I watered my cigar last night


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My wife and I came home last night after watching our daughter in a local production of the Nutcracker. I decided on my last BBF and Hennessy VSOP. The cigar was a little rough around the edges to start but finished beautifully.

Somewhere after my second glass and my third I remembered a post about wetting or watering the entire cigar. I still had enough sense of mind to choose my ugliest, most sickly mag 46 I had. This mottled, speckled shadow of a cigar was exactly like the last couple of mag 46's I smoked out of this cab that had literally left me gargling with mouthwash and a double brushing on the teeth.

At this point I was well into my third glass of VSOP. I turned the tap on to a slow, steady trickle. I held the cigar foot down under the stream for about 2 seconds. I was struck by how the water sort of slid off the cigar as it does when you wax a car. It beaded up. Must be the oils in the wrapper I thought through my Hennessy induced fog. I poured myself my fourth and final glass as my wife asks me if I have had enough to drink and what the hell am I doing to that cigar. Science! I reply. Your drunk she replied. lol

As you can imagine I had to toast the foot for a while more than normal. The dark spots on the wrapper had darkened. I got it lit and at about the quarter inch mark (6.35 mm) you wouldn't have known I had soaked my cigar at all. The burn was razor sharp, the aroma was slightly sweet. An enjoyable smoke all the way to the nub. The quantity of smoke was perfect, the burn was perfect and the taste was much better than the last two ugly ducklings I had out of theis cab.

I'm not saying the dousing of water made this a better cigar....how would we ever know? I'm just saying it didn't ruin the experience for me. Will I ever do this again. Not on my HQ or PSP stock but I will on the sticks that just don't measure up to my standards.

Now pass me the aspirin.

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Can't believe I made it all the way through the comments without spotting a single reference to the Clinton technique.  

As soon as we can get Smithy, myself and Ken at the same time and place for a video review we will do a tasting on this with some young cigars ( same boxes ) to see if we can get some agreement. Ideal

I usually do it with older sticks. But I just run it under a slow tap, foot facing up and tilted so no water runs into it. Quick roll on some paper towel to take off the excess and light straight

Interesting....I'm interested now to see how the more 'formal' testing goes.

Is so difficult to be subjective thought when you're expecting something different. Still, it certainly doesn't seem to have ruined it.

Brandy will have to be the control element now in any further experiments of yours...

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Well, WayneN on the other board authoritatively states that if running tap water over your cigar before smoking it doesn't improve your smoking experience, then (a) you didn't do it right, or (b ) you have an inferior palate.

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As soon as we can get Smithy, myself and Ken at the same time and place for a video review we will do a tasting on this with some young cigars ( same boxes ) to see if we can get some agreement. Ideally it should be blind tasting but I suspect you will be able to tell immediately which cigar has been doused.

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Thanks for sharing the experience. While it does sound interesting and a mite bit promising...I'm still not fully convinced. Let's see if Rob's tasting will do it for me.

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:wink2::lol::lol:

All bow down for the great Wayne....the last word on Cigars/Champagne/Martial Arts/Philosophy/World Affairs and well everything.

Well, WayneN on the other board authoritatively states that if running tap water over your cigar before smoking it doesn't improve your smoking experience, then (a) you didn't do it right, or (b ) you have an inferior palate.
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Wet your cigar. Ha. You perv.

...but now that i think about it, i aways gave my minis a quick dip before smoking, one to just taste the tobacco,

two because I figured it 'slowed down the burn' a bit. Oh, and three, because now its just an unconscious habit.

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:lol::lol::lol:

All bow down for the great Wayne....the last word on Cigars/Champagne/Martial Arts/Philosophy/World Affairs and well everything.

;)

The man...

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the legend

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  • 2 years later...

I always wet the wrappers of young cigars before smoking. The wrapper burns and tastes better.

As the cigar burns. The wrapper becomes warm. Moisture evaporates from the wrapper, makes it extremely dry, and ruins the burning.

Wetting the wrapper beforehand rectifies this.

I just run some tap water onto the cigar before I smoke it. Don’t worry if the wrapper gets 100% soaked with water. Once the cigar burns you’ll be amazed to find the wrapper returns to perfect moisture content. You have to try this to believe it.

Old cigars burn very well at lower RH. I don’t do this to very old cigars (over 20 years). For cigars less than 10 years old I always do this. For cigars 10 to 20 years, it depends on the particular cigar. Some cigars burn better than others, depending on the particular vitola -WayneN

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I have been "rinsing" my cigars for years. Often or always when smoking in the late fall, early spring, and winter when it is cool/cold and dry. I hold the cigar head up to the gentle stream from my water filter for no more than a few seconds. Gently disperse it over the entire wrapper with my fingers, then gently wrap up in a clean paper towel for about 20-30 seconds. Since I've been doing this, I've never had a wrapper split, and it has breathed life into cigars that have gotten a bit too dry.

Older cigars do burn better than fresh young things, but quite the reverse to what Wayne reports, I never do this with young cigars (which for me is FOTT to 1.5 years). I find the wrapper to be sufficiently oily/wet. I occasionally lightly rinse very old cigars (for me 20+ years) but it's in an attempt to bring out a bit more of the wrapper character than to deal with burn.

Wilkey

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SO there seems to be two schools of thought behind this, one being to stop the wrapped splitting and the other to give the cigar the moisture in flavours of a freshly rolled cigar.

Some young cigars do tend to burn inside the wrapper for me so it could be worth a test with something young.

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Man, this is some interresting lecture. For my part, i would never dare to water me cigar. Don't know why. But I can see how the watering part can be good for the wrapper and the oils. Still, i wouldn't do it.

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