Learn ›
Learn · Reading a CigarThe Retrohale
A retrohale is pushing cigar smoke out through your nose... not inhaling it... and it's where most of a cigar's aroma detail actually lives.
What's happening
Cigar smoke never goes to the lungs. It comes into the mouth, sits there, and leaves. In a normal puff it leaves back out the mouth. In a retrohale, you close your mouth and push it out through the nose instead.
Why bother: the tongue only reads the basics... sweet, bitter, salty, sour, savory. The specific notes people write down, the cedar, cocoa, and black pepper, are aroma, and aroma is read by receptors in the nose. Smoke that exits through the mouth mostly slips past them. Smoke that exits through the nose runs straight across them. Same cigar, a lot more information.
How to do it
- Take a normal puff and let most of the smoke back out of your mouth.
- Keep a small wisp... a fraction of the puff, not the whole thing.
- Close your mouth and push it gently out through the nose. Not a snort. A slow, easy push.
Expect pepper to jump out first... the nose reads spice much louder than the mouth does. If it stings, use less smoke or a milder cigar, not more willpower. The sting fades with practice as you learn how much your nose can handle.
When to use it: as a spot-check, once or twice per third, not on every puff. The nose fatigues fast and pepper accumulates. A few well-placed retrohales tell you more than a constant stream ever will.
What it does and doesn't tell you
A retrohale isn't a toughness test. Blasting a full mouthful of strong smoke through your nose proves nothing except that eyes can water. Small and controlled reads better than big and heroic.
It also isn't mandatory. People smoke happily for years without it... they're just reading the cigar with one sense partly switched off. And don't confuse the nose-sting of pepper with strength... a cigar can be peppery on the retrohale and still mild in nicotine. If you're working on tasting in general, this is the tool that speeds everything else up.