Beginner’s Guide to Cigars - Part I: Cigar Anatomy

Here is a short list of some powerful people you are probably all aware of:

Winston Churchill
John F. Kennedy
J. P. Morgan
Che Guevara
Al Capone

What vice do they all have in common? Cigars. 

While the average person may not be able to distinguish the difference between a cheap Philly and a US$470 Cohiba Behike, they are like night and day to the cigar aficionado. The appreciation for a good cigar takes time (and a bit of money), but once you get to that point where your taste buds are able to distinguish the, ahem, distinguished, a whole new world is opened up to you. And even if you don’t really have a big interest in cigars, it’s always good to know the basics so that you can at least light one up with your cigar-loving boss after a successfully negotiating a multi-million dollar contract. So without further ado, here is Part I of Beginner’s Guide to Cigars.

Cigar Anatomy 

Cigars come in two major forms: parejos and figurados. Parejos are the most common with a traditional tube shape. Figuarados are not as common (but they’re making a comeback) and have an irregular shape that looks as if it were hand rolled. Here’s a visual to help you out.

Next up are the different parts of a cigar. All cigars share the same basic shape and parts, and they are easily distinguished. The end where the smoke is drawn from is called the cap. The cap is used to seal the cigar and must be cut before smoking. The main body of the cigar is called the barrel. The barrel consists of the filler, which makes up the inside of the barrel, and the wrapper, which is used to hold all the filler together. The lit end is called the foot, and the smoked end is called the head. Here’s another picture for you:

Some of you may have known already that cigars come in a myriad of colors. And if you assumed that the different colors have different tastes, then you would be correct. And if you assumed that the wrapper is merely used to hold the filler together, then you would be incorrect. In fact, up to 60% of the flavor of a cigar comes from the wrapper itself. Therefore, you can make a reasonably good guess as to the taste of a cigar merely by the color of the wrapper even if you’ve never heard of a particular brand before. Here’s a chart showing the seven most common wrapper shades.

I won’t describe the approximate taste of the different wrapper shades. This last part is up to you to figure out on your own by buying some cheaper cigars to test for yourself. And through this process, hopefully you’ll be able to figure out which taste suits you best. And just as a tip, there are no “more sophisticated” or “common” wrappers. Just like there are different kinds of spirits from vodka to whiskey all with various top shelves to bottom shelves, the quality of the taste is determined by the leaves and curing process rather than the actual type of wrapper leaves.

This is the end of Part I of the Beginner’s Guide to Cigars. I hope you learned something from this. Check back soon for Part II, where I go through cigar etiquette and lighting techniques.