AI Asks MMC - What Are Some Common Mistakes Cigar Smokers Make?

We've started a new series where we've turned the tables on AI.  Instead of us asking AI questions, we've tasked AI with asking US questions about cigars!  

There are countless mistakes that people can make when it comes to smoking cigars but we know you don’t have all day to read those. Let’s face it, we don’t have all day to list them.  Also, you don't have all day to read them.  After all, you have cigars to smoke.

So here are the 5 most common mistakes we can think of…

1. Cutting the cigar past the cap.
If we’ve seen it once we’ve seen it a thousand times. The cap is there to hold the cigar together so cutting past that point will cause the cigar to unravel.

Remember, if you’re unsure of how far down you should cut, just cut a little at a time. You can always cut more off of the cap, but you can’t add more to it.

2. Torching the cigar when lighting.
You have a nice premium handmade cigar ready to be smoked. It’s cut perfectly because you avoided mistake No.1 above. You grab your lighter and your mistake comes in the form of shoving your lighter as close as possible to the foot of the cigar.

Right there your cigar is (no pun intended) toast. All your doing is creating so much ash and soot at the foot of the cigar, which now creates nothing but a burnt taste every time you draw.

3. Removing the band way too early.
So many times people will remove the band on their cigar either immediately before lighting up or just a few minutes into the smoke. Cigar bands are held together with pectin (vegetable glue) which is the same substance that keeps your cigar tightly rolled. Sometimes that pectin gets under the band and onto the cigar.

What happens next? You remove the band and you end up taking a chunk of the wrapper with you. Boom. Cigar, damaged.

To avoid this you should wait until the cigar is smoked to within about a half inch of the band. Then you can remove it. This way the cigar has had time to heat up a bit which in turn loosens the potential pectin stuck from the band onto the wrapper.

4. Puffing too frequently.
You’re enjoying your cigar and all of a sudden you see that it’s not burning properly. Maybe it’s starting to look more like a cone than a cigar. Well, that’s most likely because you’ve been puffing way too often on the cigar.

Puffing more than once every 30 seconds to a minute creates a fast burn of the tobacco. Generally, harder to burn tobacco (ligero) is rolled in the middle of the cigar while the rest (including the wrapper) are easier burning leaves such as viso or seco.

Bottom line: slow down.

5. Inhaling the cigar smoke.
You would think this one goes without saying, but you’d also be surprised how many people actually do it. It’s not on purpose though, they’re most likely new to cigar smoking and never had any guidance or tried to learn from blogs and posts such as this one.

Cigar smoke is meant to be savored and sifted through your mouth to grasp all the flavors and nuances prior to exhaling the smoke. Unlike cigarettes with all the added chemicals to make the smoke lighter for one to inhale, cigar smoke come from a natural substance (tobacco leaves) and has a thick character to it that would simply annihilate and destroy your throat and lungs if inhaled.

Want to stay up to date on this series? You can continue check back on the MMC Blog or you can follow us on X (Twitter) @MyMonthlyCigars as we'll be posting this series there as well!