Glossary

Protimoi Cigars Glossary of Terms

Band— A ring of paper wrapped around the body of a cigar near the head, usually indicating the name of the brand.
Belicoso— A short pyramid-shaped cigar with a tapered head.
Belibando— A strip of paper wrapped around the cap and band area of a cigar to protect the tobacco wrapper leaf from absorbing too much saliva, and prevent the head of the cigar from unravelling/collapsing (used by Winston Churchill).
Binder— A type of tobacco leaf used to hold together a bunch of filler leaves.
Blend— A mixture of different types of tobacco in a cigar.
Box Pressed–The slightly square shape given to some cigars by packing them tightly in a box.
Bunched— A blend of several different types of filler tobacco leaves that are held together by a binder leaf.
Bundles— Inexpensive cigars sold in cellophane packages instead of boxes.
Candela— A naturally green cigar wrapper leaf.
Cap— A circular piece of wrapper leaf placed on the head of a cigar to prevent the wrapper from unraveling.
Chaveta— A semi-circular shaped knife used for cutting tobacco leaves during the rolling process.
Churchill— A long cigar size (7 inches) named after Sir Winston Churchill.
Cigarillos— Small machine-made cigars.
Claro— A natural light brown cigar wrapper leaf.
Colorado— An oily cigar wrapper leaf having a brownish-red color.
Corojo— A spicy-smooth cigar wrapper leaf originally grown in Cuba having limited availability.
Corona— A common size for a cigar, about 5 inches long and not too thick.
Cuban Seed— Tobacco grown in non-Cuban countries with seeds (or a later generation thereof) that came from Cuba.
Draw— The amount of air and smoke that comes through a lit cigar when puffed.
Entubar— A cigar rolling method where each individual filler leaf is rolled into itself before being bunched.
Escaparate— A display or cooling storage cabinet in which cigars are kept after they have been rolled.
Figurado— A cigar having a shape other than a cylinder, such as a torpedo or pyramid.
Filler— Tobacco leaves used in the body of the cigar, bound by a binder leaf then rolled inside a wrapper leaf.
Finish— The taste that lingers on your palate after a puffing on a cigar.
Foot— The open end of a cigar that you light, as opposed to the closed head end which goes into your mouth after cutting.
Handmade— A cigar made entirely by hand with high-quality wrapper and long filler tobaccos.
Hand Rolled– A cigar made partially by hand, where the wrapper is rolled by hand over the binder and filler tobaccos that were bunched by machines.
Head— The closed end of a cigar that you put in your mouth, which must be cut or pierced before lighting.
Humidor— A room or a box designed to store and age cigars at humidity levels near 70%.
Hygrometer— A device that measures the humidity or percentage of moisture in the air inside of a cigar humidor.
Ligero— The tobacco leaves at the top of the tobacco plant which receive the most sun, making them stronger and higher in nicotine than the lower leaves.
Long Filler— Filler tobacco leaves that run the length of the cigar, as opposed to leftover pieces of tobacco used in machine-made cigars.
Londsdale— The name for a size of a somewhat long (6½”) cigar that is not too wide.
Machine-made— Cigars made entirely by machine, using reconstituted wrappers and binders, and short/mixed filler instead of long filler.
Maduro— A ripe and somewhat sweet type of wrapper leaf that is dark brown in color.
Oscuro— A very dark brown and almost black shade of wrapper.
Panetela— Name for a long and thin cigar size.
Parejo— A normal cylindrical shaped cigar, as opposed to a figurado having a comparatively unusual shape.
Perfecto— A figurado cigar shape that is tapered and sometimes closed at both ends, and perhaps even having a bulge in the middle.
Plug— A blockage inside of a cigar that prevents it from drawing properly.
Plume (aka Bloom)– A fine white powder formed from the oils of a cigar after being aged. Not the same thing as mold, which is blue in color and stains the wrapper.
Pre-embargo Cigar— A legal Cuban cigar imported into the United States before President Kennedy signed the trade embargo against Cuba in 1962.
Premium Cigar— A type of cigar that: (1) is wrapped in whole tobacco leaf; (2) contains a 100 percent leaf tobacco binder; (3) contains at least 50 percent (of the filler by weight) long filler tobacco (i.e., whole tobacco leaves that run the length of the cigar); (4) is handmade or hand rolled (i.e., no machinery was used apart from simple tools, such as scissors to cut the tobacco prior to rolling); (5) has no filter, nontobacco tip, or nontobacco mouthpiece; (6) does not have a characterizing flavor other than tobacco; (7) contains only tobacco, water, and vegetable gum with no other ingredients or additives; and (8) weighs more than 6 pounds per 1,000 units.
Puro— A cigar made with tobaccos from a single country.
Pyramid— The shape for a cigar that is tapered from a wide open foot to a closed pointed head.
Ring Gauge— The diameter of a cigar, based on 64ths of an inch. For example, a cigar with a 50 ring gauge has a diameter that measures 50/64″.
Robuston— The name for a cigar size that is about 5 inches long with a 50 ring gauge.
Seco— The tobacco leaves in the middle of the tobacco plant, which are larger but receive less sun than the ligero leaves, and therefore, are less potent.
Shade-grown— Wrapper leaves that are grown under a tent to produce natural wrappers that are smoother and lighter in color.
Shoulder— The part of a cigar just below the head where the cap is attached to the body.
Short Filler— Chopped up scraps of tobacco leaves used in machine-made cigars.
Sun-grown— Tobacco grown in direct sunlight, which creates a thicker leaf with thicker veins.
Torcedores— Spanish term for cigar rollers.
Torpedo— A large figurado cigar shape where the head is closed to a point.
Vegetable Gum— A natural vegetable glue used to secure a cap to the head of a parejo shaped cigar, or to secure the wrapper at the head of a figurado.
Vintage— As with fine wine, a cigar company may declare the tobacco harvested during an exceptionally good year as being vintage.
Vitola— A term that refers to both a cigar’s shape and size.
Wrapper— The outer tobacco leaf of a cigar which is wrapped around the bunched filler and binder. The wrapper is the most expensive tobacco leaf of a cigar and usually accounts for about half of a cigar’s flavor.