Cut, Punch, or Bite a Cigar?

Photo by Yohan Cho on Unsplash

Cigars are wrapped with tobacco leaves. When you buy a cigar (a typical cigar), one end is open, and one end is wrapped up tightly. You light the open end and puff on the wrapped end, but not before cutting an air hole in it.

To smoke a cigar, you must first cut open a small area on the wrapped end, either snipping with a cutter, punching with a punch tool, or biting it open with your teeth.

Does it matter which method I use? Will one technique improve the experience over another? Will I look cool, or stupid for that matter, doing one versus another? Do I sound stupid for asking that last question?

Yes, no, yes, and no.

Let's dig into this!

Cigar Cutter

A cigar cutter will run you about 10 bucks on Amazon or from your online cigar shop. Yes, you are more than welcome to visit your local tobacco shop, and they should be able to hook you up. 

Ten dollars is a good baseline. You can definitely pay more and sometimes find them for less. It all depends on your style and who you're trying to impress. If you're an old bat like me sitting on his back deck, you don't need a $50 Guillotine when a $10 one will get the job done. 

Considerations

Make sure it's sharp and won't rust.

Nowadays, you'll probably have a difficult time finding a cigar cutter that isn't made out of stainless steel but beware. You want something that will last, and that won't rust over time. 

Keep it clean.

A dirty (or for that matter rusty) cigar cutter won't slide smoothly and will bind. 

Don't cut off your finger. 

Really Micheal?  How did you manage that?

Personally, I prefer to cut my cigars with a guillotine style cutter before smoking. I enjoy the ability to adjust the diameter of the cut and thereby control the smoking experience. A larger diameter cut creates more surface area for the smoke to permeate versus a smaller cut that focuses the smoke.

This perhaps is a good segue into a cigar punch as the hole it creates has the smallest diameter of all cutting methods. 

Cigar Punch

A Cigar Punch is a small torpedo-shaped tool that punches a hole out of the end of the cigar.

If you remember taking a scantron test with a #2 lead pencil, you will no doubt remember the red-orange eraser at its end. Well, a cigar punch will approximately remove the same amount of material as the size of the eraser on a brand new #2 pencil. Let's call the diameter 3/16" of an inch or 4.76 mm.

Buy it in all the same places listed above, online or in a brick and mortar location. The cost is about the same, around 9 bucks each. 

Considerations

They look cool on a key ring.

Honestly, I'm not sure if that is a pro or a con. 

They focus the smoke drawn into your mouth. The punch opening is like a nozzle that directs the smoke. Some people like this and others don't. Personally, I don't enjoy the experience of punched cigars as much as a cut or carefully bit cigar. 

It's tidy.

I have found that a punched cigar seems to hold together a little better during the smoke. If your a wet smoker, or someone who likes to bite the end, you'll notice some delamination where the tobacco leaves start peeling away.

Additionally, I think the experience of smoking a punched cigar is sharper. Sharper might be the wrong word here. The smoke entering your mouth is more focused and harsher, more powerful. I think that's what I'm trying to say.

Now, these findings are neither good nor bad. It all depends on what you personally enjoy.

Biting a Cigar

This is where people usually start looking over their shoulder wondering if they are about to look stupid in front of a thousand people. Like the guy on the first tee at a nice golf course who feels eyes on the back of his neck while he nervously tries to hit his drive.

If you want to smoke, and you have to bite it, then bite it already. Just be careful to not bite off too much. In this case, less is more.

In reality, there aren't 1000 people judging you for biting the cigar and in the second example, regardless of the outcome, hit the damn ball with the best form possible and then pose regardless of where it goes.

In both cases, If anyone is watching they will likely judge you based on your body language and not anything else.

Words from the Daft Sage

How to cut your cigar is not as important as enjoying the experience of smoking a cigar. Too many times in life we get stuck in that mode of "Paralysis by Analysis!" Cutting the cigar is just the first step, and you can't screw that up. Just take a step, then another. That's the only way one can progress in life. 

After you've taken that step, you will learn from it, and perhaps your next step will be a little different. 

That's life. 

That's how we learn. 

Failure is a good thing!

Regarding the opinions of others

If you had a choice to help one person, by telling them something (a tactic, technique, or procedure) that would inevitably aide them in whatever, and by doing so you would piss off 15000 other people who don't agree, would you do it?

Is virtue better than popular opinion? Is the truth?

A Daft Sage says yes. Help the one man. Be virtuous. Live a life of integrity, of reason, and of compassion.