Words of the trade
Cigar glossary
Every cigar word you are likely to meet, from aging to volado, defined in one to three plain sentences. 130 terms, each with its own link.
Cigar terms: A
- 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. More
- Ammonia
- A sharp gas released as tobacco leaf ferments. A freshly rolled cigar that smells of it usually needs more rest.
- 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.
Cigar terms: B
- Band
- The paper ring near the head that carries the maker's design. It also tells you which end to cut. More
- Barber pole
- A cigar wrapped in two wrapper leaves of different shades spiraled together, giving a striped look.
- Belicoso
- A short figurado with a tapered, pointed head, usually around 5 to 5.5 inches long.
- Binder
- The leaf rolled directly around the filler to hold it in shape, under the wrapper. Chosen for strength and stretch more than looks. More
- Blend
- The particular mix of wrapper, binder and filler leaves in a cigar, including their origins and primings.
- Bloom
- Another name for plume: fine, harmless-looking crystals that can form on a well-stored cigar's wrapper.
- Box code
- A code stamped on some cigar boxes recording the factory and the date the cigars were boxed.
- Box-pressed
- A cigar squeezed into a squarish cross-section, either by packing it tightly in a box or in a press.
- Bunch
- The filler leaves gathered and wrapped in binder, before the wrapper goes on. Also called the bonche.
- Bundle
- Cigars sold tied together, usually in cellophane, without a decorated box. Often cheaper per cigar.
- Burn line
- The edge where glowing tobacco meets unburnt leaf. A straight, even line points to good construction and storage.
Cigar terms: C
- Cabinet selection
- Cigars packed in a plain cedar box, often tied in a bundle with ribbon, rather than laid in rows.
- Cameroon
- A thin, toothy wrapper leaf grown in Central Africa, known for a sweet, slightly spicy character.
- Candela
- A green wrapper, dried quickly to lock in chlorophyll. Also called double claro. Grassy and light. More
- Canoeing
- When one side of a cigar burns much faster than the other, leaving a hollow like a canoe. Also called a run.
- Cap
- The small round piece of wrapper leaf glued over the head to seal it. You cut it before smoking. More
- Capa
- Spanish for wrapper leaf.
- Capote
- Spanish for binder leaf.
- Casing
- Lightly moistening cured leaf so it becomes pliable enough to handle and roll without cracking.
- Cedar sleeve
- A thin sheet of Spanish cedar wrapped around a cigar to protect the wrapper. Slide it off before lighting.
- 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. More
- 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.
- Cigarillo
- A small, thin cigar, often machine-made, smaller than a petit corona.
- Cold draw
- Pulling air through a cut cigar before lighting it, to test the draw and taste the unlit tobacco.
- 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.
- 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.
- Corona gorda
- A thicker corona, typically about 5.6 to 6 inches by a 46 ring.
- Criollo
- A Cuban tobacco variety, traditionally used for filler and binder, whose name means native.
- Culebra
- Three thin cigars braided together and tied, meant to be separated and smoked one at a time.
- Curing
- Hanging harvested leaves in barns for weeks so they dry slowly and turn from green to brown.
Cigar terms: D
- Double corona
- A large size, typically about 7.5 to 8.5 inches by a 49 to 52 ring.
- 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.
- Dry box
- A box where some smokers rest cigars at lower humidity for a few days before smoking, believing they burn better.
Cigar terms: E
- Entubado
- A rolling method in which each filler leaf is rolled into a tube before bunching, to keep air channels open.
- Escaparate
- A tall, glass-fronted humidified cabinet used in shops to store and display cigars.
Cigar terms: F
- Fermentation
- Piling leaves so moisture and pressure build heat, which drives off ammonia and harshness. Done in stages over months.
- Figurado
- Any cigar that is not a straight cylinder, such as a torpedo, belicoso, perfecto or salomon.
- Finish
- The flavor and feel that linger in your mouth after the smoke is gone.
Cigar terms: G
- Galera
- The rolling room of a cigar factory, where torcedores work at their benches.
- Guillotine
- A cutter that slices straight across the head, with one blade or two. More
Cigar terms: H
- Habano
- A cigar made in Cuba. Also used for Cuban-seed tobacco varieties grown elsewhere.
- Half wheel
- A bundle of 50 cigars, a traditional way of packing them.
- Hand-rolled
- Made by people, not machines. Premium hand-rolled cigars are usually long filler.
- Humidor
- A box, cabinet or room that keeps cigars at a steady humidity, usually lined with Spanish cedar. More
- 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.
Cigar terms: L
- Lancero
- A long, thin size, typically about 7 to 7.5 inches by a 38 to 40 ring. Also called a panetela larga.
- Lector
- A reader hired to read aloud to rollers in Cuban factories, a long-standing tradition.
- Ligero
- Leaves from the top of the tobacco plant. They get the most sun and carry the most strength and oil. More
- Long filler
- Whole tobacco leaves that run the full length of the cigar. More
- Lonsdale
- A long corona, typically about 6.5 inches by a 42 to 44 ring.
Cigar terms: M
- Machine-made
- Rolled by machine, usually with short filler and often a homogenized binder.
- Maduro
- A dark brown wrapper, made dark by longer or hotter fermentation. Often tastes sweeter and richer. More
- Medio tiempo
- The rare top two leaves on some tobacco plants, above the ligero, prized for strength.
- Mixed filler
- A filler of short-cut tobacco inside a sleeve of long leaves. Sometimes called a Cuban sandwich.
- Mold
- Fuzzy fungal growth, often blue-green or white, caused by too much humidity. Unlike plume, it smears and spreads. More
- Molde
- A wooden mold in which bunches are pressed into shape before the wrapper is applied.
Cigar terms: N
Cigar terms: O
Cigar terms: P
- 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.
- Pigtail
- A small twist of wrapper leaf finishing the head, used instead of a flat cap on some cigars.
- 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.
- Plug
- A blockage in the filler that tightens or stops the draw.
- Plume
- Fine white crystals that can form on a wrapper during long storage. It brushes off as powder, unlike mold. More
- Priming
- One harvest level of leaves on the plant, picked a few at a time from the bottom up.
- Puro
- A cigar whose wrapper, binder and filler all come from one country.
- Pyramid
- A figurado that tapers evenly from a wide foot to a pointed head.
Cigar terms: R
- Relative humidity
- How much water the air holds compared with the most it could hold at that temperature, shown as a percentage. More
- Retrohale
- Pushing some smoke out through the nose to pick up aromas the tongue misses.
- Ring gauge
- A cigar's diameter in 64ths of an inch. A 64 ring is one inch across. More
- Rosado
- A wrapper shade with a reddish, rose-tinted cast.
Cigar terms: S
- Salomon
- A large perfecto with a pronounced taper and a small knob at the foot.
- Salt test
- A home hygrometer check using damp salt in a sealed bag, which holds the air near 75% relative humidity.
- 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.
- 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. More
- Spanish cedar
- Cedrela odorata, an aromatic tropical wood used to line humidors and make cigar boxes and sleeves.
- 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.
Cigar terms: T
- 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.
- Tobacco beetle
- Lasioderma serricorne, a tiny beetle whose larvae tunnel through leaf and leave pinholes. Warmth makes it hatch. More
- Torcedor
- A cigar roller. Skilled ones spend years in training.
- Torpedo
- A figurado with a tapered, pointed head and straight sides along most of the body.
- Triple cap
- A head finished with three layers of cap leaf, common on Cuban-style cigars.
- Tunneling
- When the center of the cigar burns faster than the outside, leaving a hollow tube of wrapper.
- 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. More
Cigar terms: V
- Vein
- The ribs running through a tobacco leaf. Wrapper leaves are chosen for fine, flat veins.
- Vitola de galera
- The factory's internal name for a size, which can differ from the name printed on the box.
- Volado
- Leaves from the bottom of the plant, used mainly to help the cigar burn. Low in strength.
Cigar terms: W
No term matches that. Try a shorter word.
The rolling room speaks Spanish
Much of cigar vocabulary is Spanish because the craft took shape in Cuba and was carried to the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and Florida by the people who did the work. Wrapper is capa. Binder is capote. The roller is a torcedor, and the blade is a chaveta.
The leaf names follow the plant from bottom to top: volado, seco, ligero, and on some plants medio tiempo. Learn those four and most blend descriptions start to make sense.
Questions about cigar vocabulary
Why are so many cigar words Spanish?
Cigar making grew up in Cuba and the Spanish Caribbean, so the trade kept the rolling room words: capa, capote, torcedor, chaveta and the priming names.
What is the difference between a vitola and a ring gauge?
A ring gauge is just the diameter, in 64ths of an inch. A vitola is the whole size and shape, length and ring and head style together.
Are cigar size names standardized?
No. Names like robusto and toro describe a typical range, and makers stretch them freely. Check the actual length and ring gauge.
References behind these definitions
- Cigar: construction, sizes and tobacco, Wikipedia
- Cigar cutter types, Wikipedia
- Cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (EENY-227), University of Florida IFAS Extension
- Cigar smoking and cancer, National Cancer Institute