Whether you smoke cigars, cigarettes, or a pipe, blowing smoke rings is a good way both to savor the taste of what you smoke and to impress your friends. While you can blow smoke rings with any of these, cigar smoke is usually both thick and copious, providing a lot of material to work with; and of course cigarette smoke, unlike cigar smoke, is usually inhaled, making it even less thick than it would otherwise be.

To blow a smoke ring, start with a cigar that's already burning well and evenly. My favorite to blow smoke rings with is a Padron Cigar. Draw a mouthful of smoke and hold it in your cheeks. Form a small-to-medium-sized O shape with your lips, as if you were whistling. Lower your jaw and retract your tongue so that it is laying at the bottom of your mouth.

At this point there are two possible methods for making a smoke ring. Both methods have this in common: you should not breathe out, not even slightly, when forming the ring. Breathing out will cause the cigar smoke to be expelled too quickly, causing it to lose its shape. It goes without saying that you shouldn't breathe in, either, unless you're in the habit of inhaling your cigars, which we don't recommend.

In the first method, the hole of the smoke ring is formed by the tongue. With a mouthful of cigar smoke and your mouth, tongue, and jaw in the aforementioned position, draw your tongue back, then quickly shoot it forward towards the front of your mouth. Your tongue should not hit the sides of your lips, but should stop short of them, just in the middle of the O shape.

In the second method, the hole of the smoke ring is formed automatically by the natural spin of the fine cigar smoke as it exits your mouth. With your mouth, jaw, and tongue in the position described above, bring the base of your tongue forward a bit, altering the overall shape of your mouth as little as possible when you do so. This will cause the overall size of your mouth to contract, forcing the smoke outward through your lips in an even way. This method generally produces cleaner, more billowing rings. If you're having trouble compressing your mouth in the right way, try saying "Yo, yo, yo" while keeping your mouth in the same general position — this will give you an idea of the right way.

One final method is to fill your mouth with cigar smoke, and then make a very small, tightly-formed O with your lips, drawing your cheeks taught. Tap briskly on your cheek with a finger. This will cause tiny rings to shoot out from between your lips, and this can be done quite rapidly, to amusing effect!