A cigar usually turns bitter when it's smoked too hot and too fast: the tobacco oils overheat and the smoke turns sharp. Other causes are incorrect storage, insufficiently fermented tobacco, or smoking down to the hot stub. Drawing slowly and storing well keep the smoke smooth.
The most common causes
Drawing too fast overheats the cigar. Tobacco that's too moist burns poorly and tastes harsh; too dry, and it burns too hot. Incompletely fermented tobacco carries bitter compounds that even the best technique can't fully offset. And smoking to the last hot remnant inevitably tastes sharp.
How to avoid bitterness
- Draw slowly, roughly every 30 to 60 seconds.
- Let the cigar rest between draws.
- Store correctly, at about 68 to 72 percent humidity.
- Choose well-aged, cleanly fermented tobacco.
- If it does turn sharp, gently blow through the cigar (purge) and stop in good time.
Bitterness is a combustion problem, not fate
Bitterness rarely appears “out of nowhere”. Usually pace, storage or fermentation is the cause, all of which you can influence. A well-made, aged cigar smoked at a calm pace stays smooth. That's exactly the standard we hold every SB to.
Pace also raises the question of how the smoke is handled at all: more on that in Do you have to inhale cigars?.
Frequently asked questions
What should you do if a cigar turns bitter?
- Ease off the pace, let it rest briefly, gently purge if needed. If it stays sharp, better to set it down.
At what humidity should you store cigars?
- About 68 to 72 percent. Both too moist and too dry encourage unpleasant flavour.
Is bitterness down to the cigar or the smoking?
- Mostly technique and storage, sometimes the tobacco's fermentation. Rarely is the cigar alone “to blame”.
From the house of SB Cigars. We build our SB Robusto deliberately against bitterness: a creamy foundation with cocoa, nut and chocolate above it. More about the SB Robusto.