Saturday, October 01 2011
By Hayward Tenney
Imagine walking into a smoke shop (for argument's sake, let's call it "Leaf"). You're greeted by the friendly folks at the retail counter. You wade past wood shelves neatly lined with humidors, pull open a heavy wooden door, and proceed into the 2,000 square foot humidor.
"Can I help you find anything?" the clerk behind the counter asks.
As you ponder the myriad of cigars before you, how are you feeling? Confident? Confused? Excited? Overwhelmed? There's no right answer; but I'd like to address a couple misconceptions I've noticed.
The first is that many cigar smokers focus too much on
wrapper color. Believing that the wrapper color is indicative of the cigar's strength, the tendency is to reach for an extra-pale shade grown wrapper.
While there may be a slight correlation between strength and wrapper color, it's unreliable at best. The color of a wrapper has more to do with the actual flavors of a cigar than with its strength.
That comes from the filler
blend, and the
ligero leaves, in particular. Located at the top of the tobacco plant, these leaves receive the most nutrients and sunlight, and are therefore the strongest and fullest-flavored.
Article continues on Hayward's blog page...
