for a far as taste?

Really focus on taste.

I do not like focusing on strength

and those things because or or mouth feel like body.

I'm like what?

You know, what does that mean?

You know how it lingers on your palate?

To me as a beginner, I have no idea.

I'm just looking at like flavor-wise,

like what am I gonna get out of that cigar?

Is it gonna be you know, more spicy forward

like this [Henry Clay] War Hawk with a little bit

more zing to it

or is it gonna be smoother and creamier

like the [Montecristo] Classic?

- Yeah.

- That is where I would sit.

- As our good friend Travis Pappenheim

from Altadis educated us on

is that buy a little longer cigar

than you typically might buy,

because you get a much cooler draw

through that longer let's say Toro size and then just smoke

as much as you're comfortable smoking, right?

You get halfway through and you're like,

"Ah I'm starting to feel a little lightheaded,"

or "I'm starting to feel like it's hitting me

a little bit harder."

Grab a can of something sugary, Coke, Sprite

Dr. Pepper, whatever you like.

That'll really knock that queasiness off

but just put the cigar down and walk away.

You don't have to finish the whole thing.

- I would say the number one cause to you not liking a cigar

is probably the way you smoke it.

- Yeah.

- If you're not digging it,

it's probably because you're not keeping it cool enough,

you gotta manage the temperature of it.

You should be able to grab the cigar

right behind where it's burning and not

be like, oh I gotta put that down.

Or it's really hot.

- Like I'm taking off this band.

And again, another lesson for beginners.

Don't take off the bands until you get

pretty close to the band.

Because sometimes what can happen is that there might be

a little bit of extra glue and if you try to take

that off right away, you might actually peel

a bit of the wrapper off and damage the cigar.

If you wait until that, the cherry of that cigar

gets a little closer, it warms up that glue

and it just peels off super easily.

But as I was doing that, this cigar is just warm.

- Right - Burning beautifully.

It's just warm - Really good cigars.

What type of flavor do I want to get out of this?

And you know, I guess you could say how long

do you wanna smoke it?

But then we go back to Travis's thing

and it's like, just pick a bigger cigar

and smoke so it's cool, it's easy to smoke.

- Yep.

- And then that way you're like, "Okay, I'm good."

Like if you stop now you that's fine.

- That's fine.

For a long time I used to stop right before the main band

because I didn't like how the cigar would get

warmer down here.

It was a little harder to hold.

I smoke cigars much further down

than I ever used to now because I just really

like the flavor

and I've learned how to manage that heat

and there are some cool tools that you can use

to allow you to smoke longer.

Rob and I are both big fans of that Ciccar, the holder

because it really does I think accentuate a lot of flavors.

It lets you smoke really all the way down to the very end.

But if you're done right here,

just set that cigar down, don't smush it out.

- Yeah.

- We often think that we gotta mash that cigar out,

so it doesn't keep burning.

- Don't do that.

- But don't do that because what you do is one,

all of those oils and sugars and some of that tar

that's been mixing with your moisture and saliva,

that's gonna create really acrid off-putting cigar smells.

So the nice thing about a cigar is it will just go out

all by itself.

So when you're done just leave that cigar on the edge

of the ashtray or just tip it in.

That cigars just gonna go out and you'll be totally fine.

- Right.

- Plus you had a great thing that you have

taught several newish sort of smokers

by just setting that cigar down and letting it go out,

that's a way that we can show respect to the couple hundred

sets of hands that touched every one of these cigars

that you're smoking.

It's just a nod of respect to them

that we're not smashing that-

- It's not a cigarette

- Piece of art that they created.

- It's not easy, but it's also not that hard.

Don't get too overcomplicated

because it really is based on what types of flavor.

And if you didn't get it right the first time

go back and try something different.

And ask your tobacconist to help you out.

- And that's the learning process.

That's, we don't learn things by succeeding.

We learn things by failing.

- Right.

- So you might not get it right every time

but you're gonna learn something new the next time

and you're gonna learn a tip or a trick that works for you.

And that's really what we're going for.

- And here's the other thing I would say on that

you know, picking a beginner cigar, I guess

this something I overlooked would be maybe gravitate

and go towards the brands that have been around for a while.

Because the beautiful thing about that

is they have cut their teeth in and out.

They're consistent.

The beautiful thing that I have there

is I'm never probably gonna pick up

a major brand cigar and go, I didn't like that

based on construction.

You might say, "I didn't really particularly like the flavor

but you could still smoke it."

Get all your money out of it

and determine what about it did you like.

What about it did you not like?

Where did it fall flat?

That's just gonna, that's more knowledge,

more wisdom inside your own profile of what you like.

- Yep.

- So use that cigar to help you make

your next purchase even better.

- Yep, because if you can walk into a cigar shop

and talk to that tobacconist or that humidor manager

and say, "Hey you know what the last cigar I smoked

was this one and these are the things

I didn't care for about that cigar,

but I liked these flavors.

What could I smoke that would have that?"

And not that they're gonna be more

than happy to point you in a direction

that's gonna give you the flavors that you want.

- Right.

To help you with beginner cigar stuff.

- Oh, I love the name.

- Yeah. Big Sally's Diary.

- Come on, you Big Sally.

- Caleb just sent me this.

He's the creator of this.

Sent me a really nice-

- Oh, hand handwritten note?

- Yeah, really awesome.

- Who does that anymore?

- I know Caleb Clark, he ended up making

this Big Sally's Diary.

He wanted to see, you know, obviously his-

Oh yeah, even on the inside he wrote a really nice note.

- That's awesome.

- But it gets you pretty much, I mean the log book to me

it shows you an example and then it also gives you

some definitions.

Some you can say like what cigars you liked,

what ones you favored.

- I like that.

Cigars favored. Cigars not favored.

- Right.

- That's a great way of saying it.

- Pretty easy.

But I mean it, it goes all the way down to the brand

the type, the style, the size, shade, wrapper,

binder, filler

if you can, if you know that.

And then it's just like, you know, your raw smell,

your overall taste, strength and then ash durability,

which you know. And then I love this

big section here of notes.

You can just keep going with the notes and I love the fact

that this can help you.

Now the only thing that I think this is lacking

is an opportunity to like stick the band somewhere.

But you could just tape it.

- Just Scotch Tape.

- Yeah, you could tape it down here.

There's no spot for it.

Some of the other cigar journals that I've seen have a spot.

- Get yourself a glue stick.

- Yeah, glue stick.

- If you have kids, raid your kids like, you know,

crayon drawer and just grab a glue stick.

- And the nice thing too is the definitions

in the back. Cigar Aficionado on their website,

they also have a really good definition spot.

And then this is where, you know, you can just

start listing those cigars that you really like

and just say that brand, the style

and then the page number.

- That's cool man.

- Which is great because all these are numbered.

You can say, "Oh I really like that cigar and page 82."

Boom and you can go to it and find out more about it.

So really cool tool if you don't, you know, have this

you can obviously just use a notebook.

But this is nice because it's a little bit more

put together.

There's a outline that you just follow,

you fill in the information

and this should really help you get much better

at understanding what cigars you like and what you

don't like.

- And it's a cool size, you know, it's small enough

to put really in any backpack messenger bag.

- Right. - It's not cumbersome.

- And there's different cigar journals,

like I said out there there's so many different ones

and you can spend, you know a couple hundred bucks

on a nice cigar journal if you really, really want to.

- And you think of it you know, as a diary, like he wrote

as in the note in the front that this is, you know

hopefully something you can pass down to your child

you know, your son or your daughter someday.

And they can look at all the notes

and think of all those memories that you had

whether they smoke cigars or not.

They now have a memory of your life

through the cigars that you smoked.

- So true.

- I think that's really cool. - So true.

So those are some of the tips and tricks

we have for beginner cigars.

We hope you enjoy your journey of smoking new cigars

and as always, make sure they're protected by Boveda

because it's the number one thing to help you

smoke great cigars.

- Absolutely.