The Art of Smoking a Cigar

“Letting another person light up your cigar 

is like letting somebody take off your wife’s clothes before making love to her.” 

Such a statement comes from a cigar aficionado, and it’s one perspective that says it all. There’s more to just smoking a cigar. It is an experience that should be taken in a specific way. 

Backstory 

While many think that it was Christopher Columbus who gave the world awakening to the joys of smoking a cigar, it is worth mentioning that it had existed way before such commercialization took place. It was the Caribbean natives who rolled dried tobacco leaves and smoked them in front of Columbus and his co-sailors. It was a new experience to them, however, after trying it they found that they enjoyed it. As a result, they took some back to their homeland Spain. In no time a massive production of cigars had begun.

Great names began smoking cigars as they established their position in society. Babe Ruth, Winston Churchill, John Wayne, and even John F. Kennedy, who ordered its entry to the United States illegally, were cigar aficionados. To retaliate from Fidel Castro’s impending missile crisis, Kennedy authorized a trading embargo against Cuba. They halted cigar distribution which prohibited any selling or trading of a Cuban cigar in the United States, up until now.

The Taste 

What is arguably the most worthwhile investment, is taking the time to learn how to smoke a cigar the right way. Doing so will make you enjoy the flavor that it brings to the experience. 

Cohiba Cigars are made in two ways. One is through actual hand-rolling while the other is made by machines, any educated cigar aficionado will always prefer the hand-rolled option.

Machine-made cigars somehow contain chemical compounds and preservatives that add something to the original flavor, therefore altering it. On the other hand, hand-rolled cigars are bound and wrapped with 100% tobacco genuine tobacco leaf. In general, the latter one tastes more exotic than a machine-rolled cigar.  

That information alone already gives you an idea of how smoking a cigar is different from smoking a cigarette. While tobacco grows in several places: Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras. Cuba is dominant in the cigar business. 

The Manner 

With how exquisite cigar flavor is to taste, preserving its authentic flavors, is as crucial as its preparation. Firstly, before lighting up the cigar, you would have to cut the end. Do not attempt to do so with your teeth if you don’t have a cigar cutter. If you do not have a cigar cutter then a sharp knife or good pair of scissors will suffice. 

 A Cigar should only be puffed once every 15-30 seconds, otherwise, you defeat the purpose of slowly enjoying the subtle factors that make smoking a cigar so great. Aroma, Satisfaction, and flavor overcome your senses when taking these drags. 

 If you puff on it too fast; you finish too quickly because you had dried out your cigar. That spells only one thing – amateur. If you puff on it too slow; it’ll always die out, and you have to keep relighting it each time.  

With that in mind, puff through rather than inhaling, then rotate your cigar as you smoke it. While keeping the flame lighted up below the opposite end of your cigar. Do not let your cigar touch the burning flames. Instead, let it burn from the heat.  

Keep on going until you see the outer rim of the cigar start to glow from the heat. Drawing the smoke at this point should come easy and almost effortlessly. Enjoy from this point on as you keep up socially with your favorite drink at hand.