Cigars 101:

How to Smoke It

So you’ve heard of cigars right. You know they exist. You know they smell kind of funky and are kind of expensive. And you probably thought of trying it once, or maybe you already did.

Bottom line is, you still know next to nothing about cigars. Like every time you want to smoke it, your best friend still has to remind you which end goes to your mouth and which end to light. Worse still, you still haven’t quite grasped the “don’t inhale” thing, let alone the “clip off the end” bit.

So you want to be trendy and try cigars for a change. Problem is you don’t know how to. Good thing you found this website then.

Obligatory Health Message

Not to get preachy on you or anything, but this is for your own good. You probably already know that tobacco contains nicotine and that nicotine is poisonous and addictive. It can ruin your breath, harm unborn fetuses, increase your chances of getting cancer, and are a general bother to nonsmokers.

To put it simply: smoking is bad for you.

But since you are already here after performing several searches on the internet, you probably don’t care about it all that much. And we are not much inclined to tell you all the horror stories about smoking. You have a gazillion adverts and medical alerts telling you all that already.

So you if you are going to smoke anyway, then the least you can do is to learn how to smoke it…the right way.

What Cigars are Made Of

Okay, so you know that cigars are made from the leaves of the tobacco plant. But did you know that a cigar is actually made of not one, not two, but three kinds of tobacco leaf?

If you want to learn your cigar stuff, then you need start with these three basic things:

• Wrappers

Made from the widest portion of the tobacco plant, wrappers are the part of the cigar that you see. Long, supple leaves that vary in color from greenish yellow to reddish brown, and even dark brown.

Wrappers are good indicators of how a cigar tastes like. Usually, the darker the color, the fuller the flavor and the stronger the taste. The lighter colored ones are usually milder with a sweetish taste.

• Fillers

Consider them the meat of the cigar. They are the rolled up, bunched leaves in the middle. It is from the fillers that all the flavors and aroma of cigars come from.

• Binders

These are elastic leaves used to hold the filler bunches together. In short, they help keep your cigar from falling apart.

To compare cigars with cigarettes is not only inappropriate but also a big mistake. A closer comparison would be wines.

Like wines, cigars range in flavor and variety. They are also classified by the regions where the tobacco plant is grown.

Some of the best cigars in the world are produced in Cuba. But if you know your American history, you know that you have to make a quick excursion to Canada to enjoy a single Cuban stogie.

Fortunately for those who are not so fond of traveling far and wide just for a cigar, cigars from such countries as the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and even Connecticut are widely available, and some brands are quite good.

How to Smoke a Cigar

Now that you know what cigars are like, time for you learn how to smoke them. Smoking a cigar is not as simple as cutting off one end and sucking at the other end like crazy. No, it’s a little bit more complicated than that.

Actually, there are four basic steps involved.

• Cutting

All cigars have caps over the head. This means that a cigar, therefore, has only one open end. Now keep this carefully in mind: the open end is not the one you place in your mouth. On the contrary, that open end is the one where the smoke comes out. Therefore, if you want to smoke a cigar, cut off the cigar cap at the head.

Cigar cutters come in varied shapes and sizes. Perhaps the most common one is the guillotine, which is a single blade that neatly slices the cap off. Other varieties include double blade cutters, V-shape cutters, and bullet punch cutters.

However, cutting a cigar involves a certain level of skill. It is not a simple matter of cutting. You have to do it with finesse in order to prevent the tobacco leaves from tearing and instead make a clean and straight cut.

Try these tips on how to cut a cigar properly:

Ø      Cut the cigar on the cap (the tapered part).

Ø      Do not cut the entire cap. Leave about 1/8^th of an inch.

Ø      Watch out for the cap line. Never cut past that line, else you’ll be cutting the wrapper leaf. If you cut the wrapper leaf, that can’t be good.

·        Lighting

Lighting cigar is nothing like lighting a cigarette. In fact, the whole exercise can be a bit tricky, especially for newbies. So read up on the following tips to help you get through it:

Ø      Like we said, lighting a cigar is plenty different from lighting a cigarette where you usually have a friend hold up the light for you. With a cigar, it is best not to feel rushed. A good cigar has a certain moisture level that makes it hard to catch fire, so lighting one is going to take some time.

So basically, don’t let a friend light it for you. Do it yourself.

Ø      Pay attention to the matches or lighter you are using. They may mess up the natural flavors of the cigar. You can use butane lighters. They work fine with cigars.

It’s when you use a match that you have to be alert. Make sure the sulfur is burned out first before you place it anywhere near your cigar. The burning sulfur may affect the cigar’s flavors.

Ø      Never use a candle when lighting a cigar. The reason is that the wax particles tend to mess with the cigar’s flavors when they seep through the tobacco leaves.

Ø      Do not light it like you do with a cigarette. This cannot be emphasized enough. Instead of holding it in your mouth, hold it with your hand over the flame. Then, gently rotate it until the entire end is evenly lit.

Ø      Many people make this mistake, but do not actually touch the flame with your cigar.

Ø      Wait until the entire surface is in embers and charred before placing the cigar on your lips and smoking it.

Ø      Take your first hit and puff gently. This will help get rid of any foreign particles or odors that may have come from the match or the lighter. Also, check to see if the cigar is lit evenly.

·        Smoking

This is it. This is the real thing. Now that the cigar is lit, time for you to smoke it.

Just like practically everything you do with a cigar, smoking a cigar takes some finesse. It is not like a cigarette where you can take one drag after drag until the whole thing’s kaput. No, with cigars, you have to go through it gently, softly – the better to savor its flavors and aromas.

Newbies will find it a little hard to understand, but when you smoke a cigar, you do not inhale the smoke. Huh? What? Not inhale it? Then, what’s the point?

The problem with this is that you often associate a cigar with a cigarette. As we said, cigars are more similar to wines than anything else.

When you drink your wine, you do not drink it for the alcohol. You drink because the entire exercise of wine-drinking is an exaltation to this drink of the gods. So what you do is you smell the wine first, let its aromas and flavors fill your head. Then, you take the first gentle sip, swirling the liquid around. And then you swallow and close your eyes at the sensation.

With cigars, it’s almost the same thing. Below are some tips to help you appreciate better the joys of smoking cigars:

Ø      Once the cigar is lit, draw slowly. Do it not by sucking or inhaling but pulling in your cheeks gradually.

Ø      Never smoke the cigar too forcefully or too quickly. You will not be able to appreciate its subtle flavors and aroma that way. Instead, the cigar smoke will only taste harsh and burnt. Instead, puff occasionally. And make sure that the cigar stays lit.

Ø      Allow the smoke to waft around your mouth. Enjoy its flavor.

Ø      After a while of smoking, you may want to remove the cigar band – i.e. the label. There’s nothing tackier than smoking with the band still on. And if your reason for keeping it on is to keep your fingers from getting stained, it’s not really necessary. However, just make sure that you do not remove the band too soon. Wait until the glue keeping it on will have softened (that happens after a while of smoking), or risk tearing the wrapper.

·        Ashing

A good cigar should be able to form ash that is about 2.4 cm or an inch long. In fact, many smokers like to keep the ash on for as long as possible as this is a sign that the cigar is good. But you do not need to conform to that ideal.

To avoid looking pretentious and making a whole mess on the floor, take the ash off. Don’t flick it the way you do with a cigarette. Just gently press the ash into the ashtray. Don’t grind. Let the ash fall off by itself.

Do not remove the ash too often. If you do, you risk putting out the cigar. And if your cigar does go off, don’t worry. That is not a sign that you are a bad cigar smoker. It only means that you need to take the match again and re-do the whole process.