Women and Cigars: So What's In A Smoke?

es, some women really do like to smoke cigars. Why? You guessed it - pretty much for the same reasons men do. Cigars taste good, and like fine wines, well aged spirits and gourmet food, they are a connoisseur's experience to be contemplated and savored. The ritual of lighting a cigar and savoring the complex tastes of a well aged and properly treated smoke can be a wonderful focus for relaxation and meditative reflection on the pleasures of the here-and-now rather than on the demands of a busy schedule.

Paired with deliciously fragrant cognac, the rich, roasted aromas of coffee or even a strong, savory red wine, a good cigar offers a wealth of flavor nuances to the discerning palate. Some of the things I have tasted in a mouthful of smoke from a good cigar are:

Coffee and cream (Dominican Montecristo #2 torpedo)

Bittersweet chocolate (Don Suerte vintage 1984)

Milk chocolate (Habana Gold, white label)

Roasted chile and cocoa (Licenciados 400 robusto, maduro)

Roasted nuts (El Rico Habano Grand Corona)

Toasted pecans (Cuban Flor de Rafael Gonzales Panatelas Extras)

Aged Spanish leather (Cuban Vegas Robaina)

Cinnamon and spice (Cuban Punch Corona)

Burnt espresso and dark stout (a Cuban Montecristo #2, whew!)

Green tea and grass (Vintage Royal Butera)

Delicious in and of themselves, cigars can also enhance the taste of food, wine or spirits when properly paired. But beware - a bad match, or a bad cigar, can abuse your sensitive palate or leave it numbed or overwhelmed. Smoke a lighter, sweeter or grassier cigar before dinner, and save the hearty, burnt-coffee-and-sweaty-leather tasting smokes for after dessert. You'll find that there are some cigars that enhance your tasting experience, and others that detract from it. A lot depends on your personal palate, as well as factors such as the age and strength of the cigar.

In other cultures around the world, the custom of smoking may be percieved as gender neutral, masculine or feminine, more or less arbitrarily. Restricting the privilege of enjoying a smoke to men is a relatively recent historical trend, and one which seems to be fading in popularity as more women - and men - realize that the pleasures of tobacco belong rightfully to both sexes.

Some cigar etiquette and tips for women:

Basic courtesy rules about cigar smoking apply to everyone, men and women alike, and are reasonably commonsensical. Try not to smoke in inappropriate places (like a nonsmoking friend's car or apartment), and don't leave a trail of messy ashes or bad aromas in your wake. Getting rid of old butts and ashes promptly is a good policy to reduce lingering odors, and you might want to invest in a portable air filter or a chemical scent neutralizing product if you plan to smoke in enclosed spaces. Clothes, hair, drapes and furniture can absorb old, stale smoke smells, which aren't pleasant even to the smoker.
As a woman, you should have enough self-confidence in yourself and your personal cigar choices not to be intimidated if someone (usually a guy) tells you that you're "doing it wrong". Only you know best how you prefer to hold, cut, light or smoke a cigar, and what you like to smoke - so if you didn't ask for help, you are not obliged to accept it.
Experiment with different recommended techniques, and cigars, until you have found your personal preferences. There are reasons why it is generally recommended that you don't use gasoline based lighters, and why you store your stogies in a certain temperature and humidity range, but it's better to learn the reasons than it is to accept someone else's advice in lieu of your own experience.

Cigar 101: Cigars In Plain Speaking

There seems to be quite a bit of mystique and ritual surrounding cigars and how to smoke them. For some, this can be part of the enjoyment - once you're an initiated member of the club, anyhow. Other new smokers, especially women, can feel put off by the often confusing and rarely completely explained rules of Always Do This and Never Do That.

In plain speaking, here are some of the "Rules" - along with the reasoning behind them. Instead of just following the Rules, you can follow the reasoning, and decide for yourself how you will best enjoy the cigars you want to smoke.

Choosing your cigars:

Like food and wine, different cigars have distinctly different tastes and aftertastes. Some are mild and smooth, or even sweet. Others are moderate in strength, and some are very strong indeed. Do not confuse strength with fullness or complexity of flavor, however. A mild cigar may be full flavored, and conversely, a strong and harsh cigar with a powerful, lingering aftertaste (sometimes known as "ashtray mouth") may be one-dimensional and lacking in flavor.

For your initial forays into cigar smoking, you will probably want to start with the milder cigars - though this isn't the rule for everyone. If you know that your preferences lean towards espresso, black, and spicy-hot chilis and stir fries, you might be comfortable starting out with something stronger.

If your palate isn't quite that jaded, ask your tobacconist which cigars in stock are the mildest in strength while still offering enough body and flavor to be enjoyable. Some good standby brands for the beginner are Davidoff, Don Diego, Macanudo and Royal Butera Vintage.

Contrary to what you might think, larger, fatter cigars are usually milder in strength than their thinner cousins, though they are often fuller and more complex in flavor. Smaller cigars burn hotter, releasing their volatile oils much more quickly, and can have harsher flavors. A robusto is a good size to begin with - small enough not to be daunting to the novice, but with a large enough ring gauge to burn at a slow and gentle pace that won't overwhelm you.

Storing your cigars:

If you don't yet have a humidor (or one of the inexpensive, homemade alternatives, the "tupperdor" or "Igloodor"), you should buy no more than a few day's supply of stogies at a time, and keep what you do buy tightly sealed in an airtight container such as a plastic bag at moderate room temperature.

Why all the fuss about storage? Simply put, the basic ingredient that gives cigar smoke its taste is the aromatic oil in the tobacco leaf. Unlike a dry, paper-covered cigarette, a naturally cured cigar burns at a relatively low temperature, allowing those delicious-smelling oils to be released slowly for your palate to enjoy.

If the cigar gets too dry, it can lose those precious volatile oils along with its water content, and it may burn too quickly and too hot. If the cigar gets too wet, it can swell and split, and a soggy stogie is no fun at all. A delicate balance must be struck between too little humidity and too much. That balance is what allows a good cigar to burn just right.

The commonly recognized "ideal climate" for cigars is 70-70%, or 70 degrees Farenheit and 70% relative humidity. Some minor variance (a few degrees Farenheit, a few percentage points of humidity) is considered acceptable, but almost everyone agrees that subjecting your stogies to severe environments isn't going to be good for them. Practice safe cigar, and keep them well wrapped and protected if they're not in a humidor.

Cutting your cigar:

Before you can light up and enjoy a good smoke, you'll need to remove just enough of the closed endpiece, called the cap, to be able to get a draw. You want just enough of an airflow through the cigar to encourage that nice, slow, even burn. If you make too small an opening, you can get an unpleasant buildup of tars and an uneven burn. Too large an opening, and the cigar may unravel, or the draw may be too loose.

You want to leave enough of the cap on to hold the wrapper together, and it's important not to cut deeply enough into the cigar to damage the inner leaves. Cap and wrapper construction will differ between cigars, and your experience will teach you how where to cut to remove just about 3/4 of the surface area of the cap without cutting into the inside leaves of the filler.

Everyone agrees that you need to make a hole in the cigar in order to smoke it, but after that, opinions go all over the map. Listed below are the most commonly used methods of cutting, punching and snipping cigars. There are smokers who swear by each of them, and others who deplore them, so it's best to experiment and find the one that best expresses your personal style - and tastes best to you.

1. Simple and primitive: Bite off the cap.

Pros: No special tools needed. Your teeth follow you everywhere. May be a good flirtation gambit - or one that can decisively end unwelcome guy-flirting.
Cons: You'll be spitting little bits of tobacco afterward. Ragged and imprecise cut may cause the wrapper to unravel. Looks somewhat unsophisticated, at best.

2. Just slice it: Using a knife

Pros: A small folding knife is multifunctional, and easy to carry. An extremely sharp knife in the hands of a skilled cutter can remove exactly as much of the cap as you want, no more and no less. A smoother cut means fewer little flecks of tobacco stuck between your teeth from the end of the cigar.
Cons: Maintaining a very sharp knife takes some work and the ownership of a good sharpening stone. If you're not a skilled cutter, or you don't know from experience exactly how much of the cap you want to remove, you can easily make mistakes, or damage the cigar.

3. A keychain cutter: The punch method

Pros: Those small, elegant punch cutters are easy to carry, and look really sharp on your keychain. A punch-sized hole can work well for a panatela or a corona, the smaller ring gauges of cigars, and can also serve to concentrate the flavors of a larger, milder cigar through a smaller hole.
Cons: A punch cutter can easily go too deep into the cigar, damaging its inner structures and causing too much airflow. It's more difficult to remove just the 1-2mm of the cap. A punch-sized hole in a robusto or larger ring gauge cigar can concentrate the oils and tars unpleasantly. Won't work at all on a torpedo and other figurado shapes.

4. Snip it right off: Cigar scissors

Pros: Looks snazzy and elegant, like they cost a lot. Shows you're really serious about investing in your cigar habit.
Cons: They do cost a lot, can be difficult to use and position, and can cut too deeply into the cigar in the hands of an inexperienced user. Heavy and hard to carry around.

5. Off with their heads: The Guillotines

Pros: You can get a good positioning, especially with the double bladed models, and see almost exactly where the cut will fall.
Cons: The cheapie single bladed models can crush or damage a cigar. Guillotines are more difficult to carry than the smaller punch cutters. Many models, especially the less expensive ones, leave a fairly rough cut with a few flakes of tobacco left over that can migrate unpleasantly into your mouth.

6. Give'em a wedgie: V-cutters

Pros: Some experts swear by them, claiming that a wedge cut "catches" the harsher elements of the smoke and smooths it out on the palate. Consistent v-shaped notches.
Cons: Other experts deplore the buildup of tars and stronger flavors on the sides of the cut. Uneven burning is a possibility, especially if the cut is too deep. Cheaper models have the same flaking problem that the cheaper guillotines do.

Lighting your cigar:

Once you've got that bad baby cut, punched or snipped, it's time to lean back and light up. Patience is definitely the key here, and will reward you with a better smoke in the long run. A few things to remember when lighting your cigar:

Too much of a good thing is definitely too much. You might need some fire to get your stogie lit, but keep in mind that heat is what makes those wonderful aromatic oils in the cigar volatize. You want those aromas to be released slowly and sensually across your palate, not carbonized in a split second. Hold your cigar *above* the flame, not in it, and rotate slowly to ensure an even burn. It may take several seconds, or even longer, to get the end glowing a uniform cherry red - but the wait is worthwhile.
Don't light your cigar with incense sticks, the smoke from burning tires, a bonfire made of old sweat socks or anything else smelly - those odors will permeate your stogie, and you will be sorry. Some less intuitively obvious bad lighting concepts include gasoline fueled lighters, wax candles and sulphur matches. All of these can leave strong and undesireable flavors in your cigar.
Butane lighters offer a clean, odorless burn, as does the flame from any nontoxic wood. A cedar spill is a long, thin piece of Spanish cedar, usually from a cigar box divider, that is considered a preferred lighting method. If you must use matches, try to find the wooden ones, and give them a moment to burn off the chemical striking heads before placing the flame under your cigar.