...Which is how I've been describing the appeal of cigars to puzzled cigarette smokers lately, a lot of them just don't seem to "get" something that you don't inhale and aren't addicted to. I take evening welding classes with a long break between them, so I often stake out the smoke shack on campus and fire up something tasty to enjoy while I do my homework, which makes the whole evening far more enjoyable. I've just been surprised at how puzzled the cigarette smokers are by cigars, I think they must be under the impression that smoking one is like a giant unfiltered cigarette, or that the nicotine must be overwhelming, or something to that effect. Perhaps one of these days I'll spring for a bundle of cheap panatellas and try to work a little evangelism, but for now it's amusing chatting with people and coming up with creative descriptions for why lighting up a bundle of fermented vegetable matter is so enjoyable.:-)
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I encounter this all the time. I have yet to find a good way to explain it to them
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WhoDeySchenk and I were just at a bar last week and the same thing happened to us: "You don't inhale that?" "Doesn't the nicotine kill you?" So of course, we had to explain everything to them. Nothing like someone bugging you when you are trying to enjoy a cigar. :-)
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I was at a party Saturday night and went outside to enjoy a Gurkha G2 (the only Gurkha I like). The conversation went like this:

cigarette smoker: I don't like cigars. The nicotine is too strong and I get sick trying to smoke one.

me: I take it you inhale when you smoke one.

cigarette smoker: Of course. Don't you?

me: No. You don't inhale a cigar unless you want to get really messed up.
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I always tell cigarette smokers that I smoke tobacco. What do they smoke? (please list all ingredients):-)
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:-)
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Interesting stuff about cigarettes in case asked when you hand out the panetellas.
The list of 599 additives approved by the US Government for use in the manufacture of cigarettes is something every smoker should see. Submitted by the five major American cigarette companies to the Dept. of Health and Human Services in April of 1994, this list of ingredients had long been kept a secret.
While these ingredients are approved as additives for foods, they were not tested by burning them, and it is the burning of many of these substances which changes their properties, often for the worse. Over 4000 chemical compounds are created by burning a cigarette, many of which are toxic and/or carcinogenic. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide and ammonia are all present in cigarette smoke. Forty-three known carcinogens are in mainstream smoke, sidestream smoke, or both.
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Its all about flavor. Cigs taste like cheap tobacco or menthol while cigars provide a multitude of complex flavors to stimulate the palate :-)

aj
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I compare cigarettes and cigars to alcoholic beverages,

smoking cigarettes is like drinking the cheapest hooch just to get you drunk (to satisfy your need) smoking a cigar is like sitting down and enjoying a glass of single malt scotch, or a really nice wine (whatever you prefer) because you dont drink that stuff to just get drunk, you drink it to enjoy the flavor etc... same thing with the cigar, you smoke it because you enjoy it not because you need to
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I just tell my cigarette smoking friends that I'm not happy to see them... That's a cigar in my pocket!!!:-)
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Hmmm... I thought you didn't smoke Nubs!!!!!:-)
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You said you wouldn't tell!!!:-)
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I explain it the way it happened for me.

I previously did not care for the aroma of cigar smoke (that's an understatement). One day, while walking back to the office from lunch, I happened to be either behind or beside somebody smoking a cigar and it's aroma would not let me forget it. I fought it for a couple of weeks to a month at the most and broke down, went to the local b&m and bought a few. It's been a downhill coast from there.

That was a few years ago and to this day, I still wonder what that one cigar was that drew me in. I know I'll never know, but I'll always wonder.

:-)
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I didn't even get to the part where I break out the nub tool on my keychain to finish off a really good smoke, I get at least 3 questions about what I'm smoking every time, and a buncj of cracks about my "monster roach". Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy most of the conversations that start this way, I think of them as a great way to get new people interested in the hobby. I particularly love doing the math for the cig smokers concerning what I pay on the monster vs what their packs cost with our local taxes, I'm hoping to get some converts that way.
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