One of Perdomo’s cigar rollers shows us how it’s done.

I’ve borrowed this from the Friends of Habanos site (thanks Rob!). It’s something I’m going to keep beside me during future smoking sessions, to help develop my palate and make me sound more intelligent. I just hope I don’t come across many “horse manure” cigars!

Cigar Flavour Wheel

One of the most confusing things about cigars when you get started is the huge range of different sizes, strengths and flavours they come in. Even when you stick with one brand, like Perdomo, it’s easy to get lost trying to work out what’s what. How is a Grand Cru Toro Connecticut different from a Grand Cru Churchill Natural or a Lot 23 Bellicoso Maduro?

Here’s a quick guide to knowing what all of these terms mean.

1. The Blend. When cigar manufacturers create a cigar, it involves a unique combination of leaves from their crops to give each cigar a certain flavour, body and strength – a very similar process to creating wine or whisky. It’s a complex and wonderful process, more of an art than a science.

Each blend is made up of two basic parts:

The Filler – tobacco rolled inside the cigar comprising the bulk of the smoke.
The Binder – the tobacco leaf used to hold the whole affair together in a nice, neat cylinder.

For example, some of the Perdomo blends are the Lot 23, Habano, Perdomo² Limited Edition, Reserve 10th Anniversary, Patriarch, etc. How mild or full-bodied a cigar is, is predominately determined by the leaves used in the filler and the binder.

2, The Wrapper. Now each cigar also has a final piece which is called The Wrapper – the smooth, attractive tobacco leaf used to “dress up” the cigar for presentation. The wrapper can also add a lot of flavour to a cigar.

Cigar blends often come in different wrappers. In the Perdomo range, you’ll normally find our cigars come in Natural, Connecticut, Corojo, Criollo and Maduro wrappers.

Natural: Light brown, fully matured leaf which has been allowed to dry naturally and slowly in large barns. Grown under cheesecloth to protect the colour and appearance, as exposure to sunlight darkens the leaf. Smooth, creamy flavours.

Connecticut: A lighter colour, typically grown under shade, which delivers a characteristically smooth, creamy taste. Not overpowering in flavour.

Corojo: This rare, reddish, oily wrapper is traditional variety grown in Cuba. Slightly richer and oilier than a Natural.

Criollo: A smooth, oily, Nicaraguan leaf, grown under shade, delivering soft spice, with a light, creamy, cedar undertone.

Maduro: Dark brown and quite different from Natural or Corojo. Creating a Maduro leaf is a more extensive process that creates a sweet, pronounced taste and imparts a more intense flavour to a cigar.

My general advice to people getting into cigars for the first time is to start with a mild cigar and work your way up to the heavier, fuller-flavoured cigars. That’s what I did.

3. Size. The last part of choosing a cigar is determining the right size. When it comes to cigars, size means LENGTH and WIDTH. And, as we all know, SIZE DOES MATTER.

To make it a little easier, cigars tend to come in a standard range of sizes. Length and width (or “ring gauge”, as it’s properly known) are packaged into standard sizes. Length is usually measured in inches and ring gauge is measured in 64ths of an inch, so, for example, a 64-ring cigar would be an inch in diameter. The length and ring of a cigar will determine how long it takes to smoke. Longer, fatter cigars take longer to smoke than shorter, skinnier cigars. The size of cigar you choose will often depend on how much time you have to smoke and what feels most comfortable in your mouth. Ring gauge also determines how much surface area of the cigar is exposed to the air while burning – a fatter cigar smokes cooler and slower because more of the filler is exposed to air.

Let’s take the Perdomo Habano as an example. It comes in the following sizes:

Petit Corona: 4 3/4 inches long and a 44 ring gauge.
Robusto: 5 inches x 52 ring.
Toro: 5 1/2 inches x 54 ring.
Torpedo: 6 1/2 inches x 54 ring (Torpedos also have a pointed “head”)
Gordo: 6 x 60
Presidente: 7 x 56
Gran Torpedo: 7 x 60

You’ll these same sizes crop up across the Perdomo range. As I said earlier before, the longer and higher ring gauge a cigar has, the longer it will take to smoke. So a good place to start with with a shorter cigar and get a feel for what size ring gauge feels best in your mouth.

For more on how to choose a cigar, we recommend the following book:

Most cigars are tropical creatures – grown, cured, aged and manufactured in tropical climates (Nicaragua, Cuba, the Domincan Republic, Honduras, etc). So they “grow up” being used to a certain temperature and level of humidity. Once they get shipped to your country and home, it’s important that they are stored carefully in a certain environment.

If they get too dry, moisture and the oils that pack a lot of flavour begin to evaporate from the cigar. It will get dry, brittle and hard. If you smoke it in this condition, the wrapper will probably unravel and the dry tobacco will burn hot and fast and have little flavour. Any house that has heating is likely to quickly dry out a cigar. Even if you live in a humid climate (like Queensland), our homes tend to have airconditioning running which reduces the humidity.

If cigars get too moist, mold starts to develop on the tobacco. You can wipe it off in the early stages, but if it’s left unattended, it’ll take over the cigars, and moldy cigars taste like musty basements smells. The cigar will also swell and split wide open from the excess moisture.

If cigars get too hot, the moisture will evaporate, drying out the cigars (so don’t leave them in your car). Most cigars also contain microscopic insect eggs which will hatch if they get too warm and the resulting bugs will eat your cigars. Fortunately, Perdomo puts all of our cigars through a special freezing process that exterminates all of these eggs, so that isn’t a problem our customers need to worry about. However, you still want to keep your cigars cool.

Don’t let them get TOO cold, though, because that can also rob them of their moisture.

So the rule is to try to keep your cigars cool (around 21º C) and humidified at just the right level (about 70% humidity).

And that’s where a humidor comes in handy.

Humidors come is all sorts of shapes and sizes – beautiful wooden boxes, zip-sealed bags, plastic boxes, and even closets.

There are lots of humidors available online on places like Ebay, but as a general rule, I recommend investing in a good quality humidor to store your cigars. After all, if you’re going to spend $400 or $500 on a box of cigars, you don’t want to store them in a cheap, low-quality humidor that could allow them to be ruined. A good humidor will be made with thoroughly kiln-dried or air-cured cedar. If insufficiently cured, the cedar will ooze resin and become spotty and ugly. It’s possible to use other woods as liners, but cedar is by far the best. It’s very porous and helps control the humidity inside the box by absorbing excess moisture but also giving it back to the air if the humidity inside the box starts to drop. It also adds a very slight but pleasant cedar aroma to the cigars as they sit in the box.

Also pay attention to the thickness of the walls of the humidor. If the humidity inside the box is 70% but the humidity outside is 10%, the moisture variation is likely to warp or crack the lining unless it’s made with something like thick cedar.

Another test of a good humidor is to raise the lid about three inches and let it drop. If the box is crafted well enough to create a tight seal, a “whoosh” of air will escape and precent the lid from slamming loudly.

Most premium tabletop humidors come equipped with a humidifying element and a hygrometer, which is a gauge that measures the relative humidity in the air. It’s usually a small, simple gauge – digital ones are usually better than dials, because you can fit more technology into the digital kinds, making them more accurate. It’s important though to make sure you check your cigars regularly using the “pinch test” – lightly pinch the cigar between your thumb and index finger, it should feel firm but not hard – don’t trust your hygrometer totally.

There’s a lot more we could say about humidors, but for now let’s finish by re-stating the important points:

1. It’s VERY important to store your cigars carefully.
2. Keep the temperature around 21º C and the humidity around 70%
3. If you’re going to be investing regularly in premium cigars, consider investing in a premium humidor.

For more information on how to use a humidor, we recommend getting the following book:

If you’re new to cigars – and we all were once upon a time – then you might be wondering you to properly light a cigar. Here’s a great introduction video.