When to Smoke What

tldr;

Though many may think certain cigars should be smoked at a certain time of day or occasion, I believe you should smoke what you want when you want.

This morning when I picked out a cigar to smoke, a question came to my mind, Is this a good morning smoke? I had picked out a Curivari Reserva Limitada Cafe Noir. The answer that came back was, Who the fuck cares?

In the cigar community, even though there’s a general do-your-own-thing attitude, and people are supportive of whatever or however others smoke, there seems to be a general feeling that some cigars are more appropriate for certain times of the day or for special occasions. For instance, designating a cigar as a “morning” smoke, or an “after-dinner” smoke. This is something that has been a bit strange to me because I’ve always smoked what I felt like smoking at the time.

For example, when I picked out a cigar this morning, I had a choice among ten cigars in my ready box. I scanned my selections and saw that I had two Curivari cigars, the Reserva Limitada Cafe Noir and a Sun Grown Maduro, my two favorite Curivari sticks! So, I ruled out everything else but the Curivari sticks and I went with the Reserva Limitada Cafe Noir. This was simply based on the flavor profile that aligned with my mood.

And that’s generally my process in selecting a cigar to smoke. For me, there’s no rhyme or reason in choosing what I smoke. I simply scan the possibilities and go with what I feel like smoking at that particular moment in time. For instance, I once smoked a Cohiba Behike just because I felt like smoking it. It wasn’t a special occasion. I was just sitting in my backyard working on my computer.

Now that doesn’t mean I don’t get the idea of tagging cigars as a “morning” or “special occasion,” or whatever type of smoke. I get why some might want to start the day off with a lighter smoke to have with their morning coffee or save an expensive cigar for a special occasion. Admittedly, I tend to save my most expensive cigars to celebrate something. But if I’m in the mood to smoke a $50 Zino Platinum Crown, I’ll just go with my mood. I’ve been like that with fine wines. I usually have a collection of wines on hand that range from $15 to $100 a bottle. I drink what I’m in the mood for at the time.

I think my attitude about this comes from subconsciously not wanting to be that person who dies and leaves a collection of great stuff, be it cigars, wines, or whiskeys. For instance, a friend’s father died with a huge collection of fine wines that he was saving for special occasions. According to my friend, he didn’t want to touch them, even though had whole cases of many of them. So, I smoke and drink what I have.

That also means that I don’t keep a lot of cigars on hand. I usually have no more than two hundred at any time. And if I hit that, I stop buying for a while then will replenish when I get below one hundred. For newbies, that number might sound like a lot, but you’d be surprised at how fast that dwindles down. The point to this is that should I suddenly die, I don’t want to leave too much.

So, as some might say, smoke ’em if you got ’em!