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The Savant Speaks!
This is a new feature from the Tobacco Bowl's own Cigar Savant. Sit, smoke, relax, read...and learn.
Cigar Myths 101- Dark cigars are stronger
Greetings fellow cigar nerds! Every week would-be cigar
aficionados stop by to browse and ask questions. One thing I've
noticed is that several people seem to think the darker the wrapper,
the stronger the cigar. Not true at all, and here's why:
Most cigars are marketed by their maker as Natural or Maduro. In
actuality, there are several shades of wrapper.
Candela- Also known as double claro, or American Market Selection.
Believe it or not, in the 1960s over half of the cigars sold in the
United States were candela. It's the mildest of all the wrappers and
has a slightly sweet, grassy taste. Now candela cigars have fallen
out of favor and constitute less than 5% of total U.S. cigar sales.
Claro- A very light brown. Classified as a natural wrapper.
Colorado Claro- A light brown wrapper that appears at times to have a
reddish hue. Also classified as natural.
English Market Selection (EMS)- A medium brown. This is the desired
wrapper shade for most "natural" cigars distributed in the U.S.
Rosado- A distinctly reddish wrapper seen most notably on the Partagas
Spanish Rosado. It is a rich, full-flavored wrapper that remains
smooth enough to not be overpowering. It isn't seen a lot as these
wrappers are not widely grown and are not found currently outside of
the Dominican Republic.
Dark Natural- This is a term coined by Christian Eiroa of Caribe
Tobacco. These cigars are darker than "natural" but lighter than
"maduro".
Maduro- Nearly all cigar lines are distributed with a dark brown
wrapper called maduro.
Oscuro- Also referred to as Double Maduro, these are nearly jet black
in color. El Rey del Mundo Robusto Larga is a fine examle of an oscuro
cigar.
Interestingly, the darkest of wrappers have created some controversy
and disgruntled cigar smokers recently. Over the last 10 years, two
less than desireable process have become more widely used to produce a
Maduro wrapper. A few years ago, I smoked a truly nasty cigar. I
won't name names (Victor Sinclair Series 55 Blue Label Maduro), but
after a few minutes of smoking, I noticed a sickly purplish eggplant
color on my fingertips! As I stood in front of the sink,
Listerineizing my mouth to get rid of the taste, I noticed my teeth
and lips were also stained a blue-green color! Some cigar makers, in order to produce a very dark wrapper, will stain
their cigars with foreign substances to darken the color. Nasty. If
I wanted artificial crap on my cigar, I'd smoke a Swisher. Some other
maduro brands are made by artificially "cooking" the wrapper leaves.
This process puts the tobacco through a cycle of heat and pressure to
darken the wrapper. Many times, cooked wrappers will have a sweet
taste caused by the release of sugars at the cellular level due to the
heat. While not nearly as bad as the painted dog rockets, a purist
will still remind you that this is an artificial process. That's why
Eiroa coined the term 'dark natural'. His wrappers are darkened the
natural way. The amount of sunlight a growing tobacco plant receives
will determine its color. Lighter wrappers are grown under the shade
of a cheesecloth, thus the term you've probably heard Connecticut
Shade. Wrappers darken if they are exposed to sunlight. A 'dark
natural' leaf is grown in direct sunlight, but isn't artificially altered.
Now that you have an insight into wrapper tobacco, let's debunk that
myth that darker cigars are stronger. Montesino is a top quality
product from Fuente-Newman. We carry several sizes of this cigar in
maduro. It's one of the mildest cigars in the humidor. Industry
experts generally agree that 20-30% of a cigars flavor and strength
comes from the wrapper. Thus, a cigar blended to be mild will be such
whether it has a maduro or natural wrapper. On the other end of the
spectrum, this La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero I'm smoking right now
has a natural wrapper. Still, I fully anticipate it will leave my
head spinning when I stand up. The strength lies not in the natural
wrapper, but in the strong blend of tobacco wound up inside the cigar.
If you doubt JB, the Cigar Savant, stop by sometime and I'll prove
it. We'll give you 10% off for purchasing a Montesino maduro and
either a La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero or a Trinidad Belicoso,
simply by mentioning this article. Smoking is believing!
Do you have a cigar-related question you'd like answered? Send your
question to jb@memphistobacco.com
Next weeks myth: Stronger cigars have more flavor.
Posted by Richard Alley at May 5, 2005 01:43 PM