Appreciating Fine Cigars
Appearance:
Examine the cigar for the quality of the wrapper. Look for things like oiliness, firmness, a silky texture, and overall consistency of wrapper color. Bulging veins, excessive spotting, marks and a rough finish are defects. Cigars should be maintained at 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 70% humidity. A poorly humidified cigar will display cracks and have an overall dry feeling to it. Seeing oil in the wrapper leaf indicates that the cigar has been well-humidified and the smoke should be relatively cool. A cool smoke is a tastier one, because it means the tobacco isn't carbonizing or overheating, which can limit the flavors.
Cutting:
How you cut and light your cigar determines how well you will enjoy it. A cigar with a bad cut will pull too loosely and smoke hot and bitter or just fall apart towards the finish and leave you spitting like a camel. A correct cut rivals a comfortable chair; you don't even notice it.
Each smoker has a favorite way to snip off the end of a cigar. A ritual so personal is subject to inflexible opinions about right and wrong methods, and the choice of method is often traceable to the mentor who taught a given smoker to appreciate cigars.
Regardless of the method, though -- whether wedge, guillotine, scissors, bull's-eye, piercer, knife or teeth -- the quality of the cutting tool often relates directly to the quality of the cut. There are a few basic rules that can lead to a perfect cut. For now, if you are uncertain about cutting your cigar, you should ask someone for help.
Lighting:
Lighting your cigar is equally important as cutting and determines how well the cigar will taste once it is lit. The use of a wooden match or cedar strip, called a "spill," is elegant and effective, but it's often time-consuming and unwieldy because it takes more than one match to properly light up. Any good butane lighter is an efficient cigar smoker's companion. Now you are ready to light.
Cool smoke is the goal. Never let the cigar touch the flame. When you light up, hold the cigar at a 45 degree angle above the flame, just far enough away so that the tip of the flame dances up to the cigar but never quite touches it. Then, to assure a proper light, rotate the cigar in your hand so that the foot of the cigar lights all the way around. When a lightly burning ring surrounds the tip of the cigar and begins to creep toward the center of the foot, blow out lightly through the cigar. Your first exhalation will rid the tobacco of unwanted flavors from sulfur or other gasses. Rotate your cigar while taking puffs. You should pull (draw) on the cigar at a rate of one puff a minute to ensure a smooth, cool smoke.
Tasting:
As with sampling fine wines and liquor, cigars have a descriptive language of their own. The overall cigar can be described as mild, medium, or full-bodied. The first third of the cigar will contain flavors such as spice, pepper, toast, coffee, chocolate, nutty, creamy, tobacco, earthiness, grassy, vegetal, floral, salty, and cinnamon. The last third of the cigar determines the finish, the lasting taste of the cigar on your palate. To describe a finish, use words such as mild, medium, cedary, leathery, hot, bitter, earthy, creamy, and spicy.
Drinks:
Spirits and wines provide an ideal marriage with a premium hand-rolled cigar. Your choice of beverage depends on personal taste, but it can vary according to the occasion. Sometimes what you want with your cigar is a full-bodied, slightly sweet taste of vintage port or the palate cleansing sharpness of Cognac or Scotch. Other times you may want to experiment with a premium tequila or aged rum.
Single malt Scotches are superpremium products that have the complexity and depth of flavor to stand up to a cigar. The smokey quality of a fine single malt, derived from the smoked peat used to filter the spirit, marries perfectly with a cigar such as a Churchill or Robusto.
