If you love cigars, please don't be intimidated by your local cigar lounge. Many cigar shops also feature conversation spots where you can light up your purchase and chat with other patrons. Some questions to break the ice with cigar smokers: What are you smoking? Would you buy that cigar again? What cigar would you recommend I try next?
Guest: Altadis Cigars’ National Education Manager and Smoke Tester, Travis Pappenheim
Boveda Box Hosts: Rob Gagner and Nate Beck
What Are You Tasting in a Cigar? https://vimeo.com/776275750
How Cigar Flavor Stimulates Memory https://vimeo.com/778566812
How to Taste Cigars—Using What's in Your House! https://vimeo.com/778566962
Should You Smell Your Cigar? https://vimeo.com/778567231/0c2533fd4b
Learning How to Taste Cigars at a Higher Level https://vimeo.com/740951214
Cigar talk highlights:
00:00 Cold open
00:06 How to feel comfortable at a cigar lounge
00:39 Cigar smokers love talking to other cigar smokers
01:05 Talk to someone new at the cigar lounge
01:43 What not to say at a cigar lounge
02:03 Questions to ask cigar buddies
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Transcripts
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(upbeat music)
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- [Travis] In all fairness,
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you know that people in cigar shops
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and if, if you're just getting into cigars,
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if you're new to cigars, don't be intimidated.
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Walk into a shop, ask questions,
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but learn some of the stuff
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that we were trying to teach through this episode
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is really, what's the experience?
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How can you develop and build that?
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Well, part of that is the characters
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you get to hang out with.
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- [Nate] Yeah.
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- [Travis] I can go into any shop.
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I don't know anybody.
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You sit down long enough,
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you just ask these guys and be open.
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- [Nate] Mm-hm.
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- They're not gonna make you feel bad for being
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a new- a novice smoker. - [Nate] Not at all.
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They're actually gonna encourage you
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because it's a hobby.
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We all love people who are enjoying things that we do.
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- [Nate] Yeah.
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- So you talked about that umpire,
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you had that direct tie because it's something
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you both love. - [Nate] Yeah.
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- [Rob] Yeah. - It's that hobby you both
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like. - [Nate] Yeah.
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- So it, it's a small little family
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that we, we've created
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even though we don't know.
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- [Nate] Yeah.
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- [Travis] I mean we were with 25 people last night
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talking about cigars.
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Didn't know any of them,
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but I feel I can call any of them tonight
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and say, "Hey you wanna go out and have a cigar?"
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- [Nate] Yeah.
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You know, and hang out.
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- Right. - Yeah.
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- And it's, - But we'd all hang
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out together.
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- [Nate] It's so much fun
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If you're a, if we can use the word, you know
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seasoned cigar smoker or longtime cigar smoker,
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when you, I find it absolutely entertaining and engaging
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and it makes me kind of come alive
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when you get that new smoker
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because they're asking all these great questions
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that you don't think about much anymore.
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And you go, "All right,
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well why do I still think that that's the case?"
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- [Rob] Right.
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- [Nate] Or you can kind of talk about it and go, "Oh,
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maybe I think a little differently now."
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Or, you know, how are you experiencing this?
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So it brings to, uh, to your experience now,
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a completely different field of view.
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- [Rob] Right. - [Nate] I love that.
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- [Rob] I stopped asking questions specifically of like
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what you're tasting because you know,
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I don't, I have no idea.
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Like, I asked one guy who, at the smoke shop who was like,
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"I just love this cigar."
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I'm like, "Well what do you like about it?"
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He's like, I don't know, I just like it.
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- [Nate] Mm-hm.
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- [Rob] And now I just thought, I'm like,
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last night I had some people over
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and they wanted to smoke cigars.
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They're not big time cigar smokers.
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I'm like, would you smoke it again?
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He's like, "Well, I just don't know.
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I'm not a cigar smoker."
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"Do you like the flavor that's coming of it?"
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"Well I guess, yeah, it's pretty good."
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"Would you go buy it again?"
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"I don't know."
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Like it was really hard for him to like-
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- [Nate] Yeah.
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- [Rob] to really figure it out.
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And I'm like, that's interesting as a new cigar smoker.
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- [Nate] Sure. - [Rob] Like what cigar is it
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that's gonna make you go, "Oh yeah, I want this again."
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That's just what I want to give you.
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- [Nate] Right.
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- [Rob] I don't want to give you
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a cigar that I'm like, "This has this flavor."
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- [Nate] Yeah.- "And you should like it."
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- [Nate] Mm-hm. - [Rob] No,
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I just want you to try it
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and if you go, "Yeah, I really like it."
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Great. - [Nate] Yeah.
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- Go buy that cigar.
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- [Nate] Yeah. - [Rob] Go buy more of it.
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Go enjoy more cigars that are like that.
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- [Nate] Yep.
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- [Rob] That's all I care about.
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- [Travis] And he may have not smoked enough to really say,
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"Is this one I like?"
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Because he hasn't compared, - [Rob] No, he hasn't.
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- [Travis] spectrums.
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Right? - It's, it's, it's
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- [Rob] So it's like, you know, literally like tasting
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maybe one or two. - [Nate] Yeah.
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- [Travis] You drive the first car that you've ever driven,
