by Constance Keasler

Created on: March 31, 2010   Last Updated: April 01, 2010

How cigar construction affects taste is a matter of opinion and according to Mark Twain, "As concerns tobacco, there are many superstitions. And the chief is this-that there is a standard governing the matter, whereas there is nothing of the kind. Each man’s preference is the only standard for him”. The cigar draw, the first puff and the melded tobacco flavor are impacted by the construction.

Signs of Poor Construction

If the cigar burns fast and tastes harsh and feels hot, the construction problem is under-filling. If it overfilled the cigar is hard to draw and sometimes is even plugged. When there is not enough smoke, like in a hard to draw cigar, the taste and aroma are diminished. Proper rolling results in the cigar burning down evenly maintaining an inch of ash before dropping. A mushy cigar is also a poorly constructed cigar.

Construction Terms

The end of the cigar that is smoked is called the head and the end that is lit is called the tuck or foot. A small piece of tobacco, called the cap slopes down the cigar.

Components

In order of construction starting inside out, the first component is the filler then the binder and lastly the wrapper. The makeup and assembly of these three components can make a difference in the cigar.

Handmade

In a pure handmade cigar none of the construction is done with a machine. The first person in the cigar construction process is the buncher who rolls the filler into a shape of a cylinder. There has to be enough horizontal air space to get a good draw and to let all the tobacco flavors fuse. The roller trims the leaf wrapper to size and rolls it around the cigar so that the tip of the leaf is at the foot and the base of the leaf is at the head. The first puff of an expertly rolled cigar is a milder flavor taste.

Machine Bunched & Hand rolled

These cigars can legally be called handmade since the cigar is still rolled by hand. The machine part is the process is when the buncher has filled the cigar a machine takes all the cigars without wrappers and stakes them into wooden molds where the are squeezed into shape.

Machine Made

Cigar smokers that enjoy smoking several times a day often enjoy a milder cigar and the consistently mildest cigars are those that are totally machine made. These cigars tend to be dry. Machine made cigars are generally made from homogenized tobacco leaf consisting of leaves and stems and a substance similar to cellulose.

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