A figurado is any cigar that is not a straight-sided parejo. The head, the foot, or both are shaped. A perfecto is the type of figurado that is shaped at both ends: closed or tapered at each end and widest in the middle. You cut only the head; the closed foot is lit as it is. The head is capped in a point or a small rounded tip.
Terms: perfecto, figurado. Pointed cigars with an open foot are covered in torpedo and belicoso. Measurements: cheat-sheet.
Perfecto versus torpedo
- Perfecto — both ends shaped, with a bulge in the middle. Look at the shape and check whether the foot is closed.
- Torpedo / belicoso — a pointed head and usually an open foot. Look for the taper at the head.
- Parejo — a round cap, an open foot, and straight sides. Go by the length and ring gauge printed on the box or band.
Factory names are not always consistent. A band that says “Perfecto” on a cigar with only a pointed head and an open foot is using a shop name rather than the factory meaning. Go by the shape you can see.
Because a perfecto’s foot starts narrow, the first few minutes can taste different from the middle of the cigar. This is due to the shape, with the leaf more concentrated at the lighting end, not to a different tobacco. As the burn moves into the wider middle, more smoke passes through. So really a perfecto smoke is an evolution as you smoke it, and makes for an interesting, hopefully pleasurable session.
Why figurados became rare and then made a comeback
Cuban factories treated many shaped sizes as standard molds. Outside Cuba, after the revolution and the embargo, fewer rollers had the skill to make them and fewer U.S. shops stocked them. Arturo Fuente’s Hemingway line, launched in 1981, is a prominent example of bringing figurados, including perfecto-style shapes, back to American smokers. Company history: Arturo Fuente. Other New World companies followed with their own pointed and double-ended cigars, because rollers who can make them do so as a matter of pride.
Figurados are harder to bunch and harder to wrap. A figurado shape does not prove that the blend is better. It is a construction choice that takes extra time and skill at the rolling table.
Cut, press, and storage
Do not cut a closed foot. Cut the head, then light the small tip of the foot gently; the first puffs draw tighter and open up as the burn reaches the wider part of the cigar. A pointed head needs a smaller cut than a robusto’s round cap. See cutter, V-cut, and punch.
A box-pressed figurado is still a figurado. Pressing changes the cross-section, not the tapered shape.
Store your figurados like any other premium cigar: at a stable humidity and away from heat sources such as radiators. Their shape does not protect them from drying out. See the humidor guide, humidors, and empty boxes.
On this site
Straight-sided sizes: robusto, corona, Churchill, lancero. Brands: hub. Reviews: Reviews. Bands: museum. Cutters: cutters. Smoke Rings does not sell tobacco; for the cigars themselves, our sponsor AbsoluteCigars.com is your best source.
Sources: Figurado vs parejo construction; perfecto as double-ended figurado; Fuente Hemingway figurado revival (1981) as documented manufacturer history.