Lighting a Cigar

What is a simple way to celebrate the birth of a child, or your wedding, or golfing with friends?  Cigars are simple forms of celebration that bring friends together in a very masculine way.  If these celebration sticks are used for important occasions, wouldn’t you want to get the most from the purchase and experience?  One thing people forgot about cigars is that they are not cigarettes, they don’t smoke like cigarettes and they don’t taste like cigarettes, so don’t light them like cigarettes.  When lighting a cigarette people will simply put any flame up to the tip and boom, it’s lit; cigars are much different.  Before you light the joy stick let’s first talk about the thought companies go through to make that cigar.

Cigar companies like CAO, Romeo y Julieta, Oliva, and Perdomo put years of thought and design into one cigar.  First they think of the flavors the cigar will incorporate, is it going to be new and bold or a tribute to an old line, will it start off bold then go smooth or vice versa.  When looking at the inside of a cigar, one could see many layers of leaves.  Each layer was chosen for a reason due to its specific flavor.  Each layer could be a completely different leaf from a different plant, from a different year, from a different country.   Companies hold leaves leftover from their plants just incase the flavor they have will enhance a future line.  Knowing the details of each cigar is a little overkill for someone who has one or two a year, but understanding the amount of thought and consideration in each stick will not only impress your friends but help enhance the experience of the smoke.

Now that we have an understanding for the work put into a cigar, why would someone simply fling up a lighter and destroy the careful design of the stick.  There are different ways to light cigars but one method of doing it.  If the cigar gets lit to fast or lit wrong, the designed flavor will develop a burnt taste and the whole stick is ruined. There is a better way to light one that will preserve the desired flavor.

Lighting it at 45º angle helps distribute the heat evenly around the cigar butt.

After properly cutting the head, hold the cigar at a 45º angle (cut end up) placing the flame about an inch under the cigar.  The heat from the flame will warm up the end, preventing it from becoming scorched.  Rolling the cigar in your hand to develop a uniform heat across the entire cigar tip then move the cigar closer to the flame, close enough where the tip of the flame dances on the cigar but doesn’t touch it.  Keep rolling the cigar and you’ll see that beautiful deep orange glow engulfing the end of the cigar.  Keep in mind, we have not put the cigar in our mouths yet, this is the time to do so.  Do not suck in but exhale, blow out through the cigar.  This will emit any burnt flavor that the lighting might have made.

Now draw in a good puff and enjoy.  After having many different cigars and deciding that they all taste similar, give this classic lighting method a try.  When I light it the right way, cigars developed a whole new depth of flavor that I wasn’t getting before.  Give it a try, taste the hard work these skilled companies put into their trade.

Works Cited:

Shanken, Marvin R.  Cigar Aficionado’s Buying Guide to Premium Cigars (3rd ed.).   New York, NY.  M. Shanken Communications, Inc.  1997

Scott Dale.  “Smocking Tips.”  StogieFresh.com. April 23rd 2008.  <www.stogiefresh.com>