Saturday, June 11 2011
By Gary Korb
CONTINUING OUR SERIES on neat ways to find great cigars, I want to touch on something that many cigar smokers will find (or have already found) invaluable - creating your own custom cigar sampler.
There are so many cigar samplers out there to choose from, you could probably spend an entire lifetime just sorting through all of them, and two lifetimes smoking them. This raises the question, "Is there a perfect cigar sampler?" I'd wager there are a lot of "perfect" cigar samplers. Of course, that depends on your personal taste. Your perfect cigar sampler may not be mine, and vice versa. But there is a way to create a "perfect" or "ultimate" cigar sampler on your own rather than having it made up for you by a manufacturer or online cigar store.
Plus, there are any number of ways you can go. You can make an all full-bodied cigar sampler; an all Toro or Churchill cigar sampler; an all Nicaraguan cigar sampler, flavored sampler, mixed sizes, etc., or simply your own variety sampler. So first, decide what kind of sampler you want to create. With Father's Day coming up next week, maybe you want to create a cigar sampler just for Dad.
The first thing you need to find is a list of single cigars so you can start putting your sampler together. Famous Smoke Shop has a page called "Create-A-Sampler." Truth be told, you may not find every cigar you're looking for, or even a specific cigar you wanted to buy, but if it's any consolation, there are over 135 brands from which to choose.
Normally when you buy single cigars you pay full price. Fortunately the Create-A-Sampler page is designed to save you a decent amount of bucks. For every five cigars you choose, one of them is free as long as it's of lesser or equal value to the highest-priced cigar in your set. You can make your sampler as few as 5 cigars, or as many as 50 cigars, though there is a restriction on how many cigars you can add of the exact same vitola. Other than that, you're free to play "Sampler Monkey" and create a pack that's tailor-made for you.
Since I have a thing for Honduran cigars, here's a 5-pack I made up on the fly:
- Gran Habano #5 Corojo Rothschild
- Rocky Patel Sun Grown Toro
- Saint Luis Rey Toro Maduro
- Tempus by Alec Bradley Terra Novo
- Carlos Toraño Exodus 1959 50 Years Short Churchill
Not bad, ey? Even though you might have chosen a different line-up, I know that I'm going to enjoy every cigar in that pack. That's the beauty of it. And because I'm going to get at least one free cigar, I might also toss-in a cigar that I've always wanted to try, a friend's recommendation, or a cigar that got a rave review or high tasting score; you get the idea. Another angle is partnering up with a BOTL by creating a custom sampler for both of you and splitting the booty when it arrives.
However you approach creating your own cigar sampler, even if you don't do it that often, or at all, it's good to know that you have the option. As The Rolling Stones song goes: You can't always get want you want/But if you try sometimes, you just might find/You get what you need.
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