Ok so you’ve just gone out and spent a heap of money on your first fine hand-rolled cigars. Now, even though you may not realize it, you’re at the point where you start preparing to get the most out of your cigars or you damage them to the point where you’ve really just wasted your money.

Store Cigars Correctly

When you get your cigars home you’re going to want to look at them - touch them and smell them - and that’s quite natural. Every experienced cigar smoker has wanted to do that with their first major purchase but now’s not the time to do anything other than store your new purchases carefully.

Maybe we’ll let you keep one of them out to touch, feel and smell but only one, all the other cigars should be stored in a humidor to ensure that they stay fresh and remain in good condition till it’s time to smoke them.

We’ve talked about humidors before and you can certainly spend a lot of money on a good quality humidor but, if you’ve blown it all on the cigars then it’s possible to put together a perfectly acceptable humidor that you can assemble from items you have around the house.

The important thing to remember here is that you should never let the cigar dry out and never let the temperature in the storage container rise above 75 degrees.

Even when you store your cigars correctly you can still damage them or reduce the pleasure that they might give in plenty of other ways.

Don’t for a moment think that you can cut the end of a cigar with anything but a specialized cigar cutter. I know that it’s tempting to save your money for the cigars and look for a cheap cutting alternative but a cigar cutter is an ideal investment and it’s going to save your cigars from ruin.

I’m sure you will come across cigar smokers who will tell you that they always cut their cigars with household scissors, a craft knife or even a kitchen knife … and I’m sure that they do use those implements … but they’re not going to tell you how many fine cigars they’ve ruined by using something other than a cigar cutter.

Kitchen tools, scissors and craft knives were never designed to cut cigars and cigars were never designed to be cut by such rough implements. You can do some serious damage to the structure of a cigar if you use one of these implements and there’s nothing worse that watching a hand-made cigar unravel in your hands because you used the wrong tool and made a mess of the cut that should have been swift and surgical.

Don’t be in a rush to cut the end of your cigar either. Wait until you’re actually ready to light up before cutting the end. I know that sometimes having quite a gap between cutting and lighting can be unavoidable but avoid it if at all possible. A cigar that’s cut just before lighting it will be a much better smoke than one that has been cut and left unlit for some time.

Lighting a cigar is much more of an art than lighting a cigarette so, even if you already smoke cigarettes take some time to learn the art of lighting a good cigar.

It’s important to light a cigar evenly and you will have to apply more heat to it than a single match can provide and the time between striking a fresh match after the previous one has gone out is enough to spoil a good cigar. So be prepared to go looking for a lighter that will provide a flame across the end of the cigar for as long as it takes to get the cigar lit.

Rotate the cigar at the same time as you’re applying the flame from the lighter to the end of the cigar. Turning the cigar while the end is exposed to the lighter flame will ensure that it lights and begins to burn evenly and that really is vital if you want the best experience from your expensive cigar.

Sip Rather Than Puff

Once the cigar is burning well sit back and be prepared to spend anything up to an hour … or even longer if you’re smoking a Presidente. You want the smoke to be relatively cool as it enters your mouth so don’t puff furiously on the cigar.

Now you might have seen cigar smokers puffing heavily on their cigars in the movies but that’s not the way to do it. If you puff heavily on your cigar the smoke will become hot and it will be unpleasant and some people even describe hot smoke as biting your tongue.

Instead of puffing mightily on your cigar smoke it gently. The best way to smoke a big cigar is to do what some people describe as “sipping”. Think of it as drinking a fine wine; you’re not going to want to pour that down your throat in several huge gulps. Instead you will sip at it and savor every drop that crosses your palate and that’s what you want to achieve with your cigar too.

Be Prepared to Put Your Cigar Down

You should never try to hold a large cigar for the whole time you’re smoking it. Remember, we’re talking about smoking a cigar for an hour or more and holding a cigar that has a large ring size can become a burden rather than a pleasure.

So have an ashtray handy that’s suitable for cigars and be prepared to allow your cigar to rest in the ashtray from time to time.

There are just a few suggestions that will help you to get the most out of your cigars. As time goes on you will discover other things that you can do that will enhance your cigar-smoking experience and I hope you will share those with us.