Commentary: A Super Cigar Celebration
7 Feb 2012
The Super Bowl has plenty of cigar tie-ins. In fact, for a brief few days in the run-up to the big game, Indianapolis might have been the center of the American cigar scene.
Ron Jaworski hosted his third annual cigar party to support his charity. A celebrity poker event hosted by Devin Hester and LeSean McCoy at the Indianapolis Zoo featured Punch cigars. Anther charity fundraiser offered guests El Tiante cigars. And revelers at the Rolling Stone party were treated to a pairing featuring Bacardi rum and cigars (La Gloria Cubana or CAO La Traviata).
But really there’s only one cigar every fan and player wants to smoke at the Super Bowl: a victory cigar. As a New Yorker and a Giants fan I was lucky enough to get to light up a victory cigar after this year’s game. (I’m also a Mets, Knicks, and Rangers fan, so celebrating championships is a rare thing indeed.)
For my celebratory smoke I fired up the last of my Cohiba Behikes and poured a glass of fine bourbon. The cigar tasted great, even though in the past I’d always found the Behike 54 to be a little underwhelming, especially for the $50 pricetag.
But then that’s the point. A cigar tastes better when you’ve got something to celebrate, and the bigger the celebration the better. Birthdays, weddings, and championships are all prime time for a fine cigar. And while those events may be few and far between (especially for Mets fans), there’s a lesson in there that’s applicable to everyday life. The most under-looked aspect of whether a cigar will be enjoyable or not is the mindset of the smoker.
So find something (even if it’s small) to celebrate every time you light up a cigar, and you’ll find the cigars taste better.
photo credit: Winston Churchill Gallery

What a wonderfully simple (and true) declaration. So many people choose to smoke cigars that are new or expensive because they think those sticks will make them look cool. Others only choose cigars that have received the highest ratings, or those that are made by the trendiest cigar makers. Still others only smoke the biggest, the boldest, the darkest, or the thickest. And others hunt for certain flavor profiles.
Such lists are fun, as you compare your preferences with the list author’s. And sometimes you’ll realize there is a cigar you’ve wanted to try but haven’t, or maybe an old favorite that you’ve gotten away from for no particular reason.
Now, nine years later, a look at the many laws in New York shows that smoking was just the beginning. In the time since then, a ban on selling food cooked with trans fats has gone into effect, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has also gone after sugar-rich sodas. Bloomberg has pushed for reduced salt in prepared foods and the city council even proposed a complete ban on restaurants cooking with salt. And now the New York Post reports Bloomberg has his nanny-state sites
In early December, Camacho Cigars, a subsidiary of premium cigarmaker Davidoff of Geneva,
The latest to catch my eye and prompt this screed is the Molotov from Quesada, intended to “create awareness of the dangers increased government and taxation…” I have no argument with them promoting their views. But why use a name associated with a deadly device that, while sometimes used in noble causes, such as the Finns and Hungarians, has also been used by terrorists to maim and kill?
No reason was given for extending the comment period, but the extension gives cigar smokers another chance to register their opposition to FDA regulation. Cigar smokers got a hint at what regulation would mean in a recent Daily Caller 



Patrick Ashby
Patrick Semmens
George Edmonson