Cigar Encyclopedia
Did you ever wonder what the difference between a Churchill and a Double Corona is? What about the specific roles of a lector or a ligador in a cigar manufacturing plant? The Half Smoked Encyclopedia will answer those questions – and many more. Browse our extensive glossary of cigar terms below!
-
a
-
• Air Curing:
The process of hanging freshly picked tobacco leaves in open air, covered barns to dry in the breeze.
-
• Aging:
The period during which newly completed cigars rest in humidity controlled, cedar-lined storage areas, called "aging rooms". This rest time gives the flavors of the tobaccos within the cigars a chance to blend.
-
• A. M. S. - American Market Selection:
A designation for the light and mild wrappers, Claro Claro, Candela, and Jade.
-
• Aroma:
A cigar's smell when it is burning. Bouquet is the smell of the wrapper and open foot before the cigar has been lit.
-
• Amarillio:
A yellow wrapper leaf grown under shade.
-
• Amatista:
A glass jar containing 50 or 25 cigars, sealed and sold as factory fresh.
-
-
b
-
• Biddies:
A small East Indian cigar.
-
• Binder:
The tobacco leaf wrapped around the filler, holding the core of the cigar together. The outer, or wrapper leaf covers the binder.
-
• Bales:
After tobacco leaves have finished fermenting, they are packed ina bale made from the tough sheath of the palm tree and encased in burlap, which provides a home for the leaves while they age, and also serves to transport them safely.
-
• Band:
A paper ring around the head of most cigars. Cigar bands are often printed with the name of the brand, country of origin, and/or indication that the cigar is hand-rolled. They often have colorful graphics, which have made them a popular collectors item.
-
• Barrel:
The shaft of the cigar. Also called the body or canon (pronounced (canyon).
-
• Blend:
The combination of tobacco leaves chosen for each cigar. A cigar's character depends on the blend, which may have tobaccos from different countries, crops and years. The blender strives for a mixture that results in a consistent good taste.
-
• Body:
The relative strength or body of your cigar means whether it is mild, medium or full bodied.
-
• Booking:
Folding the filler leaves in a cigar's bunch the way the pages of a book are folded. This is an inferior method, causing a thicker concentration of leaves on one side, which results in an uneven taste and burning.
-
• Box Pressed:
Certain cigars are pressed so tightly into a box that they assume a slightly square shape rather than round.
-
• Buckeye:
A small, generally family owned, cigar making company.
-
• Bulks:
The tall stacks of tobacco piled high so that fermentation will take place as the temperature in them rises. Also called burros, a Cuban term.
-
• Bunch:
During cigar making, the leaves that make up the filler and binder before the finishing wrapper leaf is added.
-
• Bunchbreaker or Buncher:
The person in a cigar factory who takes the filler and wraps a binder leaf around it, creating a bunch. Also called a buncher or bunchmaker.
-
• Bundled Cigars:
Sometimes cigars are sold in bundles of 10 or 25, rather than in a box. Bundling and wrapping in plastic saves money, so less expensive smokes, or "seconds" are bundled. Bundled cigars can be a good deal.
-
• Belicoso:
Traditionally a short, pyramid-shaped cigar, 5 or 5 1/2 inches in length with a shorter, more rounded taper at the head and a ring gauge of 50 or less. Belicoso is often used to describe Coronas or Corona Gordas with a tapered head.
-
• Binder:
The portion of leaf used to hold together the blend of filler leaves; with the wrapper and filler, it is one of the three main components in a cigar.
-
• Boite Nature:
The cedar box in which many cigars are sold.
-
• Book Style:
A rolling method by which the cigar maker lays the filler leaves atop one another, then rolls them up like a scroll. Book style, or booking, is common in Honduras. The alternate style is based on the old Cuban method called entubar.
-
• Bull's-Eye Piercer:
A device for opening the closed head of A cigar before smoking.
-
• Burros (also called bulks):
The pile or bulk in which cigar tobacco is fermented. They can be six feet tall and are carefully monitored. If the heat level inside them gets too high, the burro is taken apart to slow the fermentation.
-
-
c
-
• Cap:
The piece of tobacco laid over the head of a cigar. It is clipped before smoking.
-
• Casing:
A process of spraying tobacco after it has been dried. This moisture makes the leaves pliable so that they can be rolled into cigars.
-
• Clear Havana:
An all-Havana cigar.
-
• Cedar:
Cedar can impart a delicate and pleasing woody flavor to tobacco. Cedar is used to make cigar boxes, and to line the walls of humidors and cigar aging rooms.
-
• Chavetta (or Tuck):
A specialized crescent-shaped knife that is one of the cigar rollers only tools. It's used to cut the leaf, pack the filler into the cigar, and shape the stogie.
-
• Cheroot:
A small cigar. A century ago, cheroots were often smoked using a decorative holder.
-
• Cigar Bar:
A place with comfortable seating and/or tables where you can buy individual cigars and accompany them with drinks.
-
• Cigarillo:
A "small cigar" generally not much bigger than a cigarette. It's made from cigar leaf tobacco, but due to its small size, it generally contains short filler to promote proper even burning.
-
• Climate:
A critical part of growing good cigar leaf. Even slight differences in temperature and rainfall will make the same type of tobacco plant have a different flavor.
-
• Criollos:
Harsh cigars smoked by native Cubans.
-
• Culebra:
A three-in-one twisted cigar. Actually, three cork-screw shaped cigars bound together. An invention of cigar factories of the 19th century to keep workers from stealing their product. Each employee was allowed three cigars a day - of this obvious shape only.
-
• Curly Head:
The little ponytail-like twisted end of tobacco on the head of some premium brand cigars. Also called fancy tail.
-
• Cutter:
A device used to remove or puncture the cap of tobacco used to seal the tip of a cigar. There are numerous types of cutters and several types of cuts.
-
• Canoe:
When a cigar burns on one side only, usually occurs when a wrapper is not fermented properly on one side or when the wind is blowing one way which makes the cigar burn faster on one side.
-
• Claro:
very light tan or yellowish. Indicative of shade-grown tobacco.
-
• Colorado Claro:
medium brown, includes Natural and English Market Selection
-
• Colorado:
A medium-brown to brownish-red shade of wrapper tobacco. Colorado cigars are usually aromatic and are associated with well-matured cigars.
-
• Colorado Maduro:
Darker brown; often associated with African wrapper from Cameroon, and Honduran or Nicaraguan grown wrapper from Cuban seed.
-
• Cabinet Selection:
Cigars packed in a wooden box rather than the standard cardboard or paper-covered cigar boxes. These are preferable when buying cigars for aging.
-
• Candela:
A bright green shade of wrapper, achieved by a heat-curing process that fixes the chlorophyll content of the wrapper while it's still in the barn. The candela is also referred to as double claro.
-
• Capa:
The cigar's wrapper (also called the binder).
-
• Case:
In the cigar production process, workers case (slightly moisten) aged tobacco so it will be easy for hand rollers to work with.
-
• Catador:
A professional cigar taster who determines a cigar's qualities of taste, texture and aroma.
-
• Churchill:
A large Corona-format cigar.
-
• Claro:
The lightest in color (like milky coffee) wrapper, usually mild and is also sometimes called a "natural."
-
• Corojos:
Plants chosen to provide wrapper leaves and grown under a gauze sunscreen.
-
• Corona:
The most familiar size and shape for premium cigars: generally straight-sided with an open foot and a closed, rounded head.
-
• Curing:
The process of drying newly harvested tobaccos.
-
-
d
-
• Debudding:
The process of nipping off the flower buds that sprout from the top of a tobacco plant, forcing the plant to expend all its energy to grow bigger, better leaves.
-
• Demitasse:
A small size cigar usually 4 inches long with a 30 ring gauge.
-
• Dry Cigars:
Called dry or "Dutch-type" by Americans, these small cigars need no humidification. Made by the Dutch and Swiss, they use short filler, usually of tobacco from Sumatra and Indonesia.
-
• Double Claro:
very light, slightly greenish (also called Candela, American Market Selection or jade); achieved by picking leaves before maturity and drying quickly, the color coming from retained green chlorophyll; formerly popular, now rare.
-
• Diademas:
A big cigar with a closed and tapered head, generally about eight inches long; the foot may be open or closed like a Perfecto.
-
• Dominican Republic:
East of Cuba with a similar growing climate, the Dominican Republic has recently become a major exporter of cigars, mostly to the U.S.
-
• Double Corona:
A big cigar, generally 7 1/2 to 8 inches by a 49 to 52 ring gauge.
-
• Draw:
The flow of smoke from a cigar.
-
-
e
-
• E.M.S.:
English Market Selection. In days past, the British and Americans preferred the lighter wrappers, almost green in color. They became referred to as English Market Selection.
-
-
f
-
• Fermentation:
The process during which cigar tobacco, through self-generated heat, gives off nicotine and other compounds, turns color and gains much of its flavor. Also called curing, sweating and mulling.
-
• Figuardo:
A cigar that is not a straight-sided cylinder such as a Pyramid or Torpedo.
-
• Filler:
The blend of tobacco in the center of the cigar surrounded by the binder and then the wrapper. The heart of a cigar's flavor.
-
• Finished Head:
The head of a cigar that has been formed by the wrapper leaf, not a separate cap.
-
• Flathead:
A cigar whose head is not rounded, but flat.
-
• Foot:
The end of the cigar that is lit. Also called the tuck end.
-
-
g
-
• Gallera:
The large factory room where the cigars are rolled.
-
• Guillotine:
A cigar cutter that works like its namesake. The hand-held instrument has a hole where the head of the cigar is placed, and a blade to slice off a circular opening. A "guillotine cut" describes the cut.
-
-
h
-
• Hand:
A group of about 20 tobacco leaves that are tied together at the bottom of their stems. In processing and sorting, the hand is the division generally used.
-
• Handmade:
A cigar that has been bunched and rolled completely by hand.
-
• Handrolled:
A cigar whose wrapper has been added by hand, but whose bunch was made by a machine. Sometimes designated erroneously as handmade.
-
• Head:
The end of the cigar that is clipped and put into the mouth.
-
• Heat Curing:
Accelerating the natural drying process of tobacco using heat. Without sufficient time for flavors to concentrate, this process results in a leaf with less flavor and richness than air-cured leaves.
-
• Homogenized Tobacco Leaf:
(HTL) A tobacco product that is used for binder and sometimes wrapper in some "dry" European cigars and American mass-market cigars. It is made from tobacco scraps combined with substances like cellulose and pressed to form sheets.
-
• Humidor:
An airtight box, usually of wood, with a humidifying element for storing cigars.
-
• Hygrometer:
An instrument that measures relative humidity, In regards to cigars, it is used in a humidor to help maintain the proper level of humidity.
-
-
l
-
• Long Filler:
The filler in premium cigars, long enough to fill the entire length of the body. Full leaves are used instead of chopped up scraps.
-
• Ligero:
One of the three fillers of tobacco leaves. The top most leaves of a plant that are richest in flavor and often darkest in color. Always the fullest in flavor tobacco and used as a maduro wrapper due to the thickness and less loss from the fermentation process to make the maduro wrapper.
-
-
m
-
• Machine-Made Cigar:
A cigar made primarily by a machine. The filler in most machine-made cigars is short filler or tobacco scraps.
-
• Maduro:
Portuguese for old or mature. Ripe in Spanish. A wrapper shade from a very dark reddish-brown to almost black achieved through prolonged fermentation.
-
• Marble Head:
A round-headed cigar.
-
• Marrying:
Different tobaccos in a cigar are said to "marry" when their oils and aromas permeate one another, creating a blend. The aging room in a cigar factory is also called the "marrying room".
-
• Mass-Market Cigar:
A reference to all low priced cigars manufactured by machine in large quantities.
-
• Maduro:
Very dark brown or black; primarily grown in Connecticut, Mexico, Nicaragua and Brazil.
-
-
n
-
• Naked:
A cigar without a band.
-
• Notch Cutter:
A cigar cutter that creates a V-shaped opening in the head.
-
-
o
-
• Oscuro:
A black shade of wrapper, darker than maduro.
-
• Oscuro:
Very black, (also called Double Maduro), often oily in appearance; has become more popular in the 2000s; mainly grown in Cuba, Nicaragua, Brazil, Mexico, and Connecticut, USA.
-
-
p
-
• Pinch Test:
An easy way to check the construction of your cigar is to lightly pinch the cigar between your thumb and index finger. It should feel firm, but not too hard.
-
• Plug:
An obstruction in the cigar, caused by tightness in the rolling, that makes drawing difficult.
-
• Plume:
A white or light grayish-green dusting on a cigar's wrapper, caused by the crystallization of tobacco oils. Not mold, it is harmless and can be brushed off. Also called bloom, it occurs most often in cigars kept in a humidor quite some time.
-
• Premium Cigar:
Any high-grade cigar made by hand of 100% tobacco with long leaf filler.
-
• Puro:
Spanish for pure, the term refers to a cigar whose filler, bundle and wrapper are made from tobacco grown in the same country. All Cuban cigars are puros.
-
• Puro:
The Spanish term for cigar, and now it also means all the tobacco from one country meaning Binder, Filler, and Wrapper.
-
-
r
-
• Ring Gauge:
A measurement for the diameter of a cigar divided into 64ths. Thus a 64 ring gauge would mean that a cigar had a one inch diameter. A 32 ring gauge indicates a half inch diameter; a 48, a three quarter inch diameter.
-
• Robusto:
A short fat cigar popular for its short time to smoke while still delivering a premium, high-quality smoking experience.
-
• Roller:
The person who applies the wrapper leaf to the bunch in cigar making. Master rollers are highly skilled craftsmen.
-
-
s
-
• Seconds:
Cigars that are rejected by manufacturers for a variety of reasons are frequently sold as "seconds". They ar often packaged economically, and sold at a significant discount to the company's firsts. The flaws, however, may be so insignificant that the seconds represent an excellent value.
-
• Scrap Filler:
Left over tobacco cuttings used as filler for inexpensive cigars.
-
• Shade Leaf:
Tobacco grown under a canopy of cheese-cloth or mesh to shield it from the sun. Most often used in reference to Connecticut shade leaf wrapper.
-
• Short Filler:
Not the same as scrap filler, short filler is made of premium tobacco long filler leaves cut to a smaller size so they can be used in small cigars or in manufacturing by machines.
-
• Smoker:
Broadly defined, a cigar smoking event. This can be an elaborate meal with wines and cigars for each course, or a more informal gathering of like minded cigar afficianados.
-
• Stogie or Stogy:
Slang for cigar, often inexpensive. Invented in 1827 and smoked by frontiersmen heading west, the cigar was said to resemble the spoke of a Conestoga wagon wheel. First the cigar was called Conestoga, and then it was shortened to "Stogie"
-
• Seco:
This filler leaf taken from the middle of the plant often contributes aroma and is usually medium -bodied.
-
-
t
-
• Tooth:
Tiny, gritty bumps that are part of the natural texture of some tobacco wrapper leaves.
-
• Torcedor:
The Cuban term for master cigar roller.
-
• Tuck:
Also called the foot of the cigar. The end that is lit.
-
• Tobacco Beetles:
Tobacco beetles have a life cycle - egg, larva, pupa and adult - that lasts about 10 to 12 weeks total. The female adult can chew its way through paper or tobacco leaf, and finds in cigars a suitably warm environment to lay its eggs, small white ovals that are too small for the human eye to detect. The eggs, up to 100 per birth cycle, hatch within six to 10 days, giving birth to the larvae. The larvae are what actually eat the tobacco to live and grow. The beetle problem was the result of a rise in temperature within your humidor. It is important that your humidor is stored at a constant temperature at all times - no more than 70 degrees.
-
-
v
-
• Volado:
These leaves are taken from the bottom part of the plant and help the cigar in obtaining an even burn. The two other leaves used in rolling a cigar are Ligero and Seco .
-
-
w
-
• Wrapper:
The outer leaf rolled around the binder. Wrapper is the finest quality leaf on any cigar.
-
