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July 12, 2010
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Ask The Readers: Cigar Pet Peeves
All hobbies, regardless of what they are, have their little annoyances. It seems that the more passionate you are about a particular hobby, the more annoying these little quirks tend to be. Cigars are no different from any other hobby and carry a list of annoyances all their own.
For some people, even the hint that a cigar may have a tight draw is enough to set their blood pressure on a rapid rise. For others, a thumb print in pectin makes a cigar un-purchasable. For me, its a tie between a cigar having a stiff draw and a problematic band.
I do practically the same thing for any cigar I smoke. At some point I will remove the band and set it aside. After a few bands have accumulated I’ll move them into an old plastic container for storage. I have a rather large collection at this point and I keep telling myself that one of these days I’m going to make a collage out of them.
Because saving the bands has become such a habit if mine, I expect them to come off without tearing, not to mention without damaging the wrapper leaf of my cigar. The one thing that drives me crazy is when I come across that band that won’t come off without being ripped to shreds.
The bands that are notorious for this tend to be those that feel like heavyweight paper. They generally have a matte finished facing which does an awesome job of allowing the glue to really bite into the paper. As you begin peeling, the heavy paper quickly becomes two-ply. As the bands tears itself apart, it fights to hold on, so more and more tearing is required before it is completely free of the cigar.
While thinner paper and a glossy facing doesn’t always look the best, the glue seems to not stick so well. These bands take very little effort and tend to pop free without issue. This, as you may have guessed, is my absolute favorite type of band. Following up right behind it are the ones that are slightly loose on the cigar and can be slid off without damage to the wrapper.
So, now that you have read over what annoys me regarding cigars,
what are some annoying cigar traits that get under your skin?
You said it, bands are most annoying. I’m less concerned with the tearing of the band itself, my problem lies with ripping the hell out of the wrapper. Oftentimes those cigars are unsmokable at that point. Paying 7-10 bucks per stick, I’m at the point where I might prefer an unbanded cigar.
I love bands, so when I can’t take them off as a ring, I’m annoyed. When I can’t take them off by peeling them off, I’m pissed. When they tear my wrapper, I cry.
My pet peeve is the wife kicking me out into the cold when I want to enjoy a cigar. We need to unite and demand our rights!! Ha ha ha….
I have to agree that the bands can be an annoyance. I’ve been fortunate to not have destroyed a wrapper yet…. Knock on wood….
Walt, I’m curious how to go about sending you a cigar to review???
I can’t stand tunneling. When you’re smoking your cigar and you see that it’s been burning mostly on the inside; Then you see burn marks on the wrapper above the foot that don’t connect to the cherry by way of the wrapper. It happens most of the time to my buddy who smokes his cigars rapidly. But sometimes it will even happen to me, and I’m a medium to slow smoker. I mean with an uneven-burn at least you can use your torch to fix it. But there isn’t much you can do about tunneling, besides torching the shit out of your cigar, hahahaha.
I hate when the wrapper unravels after you’ve cut it. The reason this is my biggest peave is because it is totally user error.
I’m with you on this one, Patrick. While tearing the wrapper off with the band is bad enough – a bad cut can really mess up the smoke, or at least my enjoyment of it.
I usually don’t take the band off until late into the smoke so if the wrapper is damaged, I at least have enjoyed the majority of the cigar. A bad cut up front can ruin the whole cigar.
I wouldn’t call that “totally user error.” A fairly large percentage of torpedo-shaped cigars that I have smoked have at some point started unraveling after cutting, whether it be the instant I cut it or halfway through the cigar. I’m fairly conservative with my cutting, but that hasn’t stopped 20 percent or more of these cigars to have this problem. I just put it to the method of construction that doesn’t allow a real cap that holds the stick together after you remove part of it, or maybe the insufficient use of glue. I usually just wet the loose wrapper and try to stick it back down…and keep doing that dozens of times as I smoke the cigar. Seems like it has happened with most major brands I’ve smoked at some point, too, which leads me to believe that it’s a shape issue. I now try to be ultra-careful cutting torpedos, but sometimes it just doesn’t matter…maybe the user error here is picking that shape in the first place?
Are you using the same cutter every time? It may be your cutter. There’s no reason a cigar should unwrap unless there’s a bad cut.
I’ve had the same results with the cheap double-blade I used to use, my Xikar Xi and my Xikar Multi-tool as well as other cutters that I’ve used because they were what was at hand at the time. It’s not every time, not even most of the time, but I just find that torpedos are much more likely to start lose their grip at the head and want to unravel.
I can’t stand anyone that goes into a B&M and buys anything from Altadis… UGH!!!!
I hate getting a loose cap on a cigar. When you cut it, it becomes even worse or falls off.
I have a bad draw and people who destroy a cigar but leaving it in their mouths until the end gets soft. My boss does this and then wonders why the $10 cigar I gave him gets destroyed and falls apart.
Make that “hate” not “have”.
Three;
1. The bad band. I hate this. I save them too. I put them in a journal. I curse like a drunken lonely sailor when they won’t come off with ease in any manner.
2. Tunneling. I guess I am doing something wrong or the cigar is poorly made. I am a medium speed smoker most of the time. But once it starts tunneling, I should just go get my oxy-acetylene torch.
3. My fracking lighter. Again, this is may by my fault. But it works great sometimes and is a *^%*#) piece of (U&(*&#) that should go &*(& and be given a ^%*#*^$. As always, the oxy-acetylene torch is the answer. (Well, maybe not really! lol)
Poor draw on a cigar . . . too tightly wrapped . . .
Biggest pet peeve is a poor draw! I also hate when the bands tear or when they tear the wrapper, but that would be second to the poor draw!
Mike
Another one would be when they have holes/cuts in the damn cigar!! Easiest way to tell is put your torch to the end and see if smoke comes out from the cigar any place but the cut end – there should be NO reason for that!!
damn! That has never happened to me, but it would definitely be a pisser. What causes that, beatles?
(dam that ringo)
I’d have to say it’s a tie between a tight draw and an uneven burn either one may cause me to put the cigar to bed early. I don’t mine touching up an otherwise good cigar once or twice but anymore than that and it becomes a task.
The label thing has never really bothered me at all, if it rips it rips. I’ve had some that were superglued to the cigar but it has never effected the cigar’s performance even if it did some minor damage to the wrapper leaf.
I would say that my biggest pet peeve next to a tight draw would be a cigar that tunnels down the middle resulting in over heating and very low smoke production….now that really PISSES me off!
TIGHT DRAW!!!! Without a perfect draw, the flavors/burn/aroma etc. don’t matter.
I cant stand a tight draw or poor burn characteristics, especially on the more expensive sticks.
Obviously, I would have to go with a canoe effect that is too difficult to fix and fighting with the draw the whole way through. That totally ruins the experience of the stick. Oh, and caps that pop off when trying a dry draw! AGH.
Foot bands, especially when it’s an unnecessary secondary band. I’m hoping this is one trend that doesn’t catch on.
By far my biggest pet peeve is a band that takes a bit of the wrapper when I pull it off. However a close second is wrappers that don’t burn. I’ve had many that the wrapper does not burn and it pisses me off to no end.
I’d say the most annoying thing for me would be a tight draw. I enjoy my cigars when they have an easy to loose draw. I’d rather control the way it smokes rather than it controling me, at least draw wise. A bad burn is another annoyance, but that’s something I can deal with and isn’t a deal breaker like a tight draw. I’m a fan of women being tight, but not my cigars.
I think the most annoying thing is when the burn is off and starts going wayward. I attribute this entirely to my lack of experience.
1. Uneven burn
2. The fact that many cigars lately seem to be a boatload of marketing and a mediocre smoke.
It has to be a tight draw. I have paying big bucks for a cigar and I suck my lungs out trying to get something out of it. I end up chucking it after all other efforts fail.
Tunneling and tight draw