Last night I went up to the Bronx to visit my friend Barry at Ashes Tobacconist to smoke cigars, not cheer on the Jets (sorry folks, Giants fan here) and chat with the regulars who basically made me watch my first two episodes of “24.” While sitting down smoking a Murcielago, Barry and I both got a tweet from our friend @ChiefHava who graciously sent us some Joya de Nicaragua Dark Antanos since we’ve yet to see them in stock here in NYC. Let’s just say thanks to Hava I actually went to check my mail on the way home and the cigars were not only there, but they were gorgeous and smell like fresh figs.  After we split what Hava sent us Barry had a brilliant idea: let’s start a Cigar Pass.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with this concept, what essentially occurs is that whomever is starting the Pass fills up a box with 20 cigars and once a list of  people is accumulated (in this case 12), sends out said box. Each time the box is received by someone on the list, that person can take whatever they like as long as they replace it with something of equal value and send the box onto the next person and so on. Once it reaches all participants the box will basically have contents completely different from its original selection and the originator(s) have those cigars to add to their collection.

If you’ve never done something like this before I think it’s not only a great idea, but has the potential to be a lot of fun.  Like Barry I’ve “met” a ton of fantastic people over Twitter and this is a great way to connect and of course indulge in our mutual passion for cigars. Not every market in the US has access to certain smokes and this is great way for some of you out there to get your hands on something you’ve been wanting to try!

Here’s how it’s going to work: Barry and I will be putting 10 cigars each of our choosing into the Cigar Pass box, but before we do that, we need 12 of you to contact us expressing your interest. (lindsay@lindsayheller.com or barry@acigarsmoker.com) Once we have our 20 participants, a mailing list will be sent out so we all know the direction this box is going in.  If you’re on Twitter or a blogger, I encourage you to write about this because it’s going to make for one fun thread!