What Gives a Cigar Its Flavor

Seed

All cigar tobacco is one species, Nicotiana tabacum, but growers work with many varieties, each with its own leaf size, texture and character. Some of the best known:

• Cuban-seed varieties such as Criollo and Corojo, now grown widely in Nicaragua, Honduras and elsewhere.
• Connecticut Shade, a wrapper leaf grown under cloth in the Connecticut River Valley and in Ecuador.
• Connecticut Broadleaf, a thick, sun-grown leaf prized for dark maduro wrappers.
• Habano, a family of Cuban-seed wrapper leaf.
• Sumatra and Cameroon, wrapper varieties named for where they came from. Sumatra-seed is now grown widely in Ecuador.
• San Andrés, from Mexico’s San Andrés Valley, often used for maduro wrappers.

Soil and region

The same seed tastes different in different ground: what wine makers call terroir. Countries and valleys have broad reputations, though individual tobaccos often defy them:

• Nicaragua. Volcanic soils in Estelí, Condega, Jalapa and on the island of Ometepe. Its tobacco is often described as rich and peppery.
• Dominican Republic. The Cibao Valley, a center of cigar making, whose tobacco is often associated with balance and finesse in a blend.
• Honduras. The Jamastrán Valley and the area around Danlí, known for earthy, robust leaf.
• Ecuador. Steady cloud cover acts as natural shade, which has made it a leading source of wrapper leaf.
• Cuba. The Vuelta Abajo region of Pinar del Río is the most famous growing area.
• United States. The Connecticut River Valley grows both shade and broadleaf wrapper.

Luis Cuao cigars are handcrafted in Nicaragua, drawing on the tobacco traditions of Estelí, Condega, Jalapa.

Where on the plant

Tobacco leaves are not picked all at once. They are harvested in stages, called primings, from the bottom of the plant to the top, as each level ripens. The higher the leaf, the more sun it gets and the thicker and stronger it becomes.

A few plants produce rare leaves above the ligero, called medio tiempo, which are prized for their richness. The blender combines leaves from these tiers to set a cigar’s strength, flavor and burn. For how they sit inside the cigar, see Anatomy of a cigar.

Curing

Freshly picked leaves are strung up and hung in curing barns for roughly one to two months. Growers open and close the barns to manage heat and humidity as the leaves slowly dry, turning from green to yellow to brown as chlorophyll breaks down and the leaf’s color and character develop.

Candela wrapper is the exception: it is heat-cured quickly to lock in its green color.

Fermentation and aging

Cured leaves are moistened and stacked into large piles. Moisture and pressure make the pile heat up as it ferments. Workers watch the temperature and break down and rebuild the pile, moving outer leaves to the middle, so every leaf ferments evenly. Fermentation drives off ammonia and evens out color and character. Thick ligero and dark maduro wrapper leaves need longer, hotter fermentation, sometimes over several cycles.

After fermentation the leaf is baled and aged, often for a year or more. Once rolled, cigars rest again in an aging room so the leaves in the blend settle together. Aging continues in a well-kept humidor; see How to store cigars.

Wrapper shades

Wrapper color comes from the variety, the sun it got, and how long and how hot it was fermented. The traditional names, from palest to darkest:

• CandelaGreen. Heat-cured quickly to hold its chlorophyll; often described as grassy.
• ClaroPale tan, often shade-grown. Notes often described as creamy, nutty or toasty.
• Colorado ClaroGolden to mid tan.
• ColoradoReddish brown. Often aromatic and rich.
• Colorado MaduroMedium-dark brown, between colorado and maduro.
• MaduroDark brown, from longer fermentation. Notes often described as sweet, earthy, coffee or cocoa.
• OscuroNearly black: the longest fermentation and the darkest leaf.

Darker wrappers often taste sweeter, because of their longer fermentation. But a darker cigar is not by nature a stronger one: strength comes mostly from the filler.

The blend

A blender combines filler, binder and wrapper, often from several countries, into a recipe that balances flavor, aroma, strength and burn. A cigar made entirely from one country’s tobacco is called a puro.

Two words get mixed up. Strength describes how much punch a cigar carries. Body describes how full and rich its flavor feels. A cigar can be full-bodied without being especially strong.

Size changes the balance too: a thin cigar leans on its wrapper, a thick one on its filler. See Cigar sizes and shapes.

How you smoke it

The same cigar can taste different from one evening to the next.

• Pace. Drawing too often overheats the burn and brings out bitter, acrid notes. A draw about once a minute is a common rhythm.
• Relighting. A cigar that has gone out can be relit; gently blowing out through it first clears stale smoke. One left cold for hours tends to taste flat.
• Storage. A cigar that is too dry burns fast and hot; one that is too wet draws poorly.
• Your palate. Food, drink and what you tasted last all change what you notice.

Questions

Does a darker cigar mean a stronger cigar?

No. Dark wrappers often taste sweeter and richer, but strength comes mostly from the filler blend.

What is ligero tobacco?

Leaf from the top of the tobacco plant. It is the thickest and strongest leaf and burns slowly, so it usually sits at the center of the filler.

What does maduro mean?

A dark brown wrapper that has been fermented longer. Maduros are often described as sweet and earthy, with coffee or cocoa notes.

Why does the same cigar taste different on different days?

Pace, humidity, how the cigar was stored and what you have eaten or drunk all change what you taste.

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