Does a Cigar Wrapper Affect Taste?

Premium cigars are made of three components of tobacco—the wrapper, the binder, and the filler. Each of these three parts makes up the anatomy of a cigar and affects its taste, but the wrapper often imparts greater influence than the binder and filler. Some say the wrapper represents 60-80% of the flavor of a cigar. A cigar’s size and its blend of tobacco determine how much flavor you taste from the wrapper leaf.

The Type of Cigar Wrapper Makes a Difference

Today’s cigarmakers work with dozens of different cigar wrapper leaves when blending cigars. The type of seed the wrapper is grown from, the region where it’s planted, and how long it’s aged after it’s harvested impact its flavor profile. Wrapper crops are cultivated from different seed varietals planted in specific regions in South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and the Connecticut River Valley, for example. Each type of wrapper imparts specific tasting notes in conjunction with the binder and filler tobacco in a cigar.

The Role of Climate and Soil in Wrapper Tobacco Flavor

In the Connecticut River Valley, the growing season is short, and the land and the labor are expensive. But the cigar wrappers grown in this region offer distinctive flavor. Connecticut Shade wrappers are creamy, nutty, and refined. The plants grow under nylon mesh that dilutes the sunlight. And they grow tall, up to twelve feet. Workers harvest the plants in a series of careful primings. The 94-rated Ashton Cabinet Selection is a quintessential Connecticut Shade cigar.

On the other hand, Connecticut Broadleaf wrappers grow five to six feet tall when exposed to direct sunlight. They’re famous for their rugged, toothy complexion and sweet, dark taste. The crops are stalk cut and left to dry in the sun when they’re harvested. Broadleaf wrappers are thicker and undergo a longer, more aggressive fermentation.

Cultivated in the Mexican state of Veracruz, San Andrés wrappers are also stalk-cut. They’re peppery, nutty, and sweet. The soil is loaded with nutrients, and the Turrent family grows the lion’s share of tobacco in San Andrés, supplying many cigarmakers throughout the industry.

In the province of Los Ríos in Ecuador, where the reddish-brown soil harbors volcanic nutrients, the Oliva Tobacco Company grows its crops in the foothills of the Andes Mountains under the region’s natural cloud cover. Cuban-seed wrappers grown in Ecuador are leathery and spicy; Sumatra-seed wrappers offer notes of espresso bean, leather, and earth. Dozens of today’s most prestigious cigars show off an Ecuador wrapper, including Ashton VSG, Oliva Serie V Melanio, and My Father The Judge.

Legendary cigarmaker Carlito Fuente blends Arturo Fuente Hemingway and Don Carlos cigars with Cameroon wrappers from Central Africa. A network of independent tobacco farmers harvests the crops, which must be hauled out of the rainforest on mules in areas with little infrastructure and much danger. Cameroon wrappers are small and delicate, imparting notes such as baking spices and cinnamon, alongside flavors of chestnut and molasses.

Looks Matter

Cigar wrappers range in color from light blond to brown to nearly black. The wrapper is the most expensive part of the cigar because it must taste and look perfect. The greatest number of hands handle a cigar’s wrapper during the harvesting, fermentation, and cigar rolling processes. Special employees at the factory color-sort cigars before they’re packaged to ensure every cigar in a box looks the same.

A cigarmaker chooses specific binder and filler tobaccos from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, or other countries to complement the flavors coming from the wrapper leaf. Many cigarmakers grow and age their own binder and filler tobaccos. Then they blend different ratios of binder, filler, and wrapper tobacco to achieve a desired flavor profile. Each size of cigar they produce in a given blend should reflect the same tasting notes. However, the intensity of a cigar’s flavor and the amount of time the cigar will burn for change depending on the cigar’s ring size and length.

Cigar Ring Gauge Matters

Cigar ring gauge plays a pivotal role in how much flavor you’ll get from a cigar’s wrapper. That’s because the ratio between the binder, filler, and wrapper tobacco changes in a thinner cigar versus a thicker size. In thinner sizes, like a Lancero or a Corona, you’re smoking more wrapper leaf and less binder and filler tobacco. In a fatter cigar, like a Gordo, the binder and filler tobacco reduce the wrapper’s influence on the taste. Cigar lovers prefer specific sizes because of the differences in intensity between thick and thin cigars.

3 Ways to Taste a Cigar Wrapper

Below, we’ve outlined three different ways to evaluate how the wrapper leaf changes the taste of a cigar.

Smoke the Same Cigar in a Small and Big Ring Gauge

Choose a cigar, such as Don Pepin Garcia Original or Oliva Serie V, and smoke the blend in both a Lancero size and a big-ring Gordo. Don Pepin Garcia Original is available in a 7.5-by-38 Lancero as well as a chunky 6-by-62 Toro Grande. Oliva Serie V comes in a 7-by-38 Lancero and a 6-by-60 Double Toro. Each of these comparisons offers an opportunity to taste the cigar with the smallest ratio of binder and filler tobacco compared to the wrapper against the greatest amount of binder and filler tobacco compared to the wrapper. The extreme differences in ring gauge change the wrapper’s influence on the taste. A Lancero magnifies the wrapper’s flavor; a Gordo diminishes it.

Smoke a Vertical Sampler

A vertical cigar tasting is simply smoking every size in a blend. A vertical cigar tasting is a way to explore the subtle nuances of taste every size offers in a given blend. You can also smoke a vertical sampler, which focuses on a handful of the most popular sizes within a given blend. The bestselling vertical samplers include the Ashton VSG Assortment, My Father Sampler, Padrón 1964 Anniversary Maduro Sampler, and Oliva Serie V 5-Cigar Sampler. With a vertical sampler, you’re experiencing one blend, often in a Robusto, Toro, Torpedo, Churchill, and Corona, depending on the featured cigar sizes. Each size presents distinct variations in a cigar’s taste and the influence the wrapper brings. 

Smoke a Barber-Pole Cigar

A barber-pole cigar is rolled with two different wrappers that alternate like the stripes on a barber-pole. Barber-pole cigars aren’t very common because they’re challenging to roll, but there are a handful out there. Arturo Fuente Hemingway Between the Lines is the most famous barber-pole cigar. This highly sought-after smoke shows off an alternating Connecticut Shade and Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. You can taste the nutty and silky profile of the Shade wrapper, complemented by the dark, bittersweet notes of the Broadleaf. Rocky Patel also produces a couple of barber-pole cigars, including The Edge A-10 , which is finished in a spicy Corojo wrapper mixed with a dark Maduro. Rocky’s budget-friendly Mulligans brand features the Golden Ferret, which showcases a Connecticut Shade wrapper blended with a Maduro. CAO America is a barber-pole cigar finished in a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper that alternates with a thin pinstripe of Connecticut Shade tobacco.