Cigar Selection Tips – Part I

Sitting in a red leather chair while taking sips from a glass of cognac and puffing smoke from a stick of Churchill is a very relaxing and really delightful experience but novices may want to consider some things first before taking the plunge into the whole cigar smoking scene.

Cigars are not fat cigarettes. They are not meant to be inhaled. A lot of novices may find most cigars to be a bit too strong for their taste so they have to start slow. First timers may want to go with thinner and milder cigars such as a panatela with a ring gauge range of 34 to 38 and a lonsdale with a ring gauge of 42 to 44. The measurement used for the ring gauge is the 64th of an inch. After starting with the thinner cigars, they can now work their way up to larger cigars like the 42 to 45 corona, the 46 to 52 torpedo, and the 48 to 50 robusto.

The ring gauge is not the only measure of a cigar’s strength. The main component of the cigar that has to be considered is the actual tobacco used as the filler, the binder, and the wrapper. Milder cigars are usually made from Sumatran-seed tobaccos or full-bodied Cubans.

When you are new to the world of cigars, buying a sample pack with different types of cigar could be a smart thing to do. It’s better to buy a few expensive cigars that are of high quality than buying more inexpensive cigars that are of bad quality.

Before investing in a humidor, get a couple of metal or glass tubes first for the purpose of storing their cigars. Investing to a humidor may also be a thing to consider. Because you probably don’t want to smoke an entire six-inch cigar at one time, consider storing the un-smoked portion in a safe place. Although some experts say that any un-smoked portion of a cigar needs to be thrown away unless it is intended to be finished within an hour, the storing could be experimented. Try relighting the second half of the cigar to see if the cigar still holds it flavor well.

Cigars don’t need to be crushed in order to stop them from burning. Even fine cigars will go out spontaneously after a few minutes. The right thing to do is to lay the cigar horizontally into an ashtray away from rapid air flow so that it won’t fall in or out. Although a little bit of ash will collect, the smoke will soon stop rising and the cigar will eventually cool naturally.

When storing in a glass tube, the burnt end of the partially-smoked cigar must be at the bottom. Taking it out later must be done carefully just to avoid getting ash on the cigar’s head.

Half-smoked and fresh cigars alike must never be left out in the open. Because they are agricultural products, cigars will dry out quickly when placed inside a refrigerator. Once it dries out, a cigar becomes unworthy of being smoked.