I spent some time with my brother who I haven't seen in a while today and got excited when he mentioned that he started smoking cigars.

Knowing that I didn't have any of my own with me he offered me one and I happily agreed, a free cigar is a cigar after all.

He proceeds to open a Grape White Owl and hands me one.

I smoked it with him out of courtesy but found it to be among the worst "cigars" I've ever had, using that term as loosely as possible.

I will admit I started out with infused cigars and still enjoy one every once in a while, but this is the first "drug store special" I've had.

Did anyone else try one of these after beginning their career and just find it horrid? Or am I just late in trying these?
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Have never had a Swisher or White Owl, have smoked some Backwoods though while fishing, felt like Clint in an old Spaghetti Western :-)
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Never had a White Owl, but have tried Swishers and Backwoods.
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I don't even like grape Kool-Aid.
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The inspiration of this smiley:

:-)
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That sums up my feelings about it!

I promised to bring him a stick or two of mine to try next time we're together, I need to clear out some space in the infused humidor anyway.
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Rookie mistake.

Its been many years since I left the house without a cigar....doesn't matter if I'm just getting the mail or taking the trash out....maybe I'll get waylaid :-)
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Add rum or vodka. Fix't!
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Had a few Acid infused early on, that was enough to swear off flavored cigars for life.
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At one of the EPICs a few years ago, Ferdie was desperately trying to get rid of several boxes of grape Swishers someone gifted him. Somehow a couple mysteriously made thier way into my stuff. One rainy night as I was heading out to walk the dog I thought to myself "self, why not give'em a try?" It didn't make it past the end of my drive. I never knew something could taste that foul.

That reminds me, I owe Ferdie...

Image

Of course this one would taste better!
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I did learn a valuable lesson today! Now I just need a travel case...

Early on I bought several Acids on a coworkers recommendation, I had one and am "aging" the rest until the right moment, I learned a valuable lesson about buying too many of a cigar I haven't tried (at retail too :-) )
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Yep. Even posted a review on it:

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=21847
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Excuse me for trolling up long ago forgotten posts, but I thought you might enjoy a review posted some time ago by a friend of mine (Even if he is a Gator.....)

" Phillies Blunt Strawberry Review (Author SeanGar/ ~11/2005)

My last foray into "blue collar" cigars got me interested, so last night when I was getting gas I bought a 5 pk of Phillies Blunt Strawberry.

Now, I know these aren't cigars that typically get reviewed here. And technically this review will fall under the contest [Redacted] is running for an '80s Dunhill. Not really fair, is it? I mean really, Phillies sells thousands of these cigars a day .... how many 80s Dunhills are sold at gas stations nationwide? I'm willing to bet zero.

Now you're probably smacking your foreheads saying "why strawberry, you ass, everybody knows that the grape ones are the best". I was attracted by the pink package. Sue me.

Being slightly cautious, I decided to dissect one of these first.



The binder looked exactly like brown paper and was bound up the middle, the wrapper was homogenized tobacco leaf. The filler was short and looked like tobacco. So far, so good. Now the sweet smell had me thinking I could smoke this in a pipe.

But just as I was packing the pipe, I got a strange call from the SPCP ... Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Pipes. How did they know I was about to torture my Savinelli? In any case, I ceased and desisted. No need to ruin a perfectly good pipe.

Went out on the back porch as I made my wife lunch. I can smoke and cook at the same time, just popping inside to turn things over.



I cracked the cello and lit it up. Hmm .... very sweet tasting, strawberry is there but muted, definately different but not disgusting a la Cremosa.



I was actually impressed with the ash for a short filler, I knocked it off after this picture.

Taste remained sweet, slight taste of tobacco from time to time, I found this much better than the Swisher Sweets that I had reviewed months ago.


The burn stayed perfect, like a cigarette of course, and the taste remained decent but sweet all the way. Having smoked a few flavored pipe tobaccos in the past month definately helped me with the sweetness and aroma, which otherwise would not have gone over well.

All in all a solid D+ ... I would smoke one of these again without problem. "

So get your brother some strawberry cigars.......:-)
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LMFAO I would read more reviews of these damned things so I can get the experience without the massive mouthwash budget that would accompany trying all the "blends" these companies have to offer.
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You haven't lived until you've smoked a ' Century Sam '
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I hate to be a snob, but judging by what popped up when I googled it a "Century Sam" will never be found in my house.
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Smoked one of those fifteen years ago. Then swore off cigars for several years.
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if you want a truly bad cigar that isn't flavored give the Devil's Weed a try... !!! HORRIBLE!!!
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A bad cigar with your brother is better than anything else alone. Enjoy!
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+1 to that. Also, don't forget Pirate's Gold, or as I refer to them Pirate's Mold. Maybe the most rancid and harsh cigar I have ever had.
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