Gourmet cigars can cost a fair bit of money and, given that they’re designed to offer a long smoke, one may well find themselves having to put the cigar out before they’re able to finish it. Cigars, fortunately, can be relit. While there will be a bit of change in flavor, there are ways in which one can mitigate this and the cigar will still taste excellent, even on the second light.

After extinguishing the cigar, many smokers blow through it to get rid of any smoke that may remain in the wrapper. This can lessen the buildup of tar. That buildup is principally what will change the taste of the cigar on the second lighting and it’s unavoidable that this will happen to some degree. Simply drawing smoke through the cigar causes this.

After the stogie is stubbed-out, it’s usually a good idea to blow through it once to liberate any smoke that may have become trapped inside. This will lessen the change in flavor when it’s relit. If the cigar happens to go out on its own, which happens from time to time, the smoke will usually dissipate on its own though one may wish to blow through it once before relighting to make certain.

Before relighting, either knock off the ash at the foot of the cigar or trim the cigar back to where the fresh tobacco and wrapper is exposed. Any cigar smoker should have either a cutting tool or one of the many cigar cutter lighters available on the market. When the cigar is cut back, the tobacco will likely appear somewhat discolored, usually darker, especially around the center of the cigar. This is nothing about which one needs to be concerned.

Good cigars can be expensive and, given that they’re large, many smokers actually prefer to smoke them in stages. Generally, the more times a cigar is relit the harsher it will become so most smokers prefer to limit this to one relight per cigar. With a very good cigar, however, the quality of the smoke may well make multiple relights completely acceptable.