Gentlemen, You May Smoke

Approximately 15 billion cigars are manufactured every year. Of that number, less than two percent constitutes the world's output of premium, hand-rolled cigars. Behind the terms premium and hand-rolled lie a thousand variables that can account for anything from an acceptable smoke to a masterpiece. At the very least, the core, or filler, of a fine cigar must consist of whole leaves laid lengthwise, not chopped and (continued on page 182)Gentlemen, you may Smoke(continued from page 105) shredded as they are in a cigarette.The binder that surrounds the filler must be natural leaf, not the processed tobacco sheet, made from tobacco pulp, that is found in most machine-made cigars. The outer covering, or wrapper, must be rolled onto the cigar by hand, and it, too, must be of natural leaf, selected for its appearance, flavor and elasticity. Simple enough criteria. Yet, except for the work of a dying breed—one- and two-man cigar rollers hidden away on the side streets of Miami, New York and other major American cities—that definition excludes any cigar made in the United States today. Not that patriotism has meant much, judging by the reported preferences of patriots from John F. Kennedy to Henry Kissinger—men given to upholding the Cuban-trade embargo on one hand while fondling their favorite H. Upmann or Montecristo in the other.

"By the cigars they smoke and the composers they love," wrote Nobel laureate John Galsworthy, "ye shall know the texture of men's souls." Soulful textures, of course, may be stretching the point a bit, but there is something to be said for selecting your own fine cigar on the basis of informed choice. Properly grounded, the experience of buying a premium cigar can be a pleasant one. With that goal in mind, settle back, light up a cherished cheroot and learn how to pick and choose among the 300 or so brands of select smokes available at cigar stores nationwide.

Judging Quality

Analogies between fine wine and fine cigars are plentiful. The role of nicotine in a cigar is similar to that of alcohol in wine; the cigar's aroma is like a wine's bouquet. As with wine, there are vintage and nonvintage years for cigars. For the informed smoker, however, vintage-year information is rarely of practical value, because most manufacturers use a blend of two to five years' crops in every cigar. "Certain types of tobacco," says David Lacey, Consolidated Cigar's manufacturing chief, "such as the heavier Dominican Cuban Seed, simply must be aged at least 30 months." Furthermore, the date of manufacture is hardly ever stamped on the box. A pity.

Nevertheless, there are a number of ways to judge an individual cigar's quality both before and after purchase and before and after lighting up.

Appearance: A cigar's wrapper should be clean, with a uniform color and an even grain. A smooth, firmly wound wrapper with no loose ends is a thing of beauty and an indication of an excellent smoke. It should have no tears or cuts that could affect the cigar's draw, and there should be no cracks—a telltale sign of past or present dryness. The ribs, or veins, in the wrapper leaf should be small and flexible; even though those components make up one third of the weight of raw leaf, a conscientious tabaquero will avoid the "bony" portions of the leaf when cutting the wrapper strip, thereby preventing an irregular burn. There also should be no lumps in the wrapper. A few small spots can be overlooked; they are caused by rain, soil or fertilizer spilled onto the leaf. But if the discoloration resembles a wallpaper stain, it may be mold—and should not be ignored.

The cigar's head should be smoothly finished. Constructed with proper care, it will be perfectly symmetrical, with no trace of the rough swirl left by cigarmaking machinery. The cigar band should have no excessive glue attaching it to the wrapper, which might tear upon removal of the band. When you're buying by the box, look for a close match of wrapper colors among the cigars. It is also a good idea to inspect the bottom row as well as the top.

Condition: When it is squeezed between thumb and forefinger, a well-cared-for cigar should feel firm but not hard, neither too stiff nor too yielding. It must feel elastic to the touch, springing back to its original shape when released. Another way to check the proper moisture and condition of a cigar is to "listen to the band." Gently roll the cigar between thumb and forefinger, close to your ear. If it's completely silent, it may be too wet; if it produces a crackling sound, it may be too dry. The ideal is a soft, rustling noise, whisper-quiet.

Next, feel along the length of the cigar, looking for knots in the filler that might burn irregularly and injure the cigar's draw. If a small knot is found, it can sometimes be loosened and broken up by rolling the cigar gently between the fingers. As a final part of the inspection ceremony, savor the scent of the unlighted cigar. That is probably the most enjoyable part of selecting a premium cigar, even if it is not a totally reliable guide to quality.

Draw: The draw of a cigar should be moderately easy, but it will vary not only with the density of the filler but also with the shape of the cutting tool used to open the head. If the draw is too difficult, the cigar may not stay lighted; if too easy, it may smoke too hot. That latter consideration is important because the composition of the smoke—and, therefore, its taste—is dependent on the cigar's rate of burn.

Burn: An excellent cigar will form a uniform anillo de combustion between the ash and the unburned tobacco. This band of combustion may have a slight rise or wrinkle to it, but it must not blister or separate the wrapper. A cigar that commits that crime is said to burn with a lip. It should also burn evenly, without developing an appendage of ash in advance of the main ember. If that occurs, it is the result of either irregularities in the filler or a poor balance between the wrapper and the filler leaf. (For example, a very thin wrapper will not burn well in combination with thick, heavy filler tobacco.) Overall, a fine cigar will burn slowly and steadily without excessive heat. It should stay lighted if puffed once per minute. And, of course, a well-made cigar will burn completely.

Ash: The correct color for a cigar ash ranges from off-white to dark gray. A white ash is certainly a joy to behold, but it does not indicate a better cigar. On the other hand, avoid any cigars that produce a decidedly brown or black ash, for something is wrong. "A black, uneven ash," says Consolidated's Lacey, "is a sign of improperly aged tobacco—and in cigar tobaccos, immaturity is synonymous with crudity."

When held horizontally, a good cigar should comfortably support a fine one-inch ash, a sign of high-quality binder leaf. An unsightly split in a cigar ash is a sign of a poor filler. When the ash falls or is gently knocked off, it should leave a sharp, glowing point. That indicates uniform density of the filler, and it's the basis for the widely held aphorism "The sharper the point, the better the cigar."

Good Taste

The essence of a cigar's sensory reward involves three distinct qualities: strength, aroma and taste. Each provides a different yardstick for the merits of a particular cigar's tobacco.

Strength: Most cigars get stronger as they are smoked. If the increase in strength becomes unpleasant before a cigar is half smoked, the cigar is simply too strong for you.

Aroma: The smoking fragrance of a cigar is a quality crucial to a connoisseur. For most people, subtle shadings of smell elude definition, but it is possible to differentiate between the faint and the assertive, the pungent and the sweet, the straightforward and the alluringly complex. A cigar's aroma is the product of the dry distillation of the leaf's resinous oils immediately aft of the ash. Hold a well-lighted cigar three or four inches from your nose and savor the character of its particular aroma. With a little experience, you'll find that the aromatic differences among different cigars become noticeably apparent.

Taste: This is a highly personal subject, what Mark Twain once called "a matter of suspicion." But a good cigar should taste better or, at least, remain the same, the longer you smoke it. Analyzing taste is a complicated matter. Judging the result of that analysis is even more difficult. More than 685 chemical compounds are known to occur in leaf tobacco and tobacco smoke. What you taste when smoking—the nicotine, the tars, the alkalinity—is greatly affected by the cigar's burning rate and combustion conditions, the moisture content of the tobacco, the puff length, and so on. In truth, science does not know what makes tasty tobacco tasty.

But perhaps an anecdote about Thomas A. Edison best sums up the question of taste. Edison loved expensive Havana cigars. Tired of uninvited guests' helping themselves to his office humidor, he decided to lay in a supply of garbage stogies to discourage free-loaders. Time passed, but the bogus cigars never arrived, and Edison's stock of Havanas continued to diminish. When he finally inquired, the matter was traced to his office manager, who dutifully reported that, yes, some unmarked cigars had arrived and he had, as a matter of course, packed them in the boss's valise prior to his departure for a month in California. "Good Lord," Edison huffed, "I smoked every one of those damned cigars myself!"

A Variety of Vitolas

Every fine cigar properly has three names: its brand, its shape (which includes its size) and its wrapper color. For example, a particular product of the Dominican Republic is known as the Montecruz Number 210 Double Claro. The last two appellations together are called the cigar's front mark—from the days when they were branded on the front of the cigar box. In Spanish cultures, the size and the shape of an individual cigar are called its vitola, a name derived from the Cuban word for a cigar mold.

Constant change has marked the fashion of cigar shapes over the years. First one vitola seems to be in favor, then another. For the most part, fine cigars have always tended to be slightly larger than their inexpensive counterparts.

You are what you Smoke

The choice of a favorite cigar shape is in large part a matter of aesthetics. But once you've picked a width (the technical term for it is ring gauge) you like, simply select the longest version of it that you would feel comfortable carrying, freshly lighted, into your next class-reunion party. It will be the correct choice.

Color and Strength

No attribute of the cigar is more misunderstood than that of strength. One of the more persistent myths about cigars is that a light-green candela wrapper will not be as strong as, say, a natural wrapper. But it is simply not true. A tobacco leaf's smoking strength—which can and must be differentiated from its taste and its aroma—is a specific sensory property felt in the smoker's throat, as well as on the lips and the tongue and in the rest of the mouth. It is directly related to the tobacco's nicotine content, not to its color. And there is no relationship between tobacco color and strength of nicotine.

Another myth about strength that often interferes with the intelligent choice of a cigar is that a small, thin style will be milder than a large, thick one. Again, remember that strength is based on nicotine content, and the type of leaf is as important as the amount of leaf. In fact, because thin cigars are often more tightly packed than their thicker brethren, they may seem harsher, because they require a harder draw. Moreover, small, thin cigars offer less tobacco between the glowing ash and the smoker's lips to filter out the nicotine.

And now, as Edward VII allegedly announced at the first banquet after the death of his tobaccophobic mother, Queen Victoria, "Gentlemen, you may smoke."