All Photos by @AverellMondie.
So you’ve planned to go afield in search of game. The preparations begin immediately after confirming the dates with your buddies: picking out accommodations, planning meals, and ensuring that your gear is in order. After you’ve checked your ammo stash, crimped all the barbs on your flies, or found your IC choke tubes, ensure that you bring along an essential piece of any ditty bag: The field cigar.
There is something about crisp morning air when the birds stop flying or perhaps you spy the perfect bankside fallen tree to lean on and take it all in, that is enhanced by lighting up the perfect field cigar. For me, many of the flavors that I like in a great stick such as wood and dried leaves are the same flavors that I enjoy most in nature. I find that concentrating these with a smoke works to amplify these notes.
Selecting this key piece is not necessarily as simple as grabbing a few of your favorite sticks. No, the field cigar is much different from, say, a stick that you might select after an incredible meal with a glass of cognac. The field cigar is, first of all, wieldable. This should go without saying, but while smoking, you are likely to be called upon to aim and fire a shotgun or strip a fly line. You want to lean away from anything too big here – save the Churchills and Toro Grandes for camp. Toros and Petit Coronas are ideal. To that end, for field cigars I tend to steer clear of anything that is too dark and seek quality Connecticuts and some Dominicans. I tend to smoke in greater quantity while hunting and fishing, so the lighter the better for me so as to not get burnt out.
A final note: Experience shows that if the birds do stop flying, devoting your attention to lighting a cigar will ensure that they return, in great number, so that you either must drop the cigar or don’t fire a shot.
EHC Field Cigar Selections:
H. Upmann by AJ Fernandez, (Toro)
Spicy and woody, great size, and easy to get your hands on. These can be had for less than $200 a box, so you won’t feel so bad about smoking through the lot of them with your friends over a weekend.
Caldwell Eastern Standard (Coretto)
My longtime go-to smoke. Super creamy, not too spicy, and you cannot beat the size of a Coretto in the field. These smokes have been hard to come by lately and this size may be out of production but a Toro is still available at some retailers.
Partagas Series D No. 6 (Petit Robusto)
Hard to come by in the states but a fantastic and hard-working cigar if you can get it. Not too creamy or spicy, lots of hay-like qualities in the best way possible. Very slow burn and great size.
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