Can I Relight a Cigar?

There will be an ash at the foot of the cigar. There are two ways to deal with this. One may simply knock the ash off and relight the cigar where it stopped burning or they may trim the cigar back to the point where fresh tobacco is exposed. Generally, trimming the cigar back a little will make it taste a bit smoother. The change in taste results from the buildup of tar in the tobacco as it is smoked so there is some change that is unavoidable no matter how far one trims back the wrapper before relighting the cigar.

Some butane torch lighters come with a cutting attachment. Snipping off the ash and exposing the wrapper allows one to relight the cigar just as they would light a fresh cigar. If one wishes to preserve the maximum amount of tobacco, one can simply knock off what ash remains at the foot of the cigar and relight at that spot. This may result in a somewhat harsher taste, especially on the first few draws.

If the cigar is trimmed back, there will likely be some darkening of the tobacco, particularly in the center of the cigar where the smoke tends to be drawn through the most. This is nothing to worry about and the tobacco will still taste good. In fact, some smokers actually prefer this taste as it has a bit more "bite" to it and offers a different smoking experience.

Good cigars can be expensive and, given that they're large, many smokers actually prefer to smoke them in stages. Generally, the more times a cigar is relit the harsher it will become so most smokers prefer to limit this to one relight per cigar. With a very good cigar, however, the quality of the smoke may well make multiple relights completely acceptable.