Wrapper
A cigar's outermost layer, or wrapper (Spanish: capa), is generally the most expensive component of a cigar. The wrapper determines much of the cigar's character and flavor, and as such its color is often used to describe the cigar as a whole. Wrappers are frequently grown underneath huge canopies made of gauze so as to diffuse direct sunlight and are fermented separately from other rougher cigar components, with a view to the production of a thinly-veined, smooth, supple leaf.
Wrapper tobacco produced without the gauze canopies under which "shade grown" leaf is grown, generally more coarse in texture and stronger in flavor, is commonly known as "sun grown." A number of different countries are used for the production of wrapper tobacco, including Cuba, Ecuador, Indonesia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, Cameroon, and the United States.
While dozens of minor wrapper shades have been touted by manufacturers, the seven most common classifications are as follows, ranging from lightest to darkest:
- Double Claro (Candela): very light, slightly greenish. Achieved by picking leaves before maturity and drying quickly, the color coming from retained green chlorophyll.
- Claro (Connecticut): very light tan or yellowish brown.
- Colorado Claro: medium brown
- Colorado: reddish-brown
- Colorado Maduro: dark brown
- Maduro: very dark brown
- Oscuro: blackish brown
In general, dark wrappers add a touch of sweetness, while light ones add a hint of dryness to the taste.
Binder
The binder is the tobacco leaf (or leaves) that hold together the filler tobacco. The combination of a binder (known as a banda in Spanish) and filler tobacco is known as the the bunch. Many binders were grown with the intent of being wrappers, but defects in the leaf caused them to be graded as binders, which are considerably less expensive than wrappers. Though the binder is generally the lowest grade tobacco within a cigar, many of today's top blenders have been using wrapper-quality leaves to add more levels of flavor, strength and complexity to their blends. To achieve this, a unique leaf is used that varies from the rest of the blend.
Filler
The bulk of a cigar is "filler" — a bound bunch of tobacco leaves. These leaves are folded by hand to allow air passageways down the length of the cigar, through which smoke is drawn after the cigar is lit. A cigar rolled with insufficient air passage is referred to by a smoker as "too tight"; one with excessive airflow creating an excessively fast, hot burn is regarded as "too loose." Considerable skill and dexterity on the part of the cigar roller is needed to avoid these opposing pitfalls — a primary factor in the superiority of hand-rolled cigars over their machine-made counterparts.
By blending various varieties of filler tobacco, cigar makers create distinctive strength, odor, and flavor profiles for their various branded products. In general, fatter cigars hold more filler leaves, allowing a greater potential for the creation of complex flavors. In addition to the variety of tobacco employed, the country of origin can be one important determinant of taste, with different growing environments producing distinctive flavors.
Long Filler
Most premium cigars are composed of long-filler tobacco, bound by the binder and subsequently wrapper with the wrapper leaf. Long-filler tobacco are whole tobacco leaves that run the entire length of the cigar. They vary in length and may also dictate cigar length accordingly. Long-filler cigars are of a higher quality than short-filler cigars; they burn for a longer period of time and tend to smoke much cooler and smoother.
Short Filler
Contrary to using whole leaves, short-filler cigars are made from is chopped tobacco - trimmings, choppings, and other tobacco plant and leaf parts - which is then rolled into cigars. Machine-made cigars are primarily made from short-filler tobacco and generally burn faster and somewhat hotter than a premium, long-filler cigar. The faster burn and hotter smoke is a result of more air present between the pieces of tobacco, which may also produce harsh, burnt tobacco flavor, unlike the complex flavors that long-filler cigars produce. Naturally, machine-made, short-filler cigars cost less to manufacture compared with hand-made, long-filler cigars, and there lies the difference in quality.
Mixed (Medium) FillerCigars made from mixed-filler tobacco are made of short-filler tobacco rolled inside of long-filler leaves, then wrapped with the binder and wrapper. These cigars are common referred to as a "sandwich" or a "Cuban sandwich", but are still a step down in terms of quality compared with long-filler cigars.
