Everything you wanted to know about cigars but were afraid to ask

It’s not easy to consider hearing as one of the five senses giving value to a cigar. Among all the other senses we have, hearing is definitely the least useful sense when it comes to cigars.

But be aware: the aim of this article is to underline how hearing could be misleading if you truly want to use it during your smoke.

Have you ever seen a smoker bring a cigar near his ear before lighting it up? In all likelihood you probably have. You may have come across this gesture when watching movies; it is an expression of the attention given to a particular choice of cigar, although in reality it doesn’t really happen like this.

It is said that people who put their cigar near their ear do so because they want to find out the way cigars have been stored.

There’s a belief: if the cigar makes a strident sound while pressed between the thumb and the index finger, it means it’s too dry and as a consequence, not ready to be smoked. This is completely wrong.

First of all the degree of conservation is valuable throughout other two senses: touch and sight, which give the right “sensations” concerning the cigar. Secondly, in this specific case, hearing is not a good judge of the situation.

Furthermore, there is an additional factor to consider: pressing too much with the thumb and index can cause a tear in the wrapper. A broken wrapper means problems with the combustion and the possibility that the wrapper peels off, jeopardizing the draw. You definitely don’t want this to happen, especially to a cigar that you have yet to light up.

Another issue to consider is what you hear during the smoke. A light crackling sound during every puff, exactly in correspondence to a camp fire. Some people believe this is a signal that the tobacco is too dry and is in relation to the poor humidification of the cigar.

We believe that the interpretation above is related to the natural combustion of the cigar. In order to prove our assumption, we tested both humidified and dry cigars and we proved that the crackling phenomenon is not correlated to humidity or dryness at all.

We need to add just one more thing: the hearing is misleading and American actors’ behavior doesn’t correspond to reality.

If you really want to hear something during your smoke, then switch on the stereo and listen to your favorite music!