Name: Quorum Classic Double Gordo

Country: Nicaragua

Shape: Parejo

Size: Gordo (6 inches x 60)

Strength: Full

This isn’t the first cigar I ever had, but it’s the first cigar I really enjoyed smoking.

Accompanied by a glass of Laphroaig 10, I smoked this Quorum Classic Double Gordo while reading on the balcony of the hotel room at InterContinental Mzaar.

A cool breeze caressed me sporadically as the dusk fell slowly. As I waited for my fiancée to get dressed for her birthday party, I nursed my drink and smoked my cigar like a general who had just won a war.

The book I was reading was Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. “We covet knowledge merely because we covet enjoyment,” I read. And I immediately smiled. The Laphroaig was working. Though that was surely not what Rousseau meant when he was writing it, his words are especially true when it comes to single malts and cigars, I thought. We desire knowledge because we desire a more pleasurable experience. Knowledge massively enhances the taste. The more you learn about single malts and cigars, the better they taste.

Half the taste is the story, and consuming stories makes us human.

This six inch Gordo I was smoking lasted for about an hour. And when it was finally done, I enjoyed its aftertaste for a moment before washing my mouth with another dram of whisky.

If I ever become a full-time cigar aficionado, you can say that this was the turning point. My cigar journey starts here.

Quorum Classic is an affordable and tasty cigar. I have one on my desk as we speak, and I know that I’ll light it very soon.