"I smoke in moderation. Only one cigar at a time." - Mark Twain
Welcome back to another edition of the Beginners Guide to Cigars! I’m ecstatic that I have the opportunity to share my love for cigars with new people from all different walks of life and hopefully inspire some new people to get into one of my all time favorite hobbies. With that, I thank you all who may read this and give me this opportunity on a weekly basis.
Today, our topic of discussion is something, again, pretty basic to the start of smoking cigars, and yet is still one of the most often overlooked parts of enjoying a cigar. I’m talking about the proper lighting method to really getting the most out of your cigar. So let’s learn a thing or two and celebrate the little things!
So if you’re like me, your Italian mother always told you three things, “Don’t run on the stairs,” “Don’t play with fire,” and “There’s a new sheriff in town” when you got less than par marks on your report card. While I am guilty of all three of these cardinal sins of Celeste Vilk, until I started smoking cigars, I never really realized the importance of playing with fire. Now in all sincerity and honesty, when I first started smoking, I ruined so many of my smoking experiences by not properly lighting up my cigar. I lit it unevenly, I didn’t light it enough, and I constantly had to battle with lighting and re-lighting my cigar. It pissed me off so badly. It wasn’t until I did a little bit of research that I realized that there was a way to prevent my misfortune and struggles by simply following a few essential steps when I light one up.
Step 1: Toast The Foot
So this term might seem a little bit weird or juvenile at first, and like something you’d never think of, but let me tell you this makes all the difference. Simply, take your lighter or matches and slightly toast the bottom end of your cigar that you plan on completely lighting. By doing this one simple thing, it creates a surface in which you can fully and more completely light your stick up and properly set yourself up for an even burn during your smoke.
Step 2: The Light
I know, I know, the moment we’ve all been waiting for or some shit, and while you may think that the simple approach to this would be just to light up your cigar like you’re throwing someone into the 8th ring of Hell, there’s a little bit of finesse that can make you look like an experienced cigar smoker, get the full flavor from your cigar, and also keep yourself safe while playing with fire too. So if you’re using a torch lighter of any kind (which is a billion percent recommended for simplicity and efficiency), that thing is like a mini fucking flamethrower that can torch your eyebrows off if you’re not careful and have you looking like a dumbass on your family holiday card. If you’ve ever played around with a torch, you know that even right above where the flame is coming out of is COOKING hot. With that in mind, rather than really stick your cigar right into the flame and risk burning it badly, cracking the leaf from the heat, or burning yourself, my go-to, my sweet spot is in that area I’m talking about. You’re going to have more than enough heat to light your cigar up and at the same time not compromise the flavor you are looking forward to enjoying from your stick.
Step 3: Puff Puff Hooray
Now while this part is done in partnership with the second step, taking short drags on your cigar while lighting is massively important in the sense that it will allow the heat from your lighter and from that flame to travel throughout the cigar and heat up the whole body so that your cigar is lit throughout rather than in small segmented areas of the cigar, which will certainly cause you to constantly have to go back and re-light again and again. Contrary to your typical draws of a cigar, these puffs while lighting should very deliberate in the sense that each of them serve a specific purpose that will set the tone for your time smoking. Everyone is different how they go about these inhales, but to speak from my experience, I typically like to take a couple of slow, deeper inhales and let the smoke out to really allow that heat to travel all the way down my cigar to the cut so that I can experience that blast of flavor, and also learn a little bit about the strength of a cigar in case I’m smoking something I’ve never tried before. Take this part slow at first, but as you get more and more into cigar smoking, this process will become second nature to you.
And there you have it. A guide to lighting up a cigar efficiently so that you can get the most out of your stick every single time. But, if you’re like me, and you’re a visual learner, here is our old buddy Tim from Cigars Daily again running through the lighting process with touches of his own method mixed in. Enjoy!