How to Light a Cigar with a Closed Foot

Occasionally, you’ll come across a cigar with a closed foot, like a Tatuaje 20th Anniversary, a Kristoff Ligero Maduro, or a Liga Privada Aniversario, when you’re browsing online or in your local smokeshop’s humidor. To roll a cigar with a closed foot, the roller extends the wrapper leaf past the barrel or body of a cigar, leaving enough wrapper to fully encompass the foot when it’s twisted or creased over the end. Pump the brakes if you were about to blast that cigar with your triple-torch lighter. Here’s why.

The Wrapper Holds the Flavor

There are three primary components of a cigar’s anatomy: the wrapper, the binder, and the filler tobaccos. Of these three, the wrapper possesses the most flavor. The cigar wrapper is the most expensive tobacco in a blend because it must not only taste perfect but also reflect a visually pristine complexion.

For most premium cigars, the wrapper, binder, and filler reach the same length and stop at the foot or the end where you light it. With a shaggy-foot cigar, the binder and filler extend past the wrapper leaf. As a result, the smoker tastes the interior tobacco separate from the wrapper for the first few minutes. A cigar with a closed foot, however, offers the opposite experience. When a cigarmaker closes the foot of a cigar with the wrapper leaf, you taste the wrapper on its own, amplifying its flavor when the cigar first ignites. The effect is fleeting but meaningful.

Light the Cigar Briefly, Not Aggressively

If you’re lighting your cigar with a torch lighter, gently bring the flame to the foot just long enough to ignite the wrapper leaf surrounding it, but don’t overexpose the cigar to the jet, or you’ll incinerate the extra bit of wrapper before you have a chance to taste it. Hold the flame to the foot and start drawing on the cigar to taste the wrapper on its own. The first few puffs will be spicy and intense.

Light a Closed-Foot Cigar with a Soft Flame or Matches

One of the best ways to light a cigar with a closed foot is to use a soft-flame butane lighter or matches. Soft-flame lighters, like a Bic, still rely on clean-burning fuel, but they’re less likely to char the foot of your cigar because the flame is less intense than a torch. You don’t have to draw on a cigar with a closed foot too aggressively to get the wrapper to combust.