Cigars. Advices and recommendations. Part 5

June 21, 2010

How to be with ashes?

To shake cigar ashes off is necessary only as the need arises but not after each draw.

Good cigar of manual roll up can easily hold 1-3 centimeters of ashes before it would have to be shaken off.

The best way to shake off ashes of cigar - is to make two good long draws that will heat cigar's end, then to wait approximately 3-5 seconds and slightly to shake cigar off. Ideally ashes column will "break" just on the border of burning material leaving beautiful smoldering orange cone on cigar end.

If ashes don't shake off after one-two light but hard tips, it means that it is not ready for shaking. Ashes shaking off by force can lead to various problems including cigar extinction, uneven burning, and lack of smoke and flavors strength.

Let cigar to get cold after shaking off the ashes as method mentioned above with double inhaling warms up cigar a little stronger than usually.

And of course, ashes should be shaken off in the ashtray but not on people round you.

What to do if cigar has blown out?

If after all cigar has blown out, whatever the reason is, slowly light it up again. Shake down the major part of ashes from cigar's end and carefully blow through cigar to blow out stagnant smoke from cigar. Hold the remaining ashes and partially burnt tobacco in the flame during several seconds before inhaling. It allows cigar to heat up before burning starts again and leads to less strength of flavor than "cold" repeated lighting.

How to "say goodbye" to cigar?

Smoke cigar till its flavor becomes too strong or till it will not start to burn fingers (it is not known what will happen first). When you end smoking, put your cigar aside. It will quickly blow out itself. Let it "die with dignity". Don't break and turn over smoked cigar otherwise you can fill premises with unpleasant aromas.