[cmitch]

Originally Posted by DivineRight

I think people are misinterpreting the difference between a "mooch" and a someone who is new to the cigar scene. Over the years, I have met a lot of friends of friends who are interested in cigars and almost all of them never have their own cigars. I have no problem gifting them with one of my tasty habanos but I always try to judge what a good cigar for them would be depending on their experiences.

I've found that giving someone a strong cigar like a Partagas SD4 or one of my Bolivar PC's always seems to wrong move. Over the years, I have found certain cigars to be great introductory cigars. These are the ones that I tend to give to others to smoke but they are also cigars that I enjoy myself. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing someone discover the enjoyment of a cigar before your eyes.

I also have a collection of cigars that I reserve for people who in my opinion have no inclination to ever become a cigar lover, so basically "posers". Over time, through box passes and friends returning from vacations, I've been gifted with fakes and strange cigars (some smelling like aftershave, others just looking too rough to smoke). I've handed these cigars over and giggled while doing it. I know its messed up, my dark humor sometimes takes over but in my defense I reserve these only for the true mooches. In my circle of friends, we've kicked out actual mooches-those who are cheap in every aspect of the definition and take advantage of the generosity of the group. They are the ones who you go out to dinner with and they seem to always forget their wallet or not have any cash on them that day. They are the same people who go to a BBQ's empty handed when everyone else brought something, they show up to parties and drink everyone else's booze because they didn't have time to pick something up, they are the ones who show up to cigar meets empty handed every time and they are typically the ones who talk the big talk with nothing to show for it. I think we can all agree that nobody wants to be around people like this, let alone gift them with our precious cigars.

There ya go. Unfortunately, we sometimes end up around moochers and it's not by choice. I've gleaned some good ideas from these posts as well, to combat moochery in the future.