Exploding Cigars – How to Cut a Dry Cigar (If you Have to)

As I write this I am smoking an excellent Arturo Fuente Chateau Fuente (natural) but last night there was this cigar that exploded when I cut it. No, it was not filled with TNT or Cemtex. It was just way too dry.

The cigar was part of an amazing dinner at The Cellar restaurant and, I can safely say, that cigar, a Torano The Brick, was the worst part of the dinner. (The rest of the tequila themed dinner was sublime and the company was just as good. The other cigar, a Torano 1912, was also very good). When I looked at The Brick I immediately noticed that the cap was splitting and that it was very dry. Even though I normally would not smoke a cigar like that I thought “What’s the worst that could happen?”

The worst was that, upon cutting The Brick, tobacco fragments sprayed every which way but the ash tray! I was mortified. Here I am, at this award winning French restaurant, and I was responsible for this long filler carnage on the white cloth table. To add insult to my malfeasance as the resident cigar expert at the table, the cigar was bad. Luckily, most of my table mates had not yet arrived and the ones who were there were understanding. Even John, who drove over an hour from Temecula and fell victim to the shrapnel, wasn’t annoyed.

After the dinner was over I realized there was a couple of ways I could have avoided this explosion. The best way to avoid exploding cigars is by not cutting them. Just put it in your humidor for a couple of months and then smoke it. But, if you really want to smoke a cigar that is a little too dry there may be a way to do so without letting tobacco rain.

If you gently press against the cap with your thumb while cutting it then there should be no pyrotechnics. I tried this tactic with the Fuente that I am currently smoking and, even though it was properly humidified and wouldn’t have exploded anyways, it works. The cap stayed on the cutter with the gentle application of pressure that I put on it.

While an exploding cigar is hardly something that most cigar connoisseurs will encounter with any regularity it does occasionally happen. In an effort to mitigate any more such explosions, I will continue to slightly press against every cap that I slice. It does not take any extra effort and is well worth it if it prevents any more explosions.

Am I Too Easy of a Reviewer?

As I look through some of my old ratings I realize that I have a lot of scores that are plus or minus three points of 90. Is that because I smoke a lot of quality cigars or is it because I am just too easy on the cigars?

I currently have 16 reviews that I gave 87-89 points to, seven received 90 points and 13 got 91-93 points. Overall, I have rated 54 cigars. That means about 64.8% of my reviews fall within the seven point range of 87-93 points, 27.8% fall in the 87-89 point range, 13% at 90 points and 24% in the 91-93 point range. Is that normal?

Instead of launching into a massive research project I decided to look at the ratings at A Cigar Smokers Journal because I really respect his ratings. Overall, he has rated 128 cigars. Of those ratings, he gave 15 90 points, 47 between 87 and 89 points and 29 between 91 and 93 points. That means that 71% of his reviews fall in the 87-93 point range, 36.7% fall in the 87-89 point range, 11.7% were given 90 points and 22.6% got 91-93 points.

Surprisingly, to me at least, our proportion of 90-93 point cigars are very close. He has a much larger proportion of his ratings in the 87-89 range though and even though the 90-93 point category is pretty close, I do tend to be more willing to give 90-93 points to a cigar.

Of course this isn’t scientific. The sample sizes are too small, we rated different cigars and I probably screwed up the math a little (adding and division are just so damned boring). But this is a basic way for me to judge how well I am doing at rating cigars and I would have to say that I am not doing too badly. At least that’s what I think.

To Cut or Punch Your Cigar

Up until about a week ago I have always cut my cigars. I have used guillotine cutters mainly because I thought that cutting the cigar this way gave a larger hole for the smoke to go through; and it does. But there are problems.

1. You can cut too much

This has troubled me more with some cigars than others. For a while I smoked almost nothing but Rocky Patel cigars and if you cut those delicious sticks too much the wrapper can start to unravel. It wasn’t a problem with my humidor because other cigars in there didn’t have the same problem. If you cut too much off the wrapper can come off.

2. The cutter can get dull

Now, I bet this will eventually affect my punch cutter but I don’t think it will happen as quickly. But once the blades on a guillotine cutter get dull it may not cut the whole way through the cigar and end up ripping the wrapper, which is never a good thing.

3. More moving parts

The more complicated a tool is the more that can go wrong. It also makes the tool more expensive. I know that punch cutters can be expensive but, generally speaking, they aren’t as expensive as their more complicated brethren, the guillotine cutter. More moving parts means more that can go wrong and a higher price tag.

The purpose of this post isn’t to be a diatribe against guillotine cutters – I’m still going to use them. But, until last week, I thought they were the only real way to cut a cigar. I was wrong.

Punch cutters are easy to use.

I may end up using the punch cutter more frequently now. Whenever I do I will make a mention of it on the review. Maybe, after using punches for a while, I’ll get more exposed to the downsides of punch cutters. When that happens I will definitely tell you. Until then, I’m going to punch my cigars more often.

Should I Get Cigar Factory Seconds?

I’m looking to load up my humidor and I was looking around for some good ones that are less expensive. Sure, I could do some extra homework and find a bunch of different cigars that are cheap but, I don’t know, that just seems like too much time and effort for me right now. That got me to thinking about factory seconds.

Seconds are just cigars that don’t meet the cut for some reason. They may have something wrong with the wrapper, they aren’t packed correctly, or something else. Maybe they’re misshapen – you don’t really get to know what’s wrong with them until you get them. But, to be honest, I really haven’t gotten to many factory seconds before so I don’t know what to expect.

That’s where you come in. Should I even consider buying a couple dozen factory seconds? Is their quality so poor that it’s not even worth the discounted price? Basically, what should I expect from factory seconds? I was specifically looking into getting some Rocky Patel factory seconds and, knowing that it’s a very high quality brand, I can’t imagine they would sell something, even as a second, if the quality was not there.

Even though I do want your response I did some searching about factory seconds and found this from Cigar Advisor:

So, what do you think? Should I go ahead and get some seconds?

How To Roll a Cigar

Here are a couple of videos that show you how to roll a cigar. One is more of a tutorial and the other is showcasing a master roller, Don Pepin Garcia, rolling a cigar.

Cigar Readers

Guess what this picture is all about.

How to Respond to a Smoke-Nazi

A while back I was smoking a cigar with a couple of friends in my backyard. I didn’t think anything of it because I was with friends and, well, I was outside so the smoke quickly dispersed. But then my friend had a fit.

He started waving his hand in front of his face, scrunching his face up, and having a first-class hissy fit because the smoke, he said, was “killing him.” So I put the cigar down and continued playing cards.

A few days later I saw that same friend hacking his head off. He updated me on his horrible condition saying that the cigar smoke had given him this hacking cough of his and that his doctor agreed with his psychotic diagnosis.

To make a long story short, I don’t talk to this guy anymore. His pansy ways around a cigar played a part but that was by no means the only straw. The only thing I regret was that I was gracious enough to let my cigar go out without saying anything witty.

Thanks to The Stogie Guys, and S-CHIP (barf), those days have come to an end:

How Can Two of the Same Cigars be So Different?

Last night I smoked a Partagas Black. It was just plain awful and I know that it can be such a great cigar since I gave the Partagas Black Label Piramide 93 points. So, how can this happen?

Different Size

Maybe the difference in size had something to do with it. The one I gave a 93 to was a pyramid and the one I smoked last night was a toro. The pyramid has a larger ring gauge and, maybe since it’s more difficult to roll, it might have had a better roller.

Normal Variation

Cigar making isn’t a science, it’s an art. There are going to be differences between cigars even if they are from the same line and are the same size. Different rollers, maybe a slightly different blend, a longer or shorter amount of time in the humidor, or maybe the flavors of the other cigars in my humidor could have rubbed off on the Partagas the wrong way. Cigar making isn’t a six sigma process, after all.

Wrong Drinks

Normally, I have Wild Turkey and a Cherry Coke with my cigars. For my cigar last night I had Maker’s Mark and a glass bottle of Coke. While I don’t think this accounts for the major difference between the two cigars, it might have had a negative affect on the cigar last night.

Temperature

I have to smoke outside and sometimes that is a pain because it can get quite cold, even in Southern California. Last night it was especially cold. And when it gets cold I don’t enjoy myself as much. But again, I don’t think that can account for the major difference between the two cigars.

Are there any other reasons why two of the same cigars could be so different? And, if you are curious, I will have the review for the bad Partagas up tomorrow.

Cigar Retrohaling Tutorial Video

I have talked a little about retrohaling a cigar before but I figured now was as good a time as any to get the scoop from the source. Here is an explanation of why it is a good thing to blow smoke out your nose, or retrohaling, when you smoke a cigar.

Don’t Judge a Cigar by It’s Wrapper – Usually

Something has always bothered me about the way cigars are rated. There is this category that is dedicated to the appearance of a cigar and I’m not sure it’s all that important.

Yes, if the cigar has holes in it or there are stretch marks on the wrapper or there are tares in the wrapper then, fine, the appearance matters. But if there are raised veins or the cigar looks a little bumpy or a bit misshapen then it usually does not affect the flavor of the cigar. Luckily appearance doesn’t factor too much into scores but 10-15 points is still a pretty big chunk.

It is often the case that I will smoke a cigar that just looks awful and it turns out to be very good. A recent example I encountered is the Arturo Fuente Curly Head cigar. It is an ugly cigar – I think they were going for the “rustic” look but, in the end, I didn’t like the look of it.

The wrapper covers a lot of the foot of the cigar and there are bumps all along it. Quite frankly, I thought that it was going to be a horrible cigar just because it looked weird. But it wasn’t. The Arturo Fuente Curly Head is actually a pretty good cigar and I wouldn’t mind smoking one again.

READ ON!