How to properly smoke a cigar, so as not to get into an awkward position

Smoking is harmful, everyone knows about it today. States of the world one by one adopt legislative acts that make life difficult for adherents of nicotine addiction. However, despite all the draconian measures, smokers continue to indulge in their favorite occupation, which, it should be noted, is not the most terrible vice in our time.

Some try to find a way out in cigarettes with a low nicotine content, others turn to alternative products. Sometimes, not knowing how to properly smoke a cigar, buy it, and then go into a heavy cough.

In Soviet times almost every tobacco kiosk offered an exotic product against the background of the "Capital" and "Belomor" products. Wooden boxes, beautifully pasted with imitation of foreign banknotes with bright covers and inscriptions "Monte Cristo" or "Havana", contained cylindrical dark coffee products familiar to our fellow citizens from films from abroad.

The capitalists and gangsters, puffing up these "attributes of a sweet life," cynically argued about the omnipotence of the dollar, traded drugs and weapons, fired from pistols and engaged in other lesser deeds. It was a pleasure to join the "world of profit and clean", brought to us from the island of freedom - Cuba, a lot - 80 cents, and some varieties and more ruble. Purchased this luxury is rare: first, expensive; Second, too hard; And thirdly, Soviet people did not know how to smoke a cigar. But this is a whole science! It should be selected, carefully trimmed, controlled by a degree of humidity and evenly ignited.

So, the most important mistake that one makes when buying an overseas tobacco delicacy is that many of our cigars smoke in delay. This can not be done: they are really too strong and irritate the respiratory tract. Smoke from the overseas elite cigarette is collected in the mouth, it is held for five seconds and released. The pleasure consists not in the intoxication of the brain with nicotine, but in the enjoyment of the smell of smoldering tobacco leaves, tightly twisted and dried according to all the rules of this ancient art. Especially refined bouquet becomes in a combination with good spirits - cognac, rum, whiskey and some liquors.

The second reason for the low popularity in our country of tobacco products of Cuban, Dominican and other masters is that the process of enjoying them requires a certain amount of time. This cigarette or cigarette can not be released from the mouth, sitting at the wheel or doing some homework. People who know how to properly smoke a cigar, never combine this activity with any other, but pleasant conversation or listening to good music.

The ritual begins with unpacking or extraction from the humidor (it is such a wooden box with a tightly fitting lid) and inspecting this little masterpiece. The surface of the product should be smooth, velvety, and the color pleasant, coffee (sometimes greenish - depending on the variety).

Having admired, you can start to prepare a cigar for smoking. The mouthpiece of expensive varieties is a hemispherical finish. In order to form a hole for smoke, you need to organize it. You should not imitate cowboys from Westerns, biting and biting the tip of a noble product somewhere, it must be trimmed carefully with a knife, unless there are special scissors-tweezers or guillotines. If you are embarrassed to ask a consultant in a tobacconist about how to properly smoke a cigar (many are embarrassed to look ignorant, although there is nothing shameful in the absence of such skills), it will be enough to remember that the hole should have a diameter of about half a centimeter or slightly more.

Nowadays, there are no real Cuban cigars , and those sold are, as a rule, twisted in the machine way and prepared, sometimes even equipped with not only holes, but also small plastic mouthpieces (especially small ones called "panatels"). They are usually produced in Germany, Indonesia or the USA, and their composition can include flavors. They are not so strong and adapted to the tastes of the mass consumer. Their use does not require special skills.

An embarrassing situation can get a person invited to a rich reception and who does not want to admit that he does not know how to properly smoke a cigar. The best way out is to refuse such an exquisite and expensive treat, referring to the preference for the usual brand of cigarettes or to the absence of this habit at all. Especially since smoking is really very harmful ...