Choosing Your Cuban Cigars
Choosing Your Cuban Cigars
The are many Cuban cigar’s characteristics such as size, shape and color that affect its taste. It is particularly difficult for a beginning cigar smoker to understand them all, and make the appropriate selection. Here are Legitimate Cuban’s Cigars advise on how to find the type of Cuban’s cigar that best suit you.
Size
Select a size that is comfortable to you. Cigars are measured in inches using a combination of length and diameter communally referred to as ring gage. The length is always measured in inches, and the ring gage is always measured in 64th of an inch. For example, when a cigar is listed in a catalogue as 6-3/4x42, it actually means a 6 and 3/4 inches long and 42/64ths (about 2/3) of an inch in diameter.
The length and ring combinations of cigar sizes defined their names. The 6-3/4x42 exemple used above is called a Lonsdale. If the size were 7x47 it would usually be called a Churchill. Note that the naming convention of specific sizes is applicable only to "traditionally" cigars - those with cylindrical shape and a round "head".
Cuban Cigar Size Table
Here is a table below that gives you some of the most common sizes and shape name.
SHORT (under 5 1/2")
MEDIUM (5 1/2" to 6 3/4)
LONG (over 6 3/4")
SKINNY (under 40)
Short Panatela
Panatela
Long Panatela
MEDIUM (40 to 48)
Corona
Lonsdale
Giant Corona
FAT (over 48)
Robusto
Grand Corona / Toro
Churchill
Unusual Shapes
The traditional shape is "round" in shape and the traditional shape represents the vast majority of Cuban cigars. Those with any other shape are known as “Figurados”, or "Cigars with an unusual shape." Unlike the round cigars, the names associated with Figurados tell you little about their size, only the shape. Within the Figurado family, there are the following five shapes:
Torpedo (tapered head)
Bellicoso (angled head)
Pyramid (wedge shape)
Perfecto (tapered head and foot)
Culebras (3 braided cigars)
The Torpedos and Pyramids are usually big cigars, the Bellicosos are usually medium sized, and the Culebras are 3 small cigars that are twisted together. Perfectos can be any size.
Color
Cigars range in color from pale green (uncommon these days) and rare example is the Arturo Fuente Green, to tan to reddish-brown to chocolate-brown based on the following factors:
- How the plant is grow : sunny environment produces darker leafs while growing them in the shade produces lighter one.
- If the leaf come from the top part of the plant, it is darker, the middle or bottom the cigars are lighter.
- The number and the duration of fermentation cycles of the tobacco leafs produces a darker cigars.
Candella
Claro
Colorodo Claro
Colorodo
Colorodo Maduro
Maduro
Oscuro
Taste
Cigars lover generally describe a cigar's taste as ranging from "mild" to "full-bodied." Taste is the flavor, strength is factor of the amount of nicotine and natural sugars in the leaf. The higher is the %, the stronger the cigar is.