Cigar lighters: torch, soft flame or matches

Torch or soft flame?

Either one will light a cigar. TSA describes a torch lighter's flame as thin and needle-like, hotter and more intense than a common lighter's (reaching 2,500 F), and a steady stream of air-propelled fire at whatever angle you hold the lighter.

A soft flame lighter makes the same kind of flame you get from a match. Lighting a cigar with one often takes a bit more patience.

Are torch lighters bad for cigars? No, as long as you respect the heat. With a torch, keep the tip of the flame off the foot, since it's easy to give the foot more heat than it needs. Our how-to-smoke guide has the steps for when you're ready to light it.

One jet, two or three?

A torch's jet count is how many jets it fires at once. Double, triple and even quad jets add power and intensity.

Xikar's Trezo, a triple jet, angles its two outer jets 8 degrees inward to concentrate the heat at a point above the flames.

Matches and cedar spills

Matches are a fine way to light a cigar, as long as they're wooden. Wooden matches usually burn cleaner than paper ones. They also give the sulfur on the tip a moment to burn off. Extra-long cedar matches are made just for lighting cigars.

A cedar spill is a strip of Spanish cedar. You light it from a match, a lighter or a candle, then use it to toast the foot. Spills burn slowly, and they can leave long, thin, messy ash, so go carefully.

Zippos and Bics

A classic Zippo burns lighter fluid, and a liquid-fuel lighter can leave a fuel taste. If it's the Zippo case you like, Zippo makes butane inserts that replace the standard one, in single torch, double torch and yellow flame versions, and they fit its classic cases.

Will a Bic or other disposable soft flame work? Yes. A Bic is a soft flame lighter, so what's above about soft flames applies to it.

Which lighter to buy

Start with where and how you smoke.

If you smoke outside, on the golf course or anywhere the wind picks up, a wind-resistant torch is the practical choice. Xikar lists all three of the torches below as wind resistant.

If you smoke at home or in a lounge and like taking your time with the light, a soft flame lighter or wooden matches will do.

Some lighters have a cutter built in, if you'd rather carry one tool instead of two. If you fly, read up on flying with a lighter before you pack one, since TSA treats torch lighters differently from disposable and Zippo lighters.

The Xikar torches we carry cover one, two and three jets:

• Xikar Astral. A single jet in a slim, pocket-friendly body. Xikar pitches it for the cigar lounge or the golf course.
• Xikar ELX. A double jet with a 9mm fold-out punch built in, so the same tool opens the cap and lights the cigar.
• Xikar Trezo. An in-line triple jet, with the angled outer jets described above.

All three are butane torches with a fuel window. When yours runs low, our refill guide covers how to refill and bleed it, which butane to use and what to do when a torch won't light.