Do you find wildly different burn rates/smoking times between different cigars (or even different sticks of the same blend)?
I'm baffled because over the last few years, I have smoked through many 5.5x52 very solid, well-packed Jaime Garcia Reserva Especiales (one of my favorite broadleaf stogies) in 40-50 minutes. A typical stogie that size normally takes me anywhere from 1-1.5 hours for me to finish but not with those. Then, I have the occasional experience with the same cigar, where it might last 90 minutes. In contrast, I enjoyed up a Tabernacle corona today, a diminutive 5x42 and it lasted well over an hour, nice slow burn.
I don't think I'm taking puffs too often because the smoke doesn't taste hot. Generally my cigars are all stored in the same conditions (62-65%) and I use a humidity meter at the foot of the stick to check the humidity of the tobacco (usually when it reads 60-65% the cigar performs very well).
Obviously humidity, both of the tobacco and the external environment, is a major factor but I smoke most of my sticks at 60-65%, which is fairly normal. I figure the chemistry of the leaves in the blend plays a huge part and also the way the cigar is constructed is important. It's just turning spring where I live and has been dry as hell outside where I smoke, so that may be a factor.
Does anybody else have experiences like this or some insights into why burn rate variability between different cigars and also between individual sticks of the same blend is so high?
I'm baffled because over the last few years, I have smoked through many 5.5x52 very solid, well-packed Jaime Garcia Reserva Especiales (one of my favorite broadleaf stogies) in 40-50 minutes. A typical stogie that size normally takes me anywhere from 1-1.5 hours for me to finish but not with those. Then, I have the occasional experience with the same cigar, where it might last 90 minutes. In contrast, I enjoyed up a Tabernacle corona today, a diminutive 5x42 and it lasted well over an hour, nice slow burn.
I don't think I'm taking puffs too often because the smoke doesn't taste hot. Generally my cigars are all stored in the same conditions (62-65%) and I use a humidity meter at the foot of the stick to check the humidity of the tobacco (usually when it reads 60-65% the cigar performs very well).
Obviously humidity, both of the tobacco and the external environment, is a major factor but I smoke most of my sticks at 60-65%, which is fairly normal. I figure the chemistry of the leaves in the blend plays a huge part and also the way the cigar is constructed is important. It's just turning spring where I live and has been dry as hell outside where I smoke, so that may be a factor.
Does anybody else have experiences like this or some insights into why burn rate variability between different cigars and also between individual sticks of the same blend is so high?
