Building a first shelf of ten
Ten cigars, chosen to teach you something rather than to be impressive.
Buy ten cigars that differ from each other on purpose. A shelf of ten similar cigars teaches you nothing; ten chosen along three axes teaches you what you actually like within a month.
The three axes
- Format: at least three short (under 50 minutes), the rest medium.
- Wrapper: a Connecticut, a Habano, a Maduro at minimum.
- Origin: one Dominican, one Nicaraguan, one Honduran or Cuban.
That is nine slots defined already. The tenth is whatever the shop recommends, which is worth having as a control.
What to avoid at the start
Very large ring gauges, very strong blends, and anything expensive. Not because they are bad, but because a beginner's palate cannot separate "too strong for me tonight" from "I dislike this blend", and the expensive ones are where that mistake costs money.
Do this: smoke them in a deliberate order — mild to strong, small to large — and write two sentences each. Ten entries is enough to see a pattern, and it is the fastest useful thing anyone can do in their first month.
What happens next
After ten cigars you will have two or three you want more of. Buy those as fivers, not boxes, and repeat the exercise with a second set of ten. Two rounds of this gets most people further than a year of buying whatever is recommended online.
Storing ten
A small sealed container and one correctly sized pack. Ten cigars do not need furniture, and buying a large humidor before you know what you like is how people end up with an expensive box holding nine cigars they are not sure about.
Ten cigars, and the free plan covers it
The free tier holds up to 15 cigars in the humidor and five sommelier requests a week, which is a first shelf exactly. Each cigar gets a lot with its arrival date; each smoke gets an entry with a score out of ten and two sentences.
Read next
Singles or boxes: the honest arithmetic
Boxes are cheaper per cigar and more expensive per mistake.
Storage & ageingHow many cigars is the right number to keep
Enough that something is always ready, few enough that you know what you own.
Formats & vitolasChoosing a format by the time you actually have
The most common mistake in a humidor is a cigar bought for an evening that never happens.