Cigars for Beginners: Nicotine Sickness and How to Progress

A few days ago, someone very close to me smoked the Padrón 1964 Anniversary Maduro I reviewed. They liked it. But when they got home, they wrote to me:

It didn’t sit well with me. I felt a little like throwing up. That had never happened to me before. I had to drink something to get the taste out of my mouth. I don’t know why that happened.

I told them it can happen, that some cigars ask you to eat well before you light them, and that what matters is going slowly, little by little. They’re used to sweet, aromatic cigars like Acid or vanilla Tatiana, and the Padrón 1964 Maduro is something else entirely.

Their experience is the experience of a great many people who are starting out. That’s why I wrote this guide: so you understand what happened, how to avoid it, and how to keep evolving toward different cigars without the experience turning into a bad night.

This guide is educational and meant for adults who already smoke or have decided to try. It is not medical advice, and smoking cigars carries health risks even without inhaling.

In short

• What they felt has a name: nicotine sickness, sometimes called getting “cigar sick”.
• You don’t have to inhale for it to happen. Nicotine in cigar smoke is absorbed through the mouth.
• It’s preventable: eat first, drink water, smoke slowly, don’t inhale, and start with mild, short cigars.
• If it happens: put the cigar down, get fresh air, drink water and have something sweet. If symptoms are severe, get medical help.
• To progress: move up in strength step by step, not all at once. Further down there’s a ladder with cigars from my notes.

What is nicotine sickness?

It’s how the body reacts when it receives more nicotine than it’s used to handling. The most common symptoms are:

• nausea or the urge to vomit
• dizziness, or the feeling that the room is spinning
• cold sweat and paleness
• excessive salivation
• trembling, weakness or a racing heart
• sometimes, stomach pain or diarrhea

It’s the mild form of what doctors call nicotine poisoning, which begins precisely with nausea, vomiting and excess saliva. For a cigar smoker it’s usually mild and short-lived, but it’s a clear signal that the body is saying “that’s enough”.

Why does it happen if I didn’t inhale?

This is the part almost nobody knows, and the one that explains what happened in this case.

Cigar smoke is different from cigarette smoke. Cigar tobacco is fermented, and its smoke tends to be more alkaline. At that pH, a good share of the nicotine is in a form that passes easily through the lining of the mouth and nose. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s monograph on cigar pharmacology, that’s why cigar smokers don’t need to inhale to absorb substantial amounts of nicotine.

A cigar holds much more tobacco. A premium cigar can contain between 5 and 20 grams of tobacco, and some hold the equivalent of an entire pack of cigarettes. In a sample of cigars studied by the NCI, total nicotine content ranged from 10 to 444 milligrams, against roughly 8 milligrams in a cigarette. You don’t absorb anything close to all of that, but the difference in scale helps explain why a large, strong cigar can knock someone over.

The smoke is long. An hour, an hour and a half or more. Nicotine adds up gradually, and the discomfort often shows up near the end, or once you’re already home, as it did in this case.

What raises the risk

• Smoking on an empty stomach. The factor smokers and tobacconists mention most.
• Smoking fast. Many puffs in a row overheat the cigar, make the smoke harsher and deliver more nicotine in less time.
• Inhaling the smoke, even by accident.
• Jumping in strength all at once, for example from a flavored cigar to a medium-full or full Maduro.
• Large sizes. More tobacco and a longer smoke.
• Heat, fatigue or too little water.
• Alcohol on an empty stomach, which muddles your body’s signals.
• Flavored cigars can fool you. An infused cigar or one with a sweetened cap invites more puffs, and its aroma hides the character of the tobacco underneath.

How to avoid it

1. Eat first. A real meal, not a snack. Stronger cigars are best enjoyed after dinner.
2. Keep water at hand and drink throughout the smoke. Coffee, juice or a soda pair well too, but water should always be there.
3. Don’t inhale. Draw the smoke into your mouth, taste it and let it go.
4. Slowly. A gentle puff every 30 to 60 seconds is a good pace. If the cigar feels hot on your lips, you’re smoking too fast.
5. Don’t swallow smoke-laden saliva. If you notice a lot of saliva, drink some water or take a break.
6. Start short. A corona or robusto takes 45 to 60 minutes. A Churchill or a thick toro can run past an hour and a half.
7. Listen to your body. If halfway through you feel a little dizzy or your face gets warm, let the cigar rest. You don’t have to finish a cigar.
8. Move up in strength step by step. I explain how below.

What to do if a cigar makes you sick

1. Put the cigar down. Leave it in the ashtray; there’s no need to crush it out.
2. Fresh air. Step out of the enclosed space, sit down and breathe slowly and deeply.
3. Water. Sip it.
4. Something sweet. The classic remedy, the one Cigar Aficionado recommends, is a little sugar on the tongue with a glass of water, some juice or a piece of chocolate. No studies prove it, but a great many smokers say it helps.
5. Eat something if your stomach is empty.
6. Rest. In mild cases, the discomfort fades once you stop smoking.

Get medical help right away if you vomit repeatedly, faint, feel chest pain, a very irregular heartbeat, confusion or trouble breathing. In the United States and Puerto Rico, Poison Help answers 24 hours a day at 1-800-222-1222. Elsewhere, call your local emergency number.

And a separate warning: keep cigars, butts and ash away from children and pets. If a child eats a piece of tobacco, call Poison Help.

Strength, body and flavor are not the same thing

This is the most common confusion when you’re starting out, and understanding it helps you choose better.

	What it is	How you notice it
Strength	The effect of nicotine on your body	Warmth, dizziness, a faster pulse, that “hit” you feel in your head
Body	The weight and texture of the smoke in your mouth	Smoke as light as tea, or dense and creamy like espresso
Flavor	What you identify in your mouth and nose	Coffee, cocoa, cream, cedar, nuts, pepper

A cigar can have a lot of flavor and little strength, or a lot of body without much nicotine. That’s why a “delicious” cigar isn’t always a “mild” one.

Wrapper color doesn’t tell you the strength

A dark wrapper doesn’t mean a strong cigar. The Padrón 1964 Maduro from this story is Medium–Full in my notes, and I described it as “not as dark or aggressive as many others”. There are Connecticuts with plenty of character and Maduros that are sweet and gentle.

Strength depends mostly on the filler, the tobacco inside. Leaves from the bottom of the plant (volado) are mild and burn well; the middle leaves (seco) have more flavor; and the top leaves (ligero), which get the most sun, are the most potent. A cigar with a lot of ligero in the filler will be stronger, whatever its wrapper.

Flavored cigars: a good start, not a destination

Acid, vanilla Tatiana and other flavored or infused cigars carry aromas added to the tobacco, and many have a sweetened cap. Reviewing an ACID 20, halfwheel describes exactly that: a sugared cap and a fruity aroma that dominates whatever the tobacco brings.

There’s nothing wrong with them. Plenty of people come into the cigar world that way, and that’s fine. But they have two limits:

• The flavor comes from outside. You get used to looking for the added aroma, and the tobacco itself, with its cedar, coffee or pepper, stays hidden.
• Sweetness on the lips is misleading. It invites more puffs and makes it hard to notice when the cigar is stronger than you think.

The good news: tobacco has its own sweetness. Connecticuts can taste of cream, honey, almond or vanilla, and good Maduros of cocoa, coffee and molasses, without a drop of flavoring. The path is learning to find that natural sweetness.

The ladder: from sweet cigars to traditional ones

This is the route I recommend, and the one I suggested in this case. Each step has cigars from my own notes, with the strength I noted when I smoked them. My rule: move up a step once you’ve enjoyed three to five cigars at your current step without feeling unwell. If a cigar makes you sick, go back a step for a while. It isn’t a race.

Step 1. Creamy Connecticuts with natural sweetness

The perfect bridge if you’re coming from flavored cigars. A light wrapper, creamy smoke and sweet notes that come from the tobacco itself.

• Sobremesa Brûlée: Mild–Medium. Cream, caramel, honey and a touch of vanilla. One of the better Connecticut experiences I’ve had.
• C.H. Spurgeon Connecticut by Reformed Cigars: Mild–Medium. Creamy and elegant, with vanilla and honey. Note: it’s a 6 × 60, a long smoke.
• Macanudo Café Hyde Park: Mild. A simple classic, very well constructed.

Step 2. Connecticuts with more character

Still mild, but toast, nuts and more structure start to appear.

• La Aroma de Cuba Connecticut Corona: Mild–Medium. Smooth and refined, but never empty. And as a corona, a short smoke.
• Camacho Connecticut: Mild–Medium. Toasty and straightforward.
• Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne: Medium. Bread, almond and vanilla, with more evolution than I expected.
• Romeo y Julieta Capulet 75th Anniversary Toro: Medium. A Connecticut with plenty of character.

Step 3. Medium strength and other wrappers

Here you change wrappers: Habano, Corojo, or the classic leaf of Dominican and Nicaraguan cigars. Wood, leather and pepper show up. It’s the step where you learn the most.

• El Charlie by Rituales con Humo: Medium. A Habano 2000 wrapper, with almond, cocoa and pepper. One of the Habano expressions I’ve enjoyed most.
• Cohiba Red Dot Churchill: Medium. Silky and very balanced, though long.
• My Father #5: Medium. Refined, with white pepper and cream.

Step 4. Maduros with natural sweetness, medium to medium-full

The Padrón 1964’s step. Cocoa, coffee and a sweetness that comes from fermenting the wrapper. This is where cigars ask you to eat well first.

• Padrón 1964 Anniversary Maduro: Medium–Full. Elegant and balanced, coffee and chocolate.
• Ashton Aged Maduro No. 20: Medium–Full. Pleasant and well built, with an especially appealing start.
• Oliva Serie V Melanio Maduro: Medium–Full. Cocoa, espresso and black pepper.

Step 5. Full strength

For when you know your body well. Always after a meal, always with water and always slowly.

• Plasencia Cosecha 151: Full. Serious and mature, with earth and pepper.
• Camacho Triple Maduro: Full. Dark, dense and powerful.

You can browse all my notes by strength: mild, mild-medium, medium, medium-full and full. And if you’re wondering what my scores mean, here’s how I score.

The basics of every smoke

Choosing

• Start with strength, not with the brand or the price.
• Prefer short sizes: corona, robusto or petit corona. To understand sizes, read cigar vitolas explained.
• Check that the wrapper is intact and the cigar is neither rock-hard nor soft. A dried-out cigar burns hot and harsh; here’s how to keep them in a humidor.

Cutting

Cut only the cap, 1 to 2 mm, above the line where it meets the wrapper. A straight guillotine cut is the simplest place to start. I have a full guide on how to cut a cigar.

Lighting

1. Use a butane lighter, wooden matches or a cedar spill. Avoid fluid lighters and candles, which leave a taste.
2. Toast the foot: bring the flame close without letting it touch the tobacco and rotate the cigar until the whole edge is evenly lit.
3. Then bring it to your mouth and take gentle puffs while you keep turning it near the flame.
4. Blow softly on the foot to check that the glowing ring is complete.

Smoking

• A gentle puff every 30 to 60 seconds. Taste the smoke and let it go.
• Let the ash fall on its own once it reaches 2 or 3 cm. It protects the ember and helps the cigar burn cool.
• If it goes out, no problem. Blow through it gently to clear the stale smoke and relight.
• When you want to go further, try letting a little smoke out through your nose, known as retrohaling. It isn’t inhaling: the smoke doesn’t go to your lungs, but your sense of smell picks up flavors the mouth alone misses. Try it with mild cigars first, because it stings.

Finishing

Many cigars turn harsh in the last third. When it stops tasting good, leave it in the ashtray and let it go out on its own.

Your palate is in charge

Everyone reacts differently to nicotine, and every palate looks for different things. What feels medium to me may feel strong to someone else. That’s why the best thing you can do is take notes: what you smoked, what you ate beforehand, how long it lasted, how you felt. In a few weeks you’ll know clearly how far your body goes and which flavors you enjoy. If it helps, here’s how I use AI as an assistant to learn without letting it tell me what I should taste.

My advice to them, and to you, is to come back to the Padrón 1964 later on: after dinner, with water on the side and without rushing. That’s how a cigar is meant to be enjoyed: lived slowly.