Opportunity Knocks

TURN everything that happens to you into an opportunity.

The ability, to do that, one suspects, is the height of human wisdom.

Bad things happen of course, and everything’s relative. One man’s bad thing is another’s good, so we must always try and take situations for what they are and not over-inflate their importance and significance in our minds.

You can try and implement this mindful Zen-like attitude next time you smoke a cigar that you don’t enjoy. But rather than beat yourself up about a bad choice, try and take something from the experience.

Why don’t you like what you are currently experiencing? Is there a way this cigar could change into something that you might actually enjoy?

Analysing your ‘successes’ and ‘failures’ this way gives your cigar brain more reference points to make educated choices and you’ll find the better you get at defining your preferences, the less bad smokes you’ll have.

There’s no need to completely compartmentalise your preferred cigars or when you like to enjoy them; that would probably be taking the geekiness a step too far. But because our cigars are more often than not a treat – and there’s nothing worse than wasting a good cigar – it makes sense to know yourself a little better.

Are you looking for a soft, small cigar to lead you by the hand in the morning and ease you into another day? Or are you ready for a big mama to slap you around the head, show you who’s boss and allow you to luxuriate in the complex evolution of flavours a large, after-dinner stick can provide?

Only you, and your budget, can decide. As an assistance to your ponderings, we can’t emphasise enough the importance of trying new things. And the best way to do this – the best way to make sure you don’t keep splashing your hard-earned on stick after stick you don’t like – is to spend some time in a cigar store.

We’d like that store to be Sautter.

Of course, loads of our customers pop in to pick something up for the way home, or to enjoy over the weekend (something for the weekend, Sir?). But plenty more also take the time to stop, smell the coffee (and the cigars) and enjoy a bit of peace in our store where it’s perfectly possible to sample cigars to see which ones you might like to buy more of (Hint: They’re not free, even if you’re sampling!).

The Sautter team are incredibly well-versed in cigars – especially Cuban ones – and they are the best placed to recommend new sticks for you. The lucky beggars regularly sample stock of all shapes, sizes and blends and will ask you which cigars you’ve enjoyed before to try and find one that you will find success with.

It’s a much better bet than aiming blind and you’ll have the added bonus of meeting new cigar folk and being able to soak up a little lore. It most certainly won’t be time wasted.