Lastly is comfort. This is kind of a funny thing, as it varies from person to person. Normally you would think that the fattest cigar would be the best choice for everyone, and in some ways you might be right. However, because of comfort, that is not the case.

Not everyone has the same sized mouth, and holding a big fat cigar in your mouth, may not be such a simple thing for say, a petite woman with a smaller mouth. Imagine holding a thick tree limb in your mouth for five minutes; after a while your jaw may begin to ache.

There are, as you will soon see, innovations that make comfort a lot simpler. But here, we  are covering the basics, and those innovations may not always be available to you.

Aside from personal preference and comfort, the way you smoke a cigar will also determine which ring gauge is appropriate for you. If you take your tip and gently inhale on your cigar, enjoying the coolness (picture the refreshing iced tea example above), a fat cigar will be a good fit for you. However, if you huff and puff (the thick milkshake), the fat cigar will be wasted on you. Holding the cigar in your teeth, on a fatter cigar, will make your drool, and moisten the tobacco, leaving a foul taste in your mouth.

One last, silly thing to take into consideration, is looks. This may seem like a pretentious thing to think about, but trust me – smoking a cigar that is too large (or likewise, too small) for your features can make you look rather funny.

For instance, if you are a 400 pound, six-foot-eight line backer with a giant mouth and fingers like imported sausage, you would probably look pretty laughable (and maybe a bit feminine) smoking a long, 32 ring gauge cigar. On the other hand, if you have a tiny face, little fingers, and are really short, smoking a giant 64 gauge cigar won’t look right either. Nor will it feel right resting in-between your tiny fingers. Think Boss Hawg from the Dukes of Hazard. Short and stubby with a giant cigar in his mouth: a caricature of an idiot that doesn’t know anything about cigars.

The bottom line, at the end of the day, as with all things cigar-related, is you will never know what is right for you until you experiment. So go ahead, break out that mirror, slap a fatty in your fingers, and strike a pose.

  Common Shapes and Sizes