Leaves

There is a common misconception among consumers that a darker cigar (particularly a maduro cigar) is a stronger cigar. As I will endeavour to explain below, there is some logic to this idea, but the reality is much more nuanced.

But first, the basics:

All premium cigars from any country are handmade long filler cigars, meaning that they are rolled by hand from whole pieces of tobacco leaf, rather than shredded leaf (like in the innards of a cigarette). Cigars are usually made from between four and seven pieces of tobacco, depending on the thickness of the cigar.

All but one of these leaves are the ‘filler’, which is main body of the cigar.

The mature tobacco plant is harvested in stages, with the lowest leaves picked first, the next lowest a few days later, and so on and so on until the highest are harvested two or three weeks after the process began. As the lower leaves are progressively taken from the plant, the plants’ energy and nutrients are split between the decreasing number of remaining leaves, which grow thicker, stronger, and contain more oils and sugars as a result.

After harvest, the leaves are dried, and then fermented in large piles, in a tightly controlled version of the same process that takes place in a garden compost bin. The duration of the fermentation is much longer for the higher leaves on the plant, taking close to a year for the topmost.

When all this processing is complete, each fully dried and cured leaf will be given aclassification – readers may be familiar with the names of these classifications, which are Spanish words like seco, volado, ligero, and medio tiempo. Leaves in the higher classifications are leaves that grew higher on the plant – they are darker in colour, thicker, andhave more nicotine, tar, and sugar (more flavour) than the lower, lighter coloured ones.

When the filler bunch is formed to roll the cigar, it will be made up with a blend of leaves from the different classifications in specific ratios (this is the ‘recipe’ for the cigar).

If the recipe calls for a higher larger amount of those leaves that grew higher on the plant, the cigar will be stronger. If it is mainly composed of leaves from lower down, then the cigar will be lighter.

I mentioned earlier that all but one of the five or so leaves in a cigar was the ‘filler.’ The final leaf is the ‘wrapper.’ This is the last leaf that is wrapped around the outside of the filler bunch to form the outer surface of the cigar. Appearance is not important for the filler leaves,however, it is of utmost importance for wrapper. The farmer’s objective when growing awrapper leaf is for it to be large, thin, and pliable with even colour, free from blemishes and with minimal veins. Growing high quality wrapper is difficult and labour intensive, and hence wrapper leaves are much more expensive than filler. The best wrappers are grown from tobacco varieties specially selected for the purpose, and muslin cloth is hung over their fields to moderate the amount of sunlight they receive.

That said, the basics of filler production hold true for wrapper: the higher a leaf grows on the plant, the darker it will be, and the longer it needs to be fermented. It is also true higher leaves will be thicker, with more pronounced veins than lower ones.

Finished wrapper leaf is classified based on its quality (thinness, pliability, size of veins and so on), and its colour shade. The reader may also be familiar with terms like clarisimo, claro, colorado, maduro, and oscuro – these terms all refer to increasingly dark shades of brown. There are many others, like rosado, which indicates a reddish hue, or candela, referring to a type of green cigar.

All of which is to say, the filler of a cigar contributes far more to its strength and flavour than its wrapper – one could easily take a cigar with four volado leaves and wrap it in the darkest oscuro wrapper available, and have a very light cigar, just as one could take a bundle of ligero and wrap it in the lightest clarisimo leaf and have made an massively strong cigar.

All things being equal, however, the wrapper does play some part in the in the flavour – with two identical filler bunches, one would expect the maduro cigar to have a slightly morestrength and sweetness than the colorado.

A final note is that the desirability of wrapper colours has shifted over time, and it is only in the last 30 years or so that maduro wrappers have had any place in a well-stocked humidor. As darker wrapper leaves are exposed to more sunlight than lightly coloured ones, they are also thicker, have larger veins, and are more prone to sunspots and other blemishes, all of which are considered to be hallmarks of low-quality wrapper. The first line specifically produced with maduro wrapper to come from Cuba was the original Limited Edition cigars in 2000. This program came about after a disastrous harvest led to a shortage of quality wrapper tobacco, and in desperation, the industry wrapped some cigars in leaf that otherwise would have been used to low-quality machine-made cigars. The words “Limited Edition” were placed on the bands to assure consumers that these cigars wouldn’t be around forever, and the quality they were used to would be returning soon.

As things transpired, however, the consumers loved the darker wrappers. Cuba’s annual Limited Editions are hugely popular, and they have introduced some lines of regular production maduro cigars. Outside of Cuba, producers have developed techniques to limit the traditional shortcomings of darker wrapper leaf and to produce it in greater volume (to the extent that some makers have even been accused of dying lighter leaves to mimic true maduro colouring). As a result, today a huge range of maduro cigars are produced from all over the world and it is one of the most sought after colourings for cigars.