Stogie Commentary: A Man of (Cigar) Routine
18 Mar 2010
My cell phone alarm sounds. Annoying tune. I hit the snooze button once, sometimes twice. I begrudgingly get up, brush my teeth, shower, and ponder the necessity of shaving. I get dressed. (Have I worn this to work lately?) I plop in front of the TV with a bowl of cereal to catch the weather forecast and a few SportsCenter highlights. I lock the front door behind me. As I walk to my car, I mentally prepare myself for a commute in Washington traffic that promises to test my patience and my driving skills.
We all have our morning routines. For some, like me, they regularly dictate the actions of most weekdays—up until I sift through a few articles in The Economist before bedtime.
I find my moderately regimented existence extends to cigars. When it comes to choosing when to smoke on weekdays, for instance, I do so almost exclusively after dinner. I wish that weren’t the case. I wish I could find more time to relax and enjoy some premium tobacco. But with work, grad school, exercise, and other commitments, the evening is often the only time available during the workweek.
I’d love to be able to squeeze in more lunchtime cigars now that the weather is more agreeable. Every blue moon, when the stars align just right, I can make it happen. While the midday break cigar is a rewarding escape from an otherwise fast-paced workday, my lunches are frequently cigar-free because of meetings or deadlines.
Weekends are a different story. Sometimes I have a smoke with a cup of coffee in the morning. Sometimes I’ll fire up a stogie in the afternoon or in the evening. Sometimes all three. It just depends on the situation and my mood.
Routines also play an important role in other aspects of cigar smoking. From snipping the cap and toasting the foot with wooden matches to storing the band and emptying the ashtray, I have predictable pre- and post-cigar rituals from which I rarely deviate.
But there is at least one un-regimented characteristic of my affair with cigars: choosing which cigars to smoke. Unlike many enthusiasts, I don’t really have a regular rotation. Rather, my selections depend upon what reviews are needed for StogieGuys.com (i.e., new cigars, cigars we haven’t yet examined, etc.). It’s a tough job but—routine or not— somebody’s got to do it.
photo credit: Flickr
Patrick Ashby
Co-Founder & Editor in Chief
Patrick Semmens
Co-Founder & Publisher
George Edmonson
Tampa Bureau Chief
I recently discovered that nothing alleviates the frustration of the morning DC Metro commute like a cigar and a travel mug of coffee. My drive is relatively short – 40 minutes on a good day – so robustos and petit coronas are just about perfect. The only problem is that I soon found myself smoking 1-2 cigars per day, which starts to get expensive.
To break this habit, I started buying only large cigars like Churchills and double coronas. It worked, but a little too well. Now I'm sitting on a couple of boxes of big cigars with no time to smoke one. D'oh!
Commutes seems perfect smoking less-favored and/or smaller cigars that most of us have somehow accumulated, e.g. Don Kiki green label lonsdales, Arganese maduro coronas, Nestor Miranda Spec. Sel. lanceros. You might put some of your work-clothes in trunk and wear a jacket that will not go to work with you to absorb the odor. The average cost of my "car-gars" is $2.
That's smart thinking about the "car-gars." Definitely not a bad idea to put some work clothes in the trunk. Then a bit of citrus-smelling hand sanitizer, a pinch of dry shampoo, and you're ready to take on the day odor-free
From where I sit it seems that you have PLENTY of opportunities in which to indulge. Please enjoy the copious smoking time you have now to the fullest. Just wait until you add a wife and kids to the mix!! I am lucky if I smoke 2-3 sticks per week. No mornings, rarely during the work week, and most often confined to weekend nights once the kids are asleep. Not that I'm complaining though–Have you seen the price of diapers recently??
Sounds exactly like my life. But I have
come to covet my post grub smoke time.
When i read this, i thought i was reading my daily routine. My routine at the end of the day goes something like this. Put my daughter to bed and then i choose my stick for the evening accompanied by a glass of Scotch and i am set. I also wish i could find time for an afternoon smoke, but meetings, workout schedule and unplanned call typically thwart this effort.