The Shapes
OK.. I said in the newbie thread I've got lots of questions. I find myself surprised nobody has asked this one. I also find it easier to sit on the couch and type this than to ask the guy at the tobacco shop. So here we go.
What's the deal with all these shapes? I've never smoked anything but a (gah, what's the generic term? Parejo?) Toro, Robusto, Churchill, Corona... etc. The wild shapes seem more like something I'd see in the mouth of a cartoon mobster bearing the stereotypical 5-o'clock shadow and playing poker. Is there an advantage to these shapes?
So far, all I can come up with is that on something that narrows slowly at the foot, it's easy to get a cut of precisely the right girth for the draw you want. Now, I'm no physicist or anything, but I imagine that having an opening significantly narrower than the girth of the cigar itself will reduce the surface area of your filter, and cause the tar to gum up the works at the exit point. Yuck.
I can at least see the desire for a larger girth as you near the head of the cigar, to defray the heat a bit as you draw closer to the end of your session. But silly stuff like that pyramid shape doesn't make a wit of sense to me. And I've also heard mention that the shapes will impart a very different flavor. Now how is a robusto going to be different in flavor from a Toro, at least from the point that you've smoked the first inch or so off the Toro? Frankly, I've always chosen my size by the amount of time I figured I wanted the thing to last.
Too much thinking, not enough smoking. Forgive me, I'm learning.
Comments
As far as the pyramid, it's a combination torpedo (pointed head) and box press, the box press usually resulting in packing the tobacco more tightly than a similar round cigar. Different ring cigars will impart a different flavor because of the different proportions of the components (filler, binder and wrapper leaves), of which the filler and wrapper are the two main contributors to the flavor of the cigar. I'm not sure if the box-press shape affects the flavor, but it could be used to achieve better draw on a blend that may otherwise draw too loosely.
Different shapes, a perfecto (tapered on both ends) for example, would cause the filler/wrapper ratio to change throughout the cigar, thus adding complexity because the proportions of flavors are always changing. The wrapper flavor prominent during the first half inch may hardly be noticeable by the second, and another will have popped up due to the increased filler burning at that stage of the cigar. This is a perfectly good means of choosing a cigar, and once you figure out your tastes, knowing both the approximate smoking time a cigar will give you as well as learning to approximate what flavors a cigar will have based on the wrapper/filler/size/shape/etc... will be of great service to you.
Anyway, hope I answered your questions. Don't hestitate to post more questions when you have them, and best of luck!
Thanks for the thorough response! I hadn't thought about the wrapper/filler ratio affecting the flavor, but that makes perfect sense. I didn't mean to imply that a cigar has a mechanism specifically intended to filter... I just figure that the tobacco between the burn and your lips would naturally absorb some of the smoke. Also, great point about the extra distance provided by a tapered head (I think I got that right this time) and how that will cool the smoke. I may select a couple of my favorite brands and experiment with the way the different shapes impact the flavor. Thanks again for all the great info!
Joe
i agree with everything stated above and will add on to that. I choose my cigars not by how much time i have but by how they taste. if i want a cigar and i donthave time i restrain myself and dont have a cigar. ill wait till i have time to smoke whatever it is that i have. it is about relaxation. i never rush a cigar.
there are advantages and disadvantages to every shape of cigar. you just have to find what is right for you.
Everything gott said about larger ring gauges is dead on. Just keep this in mind the wrapper is 40- 60% of the flavor depending on two things.
The first is the strength of the wrapper a conneticut shade wrapper is a very mild wrapper so it wil be on the lower end of the scale, while a corojo is stronger and would be closer to the 60.
Second is the ring gauge also affects the percentage of taste that the wrapper is. If you have a very large ring gauge cigar there is a lower wrapper to filler ratio therefore decreasing the % of taste the wrapper is.
So a large ring gauged(presidente) Conneticut cigar you will be tasting likely 40% wrapper 60% filler. While a small ring gauged(lancero) corojo wrapper you are likely tasting 60% wrapper 40% filler.
So if you combine this in say a perfecto shape that starts small ring gauged, then gets large ring gauged in the middle and returns to small ring gauged at the head, you will get a complex cigar in which you could notice very different flavors between each third of the cigar. An added bonus to perfectos is how easy they are to light. The Fuente Hemingway is named after Hemingway because this was a cigar he asked Fuente to make so he could easily light it while on his boat.