CHRISTOPHE KAENZIG. LIGHTING A CIGAR, THE RITUAL: STEP 1

THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF THREE EPISODES IN WICH THE CIGAR EXPERT CHRISTOPHE KAENZIG TEACHES US THE RITUAL TO LIGHT THE CIGAR

You have your cigar in hand. Your first experience with the leafy world is infront of you. It will now have to be cut. But how? Let's go back several decades to the past, when industry and technology weren't what they are today. There were two ways to prepare your cigar for smoking. The first was to bite into it and tear off the top of its head! Barbarian will you tell me, certainly. The second was to wet the head of the cigar and use the can end of a match to make a hole. This technique was Sir Winston Churchill's favorite. Fortunately, the methods have evolved and I suggest you four different methods.

The first method is the guillotine. The cigar will be cut in one action and the cut will be regular and straight. It is certainly the most widely used method today. This exposes the cigar's head to a large surface, perfect for drawing on your vitola. Cutting is quick and easy. Do not hesitate to do it in a clear and precise movement. Be careful, with a cigar having a large ring gauge, it will sometimes be difficult to find a cutter large enough. We must also be vigilant and not cut too much from the head of the cigar. The cut should be made only a few millimeters from the head.

The second method is the V cut. This is also very popular. It looks like a guillotine with a big difference, the cut is not straight, but V-shaped. It also exposes the head of the cigar to a large surface, which allows to draw easily on the cigar. I reserve this cut for pyramid and torpedo type formats, but it goes on all cigars. One of the disadvantages of the V cut is that cigars with a large ring gauge will certainly not be easy to cut.

The third method is the punch. This method is one of the most recent. This consists in making a circular hole on the head of the cigar using a cutter which has the shape of a small cylinder. There are two major drawbacks to this cut. Firstly, the hole is sometimes too small for large cigars and secondly, it is not possible to use it on pyramid and roadster formats.

The last method is to pierce the end of the cigar, much like the technique of yesteryear with the match. The advantage is that we don't need high performance tools and that it works on almost every cigars. Unfortunately, the draw will be more difficult and the hole formed may become blocked with unwanted components of the cigar making it bitter.

I suggest that every aficionado start with the guillotine! Now your cigar is cut, you will have to light it ... following the next episode.

Interview with Christophe Kaenzig (instagram: @vitolaslover).