From: ??????????????
Subject: A Good Cigar Draw?
I have a question to the Cigar Smoking Readers.
What is the secret to getting a cigar to get a good draw though the smoke of
a Cigar?
First let me tell you what my experience is. I, over the past year, have
made it a hobby of mine to find the best smoking cigars. I try all sorts of
brands, including Havanas. Upon purchase, the cigars go from store humidor to
my humidor. I keep it at 65- 70 % Humidity. I have bought cigars all over
the world. I travel on business & vacation. I use a wedge cut on the end of
the cigar.
But I must be doing something wrong. Most of the Havanas (Cohibas, Romeo &
Julieta's, and Montecristo's) and Royal Jamaican's smoke very well. Good
flavor and good draw all thru to the end. Most of the other cigars are
inconsistent. Davidoff's, Macanudo's, Avo's, Ashton's, Artruo Fuente's and
others are sometimes difficult to draw. What I mean by this is that you have
to puff several times to get a full mouth of smoke. They seem too tightly
wrapped. To remedy this I have tried putting a large nail down the center.
This helps for a while but then it seems to close up again.
One theory I have is that I might be keeping my humidor to humid. It is
interesting to note that while I was in Ireland this Summer I visited several
tobaccanist and none had their cigars in humidors??
I asked why this was and they said that humid cigars do not smoke well?? In
fact one person showed me a tip for how to tell if a cigar will be a good
smoke. She then held it up to her ear and rolled it between her fingers.
She said if you hear just a little crakling then the cigar is right (of
course she warned me not to break the skin and if that happened the cigar was
too dry). If no crackling is heard or if it feels spoungy then it is too
humid.
Getting back to Humidors. It was my mission on my vaction in Europe this
summer to get the best Humidor that I could get for a reasonable price. I
found one in Spain that I really liked for about $200. I have seen similar in
the USA for $300-400. In this price range they come with a really cheesy
Hydometer ( if that's what it is called) I noticed that tapping on this gage
could change the reading by 10%. "Cigar Affecionado" recommends 60-70%
Humidity. With a 10% error range I thought that I might really be off.
To get more help I went to my local Tobaccanist to see how he measured
Humidity in his walk-in Humidor. Well he had two larger but still
relatively cheesy looking gages. One was reading 50% and the other
70%. They were about 2' away from each other. The Tobaccanist
explained that there was a variation in his humidor that usually
calmed down when the door was closed for a while. I have checked
since and these gages are never within 15%.
I'm a big fan of gadgets so I bought a Radio Shake miniature digital
temperature & Humidity gage that tucks up neatly into the top of my
humidor. Now it reads to a tenth of a percent but in the fine print
offers A 3% accuracy.
Maybe I am going overboard on this humidity, but a good smoke is worth a
little work.
Maybe I should be like the Irish and just leave the cigar out until it
crackles.
Please answer me in the digest or email to:
??????????????
[ I think it simply has to do with the construction of the cigar, as
long as you're making a relatively large cut in it. Other opinions? -S. ]
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Today's Snappy Comeback:
(The California Turn-down:) "I hear you. I know where you're coming
from. I just can't get behind it."
- From "101 Ways to Answer the
Question, 'Would You Please Put Out
that #(!&*!$ Cigar'," Hague et. al.,
1987.
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