A cigar can be plugged or tight for a variety of reasons. They are, in the order of likelihood: 1) The cigar is too moist and the tobacco is swelled from the excess water. This is a very common circumstance with freshly made cigars. All of the materials are wetted to make them easy to work with and the cigar will require some significant drying time to wick away the excess moisture. A cigar can retain moisture for a very long time, particularly if it is being stored in a 70%RH environment. Depending on the cellulous nature of the leaf used, it could take many months for a cigar to thoroughly "set-up". Most manufacturers are now making use of a "cold room" to help minimize this problem. This is actually a refrigerated room that is kept at about 55 degrees with fans circulating dry air continuously. This greatly helps the set up process. However most distributors, ourselves included, like to keep our cigars at the 70-72% RH mark so we end up reintroducing moisture. Personally, I think this is slightly higher than the ideal for smoking, but well humidified cigars travel better. They remain tight in their boxes, and in turn there is far less wrapper damage. This is why I almost always recommend letting newly bought cigars sit out for a few days before placing them in your humidor. 2) The bunch is twisted. After a cigar is bunched and secured by its binder it is commonly then place inside a wooded or poly mold which helps to shape the bunch to exact desired shape and girth. How long they are pressed depends on the maker, but the process requires an initial loading of the press with the bunches and then at the halfway mark all the presses being broken down and all the cigars rotate 90 degrees. The loading and rotating is done by hand typically very quickly and it is during this process that a cigar maker can actually twist the bunch while pressing the cigar's barrel into the mold. This twisted becomes fixed in place by the mold and results in an almost impossible draw. Many times this can be resolved by cutting an inch or so of each end of a cigar as it is typically near the end where twists occur. Which end? 50/50 shot, pick one... if it doesn't work, try the other. 3) Simply too much tobacco. The buncher simply put too much tobacco in the cigar. It happens with all handmade cigars, you have to allow for some error. If you want a perfect draw every time then start smoking machine-mades. Now with that said, I absolutely hate tight cigars and while I am understanding of the occasional hard drawing cigar, I refuse to accept too many poorly made cigars. I vote with my dollars and start to buy a different brand. Those are the three primary reasons for hard drawing, tight smokes. So what can you do to "fix" it? As I said before, the #1 reason is too much moisture. This cigar simply needs some "dry time" and only patience will resolve the problem. If it is not due to moisture odds are the tight spot in small cross section of the cigar construction. Normally you can ID such spot by feeling the cigar with your fingers and find the knot. And many times you can clip it if it is a twist near the end or just burn passed the tight part. Sometimes you can gently massage the tight spot to open it up some, but rarely enough to drastically improve the draw. A fourth option is to try to create your own flow hole through the cigar. You can do this with a skewer, but PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL! It is not uncommon for the skewer to crack the cigar beyond hope and even worse for the skewer to penetrate the side right into your hand. A Draw Poker is a product that makes this a much safer practice as it provides a jig in which the cigar is held tightly and protects your hands. However, for this procedure to work well you really need to leave the skewer in the cigar for 24 hours or so, because the hole you just reamed will try constrict onto itself. Personally, I abhor tight cigars and if after allowing them to dry they remain tight, I typically pitch them. Life is too short to fight a non-drawing cigar. |
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