Choosing Your Cigar
How do you choose a cigar? It is difficult to explain to new cigar smoking converts exactly how features such as the shape of a cigar, the size, as well as the colour of cigars, affect the cigar’s taste. It is particularly difficult to explain the shape of a cigar, as there are no rigid standards with regards to a cigar’s shape, in the cigar manufacturing industry. If you smoke a cigar and enjoy it, attempt to burn the picture on the box into your memory, which is one of the best ways to remember the shape of a particular cigar.
Choosing a Cigar Size
The size is measured by length and ring gauge (the cigar’s diameter). One ring is equivalent to 1/64th of an inch. Some of the most common are:
- Churchill (7 ¼ x 48)
- Corona (5 ¾ x 42)
- Double Corona (6 ½ x 48)
- Lonsdale (6 ¾ x 42)
- Panatela (6 ½ x 35)
- Robusto (4 ½ x 50)
A cigar with a larger ring gauge, compared with the smaller ring gauges cigars, will have a fuller and more intricate flavour and will produce more smoke. The larger the ring gauge the more a cigar maker can blend and combine different types of leaves.
Choosing Cigar Colour
Colour also plays an important part in choosing your cigars. The first thing you see when you look at a cigar is the wrapper and it plays a very important part in the desired flavour of your cigar.
The wrapper of the cigar is most usually described by its country of origin or colour;
- Claro (light tan)
- Colorado (reddish dark brown)
- Colorado Claro (mid brown)
- Colorado Maduro (dark brown)
- Maduro (darkest brown)
- Oscuro (black)
At AK Cigars we do our very best to ensure your cigar has been checked for cracks and that the cigar wrappers aren’t defective. We also ensure that the wrapper isn’t too dry, too firm or too soft.