Swisher Sweets and Rum Crooks were the order of the day back when I first started smoking cigars. They were awful, "drug store" cigars, but they were cheap, and they were fun to smoke for a bunch of rowdy college guys.
And then one day I was gifted my first real, premium, hand rolled cigar.
This was NOTHING like those old machine made, dry-cured cigars that my buddies and I had been smoking. This was a sublime smoking experience, and from that moment, I was sold!
I began seeking other cigars to try out. First as singles at the local cigar stores, then buying boxes online.