This is a page that gives the definition to the most used Cigar Terms. Many of us in the Cigar Industry talk with each other and we get accustomed to everyone knowing our lingo, accept we forget about the cigar newbies. Hey it’s no problem to be a newbie, we were all there, but this page will break things down for you and make it easier to read our Cigar Reviews & Ratings along with all the other cigar related infomation posted on Fire Up That Cigar. If you have any questions or see a term we may have missed please email us at adam@fireupthatcigar.com.
A
Aroma: The overall smell of the smoke and/or the cigar
B
Band: The paper ring that goes around the body of the cigar
Bloom (also called Plume): Often seen on aged cigars. Bloom is a chemical reaction when oxygen and the oils from the wrapper start to crystalize and form bloom. DO NOT COFUSE BLOOM WITH MOLD.
Balance: Often used to describe a cigar that has an even amount of flavor and no one flavor is prominent. Not to peppery, not too sweet, etc.
Binder: Used to keep the filler tobacco together. Once the filler tobacco is bound by the binder, it is then covered with the wrapper leaf
Blend: Refers to th combination of the wrapper leaf, binder, and filler leaves the make the cigar taste the way it does
Body: Highly debated but my definition of body is the mouthfeel the cigar gives you. Is it full or heavy feeling on the palate, is mild or light on the palate, or is is medium body, between full or light on the palate. Body does not refer to the nicotine stength of the cigar nor does it explain the flavor strength.
Boxed Press: When the cigar has a “boxy” appearance rather than a smooth cylinder. Cigars that are boxed-pressed are rolled with a little less filler tobacco and then put into a press to for the boxy appearance.
Bundle: Refered to when a quantity of 20 or more cigars come without a box. The cigars are banded together with either cloth or paper. Majority of bundled cigars are of lesser quality of tobacco or are “seconds” of a brand that are sold without boxes to save on costs.
Burn: The way the cigar combusts and often used to describe the ring around the cigar while you smoke it. Is it an even burn or an uneven burn?
BOTL: An abbrevation for Brother Of The Leaf. How fellow cigar smokers refer to each other.
C
Coolidor: A cooler turned into a humidor.
Canoeing: When one side of a cigar burns faster or slower than the other often creating a “canoe” effect, not to be confused with tunneling
Cap: A peice of small cicle shaped peice of tobacco that is placed over the shoulder of the cigar to prevent the wrapper from comming unraveld from the rest of the cigar. The is the part that you want to cut the top of the cap.
Cabinet Selection: When a cedar box is used instead of a paper box.
Candella: A green colored wrapper that is Double Claro in color. A special fermentation process where steem is used to keep the clorifyl inside the tobacco leaf so it appears green in color.
Cedar Spills: Thin strips of cedar that often come from the dividers inside cigar boxes that are split up and used to light cigars. Some cigar smokers prefer this method because they say it gives the cigar a different or better flavor.
Chaveta (pronounced sha-vet-a): Is the rounded knife used by the cigar maker to cut the tobacco while rolling. Sometimes they are old saw blades that are cut down and sharpened.
Cigar: Why are you even on this site if you don’t know what this is. LOL!
Character: The overall impression left by a cigar. Its personality.
Claro: Refers to the color of the wrapper tobacco which is a light tan. Usually this is the color of shade grown tobacco.
Complex: The characteristic of the smoke. Does the cigar offer many flavors that are detectable, does the flavo change thoughout the smoking experince
Construction: Refers to the making of the cigar. If te cigar was constrcuted well the roll of the cigar will look nice and tight and uniform. The draw should be good and the burn should be even.
Cold Draw/ Dry Draw: After the cigar is cut, the cigar smoker may draw air from the cigar into the mouth. It has no affect on how the cigar will taste but some say it an essential “pre-light” ritual that warms of the senses and prepares them for what they are about to taste. Think of a like sniffing a fine wine, spirt, or beer before you are about to take a drink it
Colorado: Refers to the color of the wrapper wich is reddish dark brown, aromatic
Curing: A complex process of ridding tobacco of the moisture inside the leafs. Once the leafs are primied off the plant, the tobacco then goes into a large curing barn that have many of levels of strung together tobacco leafs
D
Draw: The amount of air flow or resitance you feel when you pull smoke through the head of the cigar. The most important aspect of a cigar is if you can draw smoke from it. If you can’t draw smoke from the cigar, then you are dead in the water. Also see Plugged Draw.
Double Claro: (also called Candela or American Market Select) Refers to the color of the wrapper which is green to greenish brown. The color is achieved by picking the leaf before it reaches maturity, and then drying it rapidly
E
F
Fermenation: A complex process where the cured tobacco is ridded of its harshness
Finish: The lingering flavor, body, or sensations that are left on yor pallate
Filler: Long and short and mixed
Flowering/ Flaking:
Foot: The end of the cigar that often shows
G
H
Hot: Often refered to when a the smoke from the cigar is hot ofen negitvly altering the flavor of your cigar.
HERF: A gathering of fellow cigar smokers where many many cigars are enjoyed and usually with some fine wine, spirts or beer.
Head: The top part of the cigar where the the cap is applied. This is also the part you cut and draw smoke through.
Humidor: A box or cabinet that is lined with spainish cedar that holds your cigars.
Hygrometer: Is a device you keep in your humidor that tells you the Realitive humity inside your humidor. The general rule is 70/70 but
I
Inhale: When you draw the smoke into your lungs. DO NOT DO THIS WITH CIGARS!!!
J
K
L
Long-Filler: When the filler tobcco consists of long tobacco leaves as apposed to scrab tobacco that is considered short-filler.
Ligero: The top priming of the tobacco plant. Ligero often are the strongest and thickest leaves because they have spent more time in the sun that the other parts of the tobacco plant.
M
Moochadore: A humidor with some of your least favorite cigars that you reserve for your non-cigar smoking “mooching” friends that usually smoke an inch of the cigar and then pitch it out.
Machine Made: Refers to Cigars that are made by machine instead of by hand.
Maduro: The name of a wrapper that has went through a specific fermentation process to acheive a darker sweeter characterisic of flavor. Also at times used to refer to the dark color of a cigar’s wrapper leaf.
N
Nub: Smoking a cigar down to where it burns your fingers. Some cigar smokers may even use a cigar clip so their fingers do not burn. They continu to smoke the cigar down so far because they are rally enjoying it, hence the smoke the cigar down to a nub. Nub also may refer to a Brand of cigars made by Oliva and owned by Sam Leccia.
Nose: The aroma from smelling a unlit cigar.
O
Oil: A mark of a well humidified cigar. Even well-aged cigars should secrete oil at 70%-72% realative humidity.
Oscuro: Refers to the color of the cigar’s wrapper that is very dark brown or almost black. They are the strongest tasting of all wrappers. These wrappers tend to be from Nicaragua, Brazil, Mexico, or Connecticut Broadleaf.
P
Plume (also called Bloom): Often seen on aged cigars. Bloom is a chemical reaction when oxygen and the oils from the wrapper start to crystalize and form bloom. DO NOT COFUSE BLOOM WITH MOLD.
Palate: Your mouth and nasal passages which help you determine flavor. Your palate has 4 sensations; sweet, salty, savory and bitter.
Pectin: Edible food glue made from fruit that is used to make jellys and jams. Cigar makers use pectin to apply the caps on the heads of the cigar.
Plugged Draw: When you are unable to pull smoke through the cigar.
Primmings: The different parts of the tobacco plant. See Viso, Seco, Volado, Ligero
Puro: Refers to a cigar that is made of all tobacco from one country. Example, a Nicaraguan Puro is made with all Nicaraguan tobacco.
Pilones (pronounced pill-own ehys): A pile of Tobacco
Pre-Embargo: Refers to cuban tobacco that was grow and harvested before the Cuban Embargo was enacted in 1960.
Q
R
Rosado – Refers to the color of the cigar’s wrapper leaf and is reddish in color
Ring Gauge: A measurement in 16th’s of an inch describe the girth or diameter of the barrel of a cigar.
S
Secco: The middle part of the tobacco plant.
Shoulder: The top part of the cigar that the head and cap will rest on.
Seamless: Refers to the roll of the cigar.
Strength: A commonly misused term in the cigar industry to explain the body of the cigar. We here at Fire Up That Cigar use the term strength to describe the nicotine level in cigars.
Stalk Cut: When an entire tobacco plant is cut twoards the bottom of the plant, then cured as a hole plant.
Sun-Grown: Tobacco that is grown in open air in direct sunlight.
Shade- Grown: Tobacco grown in shade. Typically shade-grown tobacco is grown under cheese cloth to protect the tobacco plant from the sun.
Short Filler: Scrap tobacco from other cigars that are used to create”short-filler cigars.”
Spanish Cedar: A type of wood used in humidors and cigar boxes. It is said to be the perfect wood to keep the humidity level more even and promote faster aging as well as infusing the aroma from the wood into the cigars.
Sugar: Sugars occur naturally in tobacco. Darker wrappers, such as maduros, contain more sugar, making them sweeter.
T
Torcedores: Spanish term for cigar rollers
Tubos: A cigar that comes in a plastic, glass or metal tube.
Tupperdore: A piece of Tupperware or plastic container used to store cigars.
Tunneling: When the middle of the cigar burns quicker than the outer tobacco, it forms a tunnel inside the cigar, thus the term the cigar is tunneling.
Triple Cap: Is when there are 3 seams of wrapper leaf at the head of the cigar. Used by traditional cuban cigar rollers and widely adopted in todays market as the gold standard of capping the cigar. Triple caps thought to hold the wrapper leaf to the cigar better to prevent the wrapper from unraveling and shows the quality of rolling.
If there are any cigar terms that we missed, please leave a comment below or shoot us an email and we will be sure to define the cigar term for you.
U
V
V-Cut: A method of cutting the head of the cigar to draw from. A V-Cutter is designed to form a V in the head of the cigar to draw from.
Vega: A farm.
Vintage: Refers to the date of the cigar. The Vintage can be used to state the age of the tobacco or when the cigar was rolled.
Viso: The bottom portion of the tobacco plant that typically is the weakest and thinest leaf of the tobacco plant.
W
Wedge Cut: A method of cutting used on torpedo shaped cigars where the cut is done at an angle and is said to produce a better draw on torpedo’s.
Wrapper: The outer most leaf of the cigar. Some would say the most important because up to 60% of the flavor can be attributed to the wrapper of the cigar. The wrapper leaf is also handled very delicately in the manufacturing process.
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