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“I tried a cigar once and I liked it. I want to keep smoking cigars. What do I need for it?”. Many times some friends or someone that I’ve met on the socials asked me this question. For those who want to smoke, as I do, Italian cigars that’s a quite simple answer: a lighter, a cigar, and an hour, at least, to enjoy it. But things change if you prefer, as most of the cigar smokers do, Cubans or more in general, all the Caribbean.
In that case, the Tobacco is quite fine and delicate, so how you keep your cigars is very important, because the flavor of your cigars can improve or can get worse depending on how you keep your cigars at home. For this is very important to have a good humidor, that is a box (can be a portable one or a quite big one, depending on how much you smoke and how much money you have to spend on it) that keeps the level of the humidity and of the temperature-controlled. This is important because the cigar, with the right humidity percentage (around 65/70%), is able to progress while we keep it in the humidor and can age in a good way.
After you bought the humidor, what you absolutely need is a cutter. What is it and why we need it is very simple: this cutter is something that can be like a scissor or a guillotine and it’s crucial to “open” the cigar. What does it mean? All the Caribbean cigars have a shape that is completely open to one side of the cigar (that is the side that we light and that is called “foot”) and is closed to the other side (that is the side closer to the cigar brand and that we call “head”). To start a smoke, we need to cut a little portion of the head, so that is possible to smoke. To cut this little portion of cigar, we need what is called a cutter. There are many types of cutters with very different types of cut, and during your smoking experience, you’ll try and find many types of cutters, until you’ll find the balance between the cut you do and the cigar that you are smoking.
In the end, what is also important for a smoke is the fire. At this point, there are two possibilities: a lighter or a match. If you choose a match, be aware that to light a cigar you need some time, so buy long matches (or the matches made for cigars) and, if you smoke en plein air, be aware of the wind, that can make your lightning process quite long and frustrating. If you want, on the other side, a lighter, then my suggestion is to avoid all the lighters that are working with gasoline, because the smell of the gasoline can change the flavor of your cigar. In my opinion, your choice should go between a windproof lighter or a normal lighter. If you think that you’ll smoke often outside, then I would definitely recommend you a windproof lighter. The lightning process should be gentle, long, and only after that the entire foot of the cigar is lightened then you should start to enjoy the cigar with gentle “puff”.
The last thing is recommended is an ashtray, especially if you smoke inside.
The smoking world, in the end, is quite full of accessories, that can be quite expensive or just basic quality. Anyway, my personal opinion is that smoke a cigar is not about smoking. Is about rituals, attention to little details, and enjoy a portion of time in our day to enjoy pleasures of life.
