Trends, Moods, Seasons And Cigars

It’s interesting to note how your flavour and palate leanings change over time, seasons, moods, trends and – who knows? – maybe the gravitational pull of the moon as well.

When you look back at your cigar smoking preferences, you’ll see that for a while – maybe a few months at a stretch – you were into fatter cigars, such as Partagas’ no-nonsense crackerjack, the E2.

Then you maybe started purchasing smaller and thinner ring gauges, making sure that you always had something practical to hand when time, and the days, were short.

In essence, we all tend to do this all the time – not many of us these days have a daily, weekly or monthly ‘rotation’ of cigars that we stick to religiously. Chances are that your Dad or Grandad, if they were cigar lovers too, probably did though.

Back in the day, brand loyalty was huge. If you were a Montecristo man, you were a Montecristo man and nary did you touch anything else. We’ve become more flighty, less loyal – and for sure, a damned sight more knowledgeable as a result.

Consider your preferences in recent times. Often, you’ll smoke a brand or particular stick for quite a while before finally having enough of it for a while and moving elsewhere. Often, you’ll come back to it again after a hiatus; sometimes, you’ll remember the times fondly – like a far-flung holiday romance – but never return to it again. That’s just life, isn’t it?

It’s a hoary old cigar saying that as a man is approaching his 30th birthday, he should smoke cigars of a similar ring gauge; and as he approaches 50, his cigar girth should increase accordingly. Wow, how times have changed. You’d struggle to find a cigar in the 30-ring gauge bracket, let alone smoke it regularly.

Nonetheless, we at Sautter do believe that your palate subtly changes over time. Why else could you not stand the sight of cabbage as a kid, but now are highly partial to a little Savoy greenery pan-fried with chilli and garlic? Or never imagined yourself drinking anything other than fountains of lemonade for the rest of your life but becoming a wine connoisseur in
adulthood?

Abridging another well-worn phrase, one must keep changing, adapting and moving forward to survive. And this applies to your cigar life as much as any other aspect.

Be aware of it. In the best meditational traditions, be aware of these changes, observe them, but don’t interfere. Let them become whatever they want to become. This way, you’ll continue to evolve as you’re meant to do – and your life (cigar or otherwise) will have infinite possibilities and intrigues.