Cigar Malaysia Guide is an independent cigar publication for adults in Malaysia and for visitors. We explain cigars in plain English, with a Malaysian angle. That means the law under Act 852, storage in tropical humidity, customs rules, culture and craft. We also publish a small but growing set of guides in Bahasa Melayu.
Who we are
The Cigar Malaysia Guide Editorial Team writes and edits everything on this site. We are a small editorial team, not a shop, a lounge or a brand. So we sign our work as a team rather than as named individuals. When we refer to “we” on any page, we mean that team.
Our readers range from complete beginners to people who have smoked cigars for decades. Some live in Malaysia. Others are passing through KLIA, or planning a trip, and want to know the rules first. In every case, we try to answer the real question quickly and then give the detail.
Our mission
Good information about cigars in Malaysia is hard to find. Search results mostly show shop listings, social media posts and advice written for cool, dry countries. Meanwhile, the official legal texts sit in long PDF files that few people read.
Our aim is simple. We want to be the clearest and most accurate cigar resource for Malaysians. To start, our cigars for beginners guide covers the basics. Our Act 852 explainer then sets out the law in plain language. Above all, we stay honest about health. Cigars are not safe, and our cigar health risks page says so clearly.
Why we call ourselves an independent cigar publication
Independence is the core of what we do, and Malaysian law shapes it too. Act 852 bans the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of smoking products. It also bans selling tobacco online. Even without the law, we would keep our distance from the trade, because readers need advice they can trust.
So we follow a few firm rules:
- No sales. We do not sell cigars, accessories or anything else.
- No ads. We run no advertising of any kind.
- No affiliate links. We earn nothing when you click a link.
- No sponsorship. We accept no payment, free products or hosted trips from brands, shops or venues.
Our full standards are in our editorial policy.
We are not affiliated with any retailer or venue
Our domain name is cigar-malaysia.com. However, we have no link with cigarmalaysia.com, which is an independent retailer in Kuala Lumpur. We also have no tie to any other shop, lounge, distributor or brand.
When we mention a venue or a brand, we do so as a fact or as criticism. A mention is never an endorsement. Likewise, our cigar reviews are critical assessments, and they always note weaknesses as well as strengths.
How we research
We start with official sources wherever they exist. For the law, that means the gazetted text of Act 852 and its regulations. On tax and customs, we use Royal Malaysian Customs and its published orders. On health, we rely on bodies such as the WHO, the US National Cancer Institute and Malaysia’s Ministry of Health.
Next, we use trade press and reference works for history, brands and craft. We cite our sources inline, with links, so you can check them yourself. If we cannot verify a claim, we leave it out. Where the law is unclear, we say that too, instead of guessing.
Corrections policy
We make mistakes sometimes, and we want to fix them fast. If you spot an error, please tell us. We check every report against the source. Then we correct the page and update its “last updated” date.
When a correction changes the meaning of a page, we add a short note to explain what changed. Small fixes, such as typos, we simply correct.
Contact us
You can reach the editorial team by email at editor@cigar-malaysia.com. Please use it for corrections, feedback and questions about our work.
That said, we cannot help with purchases, prices or stock, since we sell nothing. We also cannot give legal or medical advice. For those, please speak to a lawyer or a doctor.
Image credits
Most photographs on this site come from free-licence sources such as Wikimedia Commons and Openverse. Each photo keeps its own licence, often a Creative Commons licence or public domain. We list the creator, source and licence for every image in our image credits file.
Our editorial team also creates original diagrams, such as the cigar anatomy and size charts. Finally, the fonts on this site are open-source fonts, used under the SIL Open Font License.