Smoking
How to smoke a cigar
To smoke a cigar, cut the cap, toast and light the foot, then sip the smoke into your mouth and let it go without inhaling, about one slow puff a minute.
The whole smoke in seven moves
A cigar is smoked in a fixed order: choose, cut, light, draw, pace, ash and finish. Each move has its own guide. Here is how they chain together.
- Choose for the clock. Size decides how long you'll sit. Match the cigar to the time you actually have.
- Cut. Open the cap a sliver above the shoulder. Details in the cutting guide.
- Light. Toast the foot first, then draw while turning. The lighting guide compares flames.
- Draw. Pull smoke into your mouth, taste it, let it out. Lungs stay out of it.
- Pace. Slow, steady puffs. Rest the cigar between them.
- Ash. Let it build to about an inch, then roll it off. See how to ash.
- Finish. Set it in the tray and let it die. No stubbing. The putting-out guide explains why.
Went out halfway? Normal. The relight drill brings it back in a minute.
Pick a cigar that fits the time you have
Length and ring gauge set the smoking time, so a short, slim cigar suits a 30-minute break and a long, fat one needs an evening.
New smokers grab big cigars and then rush them. Bad trade. A rushed cigar runs hot and tastes burnt. Pick small and smoke it properly.
Not sure what fits? Put the length and ring into the smoke time estimator. It gives a window from your pace, and it's an estimate, so treat it as one. The size explorer shows how common vitolas compare side by side. First cigar ever? The beginner's choosing guide walks through size, shade and strength.
How do you draw on a cigar?
You draw on a cigar by pulling smoke into your mouth with your cheeks, like sipping through a wide straw, then letting it roll out.
Close your lips around the head. Pull gently for a second or two. Hold the smoke on your tongue, move it around, notice what you taste. Open and let it drift out. That's one puff.
Cigar smoke isn't taken into the lungs. Wikipedia's entry on cigars calls drawing the smoke into the mouth the usual way to smoke one. Why people don't inhale, and what US health agencies say about it, sits on its own page: do you inhale cigars?
Too much effort on the draw? The cigar is plugged or the cut is small. Check the draw fixes before you fight it for an hour.
Retrohaling sends smoke out through your nose
A retrohale is pushing a small part of a mouthful of smoke out through your nose, so you smell the cigar as well as taste it.
Your tongue reads salt, sweet, bitter and sour. Most of what people call flavor, the cedar, the cocoa, the spice, comes through the nose. A retrohale brings it in.
- Take a normal puff. Smoke in your mouth, not your chest.
- Let most of it out. Keep only a wisp.
- Close your lips. Breathe out gently through your nose, the way you'd hum.
Start with very little. A full blast of a strong cigar stings. Boveda's smoking primer warns that retrohaling can overwhelm the sinuses for newer smokers. Once every few puffs is plenty. Some never do it. Optional, not required.
Pace is the skill nobody mentions
Pace is the gap between puffs, and it decides whether the cigar tastes balanced, burns hot or goes out.
Puff too often and the coal climbs in temperature. The smoke turns sharp and the wrapper can split near the burn. Wait too long and the coal cools until it dies. Somewhere in the middle, about once a minute for most cigars, the smoke stays cool and the coal stays alive. That number is our working pace, not a measured standard.
| What you notice | What it means | Adjust |
|---|---|---|
| Hot, sharp smoke | Puffing too fast | Rest it two or three minutes |
| Thin, faint smoke | Coal is fading | Take a puff now, turn the cigar |
| Bitter, stale taste | Old smoke trapped in the filler | Blow out gently through the head once |
| Out after every pause | Humidity or draw problem | See why it keeps going out |
Put it down between puffs. A cigar in your hand gets puffed out of habit. A cigar in the tray gets puffed when you want it.
What changes in each third?
Smokers split a cigar into thirds because the taste often shifts as the burn moves toward the head, and each third asks something slightly different of you.
| Section | What the smoke often does | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| First third | Lighter, often brighter or peppery as the foot settles | Find your rhythm. Leave the first inch of ash on. |
| Second third | Fuller and rounder; the blend usually shows here | Slow down. Try a retrohale. Ash when it leans. |
| Final third | Warmer, heavier, sometimes sharper near the band | Puff less often. Purge if it turns bitter. Stop when it stops being good. |
These are tendencies, not promises. Some blends barely change. Others swing hard. The fun is noticing which one you're holding. Log the shifts third by third in the tasting journal and patterns show up after a few cigars.
Why does the end get heavier? Smoke from the foot passes through the unburnt leaf ahead of it, and that leaf collects oils and moisture on the way. By the last third, the smoke has a shorter, warmer path to your mouth.
Knowing when to set it down
A cigar is finished when it stops tasting good, which for most people is an inch or two from the head.
No prize for the nub. When the smoke turns hot and harsh even at a slow pace, you're done. Slide the band off once it's warm, if you haven't already. Then lay the cigar in the tray and leave it. It goes out on its own in a few minutes.
Holding it comfortably for an hour matters too. The grip guide covers fingers, teeth and resting spots.
Smoking a cigar, the common questions
How long does it take to smoke a cigar?
Anywhere from under half an hour to two hours, depending on length, ring gauge and pace. The National Cancer Institute says large cigars "can take between 1 and 2 hours to smoke."
How often should you puff on a cigar?
Roughly one slow puff a minute keeps most cigars lit without overheating them. That is a working pace, not a rule; puff sooner if the glow fades, later if the smoke runs hot.
Do you smoke a cigar all the way down?
No. Most people set it down with an inch or two left, once the smoke turns hot or bitter near the band.
Should you take the band off before smoking?
Leave it on at first. After the cigar has warmed for a while the glue loosens and the band slides off without tearing the wrapper.
Technique changes the taste, not the risk. The National Cancer Institute says "There is no safe level of tobacco use."
Where this smoking sequence draws from
- Cigar: drawing smoke into the mouth, exhaling through the nose, Wikipedia
- Cigars 101: how to smoke a cigar, Boveda
- Cigar Smoking and Cancer, National Cancer Institute