Do Your Cigars Give You ‘Cigar Breath?’

If your cigars give you cigar breath, no problemo, amigo…there are several effective ways to combat it. The key to ridding your palate of the foulness is to reduce the amount of smoke residue from your cigars while you’re smoking, as well as afterwards.

Citric acid is one of the best remedies. You’ll find it in fruits like oranges, lemons and limes. You want as much of the natural fruit juice as possible, so avoid lemon, lime, orange and other fruit-flavored sodas. They’re way too sweet and don’t have enough juice to cut it. If you insist on a carbonated drink, you’re better off with tonics and mixers. My tonic of choice with my cigars is Bitter Lime. It’s strong enough cut through almost any cigar residue, and leaves a fresh, clean lime flavor in your mouth. Bitter Lemon is also a good drink to have with cigars, and tends to be less sweet than Bitter Lime. (Schweppes and Canada Dry are the best in this category. Stay away from bargain brands.) Mix them with vodka or gin, and the alcohol will help the process along, too. You can even make up your own concoctions. One good cigar smoking buddy of mine likes to mix lemon juice and quinine water.

Another way to combat bad breath from cigars is to keep something chewy nearby. Nuts are great for snacking on with a cigar. Almonds are my personal favorite, but cashews, walnuts, peanuts, and even macadamia nuts are a welcome complement to the cigar smoking experience.

Cheeses, especially sharp, hard cheeses are also a good way to keep cigar breath at bay, not only while you’re smoking, but before you light-up. So in addition to, or in lieu of nuts, you might want to have some of good gourmet cheeses on-hand.

Most mouth odors, regardless of what you eat or smoke, collect on the tongue. Therefore, in addition to the citric acid and nuts, etc., it’s important that you also brush your tongue after putting down your cigar. Even better is a device called a tongue scraper. Many dentists today hand them out with the complementary toothbrushes, or you can pick one up at your local pharmacy. Tongue scrapers have tiny little teeth that literally scrape all that goo off your taste buds. Moreover, after a good tongue scraping your mouth really does feel cleaner, and will help prepare your palate for your next cigar of the day.

Remember, if you really want to stave-off cigar breath, make sure you use all or a combination of the above solutions during, and after you’re done smoking your cigars like Acid or Perdomo.