I've recently noticed that as much as one in three cigars from my humidor have less-than-ideal draw. I smoke good quality cigars (last night it was an ISOM cohiba, the night before a delicious perdomo2) but I wonder if its my humidor or my cutter or just bad luck? I have been using a zino double guillotine cutter and the cigars seem to be at the right humidity- any thoughts?

I would venture to guess that you are pulling out your smokes and smoking them directly from your humidor. What is the humidity usually run in your humidor? This could be a big part of the problem. 70% humidity may be nice for a cigar to rest at but it may not be optimal for burning a tightly bound, swollen wad of well-aged tobacco. As has been mentioned in other threads, try pulling out a cigar and letting it rest outside of your humidor for a day before lighting it. This may help the tobacco lose a little moisture before you smoke it. I have a cigar jar without a humidifier that I keep a few smokes ready to light in. It works well and I have a mini-selection ready to go! Hope it helps.

I do a similar thing. I have a desktop humidor without any humidification that I'll put my ready-to-smoke cigars in after they have aged long enough in my coolerdor. My coolerdor is at 70to75 in humidity. I find that cigars smoke better at about 60 humidity and that is what my desktop maintains.

that is interesting, I do the opposite approach! I don't like leaving cigars laying out without humidification, for especially in the summer and dry air here, they would dry out in a snap, turn into kindling, and I don't like dryer smokes, which often to me taste dusty, and tends to burn hot. But I have had similar problems with the draw, and a week before I am going to smoke a cigar, I actually move them closer to the humidity fan in the cabinet and get them more moist, in fact when I smoke them they are like butter sometimes, and the draw problems I have been having on occassion have stopped. The macanudos were especially bad, but lately this method of mine has worked well, and I like cool juicy smokes.

Have you considered massaging your cigars before lighting? Massaging is when you gently squeeze the cigar as you roll it between your thumb and your pointer finger. This loosens up the tobacco inside a bit and allows for an even draw and an even burn as well. This is NOT a good idea if your cigar is dry because it WILL crack. Try this and let me know how it goes.

This prompts another question.Who here has gone to extreme measures of improving a draw on a cigar by using a Draw Poker?

can I use my coconut scented massage oils?

great replies, I appreciate all the advice, and I suppose I will try to dry my cigars out a bit and massage them before smoking. I live in Salt Lake, so usually I am worried about letting them get TOO dry, but we'll try it. I am also interested if anyone has tried the poker trick, as I had been considering it.

asa1, just remember NOT to massage your cigars if you dry them out, because they WILL crack. Enjoy.

I tried using a draw poker (a good one - riverboat style) to loosen up the tobacco inside a Cohiba Straight with disastrous results! Pappy was right. Never draw to an inside Straight.

Haven't tried the Draw Poker(I's too cheap.)Do use my wife's big sewing needle. It's about 3in long and thick enough not to bend and bore a pretty good hole in that clogged cigar. The downside(which I suppose the Draw Poker addresses) is that if you don't start out poking it straight, it'll poke out the side of the wrapper.