Tapping the ash?

its not very cool to take a puf and have a chunk of ash fall on your chest, that gets messy. if the ash doesnt fall off with a little bump on the table top i just leave it.

Also, for a cigar to continue to burn properly, it needs a head to maintain a certain amount and even distribution of heat throughout the foot during the smoke. This is why smoking cigars outdoors can be frustrating, because even the slightest breeze can destroy the even burn that you need to properly smoke and completely enjoy a cigar.

Keeping the ash on the cigar while you smoke it helps protect it from things like breezes, while maintaining the "head" that is needed for a certain amount of heat and therefore, flame to be present on the foot while you smoke. That last part applies to indoor smoking too.

Here's another cigar smoking tip which applies indoors, especially in public places or somebody else's home. Come to think of it, if you care about your own home, don't do it. Do NOT SQUASH the cigar out when you are finished. It causes a whole lot of tars and chemicals to suddenly pile up at the foot and creates a very, VERY nasty post smoke odor which will linger and make others around you even madder than the cigar did while you were smoking it.

Leaving the ash on keeps the smoke cool, preventing the cigar from overheating. Also, the higher quality a cigar is, the whiter and more solid the ash will be.

Thanks for adding that part about the ash head. That's the part I forgot. I was dancing around it, but then again, I AM . . .

The Great Dumboni, and there is no other.

:mrgreen:

Actually, "the whiter the ash the better the tobacco myth" has been debunked. It is not necessarily an indicator of better tobacco but that the farmer has added magnesium to the soil, knowing it will produce a whiter ash. Just another angle of "target marketing," you know, the "white ash" crowd. It's true, because some of the world's finest cigars, including most Cubans, do not produce the overly white ash that is found on some cigars. I've seen ash that looked liked the "gangster whitewalls" of the mid-70's. That ain't natural.

I actually saw mike cusano at a cigar event and asked him about how a cigar should burn. He said the wrapper should burn at the same rate as the filler and binder. So a cigar that cones on the end means it was not rolled ideally as the filler is burning slower and a cigar that tunnels in means the filler is burning faster and is also bad. Prior to this I had heard a lot of ideas on how a cigar should burn but after hearing mike talk about it, i paid attention. The best cigars I have smoked have burned flush.

Anyway now that I am rambling my point for me is that it is a preference thing on the ash but I can never get a good look at how it is burning if the ash stays on the cigar.

Bloofington said:

Actually, "the whiter the ash the better the tobacco myth" has been debunked.

Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right. Very rarely have I had an Opus or Añejo or a PAM for that matter which had a solid white ash. And we know those are superior cigars.

Most of the Cubans I'ver smoked almost have a black ash...
I think the "Whiter the ash better tobacco" became popular in the boom and was created by marketers to sell a product that had that particular trait.

What am I missing? I don't really care about the ash. It doesn't do anything for me.
Malone