The craft of smoking well.
How to cut it. How to light it. How to pace it. How to taste it — like the stranger at the Meliá Cohiba lounge taught us in Havana in 2019.
In 2019, a man named Dolan sat down next to us in a Havana lounge and gave us a masterclass in smoking a cigar properly. These are the pieces that came from that night.
The cut.
Before the fire, before the cedar — the cut sets up everything that follows. What Dolan showed us first, and why most people get it wrong.
Read →The cedar light.
Why Dolan put the lighter away — and what cedar does that nothing else can. The technique that seasons the cigar before the first draw.
Read →The circle of fire.
The moment the cigar is ready — and how to know the difference. Patience here pays off for the next hour.
Read →Three ways to taste a cigar.
After the light, the real lesson. The retrohale, the cup, the percussion — three techniques Dolan showed us that changed how we taste everything.
Read →"You are not smoking. You are listening."— Dolan, Meliá Cohiba lounge, Havana 2019
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