My Favorite Cigar
Charissa Thompson • Sports Broadcaster • Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial
The woman who hosts “FOX NFL Kickoff” as well as pregame on Thursday nights sees a parallel between acceptance into her profession and into the male-dominated sphere of cigar appreciation. “At the beginning it was always, ‘What do you know about football? What do you know about hockey?’ ” Charissa Thompson recalls. “I had to prove that I belonged. Similarly, I had to prove that I even knew how to cut a cigar.” Prejudices die hard. “Even, still to this day, guys will be breaking out cigars and they won’t offer me one. I ask if I can have one and they’ll say, ‘We didn’t think you’d want one.’ ”
She came upon her love of the leaf legitimately as a teenager when she’d pass time in a Seattle cigar store owned by a friend’s uncle. When she was of age, she gravitated to the camaraderie of smoking lounges, always impressed by athletic idols, such as Michael Jordan, who enjoy cigars.
Dominican Romeos were her go-tos, but a new favorite—the Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial from Cuba—appeared when she was introduced to it at the Belmont Stakes. “Now, it’s like a new pair of shoes. It’s difficult to go back to the old ones. They’re rich, but not too strong. Not overbearing. They’re effortless.”
