Cigars

Cigars have become a symbol of luxury and connoisseurship today, but their beginnings are surprisingly humble. It is believed that Christopher Columbus introduced tobacco to Europe, after they first encountered it on the island of Hispaniola where the Taino Indians smoked bundles of the dried leaves. They called these “Cohibas” – the word which lent its name to the famous Cuban cigar marque.

The modern cigar is made in typically three parts: The filler, the binder and the wrapper. The filler is where the flavour and bulk of the cigar is to be found, and is made up of a “tripa” – a blend of three leaves including the Volado, Seco and Ligero leaves, each coming from a different part of the tobacco plants. These are secured with more elastic binder leaves, and these in turn are held with the wrapper. The wrapper is a key part of the cigar in terms of flavour, and is made using the best-looking cigar leaves, free from blemishes and excessive veins.

Modern cigars are classified by size and shape, and the standard formats are measured by length in inches, and ring gauge (the diameter measured in 64ths of an inch). They range from very small cigars such as Petit Coronas and Panatelas, through medium-sized Coronas and Robustos, up to large Churchills to Gran Coronas, which are enormous cigars measuring 9 ¼ inches x 47 ring gauge.

Thanks to its incredible climatic conditions and terroir, Cuba is home to many of the world’s most prestigious marques, though many other countries throughout the world produce exceptional cigars, often from tobacco planted from Cuban seed. This includes countries such as the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, Nicaragua and America among others.