Off-gassing

[Bageland2000]

A guy at a cigar store in Long Grove, IL today showed me a pretty amazing trick. Have any of you heard of off-gassing? Apparently when cigars age (especially when they're full bodied) they give off ammonia gas. Ammonia tastes bitter when ignited and can ruin cigars. Here's what he had me do.

1. Light the cigar as normal
2. Smoke about 1/4 inch
3. Round off the ash in the ashtray.
4. Place the cigar in your mouth at a 45 degree angle above perpendicular to the floor.
5. As you blow very hard through the cigar, hold a soft flame at the end of the cigar.

The flame ignited the ammonia, and after the flame was removed (as I continued to blow through the cigar) there was a blue flame like the end of the cigar was a torch lighter! It was the coolest thing I've ever seen. I repeated after rotated the cigar, then waited about 30 seconds. The flavor profile was improved like 5 times! All bitterness was gone. I'm assuming I'm not the only one who's heard of this!?