CIGAR BASICS FOR AFICIONADOS TO BE!

The cigar wrapper beckons the smoker to the mysteries embedded within by nature, the tobacco farmer, and the cigar roller. An inviting wrapper might be likened to a carefully tailored evening gown on an elegant lady. . .

That invaluable first impression.

PREMIUM CIGAR ATTRIBUTES: Given that one starts with high-grade cigar tobacco leaf, the attributes of a premium cigar, regardless of price, are that it be Hand Rolled, Long Filler, and One Hundred Percent Tobacco. Now, you can take that same high-grade, cigar tobacco leaf and destroy forever its embedded fineness by making it into a cigar at the opposite end of the spectrum: machine made, short filler, with tobacco and non-tobacco products added. Commonly called "drug store cigars", they can sit on a store shelf without humidification and are referred to in the trade as homogenous cigars. Read the box labeling: "These Cigars Are Predominately Natural Tobacco with Non-tobacco Ingredients Added." One of the non-tobacco ingredients added is paper (very similar to that used to make paper grocery bags) which is a binder for the short filler tobacco. More often than not, a homogenous cigar being smoked smells like burning paper. A tell-tale signature of homogenous cigar is the hole placed in the head. Having mentioned that short fill cigars exist, nothing more needs to be said. The remainder of this discussion will focus on premium cigars.

OVERVIEW: The development of the cigar has been an evolutionary process relative to both the construction and the development of the tobacco leaf used to make a cigar. A cigar is created in four different steps from cigar tobacco leaf that has been picked, cured, aged, sorted, and graded. This article only considers the construction aspects that occur after the leaf has been graded.

Suffice to say, that today’s average cigar is a far greater value (cost and smoking quality) than that obtainable a century ago. This is due to improvements in farming techniques which have enhanced the taste and flavor of cigar leaf. Also, the cigars produced today are blended from tobacco available from a world-wide market due to transportation improvements.

During the 19th Century and up to the early part of this century, cigars manufactured in rural areas were constructed from whatever leaf was available locally, or, if near a train stop, what could be economically transported thereto. Large Northern cities had an abundance of large cigar factories, skilled labor, and availability of reasonably good tobacco as the cities were often railroad hubs. That scenario changed with the large influx of Cuban workers settling in Florida around Tampa and Miami starting around 1910 (after the Spanish-American war). But that’s another story.

CIGAR ANATOMY 101: The anatomy of a modern cigar consists of three basic parts. Starting from the center and working to the outside, the parts are filler, binder, and wrapper. There are four construction steps involved to convert the graded leaf into a finished cigar style. (Cigar styles will be discussed in a future article. For now, suffice to say that style relates to a prescribed cigar length and diameter.)

Step one involves layering filler leaf and shaping it into a cylindrical structure. A binder leaf is bound around this structure to complete step two. The semi-finished product at this point is called a "bunch."

Step three is the molding process during which time a bunch is compressed to the diameter of cigar style being produced. During the final step (four), the bunch is wrapped and cut to the exact style length.

What we now have are finished cigars blended from cigar leaves which have not been introduced until now. It is only natural that they be sent on a "honeymoon" now that the tobaccos have been "married." After a proper ageing period in cedar rooms, they undergo final inspection, packaging, and distribution to the tobacconist.

Basically a cigar is hand made by two different skilled-labor technicians; a roller and a wrapper. A roller is involved with the beginning process ( Steps one and two) to form the filler and binder into a bunch which is then placed into a mold (Step three). After several hours in a mold, a roller skillfully places the wrapper around the bunch to complete the construction process.

Both the binder leaf and the wrapper leaf spiral the long-filler starting at the cigar foot. The foot of a cigar is the end that is lit. The head is placed to the lips. At bit of vegetable gel is used at the head end of the wrapper leaf as an adhesive. A small circle is cut from the remainder of the wrapper leaf and adhered to the head to produce a finished product.

Filler. (Step 1) The filler constitutes the bulk of the tobacco used in the cigar construction; unequivocally, about ninety-seven (97) percent. It provides the majority of the taste and flavor of the cigar smoke on the palate and tongue while the cigar is being smoked.

The roller places leaf tobacco, cut to a size compatible with the style cigar being produced, together to form a sandwich-like structure. The grain of each layer is placed parallel with the last; grain running parallel with the cigar length. Each leaf is lightly sprayed with water to make it more pliable and to form an adhesion between the succeeding leaf. Deft fingers are constantly monitoring the layers to assure product uniformity, that no voids or hard spots exist between layers. If not corrected, voids will produce soft spots which cause the cigar diameter to collapse especially where it is being held by the fingers. The cigar will feel spongy rather than firm and will burn hot. Large, hard veins if not removed will produce a cigar with hard spots and will not provide a smooth, even draw.

When the roller is satisfied that quality layering exists, the structure is "booked." This involves placing the structure in one hand and placing the firm edge of the other hand along the center line of the structure, parallel with the grain. (A karate chop, so to speak.) Simultaneously, firm pressure is applied while the hand holding the structure closes around the other hand to effectively fold the tobacco structure. The tobacco edges of the structure resemble the edge view of pages of an open book. Hence, the structure is booked. It is very important at this point that the roller not crease the fold as the fold is at the cigar center and forms a minuscule air passage along the cigar length. If closed, the cigar will draw hard. Adroitly, the roller forms the layer into a cylinder which is then hand rolled on a wooden board with the palm of the hand until the diameter is slightly oversize of the cigar style that is being produced. Step one is complete; step two commences.

Binder. (Step 2) To hold the filler in place, a tough, resilient leaf is used to bind the filler leaf in a fashion similar to using a bandage to wrap an injured finger. Proportionally, the binder leaf is about two (2) percent of the cigar tobacco volume; the wrapper, about one (1) percent. (These numbers are arbitrary and are only used to illustrate a proportional tobacco quantity for each part.) At this point of construction, when the long filler has been bound by the binder, the tobacco product is called a "bunch." A bunch must now be compressed in a wooden device called a mold.

Molding. Each bunch is carefully placed into one of ten available troughs within a mold-half. A cigar mold is a two-piece wooden press used to shape the head (cigar end placed to the lips) and diameter of the bunches. Cigar molds are hand-made from two matching pieces of wood into which mirror-image troughs are carved to within a sixty-forth of an inch into each of the two mold pieces. When all ten troughs have been filled, the two pieces are fitted together and clamped. Consequently, each individual bunch is compressed to an exact diameter equivalent to the width of the trough. The foot (the end of the cigar that will be lighted) of the bunch protrudes out of mold. The head conforms to the curved trough within the mold. Several hours later the clamps are removed and each bunch is carefully rotated to avoid mold marks. The clamps are removed for good after an approximate clamping time of four hours; bunches are removed (end of Step three) from the mold and ready for the wrapper (Step four).

Wrapper. The wrapper is a fine-textured, smooth leaf selected for looks, taste, and flavor. Some have a silky look, others an oily appearance. In color, they range from light green (Double Claro) to brownish-black (Maduro Maduro) with medium brown (English Market Selection or Natural) being the most commonly encountered. It is also the most expensive of the three leaf parts, costing many times more than the filler or binder leaf.

A wrapper is prepared by cutting a rectangular piece from the lager leaf. Cutting is performed by a knife with a curved blade resembling a half-circle to which a rocking action is applied. Essentially, the blade is rolled over the leaf with downward pressure cutting the leaf rather than by drawing the blade across the leaf. This prevents tearing the delicate (and expensive) leaf.

Placing the rectangular leaf at an angle (learned from experience) to front edge of the rolling board, the bunch is place over the lower edge of the wrapper leaf. Placing a palm over the upper half of the wrapper to both stabilize and apply tension, the bunch is rolled over the wrapper using the other palm to effectively apply the wrapper in a spiral manner. Vegetable gel paste is used to glue the wrapper to the wrapper at the head end where they overlap. A round cap cut from residue wrapper leaf is glued onto the head to provide a finished appearance. Step four is completed by cutting the cigar to an exact length using an apparatus similar to a paper cutter.

As thin and fine as the wrapper leaf is it imparts about thirty (30) percent of the taste and flavor on the tongue and palate. Wrapper smoke combines with that of the filler leaf acting as a catalyst to unlock hidden pleasures. It is well to note that the wrapper is tasted on the lips, a prelude to pleasure. It introduces the smoker to the cigar in looks, taste, and appearance before combustion: it makes that invaluable first impression.

Cigar Style. Style is a nomenclature given to cigars which generically denotes its length and diameter. (the term "shape" is interchangeable with style.) We have to get a little technical, but bear with me as the technicalities can be easily understood. A cigar length is measured in eights of an inch. The diameter is called Ring Gage (RG) and is measured in sixty-fourths of an inch. For example, a nomenclature of 6" x 50RG would specify a cigar being 6 inches long and 50/64ths of an inch in diameter; a smidgen over ¾ths of an inch. The style of a cigar with these dimensions would be classified a "Toro." A Toro style encompasses cigar dimensions from 5-5/8ths to 6-5/8ths inches in length; a ring gage from 48 to 54. If you own the factory and you produce a cigar which qualifies as a Toro, you might just call it a Toro; or, you can name it anything you want. But, if you as a customer walk into The Wharf, a tobacconist, and ask for a Toro style, you’ll end up with something around 7 x 50.

It is common to classify a cigar as belonging to a classical style, for example, a classical corona style regardless of whatever the manufacturer call the cigar. The dimensions of a classical style are obtained by taking the middle-of-the-road dimensions of a specific style. Thus, a classical corona style is 5 ½ x 42.

Style is a handy way to refer to a cigar size without knowing its specific factory name. The most common style names and dimensions follow:

• Panatela: 5 ½ to 6 l/2, 35-39 RG.
• Corona: 5 ¼ to 5 ¾, 40-44 RG.
• Robusto: 4 ½ to 5 ½, 48-54 RG.
• Toro: 5 5/8 to 6 5/8, 48-54 RG.
• Churchill: 6¾ to 7 ¾, 49-54 RG.

The material presented herein is copyrighted by The Wharf. It may be copied or reproduced as long as credit is given to The Wharf.