Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Now that made me LOL

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Most probably my dad and uncle. I remember how my uncle would come over on Saturdays and share a Toscano with my old man out on the porch. It was like a weekend ritual.

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Dball Started Me Down The Dark Slope & Shilala Down The NC!:banger:D:tu

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

I've really learned a lot from Rob Ayala and all the people on Friends of Habanos over the years. Rob does some of the best reviews IMO on youtube. I'm soaked up a lot of knowledge about Habanos from them.

As for NCs I lurked here for awhile before joining and I'm enjoying learning about the other side of cigars as I have been a solely CC smoker thus far. There's so many brands of NCs to learn about so having resources like this board really helps.

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Easy one, Papajohn. Knows what I like better than I do. Understands cigars and what it is to enjoy a cigar.

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

I blame Mac for my maduro addiction. Damn enabler.

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Offline: My brother for the first push.

On/offline: Everyone I meet at my first herf "Mega Mob 1". They pretty much shoved me down the "slope".

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

That puff-puff-pass was EPIC. :)

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Offline-my buddy Ethan. Jerk just moved to Cali on me this last week. He was one of the few guys my age in this backwater town with a brain in head. Killed many many cigars and just a couple of bottles of bourbon, scotch, and whiskey. He never even bothered buying his own humidor. Just kept his stash in mine. Crud. Now I'm gonna have to find a new cigar buddy.

Online-Shilala has been a great influence and friend. Chingas, who doesn't stop here too much anymore, pushed me into the fantastic world of CC's with a couple of Team Death bombs. I still have a couple of those original CC's he sent me. Not sure I'll ever burn that Partagas.

Good thread. Good memories. That's what cigars are for me. A chance to spend an hour or two deepening friendships and making memories. Some of those friends are here.

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

I have to say both online and offline bluegil (Andy S.) has been my biggest influence. If it weren't for him I wouldn't have gotten into cigars or joined CA. So if he reads this, thanks brother. He's a wealth of information and never tires of answering questions.

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Online is easy: Tom of Icehog fame. He needed some DPG blues, I sent them, he returned Cubans and promptly made my marriage slightly less smooth. ;)

Offline: Just too many folks to pick one.

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

My friend Stephen. He also got me into wine.

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Hope it all smoothed out the last 12 years, Tony!

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Talk about a Blast From The Past!!!!! 12 years. woohoo.

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

In person, it would have to be a guy named Jerry Millick. He was an older guy who owned the Tinder Box franchises in Charlotte. He hired me, shortly out of high school, back in the mid/late 70s.

Not only did he give me basic beginners education into the world of hand made cigars, he told me that customer would not have faith in my advice if they didn't see me smoking. So, he told he wanted to see me smoking cigars during my workday and to encourage that told me that anything I smoked during my work hours was free.

Online would be a little tougher. My best idea would be that, in the late 90's, there was a small cigar shop that opened up along the route I took going back and forth to work. One of the guys was named Kevin. He introduced to a site (don't if I'm allowed to mention it). A lot of the guys on that site frequently completed box passes and I jumped in on them as much as possible. So while I can't say that Kevin gave me any specific knowledge, he pointed me in a direction where I was able to experience a lot of cigars, many of them with a lot of age on them, that I likely would never have had the opportunity to try.

Hope this wasn't too longwinded . . .

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Not at all, Bill. And please feel free to mention the site, we're not catty 'round these parts.-(P

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Well, Chainsaw is certainly catty. :r

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

The site was called Herfers Paradise. I believe that it has been defunct for a couple of years now.

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Herfer's Paradise still lives on, under a new location:




https://www.cgarbb.com/




https://www.cgarbb.com/register

Re: Who's been your biggest cigar influence on & offline?
 

Kevin still posts there too