To Nub or Not to Nub….(How To Get Every Last Drop Out of Your Cigar)

Nubbing: The act of using a tool to extract the most out of a cigar until you burn your lips off.

How many of us partake in that ritual? I do with pretty much all cigars, except with a few exceptions of a cigar that is either horrible, or structurally can’t handle a nub tool. I nub cigars in part because I like to get every bit of flavor out of a cigar, and partly because I am cheap and want to get my moneys worth out of it, smoke it until there is nothing but ash and and smell of burning mustache hair.

Over the years I have seen contentious debate over whether you should nub a cigar or not. There are those out there that are sometimes called the cigar snobs, the type that in one hand they have their pinky up while holding their monocle in place while in the other hand they have a $400 cigar with required pinky up, that state that they only smoke a cigar halfway because after the halfway point, the cigar loses it soul and its a waste of time to smoke further.

Then there are those that say, smoke to the band then toss it. To them I say, poo you. I am far from being one of those types, nothing against their ideas and practices, but it’s just not how I roll, and with the amount of Twinkies I have been eating, my body type will allow me to roll freely pretty soon. I just feel, if I am going to smoke a cigar, I am going to get the most out of it. Not to get off topic, but a guy I used to work with years ago (he is now long retired) would smoke cigarettes right down to the filter. I asked him why he did that when you always see people tossing a cigg after half or three quarters was smoked, he told me “Little do they know, the secret is that there’s heroin there before you get to the filter, so they are missing out on that final kick from a cigg.” Now keep in mind he was joking, there really isn’t heroin in ciggs. That we know of. And no, I am not promoting heroin usage, it’s just a bit of screwed up humor.

There’s many different methods and tools out there for those of us that do prefer to nub our cigars, everything from cigar clips, knives, toothpicks, screwdrivers, my personal favorite the fondue stick, as well as many hand made tools, and ones you can buy. Being cheap, I prefer to use what I have laying around. Seeing as I always have a pocket knife on me, I use that, or if I am outside at home I use my super duper fondue stick. I have tried other methods before, even one time cutting out a piece of a wire coat hanger to use, not the best method because the cigar tends to spin around. I once tried making one of the cigar clips that were popular at one time and could be bought online, didn’t really care for that either, the cigar either got squished or drooped all the time when trying to puff on it. The best, is a knife or forked fondue stick. The cigar don’t droop or get squished. I have even seen nub tools sell for $50, that must be for the super serious hard core nubber. Me, I like to keep it simple, and seeing as I always have a knife or multi tool with a knife on it, I don’t feel the need to buy a separate tool to carry. I have enough crap to carry around as it is. There has been times where I would put a cigar in a pipe to finish it off, at that point there is nothing left but the cap. The issue you get with using a pipe is suction, either the pipe bowl opening is too big so the cigar wont fit right or the cigar is too small and site in there too loose. Either way, its another method to use.

We all have different philosophies and methods to our madness when it comes to smoking cigars, whether you nub the snot out of them or prefer not to, that is ultimately your choice. Just my thoughts on the matter.

Until next time, enjoy your smoke, and may the mosquitoes leave you with at least a little blood in your system this summer.

~Joe~