Cigar Misconceptions

vicvitola said:
I would add as another misconception

White mold means the cigar should not be smoked.
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Sauer Grapes said:
added a bit to your remark.

I agree, except I still wouldn't buy them unless it was just a light covering that will rub off easily (that's what she said) and not in clumps.
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My only concern with white mold on the foot would be the possibility of it traveling up and inside the filler.

Have either of you even seen this happen?

I haven't had an experience bad enough which lead to mold within the tobacco rather than just on the outside.
 
I don't know if it's a misconception but when the Mild to Full descriptions of cigars are often confused with taste rather than nicotine content.
 
This misconception was proven wrong years ago but as a new cigar smoker, it was very popular to use a dead cat as a humidification device. Everybody was doing it during the boom. I thought it was the way to go and boy was my wife mad when she found little Tinky Kitty in my humidor after he was missing for days. It turns out that when you use a dead cat as a humidifier, your cigars taste like dead cat.

MCS
 
Major Captain Silly said:
This misconception was proven wrong years ago but as a new cigar smoker, it was very popular to use a dead cat as a humidification device. Everybody was doing it during the boom. I thought it was the way to go and boy was my wife mad when she found little Tinky Kitty in my humidor after he was missing for days. It turns out that when you use a dead cat as a humidifier, your cigars taste like dead cat.

MCS
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I remember that - I believe it was No. 99 in 101 Uses for a Dead Cat...
 
macjoe53 said:
I'm with you. When I first started smoking cigars I would look like an old steam locomotive and then I learned that slower is better with cigars. Now I don't even light one up if I don't have close to 2 hours to relax and enjoy it.
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:tpd: Exactly the same, mate.
 
oldforge said:
"B & M cigars are higher quality (stored better, etc.) than Internet vendor cigars."

We have all been to B & Ms where their storage conditions leave a lot to be desired. The quality myth is the effort of some shady B & Ms to persuade newbies that they shouldn't order online. Of course many of our favorite online vendors are B & Ms as well.
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So good to read this, when I moved I left my second home (a great B&M) behind and was thinking about buying online, but was hesitant because I was worried about quality.
 
LVS said:
Women cigar enthusiast always smoke flavored cigars. This drives me crazy. I can't count how many times I have been directed to a flavored cigar when visiting a B&M.
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Now that must be annoying. How do you react?

Also, one of the things that really irks me is when I see people squeeze the middle of a cigar, as if they'll learn anything from potentially cracking the wrapper or creating a soft spot.
 
All the blenders that I have met have said that the Corona will be the best size for flavor. It is because of the temp that it burns at is the, supposed perfect heat for the tobacco. The blenders put the perfect combination of filler binder and wrapper for their respected pallets. even though the wrapper is 60-80% of the flavor you taste, alone the wrapper tastes terrible but in the right combination is a cigar worth smoking.

There are photos of the A Fuente factory and some of the rollers in action at

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/album.php?albumid=271

Check it out...:tu

xxwaldoxx said:
Dave,
This is something that I have always been a bit confused about. I feel that thinner cigars allow you to taste the wrapper more. I think this is due to them having less filler than a larger cigar.

My thought process on this is kind of confusing even to myself so please don't mind the jumbled info below.


Lets say for example we have three cigars.
Cigar 1 = 38 Ring x 7.00 Length
Cigar 2 = 50 Ring x 7.00 Length
Cigar 3 = 54 Ring x 7.00 Length


Lets break down the dimensions
Cigar 1 = 38/64 x 7.00 or 0.59375 x 7.00
Cigar 2 = 50/64 x 7.00 or 0.78125 x 7.00
Cigar 3 = 54/64 x 7.00 or 0.85375 x 7.00


Taking those numbers, lets translate to surface area
Cigar 1 = 13.61 Square Inches
Cigar 2 = 18.14 Square inches
Cigar 3 = 19.67 Square inches


Now lets break each cigar into volume, or tobaccos contained within
Cigar 1 = 1.94 Cubic inches
Cigar 2 = 3.36 Cubic Inches
Cigar 3 = 3.91 Cubic Inches


This is the point where I begin to get confused. Generating a ratio between Surface Area to Volume seems a bit odd in my mind. Up to this point I've used calculators to generate the numbers for me (please don't get the impression I'm into math ;) )

Rather than trying to create a ratio lets just look at the percentages.
Surface Area:
Cigar 1 = 13.61 Square Inches = Base
Cigar 2 = 18.14 Square inches = 33.3% Increase over Cigar 1
Cigar 3 = 19.67 Square inches = 44.5% Increase over Cigar 1

Volume:
Cigar 1 = 1.94 Cubic inches = Base
Cigar 2 = 3.36 Cubic Inches = 73.2% Increase over Cigar 1
Cigar 3 = 3.91 Cubic Inches = 101.5% Increase over Cigar 1

Believe it or not, I thought breaking it down like this would make it less confusing for me, boy was I wrong....

Looking at the numbers (which may or may not mean much of anything), we can see that the increase in Wrapper, or Surface Area, is a fairly small increase when compared to Filler, Volume.

As we move from a Lancero and get larger the percentage of Wrapper increases a fairly small amount compared to the filler. If the people that say 80% of a cigars flavor comes from the wrapper are correct we can easily see why.

On a personal note
Since I don't necessarily believe that a generic figure like 80% of all wrapper varieties make up a cigars flavor, I think it all comes down to what filler is used versus the wrapper.

Now if you factor in the binder it gets even worse. I've heard people say that binder accounts for virtually no flavor in the cigar. I don't believe this either as I have read, on many occasion, that the flawed wrappers of premium cigars are used as binder for ultra premium. One example of this (don;t quote me here, going by memory) is the flawed wrappers of the La Aurora 1495 are used as binder on the La Aurora Cien Anos.

So Dave, in a nutshell I really have no idea :r
I do believe that a Lancero will have more wrapper flavors than a Robusto but I can't back up why I feel that way.
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We have all been to B & Ms where their storage conditions leave a lot to be desired
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I walked into one B&M recently that had no humidor at all. All the boxes were out on open shelves, and the owner just had a humidifying unit sitting in the corner that was spraying mist into the air. I saw no hygrometer anywhere (although I can't swear that he didn't have one). It seemed a very inefficient way of humidifying, especially in a dry climate like this one.
 
My biggest gripe with misconceptions is that an average Cuban cigar is automatically better than any non-cuban. Or even that a premium aged Cuban is better than a premium non-cuban. I know most of this is based in history and that CCs are 'forbidden fruit' but you would think the people in this forum would be more open minded.

I smoke what I like and don't let embargos or hangups get in the way. I enjoy Cubans but I equally enjoy NCs, or possibly even more so. My daily smokes tend to be Cubans of late but my 'damn, I need a good cigar right now!' smokes are Padrons, AFs, and Ashtons. Granted I haven't had many vintage Cubans but the ones I have had are not any better than the cigars I listed and obviously they are pricier and harder to get.

/rant off!
 
1. Cuban equals good and or better. Many different levels in the Cubans just lie anywhere else.

2. Dark ash means no good. While a white ash will generally indicate high quality a dark ash is by no means an indicator of low quality. Soil is a factor and other variables.
 
I get the cigar stereotype all the time. Being 20, in marketing, and usually in a suit, I'll admit that it may seem like I add to it. (I smoke for the flavors, not for the image.)

I also love all the people who try and get me not to smoke, because they think that I don't know the dangers.
 
I haven't read all 6 pages of this, but I'm always surprised at how many people think you're supposed to bite off the cap.
 
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