Cigar Term Flashcards: Learn 130 Words

Say it before you flip

Flashcards work when you answer first and check second. Look at the word, say the meaning out loud or in your head, then flip. If you were vague, it goes in the study-again pile. Be strict. A half-right answer is a study-again card.

Reading a list feels like learning. Answering from memory, and getting caught when you can't, is the honest test. That's the whole reason for a deck instead of a list.

Five habits that clear the pile faster

One topic per sitting. Sizes one night, wrapper shades the next. Related words support each other.
Short and often. Ten minutes a day is easier to keep up than one long session. Come back tomorrow and your place is waiting.
Shuffle once you know the order. If you can guess the next card from the last one, the order is doing the work, not you.
Work the pile, then the deck. Switch Show to the study-again pile until it's empty, then run the full topic once more.
Put a word to work. Spot it on a band, a box or a shop's menu. A term you've used is a term you keep.

Seven topics instead of 26 letters

The deck splits the vocabulary into seven study topics: sizes and shapes, wrapper shades, leaf and growing, how a cigar is built, factory and shop, storage and humidity, and lighting and smoking. Letters are fine for looking a word up. Topics are better for learning, because a robusto makes more sense next to a toro than next to a run.

Many of the words are Spanish, from the rolling rooms of Cuba and the Caribbean. Capa, capote, torcedor and vitola all turn up in the deck. To look one word up fast instead, use the A to Z cigar glossary. To test yourself on whole facts, try the cigar knowledge quiz.

Your place in the deck stays on this device

Progress lives in your browser's local storage, which keeps data for this site between visits with no expiry. Sorted cards, filters, shuffle order and the card you were on all come back when you return. No account. Nothing leaves your device. In a private window, the browser clears it when you close the last private tab.

Every card in the deck, grouped by topic (130)

Sizes and shapes: 24 cards

Belicoso: A short figurado with a tapered, pointed head, usually around 5 to 5.5 inches long.
Box-pressed: A cigar squeezed into a squarish cross-section, either by packing it tightly in a box or in a press.
Churchill: A long, fairly thick size, typically about 7 inches by a 47 to 50 ring gauge.
Cigarillo: A small, thin cigar, often machine-made, smaller than a petit corona.
Corona: A classic mid-sized cigar, typically about 5.5 to 6 inches by a 42 to 44 ring.
Corona gorda: A thicker corona, typically about 5.6 to 6 inches by a 46 ring.
Culebra: Three thin cigars braided together and tied, meant to be separated and smoked one at a time.
Double corona: A large size, typically about 7.5 to 8.5 inches by a 49 to 52 ring.
Figurado: Any cigar that is not a straight cylinder, such as a torpedo, belicoso, perfecto or salomon.
Gordo: Any cigar with a very large ring gauge, usually 60 or more.
Lancero: A long, thin size, typically about 7 to 7.5 inches by a 38 to 40 ring. Also called a panetela larga.
Lonsdale: A long corona, typically about 6.5 inches by a 42 to 44 ring.
Panatela: A long, slim size, typically about 5.5 to 7.5 inches by a 34 to 38 ring.
Parejo: A straight-sided cigar with a rounded head and an open foot. Most cigars are parejos.
Perfecto: A figurado tapered at both ends, with a bulge in the middle.
Petit corona: A short corona, typically about 4.5 to 5 inches by a 40 to 42 ring.
Pyramid: A figurado that tapers evenly from a wide foot to a pointed head.
Ring gauge: A cigar's diameter in 64ths of an inch. A 64 ring is one inch across.
Robusto: A short, thick size, typically about 4.75 to 5.5 inches by a 48 to 52 ring.
Salomon: A large perfecto with a pronounced taper and a small knob at the foot.
Toro: A popular size, typically about 6 inches by a 50 to 52 ring.
Torpedo: A figurado with a tapered, pointed head and straight sides along most of the body.
Vitola: A cigar's size and shape: its length, ring gauge and head style taken together.
Vitola de galera: The factory's internal name for a size, which can differ from the name printed on the box.

Wrapper shades: 9 cards

Candela: A green wrapper, dried quickly to lock in chlorophyll. Also called double claro. Grassy and light.
Claro: A pale, light tan wrapper shade, usually shade-grown and mild.
Colorado: A medium reddish-brown wrapper shade.
Colorado claro: A wrapper shade between claro and colorado: light brown with a tawny tint.
Colorado maduro: A wrapper shade between colorado and maduro: dark brown with reddish tones.
Maduro: A dark brown wrapper, made dark by longer or hotter fermentation. Often tastes sweeter and richer.
Natural: A loose term for a lighter wrapper that has not been fermented to maduro darkness.
Oscuro: The darkest wrapper shade, nearly black, from long fermentation or leaf from the top of the plant.
Rosado: A wrapper shade with a reddish, rose-tinted cast.

Leaf and growing: 24 cards

Ammonia: A sharp gas released as tobacco leaf ferments. A freshly rolled cigar that smells of it usually needs more rest.
Cameroon: A thin, toothy wrapper leaf grown in Central Africa, known for a sweet, slightly spicy character.
Casing: Lightly moistening cured leaf so it becomes pliable enough to handle and roll without cracking.
Connecticut broadleaf: A sun-grown, thick, dark leaf from the Connecticut River Valley, widely used for maduro wrappers.
Connecticut shade: A light golden wrapper grown under cloth to keep the leaf thin and smooth, originally in Connecticut and now also in Ecuador.
Corojo: A Cuban tobacco variety traditionally grown for wrapper leaf, named after the farm where it was developed.
Criollo: A Cuban tobacco variety, traditionally used for filler and binder, whose name means native.
Curing: Hanging harvested leaves in barns for weeks so they dry slowly and turn from green to brown.
Fermentation: Piling leaves so moisture and pressure build heat, which drives off ammonia and harshness. Done in stages over months.
Habano: A cigar made in Cuba. Also used for Cuban-seed tobacco varieties grown elsewhere.
Ligero: Leaves from the top of the tobacco plant. They get the most sun and carry the most strength and oil.
Medio tiempo: The rare top two leaves on some tobacco plants, above the ligero, prized for strength.
Pilón: A large pile of tobacco leaves built to ferment under its own heat.
Piloto cubano: A Cuban-seed tobacco variety widely grown in the Dominican Republic, mostly for filler.
Priming: One harvest level of leaves on the plant, picked a few at a time from the bottom up.
San Andrés: A dark, toothy wrapper and binder leaf from the San Andrés valley in Mexico, often used for maduros.
Seco: Leaves from the middle of the plant, used mainly for aroma and flavor.
Shade-grown: Tobacco grown under cloth tents, which keep the leaf thin, smooth and light for wrappers.
Sumatra: A wrapper type from Sumatra seed, grown in Indonesia and Ecuador, often mild with a little spice.
Sun-grown: Tobacco grown in open sun, which makes thicker, oilier and often stronger leaf than shade-grown.
Tapado: The cloth canopy stretched over a field to grow shade tobacco.
Tercio: A bale wrapped in palm bark, used in Cuba to store and age tobacco leaf.
Vein: The ribs running through a tobacco leaf. Wrapper leaves are chosen for fine, flat veins.
Volado: Leaves from the bottom of the plant, used mainly to help the cigar burn. Low in strength.

How a cigar is built: 23 cards

Band: The paper ring near the head that carries the maker's design. It also tells you which end to cut.
Barber pole: A cigar wrapped in two wrapper leaves of different shades spiraled together, giving a striped look.
Binder: The leaf rolled directly around the filler to hold it in shape, under the wrapper. Chosen for strength and stretch more than looks.
Blend: The particular mix of wrapper, binder and filler leaves in a cigar, including their origins and primings.
Bunch: The filler leaves gathered and wrapped in binder, before the wrapper goes on. Also called the bonche.
Cap: The small round piece of wrapper leaf glued over the head to seal it. You cut it before smoking.
Capa: Spanish for wrapper leaf.
Capote: Spanish for binder leaf.
Entubado: A rolling method in which each filler leaf is rolled into a tube before bunching, to keep air channels open.
Filler: The leaves in the center of the cigar that make up most of its smoke, strength and burn.
Foot: The open end of the cigar, the one you light.
Hand-rolled: Made by people, not machines. Premium hand-rolled cigars are usually long filler.
Head: The closed end of the cigar that goes in your mouth, sealed by the cap.
Long filler: Whole tobacco leaves that run the full length of the cigar.
Machine-made: Rolled by machine, usually with short filler and often a homogenized binder.
Mixed filler: A filler of short-cut tobacco inside a sleeve of long leaves. Sometimes called a Cuban sandwich.
Pigtail: A small twist of wrapper leaf finishing the head, used instead of a flat cap on some cigars.
Puro: A cigar whose wrapper, binder and filler all come from one country.
Shaggy foot: A foot left untrimmed, with loose filler showing past the wrapper.
Short filler: Chopped tobacco scraps used as filler, common in machine-made cigars.
Shoulder: The curve where the rounded head meets the straight body. Cuts stay above it.
Triple cap: A head finished with three layers of cap leaf, common on Cuban-style cigars.
Wrapper: The single outer leaf spiraled around the cigar. The most expensive leaf, and a big part of the flavor.

Factory and shop: 12 cards

Box code: A code stamped on some cigar boxes recording the factory and the date the cigars were boxed.
Bundle: Cigars sold tied together, usually in cellophane, without a decorated box. Often cheaper per cigar.
Cabinet selection: Cigars packed in a plain cedar box, often tied in a bundle with ribbon, rather than laid in rows.
Cedar sleeve: A thin sheet of Spanish cedar wrapped around a cigar to protect the wrapper. Slide it off before lighting.
Cellophane: The clear plastic sleeve some cigars come in. It slows drying a little but is not airtight.
Chaveta: The flat, crescent-shaped blade a roller uses to cut and trim leaf.
Escaparate: A tall, glass-fronted humidified cabinet used in shops to store and display cigars.
Galera: The rolling room of a cigar factory, where torcedores work at their benches.
Half wheel: A bundle of 50 cigars, a traditional way of packing them.
Lector: A reader hired to read aloud to rollers in Cuban factories, a long-standing tradition.
Molde: A wooden mold in which bunches are pressed into shape before the wrapper is applied.
Torcedor: A cigar roller. Skilled ones spend years in training.

Storage and humidity: 16 cards

Aging: Resting cigars or leaf at steady humidity for months or years so harsh notes soften and flavors blend. Gains tend to be largest in the first year or two.
Bloom: Another name for plume: fine, harmless-looking crystals that can form on a well-stored cigar's wrapper.
Coolidor: A picnic cooler used as a large humidor, usually with two-way humidity packs inside.
Dry box: A box where some smokers rest cigars at lower humidity for a few days before smoking, believing they burn better.
Humidor: A box, cabinet or room that keeps cigars at a steady humidity, usually lined with Spanish cedar.
Hygrometer: A gauge that reads relative humidity. Analog or digital; both need checking against a known reference.
Hygroscopic: Able to absorb and release water from the air. Tobacco leaf and cedar both are.
Mold: Fuzzy fungal growth, often blue-green or white, caused by too much humidity. Unlike plume, it smears and spreads.
Plume: Fine white crystals that can form on a wrapper during long storage. It brushes off as powder, unlike mold.
Relative humidity: How much water the air holds compared with the most it could hold at that temperature, shown as a percentage.
Salt test: A home hygrometer check using damp salt in a sealed bag, which holds the air near 75% relative humidity.
Seasoning: Bringing a new or dried-out humidor's wood up to humidity before any cigars go in.
Spanish cedar: Cedrela odorata, an aromatic tropical wood used to line humidors and make cigar boxes and sleeves.
Tobacco beetle: Lasioderma serricorne, a tiny beetle whose larvae tunnel through leaf and leave pinholes. Warmth makes it hatch.
Tupperdor: An airtight food container used as a humidor, with a two-way humidity pack inside.
Two-way humidity pack: A sealed pouch of salt solution that adds moisture to dry air and absorbs it from damp air, holding a set humidity.

Lighting and smoking: 22 cards

Aroma: The smell of the smoke in the room and through the nose, as opposed to the taste on the tongue.
Ash: The burnt end of the cigar. Long-filler cigars tend to hold a firm, layered ash; short filler drops it early.
Body: How heavy, dense and thick the smoke feels in your mouth. Separate from strength.
Burn line: The edge where glowing tobacco meets unburnt leaf. A straight, even line points to good construction and storage.
Canoeing: When one side of a cigar burns much faster than the other, leaving a hollow like a canoe. Also called a run.
Cedar spill: A thin strip of Spanish cedar lit from a match or lighter and used as a large, gentle flame for lighting a cigar.
Cold draw: Pulling air through a cut cigar before lighting it, to test the draw and taste the unlit tobacco.
Cutter: Any tool that opens the cap: guillotine, V-cutter, punch or scissors.
Double guillotine: A cutter with two blades that close from both sides, giving a clean straight cut with less pinching.
Draw: How easily air passes through the cigar when you puff. Too tight feels like a blocked straw; too loose burns hot.
Finish: The flavor and feel that linger in your mouth after the smoke is gone.
Guillotine: A cutter that slices straight across the head, with one blade or two.
Nicotine: The addictive chemical in tobacco. The National Cancer Institute notes that it is absorbed through the lining of the mouth even when smoke is not inhaled.
Nub: The last inch or two of a smoked cigar.
Plug: A blockage in the filler that tightens or stops the draw.
Punch: A cutter that bores a small round hole in the cap instead of removing it.
Retrohale: Pushing some smoke out through the nose to pick up aromas the tongue misses.
Run: An uneven burn where one side races ahead. Same as canoeing.
Strength: The nicotine impact of a cigar, felt in the body rather than tasted.
Toasting: Warming the foot with an indirect flame until it chars evenly, before drawing.
Tunneling: When the center of the cigar burns faster than the outside, leaving a hollow tube of wrapper.
V-cut: A cut that notches a wedge into the cap instead of slicing it off.

Studying cigar words with flashcards

What cigar terms should a beginner learn first?

Start with the parts of the cigar: wrapper, binder, filler, cap, head and foot. Then sizes like robusto and toro, and the wrapper shades from claro to oscuro.

Is my flashcard progress saved?

Yes, in this browser on this device. Your sorted cards, filters and current card are kept in local storage, and nothing is sent to Cigar Primer.

How many flashcards should I study at once?

A topic at a time works well, roughly 10 to 25 cards. That is our suggestion, not a rule; small sets make the study-again pile easier to clear.

References for the deck

Cigar: wrapper, binder, filler, shades and vitola, Wikipedia
Cigar smoking and cancer: nicotine absorbed through the mouth, National Cancer Institute
Window: localStorage property, MDN Web Docs

Cigar term flashcards