General cigar questions

[fastnbulbous]

Can you smell if a cigar is going to have ammonia before you light it?

I did a sniff before lighting but didnt smell anything.
After I lit it up though, it was a lot of ammonia.

[bobajob]

In my experience the best you can hope for is to detect 'something amiss'. Typically i can spot it in the cold draw, but by that point it's already cut.