Five Cigar Myths Debunked

A good cigar, like most things in life, is subject to myths and legends due to the sheer amount of time they have been around. They’ve had hundreds of years to gather a history and untruths have been attached to them along the way.

New or less experienced cigar smokers hear these untruths and take them at face value, which affects the way they pick up signs to determine the quality of the cigar or how they should smoke it.

Here we are going to brush away the myths regarding cigars so all that you’re surrounded by is the beautifully aromatic smoke of your stogie.

Cigars are only for the wealthy

This myth is mainly down to Hollywood’s portrayal of cigar smokers, where normally only wealthy, corrupt or criminal people are seen enjoying a smoke on the big screen. Of course, there are expensive cigars, but then that applies to any product. There are a number of high-quality cigars all for as little as £5 – £10 meaning even the thriftiest among us can start to collect some high-quality cigars that won’t break the bank.

The darker the wrapper, the stronger the smoke

Many people have fallen prey to this myth, believing that cigars with a darker outer leaf are stronger than those with a lighter wrapper. The strength of a cigar in no way depends on the colour of its wrapper leaf. Experience shows that cigars with almost black outer leaves may be mild, just as cigars with light wrappers may be very strong. The world traditionally distinguishes six or seven colours of wrapper leaf: from light green to almost black. The strength of a cigar depends directly on the composition of the filler tobacco. However, a dark wrapper leaf contains far more oils and tar than a light one, and so greater quantities of various substances remain on the lips when it’s being smoked, hence people thinking it’s stronger.

Warming your cigar before smoking

Warming a cigar improves neither its flavour nor its aroma; it doesn’t even make the smoke smoother. The only thing you do achieve by carefully warming each square centimetre of a cigar’s surface is spoil it. If the flame gets a millimetre closer than the permissible distance from the surface, the outer leaf will start to smoulder. The smouldering can be stopped easily enough, but the taste and aroma of the cigar will be spoilt.

White ash is a sign of quality

Another facet of judgement we have taken from other fields such as wine and textiles where we associate the quality of a product with the purity, in this case, if the ash looks clean than it must have been processed better with higher quality tobaccos. With cigars, if they tend to have a very white ash that normally means they have higher amounts of calcium and magnesium. There are plenty of well-respected high-end cigars that have a salt and pepper ash.

Handmade cigars

Don’t be fooled by the fancy labels stating that the fine stogie you just picked up is ‘hand-made’ because the reality is that it’s probably made in a large factory using industrial processes and equipment.

When you buy a box or bundle of cigars, you are making the choice to support a long list of production practices, including industrial manufacturing. This means that corporations are making decisions about what goes into your cigar based on how it will look more than what is best for the health and enjoyment of the end user. As much as 75% – 80% of the price of a cigar can directly represent cosmetic decisions made to increase the visual elements of the product that has nothing to do with the actual quality or smoke-ability of the cigar.

Now we have extinguished some of the myths surrounding cigars, why not visit our cigar shop to buy cigars online and enjoy your stogie knowing you’re smoking it the right way?