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Learn · Reading a CigarBurn Issues
A healthy cigar burns in a flat, even ring... a burn issue is any of the ways it doesn't, and almost all of them trace back to humidity, uneven rolling, wind, or a sloppy light.
The glossary
Canoeing. One side burns fast while the other barely burns, hollowing the cigar out like a canoe. The most common serious burn problem.
Tunneling. The filler burns down the middle while the wrapper stays unlit, boring a hole up the center. Usually from puffing too rarely, or from tobacco that's too wet... the core keeps smoldering while the damp outside can't keep pace.
Runner. A single line of fire racing up one seam or heavy vein ahead of the burn line, sometimes splitting the wrapper as it goes.
Wavy burn line. The mild one. The ring wanders instead of staying sharp. Cosmetic, and it usually sorts itself out.
Touch-up. A spot fix... using the edge of the flame to catch a lagging side up without relighting the whole foot.
Relight. Re-toasting a cigar that went out. Normal and fine... purge first and expect a couple of rough puffs. The full walkthrough, including the roughly three-hour window a rested cigar still comes back well inside, lives at relighting and saving a cigar.
Purge. Blowing gently out through the cigar instead of drawing in. It pushes out stale smoke and built-up tars and flares the ember even. Useful before a relight, and when flavors turn bitter... the technique is walked through step by step at relighting and saving a cigar.
What causes burn problems
Four usual suspects. Humidity... overhumidified cigars are the classic canoe-and-tunnel factory, and dry ones burn hot and ragged (see humidity and RH). Uneven rolling... denser spots burn slower, and a bad bunch often chokes the draw too. Wind... smoking outside feeds one side of the ember more air than the other. An uneven light... if the foot isn't fully toasted, the burn starts crooked and has to catch up.
Fix it or let it ride
Small waves usually self-correct, especially if you rotate the cigar so the lagging side faces down... embers tend to burn faster on the underside. One or two touch-ups over a smoke is normal, not a defect. A canoe or tunnel that keeps coming back after repeated fixes means the cigar, or its storage, has a real problem. Check the ring each time you ash and decide whether it's worth the babysitting.
Two reviews on this site show the cost. The My Father Flor de las Antillas Toro fought a U-shaped burn the whole smoke, relights past counting, and that fight is most of why it rated a Hand-Me-One (2/4). The Davidoff Winston Churchill The Late Hour Toro stayed burn-fussy through three or four touch-ups without ever straightening out, and it also landed at Hand-Me-One (2/4). A burn you babysit all night gets priced into the verdict.
Keep reading
- The draw, explained
- Reading the ash
- Humidity and RH explained
- Our My Father Flor de las Antillas Toro review
- Our Davidoff WC The Late Hour Toro review
Reviewed at WSA since this page was written
Perez-Carrillo La Historia Silk Toro Review
Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4). There's a cream-leather-coffee cigar in here that kept trying to show up, but a bitterness that never left, a wrapper that cracked in at least six places, and touch-up after touch-up on the burn is not a $16.50 experience.
Liga Privada No. 9 Toro Review
Verdict: Five-Pack (3/4). A leather-coffee-cream cigar with no bitterness, a near-perfect draw, and the most smoke production I've ever had from a cigar... it doesn't transition much, it just does what it does extremely well. The construction hiccups it had, I'm laying at the fee
Oliva Serie V Melanio Figurado Review
Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4). Nothing bad, nothing good, just nothing... the most forgettable cigar I've smoked in a long time, from a line that's supposed to be phenomenal. I'd smoke one if you handed it to me. I wouldn't buy another, and I don't know how this cigar earns the rati
Romeo y Julieta Habana Reserve Robusto Review
Verdict: Not Even Free (1/4)... bitter from the first inch to the last, on a draw so tight I never got a normal mouthful of smoke out of it. Two full relights, better than a dozen touch-ups, a second cut before I ever lit it, a draw tool run halfway up the cigar, and none of it m
Liga Privada T52 Corona Doble Review
Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4). A well-made, well-mannered medium-plus smoke with a mild, layered leather-coffee-nut profile that never puts a standout note on the table, and a back half where the ash went brittle and the smoke kept dying on me. At right around twenty bucks a stick t
La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor Magnifico Review
Verdict: Not Even Free (1/4). Leather and earth start to finish, with the little bit of sweetness I needed showing up late in the first third, carrying into the second, and then leaving for good after a relight, wrapped around a snug draw and a burn that fought me the whole way.
Diesel Whiskey Row Toro Review
Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4). A pleasant nutty-bready-coffee smoke through two thirds that never found the sweetness I chase, then dipped into lingering bitterness and touch-up territory in the final third. Wouldn't buy it again, wouldn't turn one down — the middle stretch was a ge
Punch Reserve Collection Robusto Review
Verdict: Five-Pack (3/4). A mild-plus, bready-sweet Robusto with a lingering baking-spice retrohale that quietly turns to black pepper — good enough that I wish I'd bought more, held back only by a burn that fought me the whole way. I've got one left and I'm glad. A solid five in
Room101 Johnny Tobacconaut 10th Anniversary (JT10) Toro Review
Verdict: Five-Pack (3/4)... the flavor is box-worthy start to finish, but a burn that needed five touch-ups and constant attention has to cost something, and this is what it costs.
Foundation The Wise Man Corojo Toro Review
Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4)... a pleasant, mild tobacco-sweet smoke that never develops and made me work a lighter for it the whole way. The flavor is fine... light tobacco sweetness, some baking spice, a nutty stretch late... but it barely changes over the whole cigar, there's a