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Facts About Tobacco:
HOW TO ENJOY A CUBAN CIGAR
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Cigars made of
pre-Castro Cuban tobacco, and those from
Tabacos de la
Cordillera, are renowned for their opulent flavor and
captivating aroma. This robust flavor comes from the potent
oleoresins in tobacco leaves ... probably more than in any other
tobacco. |
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We'd like you to enjoy all the
flavor our cigars deliver. To do so, though, you have to pay
attention to the subtleties of your cigar's burning process.
Here are some tips not many know about: |
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Smoke Meditatively. A cigar
can work magic on our psyches. There's a saying: "Whether I've
had a great or terrible day, I finish it off with a cigar." But,
a cigar soothes and satisfies only when the smoker is absorbed
in smoking it. Don't clamp one in your jaw when you're fixing a
plugged drain or hammering a business deal home. They'll taste
bitter, be wet, maybe burning unevenly or only partially. No,
the time to smoke is when we're relaxing ... reading, for
example, or listening to or watching our favorite entertainment
media. We should be seated in a chair that remains comfortable
for the duration of the smoke. A desk is not a good venue, due
to its distractions that draw your attention away from the
pleasures of the cigar. A lighthearted phone conversation with a
good friend fits But be warned ... women sense and can grow
jealous of the attention you give your cigar during the
conversation. The cigar should be an hour of meditation ... the
more you create that environment for yourself, the more you'll
get from your treasured Havana. |
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Prep Your Mouth. It's
customary to have a rich cigar after a rich meal, but a fresh
palate responds better to the delicacy of a cigar. At home, you
can brush my teeth before smoking, and a breath mint will do the
job if you're mobile. Likewise, the burned oleoresins that
remain in your mouth from your last smoke, can affect how the
next cigar tastes. This is especially true if the first cigar
was very strong or sooty taste ... you have to get rid of those
deposits on your tongue. Go to "Cleanse Your Palate" (below), to
prevent this problem. |
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Shedding Light on
Lighting. More smoking experiences are ruined by incorrect
lighting than anything else you can do.
Don't char the foot. I have finally given up on microtorch
lighters, my favorites for years.. To a large extent, I've given
up on butane. Microtorches burn at over 2,000°F, and it's
virtually impossible to avoid turning the foot into a cinder,
and sometimes blistering the wrapper. This charring
(carbonization) yields a sharp, bitter taste that permeates the
cigar's first 1/4" or more. This sooty taste remains in your
mouth, too, further adding to the dictate. If this happens, go
immediately to "Superheat the Coal, etc." below, to clean out
that taste.
Toast the foot of the cigar lightly ... point it down toward the
flame, holding it about 3" above it, and view it from above. The
delightful aroma will tell you it's toasted.
Put the cigar in your mouth and hold it about 5" above the
flame, pointed down at about 30° .. The heat ,not flame, will
ignite the foot. Puff on it gently a few times, turning the
cigar in your mouth until the entire face and periphery are lit.
The big balls of yellow flame will tell you you're getting it
going.
Remove it from your mouth and blow on the foot ... if it's not
going all around, repeat the step above, only from a higher
distance above the flame ... don't overdo it.
Make sure the entire foot is glowing. Ironically, when your
cigar isn't burning across it's entire face and around its
periphery, you get much the same taste as when you char it.. To
make sure the entire foot is glowing after you light it, blow on
its face. Ignite any uncooperative part of the rim as above, or
with a non-butane needle-flame alcohol torch.
For home or office, an alcohol flame burns cooler than butane,
so is more gentle to your cigar. You can find one at laboratory
supply houses, and it consists of a glass bowl with a capped
cotton wick. Using denatured alcohol (methanol), it generates
only harmless carbon dioxide and water vapor, unlike butane, a
hydrocarbon. |
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Sip, don't gulp, the smoke.
Havanas deliver subtleties in flavor that reward the smoker who
takes in small amounts of smoke. They respond to "sipping,"
rather than "gulping" the smoke. |
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Take one less puff. When you
give your cigar those puffs to get the coal going, take one less
puff than you're used to ... like the first tip, this generates
less smoke, which will give you more delicate flavor. |
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Use your nostrils. When you
take a puff, divert just a tiny bit of the smoke out through
your nose. You'll note nuances you didn't know existed. Not a
stream of smoke ... just the barest hint does the job. Note how
it changes as you smoke the cigar down. |
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Don't hold the smoke in your
mouth. Instead, try taking a sip and then close down the
space between tongue and palate, letting the smoke trickle out
... taking a whiff as it wafts in front of your nose. With these
little sips, you don't have to knock the ash off before every
purge. You don't, however, want the ash longer than about ½", as
the blowing and superheating cause the ash to drop sooner than
usual. |
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Now it's time for the most important
smoking technique I know. It works magic in giving you a sweet
smoke, and tames a misbehaving cigar: |
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Superheat the coal, and make sure
the cigar is burning all the way around its periphery.
As those flavorful oleoresins are consumed by the coal, they
change character ... slowly developing a bitter, tarry taste
that collects in the rest of the cigar's tobacco. To prevent or
correct this, follow these steps: |
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Don't waste butane by trying to
light the wrapper, hoping the coal will migrate toward the
center ... you have to get the coal going from the center
outward. |
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Knock the ash off gently and examine
the coal. Is it burning unevenly down one side, or "tunneling"
into the filler? Note: the coal must still be glowing, even if
only weakly. |
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Put the cigar in your mouth as
usual, but don't draw on it, or you'll pull that sooty,
tarry taste down the length of the cigar and taint the remaining
tobacco. Instead, blow vigorously ... without puffing your
cheeks out, which draws stares ... until you see the orange rim
of fire around the entire circumference. Slowly turn the cigar
as you blow through it ... when you see this orange glow, give
the cigar a few seconds to rest, then continue your smoke. |
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Now there aren't any bad-tasting
dead spots in the coal, as the tobacco is burning evenly. The
superheated coal also has burned off all its built-up soot and
tars, which does wonders at sweetening the smoke. |
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Some cigars need attention shortly
into the smoke, others after mid-point. Once you've determined
how much attention it needs, you'll know how often you need to
blow through it to keep the cigar burning evenly all around.
Note also how you've sweetened it by this technique. The
important thing is to keep making sure the cigar is burning
all around. |
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The cigar will load up with tars
after a few more puffs ... simply blow through it again. The
longer you smoke the cigar, the more often you have to purge it,
due to the inevitable build-up of combustion products in the
latter stages of the smoke. Somewhere past the cigar's midpoint,
you'll notice blowing doesn't do much good ... it's time to put
it down. |
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If you get like I do, where my
automatic smoking routine is to keep my smoke sweet and
delicate, you'll learn to vary your purging with shorter and/or
gentler treatment, depending on how the cigar is smoking, how
long since the preceding puff, etc. ... maybe a full 15-second
purge after a half-dozen 3-5 second purges. By following each
purge with just a sip of smoke, you can prolong the delicate
flavors much longer. |
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This little-known method also
prevents the sooty taste when relighting a cigar. Again, remove
the ash and apply the flame. Rotate the cigar as you light it,
and concentrate on getting the wrapper going all around.
Before puffing on it (for the same reason as above), blow
through it, probably for about 20 seconds, to get it going all
around. |
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The reasonable price of cigars from
Tabacos de la Cordillera encourages you to enjoy the most
delicately flavorful first half of two cigars, instead of
smoking one to its death ... also distasteful to those around
you, because cigars start to smell bad to them before they taste
bad to you. As the legendary cigar purveyor Zino Davidoff
reportedly said, "A gentleman smokes a cigar only to mid-length,
and only a brute smokes it down to a third." |
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Cleanse Your Palate. Credit
goes to authority Richard Perelman, from his
CigarCyclopedia.com an informative, updated-daily cigar news
site. Rich also publishes "Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of
Cigars," a periodically updated pocket book that's the industry
reference manual. Here's a condensed version of the answer to a
smoker's question
(the complete answer is
http://www.cigarcyclopedia.com/news/news.php?c=journal&id=357)"
Q: "I enjoy smoking cigars, but some cigars leave an aftertaste
in my mouth that could last for a day or two. Brushing my teeth
and tongue doesn't help much. Is there anything on the market
that might get rid of the aftertaste?"
A: Excellent question and one which has confounded smokers for
years. My own approach to this problem focuses on eliminating
the aftertaste layer by layer.
There is a new product on the market called "Close Call" which
debuted at the RTDA and uses a patented process which suspends
copper sulfate in liquid. It has a light citrus taste and is
reported to be safe to "swish and swallow."
But, no single product or procedure will completely remove the
taste of a cigar. By using several steps to successively reduce
the amount of cigar residue in the mouth, any remaining taste
can be almost totally eliminated. Try a three-step approach:
oCut most of the taste with citric acid
This is extremely important. There's a reason why so many
mouthwashes and other products have a lemon, lime or orange
taste. It's the citric acid, which overpowers everything else in
the mouth. If lemon extract is a key ingredient in engine
degreasers, imagine what it can do to the tobacco's oleoresins
in your mouth.
Stay away from the weaker citrus drinks such as sodas and go for
more acidic tonics. Orange juice is good, but my favorite is the
bitter lemon drink mixes, especially Schweppes Bitter Lemon.
Their combination of lemon juice and bitter quinine is both sour
and refreshing and will cut 80-90% of the taste of anything that
was in your mouth.
o Give your mouth something else to chew on
After the citric acid moth rinse, try one of two things:
Cereal. If you're at home, try a couple of handfuls of Rice
Krispies straight ... no milk . Any of the Chex cereals ...
except Bran Chex ... and Grape Nuts are also excellent.
Cheese. A great choice to chase the cigar taste from the mouth
is some hard cheese like sharp cheddar.
o Give your cigar the brush-off
Once you have been citric acidified and cheesed up, you can get
out the toothbrush and be sure to brush that tongue. By then you
should be cigar taste-free. |
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Reprinted with permission from Dale
Scott, author of "How to Select and Enjoy Premium Cigars." |
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Photo by Stephanie Mausset
More photos of Cuba on her website:
Landscapes, People & Old Cars of Cuba
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"Ancestral
Cuban seeds grow the world's finest cigars™" |
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