Buying a good cigar can be daunting for the novice. With so many cigars and cigar samplers to choose from, how do you know which is the best? Do you just pick the most expensive cigar? Or the longest one, or the darkest? If a cigar has a strong smell, is that a good or a bad thing? How should a good cigar look? How should a good cigar feel?

Choosing the best cigar to buy, like choosing the best wine, depends both on the objective quality of the cigar and on your personal tastes. There are a few things to look for with respect to the objective quality of the cigar. As for your tastes, the best way to develop those is to keep smoking different kinds of good cigars, and see which gives you the most pleasure.

The cigar wrapper is the first thing to look at. A wrapper (just what it sounds like: the outermost tobacco leaf used to hold a cigar together) should be smooth and tight. Discolorations and blemishes on the wrapper, while they may not affect the smoking experience, are often an indicator that the cigar is of lower quality.

Pick up the cigar and squeezing it gently along its length. It should be just a bit spongy — enough to give way slightly when you squeeze it, but not enough to retain the impression of the squeeze. If you find any spots on the cigar that are harder or softer — that is to say, more or less densely packed — than any other parts, this is a sign of poor construction, and a cigar without a consistent density of tobacco will not smoke evenly.

A cigar's aroma is another good indicator of quality. On the one hand, a cigar with no aroma at all is probably not of high quality. On the other hand, you shouldn't necessary just buy a cigar that smells the strongest, especially if you're not an experienced cigar smoker. The aroma can tell you about the taste of the cigar — whether it is strong or mild, sweet or dry.

Start with cigars of a smaller gauge (diameter), which tend to have less intense flavors. As you develop your taste, experiment with different shades of wrapper (everything from double claro to double maduro) and different countries of origin — tobacco can gain very different flavors depending on the soil and climate in which it is grown. Eventually you may discover that you have a favorite shade of wrapper, a favorite country of origin, a favorite size and shape. Have fun experimenting!