Two Guys Cigar Blog

cutting your cigar

Its been a long debate at least between many of the people i smoke with, whats the best way to cut your cigar? Of course I’m not really speaking of the pre-punched gas station variety of cigars (like dutch masters, the game, black and mild)  I’m talking about quality handmade premium cigars.  There are a few main schools of thought on the matter and to be honest none of them are necessarily wrong just may be wrong for some.

The first and id say most common way is just your basic straight forward double bladed guillotine cutter.  The easiest way that i find to get a nice even cut is to put the cutter down on a flat surface open it up and simply put the cigar in the whole and close the cutter. The nice thing about using this method is that its difficult to cut too much off by using this method. I have seen many novice and professional cigar smokers carelessly cut off much more than they need to only to have the entire wrapper come off and then complain about the construction of the cigar.  When you take off more than just the cap of the cigar it has a tendency to do just that and its more due to careless cutting than improper rolling.  Smoking wise this method can sometimes cause too much of a draw especially in under filled cigars.  It will sometimes cause the cigar to get uncommonly hot while smoking at a normal pace. which is why for an under filled cigar id recommend using the next method.

The cigar punch, also known as a bullet punch, is another preference that many people use.  its a fairly straight forward idea as well its as simple as a round sharp blade that cuts a hole directly into the cap of the cigar. Many claim that this method focuses the flavors to one specific area of the tounge thus getting better more precise nuances. Of course there is also the backlash of that being that it can also easily burn out that spot of your palette much quicker. Recently there have been some newer style punches hitting the market such as the cigar spike, which i personally carry, and it seems more and more people are opening up to the idea of punching their cigars.

There are other methods out there such as v cut, which basically cuts a v into the head of the cigar, and the “old school” biting off the end etc. to me both of these get too much stray tobacco in your mouth while smoking. 

As you can see there are a few main way to cut your cigar though no way is wrong they may be wrong for the situation or your personal preference.