Many ask which is the best cigar cutter? How much of the cigar’s head needs to be cut off? From novice to aficionado cigar smokers ask these question, so don’t be embarrassed if you have asked any of these questions before. Cutters are cigar accessories that smokers need to properly smoke a cigar. It’s an accessory that is usually purchased before a humidor. After extensive testing it’s clear, the best cigar cutter is the Perfect cutter by Cuban Crafters Cigars.

The purpose of the cut is to create an ample and smooth opening for smoking. This allows you to draw evenly, which in turn creates an even burn. The Perfect cutter will always make that exact cut without any guess work.

The Patented Perfect cutter is designed to cut the exact amount of tobacco from the head of any cigar, including Figurado and Torpedo cigars. It’s so revolutionary that it has been featured in magazines throughout the world, including Cigar Aficionado and Smoke Magazine. With this cutter you never have to guess how much of the cigar’s head you need to cut for a perfect smoking cigar. The cutter does it for you. In addition, it’s easy to use. All you have to do is insert the cigar’s head into the large opening of the cutter, hold it in the calibrated chamber and then clip off the tobacco. The exact amount of tobacco is cut every single time. The cut-off tobacco even remains in the cutter’s chamber until you open the cutter to properly discard it. The result is a perfect smoking cigar every time.

Solidly made with brushed stainless steel and surgical grade steel self-sharpening double blades, the Perfect cutter cuts cigars with  ring gauges of up to 54. It will even work with larger ring gauges, up to a 60, but you might have to cut the cigar’s head twice. It’s lifetime guaranteed so you may never have to buy another cutter again.

There are two different styles and these engineered cigar cutters have  extremely affordable prices. They are available through Cuban Crafters’ authorized dealers throughout the nation, as well as many different Internet cigar store. You can also purchase them directly from Cuban Crafters’ web site.

Smoking quality cigars requires a hint of attitude, a dash of poise, and a spoonful of consideration. If you are a cigar lover, make sure you follow the etiquette that comes with your passion.
You might have never thought about smoking as something that could be done properly, but believe it or not, there is a right way to smoking quality cigars. There are do’’s and don”ts to cigar smoking, as well as a proper way to handle a cigar and a right way to light it. This article will serve as a primer to smoking quality cigars.

The Basics Of Smoking

First of all, you have to understand that we are talking about quality cigars, not cigarettes – that’’s a different thing. Now, the first thing you must learn is how to light a cigar properly. Take a cigar clipper and use it cut off the section of the cigar you put to your mouth.
After cutting, you may then take a cedar match and hold the edge of the cigar to the flame. Avoid using sulfur matches as they leave a bad taste in the mouth. Also, do not allow the cigar to be in direct contact with the fire. Just hold it over the heat and draw in deeply until the cigar is well lit.
“What about lighters?” you ask. Well, as much as possible, use a wooden match to light your quality cigars. But if you must use a lighter, choose a butane lighter. Regular cigarette lighters produce a nasty odor that ruins a good cigar.
Another point to remember is to light your own quality cigars. Do not offer to light another’’s or to have someone else light you cigar for you. Offer your match or your lighter instead.
Here comes the main part of cigar smoking – and that is smoking your quality cigars! But you can”t do it any way you please. There are certain points a good smoker must follow. First, lightly hold the cigar between your thumb and your index thumb. Anything else is considered in bad taste.

A Couple of Do’’s and Don”ts Every Quality Cigars Lover Must Know

Do not rush the process of smoking. Keep a slow burn and allow yourself time to savor the taste and the aroma of your quality cigars. Smoking good quality cigars usually takes half an hour. Bigger sized quality cigars take at least an hour.
Don”t knock off the ashes of your quality cigars. Rest the cigar in an ashtray every few minutes – don”t huff and puff like a little madman! Place it in an ashtray when not being smoked, and allow the ashes to fall off naturally from the cigar. But be sure you have the right ashtray size.
Never burn your quality cigars down to a nub. Leave at least and inch or two to your cigar. Otherwise, you”ll get a bitter taste in your mouth. So how do you extinguish and discard your cigar? Allow the cigar to sit on the ashtray and it will go out by itself.

And remember, a good smoker is considerate of the people around him. So when you want to light up your quality cigars in public, make sure to ask the person beside you if he minds you lighting up one.

Smoking can help boost memory and concentration, say scientists. The discovery offers hope of a nicotine pill that mimics these effects to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Experts are developing drugs that copy the active ingredients in tobacco that stimulate the brain without causing heart disease, cancer, stroke or addiction.

The move follows the discovery that nicotine can boost the intelligence and recall ability of animals in laboratory experiments.

The researchers, who present their latest findings at a brain conference today, hope that the new drugs, which will be available in five years, could have fewer side effects than existing medicines for dementia.

But they stress the new treatment would not be a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. At best it will only give patients a few extra months of independent life.

Tobacco has long been known to have a stimulating effect on the brain. Victorian doctors recommended smoking as a means of sharpening the wits and boosting concentration.

However, the deadly side effects of cancer, stroke and heart disease, mean its benefits have been neglected by medical research.

Professor Ian Stoleman, from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London, has shown that nicotine can improve the performance of rats in an intelligence and memory test.

“The substances that we call drugs have, in the majority of cases, do have a mixture of beneficial and harmful effects and nicotine  no exception to this,” he said.

“When we started this work 10 years ago we didn’t think that we would find beneficial effects on cognitive performance on normal subjects.

“But we were able to find an effect in the sense of the acute administration of nicotine producing small improvements in performance of tasks in normal rats.”

His team trained rats to respond to a brief flash of light by standing in an area of a cage. If they moved to the right spot, they were rewarded with a food pellet.

After they mastered the task, the rats responded correctly around 80 per cent of the time. But after being injected with nicotine, the success rate went up 5 per cent.

The difference was much starker when the rats were distracted with loud noises. Then they got the task right 50 per cent of the time without nicotine – but 80 per cent of the time with it.

Prof Stolerman’s team have studied how nicotine alters the brain’s circuitry to boost memory and concentration – and identified some of key brain receptors and chemical messengers – such as dopamine and glutamate – that are involved.

They also found differences in the chain of events that leads to boosted brain power – and the chain of events that leads to addiction.

“We believe that by building on these differences it may be possible for medicinal chemists to devise compounds that produce some of the beneficial effects of nicotine,” he said.

The findings are being presented today at the Forum of European Neuroscience in Geneva.

Drugs companies have been working for 10 to 15 years to develop compounds based on nicotine that produce only beneficial effects. The new discoveries could lead to a new drug – based on nicotine – within “a few years”.

The sum and total of cigar knowledge, lore, etiquette and practical advice could fill dozens and dozens of books.  True cigar aficionados aren’t born; they’re bred with a body of knowledge that is the product of their experience.

But if you had to extract the essentials, it would look something like this:

DO…

• Neatly trim the end of your cigar with an appropriate device.

• Hold your cigar between the thumb and index finger.

• Take time to warm the foot of the cigar slightly prior to lighting it

• Rotate the flame around the edge of the foot until it starts to burn, then puff lightly.

• Cigar smoking is a LEISURE activity, not a race — a puff a minute is about right.

• Let a cigar go out on its own, without excessive grinding in an ashtray

• Let it go out if there’s less than one quarter of its leaf remaining

• Re-light a viable cigar by scraping the ash and turning it in the flame for a moment or two until it catches again

Dispose of the dead cigar discreetly and quickly.

DON’T …

• Use a penknife to cut, a lance to pierce, or your teeth to chew off the end of the cigar

• Touch the flame directly to the foot of the cigar:

• Ask someone else for a light

• Be a show off – no one wants to see a narcissistic cigar-smoker calling attention to himself/herself with an elaborate display of cigar smoking technique or accoutrements like cigar holders.

• Put a dead cigar into your mouth and puff furiously while lighting to re-ignite it

• Don’t chew on your cigar, slobber on it, gesture with it or clench it between your teeth (unless you’re a 1930’s homicide detective)

Chain smoke.  Cigars are to be savored.

OPTIONAL

• Remove the band carefully after lighting the cigar

• Share

Cuban cigars originate from the Caribbean, which has a tropical climate very different to Europe. As a natural product, your Havana cigars need to be kept carefully. They are used to being in a warm climate with a relatively high humidity.
Therefore they will need to be protected from extremes of temperature and humidity (particularly low humidity). This is particularly difficult to achieve in air conditioned and centrally heated buildings, where the air tends to get de-humidified and cigars can dry out very quickly. Some cigars come in aluminum tubes which can help preserve them in dry climates, however they tend to mature at a much slower rate than ‘naked’ boxed cigars.
Maintain a temperature of 16 C to 20 C and a relative humidity of 65% – 70%.

Humidity
At the least, keep your cigars in a tight fitting cupboard, drawer or box, away from radiators and other sources of heat. Pick the coolest indoor spot in your house. Leave the cigars in their original boxes as this will help preserve them, stop them from being damaged, and prevent any cross-tainting of flavours between different varieties of cigars stored in the same area. If the humidity in your make-shift humidor is low, a damp sponge in a cup will serve as a basic provider of humidity.
When you purchase your cigars from Tomtom, they will be packed in an airtight zip-loc bag, which will maintain the humidity of your cigars while you transport them from the shop to your humidor. These bags are a very efficient short term humidor, however we would not recommend that you leave your cigars sealed in these bags for more than one month. Although humidity will be maintained, cigars also need to be exposed to some fresh air to allow them to ‘breathe’ and age correctly.
A variety of desk-top and travel humidors can be purchased (see ‘Accessories’) and are an essential item for the dedicated cigar smoker (more information below).
Temperature
The danger of excessive temperature (combined with too much humidity) is that the cigars can either go moldy or be damaged by weavil attack. If cigars go moldy, this is generally not a problem, as long as it is spotted reasonably soon and the mould (or bloom) only appears on the wrapper leaf. The mould can be removed with a soft brush (e.g. a badger shaving brush) and then the cigar can be returned to store in the correct conditions. If mould gets into the end of the cigar, we recommend that you do not smoke it. Weavil, or tobacco beetle, is a more serious problem. If you see any small holes in your cigar, you should take immediate action. Please call Tomtom for further advice. Never store cigars near direct sunlight or for long periods exposed to sea breezes (salt will not enhance your smoke). The lower the temperature, the higher the humidity required to compensate.
Desktop Humidors
There is a very wide selection of these humidors on the market. The basic design requirements are that they are sealable (and generally lockable!), but allow the cigars to breathe. This is normally achieved by leaving the base of the box unvarnished: and no portion of the inner cedar box should be laminated. The box contains a fitting, which provides the humidity: this is normally a pad containing a sponge or chalk, which can be dampened. The box may also contain a dial showing humidity and temperature.
As a rule of thumb, the smaller the box, the harder it is to maintain a steady level of humidity within its confines. These humidors do not regulate temperature. The price range starts from about 125 for a plexi glass humidor, which will hold approximately 50 cigars to 2000 and above.  Fabulous humidors can also be created out of antique boxes which many families have inherited as writing slopes or medal cases and which have since become redundant. This is a very cost-effective way of storing your cigars in a unique and personal humidor.
Travel Humidors
Ranging in price from 100 upwards. These are not suitable for long-term storage of cigars, however they are essential if you are moving about: the wrapper leaf on a handmade cigar is very thin and delicate and will easily damage. The safest way to prevent this is to keep the cigars in their original box, in tubes or in a purpose-built travel humidor.
Cigar Cases
Generally these do not offer humidification systems built in, but will protect your cigars if you take them in your pocket for the day. There are some metal tubes with hermetically sealed screw tops that will act in the same way as a cigar tube and seal in moisture. The majority are made from leather and offer protection from damage as well as limited protection from fluctuations in humidity and temperature.
Reviving Dried-Out Cigars
This is not an exact science and not always successful. Dry cigars need to be re-humidified very slowly and with care. We suggest you try Stogies Humidors with any questions you may have regarding this.