Cigar Blog

Happiness is a good cigar

Best Cigar Tips

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If you are new to the world of cigars, there are probably a lot of things that you may not know yet. This is what I like to call “best practices.” These are habits that the more seasoned cigar smokers would know about but may be unknown to the newbies. Let’s take a look at some of these tips.

Puff but do not inhale.
I do not know too many people who, when they smoke cigars, inhale the smoke. Many smoke cigars for the flavor – this means that you do not have to actually inhale the cigar. Enjoy the draw and live longer!

Find a good companion for your cigar.
I am talking about a drink. Most people I know like to drink while smoking a cigar. There is no rule against this, of course and drinking is actually a good accompaniment to a good cigar. The idea, though, is to have a drink that will enhance the flavor of your cigar and not drown it.

Age your cigars before smoking.
If you buy a new bundle of cigars, do not immediately smoke them. Of course, you can do so if you want but you would not get the best out of the cigars. Rather, you should unwrap them and place them in humidors for a few months before smoking them. If you want a cigar that you can smoke immediately, go to your local cigar shop and buy individual sticks that they have already aged.

Originally posted on July 19, 2008 @ 5:09 am

What Do You Do With Your Cigar Bands?

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In the last post we talked about cigar bands and how they came to be. We also talked briefly about how different people perceive and treat cigar bands. There are those people who do not really pay attention to cigar bands and as a matter of fact, immediately take them off the cigar before they smoke it. On the other hand, there are those people who take pride in their cigar bands and leave them on as they smoke. In fact, there are some people who see cigar bands as sort of a status symbol.

So what should you really do? According to Puffing Cigars, if you follow the old European etiquette, you should remove the band. However, there are pretty good reasons to keep it on. For one, many of these cigar bands are firmly glued in place. This means that you actually risk damaging your cigar if you insist on removing it! More than this, the cigar bands of today are actually quite beautiful. You can find ones that are gold-colored with really neat designs. Having the cigar band on can also add to the aesthetic value of smoking your cigar. Now why wouldn’t you want that?

If you really want to remove the band from the cigar, why not try this trick – smoke a little bit of your cigar with the band on. After a while, the heat from the smoke will melt the glue a bit and weaken the bond. Then you can try taking out the band – it should be easier and not damage the cigar itself.

Photo courtesy of Esteban Cavrico

Originally posted on July 2, 2008 @ 7:25 am

How Do You Relight Your Cigar?

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Smoking a cigar is one of the greatest pleasures in life. Some people think that it is not much different from a cigarette. After all, you have a stick (albeit of varying sizes) in your mouth, you puff, and so on. Then again, those who know nothing (or very little) about cigars wouldn’t know that there are key differences when it comes to smoking cigarettes and cigars. For example, most cigar smokers that I know do not inhale the smoke. If you don’t believe me, try inhaling cigar smoke and you will know what I mean.

Anyway, another key difference when it comes to smoking cigars and cigarettes is the relighting of one. Cigarettes burn quickly and easily so it is rare that you would have to relight one. But in the event that you do have to relight a cigarette, all you need to do is flick the ashes out and put a lighter to the tip.

For cigars, however, you have to be more careful. Naturally, you also need to get rid of the ash at the foot of the cigar. It has to be done carefully by tapping the cigar or gently rubbing it on an ashtray. Relighting a cigar entails more than puffing – you have to blow out the smoke THROUGH the cigar. This is so that the ash and tar build up can be removed. However, this has proven to be disastrous for some smokers as sparks can blow out from the cigar.

Another option then would be to cut about one fourth of an inch from the foot of the cigar. That would leave you with unburnt tobacco.

How do you relight your cigars?

Originally posted on August 18, 2008 @ 7:07 pm