The Ultimate Cigar Book by Richard Carleton Hacker

Author:Richard Carleton Hacker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2014-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

CIGAR ACCESSORIES: THE AFTERMARKET OF SMOKE

Just as you might want to upgrade your mega-boosted surround-sound system with ceiling speakers, so might you add certain amenities that are designed to make your cigar smoking more enjoyable. They can be novel, luxurious, or even superfluous, but some accessories are absolutely essential. Like a good cigar cutter, for example.

In most circles, it is not considered de rigueur to chomp off the end of a cigar with your teeth and spit it across the table hoping to make a slam dunk in your date’s martini glass. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was certainly aware of this commonsense bit of etiquette when he wrote these lines in his 1912 classic, The Lost World: “… We re-entered the room which we had left so tumultuously ten minutes before. The Professor closed the door carefully behind us, motioned me into an arm-chair, and pushed a cigar-box under my nose. ‘Real San Juan Colorado,’ he said. ‘Excitable people like you are the better for narcotics. Heavens! don’t bite it! Cut—and cut with reverence!’”

Nor is the sometimes-condoned technique of trimming a cigar with your thumbnail considered genteel, even though it is often done by the cigar makers themselves. But what might be customary in the tobacco fields and cigar factories is very likely to be frowned upon at a social gathering. What is needed is a civilized method of making the four basic types of cuts discussed in Chapter 3. Because the guillotine is the recommended cut of The Ultimate Cigar Book, we will deal with this one first.

The most easily encountered and least expensive cutter will be the pocket-size plastic devices that have a finger loop at one end and are often given away as premiums by some of the cigar companies. And if you prefer to have one that is not embossed with a logo, they are one of the most inexpensive items you can buy in a tobacco shop. The blade is basically a razor, and as such, it is not good for a great many close shaves with your cigars, as it will get dull quickly. If you use this type of cutter regularly, the average lifespan will be about six months, but most people will lose theirs before they wear them out. Slightly more practical is the Klipit 2000. Not the prettiest cigar cutter in the world (it looks like a cockroach), it nonetheless features a stainless steel blade, a positive safety lock, a large enough hole to accommodate a 54-ring cigar, and is very inexpensive. Even better is the Pocket Scissors Cutter by Credo, which will cut up to a 70-ring cigar and comes in a variety of colors. Slightly upscale in design and price is the twin-bladed cutter from Pléiades and similar models that feature a hole on either side of the blade for your thumb and index finger.

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