Cigar Aficionados

Besides food , i do love cigar too and ever since i met this guest of mine Mr T, i have been smoking nearly every weekend for the last 3 yrs. Since his retirement, i sees him like 4 - 5 times a week and thats means 4 - 5 cigars a week for me.

Believe it or not, his eldest son is the same age as I am.....*chuckle*. Looking back, i do notice that i get along very easily with peeps born in the year of horse.

My god brother Steven, with the cute lil kids is born in the year of horse too. Looks like i'm a horsey kind of guy...lolz

Okay, back to topic. I first learn about cigar way back when i was a waiter in Regent KL... nope not Park Royal Hotel but Regent KL that is now managed by FOUR SEASON HOTEL. at that time only one brand is known - Davidoff. Then i learn more about cigar as i grew in my career and can afford more cigars.

The passion grew when i was in Vietnam. Met a HK guy who's a regular in the club i work. I will have complimentary cigars from him - 3 in total every week without fail.
The brand that he gave me was Romeo Y Julieta. Thats Romeo and Juliet in spanish. What a wonderful flavour and aroma. We do smoke Montecristo as well but only Number4.

So, whats so nice about smoking cigar, you asked ? 1st of all, its better than cigarette. Secondly, since you dont inhale in the smoke, the chances of getting cancer is rarer than smoking, drinking and even EATING....chuckle.

I do not know how to describe the aroma and flavour we derived from our cigars, its just.........


You will need some basic equipment before you can really enjoy the smoke. First of all, you must have a cigar. Well, i must say, you must have a QUALITY cigar. Don't be thinking you're going to be able to get off easy and go to the nearest Hyper-Mart and pick a pack up, because it ain't happening. Yeah, yeah, yeah ! They do sell them over the counter but you can throw that away. Its usually old crappy cigars. Go to a store that specializes in cigar.

No advertising here and please I AM NOT ASKING YOU TO START TAKING UP CIGAR. All i am doing is commenting and telling ya how i started smoking cigar and the way to smoke or serve cigars.

Once you get a quality cigar, dont smoke them straight away. It is kinda hard to tell how well is the cigar been kept. Just like wine, cigar is expensive and we have to know how to keep them well. We dont want them too dry or too moist. Both will kill the draw.....what we aficionados call getting the cigar smoke into your mouth. For more information on how to preserve or store cigars, click here.

There is a lot of things to learn for cigars. You need to understand them and let me tell you from experience it is not easy. Do check out about dot com for more info. From the beginning to the end product. Me too lazy to cut and paste as well as it will not be good for me to do that. Kena SUE baru tau.

A lot of sizes for cigars too. Some said its 4 major size , some 7. So, which is which ler ? All i knw is these few sizes. We will start wit cigarillo, panatella, corona, then we have petit corona, grande or double corona, churchill and Robusto. Not very sure if they are correct or whether they are the same. Anyway, sizes name varies from country to country. The few things that we need to know is

1 The bigger the ring gauge of the cigar, the cooler is the smoke

2 All cigars here are quoted with length in millimetres and inches and ring gauge for diameter

3 The ring gauge is measured in 1/64 inch

4 Thus a cigar of gauge 32 has a diameter of 1/2 inch - about 12mm

5 Please note that cigars may vary in size due to changes in moisture content.

There are 2 ends of cigar - the open side is called a footer and the closed side that we need to cut before we can smoke is called head. To cut we will need a cutter and there a few types of cutter in the market. Basically, cigar is made from 3 different type of tobacco.

The most basic is called a Guillotine Cutter. guillotine cutter uses one or two sharp blades to cut the end of the cigar. The two bladed variety is by far the best. A self sharpening feature is also very good.

Single Blade

Double Blade




The second type and kind expensive but good for a clean cut is called Scissors Cutter. Thats what most aficionados will say. I personally dont like the 2 cutter above. They dont really give a clean cut even though some says the scissors cutter apply uniform pressure and thus creates a cleaner cut. The plus sign is you can use this cutter to cut cigars of any sizes and you can control the size of cuts that you fancy.

Then there's a V cutter that cuts a V shape unto the head and most peeple would like this cut as it is too deep a cut.

To me the best is still the Cigar Puncher that is in the picture you see. The job of a puncher is to well, punch a hole through the head of a cigar. Some called them bullet cut as you use a puncher to cut a hole that is shape like a bullet hole.

These are all those that you cant find in Malaysia or if you find them its d*&!#m expensive.

Dunhill - One of the reputable puncher

Once it is prepped, its time to light them. No ZIPPO lighter please or something familar. The fume from the burning liquid will be absorb by the cigar tobacco and phew! it will taste bad.

Instead we either use a match stick that contains no wax or easier we now use BUTANE GAS lighter. Some peep called them the JET TORCH. Jet ? Dont place the cigar and light them up as though you are lighting a cigar. How do i explain ? Tilt the cigar at a 45 Degree angle and use the torch to light up the cigar. Once it is well lighted..........no need to explain.

Please refer to all the links provided if you wants to learn about cigars. I dont want the AUTHORITY to start tracking me down and saying that i am going against the "TAK NAK " campaign.

For more cigar information do click here

Not a complete set but from top

Jet Torch by COLIBRI

Cigar Holder by Davidoff

Cigar Puncher by CHINABENG - lolz....instead of paying RM 80 - 250 for a good puncher, Mr T got this puncher at RM15.00. Works better than the expensive one he got earlier also by COLIBRI.

A lighted cigar that have been cut...dats my cigar.

The red label on the cigar holder is from the cigar - ROMEO Y JULIETA

Our half smoke cigar. Notice the ashes, it holds up to about an inch.











Thats my FAT fingers holding my cigar while trying to capture a pic.










Note : This article is not written to encourage others to start smoking habits. It is only a personal view of cigar smoking.