Cigar terms A–Z — Smoke Rings Wiki

Wiki · Terms

Short definitions in Smoke Rings language. Each entry that has a full page is linked. This list will grow; the words themselves do not.

A

Accordion bunch: A bunching method that folds the edges of each filler leaf inward, like the pleats of an accordion, and stacks the folded leaves inside the binder.
Aging cigars: Keeping finished cigars at a stable humidity so harsh flavors fade and the blend becomes smoother.
Ash: The burned tobacco at the foot of a lit cigar. Its color and length give clues about the burn, not a measure of quality.

B

Band: The printed paper ring near the head of a cigar that shows the brand, and often the line.
Belicoso: A short figurado with a tapered, pointed head; a short torpedo.
Binder: The strong leaf that holds the filler bunch together before the wrapper is applied.
Blend: The combination of leaves in a cigar; in shops, also a cigar made with tobacco from more than one country.
Book bunch: A bunching method that lays the filler leaves flat on top of each other and folds them over once, like closing a book.
Box-press: Pressing a round cigar, in its box or in a press, so the sides flatten into a rounded square.
Bunchero: The factory worker who arranges the filler leaves and wraps them in the binder to make the bunch.
Burn: How a cigar burns: evenly, tunneling, canoeing, or going out.
Burro: A large fermentation pile used for the second, hotter fermentation of cigar tobacco.

C

Cameroon wrapper: Wrapper leaf grown in Africa, often bumpy-textured and reddish-brown, used as a distinctive wrapper.
Candela: A green wrapper, dried quickly with heat so the leaf keeps its chlorophyll.
Cap: The small piece of wrapper leaf that closes the head of a cigar; this is the part you cut.
Capa: Spanish for wrapper, the outer leaf of the cigar.
Capote: Spanish for the binder leaf, which holds the bunch together before the wrapper is applied.
Cellophane: The clear film sleeve that some cigars come in, one per cigar, to protect the wrapper during handling and shipping.
Chaveta: The cigar roller's flat blade with a rounded edge, used to trim wrapper leaf and shape the cap.
Churchill: A long parejo, classically about 7 inches long with a 47 ring gauge, named after Winston Churchill.
Cigar locker: A private, humidified locker that a lounge rents to regulars so they can keep their own cigars there.
Claro: A light-colored wrapper, usually tan to pale brown.
Cocoa: A tasting-note term for the sweetness of chocolate, cacao husk, or cocoa powder, especially in darker wrappers.
Colorado: A reddish-brown wrapper color, between claro and maduro on the usual scale.
Colorado maduro: A dark medium-brown wrapper color, between colorado and maduro on the traditional scale.
Connecticut broadleaf: A sun-grown, stalk-cut wrapper tobacco from the Connecticut River Valley with thick, wide leaves, used mostly for maduro wrappers.
Connecticut shade: Shade-grown wrapper from Connecticut-seed tobacco, traditionally from the Connecticut River Valley and also grown in Ecuador and elsewhere.
Corojo: A Cuban-seed tobacco first known as a wrapper, now grown in several New World countries.
Corona: A classic parejo, traditionally longer and thinner than a robusto, often about 5½ × 42.
Criollo: An older Cuban-seed tobacco, used for filler, binder, and sometimes wrapper, depending on the farm.
Cuban cigar: A cigar made in Cuba from Cuban-grown tobacco, a puro by law and in practice; Cuban-seed tobacco grown elsewhere does not qualify.
Cuban-seed: Tobacco grown from seed descended from Cuban plants, usually in another country.
Cubatabaco: Cuba's state tobacco company (Empresa Cubana del Tabaco); owner of the Cuban Cohiba trademark.
Culebra: Three thin cigars braided together while the leaf is still flexible, tied with ribbon, and separated before smoking.
Cutter: The tool that opens the cap (a guillotine, V-cut, punch, or scissors) so air can pass through the cigar.
Cutting fee: A charge some cigar lounges and bars add when you smoke a cigar you bought somewhere else.

D

Dominican cigar: A cigar rolled in the Dominican Republic, often with tobacco from several countries, and sometimes a Dominican puro.
Double binder: Two binder leaves on one bunch, used for strength, for a better burn, or for a particular taste.
Double corona: A large, long parejo, traditionally about 7½ to 8½ inches long with a 49–52 ring gauge.
Draw: How easily air and smoke pass through the cigar when you puff.
Draw-testing machine: A factory device that pulls air through a cigar bunch to measure its draw before the wrapper is applied.

E

Earth: A tasting-note term for a soil-like, mineral, or dusty flavor; it is a description, not a measurement.
Ecuadorian wrapper: Wrapper leaf grown in Ecuador under heavy natural cloud cover, often from Connecticut or habano seed.
Embargo: U.S. trade restrictions that, from the early 1960s, kept Cuban cigars out of the legal American market.
Entubado: A bunching method that rolls each filler leaf into a tube so air can pass through channels in the cigar.

F

Famous-marks doctrine: The idea that a foreign mark well known in a country can be protected there even if it was never used there.
Fermentation: The controlled heating of cured tobacco in piles (pilones), which removes harsh compounds and develops aroma.
Figurado: A shaped cigar (pointed, closed, or tapered), as opposed to a straight-sided parejo.
Filler: The leaves inside the cigar; their blend determines most of the strength and much of the flavor.
Foot: The open end of the cigar, which you light; it is opposite the capped head.

G

Gavilla: A hand of tobacco: a small bundle of cured leaves tied together at the stem end.
Gordo: A very thick cigar, usually with a ring gauge of 60 or more; 6 × 60 is a common size.
Guillotine: A straight cutter with one or two blades that slices the cap off flat.

H

Habano wrapper: Sun-grown wrapper from Cuban-seed (habano) tobacco, usually reddish-brown and oilier than Connecticut shade.
Habanos S.A.: The company that markets and distributes Cuban cigars, including Cohiba, outside Cuba.
Hand-finished: A cigar whose bunch was made by machine and whose wrapper and cap were applied by hand.
Homogenized tobacco leaf: Reconstituted tobacco formed into a sheet and used as binder or wrapper on many machine-made cigars.
Honduran cigar: A cigar made in Honduras, often around Danlí and Copán, with local and Cuban-seed leaf.
Humidity beads: Silica-gel beads made to settle at a set humidity; recharged with distilled water only.
Humidor: A closed box or cabinet that holds cigars at a stable humidity, often lined in Spanish cedar.
Hygrometer: An instrument that measures relative humidity; in a humidor it shows whether the cigars are being kept at the right level.

I

Inter-American Convention: A 1929 trademark treaty among countries of the Americas, including the United States and Cuba; Article 8 was the basis of the 2022 Cohiba cancellation.

L

La Casa del Habano: The worldwide chain of franchised shops licensed by Habanos S.A. to sell Cuban cigars.
Lancero: A long, very thin parejo, often about 7 × 38, with a high proportion of wrapper to filler.
Leather: A tasting-note term for a tannic, hide-like flavor in the smoke.
Lieberman (bunching device): A hand-powered device with a pad and lever that rolls hand-selected filler and binder leaves into an even bunch.
Ligada: Spanish for a cigar's blend recipe, especially the mix of ligero, seco, and volado leaves in the filler.
Ligero: Filler leaf from the top of the plant that is denser, stronger, and slower to burn than the leaves below it.
Ligero leaf: Tobacco taken from the top primings, which is slow to cure, slow to ferment, and slow to burn.
Long filler: Whole tobacco leaves, or large pieces of them, running the length of the cigar; the usual filler in premium handmade cigars.
Lonsdale: A long, slender parejo, traditionally about 6 to 6½ inches long with a 42–44 ring gauge.

M

Maduro: A dark wrapper, usually the result of longer fermentation rather than a separate seed.
Master blender: The senior person at a cigar company who creates its blends and keeps them tasting the same from crop to crop.
Mild, medium, and full: Informal labels for how strong or heavy a cigar is; makers and shops do not share one scale, so treat them as a rough guide.
Mixed filler: A bunch that combines long-filler leaf with short filler, often with whole leaf around a chopped core.

N

Natural wrapper: A wrapper in its ordinary brown, untreated color, lighter than a maduro and not a candela.
Nicaraguan cigar: A cigar made of Nicaraguan leaf, or made in Nicaragua, especially the puros of Estelí, Condega, and Jalapa.

O

Oscuro: A very dark wrapper, darker than a typical maduro and nearly black in some batches.

P

Panatela: A slender parejo, usually well under a 40 ring gauge; it is defined by thinness, and lengths vary widely.
Parallel brand: A cigar brand name that exists as both a Cuban marca and a separate non-Cuban brand sold mainly in the United States.
Parejo: A straight-sided cigar with an open foot and a capped head; the ordinary cylinder shape.
Perfecto: A figurado that is closed or tapered at both ends, with a bulge in the middle.
Petit corona: A shorter corona, usually about 4½ to 5⅛ inches long with a 40–42 ring gauge.
Petite robusto: A short robusto, usually about 4 to 4½ inches long with a ring gauge of about 50.
PG solution: A mix of propylene glycol and distilled water, usually 50/50, used to charge foam humidifiers so they settle near 70% RH.
Pilón: A pile of cured tobacco hands stacked so the leaf heats up and ferments.
Plug: A blockage inside a cigar that makes the draw too tight to smoke comfortably.
Plume vs mold: Plume (or bloom) is a fine, dry, pale powder of oils; mold is fuzzy, often colored, and a sign of bad storage.
Priming: Harvesting tobacco by leaf level, from the bottom of the plant upward, as each level ripens.
Punch: A small circular blade that cuts a hole in the cap instead of slicing it off.
Puro: A cigar whose wrapper, binder, and filler all come from one country.
Puro vs blend: Single-country cigars compared with cigars that mix tobacco from more than one country.
Pyramid: A figurado that tapers from a wide open foot to a pointed head; it is often sold under the name torpedo.

R

Relative humidity: The amount of water vapor in the air compared with the most the air can hold; the number shown on a humidor hygrometer.
Retrohale: Pushing a little cigar smoke out through the nose so you smell more of its aroma.
Ring gauge: The diameter of a cigar, often called just “gauge,” measured in 64ths of an inch.
Robusto: A short, thick parejo, usually about 4½ to 5½ inches long with a ring gauge of about 50.
Robusto extra: A longer robusto, usually about 5¼ to 6 inches long with a ring gauge of about 50; it overlaps what many shops call a toro.

S

Salt test: A home check of a hygrometer: damp table salt sealed in a bag holds the air at about 75% RH.
San Andrés: Tobacco from the San Andrés Tuxtla valley in Veracruz, Mexico; its dark San Andrés negro leaf is widely used as maduro wrapper.
Seasoning a humidor: Adding moisture to the cedar before the cigars go in, so the wood does not dry the leaf out.
Seco: Filler leaf from the middle of the stalk, used for aroma and to balance the light volado and the heavy ligero.
Seedbed: A protected nursery bed where tobacco seed is sown and grown into seedlings before transplanting to the field.
Shade-grown: Tobacco grown under cloth (a tapado) so the leaf stays thinner, more elastic, and finer-veined — usually for wrapper.
Short filler: Chopped tobacco leaf and trimmings used as filler in most machine-made cigars and some hand-rolled value lines.
Short panatela: A shorter panatela, usually about 4½ to 5 inches long with a slim ring gauge in the 30s.
Smoking time: How long a cigar lasts once lit, determined mostly by size, then by construction, storage, and your pace.
Spanish cedar: Cedrela wood used to line humidors and make many cigar boxes; it is aromatic and holds moisture well.
Strength vs body: Strength is the effect of nicotine; body is the weight of the flavor and smoke. They are related but not the same.
Sumatra wrapper: Wrapper from Sumatra-seed tobacco, first grown on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and now grown mostly in Ecuador.
Sun-grown: Tobacco grown in open fields without shade cloth; usually thicker and oilier than shade-grown leaf.

T

Tapado: The cloth tent or covering used to shade a field of wrapper tobacco; traditionally cheesecloth, often nylon today.
Tooth: The small raised bumps on some wrapper leaves; tiny pockets of tobacco oil, most noticeable on Cameroon wrapper.
Torcedor: A cigar roller; the skilled factory worker who turns sorted leaf into a finished handmade cigar.
Torch lighter: A jet-flame lighter used to toast and light a cigar without covering it in soot from a yellow flame.
Toro: A thick parejo, usually about 6 inches long with a 50–54 ring gauge; longer than a robusto and thicker than a classic corona.
Torpedo: A figurado with a pointed, capped head; the name overlaps with pyramid and belicoso and is used inconsistently.
Trademark: A name or symbol that identifies who makes or sells a product; a registration can be cancelled.
Tres petit corona: A very small corona, about 4 inches long with a 40 ring gauge in the Cuban standard; other companies vary slightly.
Tripa: Spanish for filler; the leaves inside the cigar.
Triple cap: The traditional Cuban way of closing a cigar's head with extra pieces of wrapper, leaving three visible seams.
TTAB: The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board at the USPTO; it decides trademark opposition and cancellation cases.
Tupperdor: An airtight plastic container used as a low-cost humidor, usually with humidity packs or beads.
Two-way humidity pack: A sealed pouch of salt solution that releases or absorbs moisture to hold a humidor at a set humidity.

V

V-cut: A cutter that removes a wedge from the head, leaving a V-shaped notch.
Viso: Leaf from between the seco and ligero levels, with more body than seco and an easier burn than the top leaves.
Vitola: A cigar’s size and shape; the factory name for a particular length, ring gauge, and outline.
Volado: Filler leaf from the lower stalk, used more to help the cigar burn than for flavor.

W

Wrapper: The outer leaf of a cigar; the one you see, and a large part of what you taste.