How To Properly Smoke A Cigar
Cigars are elitist, unlike your regular cigarettes or pipe.
Perhaps this is the reason they come with a manual on how to smoke it right and enjoy the experience of puffing on a Cohiba, Montecristo, or any brand of your choice.
If it is your first time attempting to smoke a cigar, and you’re reading this, congratulations. This is the guide you will want to hold onto as you get to experience and taste a cigar. Smoking a cigar starts with a well-laid ritual, and if you’re a novice at this, here is where the adventure begins!
Choosing The Cigar
Cigars come in mild, medium, and bold types. As a first-timer, you can stick with the mild cigar, but you still have to choose from over a dozen brands, including Russian Cream backwoods box. If you’re indecisive, buy multiple brands of mild cigars and try them out at intervals as your palette evolves from knowing which one gives you the best satisfaction.
In a situation where you are with an avid cigar-lover, and you’re getting a look at their humidor, let him be your guide to choosing the best cigar for you.
Cutting The Cigar
After choosing a cigar, some experts will tell you that choosing the right location to smoke can make or mar your experience, especially as a first-timer. But, one major constant is that wherever you decide to smoke it, you have to clip the end of your cigar. Why?
Cigars have caps that help to secure the wrapper and its content before smoking. Premium cigars have 2-3 caps which makes it necessary to snip off at least one by cutting the end of your cigar; you can use a knife, cigar cutters, or bite off the cover with your teeth. But, to make sure you don’t do it wrongly, get a cigar cutter that can easily snip the ends off in a decisive way because it would affect the whole smoking experience for you when it is poorly done.
Lighting The Cigar
You don’t light your cigar in the same way you do for a cigarette or pipe. This one follows a methodical tradition using the right tool. Wooden matches, fluid-fuelled lighters, and candles are not the best lighting options for your cigar as they could affect the taste.
Use a butane or torch lighter to fire up your cigar. Click on the lighter to produce flame at a few distances from the cigar already placed in your mouth, then bring it closer to the cigar’s snipped off part and draw it in with your mouth, puff to make the cigar catch a little flame, and rotate it, so that you have an even burn across the cigar’s foot. Ladies and Gentlemen, that’s how you light up a cigar.
Holding The Cigar
You don’t hold a cigar the same way you handle a cigarette. In between your index and middle fingers, avid cigar-smokers frown upon it as they see it as un-gentlemanly.
The conventional way of holding a cigar is: between your index and thumb fingers, curling your index finger around the wrapper and placing the head on your thumb and the rest of it braced around your middle and index fingers. It is also perfectly normal not to hold your cigar for long minutes as you can place it in the middle of the ashtray and pick it up to puff on it at intervals.
Smoking The Cigar
You need to know about puffing on a cigar. You do not grip a cigar between your teeth or chew on it would damage the wrapper due to pressure and moisture. Then to the smoking part, cigars are not meant to be inhaled but sipped at Intervals.
Desist from sucking the smoke off a cigar and inhaling it as it could ruin the whole experience while you’re just about to start, instead draw on the cigar as if you are blowing a kiss or sucking on a straw, which fills your mouth with smoke and you blow it out. You can do this 4-5 times or until your cigar starts to produce thick white smoke. Then, you can set it down on the ashtray and pick it up every minute to puff on it and keep it lit.
Enjoying The Cigar
Cigars are meant to be savored like fine wine. Typically, a cigar lasts between thirty minutes to two hours, and during this period, you get to enjoy the minty, chocolatey, caramel flavor of your choice cigar.
There are traditions on when to stop smoking your cigar, preferably when you’re halfway, till you reach the band or when you have three-fingers width left. But, know that drop your cigar in the ashtray to die out when you feel satisfied.
Smoking a cigar can be an enjoyable experience, but it’s important to be mindful of its effects on your dental health. For those concerned about maintaining a bright smile, considering cosmetic dental options like veneers in Ballantyne can be beneficial. Veneers can help restore the appearance of teeth affected by smoking, ensuring your smile remains attractive and healthy.
