Relighting: when it is fine and when it ruins the cigar
Within an hour, clean off the ash and carry on. The next morning, do not.
Relighting within an hour is normal and costs you very little. Beyond that, the tars that condensed as the cigar cooled are what you will be tasting, and no technique removes them.
How to do it properly
- Tap off all the old ash. Stale ash is the main source of the bitterness people blame on relighting.
- Blow gently through the cigar to clear the stale smoke sitting in the channel.
- Toast the foot again as if lighting it fresh, briefly.
- Draw slowly and expect the first two draws to be worse than the rest.
The time limits
Under twenty minutes: barely noticeable. Under an hour: noticeable but fine. Overnight: the cigar is a different, worse object — some people smoke them anyway, and nobody enjoys it as much as the first half.
Do this: if you have to put a cigar down for a while, set it in the ashtray rather than standing it upright. Standing concentrates the oils toward the head, which is exactly the part you will be drawing through afterwards.
Why it went out in the first place
Almost always pace — long gaps between draws. Sometimes moisture: a cigar stored too wet will keep going out no matter what you do, which is a storage signal rather than a smoking one.
The second half of a cigar
There is no shame in leaving one. Half a good cigar, finished well, beats a whole one endured to prove a point — and the record you keep should say you stopped, not that it scored badly.
Stopping is a fact worth recording
A note field beside the score is where "put it out at the halfway mark, relit the next day, do not do that again" belongs. It is more useful next year than the number by itself, and it takes one line.
Read next
Lighting a cigar without cooking the first third
Heat the tobacco, do not burn it. The difference is about two centimetres of flame.
TechniqueHow far down to smoke it
Until it stops being pleasant. That is the whole rule, and it moves.
Tasting & notesWhen not to write a note at all
A record with junk in it is worse than a shorter record.