Category: Uncategorized
-
Why “Boutique Cigar” Has Become a Meaningless Term
The term boutique cigar gets thrown around so often in the premium cigar world that it has become white noise. You see it on band cards, in press releases, in retailer descriptions, and across humidor shelves on every continent. It is everywhere. And because it is everywhere, it means nothing. Not because the brands using…
-
Are Cigars Bad for You? The Honest Answer Nobody Gives
By Peter Stefanic, Certified Cigar Sommelier | VDG Cigars Every health article about cigars makes the same mistake before it even starts. It reaches for tobacco statistics that make no distinction between a daily cigarette smoker and someone enjoying a premium hand-rolled cigar once a week. The same data. The same conclusions. Two completely different…
-
How to Properly Age Cigars: The Complete Guide
Most cigar smokers know aging matters. Few know what it actually does — or how to do it correctly. After more than a decade of smoking cigars across four continents, and spending years interviewing the people who grow, ferment, blend, and roll premium tobacco for a living, one thing comes up repeatedly: the gap between…
-
Should You Store Cigars With Cellophane On or Off?
Should you store cigars with the cellophane on or take it off? It is one of the most asked questions in the hobby, and the answers floating around the forums contradict each other constantly. Some swear by naked storage. Others never touch the wrapper. Most articles end with a shrug and the words “personal preference,”…
-
Are Cuban Cigars Always Best? What Every Cigar Smoker Should Know
By Peter at VDG Cigars | Certified Cigar Sommelier Few questions in the premium cigar world carry as much weight — or as much mythology — as this one. Walk into any well-stocked lounge and bring it up. Within minutes, the conversation will divide the room between those who treat Cuban cigars as the permanent…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Cigar Mold vs Plume: The Complete Guide to Telling Them Apart
You open your humidor and notice something white on your cigars. Your stomach tightens. Is it mold? Is it plume? Should you panic, toss them, or light one up without a second thought? This is one of the most common questions in cigar storage — and one of the most poorly answered. Most guides give…
-
How to Tell If a Cigar Is Good Quality
You pay good money for a cigar, set aside an hour, and it disappoints. The draw fights you. The burn runs sideways. The flavor turns harsh somewhere in the middle and you’re just waiting for it to end. That’s not bad luck. That’s a bad cigar. And in most cases, the signs were there long…
