Cut, Light, Savor

A cigar asks three small things of you: a cut, a light, and a little patience once it's lit. The first two take a minute between them. The third is the part most people rush, and it's the one worth slowing down for.

The cut comes first, and it depends a little on the cigar and a little on the mood. Most of the time I match the cut to the shape. A belicoso, with its tapered head, I cut with a V. That taper is the whole point of the shape, it takes real skill to roll one well, and a V keeps it instead of lopping it off. A V also concentrates the draw, pulling the smoke through a smaller opening, which is part of why that shape rewards one.

A box-pressed cigar I'll usually straight-cut, and the same goes for anything that doesn't draw easily. A straight cut opens the whole head and gives you the most air, which is what you want when a cigar is pulling tight.

Sometimes I'll slant-cut, which is just an angled straight cut. It splits the difference: some of the concentration you get from a V, some of the openness you get from a straight.

And sometimes I'll use a punch, which doesn't slice anything off at all. A punch cut bores a small round hole down into the cap and leaves the rest of it intact. It's quick, it's clean, there's less of the cap to come unraveling on you, and it suits a thicker cigar where even a small hole gives plenty of draw. I reach for it when I want something fast and tidy.

Whatever you use, stop just below the cap. Take off the top and no more. Cut down past it and you're into the part that holds the whole cigar together, and now you're watching it come apart instead of smoking it.

Then the light. I keep a torch around for when I want a quick one, or for smoking outside when the wind won't leave a match alone. But when there's no reason to hurry, I'd rather use matches.

Either way, I toast it first. You hold the foot a little above the flame instead of down in it, and turn the cigar until the edge chars into an even ring all the way around. You're warming the tobacco and lighting the rim, not driving the flame into the middle.

Then you bring it to your mouth and finish the job, drawing gently and still turning it until the whole foot glows evenly when you look at the end. A cigar lit crooked burns crooked the rest of the way down, and toasting first is most of how you keep that from happening.

With matches, give the head a second to burn off before it reaches the cigar, or you'll taste the match instead of the tobacco. With the torch, hold it back a little further than feels necessary. That flame is hotter than it looks, and it will scorch the wrapper if you let it.

Then you actually smoke it, which is the part worth slowing down for. The smoke goes into your mouth and not your lungs. Hold it there a few seconds before you let it back out.

While it sits there, pick one or two things to taste and try to hold onto them as you blow the smoke out. Not a list, not a scorecard, just one or two. Maybe a sweetness, maybe a peppery edge, maybe some woody note you can't quite place. Naming it isn't the point. Paying enough attention to notice is.

None of this is hard, and none of it takes long. A cut, a careful light, a few seconds of actually paying attention. The rest of the hour you can spend doing nothing in particular, which is usually why I lit one in the first place.

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