Parts of the Cigar

Parts of the Cigar

• Wrapper Leaf: This leaf is the most costly and difficult to grow. Its color and taste ultimately play a vital part in the smoker's selection of a cigar. Not only is the wrapper the most visible part of the cigar, but it also provides a substantial part of the taste.

  Various manufacturers say that the wrapper gives from 40% to 70% of the taste. There is no question that the wrapper is significant, and wrappers from different regions and colors have different tastes. Growing regions have characteristics and tastes associated with each region. Applying different wrappers to cigars with the same filler and binder produces different-tasting cigars.

  Wrapper leaves should be free from blemishes, have uniform color, and contain very few veins. Proper aging is crucial to great flavor and aroma. General Cigar's great success with the Partagas 150 was due in part to the exquisite outside wrapper leaf, which had been aged for 18 years. The taste and aroma of the wrapper should blend well with the binder and filler. These leaves need to have much elasticity and be able to burn freely, not erratically.

• Binder: The binder is the layer below the outside wrapper used to hold the filler in place. This is a very functional part of the cigar, since it is used for its flavor, burning characteristics, and strength. Binder leaves usually comes from the upper leaves of the tobacco plant. Those leaves are thicker and coarser and burn more slowly than wrapper leaves. Binder leaf does not require the same high standards of cultivation as the wrapper leaf does.

  The binder should act as a fuse to make the cigar burn slow, long, and even. Binder leaf must have reasonable tensile strength and be able to blend well with the other types of cigar leaf.

• Filler: Filler is the bundle of leaves that make up the volume or bulk of the cigar. More leaves are usually used in a cigar with a larger ring gauge. The filler can be a combination of leaves from different seeds, and tobacco leaves from different countries. The filler does not contribute most of the flavor to the cigar.

  Filler leaves usually come from the bottom portion of the tobacco plant. Filler leaf is selected for taste and for its ability to hold fire and ash. It should be slow-burning and should hold an aroma.

  A filler blend that has heavy-, medium-, and light-bodied tobacco is most desirable for manufacturing a well-balanced cigar. Tobacco leaf such as that grown in the San Andres region of Mexico from Havana seed possesses a unique flavor and is said to be excellent.

  The chemical makeup of the soil, the seed used to grow the plant, the part of the tobacco plant on which the leaf grows, and how the plant is cultivated, bulked, and aged after picking, are all components that help determine the flavor of the filler tobacco. Filler leaf is grown in every country that produces tobacco.

  A quality premium cigar should use "long filler" leaf, or whole cigar leaves. The burn of the cigar will show if it has long filler. A long filler ash will be a long cylindrical ash. Short filler ashes will flake and fall off like a cigarette ash.