Cigar anatomy
Like wine, the construction of a cigar is a meticulous and time-consuming process. Similarly, the fruit of the labour is the result of a harmonious blending of different types of tobacco and flawless assembly that exploits their unique characteristics.
Cigar can be divided into several functional parts, both in its length and depth.
Vertically, it consists of a head and cap, body and foot.
Head and Cap
The cigar’s head is the capped area that you put in your mouth, and it is made from the same tobacco as the wrapper.
The cap is a loose piece of tobacco glued to the top of a cigar. It prevents the wrapper from unravelling.
To smoke a cigar, you must cut the cap – the very tip of the head – so that you can draw through it.
Body
This is the main part of a cigar – between the head and the foot.
Foot
This is the end of the cigar that you light.
A genuine handmade cigar is made of at least three different tobacco varieties – the filler, binder, and wrapping.
Filler
The filler of the cigar is the tobacco you smoke and accounts for the majority of a cigar’s tobacco.
The cigar also consists of two types of filler – long and short.
The length of a cigar’s filler is often indicative of its quality.
A long filler is filled with long tobacco leaves. Cigars with a long filler are usually handmade, and all premium handmade cigars have a long filler.
A short filler is filled with cut-up pieces of tobacco in a machine-made cigar. The small pieces of tobacco are sometimes treated with chemicals to adjust the flavour.
Binder
This holds the filler and the wrapper together, as the fragile and delicate wrapper alone is not sturdy enough to carry the contents of the cigar. Thanks to hand-rolling techniques, this special part of the cigar remains in place and usually, no glue is being used.
Wrapper
This is the exterior component of the cigar you see and is responsible for making the cigar look appealing to sight and touch.
Earlier articles:
Cohiba: Fidel Castro’s all-time favourite cigar