Essential Cigar Accessories: The Kit, From Cutter to Ashtray

The essential cigar accessories come down to three objects: a cutting tool, a clean flame and something to keep your cigars humidified. The ashtray and the case follow as soon as you smoke regularly; the humidor and the hygrometer wait until a collection exists. Everything else (scissors, draw tools, complete sets) is a matter of comfort or of gifting. This guide goes round the kit in the order of the ritual’s gestures, says what to buy first and what can wait, and explains why Morocco’s dry climate changes the order of priorities.

Which cigar accessories: the starter kit

A cigar arrives sealed, has to be lit and dries out in the open air. Three accessories answer these three constraints, and together they make up the true beginner’s kit:

1. A double blade guillotine. It cleanly opens the head of almost every vitola sold in Morocco, from the small corona to the robusto.
2. A torch lighter or long matches. A flame that leaves no taste in the tobacco: no petrol lighter, no candle.
3. An airtight box and a Boveda pack. This is the beginner’s humidor: it keeps a few cigars in good condition for weeks, even at the height of summer.

With this trio, you smoke well. The ashtray and the case improve the experience; the humidor becomes essential once you store. Our guide to your first cigar completes this kit with the choice of the vitola itself.

Cutting: the guillotine first, the punch later

The cut commits everything that follows: too low, the wrapper unravels; too timid, the draw stays tight. The double blade guillotine is the versatile tool, the only one that also serves large ring gauges. The punch cutter bores a round hole in the cap: it fits on a key ring, suits small vitolas and concentrates the smoke. The V-cut and scissors come later, out of taste rather than need.

Only one criterion really matters when buying: a rigid, sharp blade that slices without crushing. The technique, the cutting height and the right tool for each vitola are detailed in our guide on how to cut a cigar.

Lighting: a flame with no taste

Tobacco holds on to everything that burns near it. The torch lighter, with its pressurised blue flame, has won out for three reasons: it leaves no residue, it burns hot enough to light the foot evenly, and it stands up to the wind. In Morocco, where cigars are often smoked outdoors, a double jet is the right compromise. Long matches, preferably cedar, remain the traditional way to light, and they travel by plane, where the torch is banned in cabin and hold alike.

Refined butane, bleeding the tank, toasting the foot: our torch lighter guide explains how to choose and look after yours.

Resting: the cigar ashtray

The ashtray is the most underrated accessory in the kit, and yet a cigarette ashtray will not do. A cigar takes forty-five minutes to two hours to smoke and spends most of that time resting. Four criteria separate a real cigar ashtray from an ordinary one.

Wide rests. The rest must take the cigar’s ring gauge without it having to balance: a cigarette rest lets a robusto roll onto the table. Ashtrays with one or two rests are the most stable; those with four are for entertaining.

A deep bowl. The ash of a well-rolled cigar falls in chunks several centimetres long. A shallow bowl overflows by the second cigar and lets the ash blow away at the first breath of wind.

Weight. A heavy ashtray does not tip over when a long cigar is rested on it, and does not get carried off by the wind. It is the quality that matters most on a terrace.

A material that withstands heat and washes easily. Glazed ceramic, thick glass, crystal or stone: all are suitable. Thin metal heats up and rings; raw wood absorbs odour and ends up burning.

Cigar ashtrays in Morocco: terraces and craftsmanship

In Morocco, cigars are often smoked on a terrace, along a corniche or in a riad courtyard, where the wind makes depth and weight more important still. The country’s craftsmanship lends itself well to this: a heavy piece of glazed ceramic from Safi or Fez makes a durable terrace ashtray, provided the inside is glazed (bare clay soaks up odour) and the rests are wide enough for your cigars. One last point of etiquette: a cigar is never stubbed out. You rest it and it goes out on its own within a few minutes, without spreading the acrid odour of a crushed butt. For smoking away from home, our guide to cigar lounges in Morocco lists the places that do things properly.

Carrying: the cigar case

The case protects the cigar between home and the moment you light it. There are four families:

• The soft leather case, for two or three cigars: elegant and light, it protects against knocks but lets air through. This is the case for an evening out.
• The rigid case, in metal, wood or carbon fibre: it fears neither a back pocket nor a travel bag, and some close airtight.
• The telescopic case, whose length adjusts: useful if you switch from a corona to a churchill.
• The travel humidor, a rigid box with a seal for five to fifteen cigars: the only solution beyond a day.

A cedar lining is a plus: it buffers humidity and adds no foreign flavour, unlike unlined leather, which can pass on its odour.

Cigar cases in Morocco: the dry-air trap

This is where the climate changes everything. A leather case that is not airtight keeps a cigar in good condition for an evening; left two days in a car in Marrakech in summer, it turns the cigar brittle, and the wrapper splits on lighting. For a weekend, an outing or a trip, take an airtight case or a travel humidor and slip an 8-gram Boveda pack inside. Coming home from a trip, it is also the natural container for the 25 cigars the duty-free allowance permits. And check the size before buying: a robusto case will not take a churchill, and a case that is too wide lets the cigars knock against each other.

Storing: humidor, hygrometer and Boveda

As soon as you keep more than ten or so cigars for more than a few weeks, the airtight box is no longer enough. The Moroccan climate, dry for much of the year, makes storage the priority investment after the starter kit:

• The humidor, in Spanish cedar, airtight before it is beautiful. Our guide to choosing a humidor ranks the criteria, and a new humidor must be seasoned before it takes in anything at all.
• The Boveda pack, which regulates humidity in both directions with no adjustment. Target level, sizing and lifespan are in our guide to humidity and Boveda packs.
• The hygrometer, preferably digital, and calibrated: a wrong hygrometer is worse than no hygrometer, because it gives false reassurance.

With no humidor for now, our guide to storing cigars without a humidor details how to set up an airtight box that holds for months.

Secondary accessories

Useful, sometimes charming, never urgent:

• Cigar scissors: the elegance of cutting at the table, provided you have a steady hand.
• The draw tool: a thin rod that unblocks a cigar with too tight a draw. It saves a cigar now and then, but an accurate cut saves more.
• Cedar spills: lit from a flame, they are used to light the cigar the old-fashioned way, without the slightest taste of gas.
• The individual cigar rest: a small stand to rest your cigar at the table, without a living-room ashtray.

Accessory sets and luxury accessories: what the price pays for

Cigar accessory sets bring together humidor, guillotine, lighter and hygrometer at a price that seems unbeatable. The saving is made at the expense of one piece, almost always the same: the blade that crushes the wrapper, or the dial hygrometer that shows 70% whatever the real humidity. Before buying, open the set: the humidor should close with a slight puff of air, and the blade should slice a sheet of paper without tearing it.

The luxury cigar accessory is justified differently: a steel blade that keeps its edge for years, a repairable lighter mechanism, a full-grain leather lined with cedar. Great houses such as S.T. Dupont or Davidoff also sell a signature; a good purchase is recognised by the fact that it can be repaired and handed down. That is also the logic behind our ideas for gifts for a cigar lover: one lasting piece rather than an assortment.

In what order to equip yourself

For anyone starting out in Morocco, the safest buying order is as follows:

1. With your first cigar: guillotine, torch lighter or matches, an airtight box with a Boveda pack.
2. After a few weeks: a real cigar ashtray and a case suited to your favourite vitolas.
3. When the collection passes ten cigars: a humidor, a calibrated hygrometer and spare Boveda packs.
4. Then, for pleasure: punch or V-cutter, scissors, travel humidor, collector’s pieces.

Accessories, unlike cigars, are not subject to any restricted sales channel in Morocco: they can be bought freely, which lets you choose quality rather than whatever is on the shelf.

The terms in this guide (cap, ring gauge, vitola, toasting) are gathered in our cigar glossary.

This guide is published by CIGARA, the cigar accessories shop in Morocco: humidors, cigar cutters and torch lighters, coming soon to Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech.