Q & A: How Much of My Cigar Should I Smoke?
Q.
How much of my cigar should I smoke before I put it out?
10/16/13 | by FS of Aberdeen, SD
A.
I hate to answer a question with a question, but how much do you want to smoke? There is no rule of thumb for how much of the cigar you should smoke; it is most prudent to put your cigar down when you stop enjoying it. Some aficionados will burn their sticks to the band and beyond while other famous cigar lovers such as Winston Churchill would only smoke half of his prized puros. Every cigar hits a point where the flavor begins to turn bitter and the cigar turns soft and hot. While there is no formal name for this, I tend to refer to it as the flavor’s head as it typically occurs toward the head of the cigar. Where this bitter end occurs varies from cigar to cigar but is influenced mainly by a cigar’s ring gauge and how fast it is smoked. As you draw on your cigar the smoke pulls from the foot of the cigar to the head gumming up the unburned tobacco. This is the primary reason a cigar changes its flavor profile as it is smoked. The by-products from the combustion of the cigar alter the rest of the tobacco. As you burn your cigar and near the head, this process becomes more potent as more smoke passes through the filler. If you have a thin cigar or if you smoke your cigars quickly, this process accelerates.
by Dave