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It’s been ONE YEAR since Cigar Cutters opened its doors for business!!

We’re celebrating ONE YEAR and the opening of the 2011 College Football Season!

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1  at 6:00pm

Terazona Cigars will be here with a cigar roller all evening!  Also, we’ll have drink specials and some very special guests!  More information to be coming soon!  Don’t miss this fun event!!  Come celebrate our anniversary with us!

For those of you who’ve asked for our recommendation when you’re having trouble deciding, the first beer we bring up is Magic Hat #9.  Its not very common down here in Fort Myers, or in Southwest Florida for that matter.  There’s only a handful of restaurants that carry the beer on draft.  But, after one sip, you’ll agree– it’s a great beer.

Magic Hat Brewing Company is a microbrewery located in South Burlington, Vermont. It began production in 1994 in Burlington, Vermont, and moved to its current location in 1997. Year round beers include #9,Circus Boy, and Single Chair Ale. Seasonal brews include Blind Faith, Wacko, Jinx, Hex, hI.P.A., and Howl.  We carry Magic Hat #9, Hex, hI.P.A, and Odd Notion.

The bottle description is as follows…

A beer cloaked in secrecy. An ale whose mysterious and unusual palate will swirl across your tongue and ask more questions than it answers. A sort of dry, crisp, refreshing, not-quite pale ale. #9 is really impossible to describe because there’s never been anything else quite like it.

Here at Cigar Cutters, we tend to agree!

The Stats…

TYPE: Not Quite Pale Ale
YEAST: English Ale
HOPS: Cascade, Apollo
MALTS: Pale, Crystal
ABV: 5.1
GRAVITY: 11.20 Plato
BITTERNESS: 20
SRM: 9.0

To properly enjoy a cigar, you must properly light the cigar.

The “toasting of the foot” correctly will certainly add to the flavor and enjoyment of the cigar. To properly toast the foot, use a butane lighter and toast around the outside edge of the foot(the end you light). Go around the edge until you see it red, and start to toast the inside of the foot until it also turns red. All of this is taking place without the cigar in your mouth. It will take longer than you expect, at least on a good cigar, and you will want to see the whole end red hot upon contact of the flame, before you start to smoke it. If you pull the flame away and blow lightly on the end, you will see the entire foot turn red, if you see areas that are still black, continue to toast it. When when whole end is red, take some puffs on the smoking end.
Quick light puffs will be best, and turn the cigar around to take a glimpse to ensure that you have it covered.

Enjoy!

Snap, Crackle & Pop is the sound that you will hear smoking cigars with beetles.

If you were able to discover the fact that you have beetles from the small holes they use to bore through your cigars, they make a snap when you smoke them, so that is your sure giveaway. If you discover that you have them, not to worry(too much), but you need to do something about it. You will need to review your entire cigar collection. For safe measure, you need to treat ALL of the cigars, regardless of whether they have visible signs of beetles or not. You can separate out the bad from the good and put them each in freezer containers (Tupperware). Put them in and give it a week. The eggs can’t survive past a week at freezing, and the adults about the same just above freezing.

You will kill everything off, and then can reintroduce humidity slowly to the cigars in the coming days. One final note, if you keep the cigars at room temperature or below, and use a Spanish cedar lined humidor, you will reduce your likelihood of getting them.

This is the beginner guide to blowing smoke rings with a cigar, and impressing all of your friends!

The easiest way to start is with a cigar that has a good draw, and a larger ring gauge will provide a decent amount of smoke to perfect it. You can probably learn in the first half of the cigar, and work on the advanced method the second half. You also will want to learn indoors, because it doesn’t have wind as a factor. If you aren’t allowed to smoke cigars indoors at your house, take a trip to your favorite cigar bar. Light the cigar properly, as described in previous blogs, and draw in to your mouth as normal, of course without inhaling. If you make a fish kiss face(for lack of a better description) and lightly tap your cheek. You can tap quickly and see the small rings. Once you have that down, you can open your mouth slightly more to get some larger rings. If you inhale the same and then make a very weak, light cough, is the way to start doing it without tapping your cheek.

There are lots of great movies on the internet with better visuals of how to do the latter, I would suggest watching a quick clip of one of those to get going.