by Dale Scott

Over 45 years of smoking premium cigars have taught me three key techniques that will reward you with delicate-tasting, even-burning cigars. Use these techniques, and you’ll know more than 95% of smokers about cigar connoisseurship.

1. Don’t char the foot when lighting. Many people are impatient when lighting their cigars. Many of today’s popular welding or soldering torches are too hot (2,200 degrees F) and can easily scorch a cigar giving it a sharp, bitter taste from the start. The lighting process should be careful and unhurried.

I recommend that you use only wooden kitchen matches (non-sulfur) or butane lighters. Liquid fuel lighters (like Zippo) give the cigar a kerosene taste and paper matches don’t generate enough heat, and burn too fast to get a cigar going evenly and thoroughly.

To light your cigar, point the foot downward, holding the foot about 4-inches above the flame, and lightly toast it ... your nose will tell you when it’s ready. Then, level the cigar at the same 4-inches and puff lightly 4 or 5 times, rotating it after each puff.

Remove the cigar from your mouth and blow on the foot, to see if the entire rim is glowing. If not, touch it up. Then, put the cigar in your mouth and blow through it for 5 seconds to burn off (purge) any charred taste.

2. Smoke slowly, gently, and meditatively. Sit comfortably, with a friend or favorite entertainment media, especially after a good meal. A cigar won’t tolerate competition from golf (sorry!), home repairs, office duties, or other distractions.

Once it’s going well, wait a full minute (check it the first few times with your watch) before taking a puff. You want to let the coal cool, so it almost dies between puffs. Then, gently coax it back to life, but only barely enough to get a small, faint cloud of smoke and only “sip” the smoke. Repeat the delay and sipping twice more. Do you note the sweet, delicate flavor and subtle nuances each time? As an experiment to note the differences, try puffing heavily after only 30 seconds and you’ll note a hotter and sharper taste. Cigars with resinous ligero are extra-sensitive to impatient or heavy puffing.

3. Superheat the coal. Superheating is a technique that will help to solve typical problems of uneven burn, tarry taste after the midpoint, and sooty taste upon relighting a dead cigar

Uneven burn: Gently remove the ash. Is the cigar burning down one side, or “tunneling” into the filler? Make sure the coal is still glowing, if only weakly. Put the cigar in your mouth as usual, but don’t draw on it; you’ll taint the smoke by pulling sooty, tarry taste down its length. Instead, blow through it briskly, until the orange glow encircles the entire wrapper (15-20 seconds). Let the cigar cool a few seconds, and resume smoking.

Freshening a cigar’s second half: If the flavor of your cigar turns strong and “tarry,” follow the above instructions. Repeat often for 4 to 5 seconds to keep the cigar at its peak between the major 15-second treatments.

To prevent sooty taste after relighting: Relighting a cigar that has been left to extinguish itself is an important task. It is easy to experience sooty and noxious flavors due to the build-up of tars on the cooling ash. To relight, gently remove the ash, but do not put the cigar in your mouth yet. Light the rim around its periphery and then remove the flame and blow through the cigar as above, until the entire foot is glowing. Now, you can puff on it, without drawing the sooty taste of cold tars down its length.

Try this experiment: Get your cigar going, flick the ash off, and hold a flame just in front of its burning foot. Blow through the cigar into the flame until a yellow tongue of flame emanates from the foot of the cigar. If the flame can sustain itself, remove the lighter and continue blowing for about 15 seconds. Note how the flame gets smaller and changes from yellow to blue? Tars caused the yellow flame; the blue shows they’ve burned away.

If you practice these tips regularly, I believe you will improve your enjoyment of most premium cigars and will experience the relaxation and calm provided by a choice cigar.

Dale Scott is a veteran of 45-years of smoking and enjoying premium cigars. He is a cigar journalist, reviewer, and author of the book “How to Select & Enjoy Premium Cigars.” Dale currently lives in Costa Rica and continues to report on the cigar industry.