How to Cut Your Cigar

Steve's Sweet Tip are general cigar tips for you the consumer whether you are new to cigars or a connoisseur. These tips are strictly ideas of mine, Steve the owner of Frontline Cigars, by no means am I an expert but I give advice on different aspects of cigar related tips. I will be coming out with one tip every week and hope this helps you, it might be something you already know or do but this for those that haven't heard of this or used it. Every Sweet Tip is brought to you by Cigar Enthusiast.

This weeks Tip- Cutting your cigar.

There are three types of cuts in my eyes, the straight (guillotine), the v-cut and the hole punch. The Straight cut I don't use often because it provides more of the cap of the cigar in your mouth with the tobaccos coming loose. If done wrong you can cut too much off the cap and destroy the cigar whether it be the flavor or the cigar itself start to unravel. You want to cut the cap with a straight cut where the cap meets the curve of the cap of the cigar. Most cigars have a line where the cap has ended, this would be the cheat line. If done correctly the cap will be the only part of the cigar that will come off. You want to make sure when cutting the cigar you cut it firm, bring the cutter straight through the cigar with some force otherwise you will tear the cap and possibly the rest of your cigar. The straight cut does offer a good draw, but you can have too much of the tobaccos in your mouth. The straight cut can be used on most all cigar sizes and shapes, but would not recommend it on a box pressed cigar.

The V cut in my opinion is the most common and the easiest, there is not much room for error nd it gives you a football like cut where the outside of the cap on both sides of the cut is still in tact. Usually this cut give me a good draw with less of the tobaccos than the straight cut. You want to press the cigar firmly inside the v cutter, slicing the cap off using the same force as a straight cut to ensure a good cut. I prefer this cut above the others simply because it cuts deeper in the center of the cap giving you a better draw and less of an issue of the cigar unraveling or cracking. This cut can be used on rounded caps such as robusto, toro, lancero, figurado and torpedo. I would not recommend using this type of cut on a box press cigar.

Lastly the hole punch one of the more common cuts as of late is easy because they make them small enough to place them on your key chain. Using a hole punch is tricky but can easily be done. You simply gently press the hole punch into the center of your cigar pressing firmly on the cap while rotating the cigar in your hand. Once you are done the middle of the cap is removed leaving you with a hole in the middle of your cap with the rest of the cap in tact. This cut can be hard to draw the cigar, in this case I would suggest punching the cap again if possible. hole punching side by side is called a figure 8 giving you a better draw. This usually is recommended on larger ring gauges or box pressed cigars. Often times you might see someone hole punching the sides of the torpedo, which is an option but again I would use a v cut to cut the torpedo. I hope this article was informative for you and we will catch you next week on Steve's Sweet Tip of the week Presented by the fine folks at Cigar Enthusiast.