Smoking a Cigar

The smoking of a cigar should never be rushed, as they can provide a great deal of pleasure and enjoyment. Never smoke a cigar quickly, as a substitute for a cigarette; to appreciate the entire experience of smoking a cigar, you should allow yourself a minimum of 15 minutes.

With this time you can choose which cigar to smoke, the cutting, the lighting and finally the actual smoking. When cutting your cigar make sure to use a guillotine-type cutter and not your fingernail, teeth or knife. Avoid damaging the cap of the cigars that you are smoking.

Traditionalists will tell you to only use wooden matches when lighting your cigar, but it’s perfectly acceptable to use a butane lighter when lighting up. Ideally, use special long slow-burning matches to light your cigar, as they are purposely designed for cigar smokers.

It is far more enjoyable to smoke a properly lit cigar compared to one that isn’t. Matured cigars will always burn slowly in comparison to younger cigars. Always smoke your cigar slowly, drawing only once a minute, or you will run the risk of spoiling the flavour due to overheating.

It’s quite normal for a cigar to go out, especially if you’ve already smoked half of the cigar, although smoking a cigar half-way, is generally considered to be as far are you should take it anyway. If youe cigar does go out, simply remove any clinging ash by tapping it and then blow stale smoke away. Re-light the cigar as if it were a new one.

You will regularly see people warming the length of a cigar, or rolling the cigar near their ear, as they have seen it performed in a movie or on TV. Never warm the length of a cigar, as you want the smoke to be cool in your mouth and just don’t roll a cigar near your ear for effect – just don’t!