As I'm not a Cigar Insider subscriber, I'm commenting here.

Interesting piece James. There is, in my opinion, no way to make a cigar smokable once it's gone cold, purged or not. If a smoke has gone out, there's a 10 to 15 minute window in which relighting makes sense to me, after which, it just isn't enjoyable.

For some years, however, I have used purging to "freshen up" cigars that are starting to get bitter or overly herbal toward the end.

Burning off accumulated tars, or whatever it is that makes a jet of flame come out of the foot of a cigar when you hold a lighter or match to it and blow through gently, can be useful.

yet the guy who owns the davidof store in London seems to think otherwise.. erm.. if anything else for the sake of his business he could say "throw it away and light another one", no???

I won't purge a cigar to save it for a rainy day. I will purge a cigar a couple of times while smoking though. I find it keeps the last third tasting a little fresher.

quote:

Originally posted by D-Mud:
yet the guy who owns the davidof store in London seems to think otherwise.. erm.. if anything else for the sake of his business he could say "throw it away and light another one", no???

You would think so. There are quite a few straightforward, honest people in the cigar industry. I'm sure he believes what he's saying to be true.

I don't always agree with some of the bigger names in the business, whether it's Mr. Sahakian's view of letting a partially-smoked cigar sit out overnight, or Pepin Garcia's views on aging cigars.

I only know what works for me. Beauty part is, other things work for other people...

We made James' blog the subject of our weekly poll. Go to the homepage, scroll way down to the bottom and cast your vote on purging.