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What lessons have you learned?

T

Taj

New Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2007
Messages
75
Location
Western NY
So lately I've been working on a journal of my cigar (and pipe tobacco) ventures so that I can both look back upon my progression of taste in the future, and so that I will have a better idea of what I'm looking for in a cigar when I purchase more. In doing so, I've learned a few lessons quite quickly. The first being to not only record the brand and label of the cigar, but also it's size. The second is the one I'm going to go into a bit more depth on... be 100% sure that you cigar is at the humidity that you're used to before smoking it!

My tobacconist knew that I'm fairly new into the world of cigars, and I regularly bring him business from fraternity brothers of mine that I've gotten started on nasal snuff, pipes, or cigars... so he treats me quite well with freebies to try out.

The other day he gave me a Cuvee Blanc Robusto (5x50 Dominican Mild) from the humidor room so I assumed it would be set to smoke that night. Unfortunately, I was wrong. So I've learned to keep any cigar that I'm going to smoke in my humidor for at least a few days so that I know it will be at a level of humidity which I'm used to... ESPECIALLY when comparing one cigar to another, it helps immensely for them to be at the same humidity.

I'm sure most all of you know all this already, but it's a lesson I learned through experience so I figured I'd share it here. I never know when someone may just be browsing the forums and read a post that could help them avoid such folly.

Overall It was a decent cigar, the flavor was lacking something... not quite sure how to explain it. The smoke was full and creamy with a peppery taste. I normally sip on scotch while smoking cigars as the flavors compliment each other quite nicely, but I found the scotch to be a bit too heavy of a drink for with this cigar. It's also the first cigar I've had which the smoke from made me cough on several occasions, but I think this was due to the fact that it wasn't quite up to the humidity that I'm used to.


This is a lesson which I could have easily avoided. I knew that even a few minutes out of a humidor and the humidity in your cigar is already changing... but I didn't think that one taken right from my tobacconist's humidor and then smoked would have been as dry as it was. When talking with other people who smoke cigars they've told me that quite often in humidor rooms the cigars are more dry than they would be otherwise when you go to smoke them, due to the size of the rooms, the location of the humidification device in the room, and the door.

Well, those are my thoughts on that. (What an ambiguous statement)

Help me (and others) avoid making such foolish mistakes in the future. What lessons have you guys (and girls) learned about smoking cigars through your own experiences?
 
Taj said:
This is a lesson which I could have easily avoided. I knew that even a few minutes out of a humidor and the humidity in your cigar is already changing... but I didn't think that one taken right from my tobacconist's humidor and then smoked would have been as dry as it was. When talking with other people who smoke cigars they've told me that quite often in humidor rooms the cigars are more dry than they would be otherwise when you go to smoke them, due to the size of the rooms, the location of the humidification device in the room, and the door.
Click to expand...

Quite the opposite in my experience... most tobacconists tend to over-humidify their walk-in humidors.
 
moki said:
Taj said:
This is a lesson which I could have easily avoided. I knew that even a few minutes out of a humidor and the humidity in your cigar is already changing... but I didn't think that one taken right from my tobacconist's humidor and then smoked would have been as dry as it was. When talking with other people who smoke cigars they've told me that quite often in humidor rooms the cigars are more dry than they would be otherwise when you go to smoke them, due to the size of the rooms, the location of the humidification device in the room, and the door.
Click to expand...

Quite the opposite in my experience... most tobacconists tend to over-humidify their walk-in humidors.
Click to expand...

I agree. I don't think I have ever had a dried out cigar from any cigar shop. Iv'e seen some dry cigars at places where cigars are not the primary source of revenue.
 
1. "Scalping" cigar caps (caveat: this applies to parejos only - and is a matter of preference)
I no longer sift through bits of tobacco caught into my teeth or suffer through unraveling wrappers or compressing the cigars into a tight draw from imprecise and/or sloppy cuts. I now just simply "scalp" the cap off. I place the head into one of my double guillotine cutters and rotate the cigar until I have scored the circumference of the cap. I then gently pluck the cap right off and achieve a perfect cut each and every time. Such a minor thing, but has such a positive effect.

2. Nose exhalation
The added flavors extracted from exhaling small bits of smoke through my nasal passages have introduced previously unknown nuances to my atrociously ignorant palate. The results have been staggering and have resulted in ancillary benefits. I no longer crave the behemoth cigars I used to smoke in order to attain the full strength and flavor that I generally prefer.

3. Keeping the unburned portion down when "tunneling" develops
Tunneling affects the intended taste of the cigar and increases burn problems, aside from simply being unaesthetic. I rotate the cigar in quarter turns before each puff to help prevent tunneling from developing.

4. Purging
Revitalizes the cigar's taste and burn. In addition to tasting "fresher", my cigar goes out on me less often due to the introduction of increased oxygen to its burning end.

5. SLOW DOWN AND ENJOY THE CIGAR
 
In my years of smoking cigars I've realized, IMHO, that bigger isn't necessarily better. Used to be that I'd always lean towards the churchills and such. But now I find I just don't have the time to smoke such a cigar (and I'm not even a busy man!). A nice robusto size is what I want. Oh, and anything bigger than a 52 RG is just obscene and uncomfortable in the mouth (again, IMHO).
 
....to purge when I relight. Used to I would just tap off the excess ash and get back at it. I noticed that the smoke was tasting like an ashtray so I came on here and searched about it. The most common fix was to "purge". So the next time a cigar went out on me I decided to purge it. 500x better. It even brought on some new flavors that were hiding in the cigar.
 
Smoke what YOU like, not what other people think you should like. Some people like Opus X, others don't. Same goes for all of the other "hot" cigars (Tatauje, Pepin, etc.).

Find what you like, smoke it and enjoy it.
 
Thank you everyone for the tips so far! Keep them coming!

Two of you mentioned purging the cigar, and I've done a search on it and read the description there, but I'm still confused...
 
Purging is the opposite of taking a draw. Blow out through the cigar. Not sure if this is what you were confused about.
 
If you're smoking a cigar and notice the smoke to turn harsh just give it one good blow through the smoke. You'll see a puff come out the foot and that is good. I wait for a minute to let the smoke cool and then take a nice deep draw. The new flavors are tremendous and different.
 
I can't wait to try this purging thing out, especially with how highly it's spoken of! Actually right now I can't wait to have another cigar at all, because I'm with my entire family for the holiday and even though they don't have objections to cigars (besides my mother) they don't like the smell of them and I'm stuck feigning for the pleasure of a nice cigar.
 
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