cigar lighters Lighting and Relighting The Cigar By Dale Scott Jan 30, 1998, Julian, CA - Non-cigar smokers often refer to the "ritual" of lighting a cigar. They may view the process of bringing the leaf to life as merely a stylized ceremony, repeated so often the reasons for it are forgotten. They're wrong. The time, care and techniques you use to light the cigar are crucial to the entire smoke. You can really blow it here, or you can set the stage for real smoking pleasure. There are three important cautions when lighting a cigar: 1. DON'T POISON THE TOBACCO WITH THE FLAME If you introduce a bad taste at the cigar's foot, you'll draw it down the entire length of the filler as you puff on it. This taints the delicate taste of the tobacco, so it's important to not contaminate the tobacco during the lighting process. To illustrate, in the movie thriller Crimson Tide, premium cigars not only are a visual prop, but star Gene Hackman verbalizes his homage to one. Then, he thumbs the wheel on a Zippo lighter and buries the foot of his puro in a ball of petroleum flame. How many movie-going cigar fledglings will follow his example, only to wonder why their cigars taste like kerosene? Never use fluid-type lighters. Butane is a tasteless, odorless fuel, perfectly suited as a cigarlighter medium. Wooden matches are acceptable, but the woods they make them from don't burn as cleanly as butane. Wait until the head is consumed totally, because its phosphorus taste can poison a cigar. Paper matches are virtually useless because they don't burn long enough to get the foot going. Every time one goes out, the cigar foot cools down again. So, you hurry the process by sticking the match on the end of the cigar and puffing on it impatiently - just what you shouldn't do! Candles don't work, either. It may look cosmopolitan to have some elegant lady hold out a four passenger candelabra to fire up your after-dinner treat, but the paraffin ruins the taste. Besides, while both of you are focussing on lighting the cigar, the other three candles are dripping hot juice in your espresso, your cherries jubilee, and your lap. Cedar slivers - Purists light their cigars with a sliver of cedar from the cigar box, called a "spill." Only use a spill if it is solid cedar, not cedar plywood. In the latter, the glue that bonds the inner layer of wood between the outer layers of cedar can impart a bad taste. 2.DON'T SOOT THE CIGAR. Do not put the end of an open-footed cigar in the flame and puff it to life. You'll char the filler tobacco, drawing the sooty taste through the length of the cigar. Instead, hold the cigar in one hand - not in your mouth - so you can see what's happening at the cigar's foot. Angle the cigar foot about 30° below horizontal, but no more. IF you point the cigar down too steeply, the flame will run up the sides of the barrel and char the wrapper. Keep the flame small - about 3/8" to 1/2" high. Hold the flame tip about 1/4" below the lower rim of the foot. Rotate the cigar slo-o-owly to just toast the rim. As each segment of the rim catches, you'll see a tiny wisp of smoke curling up and the rim starting to turn gray. More important than the wrapper, you're igniting the binder - the cigar's fuse - which will carry the flame front down the cigar's length. Be careful the tip of the flame doesn't char the wrapper! This will take longer than one match's length. This is why butane lighters are preferable, especially if they are the kind you don't have to hold a button down on to keep going. This careful lighting is another reason to smoke indoors: the wind, however light, causes the flame to dance around erratically, making the lighting unpredictable. 3. MAKE CERTAIN THE ENTIRE RIM OF THE FOOT IS LIT. If it isn't, the cigar will burn unevenly. So, when you see the ash encircling the rim, watch it to make sure the entire rim is burning and the coal is progressing inward toward the center of the foot. It's OK to gently blow on the foot to accelerate things. Wait the full minute or longer, until the entire face of the foot is gray ash. Be patient. When the end is completely lit, don't puff in on it yet! Instead, blow lightly into it once, to expel even the slightest of contaminating fumes out the foot. If you must puff on it afterwards to get it going, use several little puffs in quick succession, not big ones. RELIGHTING THE CIGAR Winston Churchill was one of the better-known cigar lovers of the twentieth century, smoking 15-18 large Havanas a day. He even holds one in his world-famous bronze statue. Churchill once intoned, in that flat bulldog growl of his, "A good cigar should be lit but once - a bad cigar, nevah!" But a cigar that goes out completely, or one that burns unevenly down one side can indeed be relit with satisfactory results, if done right. The trick is to bring it to life again without poisoning it with that dead cigar-butt taste. To do so, you must heat the cold soot back up to temperature to drive off the volatile, evil-tasting components in it. Don't put a light to it and puff it to life, for the reasons in the previous section. Instead, coax all the loose ash out and heat the wrapper rim until the gray ring tells you it's lit all around. Remember, a cigar dies at its periphery first - often, the center of the filler is still burning. You want to slowly heat the binder back to ignition again. Thus, the fire will burn inward, merging with the live central coal, and you can resume smoking. But like the initial cigar lighting, don't hurry the process. A cigar that continues to burn down one side and which requires frequent relighting, was rolled improperly and can't be saved. Likewise, don't bother to relight a cigar that has been out for an hour or longer. Sometimes nothing can resurrect the dead. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dale Scott, a "certified cigar crazy," is an internationally recognized cigar journalist and author. He's learned the art and science of premium cigars from 35-plus years of personal experience, observation and research. He has prowled cigar factories, chummed around with Cuban tobacco growers, interviewed industry sources, and talked with innumerable fellow aficionados. You'll find his "how-to" and technical articles appearing regularly in several national cigar publications and Internet sites. His knack at balancing no-nonsense cigar fact, legend,and humor makes him a popular guest on national radio and TV shows. Additional "How-to" information is available at the authors' web site, Cigar Resource.