A deep dive into four commonly used cigar terms, there is much more to know about these terms than simple definitions.
The four terms talked about in this video follow. To get the full picture, be sure to watch the video.
(1) Primings – the manner in which cigar tobacco is harvested is unique and when the tobacco is harvested can determine the color, taste, boldness and thickness of the leaf you smoke.
(2) Puro – a cigar with all the tobacco in it from the same country. All Cuban cigars are by definition Puros, since all the tobacco is grown in Cuba. But Nicaragua produces a wide range of tobacco types that can be made into filler, binders and wrappers – as a result Nicaragua is the home of many Puro cigars as well. Other countries like Mexico, Dominicana, Honduras and Ecuador are more challenged to produce Puros because their growing conditions favor certain types of tobacco. Mexico (San Andres) and Ecuador (Connecticut Shade and others) are prime sources for wrapper tobacco. The Dominican Republic grows excellent tobacco but is not known for good wrappers – the exception is the Opus X, a very highly rated cigar that uses Dominican-grown wrappers.
(3) Candela – Defined as an unusual green colored, mild tasting cigar wrapper. But what makes them different from what we now accept as normal tan-brown wrappers? The secret is in curing, which the video explains.
(4) Tunneling – On rare occasions a cigar will develop a hole near the center of the burn end, this is called tunneling. The video discusses possible causes of tunneling (there is a lot of disagreement on that subject) as well as examples of severe, and very minor, tunneling.
