Most guides online skip this entirely. They’ll walk you through cutting, lighting, draw technique — then nothing. The session just ends and you’re left staring at a half-smoked robusto wondering what to do with it.
Knowing how to put out a cigar properly matters more than people give it credit for. Do it wrong and the room smells for hours. Put out a cigar incorrectly and it’s ruined for a relight. The wrapper cracks. And anyone nearby gets a face full of the kind of sharp, acrid smoke that gives cigars a bad reputation among non-smokers.
This guide covers every correct method for how to put out a cigar, what actually happens when you do it wrong, and answers the questions that come up once you’ve had a session interrupted mid-smoke. Whether you’ve never thought about how to put out a cigar before or you’ve been doing it wrong for years — the difference matters more than you’d expect.
Why Putting Out a Cigar the Right Way Actually Matters
Here’s something most beginners don’t know: a premium cigar won’t keep burning on its own. It needs you. Every draw pulls oxygen through the tobacco and keeps the cherry alive — stop puffing, and the whole thing starts to die within seconds.
That makes putting out a cigar a lot more forgiving than people think. You don’t need to do much. The problem comes from people doing too much — stubbing, crushing, dunking — because that’s what they know from cigarettes. A cigar is not a cigarette. The tobacco inside is aged anywhere from one to three years, fermented to reduce harshness, and rolled with a wrapper leaf that costs more than most people’s dinner. Treating it like a cigarette butt when you put out a cigar wastes all of that, and it’s completely unnecessary — the right way to put out a cigar takes zero effort.
Getting this right means the cigar survives intact for a relight, the room doesn’t smell like an ashtray for two days, and the whole experience ends the way it started — on your terms. Learning how to put out a cigar properly is one of those small habits that separates someone who smokes from someone who actually knows cigars. And once you’ve done it correctly a few times, you won’t think about it again — it becomes second nature to put out a cigar the right way every time.
How to Put Out a Cigar: The Right Methods
The Best Method to Put Out a Cigar — Rest It and Walk Away
Set the cigar in the ashtray, stop puffing, and leave it alone. Without active draws pushing oxygen through the tobacco, the cherry begins to fade almost immediately. How long it takes depends on ring gauge and how much tobacco mass is at the foot — smaller formats like coronas and petit coronas extinguish relatively quickly, while a 60-ring gordo or a long double corona holds heat considerably longer due to the sheer amount of tobacco still burning. The point is to let it happen on its own rather than forcing it.
The smoke thins to a faint wisp, then nothing. Once the thread from the foot disappears entirely and you feel no heat hovering above it, the cigar is out. Don’t assume it’s done just because it looks quiet — larger ring gauges can hold a low glow in the center of the foot long after visible smoke has stopped.
This method leaves the cigar in perfect condition. The wrapper stays intact, the filler hasn’t been compressed, and the draw channel is clear for a relight. It also produces the least residual odor because the tobacco cools gradually rather than being forced through a sudden heat burst.
When You Need to Put Out a Cigar Fast — Make a Cut
If waiting isn’t an option, the cleanest way to put out a cigar quickly is to make a cut just above the burn line with a sharp cutter. This removes the cherry entirely in one motion. The cigar extinguishes immediately, the foot is left clean, and the remaining tobacco is undamaged and ready to relight later. It’s the most controlled way to put out a cigar when time is short.
This is significantly better than tapping. Tapping the foot against an ashtray to dislodge the cherry puts pressure directly on the burning tobacco mass and risks cracking the wrapper, compressing the filler, and leaving an uneven, damaged foot. The cut method avoids all of that — a clean slice above the burn line takes less than a second and leaves the cigar in the best possible condition.
Use a sharp guillotine or double-blade cutter. A blunt cut tears the wrapper rather than slicing it cleanly, which creates problems at the new foot when you go to relight.
What If You Don’t Have an Ashtray?
If you have a cutter on you, make a clean cut just above the burn line to put out a cigar quickly — the cherry is gone in one motion and the cigar is ready to rest on any non-flammable surface until cold. If no cutter is available, set the cigar on a hard, non-flammable surface — concrete, ceramic, stone — foot down, and let it self-extinguish. It takes longer than a cut but avoids any damage to the remaining tobacco.
If you smoke regularly, a dedicated cigar ashtray is worth having. The grooves keep the cigar elevated and prevent rolling.
How NOT to Put Out a Cigar
Stubbing It Out Like a Cigarette
This is where the smell comes from. Not from cigars in general — from this specific mistake. Every time someone says they hate cigar smell, there’s a good chance they’ve watched someone put out a cigar this way in a closed room.
Crushing a lit cigar compresses the smoldering tobacco and forces partially burned material through an intense heat pocket simultaneously. The result is a sudden release of tar compounds, aldehydes, and volatile oils that weren’t present a second before. That’s the smell. It’s acrid, it’s sharp, and it penetrates soft surfaces — upholstery, curtains, clothing — in a way that cold cigar smoke simply doesn’t.
Beyond the odor, there’s nothing left to relight. The wrapper cracks under the pressure. The filler compacts into a dense, uneven mess. Whatever was left of the cigar is gone.
Most non-smokers who say they hate cigar smell have actually smelled this — a stubbed-out cigar in an indoor ashtray. It’s a legitimate complaint, and it’s entirely avoidable.
Dunking in Water or Any Liquid
Some people do this in restaurants or places without a proper ashtray. It solves the immediate problem and creates several others. Wet tobacco off-gases as it dries, which produces a stale, musty odor that persists for hours. The cigar is completely unrecoverable. And water doesn’t actually extinguish a cigar faster than the passive method — it just makes the mess permanent.
If there’s no ashtray available and you need to put out a cigar quickly, a clean cut just above the burn line is the best option. The cherry is gone immediately, no dunking required.
Blowing Through the Cigar
The logic makes sense at first: blow air through the cigar from the head to force out the heat. In practice, it does the opposite. The air passing through the tobacco carries combustion gases and hot particles toward the foot, which can briefly reignite the cherry and push a surge of bitter oils and tars back through the filler. If the cigar gets relit later, that retrograde contamination affects the flavor noticeably — more bitter, more tar-forward than the original smoke.
Just don’t. Resting it in the ashtray to put out a cigar passively is faster and cleaner than trying to engineer a solution.
Can You Put Out a Cigar and Relight It?
Yes, and the window is more generous than most people expect. When you put out a cigar cleanly — passive method or a clean cut — it can typically be relit within one to two hours without meaningful flavor loss. The tobacco holds its character reasonably well in that window. The draw stays consistent. The burn relights evenly.
Past two hours things start to change. The volatile aromatic compounds in the tobacco begin to dissipate, and the oils in the wrapper and binder oxidize against the air. A cigar relit the next day will taste noticeably flatter and often harsher in the first third, though some smokers find that acceptable.
The fix is always the same: toast the foot for ten to fifteen seconds before drawing. That thin layer of oxidized tobacco on the outer edge is what causes the off-note on first puff. Burning it away before you draw gives the relight a clean start.
For more on ring gauge, length, and how size affects your smoke, read Cigar Sizes Explained: Ring Gauge vs. Length at VDG Cigars.
How Much of a Cigar Should You Smoke Before Putting It Down?
There is no rule here — it comes down entirely to personal preference. Some smokers take a cigar to the last half inch and consider anything less a waste. Others put it down at the halfway mark and are perfectly happy. Neither is wrong.
What does change as you smoke further down is the character of the smoke itself. Heat builds, the oils and tars from everything that’s already burned concentrate toward the head, and the final third tends to deliver more intensity and strength than the first. For some that’s exactly what they’re after. For others it’s where the experience starts to feel harsh. Only you know which camp you fall into.
The practical consideration is time. If you light a cigar and can’t finish it, putting it out in the first or second third leaves it in better shape for a relight than stopping deep in the final section. But when to stop — that’s yours to decide.
For a full breakdown on the factors that affect the decision, read When Should You Stop Smoking a Cigar? at VDG Cigars.
Common Mistakes When Putting Out a Cigar
Stubbing it out like a cigarette is the most damaging way to put out a cigar. Crushing the foot forces smoldering tobacco through concentrated heat, releasing tar compounds and volatile oils in one burst. The smell is immediate and severe, the cigar is destroyed, and there is no relight.
Dunking in liquid saturates the tobacco completely. The cigar becomes unsmokeable, and wet tobacco produces a foul, lingering odor as it dries out — often worse than the stub-out smell.
Blowing through the cigar to force the cherry out pushes combustion gases and hot particles back through the filler toward the foot, which can briefly reignite the cherry and forces bitter oils and tars back through the tobacco. If the cigar gets relit later, the flavor suffers noticeably.
Leaving a lit cigar unattended for more than a few minutes is a fire hazard. A cigar that rolls off the ashtray onto a wooden surface or tablecloth is a genuine risk. If you need to step away, put it out first.
Pressing or tapping the foot into the ashtray compresses the filler and risks cracking the wrapper. If you need to put out a cigar quickly, a clean cut just above the burn line is the right move — not pressure applied to the burning end.
Cigar Lounge Etiquette
In a lounge, the way you put out a cigar says something. Nobody’s running a checklist — but people notice the stub. The correct way to put out a cigar here is exactly the same as anywhere else: set it in the tray, let it die on its own, and that’s the end of it.
The groove on a cigar ashtray isn’t decorative. It’s sized to hold a standard ring gauge cigar at roughly a 30-degree angle with the foot slightly elevated. Use it as intended and the cigar puts itself out cleanly every time.
One note for newcomers: in a busy lounge, staff will sometimes clear ashtrays while cigars are still in them if they look abandoned. If you’re planning to return to a smoke, hold the cigar or let someone know. Half-smoked cigars left in trays too long tend to disappear.
FAQ: How to Put Out a Cigar
Rest it in the ashtray and stop puffing. The cigar will extinguish itself on its own — that’s the correct way to put out a cigar, and it requires no intervention at all. The passive method is both the easiest and most effective. Anyone who tells you to crush it, stub it, or dunk it has learned the wrong habit from cigarettes and hasn’t thought about what actually happens to the tobacco. To put out a cigar without ruining it, patience is the entire technique.
It depends on ring gauge and how much tobacco mass is at the foot. Smaller formats — coronas, petit coronas — can extinguish in a few minutes. A standard robusto or toro takes longer. Large ring gauges like gordos or double coronas can hold a smoldering cherry for up to fifteen minutes after the last puff. The reliable indicator is not a time estimate but the foot itself: when the thread of smoke has completely stopped and you feel no heat above it, the cigar is out.
You can, but it won’t taste the same. When you put out a cigar cleanly within two hours, it holds its character reasonably well. After that, oxidation sets in and the first third will be noticeably harsher and flatter. Toast the foot thoroughly before drawing and accept that the flavors will be somewhat muted. Some cigars recover better than others — a well-constructed, box-pressed stick tends to hold up better than a loosely rolled one when you put out a cigar and leave it overnight.
Not at all — when to put out a cigar is entirely personal preference. Some smokers go to the nub, others put it down at the halfway mark or earlier. The smoke does change character as you get deeper, with more heat and intensity building toward the final third, but whether that’s a reason to stop or carry on is up to you.
Make a clean cut just above the burn line with a sharp cutter. The cherry is removed in one motion, combustion stops immediately, and the foot is left clean and ready for a relight. Tapping the foot against an ashtray to dislodge the cherry damages the cigar — it puts pressure directly on the burning tobacco and risks cracking the wrapper and compressing the filler. The cut is faster, cleaner, and leaves the cigar in far better condition.
Technically yes. Practically, no. The tobacco gets saturated, a relight is impossible, and wet tobacco dries slowly while releasing a stale, musty odor that hangs around for hours.
It puts itself out on its own once it’s deprived of active draws. How long that takes depends on ring gauge — smaller cigars extinguish faster, larger ones can smolder for quite a while. The main risk with leaving it completely unattended is fire: a cigar that rolls off the ashtray onto a wooden surface or tablecloth is a genuine hazard.
Related Articles at VDG Cigars
- When Should You Stop Smoking a Cigar?
- Why Does My Cigar Burn Unevenly?
- Why Won’t My Cigar Stay Lit?
- Why Does My Cigar Wrapper Crack? Causes, Prevention, and Fixes
- Cigars vs Cigarettes: What’s the Difference?
- Why Does My Cigar Taste Bitter? 8 Causes and How to Fix Each One
- How to Remove Cigar Smell from Your House
Disclaimer: Cigars involve open flame and burning tobacco. Always extinguish your cigar fully before leaving it unattended. Never place a lit or partially extinguished cigar near flammable materials including paper, fabric, wood, or upholstery. Ensure the cigar is completely cold before disposal. VDG Cigars takes no responsibility for fire damage or injury resulting from improper handling of lit cigars.
If this post answered one question, there are dozens more worth exploring. Over the years on VDG Cigars, every major topic in the premium cigar world has been covered — beginner guides, storage, palate training, troubleshooting, pairing, brand deep-dives, and original interviews with founders. It is all collected in one place: The Complete Cigar Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Premium Cigars.
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