Perfecto cigar

How do you light a perfecto?

You toast the narrow foot slowly until the small tip is burning evenly, then let the ember widen on its own as the cigar thickens. Patience does the work. A torch blast just chars the tip and leaves the wrapper scorched.

1. Cut the head first. Clip the cap as you would on any cigar. A perfecto head is rounded, so a straight cut or a punch both work.
2. Leave the foot alone. Don't snip a closed tip. The knot of leaf is tiny and burns off in seconds.
3. Hold the flame off the leaf. Tobacconist University puts it at about 1/8 inch for a soft flame and 1/2 inch for a torch. Rotate the cigar the whole time.
4. Puff gently once the tip glows. Short, easy draws pull the fire into the foot. Hard draws on a tiny opening make harsh smoke.
5. Check the ring of fire. Look at the foot. You want an even orange circle all the way to the wrapper. Touch up any dark spot.
6. Give it two minutes. The first inch is a ramp. The ember is still growing, so the smoke is thin. Don't judge the cigar yet.

Went out early? Common on a closed foot. Blow out through the cigar once to clear stale smoke, then toast again. The full routine for any shape is in how to light a cigar.

Shaped like a spindle, closed at the tip

Wikipedia defines the perfecto as "narrow at both ends and bulged in the middle," and Cigar Aficionado describes a tapered foot and a tapered head. Picture a cigar pinched at the foot, wide through the belly, then tapered again to the head. No straight lines anywhere.

That makes it a figurado, the family name for every cigar that isn't a plain cylinder. Its cousins taper at one end only. A torpedo or a belicoso narrows at the head and stays open at the foot. The perfecto pinches both.

Rolling one is harder than rolling a parejo. The roller shapes the bunch by hand to get the swell, and the wrapper has to stretch smoothly over a curve. Some perfectos are almost symmetrical. Others are freeform, with the bulge pushed toward one end.

The flavor shifts as the ring grows

A perfecto changes width as it burns, so the smoke changes too: thin and concentrated at the foot, fuller through the belly, then thinner again near the head. A straight cigar burns the same cross-section from start to finish. This one doesn't.

The first puffs come from very little leaf, mostly wrapper. As the ember reaches the fat middle, the filler takes over and the draw opens up. Note what changes where. The flavor wheel gives you words for it.

Cuban perfecto sizes

Cuban factories list several double-tapered sizes, each with its own factory name, from a small perfecto to the large Salomones. Our smoke times treat them as straight cigars of the same length and widest ring, so read them as an upper end.

• Perfectos: 5 x 44, about 45 minutes on our estimate
• Exquisitos: 5 3/4 x 46, about 54 minutes on our estimate
• Salomones: 7 1/4 x 57, about 80 minutes on our estimate

Outside Cuba, perfecto is a loose label. Brands use it for anything from a stubby 4 inch torpedo-perfecto hybrid to a long double-tapered giant. Check the length and the widest ring on the box.

Perfecto lighting and shape questions

References for the perfecto shape

1. Cigar: figurado shapes, perfecto narrow at both ends, Wikipedia
2. Vitola: Perfectos, Exquisitos and Salomones factory sizes, Wikipedia
3. Cigar Shapes, Sizes and Colors, Cigar Aficionado
4. Cigar lighting FAQ: flame distance and rotating the foot, Tobacconist University