A: This “black tobacco ash” you describe, if it’s hard like charcoal, then it may possibly be a ligero leaf that ended up too close to the binder, or the binder cracked when rolled exposing the ligero behind it. If so, I have experienced this, too. Ligero burns very slowly because it is so oily, which is why it will char-up when you continue to relight it. You might want to let the cigar go out and clip the embered ash, etc. up to the base of the foot and re-light again. In some cases, the cigar will burn past the charred ember section and straighten itself out. If not, you’re probably doing the right thing by tossing it, but I hate chucking away a good cigar.
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Gary Korb has been writing and editing content for CigarAdvisor.com since its debut in 2008. An avid cigar smoker for over 30 years, he has worked on the marketing side of the premium cigar business as a Sr. Copywriter, blogger, and Executive Editor of Cigar Advisor. A graduate of the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, prior to his career in the cigar business, Gary worked in the music and video industry as a marketer and a publicist.
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Hi Marshall – I’m a bit late on this answer, but you’ve got me nonplussed. If i wanted to be funny I’d say, “You put the clipped end of the cigar in your mouth.”
The only two things I can think of is, one, it could be your palate, or you had an unfinished cigar in your humidor and it polluted it, but you would have smelled that right away. You don’t seem to have a problem with RH or draw. The combination of char and the cigars not staying lit is confusing, but what might be contributing to the char is, if you’re relighting a lot due to the cigars going out, that could be the problem. Next time the cigar goes out, try cutting it back about a 1/2 inch behind the ash. That may help; otherwise, you’re also relighting some of the charred tobacco. I would also try rotating your cigars on a regular basis, or picking up a humidor fan to circulate the air. That may help, but that’s about all I can tell you at this point. Try getting the RH back closer to 70%, too. Hope this helped.
Best,
G-~
I’m constantly dealing with this rock hard black ash and it is EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING.
I can’t for the life of me figure this out. My humidor is consistently between 66-72* / 64-68%
HELP!!!!!
Hi Steve – I don’t think it’s your humidity. I just had a cigar the other day, a pretty good one, too, with hardly any history of problems with me. But even with that, this particular stick had that hard coal-like burn on one side and it was one of the leaves. Most of the time it’s shoddy rolling. But if you’re constantly getting it, that’s a tough one. If it’s the same brand/cigar either the rolling of that cigar in that factory is suspect or, if it’s random among many different brands, try rotating your cigars once a month. Your temp and RH look fine, but I would keep it closer to 68%. Hope this helps, and let me know if the situation improves. G-~
This has been happening lately to all my cigars (different brands) even with liga privadas. The cigars hardly light on and keep going out after relighting. The ash gets black and hard like charcoal. I dont really know what has going on. There were some changes in temperature in my house and the humidors, so it went from around 75 degrees to now about 68 degrees. Humidity has about stayed the same in the humidors but not in my house. It has dropped from about 70+ to now around 50. Maybe there is some kind of humidity shock that causes leaves to separate or do some damage.