Saturday, September 16, 2006

Half a Cigar

A while ago I bought a whole lot of Dominican cigars, that I recently noticed have been in the humidor long enough to mellow nicely. Now I don't really have the time most days to sit down and enjoy a full length Churchill so I have come up with a cunning strategy.

I cut them in half!

Now anyone who smokes cigars and knows enough about their construction will know that this isn't usually a very good idea, as the glue used to keep the outer leaf of tobacco from unravelling is mostly applied at the cap and so cutting the cigar in half usually means that the outer leaf unravels leaving a smokeable but unsightly cigar.

I stumbled upon a nice little solution a week ago and thought that it might be useful to someone out there; here's the clever bit, I gently and with great care slide the label up the cigar to a point just above the cut. This stops the leaf from unravelling after the cigar is bisected! I have to admit that I completely screwed this up a few times before mastering the technique. I also suppose that any other type of material could be used, like an elastic band, but using the label just seems like the most elegant method.

Job done!

Now I can enjoy half a cigar a few times a week. If only the cigar manufacturers would make double capped Churchills, that would be cool. When you have the time to smoke a full Churchill you could simply snip off one cap, when you only wanted half you could just cut it in half and have two shorts.

Maybe I should try to patent that idea!

Anyway a few points that I think I should also point out are:
1. This is a wasteful process as two half cigars do not equal one full length cigar in terms of consumable tobacco.
2. The flavour of the halves are a little different than the Churchills, I'm not entirely sure why, but it is.
3. I wouldn't try this with a really good cigar in case it goes wrong.

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3 Comments:

Blogger jonny O said...

great idea. got lucky and it worked like a charm on the first try. thanks!

25/10/09 00:14  
Blogger Jon said...

Hi Jon,

I'm glad it worked for you.

I have slowly exhausted my stock of large cigars and have replenished them with smaller ones (mostly coronas and petit coronas) now, but have been eyeing some larger cigars so may once again start 'Half a Cigar'-ing :)

As you are in the USA I can suggest a few small but wonderful cigars to try.

I'd suggest you try (if you haven't already) Tatuaje Classic Noellas , Tatuaje Havana VI Angeles and Padron 1964 Anniversary Principes.

27/10/09 10:39  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Cuban Rejects Churchill makes a double capped Churchill

22/6/12 02:22  

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