Reading Time: 4 minutes In Part 2 of “How and Why Cigars Age,” Certified Master Tobacconist, David “Doc” Diaz describes the additional factors required for long aging cigars at home. Stronger cigars, rather than milder cigars tend to age better over time, since they contain more of the potent ligero leaves. Other factors associated with successful long-term aging are, keeping the humidity lower, and slowing down the oxidation process that occurs when cigars are removed from their boxes and cellos.

Reading Time: 4 minutes The subject of aging cigars always elicits a wide range of opinions; not only among rank and file cigar smokers, but also among those who have spent many years collecting and aging cigars.

Reading Time: 3 minutes Retrohaling is the process of expelling smoke so that it passes through the nasal cavity and past the olfactory receptors on its way out of your body. To call it “exhaling” or “blowing” smoke out through the nose is misleading because cigarette smokers also exhale smoke through the nose. The confusion arises because exhaling is the opposite of inhaling. And yet, most cigar smokers do not (and should not) inhale cigar smoke. Retrohaling bypasses the lungs completely…

Reading Time: 3 minutes

A Wrapper Experiment

By David “Doc” Diaz

The first two articles in this series have discussed how cigar geometry can contribute to overall flavor in a cigar and described the relationship of tobacco varietal, leaf placement and blending philosophy on the contributions of the wrapper and filler to overall flavor. This final article in this series will describe an experiment that was conducted by the author, along with Hendrik Kelner Jr., that demonstrated the effect of wrapper type on the flavor of a cigar.

When I visited The Dominican Republic in early 2008, one of my first stops was the Davidoff factory in Santiago where I spent the day with Hendrik Kelner Jr., part of the management team at the factory. Hendrik gave me a tour of the factory and then we came back to his office, which he shares with Eladio Diaz, and we began chatting about different topics while smoking our cigars. As we talked about how wrappers influence the overall flavor in a cigar, Hendrik was struck with an idea for how we could demonstrate how different wrappers would contribute in differing amounts to the overall flavor in a cigar.

Reading Time: 2 minutes Saliva contains two types of secretions, one is a digestive enzyme called salivary amylase (or ptyalin) and the other is a secretion containing the lub…

Reading Time: < 1 minute Learning about cigars: Why do I tend to salivate more when I smoke certain cigars?

Reading Time: 3 minutes How Cigars ChangeCigars are made of plant matter and all plant matter changes over time: sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.

Reading Time: 3 minutes It is the individual smoker that decides if the changes are good, bad or indifferent.

Reading Time: 4 minutes Tobacco flavor starts with the genetic characteristics of the tobacco varietal.

Reading Time: 4 minutes How Length and Ring Gauge Affect Flavor
A bit of geometry will help us better understand the mechanics of how a wrapper can influence the overall fla…