Cigar Aficianados Form Club

Many student groups at Boston University focus on the “activity” part of “student activities.”

Then there’s the Cigar Aficionado Society.

“The whole idea started off with two or three guys just relaxing,” President Mitch Yapco said. “We thought it would be a really cool thing to form a club that would foster an awareness of the abundance of cigars out there. We also thought of the group meetings as a place for guys and girls to just unwind.”

At the meetings, each person has the opportunity to deliver what the members call a “monologue” — a time to discuss whatever might be on his or her mind in an uninterrupted fashion.

“We talk about cigars each week, but we talk about anything,” said Yapco, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. “For example, after Sept. 11 we had some pretty philosophical conversations.”

The founding members faced no problems obtaining the approval of the school administration last year, according to Vice President Drinnan Thornton.

“As long as we ensure that all members are 18 or older, the administration has no problem approving a cigar-smoking club,” said Thornton, a CAS junior.

Every Friday afternoon the officers of BUCAS get together with six other core members for an informal meeting. Though last year the group often met at Cigarmasters on Newbury Street, their frequent meeting place this year is Churchill’s, a cigar lounge located near Government Center.

The appeal of a meeting place like Churchill’s is that there are “big leather sofas to sit on, and walk-in humidors,” Thornton said.

“It’s important to keep cigars maintained because otherwise the taste will really diminish,” he said.

The group consists primarily of men, but there are also female students who attend weekly meetings. In the club’s earliest stages, the members came to meetings knowing very little about cigars, but they have accumulated knowledge over time. Now BUCAS members can distinguish between the various brands of cigars according to differences in size and flavor.

“Most of us started not knowing much at all, only that we enjoyed smoking cigars,” Thornton said. “The beauty [of the club] is that everyone brings their own knowledge with them to the group, and like any interest, you want to know more about it if you’re into it.”

Despite the informality of the club, the group members collectively aspire to set an example as gentlemen and women while enjoying cigars.

“We try to uphold the image of ‘the gentleman,’ not ‘the frat boy'”, said treasurer and CAS sophomore Mike Harvey. “The people who go [to the cigar lounges] are usually classy and well known, and we have gotten a chance to get to know some of these people.”

“At the end of the week we all just want to relax and enjoy ourselves,” Yapco said. “I would say that the basis of the club is to provide overall contentment.”