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One of the most confusing things about cigars when you get started is the huge range of different sizes, strengths and flavours they come in. Even when you stick with one brand, like Perdomo, it’s easy to get lost trying to work out what’s what. How is a Grand Cru Toro Connecticut different from a Grand Cru Churchill Natural or a Lot 23 Bellicoso Maduro?
Here’s a quick guide to knowing what all of these terms mean.
1. The Blend. When cigar manufacturers create a cigar, it involves a unique combination of leaves from their crops to give each cigar a certain flavour, body and strength – a very similar process to creating wine or whisky. It’s a complex and wonderful process, more of an art than a science.
Each blend is made up of two basic parts:
The Filler – tobacco rolled inside the cigar comprising the bulk of the smoke.
The Binder – the tobacco leaf used to hold the whole affair together in a nice, neat cylinder.
For example, some of the Perdomo blends are the Lot 23, Habano, Perdomo² Limited Edition, Reserve 10th Anniversary, Patriarch, etc. How mild or full-bodied a cigar is, is predominately determined by the leaves used in the filler and the binder.
2, The Wrapper. Now each cigar also has a final piece which is called The Wrapper – the smooth, attractive tobacco leaf used to “dress up” the cigar for presentation. The wrapper can also add a lot of flavour to a cigar.
Cigar blends often come in different wrappers. In the Perdomo range, you’ll normally find our cigars come in Natural, Connecticut, Corojo, Criollo and Maduro wrappers.
Natural: Light brown, fully matured leaf which has been allowed to dry naturally and slowly in large barns. Grown under cheesecloth to protect the colour and appearance, as exposure to sunlight darkens the leaf. Smooth, creamy flavours.
Connecticut: A lighter colour, typically grown under shade, which delivers a characteristically smooth, creamy taste. Not overpowering in flavour.
Corojo: This rare, reddish, oily wrapper is traditional variety grown in Cuba. Slightly richer and oilier than a Natural.
Criollo: A smooth, oily, Nicaraguan leaf, grown under shade, delivering soft spice, with a light, creamy, cedar undertone.
Maduro: Dark brown and quite different from Natural or Corojo. Creating a Maduro leaf is a more extensive process that creates a sweet, pronounced taste and imparts a more intense flavour to a cigar.
My general advice to people getting into cigars for the first time is to start with a mild cigar and work your way up to the heavier, fuller-flavoured cigars. That’s what I did.
3. Size. The last part of choosing a cigar is determining the right size. When it comes to cigars, size means LENGTH and WIDTH. And, as we all know, SIZE DOES MATTER.
To make it a little easier, cigars tend to come in a standard range of sizes. Length and width (or “ring gauge”, as it’s properly known) are packaged into standard sizes. Length is usually measured in inches and ring gauge is measured in 64ths of an inch, so, for example, a 64-ring cigar would be an inch in diameter. The length and ring of a cigar will determine how long it takes to smoke. Longer, fatter cigars take longer to smoke than shorter, skinnier cigars. The size of cigar you choose will often depend on how much time you have to smoke and what feels most comfortable in your mouth. Ring gauge also determines how much surface area of the cigar is exposed to the air while burning – a fatter cigar smokes cooler and slower because more of the filler is exposed to air.
Let’s take the Perdomo Cuban Bullet as an example. It comes in the following sizes:
Robusto 5 x 50
Toro 6 x 50
Churchill 7 x 50
Torpedo 5 3/4 x 54
You’ll these same sizes crop up across the Perdomo range. As I said earlier before, the longer and higher ring gauge a cigar has, the longer it will take to smoke. So a good place to start is with a shorter cigar and get a feel for what size ring gauge feels best in your mouth.
For more on how to choose a cigar, we recommend the following book:
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