Do it to me one more time: the "morning after" cigar

In terms of the relationship they have with their smokers, cigars rarely get more than a one night stand. Of course, there are exceptions to everything, so, I decided to follow-up on a survey question I ran that asked, "Have you ever put down an unfinished cigar, then finished smoking it the next day?" Since the results were evenly split, I thought I'd give it a try and see how a good cigar would taste the morning after.

The first question was, what cigar do I use to put to the test? My criteria were, it had to be a fairly popular cigar, full-flavored, and somewhat on the pricey side. I decided to go with the Alec Bradley Tempus Genesis, a 5½" x 42 Corona which retails for about $6.25 a cigar.

I lit-up the cigar, and if you haven't had the pleasure, this is one helluva smoke. Everything was going perfectly - the flavor, aroma, the burn. At about the halfway point, regretfully, I let the cigar go out and left it in a saddle on the ashtray overnight.

The following day I picked up the cigar and it was still fairly supple. Instead of just relighting the cigar as-is, I carefully cleaned all of the ash out of the foot with a toothpick, so all that was left was some charred tobacco. I was tempted to clip the cigar back for some fresher tobacco but I thought that would be cheating.

I lit up, and to my surprise, the cigar picked up right where we left off. Not only were all the wonderful flavors and aromas still intact, the burn was as perfect as the night before, leaving a long, firm ash in its wake (see photo at left). I ended up smoking the cigar down to the last inch with no bitterness.

Conclusions: Was it the cigar? Did I just get lucky? I don't know, but I have to give credit to the fine construction of this cigar, and that would include the Honduran Trojes wrapper that's used for Tempus. I'm sure there are other cigars out there that hold up just as well. If you know of any from your own experience, please leave a comment. I don't know if I would make this practice a habit, but it was fun to see what would happen.

~ Gary Korb