Purging, and why it rescues a bitter third
Blow gently back through the cigar. It clears the stale smoke sitting in it.
Purging means blowing gently outward through the cigar instead of drawing in. It pushes out the stale, tar-heavy smoke that has been sitting in the head end, and it can turn a bitter cigar back into a pleasant one in about three seconds.
Why smoke goes stale inside the cigar
Between draws, smoke stays in the channel, cools and deposits. The next draw pulls that stale air through first, which is why the second half of a cigar sometimes tastes worse than the smoke actually being produced.
Smoke slowly and this accumulates less. Smoke fast and hot and it accumulates faster than a purge can clear.
How to do it
Take the cigar out of your mouth, aim the foot away from anything you care about, and blow gently — about the force you would use to cool a spoon of soup. A small amount of smoke exits the foot. That is all.
Do this: purge once at the start of the last third rather than repeatedly. It is at its most useful exactly when the cigar starts to turn, and doing it constantly adds heat without adding benefit.
The two cautions
- Gently. Blowing hard sprays ash and can split a hot wrapper.
- Not with a long ash. Knock it off first, or you will find it on the floor.
What it cannot fix
Bitterness from a cigar smoked too fast will come back within a minute, because you are producing it faster than you can clear it. Purging buys time; slowing down is the actual repair.
Rescued or ruined, both belong in the note
"Turned bitter in the last third, purged, recovered" is a more useful sentence than any score on its own. Ligero keeps the note beside the number so the rescue is part of the record.
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