Aficionado's Know-how

Check the cigar's condition

• All bands should be in the same position.
• All wrappers should spiral in the same direction.
• Cigars should share the same base colour – lighter on the right, darker on the left.
• Smell two or three samples – especially at the gap where one was taken out.
• Gently squeeze: well-stored cigars yield and return to shape.

Check the box

The green-white Havana seal has been unchanged since 1912.

On the bottom: "Hecho en Cuba", "Totalmente a mano", the Habanos stamp and/or the red-yellow Habanos logo.

Basics

Keep cigars in the coolest part of the house, in an airtight container or cabinet. Humidity 68–73%, temperature 18–21 °C.

Humidors

Best solution. Use distilled water only. Don't place next to heaters. Active humidifiers beat passive ones.

Tobacco beetles

Sort out affected cigars. Test neighbours on white paper (black dots = droppings). Freeze unaffected cigars for 1–2 months, defrost for 3 days in the fridge, clean humidor thoroughly.

Reviving dried-out cigars

Place box in a polyethylene bag with a glass of distilled water or damp sponge, partially closed. Rotate cigars every few days. After ~3 weeks, quality should be acceptable again.

Sick Period

Ammonia release period. Over 90% dissipates within months, 95–99% after a year. Don't smoke during this phase.

First maturation

Mild: 2–3 years (standard box) / 4–5 (cabinet). Medium: 5 / 6–8 years. Full: 7–8 / 10–15 years.

Second maturation

15–25 years. Soft, mild, complex, classic, elegant.

Third maturation

Concentration of finesse, 20+ years. Only handmade cigars with complex content and top storage reach this stage.

Bottom line: The best cigar in the world is the one you enjoy.

Cutting

Professional cigar cutter or punch. No knife, no biting.

Lighting

Jet lighter with blue flame if possible. No matches, candles, petrol lighters. 45° angle, slow and even toasting.

Smoking

Do not dip in spirits. Don't flick ash – let it form a cylinder (~2 cm). Take your time, let aromas circulate, brief pauses.

Relighting

Tap ash off gently, blow through softly, light as the first time.

Extinguishing

~2.5 cm before the band, place in ashtray – it goes out by itself. Do not stub out.

The wrapper can influence up to 50% of a cigar's flavour.

Candela

Greenish, fresh, milky (grass, cedar, pepper, sweet undertone).

Connecticut

Shadow-grown, mild (grass, cream, butter, pepper, coffee, cedar).

Natural

Slightly darker, sweeter (cedar, coffee, bread, earth).

Corojo

Spicy, robust (black pepper, earth, leather, cocoa, cedar).

Criollo

Milder (white pepper, cocoa, cedar, bread, nuts).

Sumatra

Sweet, floral (cinnamon, earth).

Habano

Spiciest; bread, intense spice, leather, cocoa, espresso, cedar. High nicotine – not for beginners.

Maduro

Dark, long-fermented, naturally sweet (chocolate, coffee, brown sugar, caramel, molasses).

Oscuro

Double-maduro, darkest leaves. Richer and sweeter.

Cameroon

Full-bodied (butter, black pepper, leather, toast).

Rosado

Rare, reddish, almost exclusively Cuban. Spicy (cedar, coffee, earth, pepper).

False. Old cigars used resin adhesive, which was burned off. Today, odourless starch is used. Warming only damages the wrapper's aromas.

Churchill wrapped the head in brown paper to protect his lips from heavy daily smoking. He dipped the paper in cognac – hence the myth.

Fiction. Rolling was traditionally men's work. Thighs are unsuitable as a work surface.

Untrue. Strength comes from the blend, not wrapper colour. The wrapper influences flavour (5–50%), not strength directly.

Thicker cigars smoke cooler and feel milder. Length only determines duration.