Exhale

We brothers (and sisters) of the leaf know that a cigar can serve many purposes: it can be relaxing or invigorating, celebratory or consoling.  We can smoke something so strong it makes our eyes cross, or mellow enough to compliment a sorbet.  There are cigars that are made to last 2 hours, and those that are only a 15-minute smoke.

We talk a lot about what our cigar says about us, but rarely do we listen to what our cigar is saying TO us.  Is it telling us we need to slow down by burning harsh and uneven?  Are we lounging with a lancero, or striving with a salomon?  Are we at peace, with smoke curling straight up to the sky, or are we waving it around like a magic wand, embiggening ourselves with grandiose gestures?

We discuss how to cut, how to light, how to puff, and even how to enjoy.  But there’s a key part that we rarely discuss, because it’s as natural as breathing.  Exhaling.  We puff in, and then just blow out.

This is where we really differentiate ourselves from the cigarette smoker.  Exhaling for them is just necessary so that they can fill their lungs with oxygen again.  Since we don’t inhale, we aren’t forced biologically to react the same way.  Also because of the social nature of our hobby, we rarely have to re-arrange our faces like so much clay to avoid blowing smoke into someone else’s face.  We can choose to exhale at our own pace and pleasure and this action speaks volumes about how we’re feeling.

I know that when I’m absent minded, I tend to just blow the smoke out of my mouth as if I was inflating a balloon- a large jet of smoke straight out.  But I’ve seen those smokers who can pick apart the taste of a cigar all the way down to “hints of melba toast” who stare at the ash and gently eject a slim stream of smoke slowly and carefully, as if blowing an eyelash off a baby’s cheek.

Then there’s the old timers- those that can’t taste the tobacco unless they exhale through their nose and get the whole essence of the smoke.  Others prefer to simply lounge with the cigar in their mouth and exhale around it, like a rocket on the launch pad.

As for me, I use my exhalations as a gauge of how I’m feeling.  Am I really relaxed?  Or just acting like it?  My tell is smoke rings- if I’m in a lounge, relaxed and at peace, I blow smoke rings.  To me it’s playful and fun- trying to get one last bit of pleasure from the essence of the cigar.

And please, remember to go to www.CRA.org and join the Cigar Rights of America.  They’re currently lobbying to keep the FDA from regulating cigars- they could restrict artwork on boxes, advertising, nicotine content, special and limited editions, not to mention the increased taxes and costs.  So join today- together we’re as strong as ligero.