How to Light a Cigar
Learn to toast the foot, build an even ember across the whole diameter, and avoid the scorched, bitter first third that comes from rushing.
Choose a clean flame
Anything that burns without adding its own flavor will work: a butane torch, a soft butane flame, a cedar spill, or a long wooden match burned past the sulfur head. Avoid petrol lighters and scented candles; the fuel taste is real and it sits on the first inch. Torch lighters are fast and wind-resistant but concentrate a lot of heat in a small spot, which is exactly how people scorch a wrapper. Soft flame is slower and more forgiving. A cedar spill, a thin strip of the sheet from inside a Cuban box, is the traditional method and adds a faint sweetness that some smokers genuinely prefer.
Toast the foot first
Hold the flame roughly half an inch below the foot and hold the cigar at about a forty-five degree angle, off to the side and slightly above the flame. Do not put the cigar in the fire. Rotate slowly. You are heating the foot until the outer rim darkens and a thin line of glowing orange forms all the way around. This takes maybe fifteen to thirty seconds. Toasting dries the foot and pre-heats the leaf so that when you draw, the whole face catches at once instead of one hot spot racing ahead of the rest.
Bring it to full light
Now put the cigar in your mouth, hold the flame just below the foot, and draw in short even puffs while continuing to rotate. Do not draw hard. Hard drawing pulls flame into the filler and superheats it, and that is what produces the harsh, ashy, ammoniated first third people complain about. Four to eight gentle puffs is usually enough. Then take the cigar out, look at the foot straight on, and blow gently across it. You should see a uniform orange ring with no dark crescents.
Touch up the gaps
If part of the foot is unlit, aim the flame at that section only for a few seconds and draw once. Do not relight the whole face. A cigar that starts unevenly rarely corrects itself, because the lit side keeps a heat advantage the whole way up. Spending twenty extra seconds here saves you from canoeing later. Once lit, let the cigar sit for thirty seconds before the next draw, then check the ash line. A flat, level ash line at the start is the best predictor of a well-behaved cigar.
Relighting
Cigars go out. It is not a failure. If it has been out under roughly fifteen minutes, tap off the loose ash, blow outward through the cigar once to clear stale smoke from the head, then toast and light the foot as before. Cigars relit after longer, or the next day, will taste noticeably sharper and more bitter because tar has condensed in the cooled tobacco. That can still be worth it on an expensive cigar, but manage expectations. A cigar that keeps going out usually has a moisture problem, not a lighting problem.