Cigar Selection and What You Need To Know

Feb 23
12:30

2008

Shane Wilson

Shane Wilson

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There is an upward trend taking place in America and no, it's not the Blue Ray HD player. Cigar smoking is gaining steam in the states especial...

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There is an upward trend taking place in America and no,Cigar Selection and What You Need To Know Articles it's not the Blue Ray HD player. Cigar smoking is gaining steam in the states especially among young men. It presents an air of high class and wealth that many strive for. If your new to cigar smoking there are a few things that you may need to consider before choosing and lighting up for the first time.

For starters, it's a good idea to research the health risks of smoking in general. We have all seen the ad's about what cigarette's can do to your health and their addictive nature. Cigar's fall into this same category and should not be overlooked as a carcinogen and potentially addictive drug.

Now that the soap box is put away, here's how to choose the right type of cigar. You'll have to test them out for yourself, but there are basically two types of cigars, machine made and hand-made. If you haven't guessed already, hand-made cigars are of much better quality and can set you back more so than machine made. Hand-made cigars are made from hand picked leaves, sorted and bundled by an individual with an example being Cuban Cigars. Machine made uses fillers and has a draw that is inferior to hand-made ones.

Moving on, a quality cigar is measured on it's ring gauge and length. The average length of a cigar is 5 to 6 inches but can range from 4 to over 8 inches. The ring gauge in measured in 1/64 of an inch with 52/64 being the largest diameter, generally. A tip: the larger the diameter of a cigar the fuller the flavor will be. Now you can see why people desire those big fat Cuban cigars.

Finally we move on to the actual color of a cigar. There are two basic colors of cigars, Oscuro and Claro. The Oscuro color cigar is evident by it's nearly black appearance. The darker the color of the cigar the more sweet it is and full of flavor. The Claro cigar is much lighter in appearance and as you would suspect, lighter in flavor. My recommendation is to choose a cigar that is lighter in color and of medium gauge when first starting out.