How to Relight a Cigar
Can you relight a cigar? Yes. There are handful of reasons why a cigar won’t stay lit. The most common is not puffing frequently enough. Maybe you’re involved in a long conversation or watching a game and you neglected to draw on your cigar. Now it’s gone out. Or, if your cigar was over-humidified to begin with, it’s more challenging to keep it lit consistently while you smoke. The other reasons a cigar can go out have to do with its construction. If the cigar is plugged or canoeing, it may have been assembled wrong, in which case, it’s better to smoke a new cigar if you can’t fix a bad burn. Simply relighting a cigar, however, can remedy many issues, and here’s the best way to do it.
Knock the Ash Off
When your cigar has gone all the way out, gently tap the ash off. If you’ve got a toothpick or matchstick (non-flammable side), softly scrape any loose bits of ash into the ashtray. If the foot of your cigar was burning crooked, consider cutting the entire ash off, behind the burn line, with your cigar cutter.
Removing the ash before you relight a cigar prevents a stale and charry taste from affecting the flavor. After the ash is off, gently toast the foot of the cigar over your flame and relight it as if you were starting from the beginning. Relighting a cigar is a good way to reboot its taste and its burn. It also never hurts to purge your cigar by blowing air through it after it’s lit.
Touch Up a Cigar’s Burn
If you’ve been dutifully puffing on your cigar, but the tobaccos are burning out of sync, touch up the problem areas by focusing your flame on any parts of the cigar that are lagging. It’s easiest to touch up a cigar with a torch lighter because you can direct the jet precisely over the part of the cigar that’s not staying lit.
Can You Save a Half-Smoked Cigar for Later?
When your cigar has gone out and you don’t feel like finishing it, you can save a half-smoked cigar for later, but it won’t taste the same. It’s always best to finish a cigar in one sitting, so keep that in mind and choose a cigar size based on how much time you have. If you’ve only got thirty minutes, skip the Churchill, and go for a Corona or a Robusto instead. Different size cigars last for different amounts of time. Never store a half-smoked cigar in your humidor – it will stink up your box and pass its charry residue onto all the cigars inside. And toss the cigar out if you can’t finish it within a day or so. Whatever is left will be dry and stale by then.
Don’t Relight a Cigar That’s Too Short
Sometimes the nub of a cigar is irresistible. It’s where all the heat and smoke and oils culminate to create a mouthwatering finish, but all good things come to an end. And when you’ve smoked a cigar past its band and you’re pinching the tiny bit that’s left between your fingers, let it go out. You can wind up burning your fingers and your lips, or dropping a nub that’s too hot into your lap, when you try to relight a cigar that’s too small to enjoy.
