It’s so common for misinformed cigar smokers to quickly tap out their cigars in an ashtray right after every puff. These people are doing it completely wrong. What a lot of people don’t know is that an ash build up helps maintain optimal temperature to release the full potential of the flavour.

Think of smoking a cigar as not dissimilar from cooking dinner, how you need to leave food in the oven long enough in the correct temperature before it’s ready, not too hot, not too cold. Well it’s much the same with cigar smoking; you need to cook the tobacco so it has a chance for its sugars to caramelise.

Don’t put too much thought into it; just allow the ash to build up a bit between puffs before knocking it away. As long as it maintains the right temperature you should be provided with cool, flavourful smoke, over-ashing causes the cigar to overheat, giving you a harsh mouthful of hot smoke because the foot of the cigar is exposed to oxygen, making the end burn faster.

Some situations do call for ashing more than usual, for example if you have to be extra careful to not make a mess on your trousers and need to ash more to decrease the risk of ash falling on your trousers, if you are indoors and don’t want to get any on the floor, or if you are sampling a new cigar and you aren’t totally aware of the ash threshold yet.

 However this is understandable to an extent, a lot of the time some people actually stub out their premium cigars as if they are smoking a common cigarette. This can result in masses of smoke and unpleasant odour; a cigar deserves a dignified death, burning out on an ashtray on its own.

All this doesn’t mean you should try and see the biggest ash you can get, epically long ashes are over the top, the key here is moderation, keep a reasonable sized ash, not too long and not too short, and you should have a very pleasant smoke.