Should You Chew on Your Cigar?

Should you chew on your cigar? The short answer is NO. We’re not trying to lecture fellow cigar lovers, but chewing on your cigar will lead to its demise. There is a small contingent out there who do chew on their cigars – some who actually chew their cigars instead of smoking them. If you’re debating the merits of chewing on your cigar, here is a bit of conventional wisdom on the practice and why we recommend against it.

The Wrapper Will Crack

When you clamp down on your cigar with your teeth, it’s wrapper will crack. Once a cigar’s wrapper is cracked, smoke is no longer contained within the cigar as you draw on it. The wrapper will likely begin to unravel and or flake off and make a mess as you struggle to smoke it.

You Will Get Loose Tobacco in Your Mouth

When you chew on a cigar, you’re shredding the binder, filler, and wrapper tobaccos. Fragments of saliva-soaked tobacco will tear off and fill your mouth or stick to the front of your teeth. A mouthful of shredded wet tobacco will make it difficult to speak or enjoy your cigar.

The Cigar’s Construction is Compromised

When the head of your cigar is mangled from chewing on it, the cigar’s construction is compromised. Cigars are intended to burn effortlessly when you puff on them. Premium cigars are patiently and meticulously crafted in specific sizes from precise ratios of binder, filler, and wrapper tobaccos. As your cigar devolves into a compressed or twisted shape when it’s crimped in your jaw, the binder, filler and wrapper tobaccos have lost the integrity of their shape. It’s unlikely you will be able to draw on your cigar for long before it begins to burn unevenly and fall apart.

You’re Making a Mess

Chewing the end of your cigar makes a mess. If we haven’t emphasized it enough, wet scraps of tobacco, strands of saliva, and stray ashes will characterize your smoking experience as opposed to enjoying your cigar for its taste and aroma.

No One wants to See the Chewed End of Your Cigar

No one wants to watch you pull a chewed-up, half-sucked-on cigar from the depths of your jaw while you’re trying to talk or check your phone. Ick. And certainly, no one will care to share an ashtray with you if you plan to set your chewed-up cigar down while you’re smoking (or chewing) it. Chewing on a cigar is on par with chewing your food with your mouth open. It’s a sight better left to the imagination.