Etiquette

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Cigar smell travels and stays. Etiquette is not a display of gold tools. It is the decision not to treat someone else’s air as your sitting room.

Check the law and the room. Hong Kong and other cities restrict smoking. A private terrace still has neighbors and wind.
Do not light up around children, pregnancy, or anyone who has said no.
Do not blow smoke at faces, including as a trick.
Do not sniff or cut another person’s cigar without asking.
A gift of live leaf needs a humidor at the other end. Otherwise you are giving something that will spoil.
Keep the band or peel it when the glue softens. Nobody is keeping score.

Using a cigar as a status act is usually the rudest way to smoke one. Slow, quiet, and clean ash is more dignified than any engraved scissors.

Related chapters

Pace, why smoke stays in the mouth, what ash is for, and when to put the cigar down.

Coffee, tea, whisky, rum, port, and alcohol-free options with mild or full cigars. No shops.

Editorial rules, sources, health notice, and how advertising appears on The Cigar Almanac.