If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed walking into a well-stocked humidor at a smoke shop, you’re in good company. When it’s time to choose a cigar, most new cigar smokers—and even many well-seasoned connoisseurs—get that “but what cigar should I buy” feeling. You know how much you want to spend on a cigar and you want to make sure it goes toward something good.
But what is a “good cigar”? Is it the cigar with the highest ranking on Cigar Aficionado? Is it the cigar that smokes like other sticks you’ve enjoyed? Or does cigar appreciation land somewhere in the middle: respectful of experts’ opinions, but ultimately guided by your individual yet continuously evolving tastes?
Whatever your “good” looks like, this article is here to help you find it. Below, learn the critical steps to choose a good cigar. Once you have your ideal stogie, protect it with Boveda humidor packets in a quality cigar humidor.
Follow Your Nose: Finding Your Tobacco Taste and Aroma Preferences
The type of tobacco, blend makeup, country of origin, and fermentation and aging processes each affect the final product’s taste.
- Type of tobacco: The plant strain Piloto appears frequently in premium cigars, prized for its punchy, full-bodied flavor; meanwhile, other strains like Olor, Corojo, Sumatra, and Habano have their champions and are used in highly regarded cigars.
- Blend: The blend of leaf types and plant tiers (i.e., the part of the tobacco plant the artisan cuts leaves from) can determine the complexity and robustness of the smoke.
- Country of origin: The country of origin’s cultivation methods and its terroir—soil composition and climate—are also significant. Cuba is the most famous tobacco-producing country, but the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Honduras also grow fantastic tobacco to create New World cigars (AKA non-Cubans).
- Fermentation/Aging: The fermentation and aging of the tobacco bear an appreciable mark on a cigar. While fermenting and aging, tobacco leaves undergo chemical changes, which removes impurities while deepening flavors. Darker leaves that are aged longer feature sugars that naturally caramelize, leading to richer, sweeter flavors. Lighter leaves aged for less time, by contrast, retain some freshness, herbaceous qualities, and pepperiness.
Smoking a just-ok cigar is 100 times better than a good day at work.
Note Your Other Likes and Dislikes: Helping a Tobacconist Help You
Determining your taste preferences is a learning process. Before you shop for cigars, think about the foods, beverages, and scents you like AND dislike. Use these leanings to guide your trip to the cigar shop. Then follow these tips on how to buy cigars if you don’t know anything about cigars.
After you finish a cigar, write a review of it in a cigar journal. Once you have several smoking sessions under your belt, you’ll start to see trends and patterns emerge. Next time you’re looking for a new smoke, use your journal to choose a cigar in line with your findings.
That said, if you know right off the bat that you’re in the mood for—say—a full-bodied, sweet cigar, you can talk to your tobacconist about dark, Piloto-forward cigars from the D.R. A cigar pro or fellow smoker is always happy to recommend their top picks.
Size Matters: Cigar Sizes and Timing
The type of tobacco is just one thing that affects your smoking experience. The size and shape of different types of cigars impacts how long it takes to smoke a cigar.
Larger cigars, like Churchills or Toros, last longer. Flavors gradually build up over these extended smokes, which gives you more time to savor the cigar’s complex nuances.
On the other end, smaller cigars like Coronas or Panetelas give you a shorter, more intense smoking experience, with flavors often more concentrated from the outset. When you choose a cigar, consider what activities you’d like to pair with the experience. Shorter cigars are perfectly sized to enjoy while you tick off tasks from your honey-do list, like walking the dog, cutting the grass, firing up the grill.
Ultimately, it’s up to you what you want out of a smoke: a consistent and slow crescendo, a fast-and-furious flavor bomb, or a roller coaster of intensities.
Importantly, factor in how much time you want to spend smoking. If you’re fitting a cigar in between a wedding dinner and best man speech, you might not want the hour-plus commitment of a Churchill.
What size is the best cigar for a wedding? Buy shorter cigars, like Puritos or Petite Coronas. You can finish one in 15-20 minutes during a dance break. Plus you won’t see many half smoked sticks wasted by occasional cigar smokers.
Use Your Senses: Evaluating a Cigar for Quality
Lastly, many a good cigar can go bad if it’s not handled with care up until the point of sale. As a consumer, you can do boatloads of research, scour online forums, and drop good money on what you think is the perfect product—only to realize that a) the tobacconist or online seller hasn’t taken proper care of the product, or b) you got a defective/damaged cigar. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s frustrating when it does.
Use your senses to evaluate a cigar before you light it:
- When you buy a cigar from a brick and mortar shop, visually inspect the stick to make sure its wrapper is intact and its seams are clean along the cap. When a cigar is stored properly, it’s color will be even, and a slightly oily sheen, which indicates proper storage.
- When you buy cigars online, do all of the above before you remove the cellophane overwrap.
- As soon as you get the cigar home:
1. Give the stick a good sniff with the wrapper off to get a sense of its maturity and whether it needs time to age in the humidor. You can read more about aging and how long cigars last at the link.
2. Gently squeeze the cigar to check its moisture level:
– If it cracks slightly or feels dry and crunchy, you can rehydrate cigars. Learn how to bring a cigar back to life with Boveda.
– If it feels spongy and you notice white fuzzy patches, you might have a moldy cigar. In this case, the tobacconist will likely allow a return if you recently purchased the cigar. Learn how to spot a moldy cigar.
Cigar Refreshers:
Store Your Sticks Right: Getting the Most Flavor from Cigars
As soon as you take your cigar home, treat it with care to get the most bang for your buck. Store it in a dedicated cigar humidor with Boveda packets. Boveda preserves the tobacco’s oils and sugars—where all the flavors are. Additionally, Boveda prevents cigars from drying out and from mold growth.
When you’re ready to smoke, cut the cap off with sharp a cigar cutter or use a cigar punch. Then toast the foot with a butane jet lighter to reduce off-flavors in the draw.
Hone Your Cigar Palate: Building Your Confidence if You’re New to Cigars
Like most skills, cigar appreciation takes time and experimentation. So find a good cigar store and make friends with the tobacconist. To lessen your margin for error:
- Stick to well-respected brands
- Make note of the size and type of cigars you enjoy (and don’t)
- Properly store your cigars at the right humidity to make sure you get the most flavor out of every cigar
- Stick with it. To paraphrase golfer Sami Välimäki—smoking a just-ok cigar is 100 times better than a good day at work. (And you’re one shot closer to refining your cigar palate. So you got that going for you, which is nice).
