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Blogs | Gordon Mott | How I Almost Did Not Survive My First Cigar Factory Visit 

Marvin Shanken and I headed off the Dominican Republic to tour the nation's cigar factories. . . .

I jumped in with both feet. At one time, I seem to remember having all 12 cigars going at the same time. Puffing on one. Tasting the next one. Jumping to another. In truth, my memory is probably failing, and I didn't have more than five or six going at any one time. But suffice it to say that in an hour, I sampled all 12 cigars, wrote notes, and talked about each one with DiMeola and Seijas. . . .

I stumbled off the plane, and we made our way to the hotel. I was still pretty much forced to hang my head out the window of the SUV, praying that we would get to the hotel as fast as possible. Once we checked in, I lay down on the bed and waited a couple of hours for the feeling to pass.

I found out later that I had been through a not-uncommon experience for cigar tasters: nicotine overdose. Sweats. Nausea. Chills. All are symptoms of getting too much nicotine into your system…and I wasn't inhaling that day, either. I also learned later that there is a pretty simple cure: swallow a sugar cube whole and it will alleviate the worst of the symptoms.

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