Category: Cigar Education
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The Robusto: Why It Became the World’s Most Popular Cigar Size
Walk into any cigar shop in the world and the robusto will be the size filling most of the humidor. Every major brand produces one. Most produce several. It is the format blenders reach for first when launching a new line and the cigar that sits in more humidors than any other vitola on earth.…
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Small Batch vs Large Production Cigars: Does Scale Affect Quality?
By Peter | VDG Cigars | Certified Cigar Sommelier I’ll tell you where I stand: I love small batch cigars. It comes down to two things — the tobacco and the craftsmanship. When a blender gets hold of leaf that has been aging for seven, eight, ten years and builds a cigar around it with…
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How to Buy Cigars Online: The Complete Buyer’s Guide
Buying cigars online is becoming more and more popular — and anyone who has been paying attention to the premium cigar market over the past five years already knows why. The selection available through a good online retailer is broader, the prices are sharper, and you can research at your own pace before committing to…
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How to Develop Your Cigar Palate: The Complete Guide
Most cigar smokers taste far less than what is actually in their cigars. Not because their palate is defective, but because nobody showed them how to use it properly. Developing your cigar palate is not a gift some people are born with. It is a skill. One that can be trained, sharpened, and refined the…
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Boutique vs Mass-Market Cigars: What’s Actually Different
Boutique cigars and mass-market cigars are not separated by quality of construction or price alone. They are separated by who made the blending decisions, why, and for whom. That is the short answer. Everything below explains why that distinction matters more than anything else you will read on this topic. I’ve been smoking premium cigars…
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Hand-Rolled vs Machine-Made Cigars: What Every New Smoker Should Know
If you are just getting into cigars, one of the first things worth understanding is the difference between a hand-rolled cigar and a machine-made one. Price is part of it, but the construction method goes deeper than that. It affects the tobacco inside, the way the cigar burns, the flavors you experience, and whether resting…
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Why Does My Cigar Taste Different Every Time?
You pull out the same cigar you smoked two weeks ago. Same brand, same vitola, same box. You light it up expecting the same experience — and it tastes completely different. Flatter. Sharper. Missing the notes you remember. Or sometimes better, richer, more complex than anything you expected. It’s one of the most common and…
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Buying Cigars by the Box vs. Singles: Which Is Worth It?
Every cigar smoker reaches the same crossroads eventually. Box or single cigars — do you commit to a full box or keep it flexible with singles? You’ve found a blend you like, your humidor has room, and the math on a box looks appealing. So you pull the trigger — or you don’t, because singles…
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Should Beginners Buy Cigars by the Box or Singles?
Starting out in cigars means making a lot of decisions before you even light up. One of the first — and most misunderstood — is whether to go for box or single cigars. Buy a full box or pick up singles one at a time. It sounds like a simple question. It isn’t. Get it…
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Smoking Cigars in Warm Weather: The Complete Guide
There is a summer session I keep coming back to. July, somewhere around seven in the evening, the heat had finally dropped to something tolerable. I had a cigar I had been meaning to smoke for three weeks. A glass of cold water on the table. An hour later I was still sitting there —…
