Third by third: what to notice and when
Thirds are not a ritual. They are the only structure a cigar reliably has.
A cigar is a burning object that gets hotter and more concentrated as it goes. That is why thirds exist as a convention: they are the roughest possible description of a real, physical progression.
The first third
Cool smoke, the wrapper contributing most of what you taste, and whatever the cigar has to say about construction. This is where a tight draw or a wandering burn shows up, and where you should be paying attention to how it lights rather than to flavour vocabulary.
Ammonia or a sharp edge here usually means young tobacco rather than a bad cigar — worth noting with the date, because it is the part that changes most with resting.
The second third
The blend arrives. Filler leaves are contributing properly, the temperature has stabilised, and this is the honest middle where most cigars are at their best. If you only write one line, write it here.
It is also where transitions happen. A cigar that changes in the middle is doing something a flat cigar cannot, and noticing the change is far more useful than naming the flavours.
The last third
Heat concentrates, strength climbs, and construction problems become unrecoverable. Some cigars fall apart here; a few of the best get better. What you learn in the last third is mostly about whether the blend was built to finish or simply to start well.
Do this: instead of describing each third, write one sentence about what changed between them. "Went from bright to flat after the halfway mark" tells you more a year later than three separate lists of adjectives.
Pace is what you are really measuring
Draw every thirty seconds or so and a cigar behaves; draw twice as often and the last third arrives early, hot and bitter. If a cigar collapsed at the end, the honest first question is whether you smoked it too fast — and that is worth writing down too, because it is the most common reason for a bad note.
One field, filled while it burns
The entry screen in Ligero is a single note field alongside the score, which is deliberate: two sentences typed while the cigar is in your hand beat a structured form you fill in the next morning from memory. Save, and the entry closes; the band photo and the cigar details are already in place.
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