Let It Out!

Smoking a cigar is a matter of relaxation, tasting, and enjoyment.  In order to maximize that experience you need to provide the cigar with the optimal circumstances for its talents to emerge.  One critical detail is to not smoke the cigar too quickly.   Beyond smoking at a relaxed pace to keep the tobacco burning with a cool, rich smoke, it’s also useful to keep the body of the cigar clean to allow your palate to experience the purest smoke possible.

Try this:  just before you are going to draw the smoke into your mouth, first exhale a tiny puff of air through the cigar.  Do this by gently blowing a small volume of air into the cigar.  It doesn’t require much, just enough to create sufficient positive pressure inside of the body of the cigar to cause a little bit of smoke to escape out the foot.  Yes, at first this may seem as though you are doing this backwards, but trust me, it helps.

Many seasoned smokers have likely imparted rigid advice as to exactly how much time you should wait between puffs on your cigar so as to ensure its perfect burning temperature.  This is good advice, but there is no need to pull out a stop watch.  As the cigar rests, the heat of the smoldering end is somewhat reduced and it burns cooler.  This preserves the flavors of the tobacco.  However, while the cigar is resting, some of the residual smoke that was in the body settles against the filler leaves and remains.  This progressively builds up over the duration of the cigar and can shift its true flavor.  So, next time you light up, let out a little puff of air to clear out your cigar just before drawing fresh, delicious smoke across your palate.  Relax and enjoy.