What Causes A Lot of Tar?

undulac

I've smoked enough cigars in my day and have seen pretty much everything but today I had a first. I am two-third through a La Herencia Cubana Toro which I've had many before. The tar at the foot is well. . . crazy. I started with a punch cut because I was too lazy to go inside for my cutter then somewhere in the first-third I noticed it a little. Then, the draw got a little tight (now I know because of the tar) so I went in, grabbed my cutter, and snipped it clean. The draw opened immediately. Within 5-10 puffs, the foot became saturated with tar. So much that when you touch it, it comes off thick on my finger. As mentioned before, I've had at least 30+ of this cigar and size and have never had a problem. This cigar also had well over a year on it at damn near 70/70 the whole time. Has this happened to anyone before?

bigharpoon

I have had plenty of cigars tar up on me and I can't figure it out. I've troubleshot everything I could think of and nothing produced a solution. I went FOREVER before I saw tar and then I hit a stretch where I was getting it probably more than half the time. I was seriously frustrated because I take good care of my sticks. It's less now but it still happens. My only theory left is...I don't know.

kaspera79

I read that tar is sometimes caused by sap left in stems of the leaf which does not evaporate during the fermentation process. I can't remember this ever happening to me, perhaps I've just been lucky.

Diamondog

Smaller clip? Smoking too fast?

docbp87

Temperature and humidity, specifically both being too low can cause this. It happened to me a lot this winter. Always a bummer. I'm not sure of the science behind it, but I have read this elsewhere, and my own experience confirms it. Also, smoking too fast/hot, and having too tight a draw can contribute as well.

LeftFive

I get most of my tar problems when I cut a torpedo too shallow or punch. It's not consistent, though it does seems to happen in the winter more.
It's a terrible thing to get in your mouth!

bigharpoon

docbp87:

Temperature and humidity, specifically both being too low can cause this. It happened to me a lot this winter. Always a bummer. I'm not sure of the science behind it, but I have read this elsewhere, and my own experience confirms it. Also, smoking too fast/hot, and having too tight a draw can contribute as well.

This seems consistent with my experience. My RH was fairly low this winter, about 60%. Of course, smoking outside in the winter is both low temperature and low RH as well. I do smoke pretty slow though, but I guess that isn't enough to help.

undulac

Diamondog:

Smaller clip? Smoking too fast?

After reading these posts, it has to be the smaller clip as I very rarely use a punch cut unless I have to or in this case, I was too lazy to go inside to get my cutter. As for smoking too fast, that wouldn't have been the case as I've gone from a fairly quick smoker to a slower one. For example, the Diesel D.5 that I'm about to finish right now has lasted me two hours.