Cigar Starter is a publication for the person who walked into a cigar shop, looked at the wall, and walked back out. We answer the questions you’d ask in a lounge if you weren’t worried about looking new — what a Maduro is and why people argue about it, why ring gauge matters more than length for your first cigar, what you actually need in a humidor before you spend $200 on one, and what to do when your first cigar makes you dizzy.
Three writers cover the desk. Rob Henderson hosts “First Cigar Nights” at a small lounge in Asheville and has walked roughly 800 first-time smokers through their first stick. Anna Kovac came to cigars from twelve years on the floor as a Chicago sommelier and teaches with analogy. Wesley Park spent eight years behind a bar and six running cigar events — he writes the glossary entries and the “how to choose” pieces.
Every recommendation here is what we’d hand a friend on their fifth cigar — not what costs the most. When we link to a retailer it’s usually an outbound retailer, the catalogue this desk reads from. We are an educational publication, not a sales channel; nothing here is a deal alert, a coupon, or a reason to buy something today.
Edited by the Beginner’s Desk · More about the desk