Welcome And What We Cover

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hi, I'm Nicholas Perdomo with Prodomo Cigars. I'm alongside my dad, Nick Prodomo. And welcome to the Prodomo Podcast Show. Very smooth. Thank you, Dad. Well, Dad, episode number two. And today we have some really good information to talk about stuff that you've been asked over the years, things that you've shown and taught people over the years. And what we're going to get into today is a couple different topics. How to properly cut a cigar, how to properly light a cigar, common mistakes, and how to avoid them. And another big topic that you were really big on is how not to get sick on a cigar.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

That's a big topic, but all three are big topics, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

It is, Dad. And you know, there are multiple ways. And I think that we can agree that probably the top three ways to cut a cigar, the first, uh, the most popular cutter, for example, is a straight cut, probably followed by number two, a V cut, and then a punch cut. I would say is number three. So Dad, I I think our personal favorite would be a straight cut or a guillotine cutter. Can you talk a little bit about the pros and cons and why with a straight cut?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Well, I think you only have a pro with the straight cut, to be honest with you. The reason I like the straight cut is when you cut the cigar across, you get the most volume because you basically cut the head wide open in a straight cut, and you're gonna have more voluminous smoke naturally, not by having to puff hard, which is a great thing. Second thing you're gonna have is the cigar is gonna smoke cooler. And the third thing, you're gonna be able to taste the blend consistently because you have a completely wide open mouth on the top of the cigar. So that's my favorite way to cut the cigar.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Awesome, Dad. And if you can, I think one of the biggest things is can you show how to properly cut the cigar?

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Of course. One of the things that when you look at the cigar, you have the cap on the top. And since we at Perdomo, we draw test every single cigar we manufacture. The cap is really an aesthetic part for us. So the important thing is when we cut the cap, we don't want to have tobacco on that cutter, on the top of the bottom. It's no different than playing golf. You hit a fat shot, you're digging up dirt because you hit it so deep. Same thing with cutting it. If you see tobacco on the top of that cutter, there's going to be tobacco settling on the bottom of that cutter. And when you put the cigar in your mouth, you're going to have those little bits of tobacco that you don't need to have. And it's also very bothersome. So if I can demonstrate, what I want to do is I want to get this flat cut. And basically, what I want to do when I get done, I just want to shave the top of the head. And if you look here, you'll notice that the only thing that I cut was really the cap. That's all I want. Nice clean cut. There's no pieces of tobacco on there. And that's my favorite cut because if you look, you have a wide open mouth there, you're going to have a much cooler smoke, you're going to be able to taste a cigar better, and I think you're going to enjoy it much better. So that's my favorite cut. But we also have different types of cutters we use. I think also when we cut a bellicosa or a torpedo that we're famous for, I also like to use a flat cut. I see a lot of people saying I like the V-cut better. I personally don't understand why the V-cut would be using the torpedo, but if that's what people like, that's fine. But I like a flat cutter. And what I like to do when I cut the torpedo, if I can show it, is I like to cut about a quarter of an inch. That's all you really need. Just need to just clip just literally a quarter inch of the cigar of the Bellicosa or a torpedo shape, which looks a lot like this. That's it. And the cigar will draw perfectly. And you get the circumference of the of the ring gauge being slightly smaller when it goes into your mouth, which is very comfortable.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Yeah, and it's it's funny because I mean, over the years, you know it better than anybody. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the cigar smokers, the consumers, they can be timid to pick up a figured-shaped cigar. And unfortunately, I wish people asked more questions. And that's really an amazing size, and it helps with flavor concentration and so forth. But people I think are pretty intimidated for the most part in terms of how to cut a figured-shaped cigar, whether it be a bellicoso, a torpedo. And really, unfortunately, they're missing out because of how incredible from the way those cigars were made by the cigar makers, the buncher, the the roller. It's just so it's just a special size. But thanks for showing that our viewers how to properly cut.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Yeah, I think it's just so important. You know, we smoke cigars, we enjoy them, people spend a lot of money on them. How can we make them more enjoyable? And I think a podcast like this is essential for all the smokers out there to learn. Whether you've been smoking cigars for four days or 40 years, it's always good to have really good technique. And one of the things that's always bothered me is how people cut and light cigars and the hurry they have. Why do we smoke cigars? We sit down, we enjoy, we drink our favorite beverage, whether it be alcohol or non-alcoholic, we take our time, but everybody is in a massive hurry to cut and light their cigars. And if you do it and you're in a hurry, like anything, you're probably going to do it improperly.

V-Cut Benefits And Drawbacks

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. And I think the next thing we I'd like to go into is, you know, we have a couple of different other colors too, is I'd like to talk about the V cut. And if you could show us and talk a little bit about a V cut, you know, pros and cons, and if you can show how it looks.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Well, the V cut, what I like about it is when you put it over the cigar, you you basically have a jig that's set up for you. Sure. And I like this deep cut from Calibri a lot. So when you cut it, you're going to get that deep V cut, but also you're going to get pieces of tobacco, which I don't like. And you put a lot of pressure on the head of the cigar. So what happens is there's always going to be small particles of tobacco underneath because of how deep it cuts. So it's not my favorite. I don't say it's wrong. If you like a V-cut, that's great. Everything's optional and on the table, but I prefer the flat cut. But the V-cut does work very good, but it does have settlements of tobacco on the bottom. So it's it would be my second favorite, right? To be quite honest with you.

Punch Cut Heat And Buildup

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yeah, no doubt. I'm I agree with you 100%. And the last cut I would say is the is the punch cut. And I don't think it's as popular as it used to be. I remember as a kid, I'd see a lot of people with the punch cuts always on the keychains and sure. And I don't think it's like that anymore. I think more people gravitated towards the straight cut, even the V cut. But just for showing our audience and talking about and explaining the pros and cons, if you could, and show and talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

The only pro that I see on the on the bullet or the punch cut is that you it's easily you can put it in your pocket, you can put it on a keychain. If you look at the cigar, when you push down on the cigar on the head, you're putting a lot of pressure, right? Right. So if you're pushing down on this cigar with the with the punch cut, you're really putting pressure on the head of that cigar. And then when you pop it out, you gotta lift up the cap sometimes. It depends on how good the cutter is. Right. And what you do is you get this tiny little hole. What I don't like about the punch cut is that that hole, you have a concentration of smoke now. Because remember, you don't have a clean cut. You still have you still have the cap all the way around that that hole. So what happens is when you smoke, the temperature increases quite a bit because of the cap around it still being whole. You have a much smaller surface of smoke, so I think the cigar is going to burn hotter. I don't think you're gonna be able to taste the complete blend because it's so concentrated. And as you continue smoking, saliva is gonna build up in the front of it. So it's not my favorite. But then again, smoking is subjective. If you like it, then that's great. It just happens to be my least favorite of the three cutters.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Well, if you were to recommend it or if somebody was like, Well, I kind of is there a specific ring gauge that you would say it works better, is it better for smaller cigars or bigger cigars?

SPEAKER_00 7:49

I definitely think it's better for smaller cigars because you have such such small circumference around that little hole that the smaller the head of the parallel cigar is, the better the the bullet cut would be. But again, dollar for dollar, I'm taking a flat guilt guillotine cut all day long. That's my favorite, but doesn't necessarily mean it's everybody else's favorite.

Toast The Foot Then Light

SPEAKER_01 8:08

So it's objective. Well, it means a lot because it's coming from you and and somebody who designed cigars and how you make cigars in terms of how you position the leaves from the bunch of the cigar. You're the master. And so I think it really comes across as very educational. I think it's important that you explain this. And I'm glad we did this and talked about this. I think the next subject is going to be on how to light a cigar.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

And so and the lighting of the cigar is is so important too, because what happens is everybody knows what a tobacco leaf looks like. So the tobacco leaf has tip. It has a tip all the way in the front, it circles around as a leaf. And when the cigar roller makes that cigar, the most valuable flavor characterist characteristic of that leaf is really in the mid part of the leaf, all the way to the tip. And the reason it's so important is because that leaf has the most sun exposure, regardless of its position. And we'll go into position and primings in future podcasts. But what happens is the those tips, when the cigar roller makes a cigar, whether it's a five, six or a seven-inch cigar, he always takes his thumb a half inch behind the bunch because he's going to have to pre-cut the bunch a half inch longer. The reason is, is if not, every cigar would have a soft spot in the front. So you'd have more structural rigidity if you if you cut it a half inch, so it's it's nice and tout from the beginning all the way to the end, the way the cigar should be. So with that being said, they take the tips and they line them in the front. The reason we do that is so you can taste flavor from beginning to end. And what people do is they take the cigar and they sit there and torch the cigar. It's just it's crazy sometimes. And what they're doing is they're they're burning the tips of those tips of the tobacco that are lined up in the front of the bunch, and they build all this carbon buildup. And you'll see the wrappers will have all this soot on the side, and it's to do it fast. The first thing you have to do when you light a cigar is you have to toast a foot. And what I mean by toasting the foot is the wrapper is the leaf on the outside, and underneath the wrapper is the binder, and the binder is what holds the blend. Right. So, what we want to do is we want to seal that binder and the wrapper into that binder. So basically, the cigar doesn't have any accelerator, so we want to use kind of a gauge. So we use the top of the band, and when we finish toasting the cigar, well, of course, the top of the band should be on top because it's a 360-degree radius. So we call it lighting a cigar, not torching a cigar, right? So the hottest part of the lighter is just above. So if you look when I go here, you'll notice that you get a little amber light. And as I'm turning, the light keeps keeps going. And every time I see that little amber light, I keep turning until I get all the way around, till I get to the top of that cigar. So if you look, you'll notice that it starts smoking, but at the same time, there's no soot on the wrapper because what I did is I toasted the end of that wrapper through the heat of the lighter to seal that wrapper into the binder. What's going to happen is you're not going to have flaking and you're going to have better combustibility once you learn to light. Now, when you light the cigar, you're doing it the same way. The only difference is now you're going to actually put the cigar in your mouth and light it. So, same thing. I'm going to keep, you'll see the lighter will be underneath the cigar quite a bit, but you'll see the heat rise and do it. So I'll show you. And when I'm done, I have this beautiful orange amber light on the bottom. And basically what I did is I lit my cigar. And it takes about 15 extra seconds. But one thing that I guarantee is you'll have a better burning cigar, you'll have a much more enjoyable smoking cigar experience because you didn't char any of it. There's really no carbon buildup because you lit your cigar correctly. And I think these things are just so important because if you don't toast a foot first, you're not going to get that wrapper sealed into the binder. That's the first thing. You got to make sure that you rotate that cigar all the way around in a 360-degree radius. That way you make sure that you properly light that cigar completely around. And then you got to light the cigar correctly. And I think it's going to be, I know for sure, you'll have a much more enjoyable experience. You will have much less relights. And that's what we're here to smoke cigars, really to enjoy them, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah, 100%. And it's important. And you know, telling the customers and showing our retailers, our consumers that we line the cigar from right when they right when they light the cigar with the most flavorful part of the leaves, in terms of those tips, right from the foot. And we line that entire cigar up all the way. So from beginning to end, you get all those flavors. But how you start, I guess, is really how you finish. So if you start correctly in terms of how you light the cigar, and prior to that, how you cut the cigar, you're going to have maximum enjoyment.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Yeah, just envision a wrapper being a glass tube, and you have your your bunch and your fillers and your blend inside, and you're taking a lighter and you're doing this to it. Right. That light is going to go in there and it's going to go into that that heat, you're actually scorching a cigar a half inch in, and all those tips and all that flavor now are getting scorched. It's almost like taking a piece of steak with a with a welder and welding on top of the steak. You're you're just you're just charring it for no reason. You're not going to get anything out of it. So it's important to really learn how to cut and light the cigar correctly. And I've been really adamant about it. I think a lot of people have appreciated, and I hope I hope people learn from this.

Leave The Band On Longer

SPEAKER_01 13:31

So, Dad, we just finished talking about cutting and lighting a cigar. So, my next question is, and you've been talking about this for a long time, is why should you not remove the band of a cigar?

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Yeah, it's a great question. And it's kind of funny when I talk to consumers around the world on why they shouldn't take the band off. They assume that I'm telling them not to take the band off because I want them for people to see the cigar. And then in the instance, yeah, it's true. But in reality, the reason I don't want them to take the band off is when the operators that put the bands on, they do it all by hand at our factory, and we've all seen that. So they take a little piece of the pectin on their fingertips and they put it down on the band. Some of it could touch the wrapper. Right. It's only natural. So what happens is if you pull the the band off, what'll happen is you put a lot of stress on the wrapper because you're pulling the wrapper up. And you can imagine when we roll that cigar, we roll it out as thin as we possibly can, almost to a to an instance of being like an onion skin. It's that, it's that, it's that, it's that thin, right? So it's going to cause problems if you pull that band off. And that's sometimes that's when you'll see little stress cracks and the cigar pops, and they go to the retailer and complain, oh, there was something wrong with my cigar. Well, it was really operator error from taking the band off. And then sometimes they'll take the band off and a piece of the wrapper will come off when they take the band off. And then all of a sudden, you really hurt the smoking experience. I always recommend, I call it the pinky rule. You take your pinky, and just when you're smoking a cigar, right when it gets a beam, your your pinky, the width of your pinky, what'll happen is that cigar, the barrel will heat up, and then that pectin will melt. It's the same pectin we use on the cap. It's flavorless and odorous, it's just as it's a fruit, and it actually has a slight adhesive quality to it. And we've been sealing cigars like that since before your grandfather was born. But with that being said, what it does is you'll have a much more enjoyable smoking experience because your cigar will be intact. If you cut the cigar right and you lit it right and you're enjoying that cigar, to take the band off and cause stress cracks on the wrapper. It might not happen, but it happens a lot. Why take the chance? That's why it's so important to leave the band on until you're about a quarter inch from the band, and then it'll come off very easily because the heat through the barrel by you smoking it will melt the pect, then it'll come off much easier if you want to take the band off whenever you do.

Five Rules To Avoid Nausea

SPEAKER_01 15:48

No doubt. And I guess the last subject, you know, very important is I wish I would have learned it earlier in my life, is how not to get sick off of a cigar.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah, that's an important thing. You know, it happens to all of us. It happens to every seasoned veteran, including yours truly. I've I've been queasing and sick a lot of times from smoking cigars, but I always say there's really five rules that I use. The first one is, especially if you're new to smoking, don't smoke on an empty stomach. It's not a bad idea to have a little bit of food, maybe a little bit of breakfast, equalizes your system, you'll be a lot better for it. And what happens is when you smoke on an empty stomach, you could get queasy. You know, nicotine in the bloodstream, it's only a natural thing. It's an accelerator, it gets you excited, builds adrenaline. And what happens is you start getting queasy. Right. The cold sweats start coming, you become pale, and then all of a sudden it's like the old keg party in college. You're running to the bathroom and and and throwing up, and it's a terrible feeling. So one of the things I always recommend is definitely don't smoke on an empty stomach unless you're pretty much a seasoned vet, or if it doesn't bother you for that matter. Second thing is cigars. They're not cigarettes. We enjoy them. It's no different than drinking wine. We savor the flavors in our mouth with our taste buds. Cigars are the same way. Don't inhale cigars. That's another way to rush yourself to the bathroom or to the bushes, and when you start getting queasy and not feeling well, right? Right. You've gone through that too. I think Arthur has. I think all of us have.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

And you know, we talk about enjoyment on cigars. What is the hurry? We talked earlier about lighting the cigar and being in a hurry. Slow down when you're smoking your cigar. Take a puff every 25, 30 seconds. If you're talking a longer time and you have to relight, no problem. Relight the cigar if you have to. We'll get into different segments on how to properly relight cigars, too. And one of the most important things, and my fourth rule is make sure your cigars are in good condition. And what I mean is that they're humidified correctly. That's 65% humidity where the cigars are where they should be. And what you want to do is when a cigar is properly humidified and you're taking your time, that cigar is going to burn slowly and you're going to enjoy it. It's going to burn cooler. If the cigar is too dry, that's not a good thing either. Because what happens is it's like, hey, it burns really fast. When you puff, you're probably getting a lot more smoke than you normally would get because the tobacco is so dry. And you're going to bring in all these, all this amount of volume of smoke, and it could get you queasy because one puff could be like three puffs, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Even worse is an overhumidified cigar. We know the fire and water don't mix, right? Nope. So what happens is now you're puffing really hard because the cigar is wet and too humidified, and you keep puffing and puffing and puffing. Guess what happens? Cold sweats, you start getting queasy again. It's the same thing. You start feeling bad. I mean, a cigar is one of the most enjoyable experiences in life, but if you don't do it right, it's a fine, it's a fine line where you come from I'm loving it, I'm enjoying life, to man, I feel like crap, right? So you got to be careful at that. And one of the things that you also have to be careful is alcohol consumption and caffeine consumption, both of them. If you're drinking a lot and you're smoking cigars, those are two recipes for for getting you not to feel well. Naturally, if you drink a lot, you're gonna you're gonna get sick sooner or later. But if you had smoking a great cigar with it, it could accelerate it too. Also, if you're down in lots of coffee, caffeine and nicotine, you're gonna be running, you know, the the 40 in two seconds, and it's gonna cause a tremendous amount of adrenaline, cortisol, and you're gonna have the same thing happening to you, which will get you sick. Those are my five rules not to get you sick.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah, no, those are great rules. I wish I would have learned them earlier in life, would have definitely helped me a lot. So but yeah, I think I think this is all incredible content that we've been talking about, and I think one of the to recap, I think Well, here's here's the question.

Sugar Fix When You Feel Queasy

SPEAKER_00 19:53

How we had talked about it earlier today. How do we avoid if we do get sick and we get queasy, how do we how do we fix it? So I'm gonna ask you that because I think you know that. So I'm gonna ask you a question. Okay. And tell me how we do it in the professional way, where we do it in our facilities, whether it be our rollers, our sorters, or selectors, what do we do when we get queased and we're sitting around in a tasting panel and we've smoked these cigars and we've been blending them and we're trying to get the perfect cigar out there and we're forecasting tobaccos. What do we do?

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Well, I think the biggest thing is is, you know, because when the nicotine does get in your bloodstream, it does send a fake signal to your brain that you have you're low on on your blood sugar. So that's where the queasiness and all that starts getting getting into it. So sometimes when I'm smoking a cigar, even though I've eaten, I always take a little piece of chocolate, a little piece of candy, something with a little bit of sugar, just in case if I know I'm gonna be smoking through, you know, four or five plus cigars in the day, just to have a little bit of extra sugar. So just when when I do have nicotine and quite a bit of nicotine in my bloodstream, I don't want I don't want that fake signal.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

Okay, you're spot on. That's what we do. Even when we're when you see our people in our sorting and selecting rooms who don't even smoke cigars, they'll get queasy because of the powerful aromas through fermentation. We all love the smells, but imagine being in those rooms for a couple hours and smelling those. You know, they get their breaks, they go outside, get fresh air, but those aromas and those oils and resins, they dissipate through the air. And they're I love them. I could I could sleep there, but some people it it it gravitates and starts making them feel a little bit feel a little bit queasy. So we always have little sugar packets, mints, little pieces of chocolate all on the tables. You'll see even on in on the rolling rooms. The only time we allow any food product there, and that's in case they get a little queasy to do it. So yeah, that's a great point. I think people are interested, hey, well what happens if I do get sick? Is there a quick way I can fix myself? Yeah, I think sugar is one of the things. One of the things I hate is sugar, but I try if I'm gonna get queasy, I'm I'm all over it because it's important.

Patience And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_01 21:57

Yeah, of course. And you know, I guess tying this all up and looking back at everything how to properly cut and light how to properly cut and lighten the cigar you know everything all the different things we just talked about I think the word that comes to mind is patience and unfortunately it's sad because we get into the groove we become this becomes a habit for us in terms of smoking cigar every day but sometimes I tell myself because you've taught me over the years so much hey just take your time enjoy it and even though I'm in the office and we're working and I'm trying to do my my work and I want to smoke a cigar you know I find myself sometimes rushing. But in reality what a this is a product you can never you have to be patient.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

A hundred percent like what do we do at the end of the evening if we all get together like a lot of times we went we went out to dinner last week with the guys we all sit down we take our time we cut our cigar we toast the foot we light it correctly all our guys do it correctly because they're in the industry it's always enjoyable a lot of times I'll see guys have to relight all these cigars they're smoking you know regardless of what brands they are and a lot of it has to do because they improperly cut their cigar they properly they improperly lit it they didn't light it correctly and they have to go back and when you have to relight cigars nonstop over and over again you're building more carbon buildup and it becomes foul. So my whole thing about this lesson here that we talked about is how can we make the smoking experience so much more enjoyable and I think all the things we talked about make it much more enjoyable.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Yeah take your time be mindful of what you're doing especially you know these these cigars you know they cost money and you put the investment in it and I think at the end of the day it's all this conversation between you and I to talk to our consumers to talk to our retailers is to make them mindful of hey you know we make these cigars we want you to enjoy these cigars and these steps that we that you specifically have talked about and we've discussed is the way to do it.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

100% and I love when and we all do we love when people enjoy our cigars and I think by doing these things that we talked about like I said earlier we'll make the smoking experience much more enjoyable and that's what it's all about.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah I agree. I agree this has been a great show very informative and I hope that our listeners and our viewers enjoy this I think this was another great show. I'm glad this was number two so looking forward to the next shows.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Yeah and I love it. I love the education and I think the consumers are going to love it. And they're getting it directly from the guys that do it. Not a guy that writes in a magazine who's been to a cigar factory once every 10 years but somebody who's in there every day and that's what we do and I think it's important. I hope you guys all enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

I appreciate it Dad thanks so much for spending some time with your boy it's always a pleasure hanging out with you. I love hanging out with you too son and thank you everybody who listened uh and watched this show um this was episode number two we're looking forward to coming out with episode number three uh this is the Promo podcast show please like and subscribe and we'll see you very soon