ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Cigar ash

So imagine you have a big yummy cookie. And you take little bites out of it until you don't want to eat any more. But the cookie is still there, but it's all crumbly now. That's kind of like a cigar. As you smoke it, it gets crumbly and leaves behind little pieces called ash.

And just like the cookie crumbs, cigar ash is also made up of mostly the same things that the cigar is made of, like the tobacco leaves. But it's all burned up and doesn't taste as good as the cigar did.

When you're smoking a cigar, you'll notice that the ash gets longer and longer as you smoke. But eventually, it gets too heavy to hold on to the end of your cigar and it falls off. So it's important to be careful when you're smoking so you don't drop ash everywhere.

And that's cigar ash, a bunch of crumbly pieces left behind after you've finished smoking a cigar.