In Or Out?

Wait, wait, before you throw your screen through the window at yet another well-meaning attempt to decipher the unholy mess that is Brexit – we’re a cigar blog, remember?

So, the question is, do you prefer to smoke your handrolled beauties inside or out, given the choice?

We’re not suggesting that, eskimo-like, you have a perverse pleasure in submitting your Caribbean cigar to extremes of temperature in Winter. Merely that if you were given the choice of a smoking outside on a reasonable day, or taking seat at a table in a well-appointed room indoors, which would you choose?

It would be a churlish man who denied the pleasure to be attained in an al fresco cigar. And although it’s been hotter than Hades recently, a cooling drink, some shade – perhaps by an attractive stretch of water – could be described as the perfect place to enjoy one.

Similarly, when the wind is whistling round your nether regions and Jack Frost is nipping at your unmentionables, the well-lit, warm interior of a pleasant cigar den is joyeth unsurpassed.

Wind. That’s the secret.

Not indigestion – or worse – but the passage of air which we believe to be crucial in these conditions. On a calm day, and provided our needs in terms of comfort and temperature etc are met, then outside we shall stride and enjoy watching wisps of smoke lift and disperse on the air. Delightful.

But should anything more than a modest zephyr spring up, all bets are off. Because wind plays a big part in enjoying the cigar, in our humble opinion. If it gets too breezy, the smoke is whisked away before you are able to smell and enjoy watching it. And wind has a horrible effect on your cigar, too. It makes it run hot; it feeds the glowing embers stealthily and makes one side suddenly ‘tunnel burn’ quicker than the other. It actually detracts from tasting the cigar to its fullest extent, we maintain.

That’s why – if you really want to enjoy every nuance of a stick – you’ll need a well-ventilated and comfortable room to enjoy it in. There, you can let the cigar perform as it was born to do. And you can enjoy the full gamut that smoking a cigar brings to the occasion.

Interestingly, lines seem to be split fairly evenly between those who like to smoke a cigar while out and about, while pottering, dog walking, lawn mowing or golfing, and those who feel somewhat out of sorts unless they’re comfortably seated and able to relax 100%.

And as we maintain fiercely, the right to do whatever pleases you most is yours in its entirety. Try ‘em all and take your pick. That’s the joy of the cigar lover’s journey.