A cigar is much like a good woman. If you take the time to prepare her properly, pack her gently, light her off evenly and enjoy her in a leisurely manner, she will bring you many moments of pleasure. However, if you pack her before she’s willing, light her off before she’s ready, and rush her through the experience, she will get mean, nasty and develop a serious bite. In addition, if you put her down or ignore her for any length of time, she’ll go out on you! Stop in to see our selection of Fine Cigars.
Cigar Terms Glossary
Cigar Terms Glossary
- Amatista – Glass jar containing 50 (or 25) cigars, sealed and sold “factory fresh”
- Band – Ring of paper wrapped around the closed head of most cigars
- Binder – Portion of a tobacco leaf that holds the filler leaves, the bunch, together
- Blend – The mixture of different types of tobacco in a cigar, including up to five types of filler leaves, a binder leaf and an outer wrapper
- Bloom – Harmless white film caused by tobacco oils rising to the surface of the cigar wrapper. Often indicates a strong taste. (Also called Plume)
- Bouquet – Used to describe the smell of a fine cigar and, of course, fine wines
- Bunch – Filler tobacco used to create the body of a cigar
- Cap – Circular piece of wrapper leaf used to secure the wrapper at the cigar head
- Cigarillos – Thin, three-inch cigars, popular in Europe, generally machine-made
- Draw – Amount of air that gets pulled through a lit cigar. Easy/hot or tight/plugged
- Flag – Instead of a cap, flags are an extension of the wrapper leaf used to finish the head of a cigar. Sometimes tied off in a pigtail or a curly head
- Foot – The end of the cigar that you light. Often pre-cut
- Head – The closed end of the cigar that you put into your mouth
- Hot – A cigar draw that is too easy, often because it has been under-filled
- Hygrometer – Device used to measure humidity or percentage of moisture in the air
- Long Filler – Whole tobacco leaves used to fill a cigar; these leaves are long and can run the length of the cigar’s bunch. Long filler should burn evenly and consistently
- Piercer (or lance) – Used to cut/pierce a small hole in the end of a cigar
- Plug – A blockage that prevents a cigar from drawing properly. (Gently massaging the cigar may relieve a plugged draw.)
- Ring Gauge - Diameter of a cigar’s barrel, expressed in 64ths of an inch. A half-inch cigar would be a 32 ring (32/64)
- Short Filler – Cigar bunch comprised of scraps of tobacco (parts of leaves and twigs)
- Shoulder – Where the cap of the cigar meets the barrel. Cigar will unravel if cut
- Tunneling –Uneven burning of a cigar which occurs when a wrapper does not ash
- Wrapper – High-quality tobacco leaf wound around the finished bunch and binder
