Every so often, your smoking session may be interrupted due to unforeseen circumstances, and you want to save your half-smoked cigar for further enjoyment at a later date. Is this acceptable?

Can you save a cigar for later? The short answer is yes with the main caveat. While there are effective ways to keep a half-smoked cigar in near-perfect smoking conditions, sticking it back in your humidor is a bad idea, unless you don’t mind the charred bitter taste that a cigar emits after it stops burning on its own.

The most important thing to consider is the fact that a properly seasoned humidor, especially one with cedar lining, helps promote the all-important aging and marrying process, where every cigar takes on each other’s intended flavor profile.

Cigars absorb each other’s flavors like a sponge when stored in a humidor, and by placing this charred bitter half-smoked cigar back in your humidor, the rest of your prized collection may take on the same foul and bitter taste.

Let’s say, for example, the phone rings and your called away for other duties while smoking a costly Montecristo 1935 Anniversary Nicaragua No. 2 cigar. That leaves half of or even more of your investment on the table.

Think twice before sticking it back in your pocket or the glove compartment of your car. In both cases, your clothes and car will take on the smell of a dirty ashtray. These are just two reasons to have a Ziplock bag handy if you’re planning on smoking the rest of the cigar when you return home.

The first thing you will want to do is snip off the ashes from a half-smoked cigar by gently tapping it on the side of the ashtray before placing it in the Ziplock bag. Then, when it’s time to relight, toast the foot, and blow out through the cigar to expel old gasses and saliva that may be left behind. Failure to do this step could alter the flavor of your cigar and leave a bitter taste.

Bear in mind that many cigar wrappers become very fragile after they cool off and may unravel after the second relight and render the cigar un-smokeable. In some cases, especially with studier wrappers, such as a Connecticut Broadleaf, the wrapper may remain intact, but this is the chance that you take when you are planning to finish a half-smoked cigar.

You’ll know very quickly if the wrapper unravels or becomes too potent or pungent to finish. However, if all things work out as planned, you’ll get some added bang for your buck and will thoroughly enjoy the rest of your cigar smoking experience.

• New to cigar smoking? Check out our new sampler for Beginner Cigar Smokers. This sampler has seven cigars, a cutter, and a lighter.
• Some popular cigar sizes to smoke are a Toro-sized cigar, a Churchill-sized cigar, and a Robusto-sized cigar for you to enjoy.
• If your cigar happens to crack, here are some suggestions on how to repair a cracked cigar.
• If you come across some mold in your humidor, here are some tricks and tips to clean up a moldy humidor.
• Interested in knowing the inner workings of a cigar? Well, check out what is Filler Tobacco, Binder Tobacco, and a Wrapper today!