Will This Style Of Smoking Negatively Effect Cigars?

[SmokingInTheWind]

Know your cigars! You should learn the amount of time it takes you to smoke the different size
cigars you like. It will only take a short time to know just about the time it will take you to smoke a corona vs a robusto vs a Toro and so on. Before you light one up, consider if you have enough time to finish it. Because once it dies out, unless you relight it within minutes, within an hour, or so, it will never be the same. Ya! you can relight it several hours later or even the next day, but it will not be same and in most cases, it will be a terrible smoke. It is what it is!

Good points. Also, know your nicotine tolerance and choose cigar size and strength accordingly. I usually smoke Robustos or smaller in one sitting, but my wife bought me a box of ten Churchill size cigars as a gift. These were great cigars but I could only make it halfway or a little more through before the nicotine started hitting hard and I had to put it down. I would try relighting the next day but the cigar tasted ashy and harsh. So, I felt bad for wasting so much of a great cigar. On a good day I was able to get through an entire cigar but that was pushing it.

 

[Sig]

Most pipe blends are fine to come back to.
But, in my opinion, cigars are completely different.
A re-lit cigar tastes ashy or acrid too me.

 

[pantsBoots]

Cigars typically don't taste well after they've gone out - often they become ashy, especially if the cigar has sat for a couple hours (or longer!) You may want to consider buying small little cigars like the Cuban puritos.

 

[PipeIT]

It’s your cigar you bought it smoke it how you want, as far as taste even if you clip and purge the cigar before putting it down it’s going to start tasting stale and every time you hit the tobacco with a flake it’s going to change and i wouldn’t say for the better. Not sure why you’d start a cigar if you only are taking a couple puffs, you have cigarettes and a pipe, see,s like a waste of money. You might want to just fine some minueto or club cigars and smoke those, they are cigarette sized cigars and will save you money.

I‘ve never picked a pipe size or cigar vitola based on how long the smoke is suppose to last, I’ve never had a lifestyle, where I needed to pick something out based on time, I simply smoke whatever sizes.

In the past I never enjoyed anything smaller than a Robusto. But this time around I did purchase quite a wide range of vitola.

I’m also not a fast smoker, I’m extremely slow, to much constant puffing I don’t enjoy, and it becomes irritating to my mouth or throat if I’m constantly puffing, or getting a nic hit.

I started smoking cigars in 1978, and probably smoked them on an off over a 20 year span, and stopped around 1998, I smoked a lot of brands too.

I’m only getting a bit more serious now, so I just wanted to get some feedback, of course I already understood this can effect to some degree.

A lot of people talk about ash, or stale, soggy, etc., to be honest I’ve only experienced a few times a little ash, but nothing extreme, that didn’t remedy itself, by a slow relight and slow puffs to get the cigar going again.

What I have noticed more, is the flavors not as rich, but by no means a bad smoke.

Thanks

 

[Piping Panda]

I wanted to know, if someone is occasionally smoking a cigar, here and there though out the day, just a few puffs, let it go out, and come back to it at a later point in time…

As a slower cigar smoker (not uncommon for me to spend ~2hrs on a 5x50 robusto), this is actually why I picked up a pipe in the first place! I love that with pipes, I can easily pack a half-bowl or less, depending on how long I can or want to smoke.

As for your particular quandary, I am reminded of a couple of friends who essentially treat all their cigars as plug pipe tobacco. They snip off however much they want from the foot of their cigar and then pack, light, and sip away! Of course, if you desire the convenience / expedience of the cigar smoking ritual (e.g., simply cut and light, no need to clean a pipe afterward) or don’t want to impart your pipes with the cigar’s flavours, then I admit this is not a very helpful suggestion… But if it is the flavour of the cigar blend you are after, I encourage you to try this method if you haven’t already!

In any case, if you just want a few puffs at a time and are still content with the flavour of your cigars after coming back to them over the course of a day or more, I see no reason to let anyone talk you out of it . I have let a cigar go out and sit overnight a couple of times (after first purging and snipping off the burnt tobacco) due to running out of time, and still found plenty of enjoyment the next day!

 

[PipeIT]

I can’t remember if I mentioned it, but I’m a light weight, it’s the biggest reason I can’t handle smoking a cigar in one sitting. It would seriously have to be a tiny cigarillo style, which I don like the size.

The other day, I posted in WAYS, my second AJ Fernandez, a New World Cameroon. I got this in a AJ 5 cigar sampler. Looking at them online, I believe this is a Gordo.

I only smoked barely 1/8 and had around 5-7 puffs in a span of maybe 5 minutes. Around 20 minutes later, a pretty good nic hit/buzz, this cigar’s nic is pretty strong, and then I got a mild headache for 2 days. Bloody Hell! LOL.

Well, yesterday, a day later, I had a few puffs on it outside and it actually tastes the same, no bad ash, or soggy flavors.




Oh well, sucks to be me I guess, if I’m ever going to get the highest quality out of a stogie, by being able to smoke one in one sitting, that’s never going to happen. I unfortunately can only smoke a few puffs here and there over a span of many hours, or days, depending on how strong the nic is.

Here it is going on day 3, I might take a few puffs later today, not sure.

Long live the Light Weights! LOL

 

[ThomasS]

I'm not the most experienced cigar smoker in the world, but I have found that the bigger ring-gauges hit harder than the smaller ones and I don't like to go above 52 for just that reason. That tiny little 4.5 x 33 I had yesterday didn't do hardly anything as far as the N goes (and it still took me over an hour!).

I hear you, though: I'm also in the "slow" group - a 6 x 52 easily lasts me 2 hr 45m, and that's with giving up on the last couple inches when the nicotene seems to ramp up and the taste gets kinda dottle-ish. I dump my pipes when they taste bad, too - I'm here for whole the experience, not just the "vitamin N".

 

[eljimmy]

I just purchase different sized cigars, from cigarillos to Churchills and I pick size according to the time I have to smoke.

 

[PipeIT]

I don’t buy a cigar based on time, I simply buy a cigar I want and smoke it, I guess you would say, I smoke; Extremely Leisurely.

I often think to myself, when did Time Correlate to a cigar?

I sometimes think this is a Western Concept, of picking out certain Vitola based on a time frame you will smoke it in.

At some point, someone did realize, that smoking a cigar possibly over a longer span of time, diminished the quality, but when was this idea thought about.

I wonder if anyone here is old enough to remember, back in the 50s or 60s, Time and Cigars was still common place?

All I know is, thinking back to the early 80s, I didn’t see it back then as having a strict adherence. I don’t actually recall much talk over it.

Well, if I include Monday, yesterday day 3, I had a few more puffs of my AJ Fernandez, New World Cameroon Gordo. It actually started to become more complex in flavor, quite surprising, actually really good.

I don’t know if a lot of people like to hold an unlit cigar in their mouth and draw on it, as well as tasting the ends of it. I’m sure we know of those that like to chew on the ends, I personally keep it dry.

But, I have noticed in the past, if the cigar is getting bad, when drawing on it unlit, it then tastes ash, or a soggy taste. And there are those, I’ve noticed never taste bad like this.

This AJ still has nice tastes unlit and lit all the way through, and smelling it, not ash at all, it still smells nice up and down the length, but as pointed out before, maybe inexpensive cigars aren’t as noticeable to smoking in this manner, slowly for days.

Here it is, Day 4! LOL




As I mentioned before, I’m a light weight, I think I partied to much when I was younger. LOL

So now in my older age I take it slow and easy, for all those youthful and abusive years. LOL

To much nicotine can also trigger a migraine for me, another reason why I go slow. But if the cigar isn’t nic heavy, then I can certainly smoke one in a few hours. But I typically go slow, I just don’t enjoy all the constant smoking. Smoking to me, isn’t having smoke constantly in my mouth every few minutes.

 

[PipeIT]

I do like a slightly bigger vitola, hmm reading this about Eddie Sahakian cutting cigars in half…

The Father-And-Son Cigar Team | Cigar Aficionado

The father-son team that oversees London’s Davidoff store. | Cigar Aficionado

www.cigaraficionado.com

 

[didimauw]

Why not cut them into halves, or thirds and THEN smoke em? Could be a possibility.

 

[PipeIT]

I’d always thought a whole cigar is meant to transition through flavors at certain length/areas of the cigar.

So if you cut it in half, then you supposedly don’t get to experience the cigar as it was meant to be.

Maybe it will be the same flavor profiles, just as if smoking a smaller vitola is all… hmm

All I know is Eddie Sahakian doesn’t seem to have a problem with this. LOL

The Edward Cut… LOL

 

[pantsBoots]

I do like a slightly bigger vitola, hmm reading this about Eddie Sahakian cutting cigars in half…

The Father-And-Son Cigar Team | Cigar Aficionado

The father-son team that oversees London’s Davidoff store. | Cigar Aficionado

www.cigaraficionado.com

If you don't get an ashtray/off flavor snubbing and relighting cigars, I'd say full speed ahead for you. In my experience, relighting leads to a change in flavor and it's almost never the same or better.

As for cutting cigars into 2, I have had good luck with this with skinny cigars - the Por Lorrañaga Monte Carlo springs to mind as one I've done this many times with to good results. As with most things in life, experiment!

 

[Sigmund]

I dont even think the pipe is that great after it has been a while. Some blends are better than others but I dont think they are ever as good. Cigars can be pretty nasty relit. One reason I stopped buying them.

 

[eljimmy]

I’d always thought a whole cigar is meant to transition through flavors at certain length/areas of the cigar.

So if you cut it in half, then you supposedly don’t get to experience the cigar as it was meant to be.

Maybe it will be the same flavor profiles, just as if smoking a smaller vitola is all… hmm

All I know is Eddie Sahakian doesn’t seem to have a problem with this. LOL

The Edward Cut… LOL

If you don't get ashy/crappy flavors from smoking a day old cigar and you never have the time to smoke a full cigar or could smoke a full cigar than the transition of flavors shouldn't matter. Neither should cutting a cigar in halves or thirds matter to you. Sounds like a smoke is just a smoke.

 

[JOHN72]

My experience with cigars is much longer than with pipe tobacco. I think that on many occasions, I have left unfinished, especially some large cigar, which the next day I smoked again, finishing completely. What I have done is, on some occasions, to cut it, to (cercenar) slash. off the tip that is with ash. Since I kept them, and I did not want the aroma of ash, to fall back, or absorb in the leaves of the unburned tobacco. To this day I still do it. I do not do it for example with medium or small cigars, which I can smoke completely in a while. Although sometimes I also do it with the Toscanos, a more economical cigars of battle. Since here, in my tobacco shopping area, I just enjoy Cuban cigars at a good price. The variety has disappeared from that fantastic humidor cabinet in my favorite cigar store.

 

[Piping Panda]

I often think to myself, when did Time Correlate to a cigar?

I sometimes think this is a Western Concept, of picking out certain Vitola based on a time frame you will smoke it in.

At some point, someone did realize, that smoking a cigar possibly over a longer span of time, diminished the quality, but when was this idea thought about.

[…]

Well, if I include Monday, yesterday day 3, I had a few more puffs of my AJ Fernandez, New World Cameroon Gordo. It actually started to become more complex in flavor, quite surprising, actually really good.

[…]

But, I have noticed in the past, if the cigar is getting bad, when drawing on it unlit, it then tastes ash, or a soggy taste. And there are those, I’ve noticed never taste bad like this.

This AJ still has nice tastes unlit and lit all the way through, and smelling it, not ash at all, it still smells nice up and down the length, but as pointed out before, maybe inexpensive cigars aren’t as noticeable to smoking in this manner, slowly for days.

[…]

So now in my older age I take it slow and easy, for all those youthful and abusive years. LOL

To much nicotine can also trigger a migraine for me, another reason why I go slow. But if the cigar isn’t nic heavy, then I can certainly smoke one in a few hours. But I typically go slow, I just don’t enjoy all the constant smoking. Smoking to me, isn’t having smoke constantly in my mouth every few minutes.

I think your experience with your AJ Fernandez New World, combined with your point about what smoking is (or rather, isn’t) to you, is a more than sufficient counter to the argument that a cigar’s quality deteriorates after the first puff if let to sit for some hard-to-agree-on length of time!

As I understand it, most (if not all) the frequently cited rules/conventions for cigar/pipe smoking ultimately exist to ensure that the smoker gets the most out of their cigar (or pipe). Thus, it really doesn't matter what anyone thinks is best for your cigar if you already know from experience what gives you the most enjoyment! Those rules can probably be best thought of as a starting point; an individual can try different things and pick and choose from the list what works for them and agrees with their personal/subjective idea of what smoking means to them to create a unique and carefully tailored smoking experience.

Additionally, a lot of larger vitolas score better than their smaller counterparts, so it makes sense if affordability is not a barrier to purchase the yummier smoke!

Thank you for sharing some of your insight on how to appraise the smokeability of a previously lit cigar. I look forward to giving this a try! And I encourage you to create a thread about what smoking means to you, if one does not already exist - what a beautiful concept .