What Makes a Good Cigar?

Usually when you smoke a cigar, you can tell fairly easily if you enjoy it or not, however, here are some factors that I find to be important i deciding whether a cigar was good or not.

1. Draw: The draw deals with the volume of smoke you are able to get with each puff. Some cigars are rolled so tightly and have a bad draw that you can't get any smoke out of them, therefore that is probably a poorly constructed cigar. Good cigars should have an easy draw and it shouldn't feel like trying to suck a golfball through a straw while smoking. This is probably the number one factor for me as it reflects very much on a cigars construction. If you can't even smoke the damn thing, then it's not a very good cigar

2. Smoothness/ Harshness: Good cigars, now matter how powerful and how much nicotine they have should still be a smooth and pleasant smoke. Basically smoothness in a cigar means that you can smoke it without getting a biting feel in your mouth/ throat and a pleasant taste. Harsh cigars are easy to tell because your mouth and throat start to feel bad and is usually accompanied by bad taste. Harshness usually occurs because the tobacco in the cigar is "green" (not sufficiently aged/cured) and there is too much ammonia present in the tobacco leaves. Good cigars should be smooth and pleasant the whole way through, however, even in well made cigars they can get harsh towards the end due to the tar build-up.

3. Burn: The cigars burn is somewhat tricky because it is dependent both on how well the cigar was constructed at the factory AND on how well you store it. Some cigars, Cubans and those made by Don Pepin Garcia in particular, prefer to be stored at low humidity for optimal smoking and burn. However, sometimes in the factory the cigar isn't properly rolled or bunched and this can lead to an uneven burn called "boating" or "canoeing" because it resembles a dug-out canoe or boat where one side of the cigar is burning and the other isn't burning at all and has unburnt tobacco. A good cigar should burn evenly the whole way through with a nice ring of burning tobacco and a cylindrical ash. Your lighting technique can also influence the cigar's burn.

4. Taste: Taste is EXTREMELY SUBJECTIVE. A taste that one cigar smoker may like, another may abhor. It really is your choice on what kind of taste you think a good cigar ought to have. I prefer cigars that have a lot of spiciness and a strong tobacco taste. Generally your enjoyment of more powerful cigars increases in proportion to the time you've been smoking. When starting out a lot of people prefer smoking milder cigars, and then build towards more full-bodied cigars, but SMOKE WHAT YOU LIKE!