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| Smoking Tips |
Smoking Tips
Here we will explore techniques that will help you enjoy your premium cigars more than you already are. The following tips include some straight-from-Cuba smoking tips largely unknown to many Aficionados.
Cigars are loaded with opulent flavor and captivating aroma. The tobacco's robust flavor comes from the potent oleoresins in tobacco leaves. Premium cigars....more than other tobacco.
We'd like you to enjoy all the flavor your cigars have to deliver. To do so, though, you have to pay attention to the subtleties of your cigar's burning process.
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Smoke Slowly
Smoke Meditatively. A cigar can work magic on our psyches. Smoking a cigar should not be a sprint. Most of the attraction to cigar smoking is the relaxation and enjoyment it brings.
There's a saying: "Whether I've had a great or terrible day, I finish it off with a cigar." But, a cigar soothes and satisfies only when the smoker is absorbed in smoking it. Don't clamp one in your jaw and then rush around like a crazy person. They'll taste bitter, be wet, maybe burning unevenly or only partially. No, the time to smoke is when we're relaxing ... reading, for example, or listening to or watching our favorite entertainment media. When you are engaged in a past-time or relaxing activity.
Be warned ... women sense and can grow jealous of the attention you'll give your cigar if you try to hold a conversation. Get her involved in a cigar if possible. You cigar should be an hour of meditation ... the more you create that environment for yourself, the more you'll get from your prized "stick".
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Prep your mouth
It's customary to have a rich cigar after a rich meal, but a fresh palate responds better to the delicacy of a
good cigar.
At home, you can brush your teeth (and tounge) before smoking, and a breath mint will do the job if you're mobile. Likewise, the burned oleoresins that remain in your mouth from your last smoke, can affect how the next cigar tastes. This is especially true if the first cigar was very strong or sooty taste. You will want to get rid
of those deposits on your tongue.
If needed read "Cleanse my Palate"
Otherwise:
Read "Lighting My Cigar"
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Cigar Lighting
More smoking experiences are ruined by incorrect lighting than anything else you can do. Don't char the foot. As you grow with your smoking experiences, you will most likely give up on microtorch lighters, many Aficionado's favorite for years. To a large extent, you'll completely give up on butane. Microtorches burn at over 2,000?F, and it's virtually impossible to avoid turning the foot into a cinder, and sometimes even blistering the wrapper. This charring (carbonization) yields a sharp, bitter taste that permeates the cigar's first 1/4" or more. This sooty taste will remain in your mouth too, further adding to the unpleasantness.
Step #1
Toast the foot of the cigar lightly ... point it down toward the flame, holding it about 3" above it, and view it from above. The delightful aroma will tell you it's toasted.
Step #2
Put the cigar in your mouth and hold it about 5" above the flame, pointed down at about 30?. The heat, not flame, will ignite the foot. Puff on it gently a few times, turning the cigar in your mouth until the entire face and peripher are lit. The big balls of yellow
flame will tell you you're getting it going.
Step #3
Remove it from your mouth and blow on the foot ... if it's not going all around, repeat the step above, only from a higher distance above the flame. Don't overdo it! Make sure the entire foot is glowing. Ironically, when your cigar isn't burning across it's entire face and around its periphery, you get much the same taste as when you char it. To make sure the entire foot is glowing after you light it, blow on its face. Ignite any uncooperative part of the rim as above, or with a non-butane needle-flame alcohol torch.
For home or office, an alcohol flame burns cooler than butane, so is more gentle to your cigar. You can find one at laboratory supply houses, and it consists of a glass bowl with a capped cotton wick. Using denatured alcohol (methanol), it generates only harmless carbon dioxide and water vapor, unlike butane, a hydrocarbon.
If charring occurs immediately:
Read "Purging - Superheat the Coal"
Otherwise:
Read "Smoking my Cigar"
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Smoking my Cigar
Now it's time for the most important smoking technique you need to utilize. It works magic in giving you a sweet smoke, and will tame a misbehaving cigar.
Superheat the coal, and make sure the cigar is burning all the way around its periphery. As those flavorful oleoresins are consumed by the coal, they change character. They will slowly develope a bitter, tarry taste that collects in the rest of the cigar's tobacco.
To prevent or correct this, follow these steps:
Step #1
Don't waste butane by trying to light the wrapper, hoping the coal will migrate toward the center. You have to get the coal going from the center outward.
Knock the ash off gently and examine the coal. Is it burning unevenly down one side, or "tunneling" into the filler? Note: the coal must still be glowing, even if only weakly.
Step #2
Put the cigar in your mouth as usual, but DON'T draw on it. You will only pull that sooty, tarry taste down the length of the cigar and taint the remaining tobacco. Instead, blow vigorously, without puffing your cheeks out, which draws stares. Stop when you see the orange rim of fire around the entire circumference. Slowly turn the cigar as you blow through it. When you see this orange glow, stop, then give the cigar a few seconds to rest, and continue your smoke.
Now there aren't any bad-tasting dead spots in the coal, as the tobacco is burning evenly. The superheated coal also has burned off all its built-up soot and tars, which does wonders at sweetening the smoke.
Some cigars need attention shortly into the smoke, others after mid-point. Once you've determined how much attention it needs, you'll know how often you need to blow through it to keep the cigar burning evenly all around.
The cigar will load up with tars after a few more puffs ... simply blow through it again. The longer you smoke the cigar, the more often you have to purge it, due to the inevitable build-up of combustion products in the latter stages of the smoke. Somewhere past the cigar's midpoint, you'll notice blowing doesn't do much good ... it's time to put it down.
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Cleansing my Palate
q!: I enjoy smoking cigars, but some cigars leave an aftertaste in my mouth that could last for a day or two. Brushing my teeth and tongue doesn't help much. Is there anything I can do to get rid of the aftertaste?
a!: Excellent question, one which has confounded smokers for years. There are different approaches to this problem. But, no single approach, product or procedure will completely remove the taste of a cigar. Using several steps to successively reduce the amount of
cigar residue in the mouth is the best solution. The remaining taste can be almost totally eliminated.
Steps:
Brush your teeth (AND TOUNGE!)
Citric acid (not sodas, or anything with sugar)
Cough drops (sugar free)
Give your mouth something else to chew on like dry
cereal
Cheese
The previously mentioned Smoking tips will greatly enhance your experience. These tips have been used for generations to truly enjoys premium cigars. Enjoy!
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Cigars
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Created on 06/29/2008 12:29 PM by mikalsan
Updated on 03/22/2009 12:59 AM by mikalsan
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