Bad Draw
I think anyone faced draw problems at least once, even with a premium cigar. What causes this annoyance and how you can handle it - that's what we will discuss here.
Too moist
If you face this specific problem, the draw of your stogie will harden. The problem will result in bloating filler (from the heat while smoking it), hard draw and cracked wrapper sometimes. Occasionally you can feel the smell of ammonia.
To solve this issue, store your stogies in a dry case for a couple of days (which means: no moistening). This should help you manage draw problems the reason of which is the superfluous humidity.
Low-quality rolling
This kind of problem occurs when the stogie is rolled by a novice. Sometimes rollers bind tobacco leaf too tight or too loose which is both the reason of poor draw and burning variation. If you notice any signs of this problem, be very careful to the draw. If it changes from loose to tight, or on the contrary, from tight to loose, the cigar is supposedly poor rolled and finishes with uneven burning.
But don't worry! You can sometimes improve these problems by retouching the burn. This resembles the primary firing; yet in this case you wish to light the poor burning side of your stogie only. In order to solve this issue, you should prevent frequent puffing when retouching the burn, thus the side which burns slower will start burning a little faster. With time the poor burning side of your stogie will have the possibility to reach the better burning side. Hence, this problem will be corrected. If you face the problem of a corked stogie together with/or a tight draw, you may utilize cigar draw correction tools to recover a good draw.
Don't use cigar spike to correct draw problem in a thin cigar. Thus you will not solve the issue. You should smoke the stogie as usually and slightly squeeze the cigar with your fingers. Probe the stick all over its length and around and try to find any firm spots or ties. With the smoking process, cigar heat will soften the tobacco leaves; slightly squeezing a dense tie on the stogie, you will be able to loosen and move the filler a bit and achieve a better draw. This is not the ideal solution, still it can correct the draw and help you enjoy your cigar.
One more way to make a hard draw better is to cut a little bit of its head (perhaps 1/8 of an inch) at an angle (when the problem occurs). This will help to revive the stogie. But avoid cutting deep into the body of the cigar.
Other tips
While smoking, keep the head of the stick as dry as you can in order to prevent a soppy mash that may impact the draw.
When cigar has a tapered head, the first thing you should do is to clip enough of the head and make a draw opening approximately of a parejo size in it.
Anyway you should be confident in your skills of discerning a poor draw from a good one. You should also be able to decently kindle the stick and fix several of the more frequent burn issues. All that will ensure that you are getting the best from your little baby!
(15 votes)