Every cigar is made out of three main parts; the filler, the binder, and the wrapper. Each part of a cigar lends to the cigar’s flavor and overall quality. Each part of a cigar is also important, because each part plays a significant role in the construction of the cigar.
Great care and skill also goes into the construction of a cigar, from the selecting of the materials used to how the cigar is composed by the professional.
Cigar Wrapper and its Importance
The wrapper of a cigar brings all other materials together to unite them into one item. The wrapper can affect the way that a cigar burns and tastes. Typically, the wrapper is the costliest component of a cigar.
In order to create a leak-free seam, the wrapper is securely stretched over the cigar’s ingredients. Vegetable gum is the typical product used to seal the head of the cigar, with an added piece of leaf for a finished product.
Some different types of wrappers include ‘maduro’ and ‘natural.’ Maduro wrappers are thought to be stronger in taste, but that has been proven false. This particular wrapper becomes darker through being allowed to age. Natural is a wrapper that is light in color, which has not been aged like maduro wrappers.
In order to keep the leaf of the wrapper thin, the plant is grown under a gauze tent or shade. The proper texture of the leaf used to make the cigar wrapper is smooth with a limited amount of veins. Regardless of the color of the cigar, the wrapper still contributes to a large portion of a cigar’s flavor.
Other possible cigar wrappers include:
- Candela, which is very light and almost green in color.
- Claro, which can be described as yellow or a very light tan.
- Colorado Claro, which is a medium brown color.
- Colorado Rosado, which is a brown with red hues.
- Colorado Maduro, which is a dark brown color.
- Maduro, (previously mentioned) which is a dark brown.
- Oscuro, which is a black color wrapper.
Cigar Binder and its Importance
To create a leaf bunch, what is known as a “binder leaf”, is used to bind the cigar filler together. In order to create a binder, the binder leaf has to have the center vein removed, making two halves.
The best quality binder leaf is found at the base or lower half of the center of the tobacco plant. Binder leaves are chosen due to their durability and elasticity for rolling of cigars. Binder leaves typically come from the same tobacco plant as filler leaves. They are also cured, fermented, and aged like filler leaves.
Unlike the wrapper and the filler, the binder contributes very little to no flavor to the overall taste of the cigar.
While the wrapper leaves are required to have a limited number of blemishes and are smooth in appearance, the binder leaves can be blemished and may vary in color. Also unlike wrapper leaves, binder leaves are typically thicker while wrapper leaves are thinner.
Cigar Filler and its Importance
Arguably one of the main, and most important, parts of a cigar is the filler. The filler of a cigar is made of tobacco leaves, and affect a cigar’s strength. Cigar filled is made using all parts of a tobacco plant.
Different parts of a tobacco plant yield leaves that differ in strength. Leaves from the plant’s base give a light flavor. The leaves from the center of the plant yield a mild flavor, but is still stronger than the leaves from the bottom of the plant. Lastly, the leaves with the strongest and boldest flavor come from the top of the plant.
After being harvested, filler leaves are then left to cure, ferment, and age. To enhance the flavor of the leaves from the top of the plant, they are left to ferment for as long as two years.
The quality of cigar filling also depends of the length of the leaves. There are two types of fillers; “long-filler” and “short-filler.” “Long-filler” is filler made using long and whole tobacco leaves. These are used for higher quality cigars. “Short-filler” fillings are lesser in quality, and are usually left over from other cigars that have been previously rolled.
To obtain a desired taste and burning time, cigars are often filled using a combination (or blend) or leaves from either different parts of a plant of from different tobacco plants.
Size of a Cigar
The size of a cigar is commonly used to categorize the cigar. Two dimensions that are used to measure the cigars are the ring gauge (which is the diameter, sixty-fourths of an inch), and the length (which is measured in inches).
Some Types of Cigars
Parejo is the most common cigar shape. These have cylinder bodies, with straight sides, are open ended one side, and a round cap made from tobacco leaves that gets sliced off.
Figured are irregularly shaped cigars. These are typically considered as higher quality due to the difficulty of making them.
Cigarillos are machine-made cigars. These are usually shorter and narrower than traditional cigars, but are still bigger than little cigars, filtered cigars, and cigarettes.
Little cigars are another type of cigar. These are often referred to as small cigars of miniatures in the United Kingdom. They are very different from traditional cigars. These also closely resemble cigarettes in size, shape, packaging, and filters.
Overall Construction of a Cigar
Higher quality cigars are typically rolled by hand in order to control how tightly the cigar is rolled. When rolling a cigar, it’s important for the roller to remember to allow enough space for sufficient air flow.
If a cigar is rolled too tightly, sufficient amounts of air are prevented from passing through the cigar. If a cigar is rolled too loosely, then the cigar will burn too fast which won’t be enjoyable.
Hand rolling a cigar requires a skilled hand. A skilled cigar roller will be able to avoid rolling a cigar too loosely or too tightly.