Cigar 101 – Why Do Cigars Burn Unevenly?

A well made cigar typically burns even and allows one to enjoy a very long ash however in some cases things go wrong.

The blame could assigned to a few places. Most people instantly blame the cigar itself. That might be the case, even a typically well made cigar brand might have slipped though the cracks and out of the many cigars made by that company that day, your specific cigar might have been the only bad one. People tend to forget while enjoying a cigar that they are hand made and humans by default make mistakes.

However other things might have caused it as well and here is a list.

1 – The Humidor where that cigar was stored was not setup properly. Humidity can do some wild things to your cigar, factoring out dreaded tobacco beetle, a wrong humidity level can have a large effect on how a cigar burns. Too little humidity and your cigar tends to light up like tinder for a fire making it a very unenjoyable experience, too much humidity and it tends to burn too slow in some areas causing only the top or bottom or even just the inside of it to burn leaving the wrapper intact. This is not how a cigar is to be enjoyed.

2 – The Cigar spent exactly 3 minutes in the humidor. This is the problem, and honestly it might be one of the bigger ones. A humidor is designed to store your cigars, but they also condition them at a stable 70% humidity. Over time that level of humidity will keep your cigars in the proper condition for enjoying them. If you purchased your cigars anywhere in the middle of the winter the chances are high that the cigars sat in the back of your car, the mail truck or anywhere else outside of a humidor for a period of time in freezing temperatures. Though this is perfectly fine for short periods of time (such as the time it takes to ship cigars from point A to point B) it means that you need to bring those cigars back up to normal temperature and humidity levels before enjoying them. Placing them in a well kept humidor for a few days at least. Otherwise you risk lighting up a frozen cigar (NOTE: Most cigar brands regularly freeze cigars to kill off tobacco beetles). This is not a bad thing, however you don’t want to have your cigar while it’s frozen, cold, lukewarm or anything too far off from room temperature and 70% humidity. Typically this is when the uneven burn occurs.

3 – You lit the cigar wrong. This happens, you’re at a party with friends and just quickly light the cigar without thinking about it only hitting the bottom of the cigar and start enjoying it. The problem is that since you didn’t take the time to light it right, you’ll have uneven burn as only the bottom of it was lit. Just focus for the first 30 seconds or so to ensure you have everything lit right. Typically in this case rotating the cigar and applying more flame will fix the majority of it.

Anything major I missed? Leave a comment below.