Amsterdam is but one train journey from London.

The Eurostar takes you underneath the English channel; In fact 23.5 miles (37.9 km) of the track runs under the English Channel, making it the world's longest undersea tunnel. Human ingenuity really is something to behold…

Anyways… Enough about the marvels of engineering… I simply paid my fare, stepped into the train at St Pancras, London and stepped out of the train at Amsterdam Centraal.

Taking my first breath of Amsterdam air, I made sure to deeply inhale and exhale - this was a reset.

This trip was a gift to myself, an attempt to force myself to slow down after a year of relatively significant stress and achievement.

I intended to heavily indulge in my vice of choice… Cigars.

So… Naturally… During my 5 day stay… I smoked 6 cigars…

For someone that averages 2 cigars per week - it was a significant increase (that’s about a 315% increase over the comparable time periods for the mathematicians amongst us).

Unfortunately I swiftly discovered that treating cigars like cigarettes utterly decimated the sanctity of them.

My lesson: Indulging in cigars can only be done through quality, never quantity.

three of the six cigars were consumed in a ‘proper’ manner as it were. The main ingredients of ‘proper’ smoking being: deep presence and intent.

The other three were smoked without meaningful attention, as if they were insignificant throw away things churned out by machines.

In reality, each cigar takes years - in some cases decades - of craft before they touch human lips.

I felt the same then as I do now, like I committed a crime by disregarding their sanctity and ignoring the tremendous journey they took to land in my very hand.

Arturo Feuntes, Carrillo, Oliva, Partagas and La Aroma de Cuba were the brands consumed on this trip. It is to my regret that I shan’t recall each experience, for as confessed, it was in part tarnished by my own lack of presence in each of their respective moments.

I remain somewhat disappointed in myself by the crime I committed; nevertheless, I have repented and endeavour never to commit such a heinous act again - truly the best teacher is experience.

Cigars must be respected, with time, presence and intent.

I will be releasing the chapter on the origins of the cigar once it is ready, which will dive into the history of cigars and highlight exactly why cigars are in a class of their own - and why they should be treated as such.

This has been my confession, my holiday fling of disregard, something I shall not repeat. I now know and can affirm that depth and presence far exceed surface level absent-minded mechanical smokes. And that there is so incredibly much more to smoking a cigar than merely smoking a cigar.

If you take one thing away from this letter, let it be this: One deeply present experience > one thousand empty arousals.

Yours truly,

The Cigar Lover

Cigar Letters
Letter No. 6

P.s. If you know of any fellow cigar lover who would appreciate the contents of this letter, please do forward them this email and encourage them to receive future Cigar Letters - we would absolutely love to have them join us.