Lounge etiquette that is not snobbery
Almost all of it reduces to not making your cigar somebody else’s problem.
The rules that matter are about other people; the rest is theatre. Here is the short version, in order of how much anyone actually cares.
The ones that matter
- Do not stub a cigar out. Crushing it releases everything unpleasant into a shared room. Let it die in the ashtray.
- Mind where the smoke goes. Exhale away from the table, not across it.
- Do not touch anyone else's cigars, including to admire the band.
- Buy from the lounge you sit in. Bringing your own into a shop that sells cigars is the one genuine faux pas.
The ones that are invented
Never using a lighter, never relighting, never removing the band, drinking only certain spirits. These are preferences with confident voices attached. Do what improves your cigar and ignore the rest.
Do this: if you are new to a lounge, ask what they recommend rather than what is good. The first question opens a conversation with someone who knows the stock; the second invites a lecture.
Giving advice
Wait to be asked. The fastest way to make a lounge unpleasant is to correct a stranger's cut, and nobody has ever enjoyed a cigar more for being told they were smoking it wrong.
The modern one
Photographing your own cigar is normal; photographing the room is not. People smoke in lounges precisely because it is one of the few remaining places where nobody is filming.
A journal is quieter than a phone camera
An entry in Ligero is one screen — the band photo you take for yourself, a score out of ten, two sentences — and nothing is public unless you publish that particular tasting. Keeping notes in company does not have to mean holding up a camera.
Read next
How your notes change when you smoke in company
You smoke faster, you taste less, and somebody else names the flavours before you do.
TechniqueCutting: guillotine, punch, V-cut, and what each costs you
Cut too little and it is tight; too much and the cap unravels. Both are recoverable, one barely.
People & reviewsWriting a review another person can actually use
Your note is for you. A review is for a stranger with a different palate.